House: What's to Come in Season 4
The cast and producers talk about whether half the cast were actually fired or not.
by Eric Goldman
Source:
http://tv.ign.com/articles/811/811959p1.html
August 9, 2007 - Near the start of a recent Q&A with the entire cast of House -- Hugh Laurie (Gregory House), Lisa Edelstein (Lisa Cuddy), Omar Epps (Eric Foreman), Robert Sean Leonard (James Wilson), Jennifer Morrison (Allison Cameron) and Jesse Spencer (Robert Chase) -- a reporter brought up the fact that clearly, given their presence on the panel, Epps, Morrison and Spencer were still on the show in some capacity and presumably would be working with House himself again, despite all their characters leaving at the end of Season 3.
Executive producer Katie Jacobs admitted that it was a struggle determining how to handle this Q&A, and that they'd debated if the trio of actors should even have been onstage at first. "The truth is, everybody is back eventually," Jacobs relented but added, "Everybody is back having changed and in different capacities. It's also sort of organic, so we only know where it's going to a point." She went on to reveal that as Season 4 begins, "House is alone and trying to solve cases by himself. Of course, Cuddy is pissed and Robert thinks he's losing his mind. And Cuddy will insist that he hire a new team. But he will do it in a very Housian way. Over the first bunch of episodes he's going to call in all the candidates, all the resumes on his desk -- 40, I think it is. A large number. And we're going to see who survives. We're going to play a House version of Survivor and see what candidates really will make the best part of House's team. And the great thing about it is, and the great fun for us, is that they are all qualified doctors, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they are a great candidate for House. House is looking for something other than that."
Jacobs said that doing this storyline with the separation between House and his old team felt truthful, and that it came from the question of "How many years can you stand working beside House? Or, how many years can he stand working with you and getting close to you? And does he really want that kind of intimacy? So we started thinking about it at the end of last season. And I think we are staying true to it. And I don't think they'll be disappointed. Because it's not as easy as the six of them [pointing to the whole cast] walking out here, even though I know it looks that way. Things are going to be different, and hopefully audiences will be satisfied."
- FOX(L-R) Jesse Spencer, Omar Epps, Lisa Edelstein, Hugh Laurie, Jennifer Morrison, Robert Sean Leonard and Katie Jacobs discuss House: Season 4
Morrison said the producers were "very good to us" when the trio were informed what would happen in last season's finale, in which House fired Chase, while Foreman and Cameron resigned. "They told us all that they wanted to talk to us over lunch one day, which does feel a little bit like being called into the principal's office," she recalled, adding, "But, no, they were fantastic and let us know what they were planning on doing." Spencer interjected, "Well, they didn't actually know, though, did they? They told us that we were coming back, but they didn't know at that time in what capacity we were actually going to come back. And we are still not entirely sure. We know we are back."
Jacobs noted that despite the absence of the three characters from the hospital, House continues to see them, "Or he thinks he sees them. And Wilson is saying, 'You know, you are just feeling guilty and you are out of your mind.'" In actuality, Jacobs said, "Chase is working in Arizona in a hospital and Cameron's with him. And Foreman is at Mercy Hospital running his own diagnostic department. And we have fun with that, as well. I definitely don't mean to be coy, but I don't want to spoil it for you entirely."
Asked why Wilson keeps putting up with House, Leonard replied, "At the risk of spreading even more wildfire rumors, I don't really see what's so unattractive about House. Maybe I've just been playing Wilson too long. He's extremely self-effacing, he's extremely funny, he's brilliant, he's scathingly honest, he's incredibly candid. I think he's extremely likeable. I'm not sure what people mean. He's shocking and he's bold and he can be unnerving. But as a friend, I would seek out someone like that, I think."
