Season 3 Writer's Blogs

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Season 3 Writer's Blogs; Blogs from Greyswriters.com
Topic Started: Apr 29 2007, 06:34 PM (242 Views)
merdermaid	Apr 29 2007, 06:34 PM Post #1
Posts: 157 Group: Grey Girls Member #254 Joined: April 24, 2007	[size=7]Pre 3.01 "Time Has Come Today" 2.01 Shonda Rhimes[/size] Welcome to Season Three!!! We here at Grey’s are all really excited about the new season and dear God, I hope you are too. I personally was itching to get back to work. I’m not a vacation kind of girl. I’m also clearly not a girl who exists well outside the four walls of Seattle Grace Hospital. I was missing George and the gang. So coming back to work was all about joy. But right now, this minute, today? I’m also kinda nervous. About Thursday nights. I wasn’t. I was fine. I didn’t even feel a twinge. Seriously (sorry for the unwarranted usage of “seriously” this early in the season). But --- seriously. I was feeling no pressure, no pain. What a fun job! I love it! I am a stress-free, happy-go-lucky, glass half full freak of nature! I mean, I was. The head of ABC Steve McPherson (seriously, would it surprise you to know that I secretly call him McFee?) was all, “Shonda, we’re moving you to Thursday” and I was all, “Whoo-hoo!” And I got really super excited. Because Thursday? Is a rocking night for television. I did some dances of joy. Then I woke up this morning and, out of nowhere, found myself FREAKED OUT. Because Thursdays? Is a rocking night for television. And McFee’s a smart man, a brilliant man, a man who has plans (very McVet of him to have plans, right?) and I trust him because…hello? He has done pretty damn well by our show thus far. So I trust him. But still…do me a favor and set your VCRs and your Tivos and most important, plant your heinies in front of the TV Thursday night at 9 pm and watch. Okay? So I don’t burst a blood vessel in my brain from the stress? Because I really love Mer and Der and Burktina and Iz and Alex and George and Callie and Addison and the Chief and Bailey and I’m like this worried Mama whose kid starts a new school and maybe won’t make any friends. Enough about the freaking and the Thursdays. Let’s discuss the thing you guys wanna know about. Which is what’s gonna happen in the first episode. Ready? ??? Okay, yeah, I can’t tell you anything. Not anything in detail. Cause that takes the fun out of watching. But I’ve noticed that a lot of you in the comments section and over on the message boards seem to be dissecting the promos for clues. And all I have to say is…we are going places you can’t imagine. Or maybe you can imagine but you don’t expect. And I want to tell you, really I do but…well, I’m trying to keep it to myself. The first episode is going to take place pretty much where the end of Season Two left off. Because I don’t believe in jumping ahead three months and leaving people scratching their heads and muttering, “Dude…what happened while we were away?” I feel like SO much happened at the end of last season that I owe it to the characters to have them deal with the aftermath. And I owe it to you to let you watch the aftermath. Cause Denny died (yeah, I’m still not over that – I saw Jeff Dean Morgan a week ago at the DVD release party and almost burst into tears of joy and hugged him for about ten minutes because it was like Denny was back and alive and in my arms…but alas, it was just JDM who is super-cute and incredibly talented and has grown this adorably sexy scruffy stubble but is, in fact, not actually Denny anymore because Denny is dead) and Burke got shot and Meredith lost her panties… Those panties…dude, those panties play a big part in the first couple of episodes. Those panties are key. Cause Meredith never put them back on. She rushed out to deal with Izzie and left Derek who was asking “Meredith, what does this mean?” and she never had a chance to put those panties back on. So watch for the panties – and I don’t just mean the shot in the promos that has them on the bulletin board in the hospital. The first episode (which is called “Time Has Come Today”) deals with, not just the aftermath, but also with the past. I encourage you to watch the original very first episode of Grey’s Anatomy from Season One because, if you pay attention to the dialogue and the details, you will be rewarded in this premiere episode with some (hopefully) very interesting tidbits. And I hate the word “tidbits” but it does describe what I mean perfectly. This first episode of Season Three is meant to reward hardcore fans -- it’s also meant to bring us to a place where we can say goodbye to Denny as well as deal with the Mer/Der/Finn of it all. Just remember that nothing is ever wrapped up easily on this show. Because things aren’t neat and clean in real life. Here I should stop. I shouldn’t say anything more. Because I don’t want to tell you too much. Cause I don’t want to ruin it for you. Watch. Thursday night. 9 pm (8 pm if you live in the midWest). Watch and let me know what you think… September 19, 2006 in Shonda Rhimes -------------------------------



merdermaid	Apr 29 2007, 06:34 PM Post #2
Posts: 157 Group: Grey Girls Member #254 Joined: April 24, 2007	[size=7]3.01 "Time Has Come Today" - writer Shonda Rhimes [/size] Original Airdate: 9-22-06 (A word to our Canadian friends: you may not want to read this if you don’t want to know what happens. I’m sorry. I’m so so sorry that happened to you guys. We can’t wait for you to catch up with us next week. Also, I know many spoilers are being posted out there in web-land about next week’s episode but, you should know, we won’t be posting them here. I can’t control what happened but I’m not gonna add to it in any way…) So, it’s good to finally be able to TALK about the episode instead of NOT talk about the episode. I have been dying to discuss this with you all and find out what you think. This episode for me was really a chance to deal with the things that had been haunting me all summer. Especially Izzie. I’d been pretty worried about her, you see. She was in such pain when we left her. And let me tell you, I watched that final scene in Denny’s room where she wouldn’t get out of the bed more times than is probably normal for someone who WROTE the thing. I couldn’t help it -- Katie Heigl’s amazing performance sucks me in every single time. Anyway, I was worried about Izzie. And I knew that she was going to really be suffering when we see her again this season. But I wasn’t sure how to make it clear that she was grieving without having a funeral. And I really didn’t want a funeral – I see them on TV and they never have the impact that a real funeral does. They never have that surreal, horrible sinking feeling you get when sitting at the funeral of someone you care about. There’s a distance to a funeral with TV for me. You sit at a funeral and you find yourself re-living all these moments in time and regretting things… Which is why this episode is about time. And being stuck in a moment. So Izzie is stuck. On the bathroom floor, unable to bring herself to move. Because taking off that dress? Means Denny is really gone. George and Derek are stuck in the locker room, quarantined. Where they end up discussing the merits of love and saying “I love you.” George and Derek are the last two people you’d expect to connect but, here, in this situation, they do. And I think a wonderfully unexpected parallel is drawn between George and his feelings for Callie and Derek and his feelings for Meredith. Bailey is dealing with Omar who is stuck in a room alone, grieving for his wife. And she’s feeling all the guilt in the world over what happened to Denny. Meredith is stuck at home. Taking care of Izzie and feeling trapped by what happened with Derek. And Addison is walking around with a pair of black panties in her purse. Stuck with a group of teenage girls and their parents who won’t claim a newborn baby found in a trash can. Everyone is stuck. And everyone, EVERYONE, is plagued. By the past. The flashbacks were something I’d been wanting to do for a while. I really felt that we needed to see Addison and Derek and the moments after he discovers her in bed with his best friend Mark. Because what Addison did to Derek is SO much worse than what happened between Meredith and Derek in that exam room at the end of the season. I wanted us to remember that she betrayed him long before he betrayed her. And that Addison herself is suffering over her choice to have an affair. I also wanted very badly to reveal the first moment Meredith and Derek meet. It is the night before the interns’ very first shift. And if you remember the first episode of Season One, there was a mixer that night. And there’s Meredith – with her (as George described in the pilot) “black dress, slit up the side, strappy sandals” in the bar. And she meets Derek. And they are so fresh with one another, it’s all so new. There’s none of the baggage that they have now. I just love when Meredith says “so if I know you, I’ll love you?” so SURE that she never will. That he’s just another guy. And when Derek asks Meredith what her story is, she says “I’m just a girl in a bar.” And we KNOW that she’s not – we know about her mother and her daddy issues and her soft spot for sleeping with inappropriate men. But here, she’s just a girl. And Derek says he’s just a guy. But, unlike the first episode of Grey’s Anatomy, we know about his wife. And we just saw his pain at discovering Addison’s infidelity. And this is the “split second”, the moment they meet, that has changed the course of their lives forever. It was a conscious choice on my part to not show Burke until the end except for the flashback at the mixer. Because I wanted you to watch the episode and either a) pine for his presence or B) forget about him – until Cristina walks into his room at the end of the day. Then I wanted the power of what he means to Cristina to overwhelm us when he asks her how she is and then she begins to cry. “Don’t ever die” is one my favorite Cristina lines ever. Look at how much she’s changed since that night at the mixer. Richard and Ellis and Adele – the relationships are changing. You only (purposely) get a taste of what’s to come in this episode but I think it is a potent taste. To have Adele walk out on the Chief…what is he gonna do? And finally, I just want to talk about Callie and her “high school with scalpels” speech: Y’all know how much I love Callie. And how much I love how she loves George. It was really fun to be able to give her these words because it is what I’ve been saying is part of the premise for this show all along – these people are socially stuck in high school because they’ve been science geeks for so long. Okay, my brain is fried from the stress of hoping people watched the premiere so I’m going to stop writing now. Maybe I’ll write more later after I read your thoughts. Thank you for watching. Thank you for checking back in with us. I’ve gotta get back to work so you all have some more episodes to watch!!! September 22, 2006 in Shonda Rhimes -------------------------------



merdermaid	Apr 29 2007, 06:36 PM Post #3
Posts: 157 Group: Grey Girls Member #254 Joined: April 24, 2007	[size=7]More on 3.01 "Time Has Come Today" Shonda Rhimes [/size] A lot of you wrote to protest that I didn’t talk about McVet’s statement to Mer or about McDreamy’s “I love you.” So, here goes… Oooh, wait!! Can I just tell you that, last night, McDreamy told me he loved ME? Okay, not so much McDreamy as Patrick Dempsey and not so much “me” as “working on the show” but still…my heart skipped a little beat just the same to have him utter the words in that voice of his. That man says “I love you” better than anyone on the planet. But he’s married. In real life. And on the show. As much as we like to fantasize, we all have to remember that… Anyway, I was proud of Finn. I was proud of the fact that he comes over to say that he and Meredith aren’t exclusive. He’s pissed but they’re not exclusive. Because, honestly, he doesn’t know what happened in that exam room. He doesn’t even know there WAS an exam room. And he really is a good guy, a strong guy, a guy who feels something for a woman for the first time since his wife’s death. I like that he’s not petty or easily made jealous. I like that he’s confident enough to stick. And I LOVE that he says that Derek is bad for her and he (Finn) is a good thing. There is some truth to it. Given the history of Mer/Der. And Finn is a rescuer-guy. You know, rescuer-guys, right? They’re the ones who are determined to break through the scary/damaged barrier we dark and twisty girls put up. They’re the real thing, rescuer-guys are the guys you marry. The guys you should marry. But then there are the Dereks of the world… Let me say a little something about McDreamy men. They are scary and damaged themselves. They carry a little bit of tortured soul in them. But they mean well. And they’re honest. And they’re so, so, so darn tempting. Especially when they stand in your kitchen say “I just…I love you. I have loved you…forever.” How in the world are we supposed to say no to that? We should. We should send them packing. But…SERIOUSLY? And so Meredith is left with this choice. Between what her brain knows she should do and what her heart wants her to do. And while it seems obvious and easy, it’s absolutely not. Finn has plans. And Derek’s got a wife. And there’s the choice to be healthy and mature and whole and the choice to jump off the cliff. And no one jumps off a cliff without a parachute if they know what is good for them. Plus, it’s not like she doesn’t have feelings for Finn. She definitely has feelings for Finn. And I know Derek says that he loves her but he says it about twenty episodes too late. She stood there and said “pick me, choose me, love me.” She begged him. BEGGED him in the most humble, humiliating, soul-baring way possible. And he chose Addison. He walked away and chose Addison. That would give any girl pause. Major, major pause. Meredith’s pausing. She’s hit the pause button. But, don’t worry, I’m not dragging this out all season. I’m not gonna drag it out very long at all. I like to move things forward. I like to take my finger off the pause button and see what happens next. Okay, that’s all for now. Because I have get back to writing episodes… -Shonda September 23, 2006 in Shonda Rhimes -------------------------------



