Dr. House will not be on call after his eighth season on Fox. Medical drama series House is saying goodbye. Creator David Shore requested an early decision from the network to end the show so he could prepare a proper farewell for his misanthropic physician and friends. With several new dramas on the rise — a few the show even helped launch, including Kiefer Sutherland’s Touch, which hits this spring — and star Hugh Laurie’s contract deal done at the end of the season, the timing seemed right. When Universal cut salaries last year, fans saw co-star Lisa Edelstein (Dr. Lisa Cuddy — Dean of Medicine and House’s love interest) leaving early, which left a lot of devotees pretty bummed. Still, ratings have persisted. Deadline reports that there’s no word on where Shore will be heading next, as he does not have a continuing deal with the network. Were you biding your time until House left the building, or were you hoping the show would hold out just a little while longer?

Well, readers, it’s Friday. And frankly, we’re feeling a little bit punchy here at Flavorpill HQ. Perhaps that’s why we are so entertained by a bizarre project that originated on a Something Awful form. The folks at Thaeger clued us in about a thread called “Famous duos… MERGED!” that has Photoshoppers switching or merging the faces of pop-culture pairs and groups — Jay and Silent Bob, Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock. This is, without a doubt, a silly enterprise, yet some of the Photoshops are so well done as to be eerie and disorienting. Freak yourself out after the jump. Read More »

Last night House returned in its eighth season on Fox to less than stellar ratings. We don’t know about you, but we’re not surprised. What more can possibly happen on this show? The last season ended with a crash, literally, when Gregory House drove his car into long-time crush Cuddy’s house, and this season begins with his release from a short stint in jail. He’s already done the rehab thing. He’s already done the almost dying thing. So what now? Perhaps a DNR would have been in order at the conclusion of Season 6. But we know how House, and even more so, producers, feel about letting go. Below the jump, we’ve rounded up a few other series that should’ve walked away a few seasons before they did — and some that still haven’t. Add to our list in the comments!

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What can you possibly learn in medical school that you can’t during a weekend-long marathon of House? We’ve only experienced the latter, so we can’t say for sure — but the answer seems to be “a lot,” considering that our doctors keep disagreeing with our self-diagnoses. Hospital shows receive endless scorn for their medical inaccuracies, and the customary rebuttal is the fact that they’re nothing more than entertainment. But we can’t deny that these series have taught us some things about the field, so we’ve rounded up some of their profound, didactic, med-school-worthy, and factually correct lessons.

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1. The National Film Preservation Foundation and the New Zealand Film Archive have discovered the first 30 minutes of what is believed to be Alfred Hitchcock’s directorial debut, a 1923 British film called The White Shadow. If you live in LA, mark your calendars for September 22, when it will “re-premiere” at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Samuel Goldwyn Theater. [via LAT]

2. Which TV casting news do you find more bizarro: The fact that awkward comedian Charlyne Yi will be playing a young doctor on House next season or that Dan Castellaneta, the guy who voices Homer Simpson, is making a rare live-action appearance as “an NPR-ish talk-show host” on Parks and Recreation?

3. Fans of George R.R. Martin will be excited to hear that Game of Thrones producers have cast the role of Theon Greyjoy’s sister Asha for season two of the series, but they might not be so happy to learn that her name has been changed to Yara in order to avoid confusion with the character of Osha. [via Inside TV]

4. Thanks to shows like Pretty Little Liars and The Secret Life of the American Teenager, ABC Family has topped GLAAD‘s fifth annual Network Responsibility Index, which ranks channels based on their representation of “gay, lesbian and bisexual characters in its programming and for the racial diversity of those characters.” Also worth noting: CBS was at the bottom of their rankings for gay representation, and ABC, for racial diversity. [via NYT]

5. Oprah Winfrey, James Earl Jones, and makeup artist Dick Smith will all receive honorary Oscars this year. [via EW]

Bonus Buzz: Jean Jackets Inspired By Pop Culture

Ah, summer. For all its good qualities — the sunshine, the free concerts, the easily obtained popsicles — it does have its downsides. Read: notoriously limited TV options. And strangely, we’ve found that what we’ve really been missing isn’t the intrigue, the musical numbers or even our favorite heroes, but all the witty one liners and cranky back talk of all our favorite TV grumps. Granted, it may be more efficient just to have Ed O’Neill move in with us, but since that’s not an option (call us, Ed!), we’ve created this little roundup. Click through for our list of some of our favorite grouchy, sarcastic and ornery TV characters of all time, with a few quotes to hold you over until fall, and let us know which of your favorites we’ve missed in the comments!

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Has anyone else noticed that there’s no shortage of depressed characters on television these days? The National Post‘s Robert Fulford wants to know why downers make for such good television in recent times, from modern sagas to historical retellings. Whatever the reason behind such writing and its success, there are certainly plenty of morose roles out there. Here are our picks for top 10 most depressed characters on TV today. Let us know who we missed.

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You might know Meat Loaf best for his amazingly over-the-top jukebox anthems — classics like “Bat Out of Hell,” “Paradise By the Dashboard Light,” or “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad” — but this hard rock icon also has a pretty impressive acting career. We’re not just talking a guest appearance on CSI (though we love you, Justin Bieber) but some serious cult film appearances. Plus, today is the Loaf’s 63rd birthday! Join us in wishing him many more bats out of hell, and check out his best TV and movie appearances, after the jump.

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1. Amy Winehouse has recorded a new song! It’s a cover of Lesley Gore’s 1963 hit “It’s My Party” for the upcoming Quincy Jones tribute album Q: Soul Bossa Nostra, which is due out on November 9. [via Rolling Stone]
2. We’d watch that: JJ Abrams is working on a crime-thriller series created by Jonah Nolan, Christopher Nolan’s brother and frequent collaborator. [via EW]
3. Y tu mama tambien costars Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna will join Will Ferrell in Casa de mi padre, a Spanish-language comedy that “will be told in an overly dramatic telenovela style and feature English subtitles.” [via THR]
4. The first photos of the Captain America costume are online. What do you think? [via ComingSoon]
5. House’s Jennifer Morrison is joining the cast of How I Met Your Mother and producers are calling her “the biggest female character we’ve maybe ever added to the show in Ted’s life.” [via Vulture]

Bonus link: Trekking Midtown

1. It’s official: Conan O’Brien is gone after Friday’s show. But we don’t feel sorry for him: The deal with NBC is said to be worth around $45 million. [via USA Today]
2. Does anyone else find it strange that the same week Vampire Weekend hits No. 1 on the Billboard album chart, Susan Boyle is sitting pretty at No. 2? [via MTV]
3. Quentin Tarantino has placed Avatar at the top of his updated best films of 2009 list. He also added Julie & Julia. [via FirstShowing]
4. Adult Swim has ordered 40 more episodes of Robot Chicken, ensuring that the Seth Green and Matthew Senreich-created show will be on TV for a fifth and sixth season. [via Variety]
5. YouTube announced yesterday that it will make movies from the 2009 and 2010 Sundance film festivals available for online rental; meanwhile over at Hulu they’re planning to charge users to watch episodes of 30 Rock, Modern Family and House.