title: How I Met Your Mother

text: Marshall and Lily decide they want to move to Long Island, after Lily's paternal grandparents offer them their house there. Eventually, they move back to the old apartment in New York City after realizing suburban life is not for them. Ted gives them his apartment because he believes he cannot move on from Robin while living there, while he and Robin become estranged and do not speak for several weeks. Robin is eventually offered a news anchor job and subsequently achieves recognition after preventing a helicopter she is flying in from crashing.


title: How I Met Your Mother

text: Barney starts dating a stripper named Quinn (Becki Newton), to the group's initial apprehension. The gang begins to meddle in their relationship, but Barney and Quinn outsmart their attempts and win their approval. Quinn moves in with Barney, while Ted rents Quinn's old apartment. Lily goes into labor and frantically calls Barney and Marshall, who are out at a casino in Atlantic City and heavily intoxicated. Barney helps Marshall arrive in time for Lily's delivery and chooses the middle name for the baby, Marvin Waitforit Eriksen. Ted and Robin's friendship also recovers as a result of Marvin's birth. As the season concludes, Marshall and Lily begin a new family with their baby, Marvin. Barney proposes to Quinn performing an extravagant magic trick in airport security. Ted contacts his old girlfriend Victoria; unhappy with her own impending wedding, she leaves her fiancé for Ted and the pair drive off into the sunset. A final flash forward shows the day of Barney's wedding, where Robin is revealed as the bride.


title: How I Met Your Mother

text: Ted visits Robin on the day of her wedding to Barney, causing him to remember how he and Victoria ran away from her wedding to be together. The summer is spent with Ted, Barney, and Robin enjoying their current relationships; however, all subsequently break up with their partners. Victoria splits up with Ted over his friendship with Robin, Barney and Quinn break up due to their inability to trust each other, and Robin breaks up with Nick realizing his immaturity. Robin and Barney kiss but decide not to get together, despite Barney's wishes. Barney then begins dating Robin's hated co-worker Patrice (Ellen D. Williams), a relationship later exposed as a ruse to make Robin realize her true feelings for him. In a culminating scene, Barney proposes to Robin, who says yes.


title: How I Met Your Mother

text: Marshall and Lily attempt to get used to being parents, which causes a brief estrangement from the gang as Baby Marvin takes up the majority of their time. Lily's father Mickey becomes Marvin's nanny, freeing the two up to spend more time with their friends. The Captain, ex-husband of Ted's old girlfriend Zoey, offers Lily a job as an art consultant after she identifies a painting that made a huge profit for him. Lily accepts, happy to finally achieve her dream of having a job in the art industry, while Marshall decides to apply to become a judge. The Captain offers Lily a year's work in Rome, which she accepts with Marshall's blessing. However, just before Barney and Robin's wedding, Marshall is informed that his application to become a judge has been granted, a development that would require them to stay in the US.


title: How I Met Your Mother

text: Ted briefly dates Jeanette (Abby Elliott), a girl who stalked him after he appeared on the cover of "New York Magazine" for designing GNB's headquarters. He quickly realizes he's made a mistake and breaks up with her. Ted's feelings of loneliness grow, especially as he is now the only single member of the group, and he decides he is truly ready to settle down. He argues with Lily over hiring a DJ or a band for Barney and Robin's wedding, but is forced to provide a band at short notice when Lily concedes the argument. During a chance meeting on the subway, Cindy offers the services of her roommate's wedding band. This roommate is Ted's future wife.


title: How I Met Your Mother

text: As the week of the wedding approaches, Robin has doubts about marrying Barney and shares an emotional moment with Ted. Feeling guilty, Ted realizes he cannot be around Barney and Robin after they are married and decides to move to Chicago the day after the wedding. The season concludes with everyone traveling to Barney and Robin's wedding, including the mother of Ted's children (revealed on screen for the first time and portrayed by Cristin Milioti), who is seen buying a train ticket to the venue and holding her yellow umbrella.


title: How I Met Your Mother

text: With the exception of the last episode, the entirety of season nine takes place in the 56 hours leading up to Barney and Robin's wedding.


title: How I Met Your Mother

text: Marshall, who is stuck in Minnesota, desperately tries to find a way to get to the wedding in time. Meanwhile, in Farhampton, the time is slowly counting down to the wedding, with a new problem arising in almost every episode. It is revealed that Lily is pregnant and that she and Marshall will have a daughter. It is also revealed that Ted's children are named Penny and Luke. In the 200th episode, the Mother's eight years before meeting Ted are revealed, while later episodes give viewers a glimpse of Ted and the Mother together in flash forward scenes. Also, Marshall uses his final two slaps from the slap bet: the first being used as an apology present for missing the rehearsal dinner, and the second when Barney begins to panic just before the beginning of the wedding ceremony.


title: How I Met Your Mother

text: In the series finale, it is revealed that after three years of marriage, Barney and Robin decided to divorce. Barney ends up later fathering a child during a one-night stand. Marshall eventually becomes a judge, and he and Lily have three children. Ted's wife, whose name is revealed to be Tracy McConnell, dies of an unknown illness in 2024, six years prior to the time of Ted telling his children the full story of how they met. Upon finishing the story, at the urging of his kids, Ted decides to ask Robin out. Alluding to the first episode, the finale ends with Robin looking out her apartment window to see Ted on the street holding the blue French horn.


title: How I Met Your Mother

text: Following backlash from fans over the ending of the series, an alternative ending was cut together and released on the Season 9 DVD, in which future Ted narrates over the scene in which Ted and Tracy meet at the train station, recapping all major events from the series. He delivers the final line "and that kids is how I met your mother", and the episode ends, completely cutting the final scene with Penny and Luke.


title: How I Met Your Mother

text: The first season was met with generally favorable reviews from critics, although some compared the series unfavorably to "Friends". On Metacritic, a review aggregation site that collected 25 reviews for the series, it scored a 69 out of 100. Michael Abernethy of "PopMatters" gave the season a negative review, writing that "The comedy that does occur in "How I Met Your Mother" isn't enough to compensate for its inconsistencies." Tom Shales of "The Washington Post" gave the season a lukewarm review, saying it's "a little better than most other sitcoms, past and present -- especially those featuring wacky urban friends in their twenties experiencing the bittersweet mysteries of life." Melanie Macfarlane of the "Seattle Post-Intelligencer" gave the season a positive review, saying the show "may not break any comedic ground, but it's the sort of comfortable, reliable hitter CBS needs on Monday nights."


title: How I Met Your Mother

text: The second season received critical acclaim. Staci Krause of IGN gave the season a positive review, calling it "great".


title: How I Met Your Mother

text: The third season was met with mostly positive reviews. Michelle Zoromski of IGN gave the season a positive review, saying that "the season was fun and clever, a good, consistent flow from the first two seasons".


title: How I Met Your Mother

text: The fourth season received critical acclaim. Michelle Zoromski of IGN gave Season 4 an overall rating of 8.5 out of 10, stating that "This fourth season seemed to settle down the chase for the titular mother. While Ted was busy dating Stella, the gang settled into many stand alone episodes which were every bit as entertaining as episodes devoted to Ted's love life". Zoromski went on to say: "A stellar Robin-Marshall episode, titled 'Little Minnesota', makes it clear that these two do not get enough screen time together. With Robin homesick and unemployed (and at risk of being deported), this pairing brought out the best Robin Sparkles reference of the season, when Marshall leads a rousing karaoke version of 'Let's Go to the Mall!


title: How I Met Your Mother

text: The fifth season received mixed reviews. Cindy McLennan of "Television Without Pity" gave the season a mixed review, and at the end of the season wrote: "I'm okay with any given season not being primarily focused on mother-meeting, but this season, the characters seemed to regress -- particularly Barney and Ted. Usually, when a season ends, I have to deal with a week or two weeks' worth of letdown. Right now, all I'm feeling is relief."


title: How I Met Your Mother

text: The sixth season received generally positive reviews. Justin Fowler of "Later Reviews" gave the season a positive review, saying that the season was "a pretty good season of television" and better than the "poor" fifth season. He also said that "Seventeen out of the 24 episodes are what I would consider good".


title: How I Met Your Mother

text: The seventh season received mixed reviews. Alan Sepinwall gave the season a mixed review and criticized the flash-forwards throughout the season, saying that "the show is just much, much stronger when its stories dwell on matters of the present or the past, and where the writers don't have to act like magicians trying to keep the audience from figuring out how the trick works. And the finale affirmed that belief for me. The parts that had little or nothing to do with things to come were quite good; the parts that were all about the future made me roll my eyes and ask, for the umpteenth time, 'Really? This is where you're going with this?


title: How I Met Your Mother

text: The eighth season received mixed reviews and is often considered the worst season of the series. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 54% of critics gave the show a positive review. The consensus reads: ""How I Met Your Mother" wears out its welcome this season, with an anticlimactic reveal and rote, less-than-fruitful humor."


title: How I Met Your Mother

text: The ninth season received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics, though fans found it worse than prior seasons. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 80% of critics gave the show a positive review, with an average rating of 7.3 out of 10. Gareth Mitchell at "House of Geekery" responded negatively, mostly criticizing the structure of the season, stating that they are "struggling to come up with stories that last out the 22 minutes".


title: How I Met Your Mother

text: The finale of the show received a largely negative reaction from critics and fans. Some complained that the last few seasons had built towards an end game that was discarded within the hour-long episode, while others defended it as true to both the initial concept of the show and to life itself. In the years succeeding its airing, it continued to be singled out as one of the worst television series finales, e.g., topping "USA Today"s list of "Worst Series Finales of All Time".


title: How I Met Your Mother

text: After the end of the series, the officials released a short video, explaining the running mystery of the pineapple in "The Pineapple Incident", the tenth episode of the first season. The extra footage revealed that a character featured in the 6th season, the Captain (Kyle MacLachlan), had put a pineapple in front of his door as a tradition and Ted took the pineapple while he was drunk.


title: How I Met Your Mother

text: Websites were consistently mentioned throughout the How I Met Your Mother series. Many of the websites directly tie in to running gags on the show. CBS turned nearly every website mentioned in the series into a real functioning website. Since the show’s ending in 2014, a majority of the websites remain active.