merdermaid	Apr 29 2007, 06:37 PM Post #4
Posts: 157 Group: Grey Girls Member #254 Joined: April 24, 2007	[size=7]3.02 "I am a Tree" - writer Krista Vernoff [/size] Original Airdate: 9/28/06 Blogging. I used to think it was all fun and games. I used to think it was just li’l ol’ me happily telling stories to you, our most avid fans. Until this morning. Know what happened this morning? The freaking NEW YORK TIMES QUOTED MY BLOG ON THE COVER OF ARTS AND LEISURE. You think I’m kidding, but I’m not. It was traumatizing. Because you know me (you, our most avid fans). And you know by now that I have a little something called Truth Tourettes. I am an over-sharer. I should join over-sharers anonymous. But my intention here is not to over share with the entire readership of the NY Times, dammit! Okay, rant over. I shall now commence with the over sharing: I love McSteamy. I loved him when I introduced you to him in “Yesterday” and I love him even more when he’s standing in a towel at the end of this episode. I wrote it. I saw the dailies when it was shot. And still, when I first watched the cut, my jaw dropped with giddy surprise when I saw him emerge from that bathroom. Love me my McSteamy. Maybe cause he reminds me of my husband whose nickname is “Dirty Chops” cause he is just always saying wildly inappropriate and off-color things and I like that in a man. Also, Eric Dane is um…I don’t want to say anything here that the NY Times will quote and my in-laws will read so…I’m leaving it at Eric Dane is um. You can fill in the rest. Okay, also? I love Izzie in this episode. I love that she bakes like, a gazillion muffins. I love that she’s even functioning enough to put them in pretty baskets and bring them to a bar which may be the most bizarre thing ever. I spent my share of time in bars and I don’t remember there being any muffins. I love what it says that she brings the muffins to the bar. It’s like, this place used to be a part of my life, a part of my routine, and I am clinging desperately to hold on to some vestige of that old life even though it feels over and like nothing will ever be the same again. I love Katie’s performance --- like she hasn’t slept in days. Like baking has replaced sleep and it’s all she can do to move her facial muscles and form words. Cause in my experience that is what it’s like when people you love suddenly die. And I love that she’s not afraid to go there. You just don’t find that many beautiful actresses working in prime time TV willing to spend an entire episode without any make-up – know what I mean? As for Meredith, my inner single girl is flippin’ jealous. Cause really – did you see that bar scene? With McVet walking in all slo-mo and hot and then McDreamy doing the same damn thing? And all the kissing earlier and the almost kissing and the longing and the confusion? Okay, I don’t covet the confusion. Cause while it all looks sexy and pretty on TV – have you ever been torn between two boys who you super like? I have. And a lot of my friends have. (Maybe. Sort of. I might be lying NY Times, you don’t know – so DON’T QUOTE THIS IN ANY PAPERS CASUE I’LL FREAKIN’ DENY IT!!) And I have to say – it really isn’t ever any fun. The confusion is confusing and the heartbreak that always feels imminent is scary -- so freaking scary the idea that you could make the wrong choice and lose the right man -- even the idea that you might make the right choice and lose the wrong man is upsetting when you really, really like them both. Which Meredith does. And how could she not? Seriously. And now I need to talk a little bit about Derek finally being a grown up in his marriage and doing the right thing. And I’m not gonna lie to you – I didn’t feel bad for him that Addison drunk-dialed Mark. I think she had every right. I did feel bad for him however when he sat there on the bed acknowledging that ending his marriage was incredibly sad. Cause I think a lot of Derek’s less McDreamy behavior has been about avoiding that moment right there. The moment where you just have to sit – beyond the blame and anger – and just feel the extraordinary sadness that comes when a relationship ends. Anyway, I was proud of him. Almost as proud as I was of Bailey when she came to talk to Izzie. That woman makes me cry. Bailey. She’s just honest and real and straight forward and good and whole and kind and complicated and I love her. And honestly most of that could describe Chandra Wilson too. She just rocks. She broke my heart when she said “It’s enough muffins.” She broke my heart when she admitted that part of what happened to Denny was her fault. I wish I could go on and on about every single character in this episode, but I have all sorts of stupid work to do in an attempt to bring you more episodes, so let me just say this: I loved that Cristina stripped for Burke. Because all appearances to the contrary, she really isn’t all that selfish. Well, she isn’t only selfish. (And btw – how amazing is Diahann Carol? I don’t feel qualified to blog about her. So that’s all I’ll say. Just…Holy crap, y’know?) I loved when Burke brought his Mama a scone and just stood around stuttering like George. I loved when George was flirting with the little nurse and I loved that he managed to be enough of a grown up to stop in time. I loved when Callie got busted dancing. I LOVE CALLIE. I LOVE HER. And I LOVED her dancing. Don’t write me any meanness about my Callie cause I won’t read it. Plus I’ll get mad when I do read it after I said I won’t. Callie rocks. And she is, to me, about the sexiest woman I’ve ever seen on TV. Finally, can you guess what my very favorite moment in this episode was? It was when Alex followed Dana Seabury to the ladies room. Freakin’ funny. Seriously, Justin Chambers doesn’t get enough credit out there in the world, I think. He’s brilliant. (Quote THAT, NY Times!) Finally, I have to take a moment to write to you about Benjamin. Oh my God, he broke my heart. (And not just because the actor who played him, the brilliant and multi-talented Peter Paige has been one of my very best friends for the last 20 years.) When they had to shock his heart on the table, I burst into tears. (and not just cause I’m four months pregnant and everything makes me cry and it almost killed me to see my Peter looking like he was maybe dying.) I love Benjamin because he makes me laugh. And he really made me think, just like he made Meredith think, about how much we should really run around all day controlling every impulse we have in favor of being “polite.” I mean, life is short, people die – and if your hair conditioner isn’t working, don’t you want some to tell you?? I know that my Peter Paige tells me, which is why he’s my best friend. Finally, I’m going to take this opportunity for a moment of unadulterated self-promotion. A play I wrote, “Me, My Guitar and Don Henley” is opening in New York on October 7th in a tiny little theatre in the East Village. If you are an East Coast dwelling theatre-goer and you like my episodes of Grey’s Anatomy and you like my rambling and over-sharing on this here blog, I think you will like my play, which is, coincidentally, directed by Peter Paige and includes a large amount of over-sharing. If you don’t like my rambling and over sharing? Like, if you’re about to write to me and go, “Stupid Krista! Why do you think we CARE about you and your stupid life? GEEEEEZ – we wanna hear more about Meredith cause you’re stupid, you stupid dummy” – then, um, you probably shouldn’t come see my play. But if you do want to see it, here’s the link. *(rumor has it the NY Times is going to the play too – these people will seriously NOT leave me alone!! Sheesh. …Just kidding. I love you NY Times. I love you and I love your reviewers. Really. Swear. ) And by the way, Thanks. Thanks for following us to Thursday nights, Thanks for loving our show as much as we do. It means the world to us. September 28, 2006 in Krista Vernoff -------------------------------



merdermaid	Apr 29 2007, 06:38 PM Post #5
Posts: 157 Group: Grey Girls Member #254 Joined: April 24, 2007	[size=7]3.03 "Sometimes a Fantasy" - writer Debora Cahn [/size] Original Airdate: 10-5-06 So I’m one of the new kids. There are some new writers on Grey’s this year, and at the beginning, being the new kid felt alarmingly like it did when I was nine and went to sleep-away camp with a bunch of girls who had Jordache jeans and I didn’t have Jordache jeans and I was really convinced it was going to be the end for me. Everyone here on the staff was incredibly sweet and welcoming, and yet still I had major “What the hell do I wear today” anxieties, and “Oh my god, I just spoke a sentence that used the word ‘like’ fourteen times” anxieties, and… all the anxieties really. I had them all. You’d think that past age 30 you kind of get that crap under control. Apparently not. So be patient with my blog, because it’s my first blog, and I don’t know what I’m doing. The nervous condition came and went over the first weeks on the job, but I think I officially got over it dealing with Cristina and the chicken. Cristina’s decided she’s going to help Burke get back on the horse after his hand surgery, (so sweet, so generous, so unexpected from Cristina) and she’s going to do it by having him practice operating on dead chickens. So when it came time to shoot the episode, there were long conversations with the fantastic production team about the hacking of the chicken. Was it just a chicken breast? Was it a whole fryer? The folks from sets and props had to design a cutting board that could be built into Burke’s counter top, so it wouldn’t fly off the counter, as there was a lot of concern about Sandra Oh getting hit in the face with either a meat cleaver or a chicken. The conversation continued when we hit the stage to rehearse the move with Sandra. Could she get through the bird in one hack or would it take two? (I thought it should be one. It was important to me. I don’t know why.) We had rehearsal chickens. We had stunt chickens. We discovered that the stunt chickens, which had balloons inside them instead of bones, emitted some sort of evil stinky salmonella gas that threatened to kill Sandra on the spot. It was scary. In the end, she made it through in one incredibly satisfying hack. The whole thing just made me really happy. That and the threesome, which was pretty happy-making too. I think if I was having a dream about being in bed with Derek Shepherd and Finn Dandridge, and my roommate woke me up, I’d come at him with a salmonella-coated meat cleaver. The dream scene, which turned out so beautifully, was a riot on the stage. Ellen and Chris and Patrick couldn’t stop laughing. Not for a minute. And yet it came out looking so dreamy and idyllic. And even after the dream, Meredith is so optimistic, so idyllically happy about the prospect of dating two men at the same time. It never worked for me – dating more than one guy at a time. I’m married now, and so I look back fondly on my playing the field days, but it was always a nightmare when there was more than one person in the mix. I couldn’t keep it all straight. I couldn’t remember what I said to whom, and who had told me the story about putting a dead cat in their freezer. It wasn’t dreamy and idyllic, it was stressful. And yet Meredith seems to handle it so well. Better than the guys, certainly, who get so wrapped up in the competition, they can’t seem to focus on the girl. And then there’s George, who’s so focused on the girl he can’t think straight. But not in a good way. She’s in his space. It’s one of those you-don’t-have-a-place-to-live-and-we-sleep-together-half-the-time-anyway- so-why-don’t-you-move-in-with-me impulse moves that are always a terrible idea. Terrible. And yet it happens all the time. Particularly in places like New York, where the rent is through the roof, and so it seems totally reasonable to ditch your crappy 6th floor walk-up that you share with three friends and somebody’s unemployed cousin Waldo and move in with your new dude, even though you’ve only had three dates, and you’re not sure what his last name is. I’ve been there. It’s a crappy idea. It never would have occurred to George and Callie to shack up that early in the relationship. But she was homeless and it seemed like the polite thing to do, and suddenly he’s made the offer and backing out of it seems rude and horribly cruel, and yet he can’t handle this. And so he’s a basket case all day. TR’s performance of “Robin, he just marches into the Batcave, like, here I am, give me some tights, I’m gonna borrow your towel” could not have been more fabulous. And how about Supergirl? First of all, I still can’t believe we landed Little Miss Sunshine. Abigail Breslin may be the best actor I’ve ever seen. She’s ten, or nine, or some young age where she shouldn’t be the best actor anyone’s ever seen and yet she’s amazing. And how adorable is Alex with her? Just when you thought you couldn’t fall any more in love with him in, suddenly he’s being nice to children and it’s all over. But my favorite thing might be Addison slapping Mark. It was Shonda’s idea. I thought she was insane. I said, “She’s trying to let him down easy, he just flew across the country to scratch her itch, she’s buried her about-to-be-divorcee devastation in his very well defined chest, he’s proclaiming his true love, she can’t slap him in the face.” And Shonda replied, “Yes. She can.” And so it went in the script, and sure enough, Shonda was right. It was amazing. Kate Walsh pulled it off brilliantly. She’s as surprised as he is, when it happens. It’s a panic move. She smacks him because if she doesn’t, she’ll just kiss him again, and then her clothes’ll be off again, right there on the floor of Joe’s Bar, and she can’t have that, she has to get on with her life. Izzie’s trying to get on with her life too, in an incredibly valiant way. But she can’t. It was heartbreaking, watching her standing outside that hospital all day. It was 95 degrees out when we shot it, and she’s wearing Denny’s sweater, so on top of the emotional devastation, we were a little worried Katie Heigl was going to pass out. Katie was fine. But Izzie was wrecked. She thought that she could take back her life, through sheer force of will, but it’s too much. We all wanted her to walk through that door. We all wanted to believe that she could bounce back. Still be a doctor. Be a superhero. Step out of the wreckage, brush herself off, and walk on. But she can’t. It was incredible to watch, and incredible to be a part of. I’m still nervous most of the time, convinced that at any moment they’re going to turn to me and say “You, you don’t belong here, away with you.” But until that happens, it’s a great ride. October 05, 2006 in Debora Cahn -------------------------------



