Canadians are used to waiting to see their doctor, but this is ridiculous.
After an on-again, off-again schedule due to the writers strike, TV's crankiest and most brilliant MD, Dr. Gregory House (played by Hugh Laurie), returns Monday with the first of four new episodes.
For a while it looked like he wasn't coming back at all this spring. With "American Idol" still dominant on Tuesdays, which is when "House" usually airs, Fox's original post-strike plan was to shelve their No. 1 drama until the fall.
Canadian-born creator and executive producer David Shore fought to get "House" back on the air this spring, one of the reasons the final four episodes of the season have been shifted to Monday nights. Shore and executive producer Katie Jacobs lobbied the network to "make sure we would be allowed to finish it up for this season," he explained over the phone from L.A. this week.
"We really wanted to finish this story."
The story, of course, was how Shore and his writers shook up their hit series in its fourth season by sidelining some characters and introducing several new ones. "House" regulars Omar Epps (Eric Foreman), Jennifer Morrison (Allison Cameron) and Jesse Spencer (Robert Chase), who, for three seasons, had formed his posse of diagnostic subordinates, all had their roles substantially reduced when Dr. House's dream team was split up at the end of last season.
Shore says it was the natural thing to do.
"At the end of Season 3, it seemed like people just wouldn't put up with House for that long," he says. "It felt right to have everybody leave and quit on him under those circumstances."
The producers then hit on a plan to turn the search for a new diagnostic team into a game, with 40 medical keeners vying for the right, "Survivor"-style, to emerge as House's new subordinates. Peter Jacobson (Chris Taub), Kal Penn (Lawrence Kutner) and Olivia Wilde ("Thirteen") are now regulars on the series. It was a contest only House could come up with.
"Even though it was bizarre, it felt right for this character," says Shore.
The 48-year-old producer, who was born in London, Ont., says he never wanted to be forced to shake up his show "because some network or studio has made a panic phone call to you - 'You gotta do something, the numbers have started to slide."'
On the contrary, the numbers for "House" are as strong as ever this season, drawing up to 20 million U.S. viewers per week and another 2.5 million some weeks in Canada on Global.
"You want to make changes when the changes feel right, creatively rather than numerically," says Shore.
Some fans panicked, however, on fears that Epps, Morrison and Spencer would be completely written out of the series. While Epps's character, Foreman, is back on the team, the other two have been dispatched to other areas of the hospital and have been entirely unseen in some episodes.
Shore understands that some fans have been upset by the changes but he insists Morrison and Spencer will be back next season. "They will be on the show but they're not going to be on the team - at least not initially," says Shore, who rather likes their new roles at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro teaching hospital.
"I think they carry more weight, more gravitas as writers say."
He likes to see them standing up to House. "The dialogue between them and House I find much more interesting now than it was."
While it was a drag to shut down his series and put people out of work during the strike hiatus, Shore says he got used to it. "In terms of me being home I adjusted shockingly well," he says.
The same was probably true for Laurie, who despite the large cast is in almost every scene as the star of the series. Prior to the strike, production shut down at one point to allow Laurie to go back to England to be with his wife and three children.
"We work him way too hard," says Shore, who was glad in a way that the strike allowed his star to squeeze in a little more family time.
The two-part season finale, to air May 12 and 19, will be a bit more spectacular than usual, involving a "big bus crash," says Shore.
He admits that "it's not like us at all" to cram spectacular stunts into a finale, but fans will find a typical "House" episode hidden behind all the special effects.
"At its core it's a 'House' episode," says Shore. "I think everybody will like it a lot."
Bill Brioux is a freelance TV columnist based in Brampton, Ont.