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House calls By Asher Schechter Tags: House, David Shore If you ask David Shore, the esteemed television writer/producer and winner of an Emmy for the successful series "House, M.D.," we are living in the golden age of TV. The transition of the film industry to extremely elaborate, high-budget productions has sent many gifted scriptwriters straight to TV, which has adopted them warmly and has freed itself from the creative limitations which characterized it in previous decades. The American viewer is prepared to take in more complex characters, says Shore. The important thing is that now the networks are prepared to gamble on this. Shore, 49, is a Canadian-born Jew and lawyer by training, who in the past was a scriptwriter and producer of the "NYPD Blue" and "Law and Order" series. He is also personally responsible for creating one of the most complex figures to appear on the small screen in recent years: Dr. Gregory House, a grumpy atheist, who is addicted to painkillers and totally devoid of empathy toward his patients, but succeeds in diagnosing their rare disorders in a systematic and precise way reminiscent of a seasoned detective. The fact that the program is shown on the Fox network, and that it has won tremendous acclaim and an average of more than 20 million viewers during its four seasons, has surprised even Shore. This interview was held during a recent visit that he made to Israel for the dedication of the Aish HaTorah yeshiva's new center in Tel Aviv, which offers programs in Jewish heritage, culture and philosophy. Behind the establishment of the center are his two rabbi-brothers, Ephraim and Raphael Shore. Advertisement First of all, how did you come up with the character of House? Shore: "I had the pilot sold - the notion of the series was sold without that character intact. I'd sort of decided he was going to be a bit curmudgeonly, but really it took me months between then and when I actually started writing. Once I did, once I felt comfortable with the character, it came very quickly. I tend to be a bit cynical and sarcastic, and it's a bit of me - a lot of his attitudes are me, I guess, [although] I'm not as smart as him, I'm not as tactless as him ... And there's a lot of Sherlock Holmes in there, I think. That was certainly a big inspiration for me." Do you think American audiences are more open today to accepting more complex characters? "I personally think that the American networks underestimated the capacity of the audience to embrace a character like this. And it was sort of to my benefit. Because now they're all scrambling to get that type of character on. But I think American audiences, the networks, all want the likable character and they mistake that for nice. And I think we like to watch Dr. House. He's not likable in the traditional sense, but we like to watch him, and obviously that's what really matters." One of the key phrases used in the show is "everybody lies." House says it a lot. That's a very pessimistic view for network TV in America. "Again, I didn't expect it to be this popular. I wrote that line in the pilot; it was just another line in the script. And then as we were doing the pilot, actually filming it, it suddenly became, obviously, ... the defining thing about the show. And it's not as pessimistic as it sounds. It's more that everybody has secrets, and everybody sees the world their own way. It's really a line that speaks to this character's pursuit of truth. And that truth doesn't come from just asking a person a question and getting an answer. Truth comes from digging deeper and finding out what's behind that answer and what that answer really means. And even when a person's not consciously lying, they are seeing a version of the world that may not be exactly the real version of the world. This character wants to find out the ultimate truth." With this being a Fox network show, do you find it limiting? "It is a little limiting in terms of language and it's limiting in terms of nudity, but neither of those things matter that much. It's not limiting in terms of the subject matter we deal with. It could be, I guess, if I was to do something really insane. But in terms of the subject matter I'm interested in dealing with - truth and ethical issues, the nature of right and wrong, and all those things - I don't find it limiting at all." Did Fox ever try to strong-arm you, or interfere with the creative process, saying stuff like: "We can't put that on the show," or "We can't do this on the show"? "Rarely. I'm not going to say it's never happened, but it's pretty rare. I remember the first time I got the phone call saying, 'Hey, you can't have a guy say this, it's outrageous.' And I responded, 'I created a character who says outrageous things. If you're telling me you can't say outrageous things, he no longer exists.' And they actually went, 'Yeah, you're right.' There have been things that have annoyed me. I wish I could complain more, but I can't. They've been surprisingly good to us." Do you think TV is more creative than ever before? "I think a lot of freedom has [been allowed on] TV; they're doing better and better TV shows, they're spending more and more money on TV shows. The cost of the special effects and all this stuff that you used to only be able to do in movies has come down. Obviously, with a movie that