merdermaid	Apr 29 2007, 06:40 PM Post #6
Posts: 157 Group: Grey Girls Member #254 Joined: April 24, 2007	[size=7]3.04 "What I Am" writer Allan Heinberg [/size] Original Airdate: 10-12-06 So, here’s the thing: you people terrify me. You’re passionate, you’re insightful, you’re bravely outspoken. You know Grey’s Anatomy and its characters better than anyone, except maybe Shonda Rhimes. And I don’t know if you realize this, but the way you write about the show, debate it, love and/or hate it carries an enormous amount of weight in the Writers Room. All of which makes the experience of blogging here for the first time absolutely terrifying. Not that I’m complaining. Blogging is part of my new job description, because I now happen to have the best job in the whole history of jobs. I’m one of the new writers on Grey’s Anatomy. Grey’s-freaking-Anatomy, people. My favorite show on television. I’ve been a hardcore fan from the first moment of the first episode. I’ve read all the blogs. Listened to the podcasts. Devoured the DVD’s, the bonus features, the commentary tracks. And between you and me? I’ve actually spent some serious time geekily compiling episode-by-episode Grey’s soundtrack playlists on iTunes. Seriously. I’m that guy. So as nervous as I am about this blog, you can probably imagine the internal anxiety attack I was having the first day I showed up for work. Would the writers accept me? Would I be able to write in the voice of the show? Would Patrick Dempsey be every bit as intensely soulful in person as he is on TV? My friends advised me to just be myself. Which is great advice in theory, but not so easy to put into practice. Because as it turns out, my sense of self is pretty fragile and entirely too dependent on who I’m hanging out with, and how work is going, and whether or not I indulged in dessert after dinner last night. (Which I did and now regret.) So, as much as I would love to report that I know exactly who I am and what I want at this moment in my life, the truth is, my therapist and I are still trying to figure that out. So, the theme of this week’s episode is identity. And the question at its heart is: “Who am I?” We ask that question all day every day in the Writers’ Room -- about the characters, about ourselves -- and when a patient lights up a cigarette in his hospital bed, igniting his oxygen supply and burning his face off, the doctors and interns of Seattle Grace Hospital are forced to ask themselves the same thing. If you take away the all-consuming surgeries, the hospital politics, and romantic indiscretions, who are the men and women of Seattle Grace? Who is Preston Burke if he can’t operate? Is Derek Shepherd essentially selfish or authentically McDreamy? And is Meredith Grey sensitive and soulful or just the slutty intern who can’t make up her mind? The episode begins with several of the show’s characters feeling very much not like themselves. Meredith is so conflicted, so paralyzed at having to choose between Derek and Finn, she’s literally sick to her stomach. Burke’s lingering hand tremor has undermined his confidence to the point where he’s now only performing surgery on dead chickens. And Addison, reeling from the end of her marriage and the sudden reappearance of Mark Sloan, is wondering what the hell she’s still doing in Seattle. But because of the life-and-death nature of their jobs, the surgeons of SGH don’t have time to sit around contemplating the ephemeral nature of identity. They have patients to attend to and lives to save. They have to take action. Addison snaps out of her funk and performs an emergency C-section, the experience of which gives her enough clarity to set some much-needed boundaries with Mark Sloan. And Burke’s single-minded determination to get back in the O.R. ends up taking his relationship with Cristina to an entirely unexpected, intensely intimate, and morally complicated place. Meredith’s medical emergency, of course, forces her to spend most of the episode high on morphine, revealing her to be much more adorably goofy and touchingly vulnerable than she has been previously. So much so that when Meredith confesses how badly Derek hurt her by choosing Addison, Addison can’t help but empathize. Derek, too, is ultimately defined by his actions. In the end, he clearly loves Meredith so deeply, he’d rather walk away than risk hurting her again. And Meredith, in turn, loves Derek so much, she does the difficult thing, the brave thing, the honorable thing, and breaks up with Finn, in spite of the fact that she knows Derek won’t be there for her afterward. But the question of identity is perhaps most pressing for Izzie at this moment. After all, she’s no longer in the surgical program. She’s not Denny’s fiancée. She’s not even his widow. Lost in her own grief, Izzie has no idea who she is -- until the moment Denny’s father calls into question her love for Denny. In that moment, Izzie -- like Addison, like Derek and Meredith, like Burke and Cristina -- Izzie takes action. Her eyes flash dangerously and she protects -- not herself -- but Denny. In that moment, all the complicated, extenuating circumstances of her life cease to matter, and she becomes entirely, heroically Izzie Stevens. The same is true for Alex, who may not want to be on Addison’s gynie brigade, but clearly has an affinity for it. And for George, who, when all is said and done, chooses to be there for Izzie, rather than indulge in a romantic night with Callie. As usual, though, it’s Bailey who seems to have the surest handle on the subject, instructing Sloan that in the end, “it’s not about what you look like -- or your job -- or how successful you are. It’s about having people in your life that you love -- who love you.” So, Shonda’s telling me enough already. Time to post the blog. My instinct is, of course, to keep working on it, to try to make it better, to try to make it the best blog it can possibly be. But I’ve learned enough from Grey’s Anatomy at this point to know that our lives are defined, not by what we say, but what we do. So, what I’m gonna do… is post this blog. Thanks for reading. And for watching. Here goes… October 13, 2006 in Allan Heinberg -------------------------------



merdermaid	Apr 29 2007, 06:40 PM Post #7
Posts: 157 Group: Grey Girls Member #254 Joined: April 24, 2007	[size=7]3.05 "Oh The Guilt" writers Zoanne Clack & Tony Phelan & Joan Rater[/size] Original Airdate: 10-19-06 Admit it. Grey’s Anatomy is one of your guilty pleasures, right? Your curl-up-on-the-couch, unplug-the-phone, “get your own dinner” pleasure. I could be wrong, but that’s what people tell me. Don’t feel bad. Some people’s guilty pleasures get them into much more trouble than watching Grey’s in the comfort of your home ever will. Take Callie and George for example. Callie’s got a new little guilty pleasure and his name is McSteamy. Yowza. That woman knows how to work it. But now she’s got to work it out. Work out the guilt. She may have been trying to hide it, but she’s feeling hella guilty if you ask me. I mean, let’s face it. Her break up last week was not a lesson in communication. Yeah, she can make the point that George should’ve known so she doesn’t have to feel guilty, but look at it from George’s point of view. I could totally understand his… confusion! That may be because, I, too, am no good at relationships. Being, well, let’s say an “over-thirty-never-married-singleton” did not happen for no reason. But, on the other hand, don’t you think George should’ve known? He kept pushing her away, she was never a priority. As far as she was concerned, it was over. Not just I’m-mad-at-you-over. Over over. Is she wrong for that or completely justified? Who’s to say… And what about poor Addison? She got kicked out of a city over her guilty pleasure. She stayed with Mark! She moved in with Mark! She was IN LOVE with Mark! Sure, she hoped against all hope that the love she and Derek shared would overrule the wrongs, but she mainly came to Seattle because Mark had cheated on her and she realized who he really was/is (which is, BTW, a MAN WHORE! - since he’s been in Seattle he’s slept with Addison, Callie and flirted with Mer, I think he pretty much fits the bill, towel and all). She didn’t want to tell Derek. She had to. She knew she could lose everything. But she faced Derek head on. Nose to nose. Eye to eye. You’ve got to commend her for that. Okay, she was coerced into it… a little. Mark just wouldn’t let up!! Not to mention she was face to face with the horrors of what guilt brings with her patients, Mr. and Mrs. McStuckey. It’s so hard (although extremely brave) to look someone in the eye while confessing some truth you’ve been hiding from. I mean, you’ve been hiding from it for a reason, right? Guilt is a crazy powerful emotion. Addison should be commended. Except maybe for falling right back into the bed that got her in this mess in the first place. Which brings me to my next point: top five reasons you should not feel guilty about taking this hour out of your life to watch our show. (1) You get to learn life lessons. Yes, I’m the doctor-writer on the show but I’m not talking medical things, I’m talking life lessons. Things that pertain to all of us somehow, someway. Not in every episode for every one of us, but I think if you look back, you’ll find some reflection of yourself in at least one of the characters or situations. For me, in this episode, the thing that became plainly obvious when we started writing is that we didn’t need some big huge reason for Mrs. McStuckey to need to tell her husband. Did I mention guilt is a crazy strong emotion? My learning point for this episode: the truth just has to come out. It just has to. (2) You get to see that there are people in the universe more flawed than you! (not that anyone who watches GA is flawed… you’re all fantabulous!) Everyone’s looking for perfection and I think our show pretty much lets you know: there is no perfection, just levels of flawed humanity. And our characters have that down ten-fold. And as much as you may hate to admit it, I think most people can see just a little piece of themselves in at least one character. I, for one, like Meredith more the more I get to know her. Yeah, she’s got issues. Big ones. Gargantuan ones. She makes bad decisions. Really bad. Phenomenally bad. But who am I to say if given her situation I’d cope better? Which leads to reason number 3… (3) You get to learn to move with your whole body. Okay, I’ll admit it. That one I learned from some wise person on “Dancing With the Stars.” But Alex said it, too: live your life while you can. Mer would’ve done well to apply that philosophy and just let out the truth! Instead, she decides to put it all on the line right after Addison dropped her truth on Derek! He was not in any space to hear that she, too, had betrayed him all day long. And what did she get in return? Yep. A whole lot of nothing. Because even the McDreaminator is flawed. He, too, has issues. Deep issues. He thought had come to terms with them. He was trying to stand up for his mistakes. Trying to pay for his guilt by giving Addison everything so that all would be right with the world again. But guilt is not really accustomed to being bribed. (4) You get to learn money management. What would you do if you got $8.7 million dollars from out of the blue? Spend it all? Invest it? Travel? Or put it up on the fridge? I bet "put it up on the fridge" was not your answer. What is she thinking LEAVING AN 8 MILLION DOLLAR CHECK ON THE FRIDGE??!! But that’s just it, isn’t it? She’s not thinking. She’s not, people! She hasn’t gotten as far as thinking. It’s blood money! This money is laced and interwoven with the finest 100% silk guilt! Perfectly fine Izzie isn’t perfectly fine. Yes she finally was able to go into the hospital. Yes she talked to the chief about coming back. But wouldn’t it be more fun to move to the islands off the coast of Belize and be Leo DiCaprio’s island neighbor? Hmmm…. (5) You can be inspired. Bailey inspires me. Almost weekly. She’s so amazing both in character and in real person-ville. Boy did she get put through the ringer in this one. Every possible way. She got attacked personally, politically, and professionally. The three “p’s” we like to say here at Grey’s. Okay actually that’s not true, I just made that up. But I digress. Personal: being a new mom. Political: your interns have no respect for your authority (in front of your bosses, no less). Professional: your hormones affecting your judgment. Show of hands for who would’ve just packed it up in the middle of M&M and given it back to Burke? Or better yet, walked down from the podium, stood up on a chair, and punched Dr. Savoy dead in the face? But Bailey was steadfast, she held her ground. In true Bailey style. But it got to her. She actually let it affect her patient care. Things can get to even the toughest of us. The question is, do we come out the other side? Or do we let guilt win? Do we let our own insecurities (and those insecurities that are thrust upon us by others) bring us down? Well, if we take a lesson from Bailey we sure as hell don’t. You get your “3 p’s” back in order. Kind of like getting your chakras in order, but different on a same kind of level. And it doesn’t hurt to get a little justification from a friend (which in this case, happened to be Alex, whose just a teddy bear inside). (6) You can realize that maybe your day-to-day issues aren’t as terrible as they seem. I mean, nobody’s gonna die if you filed the wrong folder, right (I mean, literally)? You didn’t think I’d forgotten about the Burktina of it all, did you? It was Burke’s first surgery… he HAD to go in. He could either live with the guilt of watching Mr. McStuckey quickly exsanguinate (doctor talk for “bleed to death”) on the table while they waited for another surgeon to come in or he could get in there and do what needed to be done. There’s that lingering question of “is he ready.” Cristina assures him she’ll be there. On his right side. They saved this life together. They pulled it off. They are in love, they’ll make this work, but when do you draw the line with love? Kind of makes the decision of which wallpaper to pick a little less life-altering, doesn’t it? (7) You get to learn new vocabulary. There was the roll-off-the-tongue “seriously.” Then the infamous “vah-jay jay.” Now I challenge you to use “swirl” in everyday conversation. And I’m loving the re-introduction of 70’s phenom “chump.” Yeah, yeah I know. Not five reasons. Whatever. All I can say is, if Grey’s is your guilty pleasure in life, I think you can feel pretty good about it. At least you won’t end up stuck on your spouse, being pulverized at an M&M, or getting kicked out of a city. At least I hope not. -Zoanne October 19, 2006 in Zoanne Clack -------------------------------



