Critically acclaimed medical drama House, M.D. ran for eight seasons on FOX, from 2004 to 2012. It starred Hugh Laurie (Avenue 5, Veep) as a disagreeable but brilliant diagnostic specialist named Dr. Gregory House, who was inspired by famous detective Sherlock Holmes.
Many fans appreciated it as a more intellectual alternative to more soapy medical dramas like Grey’s Anatomy and ER. But, however smart the House, M.D. writers room was, the show still made the occasional mistake. Casual viewers may not have registered the errors on first watch, but that’s what the internet’s for.
So, without further ado, here are 10 mistakes you probably didn’t notice in House, M.D.
Eric Foreman’s Criminal Past
One of the few doctors to remain a series regular for all eight seasons, Dr. Eric Foreman was portrayed by Omar Epps (Shooter), and often clashed with his boss, Dr. House. Dr. Foreman, like most of his colleagues, was resistant to House’s tendency to snoop in his underlings’ past.
Foreman may have been especially sensitive to snooping because his past included a degree of criminal activity. For instance, as a teenager, Foreman stole a car with his brother Marcus. But the show contradicts itself when it comes to how old Foreman was when this incident occurred. In season 1, it’s claimed that Foreman was 16; in season 6’s twelfth episode, Marcus says his brother was 14.
Missing The Missing Uterus
On season 2 episode 13, “Skin Deep,” House treats a teenage model who he eventually learns has a condition called complete androgen insensitivity syndrome (CAIS), which makes her appear outwardly as a woman, though she has male genitalia hidden inside her body, where her reproductive system should be.
However, when House’s best friend, oncologist Dr. James Wilson, performs an ultrasound to check for cancer in the patient’s ovaries, he fails to notice that she’s missing a uterus. Though it’s possible he mistook her bladder for a uterus, it seems unlikely, since that would mean she was missing a bladder.
Patient’s Car Break-In Mistake
On season 4 episode 5, “Mirror, Mirror,” House treats a man incapable of manifesting his own personality, who automatically mirrors the behavior and personality of the most dominant person in the room. The patient is brought in without any identifying documents, and in order to find out who he is, House sends Dr. Remy “Thirteen” Hadley, played by Olivia Wilde, to find his car.
Thirteen uses the man’s keys to attempt to track down his vehicle on the street where the ambulance found him, but has no luck, as none of the cars respond. However, a few short scenes later, she calls House to inform him that the car has been towed. Something she couldn’t possibly know, as the keys were her only way of identifying it.
Chase’s (Schrödinger’s) Cat
Australian heartthrob Dr. Robert Chase was portrayed Jesse Spencer, who went on to star in the hit NBC drama Chicago Fire. Throughout the show, fans are given many interesting tidbits about Chase’s character, including that he once attended seminary before going to medical school, but was kicked out for sleeping with the groundskeeper’s wife.
One thing about Chase remains unclear. He often says he hates cats and would never own one, even going so far as to not let his girlfriend, Dr. Cameron, buy one. However, in season 5 episode 22, Dr. Amber Volakis states that Chase does, indeed, own a cat. Truth be told, people change.
LAPD Operating In New Jersey
On season 3 episode 5, “Fools for Love,” House treats guest star Jurnee Smollett-Bell (Birds of Prey), who comes into Princeton-Plainsboro with trouble breathing. At the very end of the episode, House gets pulled over on his motorcycle by a police officer, who happens to be the clinic patient that House antagonized earlier in the episode.
The police officer remembers seeing House taking pills earlier, and makes up a reason to search him. He finds House’s Vicodin and arrests him for possession of narcotics. But this arrest should be null and void, because the cop flashes an LAPD badge when he pulls House over, and they’re in New Jersey.
The Hospital’s Ghost Floors
Since he’s such a hotshot diagnostician, House’s offices are on the top floor of Princeton-Plainsboro Hospital. Multiple sources seem to agree that the hospital is only four stories. For instance, when calling the elevator on the fourth floor, there’s only ever a down button, and the directory that appears next to the elevator in the lobby lists the fourth floor as the top.
Inside the elevator, however, it’s a different story. There are buttons for not just four floors, but seven. This begs the question: What do these three ghost floors contain? What wonders are fans not privy to? What goes on in the fantasy realm of floors five, six, and seven?
Pilot Operating Procedure
On season 3 episode 18, “Airborne,” House and his love interest Dr. Lisa Cuddy must deal with an outbreak of a mystery disease on board a transpolar flight from New York to Singapore. Setting aside the fact that there was no such thing as a flight from New York to Singapore at the time that the episode aired, let alone a transpolar one, this episode contains a pretty big error.
It has to do with the pilots. Originally, when Cuddy and House are working from the theory that the outbreak could be food-related, they investigate what meals the pilots ate, and discover that they all had the rib-eye steak. However, airline procedure dictates pilots never eat the same meal, in case of food poisoning.
House’s Broken Fingers
On the 13th episode of season 1, “Detox,” House tries to prove that he’s not addicted to Vicodin by betting Cuddy that if he goes a week without it, he can have a month without clinic duty. Throughout the episode, House’s condition gets worse and worse, to the point that his team begins to question whether he should even be treating patients, without his meds.
This episode’s big goof comes when House breaks his fingers. He gets his friend Dr. Wilson to tape them up, confirming that they’re broken, but later, he seems to have full use of his hand again, when he does an autopsy on a dead cat.
Chase’s Changing Age
Chase’s stance on felines isn’t the only thing that changes about him over the course of the show. On season 1 episode 13, Chase is revealed to be 26 years old, which is fairly young for a doctor. But in season 2, he says that his parents died when he was 15, an event he claims took place 15 years ago, which would make him 30.
Given Chase’s vanity and womanizing tendencies, it’s possible the doctor lied about his age. And certainly, anyone who’s seen season 1 of House, M.D. wouldn’t blame him for aging 4 years in 1, not after everything that House puts his underlings through. This mystery will remain unsolved.
House’s Hatred (Love?) Of Tea
In season 5, episode 2, “Not Cancer,” House and his team must get to the bottom of a string of deaths all related to a single organ donor, before the last two organ recipients die of the same ailment. They eventually discover that the organ donor had cancerous stem cells, which were then transmitted via their organs to all of the recipients, giving them the same cancer.
Admittedly, the accidental transmission of cancer is this episode’s biggest mix-up. But, the writers have their own mix-up to answer for: twice in this episode, House asks a nurse to get him peppermint tea. However, in the episode “Resignation” (season 3 episode 22), he says that he hates tea.
