1. First, in order to differentiate Grey’s Anatomy from ER, creator Shonda Rhimes wanted to make this show “more personal” and less adrenaline-driven. The idea came after a female doctor told Shonda that it’s “incredibly hard to shave her legs in the hospital shower.” What seemed like a “silly detail” inspired Shonda to write a medical drama where the doctor’s personal lives are front and center. She also thought it was interesting how no one really thinks about that doctors “talk about their boyfriends or their day while cutting somebody open.”
Meredith saying to Derek, "So pick me. Choose me. Love me."
In an interview with Oprah for O Magazine in 2005, Shonda elaborated, saying, “My obsession with surgery: My sisters and I would call each other up and talk about operations we’d seen on the Discovery Channel. There’s something fascinating about the medical world — you see things you’d never imagine, like the fact that doctors talk about their boyfriends or their day while they’re cutting somebody open. So when ABC asked me to write another pilot, the OR seemed like the natural setting.”
2. Shonda Rhimes notably wrote the pilot of Grey’s Anatomy with minimal character descriptions and simply cast actors who she felt were right for the part, not who looked the part. Shonda told O Magazine in 2005 that the only character who had a description in the original script was Dr. Miranda Bailey, who she pictured as “a tiny blonde with curls” because she thought “it would be unexpected to have this sweet-looking person open her mouth and say tough things.” However, when Chandra Wilson came in to audition, Shonda instantly knew that she was Bailey.
Bailey telling Cristina, George, Izzie, and Meredith that she has five rules they need to follow and how she already hates them. The scene is from the first episode
Speaking about the casting process, Shonda said, “We read every color actor for every single part. My goal was simply to cast the best actors. I was lucky because the network said, ‘Go for it.’ If they had hesitated, I don’t know if I would have wanted to do the show.”
3. The pilot of Grey’s Anatomy was filmed before Justin Chambers was cast as Dr. Alex Karev. After booking the role, Justin flew to LA and filmed his scenes, which were then added to the already-completed episode using CGI. When you go back and watch, you’ll notice Alex only interacts with Meredith, George, and a few other random characters, and his scenes feel disconnected from the others.
Close-ups of scenes from the pilot showing how Karev isn't show in a wide shot of the interns watching a surgery in the OR gallery vs. a close-up of Karev that puts him in the scene
Speaking about booking the role at PaleyFest in 2005, Justin revealed he was sent a tape of the pilot while living in NYC. He loved it so much and immediately went to LA to audition for the role of Karev.
4. The idea to have Addison show up in the Season 1 finale with the big reveal that Derek is married came from wanting to present a character who seemed like the perfect guy but actually has a huge flaw that you don’t see until you’ve already fallen in love with him. Shonda Rhimes explained, “Isn’t that the way it often happens in life? You get hooked before you discover the truth?” Although this moment ended Season 1, it wasn’t originally supposed to be the season finale. However, the network decided to only air nine of the 13 episodes they filmed for the season.
Addison introducing herself to Meredith and saying, "And you must be the woman who's been screwing my husband"
In an interview with EW in 2025, Shonda reflected on the big Season 1 finale, saying, “The original end of the season was the elevator episode. And then they were like, ‘We don’t have enough time to air this.’ So we ended on Addison and picked up there [for Season 2].”
This is also the reason Season 2 has 27 episodes because the remaining episodes that were originally filmed for Season 1 were added to the beginning of the show’s 23-episode order for the second season.
5. The series was the first to use the term “vajayjay.” Reportedly, the network said the show used the word “vagina” too much, so they had to find an alternative. Shonda Rhimes recalled hearing one of the assistants on Grey’s use “vajayjay,” and she thought it was the “greatest phrase.” Having to cut the word “vagina” highlighted a double standard because the show was allowed to use the word “penis” as many times as they wanted. At the time, Shonda called out the Broadcast Standards and Practices team because “vagina” is a medical term, and they should be allowed to use it as much as they want on a medical show.