title: How I Met Your Mother

text: On November 15, 2013, it was announced that CBS and the series' producer 20th Television would launch "How I Met Your Dad", a woman-centric variation executive-produced by Bays, Thomas, and Emily Spivey. The new series would possibly have featured a new bar and would not have tied into the original series. The primary cast of the series was revealed on March 14, 2014, to be Greta Gerwig, Drew Tarver, Nicholas D'Agosto, Krysta Rodriguez and Andrew Santino. Tiya Sircar was cast not long after on March 26, 2014, replacing Krysta Rodriguez's role in the series. On April 23, 2014, Meg Ryan was announced to voice future Sally.


title: How I Met Your Mother

text: On May 14, 2014, CBS passed on picking up "How I Met Your Dad" since show creators Craig Thomas and Carter Bays did not want to reshoot the pilot. Nina Tassler, the entertainment president at CBS, stated that "there were elements of the pilot that didn't work out". Talks of the series being "shopped" to other networks emerged. Netflix, FOX and NBC were named as possible candidates for picking up the show.


title: How I Met Your Mother

text: Ultimately, nothing came of those talks. It was reported that the options on the cast contracts had expired and they had been released from their contracts and co-creator Carter Bays denied any rumors that the spin-off pilot will be reshot. On July 11, 2014, Bays confirmed that the spin-off project was officially dead. Six days later, Nina Tassler said that CBS would "love the opportunity to take another shot" at the pilot and that she would continue to "hound" Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, even though they shot down the idea of a new version of the project stating that they had both moved on.


title: How I Met Your Mother

text: In 2016, two years after the project was announced "dead", a full script of the pilot episode was leaked online. In 2020, the full pilot episode was also leaked by a Reddit user on the How I Met Your Mother subreddit, which included a modified ending compared to the leaked script from 2016.


title: How I Met Your Mother

text: On December 14, 2016, it was reported that Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger were set to write a new version of the previous spin-off's pilot, re-titled "How I Met Your Father", with Bays and Thomas serving as executive producers. On March 6, 2017, it was announced that following signing new contracts with 20th Television that would see both Aptaker and Berger being promoted to executive producers and co-showrunners on "This Is Us" alongside Dan Fogelman, their completed spec script for "How I Met Your Father" would be placed on the back burner in light of their new duties.


title: How I Met Your Mother

text: On August 8, 2017, Fox chairman Dana Walden told "Deadline" that the studio was set to try a third attempt at a spin-off with different writers due to the unavailability of Aptaker and Berger. It was also stated that all ideas from the previous two attempts are not carried over and the new attempt are created from scratch. On August 11, 2017, Deadline reported that Alison Bennett had been selected to write the spin-off. It was also confirmed that this incarnation would be developed under the title used for the Aptaker and Berger project, and that Bays and Thomas are once again attached as executive producers.


title: How I Met Your Mother

text: On April 21, 2021, it was announced that the spin-off series was ordered by Hulu, with Hilary Duff attached to play lead character Sophie. Aptaker and Berger would helm the project as creators, writers, and executive producers. On June 16, 2021, Chris Lowell was announced to have joined the cast in a starring role. On August 10, 2021, Francia Raisa, Tom Ainsley, Tien Tran and Suraj Sharma joined the cast in a starring roles. On August 30, 2021, Daniel Augustin joined the cast in a recurring role, replacing Brandon Micheal Hall, who exited the project due to scheduling conflicts.


title: How I Met Your Mother

text: On January 18, 2022 "How I Met Your Father" began streaming on Hulu in the US and Disney+ Internationally and Star+ in Latin America.


title: How I Met Your Mother

text: Critics of the show point out the lack of connection to the original series and call it a “hollow nostalgia grab” alongside the recent resurgence of spin off shows airing such as "Fuller House" and "iCarly". On February 15, 2022 Hulu renewed "How I Met Your Father" for a second season which will consist of 20 episodes.


title: How I Met Your Mother

text: The show's highest viewed episode was the series finale, "Last Forever", watched by 13.13 million viewers. Previously, the most viewed episode was the season 1 episode "The Pineapple Incident", watched by 12.3 million viewers. The lowest-viewed episode was the season 6 episode "Landmarks", watched by 6.4 million viewers, approximately 52% of the show's previous series high, and approximately 49% of the show's finale viewership.


title: How I Met Your Mother

text: Season nine was the highest watched season overall and among the 18-49 adults, scoring a 4.5 rating in that sector up from the second-highest rating of 4.1 in season seven.


title: How I Met Your Mother

text: The show has been nominated for 72 awards, winning 18. The show has been nominated for 28 Emmy Awards, including a nomination for Outstanding Comedy Series. Stars Alyson Hannigan and Neil Patrick Harris have each received acting accolades, with both winning People's Choice Awards, and Harris receiving Emmy and Golden Globe nominations. In 2012, seven years after its premiere, the series won the People's Choice for Favorite Network TV Comedy. The show's art direction, editing and cinematography have also been awarded.


title: How I Met Your Mother

text: Seasons 1 through 9 were available to stream on Netflix in Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latin America, Lebanon, Turkey, Spain, Sweden, the Philippines, Romania, Russia, and the UK; season 9 was released on September 26, 2014. But they were Ultimately Pulled and relocated to Disney+. Seasons 1-9 were removed from Netflix in the United States as of November 13, 2017 and are now available on Hulu. As of March 2020, Seasons 1 through 9 are available on Amazon Prime Video in Brazil. Seasons 1 through 9 are available to stream on Hotstar in India. As of December 31, 2020, seasons 1-9 are removed from Netflix in The Netherlands. Seasons 1 to 9 were Previously available on Netflix, Stan and Star on Disney+ In Australia. But Disney has pulled the show from both Stan and Netflix making Disney+ the only streaming service in Australia to watch the show. All 9 seasons are available to stream on Hulu and Amazon Prime Video in the US. Repeats in Australia are often shown on 7flix and on 7plus and are shown on Fox Comedy.


title: House (TV series)

text: House (also called House, M.D.) is an American medical drama television series that originally ran on the Fox network for eight seasons, from November 16, 2004, to May 21, 2012. The series' main character is Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie), an unconventional, misanthropic medical genius who, despite his dependence on pain medication, leads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton–Plainsboro Teaching Hospital (PPTH) in New Jersey. The series' premise originated with Paul Attanasio, while David Shore, who is credited as creator, was primarily responsible for the conception of the title character.


title: House (TV series)

text: The series' executive producers included Shore, Attanasio, Attanasio's business partner Katie Jacobs, and film director Bryan Singer. It was filmed largely in a neighborhood and business district in Los Angeles County's Westside called Century City. The show received high critical acclaim, and was consistently one of the highest rated series in the United States.


title: House (TV series)

text: House often clashes with his fellow physicians, including his own diagnostic team, because many of his hypotheses about patients' illnesses are based on subtle or controversial insights. His flouting of hospital rules and procedures frequently leads him into conflict with his boss, hospital administrator and Dean of Medicine Dr. Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein). House's only true friend is Dr. James Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard), head of the Department of Oncology.


title: House (TV series)

text: During the first three seasons, House's diagnostic team consists of Dr. Robert Chase (Jesse Spencer), Dr. Allison Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) and Dr. Eric Foreman (Omar Epps). At the end of the third season, this team disbands. Rejoined by Foreman, House gradually selects three new team members: Dr. Remy "Thirteen" Hadley (Olivia Wilde), Dr. Chris Taub (Peter Jacobson) and Dr. Lawrence Kutner (Kal Penn). Chase and Cameron continue to appear occasionally in different roles at the hospital. Kutner dies late in season five; early in season six, Cameron departs the hospital, and Chase returns to the diagnostic team. Thirteen takes a leave of absence for most of season seven, and her position is filled by medical student Martha M. Masters (Amber Tamblyn). Cuddy and Masters depart before season eight; Foreman becomes the new Dean of Medicine, while Dr. Jessica Adams (Odette Annable) and Dr. Chi Park (Charlyne Yi) join House's team.


title: House (TV series)

text: "House" was among the top 10 series in the United States from its second season through the fourth season. Distributed to 66 countries, "House" was the most-watched television program in the world in 2008. The show received numerous awards, including five Primetime Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, a Peabody Award, and nine People's Choice Awards. On February 8, 2012, Fox announced that the eighth season, then in progress, would be its last. The series finale aired on May 21, 2012, following an hour-long retrospective.


title: House (TV series)

text: In 2004, David Shore and Paul Attanasio, along with Attanasio's business partner Katie Jacobs, pitched the series (untitled at the time) to Fox as a ""-style medical detective program, a hospital whodunit in which the doctors investigated symptoms and their causes. Attanasio was inspired to develop a medical procedural drama by "The New York Times Magazine" column "Diagnosis", written by physician Lisa Sanders, who is an attending physician at Yale–New Haven Hospital (YNHH); the fictitious Princeton–Plainsboro Teaching Hospital (PPTH, not to be confused with the University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro) is modeled after this teaching institution. Fox bought the series, though the network's then-president, Gail Berman, told the creative team, "I want a medical show, but I don't want to see white coats going down the hallway". Jacobs has said that this stipulation was one of the many influences that led to the show's ultimate form.


title: House (TV series)

text: After Fox picked up the show, it acquired the working title "Chasing Zebras, Circling the Drain" ("zebra" is medical slang for an unusual or obscure diagnosis, while "circling the drain" refers to terminal cases, patients in an irreversible decline). The original premise of the show was of a team of doctors working together trying to "diagnose the undiagnosable". Shore felt it was important to have an interesting central character, one who could examine patients' personal characteristics and diagnose their ailments by figuring out their secrets and lies. As Shore and the rest of the creative team explored the character's possibilities, the program concept became less of procedure and more focused upon the lead role. The character was named "House", which was adopted as the show's title, as well. Shore developed the characters further and wrote the script for the pilot episode. Bryan Singer, who directed the pilot episode and had a major role in casting the primary roles, has said that the "title of the pilot was 'Everybody Lies', and that's the premise of the show". Shore has said that the central storylines of several early episodes were based on the work of Berton Roueché, a staff writer for "The New Yorker" between 1944 and 1994, who specialized in features about unusual medical cases.