merdermaid	Apr 29 2007, 06:41 PM Post #8
Posts: 157 Group: Grey Girls Member #254 Joined: April 24, 2007	[size=7]3.06 "Let the Angels Commit" writer Stacy McKee[/size] Original airdate: 11/2/06 You know what’s funny? I’ve been sitting here for a good – oh – hour at least (which, by the way, means it’s gone from being bright and sunny to darkity dark dark outside, all by what? 5:00pm? I’m just going to say it. I officially hate daylight savings time) grappling with how to start this week’s writers blog. It’s funny, because I actually blog with you guys every week (I also write the Grey’s Nurse’s Blog, for those of you who don’t know) and I usually have NO trouble at all coming up with all sorts of fun things to say, only… I just realized – the reason I’m having so much trouble tonight is… I can’t hide behind a character. I know exactly what Nurse Debbie would say about this episode (“Hello. What is this – Bring Your Snarky Sister To Work Day or what???”) But tonight… I have to simply write this blog as… Me. Jeesh. It’s a lot of pressure, people! So – after watching my episode again (looking for inspiration), then watching the sun go down outside (again, looking for inspiration) – it hit me. There’s really only one way to get this blog started— I have to be Ham. I am ham, and I am committed to dish with you about this deliciously murky, incredibly dark and twisty episode. H. A. M. – Ham. Now, let’s talk about Meredith and Derek. I’m sure you all noticed they don’t have a lot of face time in this episode – but, put yourself in Meredith’s position. How COULD they? She broke up with Finn. Then she told Derek that… she broke up with Finn. And now – she’s waiting – has BEEN waiting for Derek to, in some way, react to her news about dearly departed ex-boy-toy Finn!!! Suddenly she’s single; he’s single. Finally. They have a real chance at being together and – there’s a McHottie in Derek’s bed. Ok, so it’s his sister, but whatever. If I were Meredith – there’s really no way I’d be able to do anything right now but bite my nails, try to focus on work, avoid the HECK out of Derek and spend way too much time over analyzing things with my closest friends, only… Meredith can’t even do that. Because her closest friend, Cristina, is dealing with her own crazy problems, so… It brings us to one of my very favorite (heartbreaking though it is) moments between Meredith and Derek. When they finally run into each other, after a very long gut wrenching day. Derek finally fesses up to the fact that he hasn’t so much as even called Meredith – but he should have. (Damn right he should.) And Meredith – trying so very hard to keep herself together, not to cry or scream or whatever it is you DO in that situation – the situation in which Derek SO SHOULD HAVE CALLED – and she says, simply: “But you didn’t.” God, that moment kills me every time. It just breaks my heart because – by not calling, Derek has said so much more to her than he ever could have said in a conversation. He’s shown Meredith that he has things to sort out. He’s shown her he’s not necessarily ready to move forward with her right now. He’s shown her the very thing she realizes, right there in the stairwell – that despite all this being newly single-ness… Derek needs some space. So, in that moment, Meredith gives it to him. And don’t you just know that it kills her inside to do so, but… that’s what it means to be Ham. You just have to commit to something. Whether you want to or not. Now – as for Derek, I for one really enjoy seeing him with his sister. It’s fun, frankly, to watch him interact with a woman he ISN’T sleeping with. And it’s just so nice to get a glimpse of who he must be at home, with his family – with all of his sisters – as a brother. The line where Derek tells Nancy that she sounds more and more like Mom everyday? Yeah, my brother’s said that to me a few times. And the part where Addison and Mark watch Nancy leave – and they sigh to themselves about how much they miss her? Can’t you just picture what the pre-Seattle Shepherd family holidays must have been like? Don’t you just KNOW it’s a blast to hang out at their place? I LOVE how Nancy gives us this teeny tiny window into the family that helped turn McDreamy into McDreamy. Ok – now I have to take a moment to talk about Bailey. Holy crap – the look on her face at the end of this episode? Killer. But the part that the ham in me HAS to talk about – is the exchange Bailey has with Burke, after the Humpty Dumpty surgery, when Burke (backed into a corner and with absolutely no choice) is forced to tell Bailey that he “just couldn’t use” her. Burke – Burke of ALL people – should have Bailey’s back, and yet – he says something like that. And Bailey, of course, thinks she knows exactly what Burke means – because Bailey said the exact same thing to Izzie Stevens earlier in the day. Bailey doesn’t trust Stevens. Bailey is disappointed in Stevens. Bailey doesn’t even really want to work with Stevens (remember when Bailey questions the Chief about putting Izzie back on her service?) So to Bailey? It’s like Burke must feel that exact same way about her – it’s just horrible. For Bailey, for Burke. Until that final moment when Bailey sees Cristina writing and erasing things on that OR board…. And it hits her. There’s more to this than meets the eye. Which tells us all that clearly – things are about to get even more horrible for Cristina. Oh, Cristina. Seattle Grace’s own Lady Macbeth… what can I say about Cristina? She’s (barely) holding it all together. She and Burke have started this thing – they have become a team, a well oiled machine, only… how long do they really think they can keep something like this up? Theirs is a temporary fix to potentially very big problem… they’ve barely been able to put their system into place and already, it’s beginning to unravel. But the thing to remember is this – Cristina is the definition of Ham. She is doing precisely what she has to do to protect Burke – whether it earns her points or burns bridges with her friends or her colleagues – she’s doing what it takes. Because she’s committed. Alright – it occurs to me that, by being such a committed piece of ham, I’ve managed to write a very long blog already, and I still haven’t been able to address many MANY of our other characters. SO – quickly – Izzie understands Gretchen (The Crazy Burn Girl) so well, because that speech, where Gretchen talks about only being known as one thing, as a failure? Izzie gets that in SUCH a big way – I mean, here she is, finally at work, and she isn’t even allowed to touch a patient because the last time she did, it was Denny. Talk about only being known for one thing? All anyone at Seattle Grace knows Izzie as is “The Intern Who Quit After Killing Her Boyfriend.” Izzie has a lot to prove – just like Gretchen. Luckily for us – Izzie’s journey doesn’t wind up with IZZIE being committed… And George & Callie. Poor poor Callie – I’m on her side, folks. The girl’s so damn in love with George. And he’s blown her off over and over and now that she’s finally really truly broken things off with him– NOW George decides he’s the Pig? Is he kidding? Could his timing be any worse? There’s a reason so many people (including our characters) have a fear of commitment. It’s a tricky thing. It usually comes at a cost – and sometimes that cost can be very high. Or in the case of this particular blog, far too wordy. So this me, signing off for the night, hoping you enjoyed tonight’s episode– and, btw – don’t look for Debbie’s Blog right now – I’m sure I won’t be posting it until tomorrow… After all, even Ham has to sleep some time! November 02, 2006 in Stacy McKee -------------------------------



