—References to "General Hospital"
Maternity
GH notes on Maternity! Hot off the press!
We come back from the credits to find our favourite Doctor eating lemon jello in the OB/GYN lounge. He is walking past a lovely flat screen television mounted to the wall. It is playing the lamest fake General Hospital scene known to man.
Really, the only notable thing about it is that the "doctor" is a ringer for Chase. LOL
As House goes by the television, the fake soap characters blather at each other.
Patient in Bed: I can't remember anything!
House: [snark] It's amnesia, you idiot. [House crosses the room and plops down in a lounge chair.]
The diagnosis is funny on several levels. First of all, leave it to House to instinctively diagnose something on a television show. Fiction, House. It's fiction.
Of course so are you but that's a topic for someone else's blog.
Second, amnesia is one of the most cliche soap Convenient Plot Devices ("CPD"). There's trusty old amnesia, unknown twins who turn up at the most inopportune moments and the classic Who's the Daddy; known in all the correct circles as "WTD".
Why, even General Hospital had an amnesiac twin (two CPDs for one!) plotline this past year. I'll get that Cassedine and Spencer Crib Sheet up as soon as I write it...but just understand for now that there is this eeeeeeeeevil family who are fabulously wealthy and live on an island in the harbour. The family is the Cassedines and the mansion is called Wyndemere. (Your spelling may vary.)
The original Cassedines (from Greece) were royalty in more ways than the standard. Yes, in the fiction they are royalty but they were played by actors of the same calibre. Helena was portrayed by Elizabeth Taylor. That Elizabeth Taylor. Her husband, Mykos, was played by John Colicos.
For those who don't know who John Colicos is run to your video store and rent the original Star Trek series. He was one of the original Klingons. He was a fantastic actor.
Next, go rent the original Battlestar Galactica. He played Dr. Baltar.
For those of you who don't know who Baltar is.....shame on you. Aside from "House", BSG is the best show currently on television. Get thee to a store and rent the original and then start watching this one. They are different but I love them both.
Okay, back to GH. So, Helena and Mykos are eeeeeevil and have all sorts of nefarious plots to rule the world, et-bloody-cetera, but they also have a regular brood of family members. These family members run the gamut from nice to eeeeeevil but not a one of them is very redeemable.
One such child is Nikolas, the Boy Prince. He was raised by his Uncle Stefan (thinking all along this was his father, rather than the UberEeeeevil Stavros) and is accomplished at everything. He rides horses, he speaks 10 languages and reads in Latin. He's poised and he even knows which fork to eat with.
ANYway, just this past year, Nikolas was convicted for pushing Helena off a cliff on the island and sent to jail.
During which time, his TWIN (not genetic) deserts from the Marines in Iraq, wends his way home to Port Charles (hummenah? Small world, huh?) and finds his wife...all the while Nikolas has gotten out of jail...only to be hit in a car crash and lose his memory. So, for a good long time (*yawn*), Mary, the lunatic wife, convinces Nikolas that he's really her "dead" husband.
Nikolas' memories and training are too ingrained, though, and he starts to wonder how he could know what he knows and still be a dishonourable jarhead carpenter married to this simp.
Am I digressing?
I seem to be.
I'm just saying that amnesia is a staple soap opera CPD, like twins, and GH used both on the same guy just this past year. (They are in the middle of yet another WTD at this very moment.)
So.
House gets up and leaves the scene (moving pretty spryly, all things considered) as soon as he hears something less easily diagnosed in a conversation between two OB/GYN doctors behind him.
I have to digress again.
Only to say that this is positively my favourite Clinic patient in the whole series. Everyone seems to love the poetic syphilis lady but I have to say that the Pregnant-Mono Girl is a completed riot. Not only is the writing a genuine treat but Laurie and the actress are a scream together. Whoever's idea it was to have the girl be dumber than dirt but be so freakin' sweet is a true genius.
When House leaves her to think about her situation, he gets this angelic grin on his face that reads, "I figured it out! I know what's killing the babies AND I know a way to get a few months of uninterrupted viewing in the OB/GYN Lounge!"
hee
Last bit of GH in Maternity: In the tag, we see House blissing out in the chair he sat in in the teaser and we are treated to yet another bogus shot of General Hospital.
He's cured the Baby Epidemic, discovered not only the disease and cure but also the cause, and has agreed to help Pregnant-Mono Girl through her pregnancy...thereby earning the right to stay in the OB/GYN lounge through March.
As a note, there is no character in GH (yet) named Naomi.
==========================
Question for the Day.
Why does House watch any soap? And why this one in particular?
I think House watches soaps for the same reason he plays with yo-yos, reads junk magazines and lies on the floor listening to his iPod. It's distracting and taboo. For years, soaps have been looked down upon and criticized as the lowest form of theatre. (See rant about that in previous post.) So, just to tweak people's noses, he watches it. And, probably, enjoys it.
As for why GH in particular? Well, I think the obvious answer is that it's set in a hospital. Even though most of it is Mob-tastic, you'd be surprised to discover how many mob hits end up in surgery.
On a deeper level, it may be because TPTB are aware that GH keeps winning all the Daytime Emmys for writing and "Best Show" so they might assume that if House is going to watch any soap, it'll be the one most recognized by the Academy as the best of the bunch.
Of course, WE HOUSE FANS all know that the Emmy Academy and its voters are all crack monkeys.
But I'm not bitter.
We come back from the credits to find our favourite Doctor eating lemon jello in the OB/GYN lounge. He is walking past a lovely flat screen television mounted to the wall. It is playing the lamest fake General Hospital scene known to man.
