You’re Overdue for a Checkup With the House Cast Then and Now

Everybody lies. But, for eight gripping seasons, there was a prescription for that.

It’s been almost 20 years since audiences were first bittersweetly charmed by the medical mystery drama House, starring Hugh Laurie as the titular acerbic, Vicodin-popping diagnostician whose brilliance was rivaled only by his jaded opinion of every patient who walked through the doors of Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital.

During the series’ 2004-to-2012 run on Fox, the faces on Dr. Gregory House’s team would change—Omar Epps, Jennifer Morrison and Jesse Spencer were the O.G.s, succeeded by Olivia Wilde, Kal Penn and more—but the formula remained the same: Admit a patient suffering from…hmm, something…and figure out what in holy heck was wrong before the hour was out.

Along the way, House ticked off everyone around him, including the Watson to his Sherlock, oncologist Dr. James Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard), and his long-suffering boss-but-obviously-more Dr. Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein). 

Ahead of the series finale in 2012, Laurie reflected on what made House and the show that borrowed his name so compelling.