merdermaid	Apr 29 2007, 06:42 PM Post #9
Posts: 157 Group: Grey Girls Member #254 Joined: April 24, 2007	[size=7]3.07 "Where the Boys Are" writer Mark Wilding[/size] Original Airdate: 11-09-06 Mistakes. I’ve decided to talk about mistakes. My mistakes. The characters’ mistakes. And the mistakes I made which led to the characters’ mistakes. Already you’re probably thinking “What?? Can’t I just enjoy this blog without the stupid build-up?” The answer is no. Don’t worry. Read on. It’ll become clearer. Last night’s episode was called “Where the Boys Are”. Which was my first mistake. When I suggested that song title to the writers’ room, I got a lot of blank stares. The Connie Francis song, I said. You know…Someone waits for me? A smiling face, a warm embrace? Two arms to hold me tenderly? And, pushing on -- despite all the puzzled looks from my fellow writers, the people who I thought would at least pretend to be supportive – I told them that what made the title so VERY, VERY clever is that the episode’s about where the boys literally are and where they are emotionally. See? Pretty clever, right? Right?? Again, more blank stares. Connie who? Okay. My first mistake. Pitching very old songs to a very young writers’ room. And now for my second mistake. Or at least what I thought was my second mistake. Seattle. Yes, those pictures on your TV screen really were Seattle. That Space Needle in the background when Derek’s sticking the Chief’s suitcase in his Jeep-looking vehicle? That’s the real Space Needle. We didn’t CGI it or go to LAX and shoot that futuristic looking restaurant that may or may not revolve and that could maybe look like the Space Needle if you were flying at ten thousand feet and there was enough smog that day. And the woods? Those are REAL SEATTLE WOODS. I know because I was there. And I insisted that we fly up a crew and they be there too. Because I thought it was really, really important that the woods look like Seattle woods – with their towering pines and moss-covered trees and mountains covered in clouds. As opposed to the eucalyptus trees and dry brush and blue skies that you tend to find in your basic L.A. forests. On my first visit to the place, though, it rained. Hard. Really hard. And living in L.A. where you think the weather in other parts of the country must somehow be just like L.A., I didn’t exactly come prepared. I wore a cotton shirt, flimsy golf jacket (no hood) and sneakers. Yes. BIG MISTAKE. BIG STUPID MISTAKE. I was freezing cold and soaking wet before it was even 11:00 o’clock in the morning. And even though the water dripping off my face looks like it could be tears, it really was just rain. I want to clear that up because there’s a video of a soaking wet me that circulated around the Grey’s offices for the better part of a week. I wasn’t crying. Okay? Still. Letting someone film me? A very bad mistake. And the thought did cross my mind – if only for a second – is shooting in the rainy Seattle woods really the best idea? Or was it a mistake? Then I was saved. Our extraordinary line producer Rob Corn made it all happen. We found the locations. We shot great stuff. And there was next to no rain (great job Rob!). Plus, all the outdoor stuff looks FANTASTIC (great job director Dan Minahan and great job, Director of Photography, Herb Davis!). So, to quote Ronald Reagan, “Mistakes were made.” But Rob Corn saved me from those mistakes! Thank you again, Rob. And now onto the actual episode... My next mistake might have been the theme of the episode. It was Outside/In. Thinking you can recognize a problem by what’s on the outside while somehow underestimating or not recognizing what’s going on inside. Yeah. That’s a lot to bend your mind around. For example – Jamie’s a healthy-looking young girl on the outside; on the inside she has a dead baby. Donna isn’t happy being a man. She wants to undergo the final step in becoming a woman so that she can finally have her outsides match her insides. And then there’s Derek, who thinks that being outside in the woods will help him with his inner turmoil. Don’t get me wrong. Outside/In was a serviceable theme. But it might have been a mistake. A better theme might have been “couples”. Because, it turns out the episode revolves around couples and how happy or unhappy they are. I didn’t really notice this until Shonda mentioned the idea of couples while we were in editing. So now I’m running with it. Because, hey, it’s Shonda. It’d be a mistake not to. So. In no particular order. Our couples -- Ted and Jamie -- the couple with the stillborn baby. A happy couple. She slipped and fell in the shower. She made a mistake. We never actually answer the question of whether that led to the death of the baby. Because, at the end of the day, that didn’t seem as important as what she and Ted actually have to go through. Vicky and her transgender husband Donna. An unhappy couple. Donna thinks what Vicky’s doing is a big mistake. Deep down, she really doesn’t want her to do it. And she ends up staying with Donna because that’s what makes her happy. Joe and Walter. Another happy couple. Although by the end of the trip, Walter clearly thinks it was a mistake to have gone camping with these guys. By the way, that scene at the river with Richard talking to Joe and realizing how much they have in common? We almost didn’t shoot that scene because we had a full shooting schedule and I wasn’t sure if we needed it. And not shooting that? That would have been a TERRIBLE MISTAKE. It’s one of my favorite scenes in the episode. Richard and Adele. “I miss my wife”. What more do you have to say? Addison and Callie. A surprising couple. That scene where they’re both sitting together on the floor at the end was another one of my favorites. Cristina and Burke. Burke’s not happy with Cristina and how she’s coming to dominate his life. That’s why the camping trip. But he sees the anguish that George is putting himself through with Callie and thinks he may have been a little rough on Cristina. Which was a mistake. He returns and they’re reconciled. At least for now... Derek and Burke. An unlikely couple. Derek thought it would just be the two of them getting away to the mountains and now all these other bozos are tramping along after them. And at the end of the day, being in the great outdoors didn’t really solve anything. Except to help him realize how foolish it was to come out here in the first place. And Burke’s not that nice to him until the end when he offers to talk about Mark Sloan. Which doesn’t make them a couple but makes them friends… of a sort. Mark and Meredith. Mark spends the whole episode telling Meredith that they’d make a better couple than she and Derek. And Meredith’s maybe a little tempted but…talk about mistakes. That’s certainly one she’s not about to make. Is it? Which leads us to… Meredith and Derek. Who wind up together at the end of the episode. And as much as he thought he needed space, at the end, he’s where he’s always wanted to be. Pressed up against Meredith. With next to no space between them… As for me, the next time I go to Seattle I’m bringing layers. Lots and lots of layers. Some mistakes you only need to make once… November 09, 2006 in Mark Wilding -------------------------------



merdermaid	Apr 29 2007, 06:43 PM Post #10
Posts: 157 Group: Grey Girls Member #254 Joined: April 24, 2007	[size=7]3.08 "Staring At the Sun" writer Gabrielle Stanton & Harry Werksman[/size] Original airdate: 11/16/06 We hope you enjoyed the episode! We tried to blend the happy with the sad, because that’s kind of like real life, right? Our episode’s theme was Blind Spots; how our doctors would respond when confronted with things they either couldn’t see or didn’t want to see, both in their professional and their personal lives. Starting off was easy, cause who doesn’t want to see Meredith and Derek all shiny and happy in a big bubbly bathtub? We know we’re making them and you wait for the super great “reunion sex”, but like Meredith said, waiting is part of the fun. We really like Meredith deciding to be more cheerful, more “bright and shiny”, but bright and shiny can be pretty hard to pull off when you’re a surgical intern, dating an Attending, working with his ex-wife and her ex-steamy (That’s Dr. McSteamy to you.) and the Chief of Surgery, (your mother’s secret lover) asks you to break up with your mother (again), who happens to be in a nursing home suffering from Alzheimer’s! Wow. Frankly we think Meredith does pretty well holding it all together. The scene between Ellis and Meredith at the end was so sad. Poor Ellis feels like Richard has left her all over again. Easy to see how Meredith ended up back in the tub not quite as shiny as before. But as long as Derek is with her, we know she’ll get through. It’s kind of nice that Derek and Addison are at least trying to make life in the hospital between them civil. But as we saw in their conversation with Richard, there’s still a lot of hurt and pain between them. It’s going to be a while before they can put that aside, but Addison took a major step in moving on by tossing her wedding rings away. Of course, moving on from Derek, doesn’t mean she’s moving toward Mark Sloan, although it seems like he’s still very interested in getting her back. We love writing for Mark. Who else is going to ask Addison if she “wants my pickle” with such a devilish grin on his face? Did you love Frank, our pec implant man? He had us laughing on every take. As funny as he was, we really tried to use him to give Alex some insight on his feeling for Izzie. He opened Alex’s eyes to the fact that deep down he still has strong feelings for Izzie. That kiss caught both Alex and Izzie off guard, but we loved how sweet they were together. Who knows what the future will bring for these two. Perhaps Alex will be able to “feed” Izzie’s “beast” again. Keep watchin’… you just never know. Cristina and Burke are certainly heading for some kind of showdown. She’s helped him get back in the game, but it’s pretty obvious that Burke’s ego has taken a bit of a beating. That being said, he still does have the tremor and Cristina really is stepping it up in his surgeries. Just how long can these two keep it together? Who’s going to crack first? Can they keep their secret a secret? George and Burke’s friendship seems to be caught in the crossfire. But can you blame George for worrying about who’s going to operate on his father? That last shot of Cristina and Burke, in bed, and the simple “George knows” speaks absolute volumes. As they say, you can run, but you can’t hide. The truth always has a way of revealing itself. The last thing we want to talk about is the Bailey/Mia storyline. The great thing about working on a TV show with millions of viewers is sometimes you can impart information that can make a real difference in real people’s lives. Did you know in the U.S., 50 children a week are accidentally backed over in driveways and on sidewalks by cars driven by family members and neighbors? Gabrielle’s sister’s friend Arden Rosenfeld lost her two year old daughter, Veronica, to such an accident and her terrible tragedy inspired this storyline. So long, and thanks for all the fish! Gabrielle & Harry November 16, 2006 in Gabrielle Stanton -------------------------------



merdermaid	Apr 29 2007, 06:44 PM Post #11
Posts: 157 Group: Grey Girls Member #254 Joined: April 24, 2007	[size=7]3.09 "From a Whisper to a Scream" writer Kip Koenig [/size] Original Airdate: 11-23-06 I need one word to describe my feelings after watching tonight’s episode, “From A Whisper to A Scream”: Holy! Okay no, five words. I need five words to describe my feelings: Holy crap! That was intense! And I have a confession: I'm scared. Here’s why I'm scared. I'm blogging. Blogging for us writers here is a different kind of writing than we’re used to. It’s like writing a term paper. I mean, I know I don’t have to compare and contrast tonight’s episode with Lady MacBeth, but hundreds if not thousands of people never read my term papers. Thank God. And I'm guessing lots more people than that will watch the show tonight. And that’s scary. Because people love their Grey’s Anatomy. People like you. People like me. People like Oprah. And you, me and Oprah like our Grey’s Anatomy to be Grey’s Anatomy. And this episode is, well, different than the tried and true. There’s Cristina’s voice over for starters. We’ve only had one other episode narrated by someone other than Meredith - that was George after… you remember the sex with… let’s move on… Anyway, this episode is different and I'm scared but I'm also really excited because I think it kinda rocks. Shonda wanted one big episode about betrayal. And so we have all kinds of betrayal: a patient whose lover betrayed her, another patient whose body betrayed him, Callie feeling betrayed by Meredith about the McSteamy sex, George feeling Izzie betrayed him with his parents, Meredith not telling Derek about Burke’s tremor, George going to the Denny card with Izzie, etc. And at the wheel, driving this betrayal band wagon is Cristina. And Burke. And their frickin crazy ass secret. That secret is such a big honking betrayal. Think back over the course of this season; it makes your head spin how many of our people were betrayed because of it. Bailey, Richard, Derek, Meredith, George, everyone, take a number and get in line. And the thing is Cristina and Burke know this. And it is killing them. And so it has to end. Choice and circumstance got them into this. They became a team and the team piled up victories in surgery after surgery. They saved lives, lost none. But the cost outside surgery kept going up. The walls started closing in on Cristina. She may be a part robot but she is also part human (that’s in fact true). She’s exhausted, scared and trapped. And it gets worse everyday. Burke is a man of such integrity, even if he believes he is recovered – and he absolutely does – not being completely forthright with Derek, or Richard, or Bailey, or anyone, is wrong. He’s betrayed all of them and that eats away at who he really is. And so it has to end. Burke is about to tell Derek the truth when Derek presents him with an emergent surgery. Then Alex interrupts with another emergent case. Choice and circumstance force them into surgery one more time but in this surgery Burke orders Cristina to the other side of the OR table. The team is done. Burke is done. Cristina is done. We don’t know what Cristina says to Richard. All we know is that she beat Burke to it and that breaks Burke’s heart. And probably Richard’s as well. He was going to step down, go back to Adele. He’d chosen a successor. This was a huge decision. He loves Seattle Grace and would only leave it in the hands of someone he trusts completely. Now what? Speaking of “now what,” we now know George’s dad is going to have Erica Hahn perform his surgery. It kills me to see George so scared; but it’s his dad and I think we can all relate. And it was nice to see Izzie be there as a friend for him at the end - despite what went on between them during the day. Okay, I know I'm not the only one looking for signs that Alex and Addison might go all Grey’s Anatomy on each other. Maybe if that moment at the end had been in a stairwell or in an on-call room. I love seeing those two characters together and I love that Addison can see the good in Alex that others – particularly Mark in this episode – don’t see. Oh, and did anyone notice the McSex version 2.0 at the end there? Yeah, that was sex on the horizon as the camera panned away from Meredith and Derek. See, they are a couple – and for much of this day a very happy couple (How great to see, right?). And couples overcome things. Even some betrayals. And sex helps. Remember that. Sex helps. On that note, I’d like to wish everyone a really happy turkey day. I am going to go eat. Then I am going to sit down and watch that show that comes on at nine. Hope you all enjoy and again, Happy Thanksgiving from Kip to you. November 23, 2006 in Kip Koenig -------------------------------



