Dr. Gregory House, M.D., a fictional character portrayed by Hugh Laurie, is the protagonist of House. Dr. House is a maverick medical genius (often quoted as "medicine's most brilliant mind") who heads a team of young diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. He is arguably misanthropic and a genuine curmudgeon — in fact, "curmudgeon" was named one of the top television words of the year in honor of the character[1]. Some of his crankiness can possibly be attributed to the chronic pain in his leg (the result of an infarction in his right thigh muscle) for which he requires the aid of a cane and takes Vicodin regularly — whether he takes it too regularly was the subject of an entire episode in the first season.
Character
Dr. House never seems to miss an opportunity to exercise his cunning wit, often in phrases which have become known as "House-isms" to the series fandom. He confounds patients with an eccentric bedside manner and often unorthodox treatments, but impresses them with rapid and accurate diagnoses after seemingly not paying attention. In one episode, House diagnosed an entire waiting room full of patients on his way out of the clinic. He does not suffer fools gladly; as a corollary, he seems to regard most people as fools, and is on record that, in his opinion, "everybody lies." However, in the season one finale, he remarked that he was lying when he said that.
House's official position in the hospital is Head of the Department of Diagnostics; his medical specialties are infectious diseases and nephrology. His education apparently included stints at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Michigan. House was apparently expelled from Johns Hopkins on grounds of academic dishonesty; he was turned in by another student when that student caught House cheating off his exam. House remained bitter about this incident for several years, especially since the other student's answer was incorrect. (See below under the Spoiler warning for more details about this.)
House's character is partly inspired by Sherlock Holmes. Among the characteristics the two characters share are their ability to come to rapid conclusions after the briefest examination of a client/patient, their drug use (cocaine for Holmes, Vicodin for House), and the fact that each character has only one real friend (Watson and Wilson, respectively) who connects the cerebral hero to human concerns. Both Holmes and House are experts who are brought into cases that have proven too difficult for other investigators. Also, in one episode House's apartment number is revealed to be 221B, Sherlock Holmes's Baker Street address. It should be noted that the character of Holmes was originally based by his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, on Joseph Bell, a doctor noted for his love of deductive reasoning and skill with both ordinary diagnostics and forensic medicine (which was quite new at the time); the character of House can thus be seen in a way as taking the idea of Holmes full-circle.
Vogler
For five episodes in season one, the writers introduced a nemesis for Dr. House in the form of a new hospital chairman — billionaire Edward Vogler (Chi McBride). Vogler was a businessman who donated 100 million dollars in hopes of advancing research into life-threatening diseases. However, as the episodes featuring Vogler advanced, it became clear that the businessman may have had several ulterior motives, including unethically profiting from the hospital's promotion of his drug company. Vogler, acting in his new position as chairman of the board, also declared that he was 'going to run Princeton-Plainsboro as a business'.
High on his list of expense cuts was Dr. House and his Department of Diagnostic Medicine. The department, as constructed in the show, serves far fewer patients than any other hospital department and appears to function to allow House to take those particular cases that interest him because they are far more complex and difficult to diagnose than any others, in other words being House's "vanity project" (as Vogler terms it), and brings little money into the hospital aside from the PR generated by House's victories. Vogler offered House Hobson's choice: fire one of his team members and take on more clinic hours or risk losing the entire department. How this choice plays out was the focus of several episodes. In the end, the hospital board of directors votes Vogler off the board after Vogler effectively forced them to vote to remove Dr. House and Dr. Wilson, and threatened to do the same to Dr. Cuddy.
Running previously and concurrently to the Vogler storyline was a subplot that dealt with Dr. Allison Cameron's growing attraction to House. Cameron left the Department voluntarily, partly to spare House from making the choice of whom to cut from the team and partly because House did not return her feelings. She later returned to her fellowship, on one condition - that House take her out for a date. Despite an uncharacteristic show of romance from House, the date did not go well, in part due to House's observation that Cameron considered him "damaged," and was attracted to him because of his numerous character flaws. In the second season premiere, an inebriated House observes (and, perhaps, laments) that, "I could've hit that." While it is obvious that Cameron still harbors some feelings for House, the subplot has apparently been dropped by the writers.
Stacy
At the end of the first season, House reveals that his limp is the result of a misdiagnosis. He exhibited only leg pain, and the doctor failed to realize that he had an infarction that led to muscle necrosis. Unwilling to let them amputate his leg, House recommends a potentially lethal treatment for himself, which he undergoes. The pain from this treatment does not subside, and he requests to be put in a chemically-induced coma. While he is unconcious, Dr. Cuddy and Stacy Warner (his girlfriend and medical proxy) decide to remove the dead muscle. While this treatment probably saved his life, it left him crippled and in chronic pain. The free rein that House receives from Cuddy is likely caused by guilt from this event. House has not fully forgiven Stacy for what he views as a betrayal.
However in spite of these events, Dr. Cuddy maintains that House always had an anti-social personality, and that his being crippled was not the reason he became such a curmudgeon.
Following his brief affair with Stacy, he tells her to go back to her husband, further proving his need to be miserable (at least according to his colleague and confidant Dr. Wilson, played by Robert Sean Leonard).
House & Dr. Weber
Regarding House's fellow student at Johns Hopkins who turned him for cheating at an exam: in season 2, episode 12 ("Distractions", aired February 14, 2006), House exacts his revenge against this person, now a doctor touting his new treatment for migraine (House refers to the "snitch" as a Dr. von Lieberman, although the doctor's true name is revealed to be Weber. When asked about the discrepancy, House says that von Lieberman "sounds more evil"). House surreptitously invites the "snitch" to lecture at his hospital, and at the lecture, hectors him with questions about both his research and his competence. Later, his former nemesis is shown storming into House's office with the news that his drug has been withdrawn by the FDA after House contacted that agency by email, complaining about the doctor's lack of math skills and poor research. At the end of this scene, House declares the score settled.