title: House (TV series)

text: Shore traced the concept for the title character to his experience as a patient at a teaching hospital. He recalled: "I knew, as soon as I left the room, they would be mocking me relentlessly [for my cluelessness] and I thought that it would be interesting to see a character who actually did that before they left the room." A central part of the show's premise was that the main character would be disabled in some way. The original idea was for House to use a wheelchair, but Fox rejected this. Jacobs later expressed her gratitude for the network's insistence that the character be reimagined—putting him on his feet added a crucial physical dimension. The writers ultimately chose to give House a damaged leg arising from an incorrect diagnosis, which requires him to use a cane and causes him pain that leads to a narcotic dependency.


title: House (TV series)

text: References to fictional detective Sherlock Holmes appear throughout the series. Shore explained that he was always a Holmes fan and found the character's indifference to his clients unique. The resemblance is evident in House's reliance on inductive reasoning and psychology, even where it might not seem obviously applicable, and his reluctance to accept cases he finds uninteresting. House's investigatory method is to eliminate diagnoses logically as they are proved impossible; Holmes uses a similar method. Both characters play instruments (House plays the piano, the guitar, and the harmonica; Holmes, the violin) and take drugs (House is dependent on Vicodin; Holmes uses cocaine recreationally). House's relationship with Dr. James Wilson echoes that between Holmes and his confidant, Dr. John Watson. Robert Sean Leonard, who portrays Wilson, said that House and his character were originally intended to work together much as Holmes and Watson do; in his view, House's diagnostic team has assumed that aspect of the Watson role. Shore said that House's name itself is meant as "a subtle homage" to Holmes. House's address is 221B Baker Street, a direct reference to Holmes's street address. Wilson's address is also 221B.


title: House (TV series)

text: Individual episodes of the series contain additional references to the Sherlock Holmes tales. The main patient in the pilot episode is named Rebecca Adler after Irene Adler, a character in the first Holmes short story, "A Scandal in Bohemia". In the season two finale, House is shot by a crazed gunman credited as "Moriarty", the name of Holmes's nemesis. In the season four episode "It's a Wonderful Lie", House receives a "second-edition Conan Doyle" as a Christmas gift. In the season five episode "The Itch", House is seen picking up his keys and Vicodin from the top of a copy of Conan Doyle's "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes". In another season five episode, "Joy to the World", House, in an attempt to fool his team, uses a book by Joseph Bell, Conan Doyle's inspiration for Sherlock Holmes. The volume had been given to him the previous Christmas by Wilson, who included the message "Greg, made me think of you." Before acknowledging that he gave the book to House, Wilson tells two of the team members that its source was a patient, Irene Adler. Season 7 episode 3 includes a young adult boyhood detective book series written by the patient, whose final unpublished volume ends in an ambiguous end to the main character reminiscent of "The Final Problem". The series finale also pays homage to Holmes's apparent death in "The Final Problem", the 1893 story with which Conan Doyle originally intended to conclude the Holmes chronicles.


title: House (TV series)

text: "House" was a co-production of Heel and Toe Films, Shore Z Productions, and Bad Hat Harry Productions in association with Universal Network Television for Fox. Paul Attanasio and Katie Jacobs, the heads of Heel and Toe Films; David Shore, the head of Shore Z Productions; and Bryan Singer, the head of Bad Hat Harry Productions, were executive producers of the program for its entirety. Lawrence Kaplow, Peter Blake, and Thomas L. Moran joined the staff as writers at the beginning of the first season after the making of the pilot episode. Writers Doris Egan, Sara Hess, Russel Friend, and Garrett Lerner joined the team at the start of season two. Friend and Lerner, who are business partners, had been offered positions when the series launched, but turned the opportunity down. After observing the show's success, they accepted when Jacobs offered them jobs again the following year. Writers Eli Attie and Sean Whitesell joined the show at the start of season four; Attie would stay on the show's writing staff through the series finale, which he co-wrote. From the beginning of season four, Moran, Friend, and Lerner were credited as executive producers on the series, joining Attanasio, Jacobs, Shore, and Singer. Hugh Laurie was credited as an executive producer for the second and third episodes of season five.


title: House (TV series)

text: Shore was "House"s showrunner. Through the end of the sixth season, more than two dozen writers had contributed to the program. The most prolific were Kaplow (18 episodes), Blake (17), Shore (16), Friend (16), Lerner (16), Moran (14), and Egan (13). The show's most prolific directors through its first six seasons were Deran Sarafian (22 episodes), who was not involved in season six, and Greg Yaitanes (17). Of the more than three dozen other directors who have worked on the series, only David Straiton directed as many as 10 episodes through the sixth season. Hugh Laurie directed the 17th episode of season six, "Lockdown". Elan Soltes was the visual effects supervisor since the show began. Lisa Sanders, an assistant clinical professor of medicine at the Yale School of Medicine, was a technical advisor to the series. She writes the "Diagnosis" column that inspired "House"s premise. According to Shore, "[T]hree different doctors ... check everything we do". Bobbin Bergstrom, a registered nurse, was the program's on-set medical adviser.


title: House (TV series)

text: At first, the producers were looking for a "quintessentially American person" to play the role of House. Bryan Singer in particular felt there was no way he was going to hire a non-American actor for the role. At the time of the casting session, actor Hugh Laurie was in Namibia filming the movie "Flight of the Phoenix". He assembled an audition tape in a hotel bathroom, the only place with enough light, and apologized for its appearance (which Singer compared to a "bin Laden video"). Laurie improvised, using an umbrella for a cane. Singer was very impressed by his performance and commented on how well the "American actor" was able to grasp the character. Singer was not aware that Laurie was English, due to his American accent. Laurie credits the accent to "a misspent youth [watching] too much TV and too many movies". Although locally better-known actors such as Denis Leary, David Cross, Rob Morrow, and Patrick Dempsey were considered for the part, Shore, Jacobs, and Attanasio were as impressed as Singer and cast Laurie as House.


title: House (TV series)

text: Laurie later revealed that he initially thought the show's central character was Dr. James Wilson. He assumed that House was a supporting part, due to the nature of the character, until he received the full script of the pilot episode. Laurie, the son of medical doctor Ran Laurie, said he felt guilty for "being paid more to become a fake version of [his] own father". From the start of season three, he was being paid $275,000 to $300,000 per episode, as much as three times what he had previously been making on the series. Laurie was earning around $400,000 per episode by the fifth season, and $700,000 per episode for the final season, making him one of the highest-paid actors on network television.


title: House (TV series)

text: Robert Sean Leonard had received the script for the CBS show "Numb3rs" as well as that for "House". Leonard thought the "Numb3rs" script was "kind of cool" and planned to audition for the show. However, he decided that the character he was up for, Charlie Eppes, was in too many scenes; he later observed, "The less I work, the happier I am". He believed that his "House" audition was not particularly good, but that his lengthy friendship with Singer helped win him the part of Dr. Wilson. Singer had enjoyed Lisa Edelstein's portrayal of a prostitute on "The West Wing", and sent her a copy of the pilot script. Edelstein was attracted to the quality of the writing and her character's "snappy dialogue" with House, and was cast as Dr. Lisa Cuddy.


title: House (TV series)

text: Australian actor Jesse Spencer's agent suggested that he audition for the role of Dr. Robert Chase. Spencer believed the program would be similar in style to "General Hospital" but changed his mind after reading the scripts. After he was cast, he persuaded the producers to turn the character into an Australian. Patrick Dempsey also auditioned for the part of Chase; he later became known for his portrayal of Dr. Derek Shepherd on "Grey's Anatomy". Omar Epps, who plays Dr. Eric Foreman, was inspired by his earlier portrayal of a troubled intern on the NBC medical drama "ER"; his character was given the name "Eric Foreman" despite the fact that Fox was still airing "That 70's Show" when "House" premiered and had the similarly named Eric Forman as that series' main protagonist. (The two series overlapped on Fox's schedule for two seasons, though Topher Grace left "That 70's Show" at the end of its 7th season and "House's" first, only returning for that show's series finale.) Jennifer Morrison felt that her audition for the part of Dr. Allison Cameron was a complete disaster. However, before her audition, Singer had watched some of her performances, including on "Dawson's Creek", and already wanted to cast her in the role. Morrison left the show when her character was written out in the middle of season six.


title: House (TV series)

text: At the end of season three, House dismisses Chase, while Foreman and Cameron resign. After an episode in which he "borrows" a janitor whom he calls "Dr. Buffer" to assist in a diagnosis, House must then recruit a new diagnostic team, for which he identifies seven finalists. The producers originally planned to recruit two new full-time actors, with Foreman, who returns in season four's fifth episode, bringing the team back up to three members; ultimately, the decision was made to add three new regular cast members. (Along with Epps, actors Morrison and Spencer remained in the cast, as their characters moved on to new assignments.) During production, the show's writers dismissed a single candidate per episode; as a result, said Jacobs, neither the producers nor the cast knew who was going to be hired until the last minute. In the season's ninth episode, House's new team is revealed: Foreman is joined by doctors Lawrence Kutner (Kal Penn), Chris Taub (Peter Jacobson), and Remy "Thirteen" Hadley (Olivia Wilde). The candidates rejected by House did not return to the show, with the exception of the last one cut: Amber "Cutthroat Bitch" Volakis (Anne Dudek), who appeared for the rest of season four as Wilson's girlfriend, and in seasons five and eight as a hallucination of House's. While Penn and Wilde had higher profiles than the actors who played the other finalists, Jacobs said they went through an identical audition process and stayed with the show based on the writers' interest in their characters. Kutner was written out of the series in episode 20 of season 5 after Penn took a position in the Obama White House Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs.


title: House (TV series)

text: The contracts of Edelstein, Epps, and Leonard expired at the end of season seven. As a cost-cutting measure, the three actors were asked to accept reduced salaries. Epps and Leonard came to terms with the producers, but Edelstein did not, and in May 2011, it was announced that she would not be returning for the show's eighth season.