merdermaid	Apr 29 2007, 06:45 PM Post #12
Posts: 157 Group: Grey Girls Member #254 Joined: April 24, 2007	[size=7]3.10 "Don't Stand So Close to Me" writer Carolina Paiz[/size] Original Airdate: 11-30-06 I’m the “baby writer” around here. That doesn’t mean that I’m in charge of writing all the medical baby stuff, which is what one of the actors asked after Shonda introduced me. What it means is that I’m the youngest, most inexperienced and by far the luckiest writer on the whole staff. Cause little people like me don’t get hired into big time TV without a lot of luck (so okay, some hard work was involved too). In any case, I’m here, working at the funnest office of all time. Seriously. Not just saying. It’s kind of like working at Seattle Grace but without the sex. And the drama… but all of the interesting and the funny. “Don’t Stand So Close To Me” is my first episode of aired TV, and I’m honored to have been given a chance to write it. I was a HUGE fan of the show before getting hired, which made it very hard to speak up in the writer’s room at first. It was just too close for comfort. These people were my heroes… and so I shook and trembled for a while (as you may have noticed from the blog, us writers are an easily frightened breed.) But scary though writing this episode was, it was also an amazing experience. Being so close to the characters and to the show meant that while it was daunting, it was also thrilling. And that’s exactly what this episode is all about. About how being too close to something can be a disaster… or a completely enlightening experience. Or both. And in the spirit of the Holidays, we decided to illustrate this point through the one thing we can never seem to get too close or too far away from this season: our families. Our biological families, our stepfamilies, our surrogate families. Take Meredith … Her morning starts bright and early at the Nursing Home, where her mother is freaking over having been left by Richard. Again. And this alone is already uncomfortable… but then Ellis confesses that she regrets having had a daughter. And it hits Meredith like a slap in the face. This is way more information that she needed. To make matters worse, she arrives to the hospital to find that her intern family is in chaos… and that her stepfamily is also here, ready to give birth. Meredith becomes determined not to let Susan and Molly get to her. She wants to remain professional. So much so that she volunteers to be their intern. But Mer quickly finds that this was a mistake. Being present during the birth of Laura, and seeing that little tiny baby suffer … it makes Meredith realize just how much she cares about these people. Addison notices, and immediately has her taken off the case. And for the rest of the episode, Meredith makes a conscious effort to remain unaffected by Susan and Molly… which is hard. Cause Susan is so … sweet. And nurturing. And giving. And everything that Ellis is not. And so when Susan hugs her and calls Laura Meredith’s niece… it’s all just a little too much to handle … and Meredith’s forced to flee. But not before she’s learned something… that being physically close can bridge an emotional divide… it can draw families in closer… And so that night, Meredith decides to go back to the Nursing Home. Her mother is even more troubled than she was in the morning… and this time, Meredith takes a big step… and decides to mother her own mother… she sees that Ellis needs consoling and so she steps up and takes her into her arms. And that closeness… it’s exactly what Ellis needed. And then there’s George. Poor George. His dad is in the hospital and he’s so concerned. He’s trying his best to hold it together, to be the good son and the good doctor… but it’s really hard to be both. And pretty soon, he’s crossed a line and Bailey gives him a verbal restraining order: stay 50 feet away from your father or else… But of course, George doesn’t listen. Which is good… cause he and Callie are there to help save his father’s life. But it’s while watching his father’s surgery that George comes to understand why Bailey wanted him far away… As soon as that saw blade starts cutting through his father’s chest, he realizes he can’t bear to watch. No matter how good a doctor he is, sometimes, it’s just too painful to be that close. And so Dr. Burke walks him through his dad’s surgery in one of the sweetest moments that we’ve ever seen between these two. And after it’s all over, we realize that their friendship will be okay. Speaking of Burke, let me address the Burktina of it all… So Cristina did this thing… she told on her attending, on her boyfriend. She told on him because she thought it was the right thing to do. But Burke disagrees. He feels like he was going to handle the situation and that Cristina just got ahead of him, and that by doing so, she betrayed him. So now this stubborn pairing has reached an impasse. Neither is talking to the other. They are existing in close proximity… they live in the same apartment, they work in the same hospital… but they’re keeping their emotional distance. And for a while, we think that maybe this is IT for them. Caput. The End of Burktina. But then, when Derek says he’s going to go take another look at Burke’s shoulder… Cristina gets on the elevator to go with them. The relationship may be at an impasse, but this is her Preston Burke, and she’s sticking by him. And so Burktina continues on… limping… but alive. In his effort to come to grips with his own problems, Burke has caused much trouble around the hospital. He’s damaged not only his reputation, but also the self-assurance of some of his fellow surgeons. Which brings me to Derek and Bailey. To be a surgeon, you have to be uber-confident. You have to be able to pick up that sharp scalpel and cut people open. You have to be able to pick up those forceps and fix people’s lives. And to make a surgeon question their abilities is to put patients at risk… Which is exactly what Bailey went through a few weeks ago… And what Derek is going through in this episode. Burke has told him that it’s his fault that his hand is tremoring, and though Derek knows better… though he knows that he did all that he could and that Burke’s progress is remarkable… it’s enough to plant that small seed of doubt. And that small seed? It flowers pretty quickly. So that by the time the twins come in, Derek begins to question whether or not he can pull such a difficult surgery off. But thankfully Bailey is there, to help remind him of his skills, to let him know that Burke’s tremor is NOT Derek’s fault… but that if Derek had known about it earlier, he could have potentially fixed it. And with his confidence back, Derek plunges into the twin’s surgery. And thankfully, him and his team of surgeons succeed. And what a talented team it is. Which brings me to my next point. McSteamy… mmm. Can I just say, now that it’s getting all chilly out… it’s nice to have a little Steamy in our lives. Even though once again he’s causing trouble everywhere he goes. He knows that Derek can do this surgery. What he doesn’t know is why Derek is backing out… which causes some friction for these two during the rehearsal surgery and the actual surgery… but once they’ve pulled it off, they share a second… just a brief, fleeting second of camaraderie and friendship. Did you catch it? After the rush of adrenaline that comes with such a fantastic surgical victory, Derek and Mark share a moment, a laugh. It was nice to see… it gave us a glimpse into what their friendship dynamic must have looked like back in NYC. When Steamy wasn’t the mortal enemy. I love Steamy. I do. He’s so fresh; he just doesn’t care about these people or their dramas. He’s out to take care of himself… Or so we’re meant to think… until he reaches out and does something incredibly kind and lovely for Izzie. He brings her into the OR so that she can watch the twins surgery up close… which is a BIG DEAL. Izzie hadn’t been inside an OR since the Denny thing… and it was pretty selfless of Steamy to step up and show Izzie that he has a heart under all that unbelievable Hotness. So yes, he can be impertinent and evil and demeaning and YES there was definitely some sexual harassment going on… but admit it. You kinda love the Steamy too. Steamy Sloan reminds me a little of Alex… who, by the way, is my favorite character. He has so much going on inside … you think you’ve got him figured out but then he just reveals this whole other side to him. I loved him interacting with the twins. (Brilliantly played by Jason and Randy Sklar). Jake and Pete risk their lives to undergo a huge surgery to separate themselves from each other… only to ask to be reunited in the end. The twin’s relationship, in a nutshell, epitomizes what’s going on with all of our people… the twins, like our hospital interns, residents and attendings, are a family in disarray… fighting and distant… they may think that they want to be apart from each other, but the truth is that they can’t deny that they’re family. And they belong together. Which is why it’s nice to see that in the end, Cristina and the other ‘terns make-up (though it may take George some time to come around) and that Cristina and Burke take a step in the same direction. Burke and Derek make up too… I mean even McSteamy and McDreamy are semi-friendly by the end of it. And of course, who can forget Bailey finally coming to terms with what’s happened and understanding the Chief’s perspective. And a valid perspective that is… The Chief gives powerful speeches in this episode in which he makes it loud and clear what his opinions are. I don’t know how he’s going to retire when there’s such mayhem going on around him. But one thing is clear. He wants to retire. Because he needs his Adele back. But how can the surgical family survive without his guidance? I, for one, am in a panic. And by the way, YES, I did notice there is very little Mer/Der in this episode. Don’t worry… They are fine. They are better than fine. They are in love and happy and there was just so much surgery and family drama going on that they weren’t able to see each other much during this episode. But they are FINE. I love Mer and Der as much as you all… And I’m so very sorry they didn’t get much screen time. But stay tuned, cause some great stuff with them is coming up in January. I promise. Okay, this is running way long. So let me wrap it up by saying HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL OF YOU! And if you’re looking for a nifty present, Stacy McKee (the baby writer before me and one of our resident geniuses) just told me she bought her mom a mug that says McDreamy… and when you pour hot liquid into it, the lettering morphs into McSteamy! HA! Now that’s a stocking stuffer we can all look forward to … (available in the Grey’s Anatomy Store at abc.com) November 30, 2006 in Carolina Paiz -------------------------------



