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oncetherewasaway	May 31 2007, 12:46 AM
McEditor Posts: 1,625 Group: .Grey Girls. Member #23 Joined: October 25, 2006	As audience's hair grays, network execs pull theirs out - Friday, July 13, 2007 Turning 40 can be a bit traumatic. Nobody but your parents will ever think you're young again. It's just a number, the saying goes, but it's a number that scares the daylights out of TV network executives. Every year a new batch of statistics is dumped on their doorsteps saying that, despite their best efforts, their prime-time audience is growing grayer. The news got worse this year when research firm Magna Global USA announced that, for the first time in its history, the median age of the viewers of all four big broadcast networks crept past the big 4-0. (A median age of 40 would mean they had as many viewers over 40 as under.) .........(cont’d) http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.d...STS15/707130327 Buffalo News, February 4, 2006 Excerpts from : Life is a dream on "Grey's Anatomy" for Patrick Dempsey By Alan Pergament - NEWS TV CRITIC ***** Dempsey said he has no plans to leave "Grey's," whose success will depend on how long Rhimes can keep up all the romantic entanglements in the medical series. ** Rhimes was fortunate that a pilot for another series that Walsh made last season didn't become a series. If it had, the role of Addison and the love triangle story line wouldn't have continued. Dempsey concedes that the moment Dr. McDreamy told his wife that he was in love with Meredith jolted him as much as it did this critic. Addison did have an affair with his best friend, but still . . .Asked what his wife would have done if he ever had a conversation like that, Dempsey said: "Under those circumstances, she'd slug me, most likely. Or she would leave. . . . Yeah, I am wrestling with it as well." "It is clearly, you know, Shonda Rhimes' show and she has a very clear path where she is taking these characters . . . You can go into her office and say 'I don't buy this because I personally would not make this choice. If he doesn't have a child with this woman, why is he staying in the relationship? What is it about this relationship that he needs to invest in? "That is slowly coming out. We get little bits and pieces as the episodes go on. It's about the ring, it's about the commitment and I'm sort of basing it on that. Even though the vows have been broken, he does feel he needs to at least commit to what he did on the altar and work through it in order to get past it so he doesn't create that mistake again, so he can then go on and hopefully be with Meredith. But we'll see." ********* It is unclear if Dr. McDreamy will eventually decide whether Meredith is his princess. Rhimes said she knows what the last scene in the series finale will be years from now. Dempsey says he likes the final scene. "I think she has it really well thought out," said Dempsey. Buffalo News, May 14, 2006 Ellen Pompeo struggles to survive 'Grey's Anatomy' By Kate O'Hare - ZAP2IT In some projects, actors have a great deal of influence over their characters, but most of the time, they just learn the lines, show up and try to make it seem real for the audience. Very often, just like fans, they look at characters' actions and say, "Huh?" That's frequently true for Ellen Pompeo, who plays romantically confused surgical intern Meredith Grey on the hit ABC medical melodrama "Grey's Anatomy," which closes out its second season with a three-part finale (one hour airs tonight and the next two on Monday). The series launched with Meredith's one-night-stand, which turned into a major complication when her paramour was revealed to be Dr. Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey), a top surgeon at her Seattle hospital. Worse yet, he also turned out to be married -- which didn't stop the mutual attraction or flirtation. "It's done very much on purpose," says Pompeo of Meredith's quirks and flaws, "to create a female lead character who is very flawed. Shonda (Rhimes, the series' creator and co-executive producer) feels like she's diving into new waters there. You know, I don't really have much of a say. I just show up and say my lines. There's no collaboration on the characters and the writing. This is a 9-to-5 job. I have to show up and say what they write. "Some of the individual scenes I struggle with, and that's OK, because if it's a struggle, I'm learning. My biggest fear about doing a series television show is that I would be bored. But at the same time, there are episodes where I struggle