costs $100 million, they can do more than you can with a TV show, but I think that's in some ways to our benefit - 'our' meaning the TV business - because movies then become about the spectacle, and TV becomes about the story, because story is relatively cheap and spectacle is expensive. And I think that has attracted really good writers to TV, and oddly enough I think it's driven some good writers away from movies. Certainly there's plenty of good movies out there, but I can't tell you how often I go to the movies or watch a movie, and then I go, 'I could have stayed home and watched any number of TV shows [that would have] demonstrated better storytelling and would have been a more enjoyable evening, and I wouldn't have had to cough up $10 for popcorn." So you don't want an unlimited budget for "House, M.D."? "You know what, I actually think an unlimited budget and unlimited time gives the producers the opportunity to screw things up. The fact that I'm operating under a budget - it's an excellent budget, we spend a lot of money on every episode - means they don't have a lot of time to step in. So whatever I want to do, to a great extent, is what you see on the screen. And you can't do that in the movies. So, in a weird way, I'm thankful that I only have eight or nine days to shoot an episode, which drives me crazy, but I think that's the only reason I'm able to do the episodes I do." 'Fresh formula' What do you think is more important: the character or the story line? "You can't have one without the other. But the character is what excites me, and you've actually hit on a really important thing. I have writers come into my office and say, 'I've got this great disease [that can be used in the series].' And I go: 'Well, who's going to be sick? What is the character?' Because I need both, they have to come in with both. And what is it about that disease? What is it about that situation and this character's situation that forces House into a dilemma that he has to deal with. You cannot have that without that medical dilemma, without him facing a life-and-death situation. You don't have mistakes, you don't have the excitement, you don't have the drive, and we need both. That's my cop-out answer." Do you ever find yourself trying to find the most shocking case or disease to attract ratings? "No. I mean, we certainly want to shock, we want to surprise, but we never want to shock just for shock purposes, and we've never been driven by ratings. There's been a couple of occasions where we've gone, 'Ooh, that would work, and that would be good for ratings too,' but that's never been the reason we came up with it. We certainly get more excited about it when we realize 'the audience is going to love that.' But it's always been about telling the best stories we can, and hoping we find an audience, and we've been lucky enough to find an audience." Do you feel Hollywood gives Jews a certain stigma or label? A Jewish mother, a hasid. When will we see a Jewish superhero, a Jewish cop, a Jewish soldier? "Generally speaking, Hollywood stigmatizes religion. I don't think it's singling out Judaism as such. Hollywood generally runs from anything that even remotely feels like it could be dangerous or confrontational or that will upset people. One of the problems there - and I love TV, I like movies - is it is a mass culture, it has to appeal to a mass audience. And so in order to get that opportunity to be viewed by millions of people, you potentially have to sell your soul to the devil. I don't feel like I have, particularly in my show where people are facing death. It is insane to expect people to face death, no matter what religious stripe they are, or even if they have no religious stripe, without asking bigger questions. And so we do deal with that, I think, fairly often." Do you incorporate Jewish themes? "We just did an episode very recently with the Batsheva [character], who got married in an Orthodox wedding and became sick immediately after. And it was our team being exposed to a world that they're not used to, the religious world. And many of the members of the team's reaction was: 'This is insane.' And then hopefully by the end of the episode, not necessarily being convinced - certainly nobody became religious as a result - but respecting the choices that have been made. I don't anticipate doing another one any time soon, but we did one." Is House Jewish? "House is an atheist. He believes in rationality. My brothers, I know, believe that you can be rationally religious. House disagrees. Two of the supporting characters are Jewish. That's a high quota, just in terms of the American populace. And there was no reason to make him Jewish, and beyond that I didn't have the guts to make him Jewish, there was no reason to try and do that, it was not essential to the character. And the network would have resisted that, I suspect, because they're in the business of reaching millions and millions of people, and they want their character to be on a certain level as 'everyman' as they can make [him, although] that's a little odd to say in terms of Dr. House. "We have a British actor playing the part and that was a more serious discussion. Do we - because that would have made his life much easier - make him English? And I said no, because it is such a bizarre character. I didn't want people to watch this character and go, 'Oh, he's