title: House (TV series)

text: "House" is often filmed using the "walk and talk" filming technique, popularized on television by series such as "St. Elsewhere", "ER", "Sports Night", and "The West Wing". The technique involves the use of tracking shots, showing two or more characters walking between locations while talking. Executive producer Katie Jacobs said that the show frequently uses the technique because "when you put a scene on the move, it's a ... way of creating an urgency and an intensity". She noted the significance of "the fact that Hugh Laurie spans 6'2" and is taller than everybody else because it certainly makes those walk-and-talks pop". Nancy Franklin of "The New Yorker" described the show's "cool, "Fantastic Voyage"–like special effects of patients' innards. I'll bet you didn't know that when your kidneys shut down they sound like bubble wrap popping." "Cameras and special effects travel not only down the throat" of one patient, another critic observed, "but up her nose and inside her brain and leg". Instead of relying primarily on computer-generated imagery, the interior body shots tend to involve miniature effects and motion control photography. Many of the sets are dressed with a variety of unscripted props that allow Laurie to physically improvise, revealing aspects of his character and the story.


title: House (TV series)

text: The pilot episode was filmed in Vancouver; primary photography for all subsequent episodes took place on the Fox lot in Century City, Los Angeles. Bryan Singer chose the hospital near his hometown, West Windsor, New Jersey, as the show's fictional setting. Princeton University's Frist Campus Center is the source of the aerial views of Princeton–Plainsboro Teaching Hospital seen in the series. Some filming took place at the University of Southern California for the season-three episode "Half-Wit", which guest-starred Dave Matthews and Kurtwood Smith. Part of "House"s sixth season was filmed at the abandoned Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital, in Parsippany-Troy Hills, New Jersey, as the fictional Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital.


title: House (TV series)

text: The opening sequence begins with an MRI of a head with an image of the boxed "H" from the logo (the international symbol for hospital) in the foreground. This is then overlaid with an image of Dr. House's face taken from the pilot episode with the show's full title appearing across his face. House's head then fades and the show's title is underlined and has the "M.D." appear next to it, producing the entire logo of the show. This was the full extent of the title sequence in the pilot episode. All subsequent episodes contain a longer sequence including the names of the six featured cast members and creator David Shore. Laurie's name appears first, followed by the names of the five other featured cast members in alphabetical order (Edelstein, Epps, Leonard, Morrison, and Spencer), then Shore.


title: House (TV series)

text: After the show's title fades, an aerial view of PPTH (actually various Princeton University buildings, primarily Frist Campus Center) is followed by a series of images accompanying each member's name; most are shown next to, or superimposed upon, illustrations of human anatomy. Laurie's name appears next to a model of a human head with the brain exposed; Edelstein's name appears next to a visual effects–produced graphic of an angiogram of the heart. Epps's name is superimposed upon a rib cage X-ray; Leonard's name appears on a drawing of the two hemispheres of the brain. The producers originally wanted to include an image of a cane and an image of a Vicodin bottle, but Fox objected. Morrison's title card was thus lacking an image; an aerial shot of rowers on Princeton University's Lake Carnegie was finally agreed upon to accompany her name. Spencer's name appears next to an old-fashioned anatomical drawing of a spine. Between the presentations of Spencer and Shore's names is a scene of House and his three original team members walking down one of the hospital's hallways. Jacobs said that most of the backgrounds have no specific meaning; however, the final image—the text "created by David Shore" superimposed upon a human neck—connotes that Shore is "the brain of the show". The sequence was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Main Title Design in 2005. The title sequence continued to credit Spencer and Morrison, even when their characters were reduced to background roles during seasons four and five, and Morrison even after hers was written out. A new opening sequence was introduced in season seven to accommodate the changes in the cast, removing Morrison's name and including Jacobson's and Wilde's. It was updated in season eight, removing Edelstein's and Wilde's names and adding Annable's and Yi's.


title: House (TV series)

text: The series' original opening theme, as heard in the United States, comprises instrumental portions of "Teardrop" by Massive Attack. The piece was used in part because of the distinct tempo which roughly mimics the sound of a beating human heart. An acoustic version of "Teardrop", with guitar and vocals by José González, is heard as background music during the season-four finale.


title: House (TV series)

text: Gregory House, M.D., often construed as a misanthropic medical genius, heads a team of diagnosticians at the Princeton–Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in New Jersey. The series is structured around a central plot with some supporting secondary stories and narratives that cross over seasons. Most episodes revolve around the diagnosis of a primary patient and start with a cold open set outside the hospital, showing events ending with the onset of the patient's symptoms. The typical episode follows the team in their attempts to diagnose and treat the patient's illness, which often fail until the patient's condition is critical. They usually treat only patients whom other doctors have not accurately diagnosed, and House routinely rejects cases he does not find interesting.


title: House (TV series)

text: Typically, the patient is misdiagnosed at least once which usually causes further complications, but the nature of the complications often provides new evidence which helps them diagnose the patient correctly. House often tends to arrive at the correct diagnosis seemingly out of the blue, often inspired by a passing remark made by another character. Diagnoses range from relatively common to very rare diseases.


title: House (TV series)

text: The team faces many diagnostic difficulties from patients' concealment of symptoms, circumstances, or personal histories, so House frequently proclaims during the team's deliberations, "The patient is lying", or mutters "Everybody lies"; such an assumption guides House's decisions and diagnoses and makes the countermeasure of housebreaking a routine procedure. Because many of his hypotheses are based on epiphanies or controversial insights, he often has trouble obtaining permission for medical procedures he considers necessary from his superior, who in all but the final season is hospital administrator Dr. Lisa Cuddy. This is especially the case when the proposed procedures involve a high degree of risk or are ethically questionable. Frequent disagreements occur between House and his team, especially Dr. Allison Cameron, whose standards of medical ethics are more conservative than those of the other characters.


title: House (TV series)

text: Like all of the hospital's doctors, House is required to treat patients in the facility's walk-in clinic. His grudging fulfillment of this duty, or his creative methods of avoiding it, constitute a recurring subplot, which often serves as the series' comic relief. During clinic duty, House confounds patients with unwelcome observations into their personal lives, eccentric prescriptions, and unorthodox treatments. However, after seeming to be inattentive to their complaints, he regularly impresses them with rapid and accurate diagnoses. Analogies with some of the simple cases in the clinic occasionally inspire insights that help solve the team's case.


title: House (TV series)

text: A significant plot element is House's use of Vicodin to manage pain, caused by an infarction in the quadriceps muscle of his right leg five years before the show's first season, which also forces him to use a cane. In the first-season 11th episode "Detox", House admits he is addicted to Vicodin but says he does not have a problem because the pills "let me do my job, and they take away my pain". His addiction has led his colleagues Cuddy and Dr. James Wilson to encourage him to go to drug rehabilitation several times. When he has no access to Vicodin or experiences unusually intense pain, he occasionally self-medicates with other narcotic analgesics such as morphine, oxycodone, and methadone. House also frequently drinks liquor when he is not on medical duty and classifies himself as a "big drinker". Toward the end of season five, House begins to hallucinate; after eliminating other possible diagnoses, Wilson and he determine that his Vicodin addiction is the most likely cause. House goes into denial about this for a brief time, but at the close of the season finale, he commits himself to Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital. In the following season's debut episode, House leaves Mayfield with his addiction under control. However, about a year and a half later, in season seven's 15th episode, "Bombshells", House reacts to the news that Cuddy possibly has kidney cancer by taking Vicodin, and he returns to his addiction.


title: House (TV series)

text: Throughout "House"s run, six of the main actors have received star billing. All of them play doctors who work at the fictional Princeton–Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in New Jersey. Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie), the title character, was educated at Johns Hopkins University and heads the Department of Diagnostic Medicine. House describes himself as "a board-certified diagnostician with a double specialty of infectious disease and nephrology". Dr. James Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard), House's one true friend, is the head of the Department of Oncology. Dr. Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein), an endocrinologist, is House's boss, as she is the hospital's dean of medicine and chief administrator. House has a complex relationship with Cuddy, and their interactions often involve a high degree of innuendo and sexual tension. In the sixth episode of season five, "Joy", they kiss for the first time. Their physical relationship does not progress any further during the fifth season; in the season- five finale, House believes he and Cuddy had sex, but this is a hallucination brought on by House's Vicodin addiction. In the finale of season six, Cuddy tells House she loves him. They kiss and agree to try being a couple. Throughout season seven, House and Cuddy try to make their relationship work, but Cuddy eventually breaks it off because of House's addiction. House struggles to deal with this and, in the season-seven finale, drives his car into Cuddy's living room in anger. As Lisa Edelstein left the show before season eight, after this incident Cuddy leaves the hospital and House never sees her again.


title: House (TV series)

text: House's original team of diagnosticians consists of Dr. Eric Foreman (Omar Epps), a neurologist; Dr. Robert Chase (Jesse Spencer), an intensivist; and Dr. Allison Cameron (Jennifer Morrison), an immunologist. In the season-three episode "Family", Foreman announces his resignation, telling House, "I don't want to turn into you". During the season finale, House tells Chase that he has either learned everything he can, or nothing at all, and dismisses him from the team. Cameron, who has developed an affection for Chase, soon resigns. This leaves House without a team for the season-four premiere.


title: House (TV series)

text: Under orders from Cuddy to recruit a new team, House considers 40 doctors. Season four's early episodes focus on his selection process, structured as a reality TV–style elimination contest (Jacobs referred to it as a "version of "Survivor""). House assigns each applicant a number between one and 40, and pares them down to seven finalists. He assesses their performance in diagnostic cases, assisted by Foreman, who returns to the department after his dismissal from another hospital for House-like behavior. While Foreman's return means only two slots are open, House tricks Cuddy into allowing him to hire three new assistants. He ultimately selects Dr. Chris Taub (Peter Jacobson), a former plastic surgeon; Dr. Lawrence Kutner (Kal Penn), a sports medicine specialist; and Dr. Remy "Thirteen" Hadley (Olivia Wilde), an internist (nicknamed for her number in the elimination contest). In the season finale, Thirteen discovers she has, as she had long dreaded, inherited Huntington's disease, which is incurable, from her mother.


