House (also known as House, M.D.) is an American television medical drama that originally ran on the Fox network from November 16, 2004, to May 21, 2012. The show's central character is Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie), an unconventional and misanthropic medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital (PPTH) in New Jersey. The show's premise originated with Paul Attanasio, while David Shore, who is credited as creator, was primarily responsible for the conception of the title character. The show's executive producers include Shore, Attanasio, Attanasio's business partner Katie Jacobs, and film director Bryan Singer. It was largely filmed in Century City.

Gregory House, M.D., (often simply referred to as House) is the title character and an antihero of the American television series House, played by Hugh Laurie. House is the Chief of Diagnostic Medicine at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in New Jersey, where he leads a team of diagnosticians. House's character has been described as a misanthrope, cynic, narcissist and curmudgeon. He is the only character to appear in all 177 episodes. The season 6 premiere is the only episode in which House is the only regular character to appear, besides Wilson (briefly).

In the series, the character's unorthodox diagnostic approaches, radical therapeutic motives, and stalwart rationality have resulted in much conflict between him and his colleagues. House is also often portrayed as lacking sympathy for his patients and having a practice allowing him the time to solve pathological enigmas. The character is partly inspired by Sherlock Holmes. A portion of the show's plot centers on House's habitual use of Vicodin to manage pain stemming from a leg infarction involving his quadriceps muscle some years earlier, an injury that forces him to walk with a cane. This addiction is also one of the many parallels to Holmes, who was a habitual user of cocaine and opium.