This is funny because I never watched House and, yet, I think I know the episode you're talking about because the writer of the ep discussed it in LJ and said:

Going by plane was more problematical, but I could see them taking a commuter flight out of some small airport around Princeton. (There is indeed a small commuter airport near Princeton, but it doesn't go to Baltimore; our airports on both ends were strictly imaginary.) I say "problematical" because I'm from New Jersey, and my first impulse would be to take the train. I discounted automobile, because the traffic delays would make it impractical, and no business organization would want to send two people whose hourly wages verge on astronomical on a long, tiring car ride -- it would be a false economy, and would hardly leave your lawyer fresh as a daisy and ready to argue. In the end, train vs. plane seemed a toss-up; I've seen plenty of people take short business flights, so the idea didn't shock me, and though weather can keep a train station isolated as well as an airport, it would be harder for a mass audience to grasp intuitively.

I do understand that the Needs of the Drama are different than the needs of real life, but still. I think I just would have made the fake location farther and/or more awkwardly placed.

You may think, "But why not just say Medicaid is somewhere more distant -- in Chicago, for instance?" In fact, that point was raised. (You would be shocked at the number of points that are raised over a television episode.) What I'm going to say may seem a too-subtle writing issue, and you're free to disagree with it. It's true that only a comparatively small portion of the audience would know that Medicaid was in Baltimore, so it may seem a harmless change. But while creating imaginary airports, or small towns, or even, sometimes, entire obscure nations, is within the rules of the game, taking something that exists in the real world and modifying it that greatly feels like a cheat.

hee

ETA: I should just post the link because I thought the post was interesting.

Go again, Jesse! Go again!

But while creating imaginary airports, or small towns, or even, sometimes, entire obscure nations, is within the rules of the game, taking something that exists in the real world and modifying it that greatly feels like a cheat.

Huh. Of course, I lost track of the reason they were in Baltimore anyway.

taking something that exists in the real world and modifying it that greatly feels like a cheat.

Something like...the real geographical distance betwen Baltimore and Princeton? And the existance of the Acela train's first class car, which is ever so much more comfortable than any airplane, especially for someone with chronic pain who might need to get up and walk around?

(I mean, I get what he's saying, but I think there are more people from Maryland and/or New Jersey than there are people who know where Medicaid's offices are. IJS.)

I dunno. I've never heard of that train. I was just having some fun.

Everyone in this part of the country yelled THAT ISN'T BWI as soon as the scene started.

I was just having some fun.

Oh, me too, don't worry. It just always amuses me when TV writers staunchly defend a decision to bend this bit of reality, while at the same time saying that it it would be unacceptable cheating to have bent that one instead.

It just always amuses me when TV writers staunchly defend a decision to bend this bit of reality, while at the same time saying that it it would be unacceptable cheating to have bent that one instead.

I promise that I will never do that.

I'm just going to say, "Yeah, my boss rewrote that part."