According to television’s Dr. Gregory House, everybody lies. But nobody lies to FM.
Peter Blake ’91, writer and supervising producer for FOX’s medical drama “House,” chatted with FM while packing for a trip home to New York City. He dished about his failed consulting career, the key to screen-writing, and Disney’s “Ice Princess.”
1. Fifteen Minutes: From Harvard Law to consulting and then to TV. How does that happen?
Peter Blake: I went to law school, which just seemed like the typical refuge for a Hist. and Lit. major who didn’t want to go work for Goldman Sachs. Then I got to law school and I realized, “Oh my God, what am I doing?”...I took a couple of undergraduate creative writing classes and I persuaded this professor named James Vorenberg [’48]...to let me write my third-year paper...as a creative third-year paper. I sort of wrote a spec script for “Law & Order”....
2. FM: So it was Hollywood or bust?
PB: I really wanted to work in Hollywood in some capacity at that point but instead I just became a management consultant at Monitor in Cambridge. I think I was the most incompetent consultant they ever hired...My friends would always tell me, “You can’t be that bad at the job. It must be because you don’t enjoy it.” In fact, I actually had one of my performance evaluations lying around and I would quote them.
3. FM: So, what did the evaluations say?
PB: Basically it said: “Peter cannot understand simple concepts and express himself clearly”...I just sucked. [Laughs]...I still just didn’t have the guts to go out and do what I really wanted to do, which was work in Hollywood...but once you’re terrible at everything else you try, it’s a lot less risky to go to Hollywood...So I took out the “Law & Order” spec script I had written five years before and I rewrote it and I wrote another spec script for “The Sopranos”...I gave them to my friends who were writers and they gave them to their agents. And all of a sudden, a whole bunch of agencies wanted to sign me...a month later, I was writing for “The Practice”...At this point, there were literally nine TV shows with legal components that were on the air if you count “Law & Order: SVU” and “Ally McBeal”. So everyone was looking for writers who were also lawyers.
4. FM: So law school came in handy after all?
PB: That was the only time it ever came in handy...I took a lot of criminal law classes and whenever we talked about a cool case I marked it down in my mind and thought, “I wonder if this will make a good “Law & Order” episode?”
5. FM: So what’s your favorite “Law & Order”? Aren’t there like 18 spin-offs by now?
PB: I was always a fan of the original...The golden years of “Law & Order” are absolutely amazing, but “SVU” [editor’s note: the sexy one] is my favorite right now.
6. FM: So you were a Hist. and Lit. concentrator at Harvard, which means you must have read many Western classics. Did anyone in particular inspire you to write crime or medical drama?
PB: Edgar Allen Poe. Both the shows I’ve written for, “The Practice” and “House,” are mysteries to some extent.
7. FM: Did you take any biology classes at Harvard that prepared you for “House”?
PB: No, I never thought I would ever write for a medical show...I just never liked science classes or anything like that. I’ll tell you how it’s helped. Two things: A lot of writing...comes out of research and Harvard will teach you how to do that. More than that, writing is rewriting...a good writer is miserable with everything he’s done...I do feel that at Harvard you learn to work really hard. And you learn to be a perfectionist, and I think that’s come in handy more than anything else as a TV writer.
8. FM: One of your episodes for “House” was about overprotective parents. Did your script draw upon any personal experiences?
PB: My parents are incredibly cool and not at all overprotective.
9. FM: Did they want you to go to medical school?
PB: No, my parents wanted me to become an investment banker.
10. FM: Michelle Trachtenberg starred in that episode. Were you involved in the casting process? If so, are you familiar with her work in “Ice Princess”?
PB: We saw clips of it when we cast her. I knew who she was, but I had never seen her work or “Ice Princess”. She’s actually really cool. She’s a friend of mine.
11. FM: You attended the Collegiate School in New York City. How did an all-boys education prepare you for the real world?
PB: This is a funny question.
FM: We try.
PB: I had the courage to speak up in class, because I didn’t have to worry about what the girls would think of me...I’m being sarcastic, by the way.
12. FM: Collegiate’s rep in the NYC prep school community is that it produces very confident—dare I say arrogant?—students. Harvard’s rep is sort of similar: we tend to think we’re always right. Kind of like Dr. House, actually. Did your experiences in private school education inspire this character?
PB: I think any arrogance was beaten out of me when I failed at every career I tried before I became a writer.
13. FM: What’s your favorite House-ism that you’ve written?
PB: “Nothing’s Something”.
14. FM: Variety reported recently that you are teaming up with “House” creator and executive producer David Shore to develop a new drama. Give us the scoop.
PB: Well, when we pitched the show, it was a cop show. When we left the room, it had become a female cop show. I would prefer to keep it a surprise.
15. FM: You’ve written about a courtroom for “The Practice” and about a hospital for “House”. What’s your dream locale for a dramatic series?
PB: A courtroom that has an OR in the spectator section.