George sitting behind Bailey while she's in labor, and Bailey saying, "Stop looking at my vajayjay"
“I really had a problem with the idea that we couldn’t use it because we had an episode where you could say ‘penis’
17 times or something… but you could only say ‘vagina’ a certain number of times before somebody just had a heart attack,” Shonda told Gross per HuffPost.
6. In order to keep big moments from leaking, sometimes scripts were given out “without the last five pages,” according to Shonda Rhimes. One case of this happening was the Season 5 finale, which featured George’s death. Most of the crew and cast did not know George was going to die, but they found out while filming the episode. Only certain crew members knew because they had to help apply makeup and prosthetics to T.R. Knight’s face in order to film George’s final moments.
Meredith realizing that John Doe is George after realizing what Double 0-7 means
In an interview with EW in 2025, Shonda recalled, “T.R. was determined that he would be the body lying on the operating table. He would be the body that you saw every single time, which is why you got to see his beautiful blue eyes. But he was wearing a lot of makeup. I do think we kept it really secret.”
7. Jeffrey Dean Morgan signed on to play Denny Duquette in Season 2, knowing that the character was going to die. However, it was originally only a four-episode arc, and he thought he was going to be “opposite of Ellen Pompeo’s character because the sides were with Denny and Meredith.” Jeffrey said that he didn’t know he was going to be working with Katherine Heigl until he showed up to set.
Denny telling Izzie that he chooses her and he wants to do everything with her
Jeffrey also recalled to EW in 2025 that he and Katherine didn’t have a chemistry read. He said, “They were like, ‘Ah, it doesn’t matter if they have chemistry or not. He’s only going to be around for three or four episodes.’ It just turned out that it was probably the most chemistry I’ve ever had with an actor in my life, and it just was immediate. I’ve been chasing that chemistry for 20-some-odd years. I need it again.”
8. “Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol debuted on Grey’s Anatomy during the Season 2 finale, almost a month before it was released as an official single in the US. Music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas recalled watching the song take off after the episode, saying, “I remember waking up the next morning, and the Snow Patrol song had sort of climbed to the top of a chart, which was not as mobile back then.” The song ultimately peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2006, and it is the band’s biggest-selling single to date.
Izzie sobbing over Denny's body and remarking on how an hour ago he was proposing, and now he's headed to the morgue
Thanks largely to Grey’s Anatomy, “Chasing Cars” was named the most-played song on British radio this century in 2019.
Alex was also the music supervisor for The O.C., Gossip Girl, Scandal, Twilight, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, and more. She continues to work in Shondaland on Grey’s and also Bridgerton.
9. The nickname “McDreamy” actually came from Shonda Rhimes and the crew giving Patrick Dempsey that nickname behind the scenes while they were filming the first episode of Grey’s Anatomy. Shonda Rhimes told O Magazine in 2005, “We’d watch the monitor and think, ‘Look at his dreamy eyes!’ So we started calling him Patrick McDreamy, and it stuck.”
Meredith telling Cristina she's having a bad day, and Cristina remarking that she must deal with bad days by making ut with "Dr. McDreamy"
She added, “When we were shooting the pilot, Patrick was seriously the most adorable man we’d ever seen on camera.”
10. For the bomb exploding in Season 2, a professional stunt actor was brought in to film the moment when Meredith gets blasted back after the bomb goes off. However, after she suffered a concussion, they needed one more take, and the director convinced Ellen Pompeo to do it herself. Ellen recalled to EW in 2017, “We had a knock-down, drag-out fight because he insisted I do the stunt. I said, “A fucking professional stuntwoman just gave herself a concussion doing it. I’ve been working 18 hours. I can barely see straight. Now you want me to try it?” The final version is a combo of the stunt actor and Ellen’s stunt.
Meredith getting blown backwards after a bomb goes off. Overlay text points out which part was actually a stunt double
“Anyway, I ended up doing it despite me not wanting to. And, of course, they used the first take,” Ellen recalled. Meanwhile, director Peter Horton added, “If you look in the episode, you will see the stunt girl hit her head. We left that in. It had been very effective. But we used part of Ellen’s take, which is the part she never remembers. We never would have put her in jeopardy. We pulled her much slower than we pulled the stunt double.”
