The House M.D. TV show is loosely based on Sherlock Holmes, the 19^th century London detective. The author of the Sherlock Holmes novels, Arthur Conan Doyle, based his lead character on a Dr. Bell, a diagnostician, whom he knew when he studied medicine. Similarities between Dr. House and Sherlock Holmes include both not being very sociable and having more friendly sidekicks in the form of Dr. Wilson and Dr. Watson. Both House and Holmes had drug addictions and were successful in their professions by studying the patients/ criminal’s motives before paying attention to physical evidence. Neither House nor Holmes called anyone by their first names and both had similar relaxation methods – Dr. House watching TV soaps while Sherlock Holmes read the newspaper agony aunt columns.

The Diagnosis Column in the New York Times Magazine was the inspiration for the TV show. House M.D. was at first pitched as a medical procedural but later evolved into a character drama with the medical cases being the backdrop to the stories.

The Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital is based on the UniversityMedicalCenter at Princeton. The FristStudentCenter at PrincetonUniversity is shown in the aerial shots of the hospital.

Hugh Laurie auditioned for the role of Dr. House by shooting a video of himself while in a hotel bathroom. He was in Namibia, Africa, for the making of the film Flight of the Phoenix and his hotel bathroom was the only place with good enough lighting for the video audition. When he watched Hugh Laurie’s audition, one of the producers commented, “See, this is what I want: an American guy”. He was totally unaware that Hugh Laurie is British. When Laurie first read the script he thought that Dr. Wilson was the lead character as Dr. House’s character was just too blunt to be the show’s star. Laurie’s own father was a medical doctor and he joked once saying “I am being paid more to become a fake version of my own father”.

In November 2007, Pekka-Eric Auvinen shot eight people in a Finnish school massacre and used the tagline from House M.D., “Humanity Is Overrated”. This phrase was then removed from the show’s official website out of respect for the victims.

The actor who plays Dr. Robert Chase, Jesse Spencer, is Australian. In the show he plays the role of an intensivist, a specialized doctor of intensive care. Although this specialization is common in Australia, it is still quite new to the United States. Jesse Spencer and fellow actor, Jennifer Morrison, were engaged in 2006 at the time when their onscreen characters were having a romantic relationship.