merdermaid	Apr 29 2007, 06:46 PM Post #13
Posts: 157 Group: Grey Girls Member #254 Joined: April 24, 2007	[size=7]3.11 "Six Days - Part 1" writer Krista Vernoff [/size] Original Airdate: 1-11-07 The first thing I wanna say is, my three least favorite words in television are “To Be Continued.” Truly. I hate it and I’m so sorry to have done it to you. It was not my intention. I wrote this episode as one hour. But we shot it and it came in at 61 minutes and we only get 43 minutes per hour and so we were faced with the choice of either cutting 18 minutes – which really would have just destroyed the episode – or shooting 4 more days and making it a two-parter. It hurt. It was painful and laborious and I was terrified that the decision to go two hours would compromise the episode creatively and it really was such a beautiful episode at 61 minutes… Anyway, we did what we had to do, and I think that in the end, we made it work as two hours and I hope that you don’t hate us too much for making you wait a week for the pay-off. It’s worth it, I promise. Here’s the thing though. There’s just not that much I can talk about in this blog without giving away stuff that happens next week. I could tell you how much I love the stuff you’ve seen and how much I think you’ll enjoy where it’s all going but… I’m thinking maybe instead I’ll save any further discussion of “Six Days” till next week and use this time to talk about some questions you guys have been writing us. (Also, I did the podcast this week – so if you aren’t technophobic, like me, and you actually know how to download and listen to a podcast , you can hear me and Susan, our wonderful editor, talk about this week’s episode in detail.) What I want to talk about first is reruns. Yes, there’ve been a lot lately and I know it sucks. We had been scheduled to air a new episode on January 4th but when Six Days became a two-parter, it became impossible to write, shoot and edit all the new scenes and get something on the air by January 4th. The GOOD thing about the change is – we were going to air a new episode on January 4th then have another repeat on 1/11. So – yes, you had to wait an extra week for a new episode, but you will now have 7 WEEKS IN A ROW of new episodes. Yeay. We hope you enjoy each and every one of them. We do know how frustrating the repeats can be, but if you break down the math – that the TV season is 40 weeks long and that we can only physically produce 24 episodes in a season – well, there’s gonna be a lot of repeats. That’s just the way it goes. Second, I want to talk about the process – as in – how and why we do the things we do because a lot of you have been asking. Here’s how it works: at the end of season two, we spent about 5 weeks discussing season three – really planning out all the arcs for the whole season. Then we went on a 5 week hiatus and when we came back, we started breaking story (which is what we call outlining episodes.) As we break story, we usually veer from what we had planned either a little or a whole, whole lot. Because sometimes things that work in theory do not work in execution and sometimes things that we think are BRILLIANT by 7pm on a Friday seem absurd by 9am on Monday. It’s not a perfect process, it’s not a linear process, it’s a creative process. And that process sometimes involves Shonda sitting up in bed at three a.m. having had an epiphany that completely destroys all of our plans but ultimately works out really well for the season. Or sometimes, we read a script and think it isn’t working and sit and try to brainstorm ways to make it work and we come up with major story points that way. For example, in "Break on Through" last season, Izzie having given up a baby for adoption was never discussed in the writers’ room. I read the script and felt like it was missing a personal connection and I went to Shonda and the writer of the episode and said “what if Izzie had a baby she gave up for adoption” and they liked it so we put it into the script and put the script out and the writing staff was as surprised as Katie Heigl was because sometimes we get so far behind and so tired we forget to even put out a memo saying, hey, by the way, Izzie gave a baby up for adoption. (And that, my friends, is what we call a run-on sentence. High Schoolers reading this should NOT, I repeat NOT, try to learn anything from my syntax.) My point is, we work hard, we plan things and then just as in life, plans change and it’s one of the things I love about writing for TV. Plus we have a phenomenal writing staff – they roll with the punches and very rarely burst into inappropriate tears when things change at the 11th hour. (Usually, these days, it’s me bursting into inappropriate tears but that’s because I’m very pregnant and wow, those hormones are killer. Greg Yaitanes, who directed “Six Days” parts one and two, stopped calling me Krista and just started calling me “Pregnant Lady.” As in, “Hey, Pregnant Lady, here’s what I’m thinking of doing with this scene.” One might hear that as patronizing, but after spending 12, 13, 15 hours a day with me for three and half weeks shooting these episodes and watching me burst frequently into inappropriate tears, I felt he had earned the right. But really – which of you didn’t cry after George saw his dad post-op for the first time and shaking, grabbed Mer’s arm and said “He’s my Dad, He’s my Dad.” ?? The problem is I burst out crying ON THE SET which …y’know…inappropriate.) Okay, I digress. I was talking about process. I have heard it asked repeatedly how much influence you fans have on our storytelling. And I know one of the writers blogged that what y’all have to say carries a lot of weight in the writers’ room. And I think to a degree that’s true. And by that I mean, we read your comments – maybe not all of them but a lot of them – and sometimes we use them as a jumping off place for discussion in the room. Like, “A lot of fans don’t like this character right now. Why is that?” We talk about the character and the things he or she has been doing and where we want to go -- we also usually discuss the fact that, for every fan who doesn’t like a character, there’s one who does. That’s one of the things I love about our show – that it is polarizing. (I used to have an acting teacher who said, “If the audience is on their feet at the end of the play, you’ve done your job. If the audience is booing and throwing stuff at you at the end of the play, you’ve also done your job. What you never want is to receive “polite” applause.) If our characters were less flawed, if say, they were just plain sweet and likable, then you would all agree that you liked them and then where would we go? How much growth is possible in a character who never makes bad decisions? How much drama is possible if people are never f**ked up, never bitchy, never raw? So…our discussions that are prompted by your feedback often lead us down interesting paths, but they never end with us going, “Yeah, some of the fans don’t like that, we should just stop it.” Ever. Because it’s our to keep you on the edge of your seats, it’s our job to inspire you to write us in a feverish rage, it’s our job to sometimes piss you off and hopefully, always, to keep you coming back for more. Speaking of coming back for more…I have to go do work now – the writers’ room is calling. So, because I dedicated this blog to giving you some answers – I will read and answer the first five questions you write me after reading this. (As long as you aren’t asking me to reveal future story points cause you know I can’t do that.) Okay? And then next week, I promise, I will talk about 6 days, parts one and two in great detail. Alright then, Happy New Year. I hope this finds you all healthy and happy and loving your lives. More soon, Krista (oh, and P.S, I wanted to say thanks to those of you who went to see my play in NYC. It was an honor and a privilege to meet some of you and I so appreciated your support!) January 11, 2007 in Krista Vernoff -------------------------------



merdermaid	Apr 29 2007, 06:48 PM Post #14
Posts: 157 Group: Grey Girls Member #254 Joined: April 24, 2007	[size=7]Krista Answers Questions Between 3.11 and 3.12 [/size] As promised, here are the first five questions answered. And, because I have a boatload of work to do and am not in the mood to do any of it, I answered a few more of the frequently asked questions. Enjoy! Who is your favorite Greys character and why? Hmm. I don’t know. I think I would have to say that George is the person who reminds me most of the people I choose to hang out with in my life. He’s smart and gentle and kind and y’know , a little messed up and passive-aggressive, but he deeply cares about his friends and family. I like him a lot. In terms of writing, my favorite character to write for is Bailey. And that’s because of her rhythms – she speaks in long, almost poetic speeches (we call them Bailey” arias”). She’s also funny and sharp and pointed and direct at the same time. I think she could’ve been a preacher if she hadn’t become a surgeon. Anyway, her arias are really fun to write. How different is this season to what you had originally planned? In some ways, with some characters, it’s exactly as we planned. With others it’s vastly different. I can’t talk about too much of it , because a lot of the stuff we had planned that fell away might come back as future story. But to give you an example of how and why things change, I will tell you that when we planned the season we had not planned to bring Izzie back to work nearly as soon as we did. But what happened is this: we were watching the early episodes and what we found was that we desperately missed having Izzie at the hospital, hanging with to the interns. She has such a unique spirit, such a unique energy, and the interns felt (to us) out of balance without her. Tony and Joan and Zoanne wrote SIX DRAFTS of an Izzie arc for episode five this year (“Oh, the Guilt”) -- and none of them were working. And they are terrific writers and so what we realized is that the reason the stories didn’t work, is because we were tired of having Izzie out of the hospital, separate from her friends. So three days before that episode was set to shoot – we had to completely re-break and rewrite it. It’s the one where Izzie goes to the hospital to clean out her locker and ends up seeing the Denny Duquette M and M and then hangs out all day and sees Cristina doing a running whip stitch and knows she wants to come back to work. Can you imagine how much work it was to integrate Izzie into that episode that late in the game? Again, our writers are rock stars. Cause the thing is, when we pulled that story thread, it wasn’t just that episode that unraveled. There was an episode set to start prep three days later, there was an episode in script stage, an episode in outline stage and an episode on the board in the writers’ room. ALL of those episodes were affected by that decision. It was a MOUNTAIN of work – many, many 12, 13, 14 hour days. But it was worth it because it was the right call. I don’ t know if that answers your question – but hopefully it gives you a little more insight into the process which I think is what you’re looking for. Why was the old Addison elevator scene from Yesterday showed in this episode? I was like WTF! Wow. You have an incredibly good eye. This question is referencing the montage in act six – in which we stole a shot of Addison from Season 2 (“Yesterday”). The reason is that, again, making this episode into two parts was like guerrilla filmmaking – on the fly, and just kind of insane. And that montage wasn’t scripted until late the last night before the last day of shooting. Greg Yaitanes, the director, and I were talking and we were frustrated because we didn’t feel we had a satisfying ending for part one. And we came up with the montage idea. And I frantically called Rob Corn, our line producer and begged him to make it possible. And then I cut a scene that was supposed to shoot the next day and ran back to my office and scripted the montage and Rob rearranged the schedule and made it happen cause he’s a miracle worker like that. And the one shot we were unable to get in the way we wanted on that last day was Addison. So we stole footage from an old episode (which, by the way, we have done more than once before.) And you totally busted us. Welcome to TV – this is how the magic happens. Why is this episode called "6 days?” Because it spans over six days (whereas an average episode of Grey’s spans over one or maybe two days). You have seen 3 of the six so far – and you can track them by the Mer/Der waking up scenes which start each new day. You mentioned the decision to extend this episode into a two-parter. How exactly do you make that work, as you say, "without compromising the creativity"? Do you add to existing storylines, or actually add in new scenes? Or, did you alter the original 61 minute editing, and incorporate more of already shot scenes? We took the story back the writer’s room. We break each episode as six acts. So our task was to take six acts and make them twelve. We made twelve columns on the dry erase boards and put act one on act one and put what had been act 6 on act 12. Then we put all the scenes we had already shot on the board – and we talked about what we could add. We knew we needed approximately 20 scenes and 20 pages of new material. We watched the 61 minute version – the whole staff – and then talked about which storylines could use fleshing out. The other thing worth noting is that we had one day to re-break the scenes, and then I had one day (the next day) to write them. We were here till 11pm that night but by the time we went home we had added twenty new scenes. Did I mention how much the writing staff rocks? I have to say, some of the new scenes are some of my favorite scenes in the episode. Like that scene where Callie tries to start down George while he’s waiting for word on his Dad – that was new. The scene at the beginning where George drops the check on the floor and begs Izzie to deposit it was new. So, at the end of several very long days, I think it worked out well. (By the way, I’m only talking about the writing process here – this was a monumental task for everyone – the actors, the editors, the crew, the director and producers and post – everyone. It takes a village to raise an episode. ) I know you guys have in-house medical counsel (in one of your writers, at least) who consult on the show - is that all you use, or do you use any of the pro agencies that exist? (I know of two offhand, one by the CDC and one by... people's whose name I forget, but I'm sure there are more.) We use every resource imaginable. The CDC has come to talk to us. So have many doctors and nurses and organizations. Plus our wonderful Director of Research, Elizabeth Klaviter, has several prominent surgeons on speed dial. No fewer than 3 medical professionals comb through and correct every script we write. Okay, that was five…here’s a few more. Did George know what really happened in the operating room and how bad his dad really is at the end of the episode because he seemed so sad, especially after the whole scene with Callie. Very astute question. George is a doctor. He knows how bad this thing is with his Dad and even though the urine output is good which means the kidneys are functioning, he knows these things can turn on a dime. When you have a family member in the hospital, there are high highs and low lows and they come tumbling right on top of each other. George knows that even if his dad pulls through post-op, he has months of horrible chemo and radiation ahead of him. And he keeps a brave face for his family, so when he has a moment alone, he lets the fear creep in. That’s how I see it anyway. When you introduce a story point (ie Izzy's baby), do you then come up with a plan for when you will readdress the point? I know you won't tell us exactly how or when we'll find out new information, but we will find it out. Right? Please? We plant seeds. We plant seeds and then let them grow. Some grow quickly, like dandelions, Some grow slowly – like – I’m not a gardener but what grows slowly? Trees? Roses? Anyway, everything comes back around. Everything blooms. And the garden is generally more beautiful for the wait. That’s what the gardeners tell me anyway. Where have Meredith's voice-overs gone? They were a "Grey's" staple -- and made the show compelling and rich -- and I'm missing them! The voice-over is not gone from the show – just from tonight’s episode and next week’s. Just as we had George do the voiceover once and Cristina do it once, we decided it would be okay to not have it for once. (And then of course, the episode became a 2-parter and so we won’t have it twice.) The reason I didn’t write one is because I always save the VO for last – I write the script first and then write the VO. When I had written this script, I didn’t feel that I had any more to say. It was a creative decision. Also, I know there was no opening VO on Carolina’s episode awhile back – but she did write one – the problem there was the episode was running long, and we ended up cutting the opening scene and then there was nowhere to place the VO. So, as you can see, sometimes decisions are made for sound creative reasons, sometimes for necessary technical reasons. Anyway, fear not, the VO will be back! Have you guys ever gotten ideas from fan RPGs? I help run one, and we swear sometimes you guys read it. I’m so sorry, but I don’t know what a fan RPG is so I think I can safely say we don’t get ideas there. Whatever happened to Doc's burial? Or is this like Pet Sematary, and Doc's not really dead? Same thing that happened to Dylan the bomb squad guy’s funeral and Denny Duquette’s funeral. Shonda doesn’t like funerals on TV. She doesn’t think that they can ever properly capture the essence of a real funeral. The writers and I tend to agree. So we leave them to your imagination. Can you clarify the timeline? Um, sort of but not as completely as you’d like me to. I can tell you that the interns are still interns – which means that less than one year has passed in Grey’s time. I can also tell you that this is TV and if you over-think the timeline and over-study the show, you will probably be frustrated because it probably won’t seem logical that less than a year has passed. But as with all art, sometimes you have to just suspend your disbelief and go for the ride. On Beverly Hills 90210, the entire cast repeated their junior year of high school. Cause sometimes, logic-leaps like that are necessary to keep a show on the creative track you want. How do you become a writer for a show like Grey's Anatomy? Because I would love to be one. Love. And I have no idea how to do it. I have gotten several questions in this vein. So I’m going to attempt to answer this in brief – and then I really should go do work. There are many ways to become a TV writer. You can go to film school. You can do your undergraduate study in screenwriting. I didn’t. I did take two writing classes – one was playwriting with Prof. Jon Lipsky my senior year at Boston University. It was terrific and inspiring and a big part of what made me want to be a writer. The second was a screenwriting 101 class at the New School in NYC right after I graduated college with a prof whose name ai sadly can’t remember. . Both were helpful. But largely, I self-educated. By that I mean, I read a lot of books on how to write for television. And then I watched a lot of television. And then I practiced writing for television. I practiced a LOT. You hear a lot of stories about people moving to LA and never making it as writers and oh the misery and all the years it takes… My theory is that – okay, some of those people aren’t talented – but many of them, most of them, just moved here too soon. They didn’t practice enough before they started sending scripts out and trying to find an agent. Many, many people write ONE script, or maybe two, and then think they’re ready to be seen and read . To me, that’s insane. Because no matter now good you think your first script is, the second one will be better and the third will be better than that. You learn by doing. Write scripts and show them to trusted friends and get notes and TAKE THE NOTES and rewrite and then write more scripts. That’s how you get good. Also, read something good every day – a novel, preferably, something juicy and inspiring. And write every day. Write every day for a good long while. And then, when you’re ready, buy the books that tell you how to get your stuff read in Hollywood. There are a lot of good ones. Okay. I really do have to go now. Thanks for all your wonderful questions and feedback. We think the world of you, our fans, and appreciate that the feeling seems to be mutual. All my Best, Krista January 12, 2007 in Krista Vernoff -------------------------------



