Not even David Shore, creator of House, thought that the show's best episode could be topped. Boasting 25 Primetime Emmy nominations, House consistently provided riveting TV drama with nearly every episode. Yet there is one that stands out above the rest - an episode so good that even the show’s creator believed he wouldn’t be able to top it.

Starring best House episodes were the ones that broke the formula.

House Creator David Shore Didn't Think He Could Top "Three Stories"

David Shore Said "Three Stories" Was The Best Episode He Ever Wrote

House season 1, episode 21, “Three Stories,” is hailed as one of the best (if not the best) episodes of the series. The Emmy-award-winning episode was written by the show’s creator, David Shore, and one behind-the-scenes featurette ahead of season 4 had Shore naming the episode as his personal favorite. Shore then went on to say, “Unfortunately, I don’t think I’m going to top that in my career, but hopefully. We’ll see."

In “Three Stories,” House gives a lecture for a group of diagnostic med students and presents three cases with similar symptoms. The episode gets amusingly creative with House’s perspective, such as having a middle-aged man portray a teenage girl, and featuring model-actor Carmen Electra as one of the patients. A dramatic twist in the third act reveals that one of the patients is House himself, explaining the origin of his leg injury.

David Shore May Have Topped "Three Stories" At The End Of House Season 4

"House's Head" and "Wilson's Heart" Were Shore's Other Best Episodes

Three years after “Three Stories," David Shore arguably outshone his previous work with the two-episode finale of House season 4. “House’s Head” and “Wilson’s Heart,” both written by Shore (with co-writers Peter Blake, David Foster, Russel Friend, and Garrett Lerner), included some of the best storytelling in the show’s history. The first episode opens with House in a bus accident, which left him with a serious head injury and memory loss. As he tries to put the pieces together to find out what caused the crash, House must rush to save the life of his former colleague, Amber Volakis.

Not only were these episodes amazingly written, but the direction and acting were also very well done. Director Greg Yaitanes won an Emmy for “House’s Head,” and actors Hugh Laurie and Robert Sean Leonard both gave some of the best performances of the entire series. “House’s Head” and “Wilson's Heart” were much heavier on the drama than “Three Stories,” yet they are equally compelling on a larger scale.

"Three Stories" Is Not Just House's Best Episode, It's A Television Masterpiece

The Episode Still Holds Up As One Of TV History's Best

Even with House’s eight seasons and 176 episodes, “Three Stories” is still considered one of the best in the series. In fact, the episode is so good that House even tried to recreate "Three Stories" in other seasons. The storytelling frame gave viewers a unique perspective from House’s point of view, using both humor and drama to keep us glued to the screen. It is also the first time we see the character at his most vulnerable, as opposed to the hardened, sardonic jerk that fans came to know and love.

“Three Stories” not only established House as one of the most exceptional medical dramas of the 2000s, but of the entire history of the genre.

While episodes like “House’s Head” and “Wilson’s Heart” proved that David Shore could still churn out fantastic content, he wasn’t wrong about the importance of that particular episode. “Three Stories” not only established House as one of the most exceptional medical dramas of the 2000s, but of the entire history of the genre. A combination of top-tier writing, exemplary acting, and masterful direction and editing makes it worth revisiting over and over again.