title: House (TV series)

text: In the 11th episode of season five, "Joy to the World", Foreman and Thirteen engage in a passionate kiss. Thirteen is at first reluctant to start a relationship with Foreman, but the two eventually begin dating and are still together at the end of the season. They break up early in season six. In the 20th episode of season five, "Simple Explanation", Kutner is found dead in his apartment with a gunshot wound to the head. Because Kutner left no note, House suspects foul play, though the death is accepted by the other characters as a suicide.


title: House (TV series)

text: In the seventh episode of season two, "Hunting", Cameron and Chase have a one-night stand. In the middle of season three, they initiate a sexual relationship that Cameron insists be casual; when Chase declares that he "wants more", Cameron ends the affair. By the end of the season, however, Cameron recognizes that she has romantic feelings for Chase and they begin a serious relationship. After leaving the diagnostic team, they assume different roles at the PPTH, Cameron as a senior attending physician in the emergency room and Chase as a surgeon. They become engaged in the season-five episode "Saviors" (the episode immediately following Kutner's suicide) and are married in the season finale. When Chase rejoins House's team in season six, Cameron leaves her husband and the hospital in "Teamwork", the season's eighth episode. She returns as a guest character in "Lockdown", nine episodes later.


title: House (TV series)

text: Early in season seven, Thirteen takes an unexplained leave of absence. Cuddy orders House to fill her position with another woman, but eventually makes the choice for him: medical student Dr. Martha M. Masters (Amber Tamblyn), who makes her first appearance in the season's sixth episode. Thirteen returns in "The Dig"—the season's 18th episode and the show's 150th—in which the reason for her absence is revealed: she was in prison for six months for having helped euthanize her brother, who was suffering from advanced Huntington's. While Jacobson and Wilde play central characters (as did Penn), they did not receive star billing until season seven. They were credited as "Also Starring", with their names appearing after the opening sequence. In season seven, Jacobson and Wilde received star billing; new regular cast member Tamblyn did not.


title: House (TV series)

text: The first six seasons of "House" each included one or more recurring featured characters, who appear in multiple-episode story arcs. In season one, Edward Vogler (Chi McBride), the billionaire owner of a pharmaceutical company, appears in five episodes. He donates US$100 million to the PPTH in return for chairing its board. Vogler represented an attempt to introduce a villain, a move urged by Fox. By the time the Vogler episodes began to air, the show had become a hit and the character was soon dropped. Shore said the concept of a villainous boss was not really viable for the series: "It's called "House". The audience knows he'll never get fired."


title: House (TV series)

text: Stacy Warner (Sela Ward), House's ex-girlfriend, appears in the final two episodes of the first season, and seven episodes of season two. She wants House to treat her husband, Mark Warner (Currie Graham), whom House diagnoses with acute intermittent porphyria in the season-one finale. Stacy and House grow close again, but House eventually tells Stacy to go back to Mark, which devastates her.


title: House (TV series)

text: Michael Tritter (David Morse), a police detective, appears in several season-three episodes. He tries to extract an apology from House, who left Tritter in an examination room with a thermometer in his rectum. After House refuses to apologize, Tritter brings him up on charges of unprescribed narcotics possession and forces him to attend rehabilitation. When the case reaches court, Cuddy perjures herself for House and the case is dismissed. The judge reprimands Tritter for pursuing House to excess, and tells House that she thinks he "has better friends than he deserves", referring to Cuddy's 11th-hour testimony on his behalf. House is sentenced to one night in jail for contempt of court and finishes his rehabilitation under the influence of Vicodin.


title: House (TV series)

text: The candidates for House's new diagnostics team are season four's primary recurring characters. In addition to the three who are chosen, the other four finalists are Jeffrey Cole (Edi Gathegi), a medical geneticist; Travis Brennan (Andy Comeau), an epidemiologist; Henry Dobson (Carmen Argenziano), a former medical school admissions officer; and Amber Volakis (Anne Dudek), an interventional radiologist. Each of the four departs the show after elimination, except for Volakis, who appears throughout the season, having started a relationship with Wilson. In the two-part season finale, Volakis attempts to shepherd a drunken House home when Wilson is unavailable. They are involved in a bus crash, which leads to her death. She reappears late in season five among the hallucinations House suffers.


title: House (TV series)

text: Private investigator Lucas Douglas (Michael Weston), a character inspired in part by Shore's love of "The Rockford Files", appears in three episodes of season five. House initially hires Douglas to spy on Wilson, who has ended their friendship after Volakis's death (the friendship is subsequently rekindled). House later pays Douglas to look into the private lives of his team members and Cuddy. If the character had been accepted by the audience, plans existed to feature him as the lead in a spin-off show. In September 2008, Shore spoke to "Entertainment Weekly" about his vision for the character: "I don't want to do just another medical show. What does excite me in terms of writing is the choices people make and the nature of right and wrong... and a private investigator can approach that question much more readily than a doctor can." There was no show featuring Douglas on the fall 2009 network television schedule. He returns to "House" in season six as Cuddy's boyfriend. They are briefly engaged until Cuddy breaks it off, realizing that she is in love with House.


title: House (TV series)

text: "House" received largely positive reviews on its debut; the series was considered a bright spot amid Fox's schedule, which at the time was largely filled with reality shows. Season one holds a Metacritic score of 75 out of 100, based on 30 reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Matt Roush of "TV Guide" said that the program was an "uncommon cure for the common medical drama". "New York Daily News" critic David Bianculli applauded the "high caliber of acting and script". "The Onion"s "A.V. Club" approvingly described it as the "nastiest" black comedy from FOX since 1996's short-lived "Profit". "New York" John Leonard called the series "medical TV at its most satisfying and basic", while "The Boston Globe"s Matthew Gilbert appreciated that the show did not attempt to hide the flaws of the characters to assuage viewers' fears about "HMO factories". "Variety"s Brian Lowry, less impressed, wrote that the show relied on "by-the-numbers storytelling, albeit in a glossy package". Tim Goodman of the "San Francisco Chronicle" described it as "mediocre" and unoriginal. Mikhail Varshavski, a Russian-American Osteopathic Doctor, reviewed the medical content of "House" on his YouTube channel. According to Varshavski, the medical information presented on the show was usually fundamentally accurate though often highly exaggerated for dramatic effect, but he described Gregory House's tendency to quickly use invasive tests and procedures as outside the medical mainstream.


title: House (TV series)

text: General critical reaction to the character of Gregory House was particularly positive. Tom Shales of "The Washington Post" called him "the most electrifying new main character to hit television in years". The "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette"s Rob Owen found him "fascinatingly unsympathetic". Critics have compared House to fictional detectives Nero Wolfe, Hercule Poirot, and Adrian Monk, and to Perry Cox, a cantankerous doctor on the television show "Scrubs". One book-length study of the series finds a powerful kinship between House and another famous TV doctor, Hawkeye Pierce of "M*A*S*H". Laurie's performance in the role has been widely praised. The "San Francisco Chronicle"s Goodman called him "a wonder to behold" and "about the only reason to watch "House"".


title: House (TV series)

text: Critics have also reacted positively to the show's original supporting cast, which the "Post"s Shales called a "first-rate ensemble". Leonard's portrayal of Dr. Wilson has been considered Emmy Award worthy by critics with "TV Guide", "Entertainment Weekly", and "USA Today". Bianculli of the "Daily News" was happy to see Edelstein "was finally given a deservedly meaty co-starring role". Freelance critic Daniel Fienberg was disappointed that Leonard and Edelstein have not received more recognition for their performances.


title: House (TV series)

text: Reaction to the major shifts of season four was mixed. "With the new crew in place "House" takes on a slightly more energized feel", wrote Todd Douglass Jr. of DVD Talk. "And the set up [sic] for the fifth season is quite brilliant." "The Star-Ledger"s Alan Sepinwall wrote, "The extended, enormous job audition gave the writers a chance to reinvigorate the show and fully embrace Laurie's comic genius". Mary McNamara of the "Los Angeles Times", on the other hand, took issue with the developments: "the cast just kept getting bigger, the stories more scattered and uneven until you had a bunch of great actors forced to stand around watching Hugh Laurie hold the show together by the sheer force of his will". "USA Today"s Robert Bianco cheered the season finale: "Talk about saving the best for last. With two fabulous, heartbreaking hours ... the writers rescued a season that had seemed diffuse, overcrowded and perhaps too ambitious for its own good."


title: House (TV series)

text: Season five of "House" was met with a more positive response in comparison to the previous season. It holds a Metacritic score of 77 out of 100, based on ten reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". It also holds a 100% approval rating on aggregate review website Rotten Tomatoes, with an average score of 8.1 based on nine collected reviews.


title: House (TV series)

text: "USA Today" praised Laurie's performance and the repercussions of the season-four finale, stating "a carry-over from last season's brilliant finale, House is firmly in the forefront. And when you have an actor of Hugh Laurie's range, depth and charisma, putting him center-stage makes perfect sense, particularly when you've written a story that explores the character and his primary relationships in a way that seems integral to the series". The "New York Daily News" noted that "The show pays more attention to relationships we care about, hints at a sensible number of new ones that show some promise, and thus doesn't rely on obscure medical mysteries to carry the whole dramatic burden", and noted that "the prognosis for this season could be better than last season seemed to foreshadow". Mary McNamara of the "Los Angeles Times" highlighted the performances of the cast, especially Michael Weston as detective Lucas Douglas, calling him a "delightful addition". She concluded, "So different is the premiere that the savvy "House" (and Fox) viewer may expect the revelation that it was all a fever dream. That does not seem to be the case, and one assumes that Laurie and the writers will be bringing a different version of their now-iconic character back to Princeton. Not too different, of course, but different enough." Conversely, The "Chicago Tribune"s Maureen Ryan disliked Weston's character, calling him "An unwelcome distraction ... an irritating pipsqueak". She continued saying ""House" used to be one of the best shows on TV, but it's gone seriously off the rails". "The Sunday Times" felt that the show had "lost its sense of humour". The focus on Thirteen and her eventual involvement with Foreman also came under particular criticism.