with the choices that Meredith makes. So something I say a lot is, 'Why hasn't she learned this lesson? Why hasn't she learned any lesson? Why does she keep making these stupid mistakes?' "She's smart enough to make it through medical school, but she can't figure out that she shouldn't be sleeping with strangers." Of course, there are worse things than sleeping with strangers. As she pined for Shepherd -- nicknamed "McDreamy" -- Meredith ignored the steadfast admiration of fellow intern and roommate George O'Malley (T.R. Knight). At a low point this season, Meredith gave in and slept with George before bursting into tears of remorse and spurning him. That caused a serious rift that affected both their personal and professional lives.Admitting that Meredith's choices frustrate her "all the time," Pompeo says, "Sleeping with George was definitely, definitely, definitely a top frustrating moment. I just didn't understand why she would make such a massive mistake and sleep with someone who is close to her. I just can't. I could never justify it, and I still can't. "That's probably the most frustrating thing." Many fans don't understand Meredith's actions either, to which Pompeo says, "Well, Shonda understands it, and that's all that matters. In series television, they need these catastrophic events to happen, to supply the next five episodes with material. "It's a catalyst for all the little waterfalls that have to happen, so I understand it from a writing standpoint, why things happen. But you do have to bring them to life, and when you don't understand something, it's quite difficult to do that." "Grey's Anatomy" marks Pompeo's first gig as a TV series regular, and she didn't come to the job through the normal audition process. She had screen-tested for another ABC pilot about the Secret Service, but then-ABC chief Lloyd Braun didn't think she was right for the part. It eventually went to "Prison Break" star Sarah Wayne Callies, but the show didn't get picked up. "To his credit," Pompeo says, "Lloyd said, 'She's not right for this, but she's right for this untitled Shonda Rhimes pilot.' He just didn't slam the door in my face. He slammed one door but opened this one." San Jose Mercury News, February 5, 2006 'Grey's Anatomy' fans tune in for the complications: IT'S A 'RELATIONSHIP SHOW,' WITH A LITTLE SURGERY MIXED IN By Charlie McCollum Early last year, Shonda Rhimes, the creator and executive producer of ABC's "Grey's Anatomy," had a vision. Rhimes and her cast and crew had filmed 13 episodes of the hospital drama, but the network had yet to decide when (or even if) the series would make it onto the schedule. At that point, she told one of the show's other producers that "if this show never goes, I'll just be selling episodes out of the trunk of my car. I could just hear me saying, 'Want some "Grey's Anatomy?" A little bit of "Grey's Anatomy" over here!' " But Rhimes never had the chance to try out her skill at street corner sales. "Grey's Anatomy" became last season's biggest surprise hit. Thrown onto ABC's Sunday night schedule in March as a temporary replacement for "Boston Legal," the show about the loves and relationships of interns at Seattle Grace Hospital took off with viewers almost immediately, quickly eclipsing "Legal" in the ratings. When it returned in September, its audience jumped to 20 million and it became ABC's most talked-about Sunday show, out-buzzing "Desperate Housewives." Co-star Sandra Oh ("Sideways") was nominated for an Emmy and last month won a Golden Globe for her performance. The series recently finished fourth in Television Week's semiannual TV critics' poll of top shows. And tonight, it gets the viewer-rich spot behind ABC's coverage of Super Bowl XL, a coveted showcase for any series. "We chose it because it's one of the best shows on television, and it's gaining momentum," says Stephen McPherson, president of ABC Entertainment. "It's going to be a huge part of our future, and so we want to give it every boost we can." Rhimes -- who hadn't done series television until "Anatomy" -- says the key to the show's success is that it isn't a typical hospital drama even though it includes the trappings of high-tension surgery and peculiar, hard-to-diagnose illnesses. (She bridles when it gets compared to "ER," which she calls "that other show.") "We're a relationship show with surgery in it," says Rhimes, one of the few African-American executive producers in television. "I've said that before, and I'll say it again." The core of "Anatomy" is a group of five interns: Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo), trying to follow in the footsteps of her famous mother; overachieving, sharp-tongued Cristina Yang (Oh); Izzie Stevens (Katherine Heigel), who financed medical school by being a lingerie model; lovable loser George O'Malley (T.R. Knight), who has become more lovable and less of a loser over time; and hunky Alex Karev (Justin Chambers), who is not as good a doctor as he seems at first glance. Swirling around the group are the more established doctors at the hospital. Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson) is the "Nazi" who oversees the interns. Chief of surgery Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.) has had a long relationship with Grey's mother (Kate Burton). Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey) and Preston Burke (Isaiah Washington) are the hotshot surgeons. The pivot point of "Anatomy" from the very first episode has been the relationship between Grey and Shepherd, often referred to as "Dr. McDreamy." The two slept together in the show's very first scene -- she didn't know he was a doctor -- and things got really complicated at the end of Season One when his previously unmentioned wife and fellow surgeon, Addison (Kate Walsh), showed up at Seattle Grace. Over the summer, Dempsey says, "I was despised. Old ladies at the airport would yell at me, 'You are awful. How dare you do that to Meredith!?' " Meanwhile, Walsh -- who was born and raised in San Jose -- says Rhimes was "afraid that viewers might chase me in the streets with torches and stone me." But Addison Shepherd, like the other characters in the show, has become so complex that Walsh says people now come up to her and say, "I really wanted to hate you, but I couldn't. I ended up liking you." Rhimes says all of the characters are "a little bit like me. There's something about the interns that's very clearly part of my personality. "George always does the thing you so hope you're not going to do in public. That's definitely me. Izzie is very sort of optimistic about everything turning out fine. That's me on certain days. Cristina has absolutely no emotional filter and says whatever comes out of her mouth, no matter how harsh it can be. That's me a lot of the time." And Meredith, Rhimes says, is "a lead character who is flawed. She's not always nice. She doesn't always do the perfect thing. She doesn't always say the perfect thing. She is somebody without a home, without a family, without ties. And she's a woman who, on many a bad day, goes to a bar, gets drunk, picks up a boy and brings him home. "She's a little screwed-up, and that's what makes her interesting." Rhimes admits to having been so uncertain about the future of "Anatomy" that she "threw everything I knew that I wanted to happen to the characters into the first 13 episodes -- and then had to start again" this season. (The current season actually will be longer than usual for dramas: 27 episodes, including four that originally were supposed to air in Season One. When the show became a hit and was renewed, ABC decided to hold the episodes until the fall.) Trying to pry information out of Rhimes about where "Anatomy" is going and how the characters will develop is an exercise in futility. (Ditto the cast members, who are under a very strict gag order from their boss.) For example, Rhimes refuses to talk about the post-Super Bowl episode except to say (which you can tell from the promos) that it involves a code black -- hospital speak for a bomb threat. "One of the things I feel really strongly about is knowing what's going to happen on an episode of television before you see it. It just seems like a waste," she says. "To me, the show is more interesting because nobody knows what's going to happen next." And Rhimes is trying to keep her distance from suggestions about how the relationships on the show should evolve. "It's really hard not to be influenced because people come up to you and say, 'Why aren't Derek and Meredith together?' or 'When are you going to do this or that?' I'm really trying hard not to be influenced by all that and just stay with what the characters would do." The Houston Chronicle,March 30, 2006 Simple as falling off a blog; Getting hooked is easy, especially with Grey Matter BYLINE: MARY VUONG, Staff Life stops when great blogs surface. This month I discovered Grey Matter, which features the often entertaining musings of writers from "Grey's Anatomy". The night I stumbled onto www.greyswriters.com turned into early morning, easily. To think I'd just weaned myself off my previous addiction, TVgasm's take on "Laguna Beach". I