I'm very excited that Mr Kaplow is back with House. I liked his writing best and am sure I will continue to do so. I'm so glad you got another chance to talk to him. Thank you for another great interview.

Now I'm even more looking forward to today's episode than I already was (and episode 13, of course). :-)

Well, I'm with you when you say about Lawrence Kaplow: "He solidified his place in my interview hall of fame by sharing insightful anecdotes, refusing to tease the Cameron versus Cuddy factions . . . ."

I hate that there has been such animosity between the two factions. That's the one disagreement I have with Barbara Bennett's comments because, other than that, she is brilliantly insightful.

And it's too bad that lots of us Hameron people have just given up and left the Fox House Boards because we're tired of getting attacked.

It has been my feeling for a while that TPTB seem to be pulling a "House" on us, indeed "teasing" us and playing a cat-and-mouse/bait-and-switch game with those of us who watched the first 2 seasons and got sucked into the sexual tension between House & Cameron that THEY showed us. Not just on-screen, but in interviews too. We haven't enjoyed the game; we just feel betrayed.

Diane, do you know if Shore/Kaplow REALLY abandoned their idea of a "story in flashback and present day, how House met Wilson the first time, how they became friends, with the parallel to how they were apart now" or can we expect something like this later in the season?

Hi Habitusa, I believe he meant it was abandoned. I look at it this way: he doesn't generally give out spoilers and he knows I don't want to know spoilers, so if he knew they were going to revisit that idea later, he wouldn't have told me what the original plan was in the first place. There was no real reason for him to reveal it if it were a story that was going to come later.

On the other hand, while I don't believe this interpretation, you could look at it this way too: he might have simply withheld the information that it's still in the cards in order to not spoil.

So that's not very helpful, I know, but I'd say don't get your hopes up but don't give up hope completely either. My more hopeful take: even if they've decided to abandon it, they could always change their minds and revisit it later. I know I'm mourning the loss of that episode.

To David Shore and Kaplow,
Many us would love to see a story arc about how House and Wilson met. I hope you haven't given up on the idea.

I wish that Shore and Kaplow had given us the House & Wilson flashbacks episode. That sounds like it would have been fantastic! I hope we get an episode like that sometime in the future. I would hate to think they would just abandon such a great sounding episode.

Not Cancer was Not Kaplow. This was not an episode like the ones he wrote in earlier seasons. This was a Shore dominated episode, in the vein of No Reason and One Day One Room. Loaded with dialogue trying to mean something other than what it sounds like, trying to make twists and turns, trying to impress someone with how complicated they can make it. That does not make for good television. Kaplow may want to learn from Shore, but he does a great job on his own. I hope Shore doesn't corrupt him. I would watch Autopsy a thousand times before I would watch a David Shore episode ten (other than Three Stories). When the show wasn't trying so hard in earlier seasons, the episodes were much better. Please let Mr. Kaplow know that he is a fan favorite doing what he does best, without help.

Not Cancer was received by fans like No Reason and One Day One Room were-HUH? What did that mean? If David Shore was not running the show, I believe these two episodes would have been rejected. No one singled these episodes out for superb writing.

I see Shore all over Not Cancer, but I don't see the Kaplow in it. As a junior writer, Kaplow doesn't have a chance of injecting much of his own ideas. It sounded like this episode's story was not his idea. I actually believe that Kaplow has a better understanding of House than Shore does. Kaplow makes House better, and Shore makes House weirder.

I won't disagree that this wasn't a great episode, but to be fair, all episodes of House have Shore's "help." He's the final word and voice of all of it.

Upon re-watching I have to say that I love this episode. How much closer to S1 formula can you get: understated and emotional, with House being restrained and dignified (vs. the outrageousness of last season) and actually taking a moment to connect with the patient, and with the team providing nice background without promoting their own story lines. I have changed my mind - I am not mourning the "story in flashbacks" any more. I think "Not Cancer" was a perfect combination of Shore's metaphorical and subtexted writing and Kaplow's ability to capitalize on emotional connections. Having said that, I will always prefer a Kaplow episode over a Shore one.