I have no clue what a Blue Meanie is, and have never an episode of Marcus Welby and have no idea what the show is about. Then again, I had to have someone explain the Miley Cyrus reference in NMMNG too. I suck. There's been more Wilson, but less of Wilson being a doctor - to the point where I wonder if he still has a job. Maybe that's what the writer meant.

I think the point of this is a year ago such an article would probably not have been written. Now the fan negative reaction is a reasonably legit story (whether or not you agree with it or the reasons for it).

Negative stories about House aren't new. There were plenty of people complaining about the Tritter arc last year, including critics. I suppose in one way it's a sign of success - if the show isn't popular, no one's going to bother complaining it isn't as good as it used to be :)

As Mary Kir says, there was no lack of negative reactions to Tritter, including in the media. Some fans left, most stayed, some came back again.

Negative stories about House aren't new. There were plenty of people complaining about the Tritter arc last year, including critics. And while *less* of the complaining was done by critics (though they still got at least a couple of shots in as well) the Vogler arc and the Stacy arc also had their fair share of fan bitchfests. A year ago or two years ago or three years ago the fans were bitching, they were just bitching about different things. I don't think it's any more legitimate or newsworthy today than it was a year ago and that has little to do with which points I do or do not agree with.

Have these people been watching the show? It really does sound like alot of those letters were written earlier in the season - many people here didn't dig the Survivor arc either (letter writer mentions the Cuddy thong challenge). Wilson was used much more as the season went on. It seems that author took complaints from earlier in the season and used it to sum up the season so that it looked like he was right. Oh and Blue Meanie from the Beatles' Yellow Submarine movie. Now I'm feeling old, because I know Marcus Welby too. Heck, I remember Dr. Kildare. Argh. ;-)

Since I'm not on the receiving end of mail for a television review column, I have no ability to measure their positive vs. negative reader comments. And yes, it is true that for every aspect of a storyline, there will be some group of people complaining. I suspect that it's not usually the same person (or type of person) complaining about each development because if that were the case, they just wouldn't be watching at all. One more caveat: I haven't been an online fan of House from the very beginning, just the last couple of years. All that aside, it seems to me, in my very own unmeasured method, that the volume of complaining about this season trumps anything that I've seen about the Tritter arc, for example. Not only that, it comes from nearly all quarters of fandom, i.e., people and posters that I wouldn't normally suspect of not liking something for the same reason are finding common ground in what they consider to be a lackluster season. I scroll (but don't post) at a couple of different boards and that seems to be fairly widely true. When it comes to columnists, perhaps the reason that more negative letters are being printed is because some sort of tipping point has been reached in which the negative feedback outweighs the positive ones. Again, I don't know for sure since I'm not the one that opens their mail. In other news, I was bored the other day and filed a Freedom of Information Report with the FCC because I was curious to know what kind of actual complaints had been made about "House" from concerned parents and the like. I anticipate that the results will be rather comical. Apparently I'll be informed by mid-June with the report. Hee!

You're not the only one who remembers both Marcus Welby and Dr Kildare but Ben Casey as well Ffaw. And although the original Dr Kildare movies were slightly before my time I saw them on tv during the 50s and 60s.

I have to agree with some of the comments. Particularly: But this season they're going down the tubes," LaGallo added. "They don't know whether to be a serious medical show or a comedy. I started losing it when House wanted his new team to bring him the thong of Cuddy. You can't be taken seriously with that as a story line." House always had a comedic side, but it was definitely more realistic and serious in the first few seasons. Now they use plots that I could easily see used on run-of-the-mill sitcoms and it has sucked all the realism out of House's emotional and physical pain and other struggles IMO. My family and I definitely have been seriously disappointed in this season - although we liked last week's ep. We don't care for the new characters because, as a commenter mentioned, they are one-note and predictable. And it's gotten so silly, juvenile, and over-the-top that we mock more than we actually laugh. I have hope it will continue to improve though.

Ignore this post. I was getting my columnists mixed up.