title: House (TV series)

text: At the end of the show's run, Steven Tong of "Entertainment Weekly" wrote that ""House" had, in its final seasons, become a rather sentimental show". In "New York Magazine"'s blog 'Vulture', Margaret Lyons wrote, "More than a hospital drama or a character piece or anything else, "House" is a complex meditation on misery." But, continued Lyons, there is a line between "enlightened cynicism" and "misery-entropy", and "as the show wore on, its dramatic flare dimmed while its agony flare burned ever brighter." Alan Sepinwall wrote, "The repetition and muck of [the] middle seasons ultimately severed whatever emotional connection I had to House's personal struggles."


title: House (TV series)

text: In 2007, "House" placed #62 on "Entertainment Weekly" "New TV Classics" list. The show was declared the second-highest-rated show for the first ten years of IMDb.com Pro (2002–2012). The show was ranked the 74th best-written television series in a 2013 survey of Writers Guild of America West members.


title: House (TV series)

text: After its first five seasons, "House" was included in various critics' top-ten lists; these are listed below in order of rank.


title: House (TV series)

text: In its first season, "House" ranked twenty-fourth among all television series and was the ninth-most popular primetime program among women. Aided by a lead-in from the widely popular "American Idol", the following three seasons of the program each ranked in the top ten among all viewers. "House" reached its peak Nielsen ratings in its third season, attracting an average of 19.4 million viewers per episode. According to Jacobs, the production team was surprised that the show garnered such a large audience. In its fifth season, the show attracted 12.0 million viewers per episode and slipped to nineteenth place overall. It remained Fox's most popular show other than "American Idol".


title: House (TV series)

text: The most-watched episode of "House" is the season four episode "Frozen", which aired after Super Bowl XLII. It attracted slightly more than 29 million viewers. "House" ranked third for the week, equaling the rating of "American Idol" and being surpassed only by the Super Bowl itself and the post-game show. Below is a table of "House"s seasonal rankings in the U.S. television market, based on average total viewers per episode. Each U.S. network television season starts in September and ends in late May, which coincides with the completion of May sweeps.


title: House (TV series)

text: "House" has received many awards and award nominations. In 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 Laurie was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. The Emmy board also nominated "House" for Outstanding Drama Series in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009, but the show never won the award. For the season one episode "Three Stories", David Shore won a writing Emmy in 2005 and the Humanitas Prize in 2006. Director Greg Yaitanes received the 2008 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series, for directing "House's Head", the first part of season four's two-episode finale.


title: House (TV series)

text: The show has been nominated for six Golden Globe Awards and received two. Hugh Laurie has been nominated six times for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama; he won in 2006 and again in 2007. In 2008 the series received its first nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Drama. "House" was nominated for best dramatic series again the following year, but did not win in the category.


title: House (TV series)

text: The show received a 2005 Peabody Award for what the Peabody board called an "unorthodox lead character—a misanthropic diagnostician" and for "cases fit for a medical Sherlock Holmes", which helped make "House" "the most distinctive new doctor drama in a decade". The American Film Institute (AFI) included "House" in its 2005 list of 10 Television Programs of the Year.


title: House (TV series)

text: In 2011, "House" won four People's Choice Awards: favorite TV drama; favorite dramatic actor and actress for Laurie and Edelstein; and favorite TV doctor.


title: House (TV series)

text: Laurie won the Screen Actors Guild's award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series in both 2007 and 2009. Writer Lawrence Kaplow won a Writers Guild of America Award in 2006 for the season two episode "Autopsy". In 2007, the show won a Creative Arts Emmy Award for prosthetic makeup.


title: House (TV series)

text: In 2005, Laurie appeared on the cover of "TV Guide" as "TV's Sexiest Man". In 2008, Gregory House was voted second-sexiest television doctor ever, behind "ER"s Doug Ross (George Clooney).


title: House (TV series)

text: In 2008, "House" was distributed in a total of 66 countries. With an audience of over 81.8 million worldwide, it was the most-watched television show on the globe and far surpassed the viewership figures of the leading TV dramas the previous two years ("" and ""). The following year, it placed second in the world after "CSI".


title: House (TV series)

text: "House" episodes premiered on FOX in the United States and Global in Canada, which have identical schedules. The show was the third-most popular on Canadian television in 2008. That same year, "House" was the top-rated television program in Germany, the number 2 show in Italy, and number 3 in the Czech Republic. The series is also very popular in France, Spain, Sweden, and the Netherlands. In the United Kingdom, the first four seasons were broadcast on Five. Sky1 acquired first-run rights beginning with season five. The original, English-language version of the show aired in Australia on Network Ten, in New Zealand on TV3, and in Ireland on 3e, TV3's cable channel.


title: House (TV series)

text: Episodes of the show are also available online for download: Amazon Video on Demand, iTunes Store and the Zune Marketplace offer episodes from all of seasons 1 through 8. In 2007, NBCUniversal (the show's distributor) and Apple Inc. (iTunes' owner) had a disagreement that temporarily kept the fourth season off iTunes. In a statement to the press, Apple claimed that NBCUniversal wanted to drive up the per-episode price to $4.99. In September 2008, it was reported that the issue between Apple and NBC had been resolved. Some episodes are available in streaming video on Fox's official "House" webpage and all eight seasons were available on Netflix until April 2017.


title: House (TV series)

text: Seasons of the show and box sets were released on DVD encoded for regions 1, 2 and 4. Special features, such as anamorphic widescreen (the original release is letterboxed), depend on region.


title: House (TV series)

text: For a charity auction, T-shirts bearing the phrase "Everybody Lies" were sold for a limited time starting on April 23, 2007, on Housecharitytees.com. Proceeds from sales of those shirts and others with the phrase "Normal's Overrated" went to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). "House" cast and crew members also regularly attended fundraisers for NAMI and have featured in ads for the organization that appeared in "Seventeen" and "Rolling Stone". The show's efforts raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the charity. Jacobs said that through their association with NAMI, they hoped to take "some of the stigma off that illness".


title: House (TV series)

text: Nettwerk released the "House M.D. Original Television Soundtrack" album on September 18, 2007. The soundtrack includes full length versions of songs featured in "House" and previously unreleased songs especially recorded for the series. In 2008, the Spanish game company Exelweiss designed a cellphone game for the show, which was released in both Spanish and English versions.


title: House (TV series)

text: In June 2009, Legacy Interactive announced a licensing agreement with Universal Pictures Digital Platforms Group (UPDPG) to develop a video game based on the series, in which players step into the roles of House's diagnostic team to deal with five unusual medical cases. The game, released in May 2010, included a minigame calling upon the player to "navigate a restaurant-placemat-style maze, in which a giant sandwich must avoid hungry physicians on its way to Dr. House's office." It received an F from "The A.V. Club"; however, Legacy updated the game by August 2010.


title: Isle of Man

text: The Isle of Man ( , also ), also known as Mann (), is a self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea between Great Britain and Ireland. As head of state, Charles III holds the title Lord of Mann and is represented by a Lieutenant Governor. The United Kingdom is responsible for the isle's military defence and represents it abroad.


title: Isle of Man

text: Humans have lived on the island since before 6500 BC. Gaelic cultural influence began in the 5th century AD, when Irish missionaries following the teaching of St. Patrick began settling the island, and the Manx language, a branch of the Goidelic languages, emerged. In 627, King Edwin of Northumbria conquered the Isle of Man along with most of Mercia. In the 9th century, Norsemen established the thalassocratic Kingdom of the Isles, which included the Isle of Man. Magnus III, King of Norway from 1093 to 1103, reigned as King of Mann and the Isles between 1099 and 1103.


title: Isle of Man

text: In 1266, King Magnus VI of Norway sold his suzerainty over Mann to King Alexander III of Scotland under the Treaty of Perth. After a period of alternating rule by the Kings of Scotland and England, the island came under the feudal lordship of the English Crown in 1399. The lordship revested in the British Crown in 1765, but the island did not become part of the 18th-century Kingdom of Great Britain, nor of its successors, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the present-day United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It has always retained its internal self-government. In 1881, the Isle of Man Parliament, Tynwald, became the first national legislative body in the world to give women the right to vote in a general election, although this excluded married women.


title: Isle of Man

text: The Manx economy is bolstered by its status as a tax haven and offshore banking destination. Insurance and online gambling each generate 17% of the GNP, followed by information and communications technology and banking with 9% each. The Government of Mann has laid out a strategy entailing a "whole-Island approach" to address the serious problems of money laundering, financial crime, and terrorism financing. The Council of Europe has determined that Mann is compliant with most Council of Europe financial recommendations, although it recommends further steps be taken to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.


title: Isle of Man

text: Internationally, the Isle of Man is known for the TT Motorcycle Races, and the Manx cat, a breed with short or no tails. In 2016, UNESCO awarded the Isle of Man biosphere reserve status.


title: Isle of Man

text: The Manx name of the Isle of Man is ': ' (), a Manx word meaning "island"; ' () appears in the genitive case as ' (), with initial consonant mutation, hence ', "Island of Mann". The short form used in English is spelled either Mann or Man. The earliest recorded Manx form of the name is ' or "".


title: Isle of Man

text: The Old Irish form of the name is ' or '. Old Welsh records named it as ', also reflected in ', the name for an ancient district in north Britain along the lower Firth of Forth.


title: Isle of Man

text: In the 1st century AD, Pliny the Elder records it as ' or ', and Ptolemy (2nd century) as "Monœda" (, "Monaoida") or ("Monarina"), in Koine Greek.


title: Isle of Man

text: usually derived from a Celtic word for 'mountain' (reflected in Welsh ', Breton ', and Scottish Gaelic ""),


title: Isle of Man

text: The name was at least secondarily associated with that of Manannán mac Lir in Irish mythology (corresponding to Welsh '). In the earliest Irish mythological texts, Manannán is a king of the otherworld, but the 9th-century "Sanas Cormaic" identifies a euhemerised Manannán as "a famous merchant who resided in, and gave name to, the Isle of Man". Later, a Manannán is recorded as the first king of Mann in a Manx poem (dated 1504).


