David Shore

Lore & Background

In 2003, producer Paul Attanasio approached Shore to create a procedural for NBC, which was looking for a medical show to follow Law & Order and compete with CBS's CSI and NCIS. Attanasio's idea was to apply the police procedural genre to medicine. Shore decided to place the mystery secondary to the hero, conceiving a protagonist similar to Sherlock Holmes. That hero was Dr. Gregory House, played by British actor Hugh Laurie.

Although NBC passed, Fox picked up the series, and by the end of its first season, it was their biggest new hit of 2004–05. Shore wrote or co-wrote five episodes of that first season, including the pilot and the Season One pre-finale "Three Stories," which revealed the reason for Dr. House's limp and Vicodin addiction. "Three Stories" won the 2005 Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series. Shore made his directorial debut on the Season Two finale "No Reason."

The sixth season began with a two-hour premiere titled "Broken," which he co-wrote and which won the Writers Guild of America Award for episodic drama in February 2010. House was renewed for a seventh season and an eighth and final season.

Reader's Guide

Shore's career began with writing for Due South — about another Canadian transplanted in America, albeit a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police — before he became a producer on the ABC drama NYPD Blue. His work on that series was nominated for two Emmy Awards. He then moved on to Family Law, Hack, and Century City, but these were not commercial successes. After House, in 2009, Shore finished production of the short-lived police TV show Winters starring Famke Janssen.

In February 2013, Entertainment Weekly reported that Shore would write for an upcoming ABC television show titled Doubt, about "a 'charming low-rent' lawyer battling his demons" starring Steve Coogan. In August 2015, Amazon Video released a pilot episode for Sneaky Pete, a show Shore and Bryan Cranston created. The first season of Sneaky Pete was exclusively released in its entirety on Amazon Video on January 13, 2017. In 2019, as WGA Co-chair, Shore joined forces with WGA members in firing their agents as part of the WGA's stand against the ATA and the practice of packaging. In May 2021, he and his Shore Z Productions company renewed his first look deal with Sony.

From Law to Scriptwriting

Shore was born in London, Ontario, Canada, to Cecile Shore and Marvin Shore, a politician. After graduating from A. B. Lucas Secondary School with distinction, he subsequently attended the University of Western Ontario for an undergraduate degree, and the University of Toronto for his law degree in 1982. Following his education he initially worked as a municipal and corporate lawyer in his native Canada before he moved to Los Angeles to break into television. On June 20, 2018, Shore received an honorary degree in law from the University of Western Ontario.

The Architecture of House

In 2003, producer Paul Attanasio approached Shore to request a procedural, as he knew NBC was looking for another one to follow up on the success of Law & Order and to imitate CBS's success with CSI and NCIS. Attanasio's idea was to apply the police procedural genre to a show about medicine. While in most procedurals the characters are secondary to the mystery, Shore decided that a medical procedural should place the mystery secondary to the hero.

He therefore conceived of a hero similar to the iconic detective Sherlock Holmes. That hero was Dr. Gregory House, the main character of House, played (with an American accent) by the British actor, comedian, and musician Hugh Laurie. Although NBC took a pass on the series, Fox picked it up, and by the end of the first season, it was their biggest new hit of 2004–05. Shore wrote or co-wrote five episodes of that first season, including its pilot and the Season One pre-finale, "Three Stories," in which he intricately wove the stories of three patients, while also revealing the reason for Dr. House's limp and Vicodin addiction.

The latter of these won the 2005 Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series. Shore made his directorial debut on the series House directing the Season Two finale "No Reason." Due to the success of House, Shore was granted a generous contract for fourth, fifth, and sixth seasons. The sixth season began with a two-hour season premiere titled "Broken," which he co-wrote.

Shore and his co-writers won the Writers Guild of America Award for episodic drama at the February 2010 ceremony for the premiere. House was renewed for a seventh season, which began airing on September 20, 2010, as well as an eighth and final season.