MONDO EXTRAS

SM: Wow, so they are unique.

GL: They are unique, they're a bit heavier than the original tennis ball. This one doesn't quite bounce as well, which I think has made it very difficult on Dr. House to bounce when he's thinking. It doesn't quite have the loft anymore that it once had.

SM: As long as he can keep doing the lacrosse moves with it, I'm happy.

GL: And that is all Hugh Laurie. He comes up with a lot on the set. All of House's mannerisms and the stuff he does with the cane and the ball. There was an episode where he had set up CD cases all around his desk and played, like, dominoes with them.

SM: Oh, yeah.

GL: That was Hugh's idea. He really channels his character and comes up with fantastic things. He juggles and delivers lines of dialogue that, you know, I don't know how he gets out of his mouth while doing an accent and holding a cane. It's pretty amazing to watch him work.

SM: How much does Fox lean on you to make your lead character a more likable guy or try to cash in on his sex appeal?

GL: They really actually have been fantastic about not giving the expected network notes. When you center a show on a central character, you're gonna want to make him nicer, you know, they never gave that. They have supported us from the beginning. David [Shore] said -- I was not with the show Season 1, I just came on Season 2 -- that Fox has been fantastic from the beginning, and then since I've been there, I haven't seen anything. The network notes are always just about the story; clarifying, making sure the points we're trying to make are completely clear and never ever pushing us in a direction that we don't wanna go, so we've been really lucky that way.