Interview With House’s Executive Producer, David Shore

One of House’s mantras is nobody changes. I think that’s largely true. I think the show has been about a guy who’s striving to change and failing for the most part and that is human nature and it’s really about the striving to be different. You’re not going to see a different House this year. On a very fundamental level I don’t want to do that. I like him and I think the audience likes him._David Shore: House, Executive Producer

David Shore has written for cult favorites “Due South,” “NYPD Blue” and “EZ Streets”; served as head writer and supervising producer on “Traders,” which he developed for Canadian television; and was part of the writing team of the Emmy Award-winning first season of “The Practice.”

He was twice nominated for an Emmy Award as a producer on “Law & Order” and executive-produced both “Family Law” and “Hack” before creating HOUSE, which has won several awards, including a People’s Choice Award and a Peabody Award. Shore won the Humanitas Prize and an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for the episode “Three Stories.”

Shore serves on the board of the Writers Guild of America, West and the Writer’s Guild Foundation and is a trustee of the Humanitas Foundation.

House airs Mondays at 9:00 p.m. on FOX

Was it all planned to have House behind bars for the season opener?

David Shore: We never know anything for sure. We knew he’d wind up in prison. We had some debate internally about whether we’d keep him away for a while but we quickly got beyond that, and we kind of want to get back as quickly as possible to the roots of the show so we streamlined the process a little bit.

Can you talk a little on why you decided to put House in prison, and will it be prolonged?

David Shore:You see we wanted to do two things this year. We didn’t want it to be trivial. We wanted him to be appropriately punished but we also didn’t want to do a prison show so we had a bit of a dilemma. He will be out in episode two. What we did was we had it take place over time which has been helpful for a number of reasons because a lot has changed in our hospital, which I think is great. So the first episode takes place months after the end of last session, six months. We didn’t really define it, and then the next episode takes place a decent amount of time after the first episode. So House’s world has changed and in the second episode we throw him back into his revised old world.

In the season opener, House went through a series of emotions or reactions. Will this continue throughout the season?

David Shore: Yes. We threw him into a different environment and different environments call for different reactions. He’s got it more or less under control but unlike in any other situation he does have to behave himself. He’s in prison and that’s a challenge for House and so playing with that challenge was challenging. I did not think he was overwhelmingly sad. I thought there were clearly issues there but going forward we’re going to get him back into the hospital quickly, and we are going to get back to kind of the fun at the root of the show.

Are we going to see permanent changes in House’s behavior from his stay in prison?

David Shore: One of House’s mantras is nobody changes. I think that’s largely true. I think the show has been about a guy who’s striving to change and failing for the most part and that is human nature and it’s really about the striving to be different. You’re not going to see a different House this year. On a very fundamental level I don’t want to do that. I like him and I think the audience likes him. And I think what happened was last year he tried to change and I think this year he’s going to say that was stupid on a certain level. We’re not going to get bogged down about that. And yes I just opened myself up to being misquoted. I’m not saying last year was stupid. I’m not even saying that the relationship was stupid. I think the relationship was great but I think it didn’t work out and so House’s reaction to that is to not go down that path again so fast.

Now House is in isolation as he is without Cuddy and has limited connection with Wilson. Will he push the boundaries in the upcoming episodes?

David Shore: Yes. House is always going to push boundaries with or without Wilson. He’s going to have to earn Wilson back but he will. I’m going to give that away, spoiler alert. He will win Wilson back. House is going to be House. House is always going to be House is the short answer to that question. Doesn’t matter what environment he’s in, it’s just a question of whether he can get away with it and to what extent he can get away with it without going back to prison.

When creating House for this season, what was the biggest change for him?

David Shore: Everything’s changed. Unlike in previous years where we picked an individual thing to change, this year for reasons largely beyond our control everything’s changed. Well, not completely beyond our control with some of them but we are going to bring back House to his old world having months and months have passed. The dynamics within that world have completely changed. Everybody has moved on and he’s got to try and get back to that place where he feels comfortable.

Is House’s Vicodin addiction a challenge for the writers?

David Shore: That has been something that has been a challenge from day one. A practical challenge and a dramatic challenge in the sense that as a human being. From day one we have wanted to be honest about that. I made him a Vicodin addict in the pilot and it’s something that could be played comically and there have been opportunities for that and there have been opportunities for amusement. We’ve done some of that but it was also extremely important that we treated it honestly. He is an addict. It is a problem and that we explore that honestly. Having said that, the practical issue is just it’s not entertaining to watch a guy dealing with addiction every week of the year. That’s not what the show is about so it’s alive. It’s in there. We discuss it. We will have certain episodes where it’s more of a story than in others but it’s not at the center of the series, at least the beginning.

Will there be any romantic interest for House, this season?

David Shore: Certainly not initially but he’s a human being —well, he’s actually not a human being which is a big secret but in my mind he is a human being and we will treat him accordingly.

Do you miss not having Cuddy on the show?

David Shore: I miss her. I miss her personally. I miss her as a writer but as always is the case, new challenges mean new opportunities and we’re embracing those opportunities.

Why did you decide to introduce Odette’s character?

David Shore: Well, once we put House in prison and once we knew that we had this challenge this year, bringing in some new characters, those two thoughts kind of went together, and then our casting people and Katie Jacobs brought us Odette and things fell into place.

Will we see more from the other characters like Chase?

David Shore: Yes. Nothing is firmed upon that but that is something we talk about on a regular basis in the writer’s room. I believe the Wilson one was first right, and we liked it a lot and—first there was Cuddy first—Wilson was first and then we did the Cuddy one. We like that to. I think it’s a great way to still be our show and yet get a different perspective on it so absolutely we would love to do another one with somebody else.

Will Olivia be in limited episodes or will we see more of her?

David Shore: Olivia will be in very few episodes this year. Very few episodes not because of particular creative reasons on our part but because she’s got a very thriving movie career and has asked us to allow her to do that. We had a great association with her and we do have an episode planned which is kind of the goodbye episode. Not just planned we’ve got it shot. I think it’s very nice.

Is there an upcoming episode this season that you consider a game changer?

David Shore: No. We haven’t done any good ones this year. That was a joke. There all my babies. They really are. I mean I pride myself on every single episode of this show and I strive to make them as good as they can be. I think we’re doing some really interesting stuff at the beginning of this year. Bringing House into a new environment—starting with House in a different environment, bringing him back to the same environment but it’s new. The funny thing is I think on this show those kind of departure episodes, which I think we do a really nice job of. They got a lot of attention but I think it’s the regular everyday episodes that are the greatest challenge. And in a weird way I take the greatest pride in because that is the challenge of series TV is taking that environment, that environment that you spend your life in and making it new and fresh and interesting week in and week out. And I pride myself on what myself and our writers have done.

Have you been writing a lot this season?

David Shore: No. The last couple of years my job is to make sure the scripts are all up to the level we expect on the show and I rewrite every script to a greater or lesser extent and I’ve been quite happy in that role. This show requires a lot of research and I don’t have a lot of time for that research so for that simple reason I haven’t been writing a lot from scratch. If it turns out that this is a final season, which is yet to be determined, I may well write the last one. I will probably write the last one.

It must be heartbreaking for you to know that you are in the final season of House?

David Shore: It’s always sad in some ways but this has been eight years, nine years, ten years, whatever it turns out to be it’s been a tremendous luxury. It’s been way more than I could have possibly imagined. It’s been unbelievable. I’ve been extremely lucky as a writer to have been able to explore this character for one year never mind eight so I’ve got to focus on the positive, and it’s just a question of when is the right time to go out before it becomes later.