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oncetherewasaway	May 31 2007, 12:53 AM
McEditor Posts: 1,625 Group: .Grey Girls. Member #23 Joined: October 25, 2006	Buffalo News July 26, 2006 A sneak peek at the operations of 'Grey's Anatomy' By Alan Pergament - NEWS TV CRITIC Sandra Oh heard a stunning rumor inside the operating room of "Grey's Anatomy" about an absent cast member and immediately had to share it with co-star Ellen Pompeo. "Is Isaiah Washington [Dr. Preston Burke] leaving?" asked Oh, who plays Burke's love interest, Cristina Yang. "Nooooo," said a perplexed Pompeo. "Where is he going?" "I don't know," said Oh. "What is Yang going to do?" asked Pompeo playfully. "Wow, you'll be more pathetic. You have to move on. ... We'll have to go to the bar and have a drink, and I'll tell you the inappropriate things that you did." Of course, the two actresses, who were sharing a good laugh, had no idea if that dead wrong rumor or any rumor concerning ABC's smash-hit hospital series has any validity, because creator Shonda Rhimes is legendary for keeping story lines to herself. That hasn't changed. The series, which moves to 9 p.m. Thursday this fall to face TV's top-rated drama, "CSI," ended its second season in chaos. Intern Isobel "Izzy" Stevens (Katherine Heigl) quit after her beloved heart patient, Denny, died. Dr. Burke's surgical career was in jeopardy after he was shot delivering Denny's heart. And the love life of Derek "Dr. McDreamy" Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey) was in turmoil after he had sex with Meredith (Pompeo), the intern he fell in love before his estranged, cheating wife, Addison (Kate Walsh), showed up in season one to try and reconcile. Rhimes welcomed critics to the set at ABC's Prospect Studios by saying she wasn't going to reveal much other than Diahann Carroll will be an early guest star. "I can't tell you what she is playing, or what disease she's got or if she's got a disease at all," she said. She added the first episode basically takes place hours after the season finale ended. "So it's a not as if we're going to do a big leap forward in time and everybody is going to be fine. . . . I don't do that." With that, I scurried around the hospital trying to grab as many stars as possible to see what their hopes and dreams are for their characters. I caught up with Dr. McDreamy in the locker room. "I've never been in here," said Dempsey, who played a divorce lawyer in a movie, "Enchanted," during the show's hiatus. "It is the complete opposite of McDreamy, which is nice," Dempsey said. Does he expect all the interns to keep their jobs after breaking so many rules and laws in an attempt to save the life of the patient Izzy fell in love with? "It's a soap opera," said Dempsey. "It's complete entertainment, and it's not real. People like the fantasy in the story lines and hopefully they don't take it too far out, where it is absurd. . . . I think we'll see what happens with Izzy. There are repercussions legally of what she is going to go through. And I think that would be an interesting process." Izzy's status may be secondary among fans who are more concerned with the love triangle. "I think he's probably going to end up with Meredith, especially after [the finale]," Dempsey said. "I think he should have somebody completely new. . . . I think we have to make a decision and move forward, and I think that's what we're going to do." Why choose Meredith? "I think there is too much history under the bridge with Addison, and they need to move on," he said. "And I think it would be more interesting to explore a couple in a workplace going through a divorce than it would be to go in an opposite direction." He thinks the relationship with Meredith should be explored quickly. "I don't know if he necessarily ends up with her," Dempsey said. "I think they should explore where does this relationship go with all the mistakes they have made? What would be the next step? I think you should move on and explore what they do now as opposed to following her and looking at her longingly and going, 'What are you doing?' I think it castrates him too much, and he needs to get his masculinity back. I think it is very important that Derek does not lose his masculine energy and gets castrated by the women. He needs to stand up for himself." Heigl was standing up in the operating room, saying she was uncertain of Izzy's future. Or her own. She doesn't think Izzy should get her old job back. "I don't think this is something that she should pursue anymore," Heigl