Really, the only notable thing about it is that the "doctor" is a ringer for Chase. LOL
As House goes by the television, the fake soap characters blather at each other.
Patient in Bed: I can't remember anything!
House: [snark] It's amnesia, you idiot. [House crosses the room and plops down in a lounge chair.]
The diagnosis is funny on several levels. First of all, leave it to House to instinctively diagnose something on a television show. Fiction, House. It's fiction.
Of course so are you but that's a topic for someone else's blog.
Second, amnesia is one of the most cliche soap Convenient Plot Devices ("CPD"). There's trusty old amnesia, unknown twins who turn up at the most inopportune moments and the classic Who's the Daddy; known in all the correct circles as "WTD".
Why, even General Hospital had an amnesiac twin (two CPDs for one!) plotline this past year. I'll get that Cassedine and Spencer Crib Sheet up as soon as I write it...but just understand for now that there is this eeeeeeeeevil family who are fabulously wealthy and live on an island in the harbour. The family is the Cassedines and the mansion is called Wyndemere. (Your spelling may vary.)
The original Cassedines (from Greece) were royalty in more ways than the standard. Yes, in the fiction they are royalty but they were played by actors of the same calibre. Helena was portrayed by Elizabeth Taylor. That Elizabeth Taylor. Her husband, Mykos, was played by John Colicos.
For those who don't know who John Colicos is run to your video store and rent the original Star Trek series. He was one of the original Klingons. He was a fantastic actor.
Next, go rent the original Battlestar Galactica. He played Dr. Baltar.
For those of you who don't know who Baltar is.....shame on you. Aside from "House", BSG is the best show currently on television. Get thee to a store and rent the original and then start watching this one. They are different but I love them both.
Okay, back to GH. So, Helena and Mykos are eeeeeevil and have all sorts of nefarious plots to rule the world, et-bloody-cetera, but they also have a regular brood of family members. These family members run the gamut from nice to eeeeeevil but not a one of them is very redeemable.
One such child is Nikolas, the Boy Prince. He was raised by his Uncle Stefan (thinking all along this was his father, rather than the UberEeeeevil Stavros) and is accomplished at everything. He rides horses, he speaks 10 languages and reads in Latin. He's poised and he even knows which fork to eat with.
ANYway, just this past year, Nikolas was convicted for pushing Helena off a cliff on the island and sent to jail.
During which time, his TWIN (not genetic) deserts from the Marines in Iraq, wends his way home to Port Charles (hummenah? Small world, huh?) and finds his wife...all the while Nikolas has gotten out of jail...only to be hit in a car crash and lose his memory. So, for a good long time (*yawn*), Mary, the lunatic wife, convinces Nikolas that he's really her "dead" husband.
Nikolas' memories and training are too ingrained, though, and he starts to wonder how he could know what he knows and still be a dishonourable jarhead carpenter married to this simp.
Am I digressing?
I seem to be.
I'm just saying that amnesia is a staple soap opera CPD, like twins, and GH used both on the same guy just this past year. (They are in the middle of yet another WTD at this very moment.)
So.
House gets up and leaves the scene (moving pretty spryly, all things considered) as soon as he hears something less easily diagnosed in a conversation between two OB/GYN doctors behind him.
I have to digress again.
Only to say that this is positively my favourite Clinic patient in the whole series. Everyone seems to love the poetic syphilis lady but I have to say that the Pregnant-Mono Girl is a completed riot. Not only is the writing a genuine treat but Laurie and the actress are a scream together. Whoever's idea it was to have the girl be dumber than dirt but be so freakin' sweet is a true genius.
When House leaves her to think about her situation, he gets this angelic grin on his face that reads, "I figured it out! I know what's killing the babies AND I know a way to get a few months of uninterrupted viewing in the OB/GYN Lounge!"
hee
Last bit of GH in Maternity: In the tag, we see House blissing out in the chair he sat in in the teaser and we are treated to yet another bogus shot of General Hospital.
He's cured the Baby Epidemic, discovered not only the disease and cure but also the cause, and has agreed to help Pregnant-Mono Girl through her pregnancy...thereby earning the right to stay in the OB/GYN lounge through March.
As a note, there is no character in GH (yet) named Naomi.
==========================
Question for the Day.
Why does House watch any soap? And why this one in particular?
I think House watches soaps for the same reason he plays with yo-yos, reads junk magazines and lies on the floor listening to his iPod. It's distracting and taboo. For years, soaps have been looked down upon and criticized as the lowest form of theatre. (See rant about that in previous post.) So, just to tweak people's noses, he watches it. And, probably, enjoys it.
As for why GH in particular? Well, I think the obvious answer is that it's set in a hospital. Even though most of it is Mob-tastic, you'd be surprised to discover how many mob hits end up in surgery.
On a deeper level, it may be because TPTB are aware that GH keeps winning all the Daytime Emmys for writing and "Best Show" so they might assume that if House is going to watch any soap, it'll be the one most recognized by the Academy as the best of the bunch.
Of course, WE HOUSE FANS all know that the Emmy Academy and its voters are all crack monkeys.
But I'm not bitter.
posted by Cap at 9:38 AM
1 Comments:
He may also continue to watch GH because in the first episode Cuddy states something along the lines of "Because we're doctors, and when we make mistakes, people die"
later on in the episode, House is watching GH and a doctor character on the show states the same thing.
Perhaps he feels GH is a key to understanding Cuddy?
eh.
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