With two back-to-back encore broadcasts airing Tuesdays on FOX all summer, fans and soon-to-be fans can catch up on missed "House" episodes.

Executive producers Paul Atanasio, Katie Jacobs, David Shore and Bryan Singer have provided a different take on mystery, where the villian is a medical malady and the hero is an irreverant, controversial doctor, who trusts no one, least of all his patients.

Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) is devoid of bedside manner and wouldn't even talk to his patients if he could get away with it. Dealing with his own constant physical pain, he uses a cane that seems to punctuate his acerbic, brutally honest demeanor.

While his behavior can border on antisocial, House is a maverick physician whose unconvential thinking alnf flawless instincts have afforded him a great deal of respect.

An infectious disease specialist, he's a brilliant diagnostician who loves the challenges of the medical puzzles he must solve in order to save lives.

House's roster of medical cases comprises the inexplicable ones other doctors can't solve, and he has assembled an elite team of young medical experts to help him in his effort to solve these diagnostic mysteries.

House's team includes neurologist Dr. Eric Forman (Omar Epps), who might have a slighlty suspect past; immunologist Dr. Allison Cameron(Jennifer Morrison); and old-money intensevist Dr. Robert Chase (Jesse Spencer).House also has a good friend in Dr. James Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard), an onocolgy specialist with whom he consults on a regular basis.

There's also some volatile chemistry at work between House and Dr. Lisa Cuddy (lisa Edelstein), the Dean of Medicine and hospital administrator.Cuddy is in constant conflict with House over his duties at the hospital, but even she must admit he may be the most brilliant doctor on the staff.

With a patient's life in the balance. House will do whatever it takes in the race against the clock to solve the case before it takes a life, from sending one of his team to break into a patient's home in search of clues, to attempting a controversial, high stakes, trial-and-error form of treatment to see how a patient responds. House's methods may be suspect, but his results are not.

Series regular Lisa Edelstein says that women find the British actor sexy in spite of his prickliness.
Hugh is hot."she admits, shrugging."He's a sex bomb. Let's face it"

As for the actor at the center of all this, Laurie says he doesn't have a problem believing that Dr. House's patients, who are usually in dire straights when they come to him, would willingly tolertate his rudeness in exchange for his medical brilliance.

"It's all about proportion, isn't it?" Laurie says."If your life is hanging in the balance, the most impoortant thing to you is going to see the best person for the job. If you have and ingrown toenail, then no. But if the life of someone you love is in danger, you would withstand any ammount of abuse to get the job done and get the life saved.
"You'd have to be convinced, of course, that this was the best person for the job, and only on TV can you know that"

Laurie admits that his perspective was shaped at an early age."Mt father was a doctor," he says,"so I was raised with a natural respect for the well of medical knowledge from which they all draw. I don't think I've ever gotten a second opinion on anything, actually.
"I'm by and large pretty content with whatever a doctor will come up with.....I take the medicine that I'm given"