said. "If she wants to continue to be a doctor, she needs to find another form, another way of doing that. And if she does decide to come back to surgery and keep up this mad race to become a surgeon, I think she needs to find a new heart to do that. She can't be Izzy and do that." Heigl said she hasn't asked to leave the show but is taking nothing for granted and joked maybe Izzy will become a veterinarian's assistant. "All I know is I'm here now," Heigl said. "I'm making no assumptions about anything anymore. Everything is a risk. Watch 'Lost.' I don't want to assume my job is safe. I don't know." In the operating room clutching a BlackBerry, Pompeo said the public is split between having Meredith pick McDreamy or Finn (Chris O'Donnell), the vet Meredith had been dating."I think it's hard, because Finn is a very nice guy," Pompeo said. "And very cute, too." Asked if she had ever heard that Meredith is needy and whiny, Pompeo defended her character. "I think she's a girl who is madly in love with McDreamy," she said. "If she needs anything, she needs McDreamy." Pompeo spent her summer promoting the series in Europe, where it is wildly popular, and hobnobbing with Prince Albert rather than doing a film like Dempsey. "[Patrick] has more energy than me, he's a race-car driver," she said. "I opted for a free trip to Europe and hanging out with the Prince [Albert]. Call me crazy." I caught up with Walsh near a coffee machine, far from the operating room. She agreed that the love triangle had played itself out, predicted a swift resolution and was amused by Dempsey's castration remark concerning McDreamy. "Oh, boo hoo," deadpanned Walsh. "The second sexiest man [according to People magazine] in America feeling castrated." Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN) September 20, 2006 FALL TV SEASON; A TRICKY OPERATION; BYLINE: Neal Justin, Staff Writer By all practical standards of TV medicine, when "Grey's Anatomy" returns for its third season Thursday night it should be dead on arrival.What premiered on ABC in March 2005 as a bittersweet romantic comedy in scrubs became more and more crowded with ridiculous story lines - There's a bomb inside a patient's chest! Izzie steals a heart for her dying lover! George goes turkey hunting! - that threatened to ruin its glowing reputation. They didn't. In fact, "Grey's" second season earned 11 Emmy nominations and a loyal audience of 20 million fans, making it one of America's most popular water-cooler programs. CBS entertainment president Nina Tassler went so far as to label her time-slot competing program, "CSI," as an underdog, even though it's the No. 1 drama on the air. The ongoing success of "Grey's" is due to creator Shonda Rhimes, whose bizarre twists and turns are not the result of desperation, but rather the byproducts of a vivid, committed imagination that people find positively mcdreamy."I'm 12 years old inside my head," Rhimes said. "As far as I'm concerned, the characters do what they're supposed to do." Cast members express universal admiration for Rhimes, but admit that even they were taken aback by some of the plots, particularly the one in the three-part season finale that forced them to dress in tuxedos and ball gowns for a hospital dance. "When we first saw the prom script, we were like, `Whoa! Aren't we jumping the shark?' " said Kate Walsh, who plays Addison Shepherd, a doctor trying to save her marriage to Patrick Dempsey's Derek Shepherd. Executive producer Peter Horton also worried that the cliffhanger might "jump the shark," a pop-culture term that has its origins in the creative downturn of "Happy Days," when Fonzie literally waterskied over a chomper.But Horton said the show continuously saves itself by mixing the silly with the solemn."We're constantly wobbling down a narrow path, keeping it dramatic, yet funny; keeping it light, yet meaningful; keeping it moving, but also ironic," he said. "The show is really a reflection of who Shonda is. She's got a real sense of sentimentality, but underneath is this spin, this darkness that keeps it grounded. What we do is try to capture it." The "prom episode" certainly had its goofy moments, but it also ended with the death of Denny, the boyfriend of Dr. Izzie Stevens, a moment that even had Rhimes in tears, even though the shocker was her devious idea."People were really invested in that relationship," said Katherine Heigl, who plays Stevens. "I got a lot of sympathy from fans. They were very heartbroken that he died." In the season finale's closing moments, Stevens handed in her