Is it really not obvious?

[Kane Knight]

I mean, people worthing on both House and Monk "revealed" in various interviews that the characters were based on Sherlock Holmes as though it wasn't completely obvious. I mean, Monk's a bit more obvious than House, but it's not like the Gregory House character isn't pretty obvious in and of itself.

I dunno. It just doesn't strike me as the big reveal it seems to be made out to be. So I mean, did anyone actually have to be told? Or is it just that I grew up with a father who watched all the old Sherlock Holmes movies/TV shows/Serials?

[BigDaddyCool]

I wasn't aware that they were based of Holmes, but never cared either. Now that i've heard it, I'm about as shock as when I learned that O' Brother Were are Thou is loosely based off of the Odyssy.

[Kane Knight]

Never watched either show, or just don't care about the influences?

I'm just wondering.

[BigDaddyCool]

Now that it has been mentioned Holmes/House, similiar names. Both have an addiction to pain pills and solve mysteries of sorts.

With Monk, they are both detectives, but I don't see any other real connection but i don't know either well enough to care.

[Kane Knight]

Now that it has been mentioned Holmes/House, similiar names. Both have an addiction to pain pills and solve mysteries of sorts.

With Monk, they are both detectives, but I don't see any other real connection but i don't know either well enough to care.

Both House and Monk demonstrate a near-encyclopedic knowledge and an ability to makeleaps of logic based on keen observation of seemingly mundane items. Some elements are more obvious in one show or the other; As you pointed out, the drug addiction of Sherlock Holmes parallels in House's addiction. Also, Doctor Chase is a pretty clear analog to Watson in the sense that he very much aspires to be House, much as Watson did (Especially in later SH stories). Monk is a better demonstration of Holmes' idiosynchracies and quirks, though House better displays the brooding fits that Holmes had.

Stottlemeyer is very obviously based off of Lestrade, though the character has less animosity than professional jealousy. The choice of Sharona, a nurse as a "sidekick" for Monk is probably significant, though I wouldn't go into too much detail on it.

House has actually done the traditional Sherlock Holmes-ian deduction on a couple of episodes, more as a parloer trick than anything else.

Anyway, quite a lot of parallels.

[Mr. Nerfect]

I'm not a big fan of either show, really, but I agree with you, KK: It's not exactly a shocker. Whenever I see a "abnormally brilliant detective," I don't know how you can think of anyone but Sherlock. I think pop-culture has just conditioned us that way.

House is in a different field, but he's a genius who walks into the room, and despite being grumpy, old and cantankerous, he always seems to get the right answer, and leave everyone around him in awe. If you lived in House's world, you'd just let him do all the work without running any tests, and let his guess work be the indicator of what to go by.

That both characters were inspired by Sherlock Holmes is not a mystery by any means.