found www.tvgasm.com during the second season of the soap opera of a reality show and it quickly became my weekly dose of profanity-laced, deliciously clever snarkiness. TV blogs at their best deliver smart analysis and scoops, either straight from the source or from a witty fan, whenever and wherever you want it. They extend the experience of a must-see show and offer viewers a chance to digest the plot and anticipate what's next. The Internet is bursting with such blogs. Those with the respective show's stamp of approval include Grey Matter, Confessions of a Mad Soap Opera Star (fans of Dixie on "All My Children" should head to www.cadysconfessions.com) and Dave's Diatribe (that's Dave on " Invasion"; www.didyouseethelights.com). Unaffiliated blogs include TVgasm and the Chronicle's Tubular at blogs.chron.com/tubular.Here's the thing about these blogs: It's not the entries that suck up my time; it's the comments. The lazy/insulting/inquisitive/lame/ funny remarks that cause the hours to pass so freely. On Grey Matter, after George had sex with longtime crush Meredith, 1,300-plus opinions flooded in following the related post. The entry recapping the scandalous "Laguna Beach" episode when Jason kissed ex Jessica in front of current love LC prompted more than 700 comments.I'm not 'fessing up to reading all of them, but certainly enough to get that blogs can be an intensely personal thing for readers. When you're dealing with their fictional best friends and enemies, it's doubly personal.Take the unsatisfying Grey's post on March 13. The two writers who blogged dwelled on how great guest star Natalie Cole was and what a fabulous time they had at creator Shonda Rhimes' Super Bowl party. Such tidbits are swell, but fans tune in to relationship-heavy "Grey's Anatomy" for the relationships. We look to the blog for insight on why George and Meredith hooked up. Or why should we root for Meredith/Addison instead of Addison/Meredith when it comes to the impossibly dreamy McDreamy. Throw us a bone, a scoop, "anything", regarding next week's episode. Many blog readers found the post lacking and said so. Declared one: "Where's the insight and layers of meaning. WE NEED MORE!!!! Hello? McDreamy was dreamy with his wife for the first time we've ever seen. MUST HAVE MORE INFO!!!" Note the capitalization and punctuation. "Even though it started out as a behind-the-scenes (look)," co-executive producer and writer Mark Wilding says in a phone interview, "people respond much more about what we think of the characters." Wilding, who penned the Dec. 4 episode involving real leeches and fake quintuplets, decided to blog about the mechanics of putting such things on camera. "People weren't interested (in) that at all," he admits, laughing. "They wanted to know what I think about Meredith and Derek." While the writers definitely read the comments section, it usually doesn't influence future story lines, Wilding says. The show's mix of comedy and drama, with themes including love, rejection and death, resonates with the average human being. The very mockable "Laguna Beach", currently on hiatus, is a different animal. In a reality show that revolves around, like, teenage infatuations, shopping and surfing, viewers such as myself need affirmation that our guilty pleasure is acceptable, that it isn't strange for a 20-something to enjoy MTV's production about tan teens from the real O.C. enduring semi-manufactured angst. TVgasm fulfills this need. B-Side the blogger, a 27-year-old Dartmouth grad in Los Angeles, first tuned in because "it looked amusing," he says in a phone interview. "I liked it. (But) I wasn't crazy about "Laguna Beach"." Plenty of viewers are, though; just peek at the comments trailing his laugh-out-loud funny posts. Sure, the teen drama, which capitalizes on the viewers' own high school nostalgia, is relatable. But it's also an ego boost. Meaning: Thank God I was never that whiny/spoiled/airheaded. "I think there are a lot of people out there who are stuck at work and are bored and they want to talk about (their show)," B-Side says. "We like to think our readers are smart people." So have TV blogs replaced water-cooler chatter? B-Side doesn't think so. He says they've enhanced it - now fans not only discuss what happened on their favorite show, they're talking about what the bloggers will say or have said or "what some jerk in the comments section just said." But with "Laguna Beach" on hiatus and "Grey's Anatomy "winding down its season, I'm in serious withdrawal. I need another blog.


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