Spencer, Epps and Morrison were asked how fans were reacting to what happened to them on the show, and if they were receiving condolences from people thinking they'd lost their jobs in real life. Epps remarked, "They're pretty excited, I would say. People kind of know that the writers are smart enough that if they were to entertain us exiting the show, it wouldn't just be that, you know, splat, it's done. But people are kind of chomping at the bit to see what's going to happen in this upcoming season, I would say, from people that have been coming up to me." For her part, as a producer, Jacobs added that she's "Experienced a lot of anger, like my daughter's second-grade teacher. I walked in just to drop her off one day, and she's like, 'You can't get them off the show!' Fans are really anxious and nervous and angry at us, I think, for the season's closer. But hopefully they won't be for long."
Spencer said that when it comes to his recent encounters with fans, "Everyone's been really great. I guess the people that do want you off the show, you don't really talk to them. So people come up; they're very nice, and they really know what's going to happen. I'm really excited about this season because we're not going back in the same capacity. I don't know if things ever will be the same, because I'm going to be moving into a different area, and Jen is as well. The team is going to be different. And that's going to change the energy and the chemistry of the entire show. It kind of feels like we've got a new show." Edelstein agreed, saying she felt House: Season 4 was, "A new beginning, but in the scripts that I've seen, the voice, the feel of the show itself remains true to itself. So it is kind of exciting. It's expanded."
It's been revealed that House has cast actors to play some of the new protegees for the title character, including Kal Penn, Olivia Wilde, Peter Jacobson and Anne Dudek. Jacobs said, "House obviously is going to get the cream of the crop in terms of candidates, but what makes a doctor interesting to House is sort of different. So it was really, really fun to sort of think about what House would find a valuable quality. One of our characters, played by Peter Jacobson, is a New York plastic surgeon, who was very successful. Why is he giving up plastic surgery to come and potentially be one of House's fellows? But what House discovers about him is, having done plastic surgery, he has amazing insights into human behavior, because of his experience. So it's that kind of thing that we're having fun with."
Laurie said that when it came to the new actors on the show, "As always, the casting on the show is absolutely phenomenal. I mean, it's thrilling to work with these actors. But that's been true ever since the beginning. It's quite amazing to me. I don't know how you find them. But I suppose if you're going to find them anywhere, this is the town to find them in. There are, I believe, some actors living within a stone's throw."
- FOXHow could we not include a picture of Hugh Laurie riding a bumper car at FOX's Summer 2007 Television Critics Association Press Tour Party?
Jacobs added that, "Kal Penn is playing a young doctor who has a very cool procedure but doesn't know necessarily how to get there. He would react very differently to House's ideas. He thinks everything is cool and big. And House is going to give all the candidates numbers. Because he can't remember their names, they're actually going to wear running numbers." Jacobs said that on set already in Season 4, "It was great to see them all walking around in their lab coats, trying to maintain a certain sense of dignity while wearing [numbers]. There's one character; she's number 13, but that's all we really know about her. House can't figure her out, so we call her 13."
House is getting the coveted post-Super Bowl slot next year, and Jacobs revealed, "It's going to be a two-parter, which is kind of exciting. We've only done one two-parter before. So the hour after the Super Bowl will be the first [part]; then we'll go into our regular time slot. Right now we're working on this story. It is a lot of pressure. So we'll probably try to keep our blinders on and stay true to the show that we are and hope that people like it."
One reporter told Epps that his "Favorite part of the show is when you confront House, and I just want you to punch him, but you never do." Asked if the audience would now be deprived of these confrontations, given his character's new job, Epps said, "Well, I don't think so, but I can't really say for sure." However Jacobs said that Foreman will eventually come back and "probably" confront House, to which Epps added, "Fury and wrath."
The panel were then asked about the early days of the show, when the ratings were extremely low and Jacobs said Epps was the most positive during that time, constantly telling everyone, "We're going to be good. We're going to be good. We're going to grow, we're going to grow." Laurie than quipped, "Omar and I did discuss actually having a fistfight at a [studio] party just to drum up some publicity. Omar was going to throw me through a plate glass window, but there didn't seem to be enough photographers at the right time. We never actually got around to doing it."
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House: Season 4 premieres Tuesday, September 24th at 9:00 pm ET/PT on FOX.
Had some great lines though!
It's from a book I'm reading. And yes, Foreman became quite the dickhead in the last few episodes of the season.
