“Three Stories” was House M.D.'s first episode nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series.
The second-season episode was written by David Shore and uses a distinctive structure: House teaches medical students while presenting three diagnostic cases. The cases gradually reveal details about his own past, including the injury that led to his chronic leg pain and cane use.
The episode won the Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series in 2005. That award is sometimes confused with acting nominations received by Hugh Laurie or with the series' later Emmy recognition in other categories. “Three Stories” is specifically notable for its writing and nonlinear storytelling.
Its title reflects the three case narratives presented during the lecture. The format also lets the episode move between medical reasoning, unreliable appearances, and House's personal history without treating the flashbacks as a conventional origin episode.