TV Revivals: Could Hugh Laurie, Fox bring ‘House’ back into the fold?

It has been almost four years now since the end of “House” on Fox, and while we thought that the show would have completely vanished by our consciousness by now, it has not. While it was imperfect over the course of its lengthy run, when it was great it was truly great. Also, Hugh Laurie was outstanding and still today represents one of the great performances in network TV in our mind.

Going into the finale “Everybody Dies,” we certainly expected this to happen to Laurie’s Gregory House. However, that didn’t happen. In an ending that celebrated male friendship perhaps more than almost any finale sense, House faked his own death and took off with Wilson, who was set to potentially die of cancer. We don’t know what has happened to the character, but a part of us really wants to find out. That’s what this chapter in our TV Revivals series is all about!

How it ended – House faked his own death, we saw the return of many familiar faces, and in the very end life went on for people in their rather unusual ways. The ending for the show was intentionally ambiguous, since there are obviously some out there who like to pretend that by some miracle Wilson could still be alive, and House could still be at piece.

How to bring it back – Even if Wilson is gone, there is still a curiosity into seeing what has happened to House in the time since faking his death. You could tell an interesting story about him moving to another country and trying to find his inner peace there, or even him practicing medicine underground since he can no longer operate using his real name. Seeing House deal with other people who are beyond the normal lens of society could make for a very interesting show, to say the least.

Can it actually happen? – Let’s turn to creator David Shore, who said the following on this subject all the way back in 2012 to TVLine:

“I love this character. And I know Hugh loves this character. I keep it open, but the chances of that happening from a practical point of view are slim. I would hate to lock in my head, ‘I will never revisit this character again.’ That would be a depressing idea to me.”

We’ll take Shore’s word for it, even if that was a long time ago. Fox is in the Revival business, but we haven’t heard anything else about it.