House M.D.'s Gregory House is partly based on which famous fictional detective?

Gregory House is partly based on Sherlock Holmes, the detective created by Arthur Conan Doyle. House and Holmes share exceptional observational skills, deductive reasoning, arrogance, and a tendency to solve cases through clues others overlook.

The connection appears in several details. House's surname resembles “Holmes,” his apartment number is 221B in the series, and his friendship with James Wilson parallels Holmes's relationship with Dr. John Watson. House also plays piano and uses drugs, elements that echo aspects of Holmes's characterization in the original stories and later adaptations.

House M.D. transposes the detective formula into medicine: symptoms become clues, patients become cases, and diagnosis replaces crime-solving. House is not literally Sherlock Holmes, and the series is not a direct adaptation of one particular story. The inspiration is a broad and deliberate literary parallel.