resignation and stormed out of the hospital, which was fitting, because at Seattle Grace, it's the women who get the dramatic exits. It's the women who instigate the one-night stands. It's the women who both save the day and screw it up. That's smart, considering that females make up the majority of prime-time viewers. It's also a lot of fun."We're getting some great flawed women on TV," said Rhimes, also referring to "Weeds" and "The Closer." "I don't remember a lot of them before. They were portrayed more like the way men wanted them to be. In our show, the men are a little bit more of the eye candy." "Grey's" men might be the object of ogling - is there a hotter hunk on the airwaves today than Patrick Dempsey? - but that doesn't mean they're just walking around in a thong and looking pretty.One of the more fascinating characters last season was Dr. Richard Webber, who originally appeared to be just an authority figure but has developed into a three-dimension being since we've learned that he's a recovering alcoholic and that he once had an affair with an intern's mother, now suffering from Alzheimer's."It's like this wonderful onion," said James Pickens Jr., who plays the role. "You keep peeling away all these layers." So what lies beneath for season three? Everyone involved with the show is tight-lipped, but we do know this: Sara Ramirez, who plays George's love interest, is now a series regular, which means we'll soon learn why she's living in the hospital basement. Heigl remains with the show, so she'll be staying in the interns' lives in some capacity. Dr. Preston Burke (Isaiah Washington) will struggle with his surgical skills after being shot in the hand. And Meredith (Ellen Pompeo), torn between two lovers, will pick ... Christina.Hey, it could happen. If there's anything we've learned about "Grey's" it's that Rhimes could take us anywhere. Plain Dealer (Cleveland) February 18, 2007 Grey's catastrophe; Is Meredith really dead or is it just a sweeps-month stunt? BYLINE: Mark Dawidziak, Plain Dealer Television Critic Cleveland native James Pickens Jr. gave "Grey's Anatomy" fans the alarming news near the end of Thursday night's episode. Playing Richard Webber, Seattle Grace Hospital's chief of surgery, he told the team trying to save the life of intern Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo), "We're losing her." In the next instant, you could hear the "say-it-ain't-so" scream echoing through the many fan forums and message boards devoted to ABC's hit medical drama. Can it be true? Are the producers really going to kill off Meredith? Could these fans be losing her? The chief's heart-stopping words carried the weight of prognosis, pronouncement and prediction. The closing scene of the episode gave the words added weight by showing Meredith in a shadowy near-death world. She asked if this meant she was dead. She was told in no uncertain terms, you just went flat-line. Now hold on for a McMinute, folks. Before you assume the worst, let me remind you that February is a sweeps month, when ratings determine what local stations can charge for advertising. It's one of those periods when producers are asked to cook up the most buzzworthy twists and shocking plots.It's certainly conceivable that a writer-producer as daring as Shonda Rhimes might go so far as to bump off the Grey of "Grey's Anatomy." But the TV critic's prognosis says, "If it looks like a sweeps stunt and sounds like a sweeps stunt and smells like a sweeps stunt, it probably is a sweeps stunt." Remember just a few weeks ago there was all that speculation about (gasp!) William Petersen leaving "CSI," the CBS crime drama scheduled against "Grey's Anatomy" at 9 p.m. Thursday? "CSI" without lead investigator Gil Grissom? It seemed equally unthinkable, but the gossip spiked when Liev Schreiber was brought in during the Petersen sabbatical.Were we looking at Gil's ultimate replacement? Yeah, right. Here we are in February sweeps, and (surprise!) Gil is back on the team while Schreiber's character is, well, no longer living. Am I strongly suggesting that, despite Thursday's ending, Meredith's fate may not be sealed? I am.Thursday's episode was the middle installment of a three-part February sweeps-month story. "Grey's Anatomy" fans were drowning in doubt and worry when the episode started.That's because, in the show airing Feb. 8, Meredith and several Grace Hospital doctors raced to the scene of a ferry disaster. At the conclusion of part one, she was knocked off the pier and into the water. That sparked a week of