title: Isle of Man

text: The island was cut off from the surrounding islands around 8000 BC as sea levels rose following the end of the ice age. Humans colonised it by travelling by sea some time before 6500 BC. The first occupants were hunter-gatherers and fishermen. Examples of their tools are kept at the Manx Museum.


title: Isle of Man

text: The Neolithic Period marked the beginning of farming, and the people began to build megalithic monuments, such as Cashtal yn Ard near Maughold, King Orry's Grave at Laxey, Mull Hill near Cregneash, and Ballaharra Stones at St John's. There were also the local Ronaldsway and Bann cultures.


title: Isle of Man

text: During the Bronze Age, the size of burial mounds decreased. The people put bodies into stone-lined graves with ornamental containers. The Bronze Age burial mounds survived as long-lasting markers around the countryside.


title: Isle of Man

text: The ancient Romans knew of the island and called it "." During the four centuries when Rome ruled the Province of Britannia, the Roman military controlled the Irish Sea, providing safe passage of agricultural goods from the productive farms of Anglesey to Roman settlements at the English – Scottish frontier. Only a few Roman artifacts have been found on Mann, suggesting a lack of strategic value of Mann during the era of Britannia. No Roman lighthouses or signal towers have yet been found on Mann.


title: Isle of Man

text: Around the 5th century AD, large-scale migration from Ireland precipitated a process of Gaelicisation, evidenced by Ogham inscriptions, and the Manx language developed. It is a Goidelic language closely related to Irish and Scottish Gaelic.


title: Isle of Man

text: In the 7th century, Mann came under Anglo-Saxon control, specifically King Edwin of Northumbria, from which he launched raids into Ireland. How much influence the Northumbrians exerted on Mann is unknown, but very few place names on Mann are of Old English origin.


title: Isle of Man

text: Vikings arrived at the end of the 8th century. They established Tynwald and introduced many land divisions that still exist. In 1266 King Magnus VI of Norway ceded the islands to Alexander III, King of Scots, in the Treaty of Perth. But Scottish rule over Mann did not become firmly established until 1275, when the Manx were defeated in the Battle of Ronaldsway, near Castletown.


title: Isle of Man

text: In 1290 King Edward I of England sent Walter de Huntercombe to take possession of Mann. It remained in English hands until 1313, when Robert I, King of Scots, took it after besieging Castle Rushen for five weeks. In 1314, it was retaken for the English by John Bacach of Argyll. In 1317, it was retaken for the Scots by Thomas Randolph, 1st Earl of Moray and Lord of the Isle of Man. It was held by the Scots until 1333. For some years thereafter control passed back and forth between the two kingdoms until the English took it for the final time in 1346. The English Crown delegated its rule of the island to a series of lords and magnates. Tynwald passed laws concerning the government of the island in all respects and had control over its finances, but was subject to the approval of the Lord of Mann.


title: Isle of Man

text: In 1866, the Isle of Man obtained limited home rule, with partly democratic elections to the House of Keys, but the Legislative Council was appointed by the Crown. Since then, democratic government has been gradually extended.


title: Isle of Man

text: The Isle of Man is an island located in the middle of the northern Irish Sea, almost equidistant from England to the east, Northern Ireland to the west, and Scotland (closest) to the north; while Wales to the south is almost the distance of the Republic of Ireland to the southwest. It is long and, at its widest point, wide. It has an area of around . Besides the island of Mann itself, the political unit of the Isle of Man includes some nearby small islands: the seasonally inhabited Calf of Man, Chicken Rock (on which stands an unstaffed lighthouse), St Patrick's Isle and St Michael's Isle. The last two of these are connected to the main island by permanent roads/causeways.


title: Isle of Man

text: Ranges of hills in the north and south are separated by a central valley. The northern plain, by contrast, is relatively flat, consisting mainly of deposits from glacial advances from western Scotland during colder times. There are more recently deposited shingle beaches at the northernmost point, the Point of Ayre. The island has one mountain higher than , Snaefell, with a height of . According to an old saying, from the summit one can see six kingdoms: those of Mann, Scotland, England, Ireland, Wales, and Heaven. Some versions add a seventh kingdom, that of the sea, or Neptune.


title: Isle of Man

text: At the 2021 census, the Isle of Man was home to 84,069 people, of whom 26,677 resided in the island's capital, Douglas. The population increased by 755 persons between the 2016 and 2021 censuses.


title: Isle of Man

text: The Isle of Man Full Census, last held in 2021, has been a decennial occurrence since 1821, with interim censuses being introduced from 1966. It is separate from, but similar to, the Census in the United Kingdom.


title: Isle of Man

text: The United Kingdom is responsible for the island's defence and ultimately for good governance, and for representing the island in international forums, while the island's own parliament and government have competence over all domestic matters.


title: Isle of Man

text: The island's parliament, Tynwald, is claimed to have been in continuous existence since 979 or earlier, purportedly making it the oldest continuously governing body in the world, though evidence supports a much later date. Tynwald is a bicameral or tricameral legislature, comprising the House of Keys (directly elected by universal suffrage with a voting age of 16 years) and the Legislative Council (consisting of indirectly elected and ex-officio members). These two bodies also meet together in joint session as Tynwald Court.


title: Isle of Man

text: The executive branch of government is the Council of Ministers, which is composed of Members of Tynwald (usually Members of the House of Keys, though Members of the Legislative Council may also be appointed as Ministers). It is headed by the Chief Minister.


title: Isle of Man

text: In various laws of the United Kingdom, "the United Kingdom" is defined to exclude the Isle of Man. Historically, the UK has taken care of its external and defence affairs, and retains paramount power to legislate for the Island. However, in 2007, the Isle of Man and the UK signed an agreement that established frameworks for the development of the international identity of the Isle of Man. There is no separate Manx citizenship. Citizenship is covered by UK law, and Manx people are classed as British citizens. There is a long history of relations and cultural exchange between the Isle of Man and Ireland. The Isle of Man's historic Manx language (and its modern revived variant) are closely related to both Scottish Gaelic and the Irish language, and in 1947, Irish Taoiseach Éamon de Valera spearheaded efforts to save the dying Manx language.


title: Isle of Man

text: The Isle of Man is not part of the United Kingdom; however, the UK takes care of its external and defence affairs. There are no independent military forces on the Isle of Man, although HMS "Ramsey" is affiliated with the town of the same name. From 1938 to 1955 there was the Manx Regiment of the British Territorial Army, which saw extensive action during the Second World War. During the English Civil War the 7th Earl of Derby and Lord of Mann James Stanley conscripted 10 men from each parish (170 in total) to fight for the Royalist cause; the majority were killed at the Battle of Wigan Lane in 1651. In 1779, the Manx Fencible Corps, a fencible regiment of three companies, was raised; it was disbanded in 1783 at the end of the American War of Independence. Later, the Royal Manx Fencibles was raised at the time of the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars. The 1st Battalion (of 3 companies) was raised in 1793. A 2nd Battalion (of 10 companies) was raised in 1795, and it saw action during the Irish Rebellion of 1798. The regiment was disbanded in 1802. A third body of Manx Fencibles was raised in 1803 to defend the island during the Napoleonic Wars and to assist the Revenue. It was disbanded in 1811. The Isle of Man Home Guard was raised during the Second World War for home defence. In 2015 a multi-capability recruiting and training unit of the British Army Reserve was established in Douglas.


title: Isle of Man

text: There is no citizenship of the Isle of Man as such; Isle of Man residents are entitled to British citizenship and can obtain a full UK British passport or British Isle of Man passport.


title: Isle of Man

text: The Passport Office, Isle of Man, Douglas, accepts and processes applications for the Lieutenant Governor of the Isle of Man, who is formally responsible for issuing Isle of Man–issued British passports, titled ""British Islands – Isle of Man". The powers conferred on the UK Secretary of State by the British Nationality Act 1981 extend to and are exercised in the Isle of Man by the Lieutenant Governor.


title: Isle of Man

text: Isle of Man-issued British passports can presently be issued to any British citizen resident in the Isle of Man, and also to British citizens who have a qualifying close personal connection to the Isle of Man, but are now resident either in the UK or in either one of the two other Crown Dependencies.


title: Isle of Man

text: The Isle of Man was never part of the European Union, nor did it have a special status, and thus it did not take part in the 2016 referendum on the UK's EU membership. However, Protocol 3 of the UK's Act of Accession to the Treaty of Rome included the Isle of Man within the EU's customs area, allowing for trade in Manx goods without tariffs throughout the EU. As it was not part of the EU's internal market, there are still limitations on the movement of capital, services and labour.


title: Isle of Man

text: EU citizens were entitled to travel and reside, but not work, in the island without restriction. British citizens with Manxman status were under the same circumstances and restrictions as any other non-EU European relating country to work in the EU.


title: Isle of Man

text: The political and diplomatic impacts of Brexit on the island are still uncertain. The UK confirmed that the Crown Dependencies' positions were included in the Brexit negotiations. The Brexit withdrawal agreement explicitly included the Isle of Man in its territorial scope, but makes no other mention of it. The island's government website stated that after the end of the implementation period, the Isle of Man's relationship with the EU would depend on the agreement reached between the UK and the EU on their future relationship.


title: Isle of Man

text: The Isle of Man is not a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. By virtue of its relationship with the United Kingdom, it takes part in several Commonwealth institutions, including the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and the Commonwealth Games. The Government of the Isle of Man has made calls for a more integrated relationship with the Commonwealth, including more direct representation and enhanced participation in Commonwealth organisations and meetings, including Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings. The Chief Minister of the Isle of Man has said: "A closer connection with the Commonwealth itself would be a welcome further development of the island's international relationships."


title: Isle of Man

text: Most Manx politicians stand for election as independents rather than as representatives of political parties. Although political parties do exist, their influence is not nearly as strong as in the United Kingdom.


title: Isle of Man

text: There are also a number of pressure groups on the island. Mec Vannin advocate the establishment of a sovereign republic. The Positive Action Group campaign for three key elements to be introduced into the governance of the island: open accountable government, rigorous control of public finances, and a fairer society.


