5 Great (Fake) American Accents

1. Hugh Laurie - House - I must admit that when I first saw House, I had no idea who Hugh Laurie was.  However, I was surprised to find out that not only is this interesting new actor not American, but he is the most British actor who ever Britished.  Laurie has been a cult-favorite comedic actor in the U.K. since the mid-80s, working as a comedy duo with Stephen Fry in shows such as Jeeves and Wooster and performing opposite Rowan Atkinson in the Blackadder series.  Story goes, House creator David Shore also had no idea that Laurie was British when he saw his audition tape, remarking to his producer, "See this is what I want: an American guy."

Pulling the Plug on House

I'm done with House.

House, M.D. was one of my favorite shows for the first 3 seasons.  There has been much written about Hugh Laurie's central performance as the brilliant and sardonic diagnostician, but it is true that when House debuted, there was nothing quite like him on network TV.  He wasn't exactly another anti-hero in the vein of Tony Soprano and Vic Mackey, but he was deeply disturbed nonetheless.  How many TV protagonists can you name who are drug addicts and frequent customers of prostitutes?  And he is a doctor- the venerable profession of such upstanding gentlemen as Marcus Welby and Mark Greene.  Laurie embraced these contradictions and made House eminently watchable...at first.