The episode aired after the Super Bowl in 2006 and was viewed by 25.42 million people.
11. Since the series has been running for so long, some “newer” characters have now been in more episodes than
the originals often associated with the show. For example, Camilla Luddington, who stars as Dr. Jo Wilson, joined Grey’s Anatomy in Season 9. She’s now starred in more episodes than Patrick Dempsey and Sandra Oh.
Two close-ups of Camilla Luddington as Jo Wilson in Season 9 vs. Season 21
As of right now, Camilla has appeared in 268 episodes. Meanwhile, Patrick starred in 251, and Sandra was in 220. While Patrick has returned to the show following his exit in 2015, Sandra was last seen on the show in 2014.
12. Originally, Bailey was going to get shot in the memorable hospital shooting episodes that ended Season 6. In a blog post in 2010, Shonda Rhimes wrote, “In my first draft of Part 1, Gary Clark shot Bailey. Bailey. He shot her. And I wrote it and then I couldn’t sleep, for days and days, I could not sleep and I had to remove it from the script. Bailey getting shot was just too much for me. She’s our anchor. She’s the soul. Mer is the heart but Bailey is the soul and so I had to delete it.”
Bailey sobbing over Charles as he bleeds out on the floor of the hospital after getting shot
“I knew that would’ve been the best story, but then I realized that I could tell the same story if she was busy trying to keep people alive, and then we were going to have more story for afterwards, in terms of her trauma and stuff” Shonda recalled to EW in 2025.
Speaking about if she changed storylines for characters after writing something at other moments, she added, “There are moments, and there are a lot of times I’ll write something, and I’ll sleep on it and go, ‘That’s not right. That’s not the right story.’ It’s not that I can’t bear it or I don’t want to do it. If it’s not the right story, it’s not the right story.”
13. Throughout the show’s run, some actors have pitched story ideas that have made it into episodes. One of the most memorable was Sandra Oh telling Shonda Rhimes, “I think I can pull off a scene in which I can’t stop crying,” and that’s how the episode with Cristina’s crying breakdown in Season 2 was born.
Sandra Oh as Cristina sobbing and yelling, "Somebody sedate me"
In an interview with Oprah in 2005, Shonda added, “I wasn’t sure how we’d work that in, but I started thinking, ‘This is the perfect way to handle the fact that Cristina Yang never deals with her feelings.’ There had to be a point where we see someone who’s deeply in control just come apart. We thought that could be funny.”
14. Callie and Arizona’s relationship came from Jessica Capshaw and Sara Ramirez’s undeniable chemistry. In fact, Arizona was originally only going to appear in three episodes; however, after Shonda Rhimes and the writers saw her chemistry with Sara, they decided to keep her around to explore that storyline. Jessica told NBC News, “Shonda had this idea that my character could present a storyline for Callie. It was an experiment to see what worked. It just kind of kept working.”
Arizona telling Callie that there will be people lining up for her when she's ready, and then Arizona surprises Callie by kissing her
Of course, Callie and Arizona became not only one of the biggest Grey’s couples, but an important LGBTQ relationship on TV in general. Jessica went on to star in 225 episodes of the series.
15. According to Shonda Rhimes, the toughest scene to find the perfect music for was in the Season 10 finale when Cristina and Meredith danced it out one last time. “The battle of what song to put into the show was brutal because it had to feel joyous and nostalgic and sad at the same time,” Shonda told Billboard.
Cristina and Meredith dancing it out and smiling
Ultimately, the show landed on using Tegan & Sara’s “Where Does The Good Go,” which was also used in Season 1, Episode 4. Shonda added, “It ended up being perfect.”
16. The cast found out that Chyler Leigh would be leaving Grey’s Anatomy during the Season 8 finale table read. Prior to the cast reading the script together for the first time, the only people who knew about Lexie’s death were Chyler and Shonda Rhimes. Due to contract negotiations happening with several cast members, Shonda actually wrote two different cliffhangers for the plane crash because she didn’t know who would be returning for Season 9.
