Thanks to my good friend Pliska, I have been watching a lot of the '70s television show Ironside lately. If you have never watched it, the first episode starts with curmudgeonly alcoholic Chief Robert T. Ironside (Raymond Burr) getting shot through the spine and ending up paraplegic. From that point on it's a detective show with the main bloke confined to a wheelchair. He subsequently puts together a crack team of investigators and comrades to help him diagnose the cause of various crimes throughout San Francisco.
Fast forward a few decades and bring in House M. D. If you have never watched it, the first episode starts with curmudgeonly pill-popping Doctor Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) revealing his cripplingly painful leg condition that renders him a virtual paraplegic. From that point on it's a detective show with the main bloke confined to a cane. He subsequently puts together a crack team of investigators and comrades to help him diagnose the cause of various ailments throughout New Jersey.
Now let's compare these two teams.

• Grumpy, disliked, chemically dependent leader - Check
• Cocky and angry white dude - Check
• Black guy with criminal record - Check
• White gal for the men in the audience to be attracted to - Check

The pieces are all starting to fit together. In fact, I am surprised that no one pointed this out before.

When you watch the two shows and start to figure out the plot formula (after about two.... make that one episode) you'll notice similarities as well.

• Each episode starts out with an illness/crime and the rest of the episode is spent figuring out the cause/culprit.
  
• There are several suspects, all the characters except the leader think it's the most obvious one.
  
• Ironside/House is convinced he has figured it out
• The case is solved and, what do you know, it was the one that no one suspected!

You be the judge. get a few episodes of each and give them a watch and let me know what you discover.