title: Isle of Man

text: Local government on the Isle of Man is based partly on the island's 17 ancient parishes. There are four types of local authorities:


title: Isle of Man

text: The Isle of Man was the last place in the British Isles to legalise same-sex sexual activity. While it had been legal in England since 1967, it remained illegal in the Isle of Man until 1992.


title: Isle of Man

text: The Isle of Man's Chief Minister Howard Quayle has issued an "unqualified apology" to gay men convicted of same-sex offences under previous Manx laws.


title: Isle of Man

text: Public education is overseen by the Department of Education, Sport & Culture. Thirty-two primary schools, five secondary schools and the University College Isle of Man function under the department.


title: Isle of Man

text: Two-thirds of residents of Mann are overweight or obese, four in ten are physically inactive, one-quarter are binge drinkers, one in twelve smoke cigarettes, and about 15% are in poor general health. Healthcare is provided via a public health scheme by Department of Health and Social Care for residents and visitors from the UK.


title: Isle of Man

text: The Crime Severity Rate in Mann, which largely measures crimes directed against persons or property, remains substantially less than that in the rest of the United Kingdom, although the rate of violent crime has been increasing in recent years. Most violent crime is associated with the trade in illegal drugs.


title: Isle of Man

text: The Government of Mann has laid out a strategy entailing a "whole-Island approach" to address the serious problems of money laundering, financial crime, and terrorism financing.


title: Isle of Man

text: All of these services are controlled directly by the Department of Home Affairs of the Isle of Man Government, and are independent of the United Kingdom. Nonetheless, the Isle of Man Constabulary voluntarily submits to inspection by the British inspectorate of police, and the Isle of Man Coastguard contracts His Majesty's Coastguard (UK) for air-sea rescue operations.


title: Isle of Man

text: The island's sole crematorium is located in Glencrutchery Road, Douglas, and is operated by the Douglas Borough Council. Usually staffed by four, in March 2020 an increase of staff to 12 was announced by the Council leader, responding to the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic, which could require more staff.


title: Isle of Man

text: The Isle of Man has no capital gains tax, wealth tax, stamp duty, or inheritance tax and a top rate of income tax of 20%. A tax cap is in force: the maximum amount of tax payable by an individual is £200,000 or £400,000 for couples choosing to have their incomes jointly assessed. Personal income is assessed and taxed on a worldwide income basis rather than a remittance basis. This means that all income earned throughout the world is assessable for Manx tax rather than only income earned in or brought into the island. The standard rate of corporation tax for residents and non-residents is 0%. Retail business profits above £500,000 and banking business income are taxed at 10%, and rental (or other) income from land and buildings situated on the Isle of Man is taxed at 20%.


title: Isle of Man

text: Mann's low corporate tax burden and absence of public registries of corporate ownership provides tax avoidance and tax evasion strategies for individuals and corporations, resulting in a large influx of funds from those in pursuit of tax advantage and financial confidentiality. The relative importance of agriculture, fishing and tourism, the former mainstays of the Manx economy, has accordingly declined. As is typical of the low-tax crown dependencies, Mann's economy features financial services, shell corporations for high-technology companies, online gambling and online gaming, cinema production, and tax havens for high net worth individuals. These activities have brought some high-income jobs to Mann, as hundreds of local residents serve as “straw man" directors and shareholders of shell companies. Similar schemes provide a means for high net worth individuals to reduce their tax obligations and to shield their financial dealings from public scrutiny. As described in the Paradise Papers, the Isle of Man economy features extensive illegal economic activity including tax evasion, money laundering from drug sales, money transfers from weapons sales, and looting of public treasuries of other nation states (particularly Russia) These funds are mostly funneled into the London financial markets. There has been an effort to regulate these activities, though the impact of legal measures instituted by the Isle of Man government remains uncertain. Online gambling sites provided about 10% of the Mann government's revenue in 2014.


title: Isle of Man

text: The Isle of Man Department for Enterprise manages the diversified economy in 12 key sectors. The largest sectors by GNP are insurance and eGambling with 17% of GNP each, followed by ICT and banking with 9% each. The 2016 census lists 41,636 total employed. The largest sectors by employment are "medical and health", "financial and business services", construction, retail and public administration. Manufacturing, focused on aerospace and the food and drink industry, employs almost 2000 workers and contributes about 5% of gross domestic product (GDP). The sector provides laser optics, industrial diamonds, electronics, plastics and aerospace precision engineering. Tourism, agriculture, and fishing, once the mainstays of the economy, now make very little contributions to the island's GDP. The unemployment rate on Man is less than 1%.


title: Isle of Man

text: Trade takes place mostly with the United Kingdom. The island is in customs union with the UK, and related revenues are pooled and shared under the Common Purse Agreement. This means that the Isle of Man cannot have the lower excise revenues on alcohol and other goods that are enjoyed in the Channel Islands.


title: Isle of Man

text: The Manx government promotes island locations for making films by offering financial support. Since 1995, over 100 films have been made on the island. Most recently the island has taken a much wider strategy to attract the general digital media industry in film, television, video and esports.


title: Isle of Man

text: The Isle of Man Government Lottery operated from 1986 to 1997. Since 2 December 1999 the island has participated in the United Kingdom National Lottery. The island is the only jurisdiction outside the United Kingdom where it is possible to play the UK National Lottery. Since 2010 it has also been possible for projects in the Isle of Man to receive national lottery Good Causes Funding. The good causes funding is distributed by the Manx Lottery Trust. Tynwald receives the 12% lottery duty for tickets sold in the island.


title: Isle of Man

text: Tourist numbers peaked in the first half of the 20th century, prior to the boom in cheap travel to Southern Europe that also saw the decline of tourism in many similar English seaside resorts. The Isle of Man tourism board has recently invested in "Dark Sky Discovery" sites to diversify its tourism industry. It is expected that dark skies will generally be nominated by the public across the UK. However, the Isle of Man tourism board tasked someone from their team to nominate 27 places on the island as a civil task. This cluster of the highest quality "Milky Way" sites is now well promoted within the island. This government push has effectively given the island a headstart in the number of recognised Dark Sky sites. However, this has created a distorted view when compared to the UK where this is not promoted on a national scale. There, Dark Sky sites are expected to be nominated over time by the public across a full range of town, city and countryside locations rather than "en masse" by government departments.


title: Isle of Man

text: In 2017 an office of The International Stock Exchange was opened to provide a boost for the island's finance industry.


title: Isle of Man

text: The main telephone provider on the Isle of Man is Manx Telecom. The island has two mobile operators: Manx Telecom, previously known as Manx Pronto, and Sure. Cloud9 operated as a third mobile operator on the island for a short time, but has since withdrawn.


title: Isle of Man

text: Broadband internet services are available through four local providers: Wi-Manx, Domicilium, Manx Computer Bureau and Manx Telecom. The island does not have its own ITU country code, but is accessed via the British country code (+44), and the island's telephone numbers are part of the British telephone numbering plan, with local dialling codes 01624 for landlines and 07524, 07624 and 07924 for mobiles. Calls to the island from the UK however, are generally charged differently from those within the UK, and may or may not be included in any "inclusive minutes" packages.


title: Isle of Man

text: In 1996, the Isle of Man Government obtained permission to use the .im national top-level domain (TLD), and has ultimate responsibility for its use. The main is managed from day to day by Domicilium, an island-based internet service provider. In December 2007, the Manx Electricity Authority and its telecommunications subsidiary, e-llan Communications, commissioned the laying of a new fibre-optic link that connects the island to a worldwide fibre-optic network. In August 2021 it was reported that Elon Musk's satellite internet service, Starlink, had been granted a licence to operate from a ground station on the island.


title: Isle of Man

text: There is no insular television service, but local transmitters retransmit British mainland digital broadcasts via the free-to-air digital terrestrial service Freeview. The Isle of Man is served by BBC North West for BBC One and BBC Two television services, and ITV Granada for ITV.


title: Isle of Man

text: Many television services are available by satellite, such as Sky, and Freesat from the group of satellites at 28.2° East, as well as services from a range of other satellites around Europe such as the Astra satellites at 19.2° east and Hot Bird.


title: Isle of Man

text: The Isle of Man has three newspapers, all weeklies, and all owned by Isle of Man Newspapers, a division of the Edinburgh media company Johnston Press. The "Isle of Man Courier" (distribution 36,318) is free and distributed to homes on the island. The other two newspapers are "Isle of Man Examiner" (circulation 13,276) and the "Manx Independent" (circulation 12,255).


title: Isle of Man

text: Postal services are the responsibility of the Isle of Man Post Office, which took over from the UK's General Post Office in 1973.


title: Isle of Man

text: The Isle of Man Sea Terminal in Douglas has regular ferries to and from Heysham and to and from Liverpool, with a more restricted timetable operating in winter. The two vessels are "Manannan" and "Ben My Chree". The latter is due to be replaced with a new vessel arriving in 2022 made by Hyundai; it was named "Manxman" by the public in mid 2020. There are also limited summer-only services to and from Belfast and Dublin. The Dublin route also operates at Christmas. At the time of the Isle of Man TT a limited number of sailings operate to and from Larne in Northern Ireland. All ferries are operated by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company.


title: Isle of Man

text: The only commercial airport on the island is the Isle of Man Airport at Ronaldsway. There are direct scheduled and chartered flights to numerous airports in the United Kingdom and Ireland.


title: Isle of Man

text: The island has a total of of public roads, all of which are paved. There is no overriding national speed limit; only local speed limits are set, and some roads have no speed limit. Rules about reckless driving and most other driving regulations are enforced in a similar way to the UK. There is a requirement for regular vehicle examinations for some vehicles (similar to the MoT test in the UK).


title: Isle of Man

text: The island used to have an extensive narrow-gauge railway system, both steam-operated and electric, but the majority of the steam railway tracks were taken out of service many years ago, and the track removed. , there is a steam railway between Douglas and Port Erin, an electric railway between Douglas and Ramsey and an electric mountain railway which climbs Snaefell.


title: Isle of Man

text: One of the oldest operating horse tram services is located on the sea front in the capital, Douglas. It was founded in 1876.