cyberchatter as fans wondered if Rhimes had set them up for a long, sad walk off a short, dramatic pier. With Meredith in the drink, their hearts sank."You still out there?" Rhimes asked "Grey's Anatomy" viewers on her blog. "Or are you yelling and screaming at your TV sets and cursing my name for throwing Meredith into the water and then rolling the credits on you?" Rhimes gave some tantalizing clues about the significance of the ferry disaster and the lost little girl."Ferry boats are a metaphor for Meredith, you know," she told fans. "What I was interested in was Meredith and how she was doing after being hurt by her mother. And the devastation of the ferry boat was the best way to physicalize Meredith's pain." Are there any good signs for Meredith? Those looking for comfort on Rhimes' blog found only dark hints. "I want to be clear with you: I don't put people in the water for no reason," Rhimes wrote. "Meredith's got issues, she's got serious Mommy issues and she's broken and she's in the water." She was pulled out of the water during Thursday's episode by a devastated Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey). She was rushed to the hospital, where Webber and his team worked furiously to save her. "Like I said, disappearances happen," Meredith told us in the opening narration. "Blood stops running, and people . . . people fade away." Yikes! Even more ominously, Rhimes dropped this line in her blog: "I'm not entirely playing by the rules of TV here." Perhaps not. Then again, maybe she is. It's an old sweeps move to put a beloved character into peril and keep the outcome in doubt. There's obviously plenty of wiggle room to save Meredith. Thursday's ending could have been a near-death experience for "our girl," and near death isn't quite death, is it? It would be a risky operation to remove the Grey from "Grey's Anatomy," and you have to think that ABC Entertainment's president, Stephen McPherson, wouldn't allow it. This is the guy, after all, who wouldn't let the creators of "Lost" bump off Jack in the pilot episode. His argument was that viewers would never forgive such a betrayal and never again trust the writers. What do you think he had to say about Meredith? The thought of her demise probably gave him a near-death experience. It's Rhimes' show, but it's his network, and McPherson is the type who would have raced down to the pier and jumped into the water if Meredith was in danger of leaving the series during a season when it's in a neck-and-neck race with "CSI." "I don't want to talk about that," Rhimes wrote in her blog entry about Thursday's final scene. "Meredith being dead at the end of this episode. I can't. Not yet." Although Rhimes has delivered Meredith to death's door, there's no saying she can't and won't pull her back. Personally, I'm betting on the prognosis offered by Izzie (Katherine Heigl): "She will come through this." Bay Area Living, January 16, 2007 HEADLINE: 'Lost' may have end in sight after all Column by Susan Young [Column is about winter TV press tour] ****Excerpt about Grey's***** 'Grey' area "Grey's Anatomy" producer Shonda Rhimes says she never thought about Burke (Isaiah Washington) and Cristina (Sandra Oh) getting together until she began observing the chemistry between the two actors on the set. "I could see there was something special between them, and it inspired me to write more," Rhimes says. What she may or may not know is that was exactly what Washington and Oh had worked so hard to accomplish."Look, we went into this series seeing Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) and Derek (Patrick Dempsey) getting all the good screen time, and we said, 'If we don't do something soon, we're going to fade into the background," Washington says during a quick interview at the ABC party. "So we consciously began playing around on the set, pushing the chemistry and it was noticed, as we knew it would be." Also at the party was San Francisco native Eric Dane, who plays McSteamy, the former best friend of Derek and the man who broke up his marriage to Addison (San Jose's Kate Walsh).Dane is basking in the glow of being on a successful series and says he recently spent time in Lake Tahoe with his wife, Rebecca Gayheart. "I love skiing, but now I'm doing more snowboarding, which I love," Dane says. "Rebecca decided to try it out, and every time she fell I thought, 'Well, this isn't going to last long.' But she was a good sport about it. We were up by Squaw Valley and just had a great time."


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