English. There's something about his Englishness that makes him this way.' And I think the same thing would have applied if he was Jewish. I think people would've gone, 'Oh, he's Jewish,' and not even from an anti-Semitic point of view. I wanted him to just be who he is. I didn't want people to get away from answering the difficult questions about him, I didn't want to give them any simple answers to those difficult questions. "Most characters on TV don't have a religion. They're sort of blank slates. Not that they're atheist, they're just blank slates." You mention that House is an atheist. Was that a problem, especially for Fox? "I sort of slipped it by them. There were certain hints at it in a few episodes, and then before they knew it, it was a done deal. I honestly don't know if it would have been an issue. But to a certain extent it wasn't an issue because it wasn't explicitly discussed until we went further along." What is this center your brothers are opening here? "My brothers are big shots in Aish HaTorah yeshiva, they're rabbis. We obviously - apparently - have big differences in our lives. The differences ultimately, to me, are less than what we have in common. We certainly don't have similar lifestyles, but we have similar values. I've always been a supporter of Aish. I think that they do wonderful things. They're trying to educate people, they're trying to let people have a more intelligent understanding. If people are going to reject something, they should understand it before they reject it. And now they're opening this branch in Tel Aviv and I'm happy to be here to get them a little attention." What is the the next evolution in terms of TV? House is a sort of evolution ... "I never thought of it as being an evolution, certainly people reacted to it that way, which I find startling. I think things work because they're well done. The problem with American networks is they go, 'House did well. What's special about House? Well, he's a crusty character, let's do another crusty character.' And then it's not well done and it doesn't do well. [And people say,] 'Well, I guess it wasn't that, it was because it was a doctor show, let's do another doctor show,' and then it works or doesn't work. And then when it works they go 'you see?' - but things work or don't work on their own merits for 10,000 reasons. I don't know what the next thing is. If I knew, I'd be writing that." Contagious success David Shore relates that the idea for the character of House was born of the intention to make a police series in which the doctor is the policeman, the disease is the criminal, and the mystery is solved completely by detective methods. Shore recalls that his friend Paul Attanasio, creator of the series "Homicide: Life on the Street," and currently executive co-producer of "House, M.D." (also called just "House"), was having dinner with a top executive at the ABC network. After hearing a 30-second explanation, the executive expressed enthusiasm for the idea and a price war began, which, in the end, landed the series at Fox, together with film director Bryan Singer (of the "X-Men" movies), who came on board and is also an executive co-producer. "House" was first broadcast in November, 2004 and won almost immediate success, that gained more momentum as it focused increasingly on the character of Dr. House himself. In its first season, "House" achieved an average rating of 13.3 million viewers; in its fourth season it was the most-viewed scripted program and the third-ranked of all programs in the United States, after "American Idol" and "Dancing with Stars." The most-viewed episode of the program, which was broadcast last February after the Super Bowl, achieved a rating of more than 29 million viewers; only the Super Bowl itself drew a higher rating that week. In 2005, Shore won an Emmy for the screenplay he wrote for one of the final episodes of the first season; in 2006 and 2007 the show was nominated for the Emmy Award in the category of best drama series. One of the main reasons for the series' success is the casting of British actor and comedian Hugh Laurie in the starring role. Laurie, who in the past acted in the British situation comedy "Blackadder" and in the "Stuart Little" series of children's movies, was nominated for an Emmy in the category of outstanding lead actor in a drama series in both 2005 and 2007. Laurie won Golden Globe awards in 2006 and 2007 for best performance by an actor in a TV drama series. He was also nominated for that same award this year. Laurie filmed his audition for the role of House in the bathroom of a hotel room in Namibia a few years ago - where he was involved in the shooting of the film "Flight of the Phoenix" - because it was the only place where there was enough light. Singer was not interested in hiring a British actor and therefore the casting directors obfuscated Laurie's origins when they watched the audition, and told the director he was American. Singer did not notice. In an interview he once gave to USA Today, Laurie attributed his perfect American accent to "a wasted youth of excessive viewing of films and television." Bookmark to del.icio.us   Kafka's heir Many believe Hava Hoffe is in possession of an important literary treasure. Press doyen Eric Silver, veteran of the foreign press corps in Jerusalem, dies aged 73.

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