I’m not sure if Dr. House is actually an anti-hero, given that, even with his terribly irascible manner, he still manages to save the day far more often that not. Still, he’s a drug addict with a nasty temper who makes decisions based less on a will-the-patient-live-or-die mindset and more of a I-just-want-to-know-if-I’m-right mindset, and that’s not exactly the kind of guy who find yourself rooting for, per se. In fact, it’s a minor miracle that it took a full three seasons for his team of doctors to abandon him out of sheer frustration with his methods.

As the show enters its fourth season with a few Emmy nominations in hand, it sounds as though things are going to continue to go great guns. At the very least, it looks like everyone’s back in tow to some extent: although their characters had all tendered their resignations by the end of Season 3, Omar Epps, Jennifer Morrison, and Jesse Spencer were all on the panel.

Producer Katie Jacobs admitted, “We struggled with how to sort of do exactly this. The truth is, everybody is back eventually, and everybody is back having changed and in different capacities. And, you know, it’s also sort of organic, so we only know where it’s going to a point. For us, for me, it’s the most exciting season we’ve started off so far because it feels very organic. You know, the last two seasons we’ve done an arc — season 2, season 3 we started out with arcs that involved other characters as a way to explore more deeply House’s character. But I think that their three-year fellowship, and all in different ways, has sort of naturally come to an end.

“In the first episode,” she explains, “House is alone, and House is trying to solve cases by himself. Of course, Cuddy is pissed and Wilson thinks he’s losing his mind. And Cuddy will insist that he hire a new team…but he will do it in a very House-ian way. Over the first bunch of episodes. he’s going to call in all the candidates, all the resumes on his desk — 40, I think it is, a large number — and we’re going to see who survives. We’re going to play a ‘House’ version of “Survivor” and see what candidates really will make the best part of House’s team. And House is going to give all the candidates numbers; because he can’t remember their names, they’re actually going to wear running numbers!”

Meanwhile, the trio of actors formerly known as House’s team remained pleased to be on the show, even if they really have no idea where they stand at the moment.

Morrison says that they found out about their characters shuffling off the show when “they told us all that they wanted to talk to us over lunch one day, which does feel a little bit like being called into the principal’s office. But they were fantastic and let us know what they were planning on doing.

Spencer corrected her. “Well, they didn’t actually know, though, did they? Well, I mean, they told us that we were coming back, but they didn’t know at that time in what capacity we were actually going to come back. And we are still not entirely sure. (But) we know we are back.”

Jacobs hinted, however, that just because we see them doesn’t mean they’re actually there. “(House) thinks he sees them. And Wilson is saying, ‘You know, you’re just feeling guilty, and you’re out of your mind.’ And Chase is working in Arizona in a hospital and Cameron’s with him. And Foreman is at Mercy Hospital running his own diagnostic
department. And we have fun with that as well. I definitely don’t mean to be coy, but I don’t want to spoil it for you entirely.”

As far as the relationship between House and Cuddy, and whether it’ll develop into anything more than friendship, a frustrated Lisa Edelstein admitted that “they don’t tell me anything, and it’s very frustrating! They don’t want us to get attached. They don’t want to say, hey, you are going to have a beautiful make-out scene, and then it goes away. And I’m, like, where’s the make-out scene? I’ve been practicing!” (For her part, Jacobs conceded, “I may commit to a beautiful make-out scene for Cuddy.”)

Similarly, Hugh Laurie couldn’t offer any insight as to how his character’s ongoing Vicodin addiction will play out. “That, I’m afraid, I can’t answer,” he apologized, “only because I am in the dark. We are only halfway through our second show, and so I already read the first three scripts of this season. So how that plays out, I’m not absolutely sure. I will say, however, that the first three scripts that I read of this season are not only three of the best ‘House’ scripts I’ve ever read. They’re three of the best scripts I’ve ever read. It’s that simple. I have never come across anything quite like this. It may be that in the execution of it, we’ll make a dreadful hash of it and you’ll go, ‘Well, I don’t see what the fuss was about. That was a terrible piece of television.’ But purely as scripts, I find them absolutely phenomenal. I’ve never read anything that so ambitiously tries to mix broad comedy and gut-wrenching tragedy and philosophical musings and bizarre literary references all in the space of five seconds. The speed with which it jumps from tone to tone is quite phenomenally ambitious.”

After a beat, Laurie added with a laugh, “It may be too ambitious.”

In closing, I must make mention of the question I asked as much for my own amusement as anything, about Stephen Fry recently popping up elsewhere on the network’s schedule. I addressed Mr. Laurie and said, “When a former collaborator of yours turned up in a recurring role on ‘Bones,’ were you fearing an ad campaign saying, ‘Fry and Laurie: together again on FOX’”?

He grinned and admitted, “Well, it was an absolutely fantastic experience, actually, for both of us, after 20-odd years of working together, to wind up 8,000 miles away from where we started, in two trailers that were only 50 yards apart. It was a very peculiar thing and a very enjoyable thing. And, yes, we looked back at some happy days and did actually talk about it, as we always do, in a very vague kind of way, we talk about reconvening and carrying on where we left off. But I don’t know in what form. But I hope one day we will. Possibly on a stage, actually. That’s our next thought.”

Oh, I’m such a geek about British comedy. When he said that, I totally got chills.