Mark telling Lexie he loves her as she dies and looks at him with tears in her eyes
“Literally, up until the day before the table read, I was taking this whole thing apart and putting it back together,” Shonda recalled to E! News in 2012. “But by the time we got to the day before the table read, I then knew what was going to be happening with the contract negotiations, which turned the tables.”
17. Shonda Rhimes would pitch the finale episode first before she knew what the first episode of a season would be. In a blog post in 2008, Shonda wrote, “Right after we finished filming the finale of Season Three, I sat down with the Grey’s writing staff and I pitched them the last scene of Season Four. That’s how I do it. I start at the end. When Season Two concluded, I pitched the image of Cristina tearing off her wedding dress and crying in Meredith’s arms.”
Meredith standing in front of a house made of candles and telling Derek she'd rather they be extraordinary together rather than ordinary apart
For the Season 6 finale, which featured the hospital shooting, Shonda said in a blog post in 2010 that as she and the writers were working towards the already pitched finale, she realized how hard this was going to be to pull off. She added, “It hurt to write this finale. It literally hurt me.”
She added, “On an almost daily basis, I would come into work and throw myself down on the sofa in the middle of the office and burst into tears like a…well, like a bitch baby. And I would tell the other Grey’s writers, ‘I don’t think I can do this. It’s too horrible. People are getting hurt. That man is shooting them.’ Buckets of bitch baby tears.”
18. There are some superstitions behind the scenes at Grey’s Anatomy. Jessica Capshaw and Camilla Luddington revealed the long-running superstition that anyone who upgrades their cast chair to a plushier one would be let go soon after. “I think the last person that bought a chair was… she was let go,” Jessica said in an episode of their podcast Call It What It Is. And Camilla added, “There are legends when you come on our show. There are myths.”
Camilla Luddington / Instagram / Via instagram.com
Camilla also said that this is also the reason she has never decorated her trailer. She revealed to Jessica and guest Chyler Leigh in the same podcast episode that she took over Eric Dane’s trailer in Season 9 and has never once decorated it in 13 years. “It’s the kiss of death,” Camilla said.
19. In the Season 5 finale, Derek and Meredith’s Post-it Note marriage was built on screen, which is rare, according to Grey’s Anatomy propmaster Angela Whiting. While filming the scene, Patrick Dempsey actually wrote the vows on the Post-it, even though we never actually see what he’s writing on screen. She told BuzzFeed in 2013, “He could have been writing the Lord’s Prayer for all we know as viewers. But he wasn’t. He was writing the dialogue, and it was lovely.”
Meredith smiling at Derek as he signs a blue Post-it note, which symbolizes their wedding
The Post-it Note has appeared several times throughout the series following Season 5. It notably hung above Derek and Meredith’s bed.
20. In the Season 15 episode, “Silent All These Years,” where a victim of sexual assault is ushered through the hallway by the women of Grey Sloan; the scene is made up of actors from the show, but also writers, crew, assistants, and more. Then-showrunner Krista Vernoff recalled to Vulture in 2019, “Pretty much everyone, every woman in the room came up to us and said, ‘I want to be in that scene … I’m willing to lose a day’s pay, can I just be in the scene?’ Because we are lucky to work at Shondaland, we made it possible for everyone who wanted to be in the scene to be in the scene without losing any pay.”
A hallway lined with various female medical professionals in a scene from "Grey's Anatomy"
She also told EW in 2019, “From the moment the script was published, there was a big reaction to it at Shondaland. Everybody was blown away. We started having people come up and ask if they could be in that scene.”
21. And finally, even though Grey’s Anatomy has done a lot of wild storylines over the course of 21+ seasons, Shonda Rhimes said the only story she had to “fight to do” was the musical episode in Season 7 after Callie was in a car crash. She told EW in 2025, “I’ll be forever bitter about that because it wasn’t that big a deal. It wasn’t that hard. We knew how to make the show. I will be forever bitter about the fact [I had] to fight for that.”
Callie singing over her bed in the musical episode
She continued, saying, “I’ve had some epic scrapes with broadcast standards and practices, but interestingly enough, there was not a lot of fighting for things on Grey’s.”
