"Pilot" (also known as "Everybody Lies") is the first episode of the
television series House. Premiered November 16, 2004, on FOX, it
introduces the character of Dr. Gregory House (played by Hugh Laurie)—a
maverick antisocial doctor—and his team of diagnosticians at a hospital
in New Jersey. The episode features Dr. House's attempts to diagnose a
kindergarten teacher who has collapsed in class. House was created by
David Shore, who got the idea for the curmudgeonly title character from
a doctor's visit. Initially, producer Bryan Singer wanted an American
to play House, but British actor Laurie's audition changed his mind.
Shore wrote House as a character with parallels to Sherlock Holmes—both
are drug users, aloof, and largely friendless. The show's producers
wanted House handicapped in some way and gave him a damaged leg arising
from an improper diagnosis. The episode received generally positive
reviews; the character of House was widely noted as a unique aspect of
the episode and series, though reviewers such as Sherwin Nuland of
Slate believed that such a cruel character would not be tolerated in
real life. Other complaints with the episode included stereotyped
supporting characters and an implausible premise. The initial broadcast
of "Pilot" was watched by approximately seven million viewers, making
it the sixty-second most-watched show of the week.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_%28House%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1642:
A Dutch expedition led by Abel Tasman reached present-day Tasmania,
Australia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abel_Tasman>
1859:
On the Origin of Species by British naturalist Charles Darwin was
first published, and sold out its initial print run on the first day.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Origin_of_Species>
1922:
Irish Civil War: Author and Irish nationalist Robert Erskine Childers
was executed by firing squad by the Irish Free State for illegally
carrying an automatic pistol.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Erskine_Childers>
1971:
After collecting a ransom payout of US$200,000, "D. B. Cooper" leaped
out of the rear stairway of the airplane he had hijacked over the
Pacific Northwest and disappeared.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Cooper>
1974:
A group of paleoanthropologists led by Donald Johanson discovered a
3.2-million-year-old skeleton of an Australopithecus afarensis in the
Afar Depression in Ethiopia, nicknaming it "Lucy" after The Beatles
song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_%28Australopithecus%29>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
claptrap (n):
Empty verbiage or nonsense
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/claptrap>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Fight the enemy with the weapons he lacks.
--Alexander Suvorov
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alexander_Suvorov>