9 Shocking Grey’s Anatomy Secrets Revealed By Creator Shonda Rhimes
Happy Thursday, “Grey’s Anatomy” fans. We’re back with another session that reveals some pretty shocking and interesting, past secrets about Grey’s Anatomy that you might not know. As stated last time, the secrets come straight from the lips of Grey’s Anatomy creator herself Shonda Rhimes.
Kristina Rodulfo over at Elle.com recently revealed these secrets in an article after attending a television writing class that was held by Shonda. During this class, Shonda revealed these crazy secrets about the show. They have to do with production and ideas for some of the characters that never quite made it on the show.
The first secret for this session was that Meredith’s mother actually had a different name other than Ellis when she was originally created. Shonda revealed that she actually wanted to name her Helen. That’s nothing too crazy. Helen would’ve worked, but it is still a hidden production secret none the less.
The second production secret was that Meredith’s voiceovers were originally supposed to be from visits to her Alzheimer’s-stricken mother.
The 3rd production secret is that Shonda knows a lot more things about each character even if those things don’t make it on to the show. Shonda said she always keeps those certain secret things in the back of her mind. She gave one example which was to make Preston Burke feel real, she constantly told herself that his mother owned a restaurant in Alabama. She stated, “Those details were very important for me and internalized.”
The 4th production secret was that Grey’s anatomy was actually inspired by a different show that Shonda couldn’t get approved for production. Shonda had originally pitched a show about war correspondents. The United Stated was at war during this time. So, that idea didn’t go over well.
Instead, Shonda decided to combine what she liked about the original war correspondents show with medicine. She explained, “I just liked that feeling. A bunch of overly smart people fighting for their space.” In the pitch, she wrote, “Like WarCor, there’s that sense of being war buddies, of being different, of seeing the rest of the world as civilians.”
The 5th production secret was that Grey’s Anatomy’s main lady Meredith Grey’s point of views shares similarities to Carrie’s articles in the famous “Sex and The City” show. That’s right. While pitching Grey’s Anatomy, Rhimes compared Meredith’s point of view to “a more grounded version of Carrie’s articles in Sex and the City.” Shonda admitted that she went as far as to informally call Grey’s Anatomy “Sex in the Surgery!” It wasn’t her favorite way to sell the show, but it worked.
The 6th production secret revealed that Shonda originally wanted to set Grey’s Anatomy in her hometown of Chicago. However, since she didn’t want Grey’s Anatomy to be set in the same place as the show ER, she decided to go with Seattle, Washington. She said, “Seattle felt fresh to me. Seattle felt like a city I hadn’t seen in television a lot.”
The 7th production secret was that Miranda Bailey’s character was originally going to be cast as a “tiny blonde with curls!” Now that’s pretty shocking to say the very least. Shonda went on to explain how she came up with such a diverse cast for all of her shows.
She follows a couple of development rules to prevent cliches. She explained, “Take half the characters that you made men, and make them women. Take one character you were gonna cast one color and cast them differently. I think it’s important for people to rethink because what people see on television changes what people think about themselves.”
The 8th production secret was Grey’s Anatomy actually forever changed the way Shonda decided to write characters. After casting actress Chandra Wilson as Bailey, Rhimes no longer described characters’ physical traits, like “beautiful.” Instead, she goes for an aura or feeling. For Denny, who was the patient with a chronic heart condition that Izzie Stevens fell in love with in season 2. The character note was “he has a quality that makes you want to lick him.”
Lastly, the 9th production secret was that Shonda deliberately had Meredith and the Cristina Yang character drink so much tequila was because “you never saw women drinking on TV. Women weren’t the hard drinkers.”
Alright guys. That wraps it up for this list of shocking production secrets from Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes.
Don’t forget another brand new episode of Grey’s Anatomy airs tonight,November 8, 2018 at approximately 7 pm central standard time on ABC. Stay tuned. Also, be sure to follow us on our Grey’s Anatomy Facebook page for more Grey’s Anatomy news by Clicking Here.