merdermaid	Apr 29 2007, 06:48 PM Post #15
Posts: 157 Group: Grey Girls Member #254 Joined: April 24, 2007	[size=7]3.12 "Six Days - Part 2" writer Krista Vernoff [/size] Original Airdate: 1-18-07 The card at the end of this hour of TV that read “In memory of Bob Verne” was a tribute to my father. He died six years ago at the age of 56 after a very short battle with esophageal cancer. He called me one day at my office at Charmed and told me he thought he had the flu. A week after that he had surgery on a massive tumor at the base of his esophagus. Before the surgery he was laughing and celebrating with family. He had a profoundly positive attitude. After the surgery, he had a massive scar down his belly and was intubated and pale, and upon seeing him, I, who thought of myself as quite strong and educated and capable of handling that moment, started to shake and then hyperventilate and had to be helped out of the room. During the week we waited for him to recover, we learned that kidney function was of the utmost importance and I became obsessed, absolutely obsessed with his urine output. I checked that urine bag like 50 times a day. At one point, the doctors gathered the family to tell us that my Dad had a kink in his breathing tube and that they might not be able to get a new one in. They told us we needed to prepare ourselves for the possibility that this was it. We stood out in the hallway and waited, holding our breath, terrified. There was another family there in the hallway, the family of a 16 year old boy who’d been shot on the street on his way home from work in what was feared to be gang related violence, though his family insisted that he was a good kid, that he wasn’t in any gang. They were as scared as we were as they waited for news of condition. We talked to them for awhile, made small talk, then fell silent. And after a long, pregnant pause, one of the teenagers of the family looked over at a member of my family with a very disturbed look on his face. And then he said “Dang. Somebody just farted. And I think it’s this old white guy right here.” My family laughed harder than we have ever laughed in our lives. And my dad lived through the reintubation. He lived for three more days. When the surgeon sat us down to tell us that it was time to let him go, he explained that Dad had come to him – behind our backs – on his way into the OR actually – and begged him to proceed with the tumor removal no matter what. My Dad believed, truly believed, that he could fight that caner, that he could live, if only they would remove the tumor. The surgeon did as he wished. And I have yet to completely forgive that surgeon for that decision. Because my dad’s body was riddled with cancer. Plus he had a liver condition and a heart condition. There was pretty much no way for him to recover from a surgery that traumatic. And the surgeon knew that. I believe in forgiveness, I do. I’m a fervent and avid believer that resentment, unchecked, leads to illness and spiritual misery. But I also believe that that surgeon cut my dad in half because he wanted the practice. It wasn’t the right call. He knew better. My Dad didn’t. The scene in which George yells at Bailey and Richard – that scene didn’t happen in my life. Writing and shooting that scene was wish fulfillment for me. What happened in my life is, we went into my Dad’s ICU and put our hands on his body and sang him Beatles songs while the nurses turned off the machines. When they pulled the intubation tubes from his mouth, my sister and I put our faces to his mouth so we could feel the last of his breath. And then he died. And I became a member of the Dead Dad’s club. I know you didn’t want us to kill Mr. O’Malley. Believe me, I know that. He was funny and warm and kind and too young and too happy to die, just like my Dad. He had children and a wife who loved him and needed him, just like my Dad. Sometimes life sucks. Sometimes, surgery sucks. (By the way, because Bailey and Richard are Bailey and Richard, I don’t think they did what they did for anything but the highest reasons. I believe they were persuaded by Mr. O’Malley’s plea. I believe they felt they had a responsibility to honor his wishes even if they thought it was the wrong decision. But still, sometime surgeons and surgery suck.) It’s been hard for me sometimes to work on a show that by its very nature idealizes Western medicine and surgery. I believe in both, but only as a last resort. Because I fervently believe (and statistics support) that surgery often does more harm than good. So, one of the reasons I haven’t written an episode since 302 is because I called dibs on this one. I knew which story I wanted to tell. I’m sorry it was so hard to watch – but I believe that where there is darkness there is light. I believe that from death comes life. I believe that in the face of great pain, families become closer. Friendships become deeper. Life becomes sweeter. And I believe it’s important to be reminded of the loss of love so that we will value and honor the love we have while have it. I hope you do that. I hope, that if you were impacted by this episode, you will use it as inspiration to call your Dad or your Mom or a Grandparent or a sibling or a friend or a teacher and thank them for being in your life and tell them what they mean to you. If you weren’t impacted by this episode, and you just want to write me hate mail that’s okay too. That’s your choice. We all get one life to live. Or, maybe we get reincarnated a lot of times, I don’t know. But like Burke, in my experience science isn’t enough. For me it’s about faith. Some kind of faith. Any kind of faith. So maybe, while you’re calling your families or sending me hate mail, I’ll put forth a little effort and try, once again, to forgive my Dad’s surgeon… All my best, Krista (p.s. those of you who keep writing and begging for dirty, gratuitous Mer/Der sex? I have one word for you: porny. You have porny, porny minds. And I’m not saying that’s a bad thing… : ) (p.s.s. Aren’t you glad little baby Laura is okay? I am. Because as you know I’m expecting a daughter on March 17th. And another thing that’s hard for me about our show is that by necessity, we tell a lot of traumatic baby stories and birth stories. I read a book that helped me undo a lot of the fear those stories had instilled in me – it’s called “A Guide to Childbirth” by Ina May Gaskin. If you’re pregnant or know someone who’s pregnant or are thinking of ever getting pregnant, you should read it. It’s so so so great. Okay, now I’m really done. Bye.) January 18, 2007 in Krista Vernoff -------------------------------



merdermaid	Apr 29 2007, 06:49 PM Post #16
Posts: 157 Group: Grey Girls Member #254 Joined: April 24, 2007	[size=7]3.13 "Great Expectations" writer Eric Buchman [/size] Original Airdate: 1-25-07 I got a call at midnight last night from my Mom. From the East Coast. So it was 3am where she was. She watched the show. Went online. And waited. And waited. And waited. And called. She wanted to know where my blog was. She called again this morning. No blog. Just got an instant message from her 15 minutes ago from her. Asking about the blog. My point… I know ya’ll are a little frustrated at the lack of a blog. But no one is more frustrated than my own mom, so you don't need to worry about punishing me because I’m surely going to be grounded the next time I get back to Florida. The thing is, I just don’t know where to begin. There’s just so much I want to say. Do I start by saying how thankful I am for this opportunity? I just can’t thank Shonda enough for this. And many, many thanks to Krista, Mark, Allan, Tony & Joan for guiding me through the process with such care. To Stacy for being such a rock on set. To Debora and Kip and Zoanne and Harry & Gab for their input in the script. To Carolina for easing all my fears and offering such great advice. Television is a very collaborative medium, and I’m so fortunate that my first time was with such a talented and generous and considerate writing staff. Or do I start with what a hypocrite I am? I’m the guy who posts the blogs the writers write, so I’m the guy who harps on all them for not getting in their blogs in a timely manner. And even though I've done two blogs in the past (this one and this one), this IS my first time writing about an episode with my name on it. And I finally get where their brain freeze is coming from. (but don’t worry, I’ll still harp on them!) Or do I start with the stuff I know you all want to know about? You see, for the first two seasons, I was the guy who read every comment. Every. Single. One of them. And I know what you really want to know… And you don’t want a recap of what just happened in last night’s episode. You want to know what happens next. You want to know how Cristina and Callie respond. You want to know if Derek finds out about all the proposing and is inspired to ask Meredith to marry him. But you know I can’t tell you that. Because as you can see in the above, I love my job. And if I told you, I’d get fired. My parents threatened to disown me if I didn’t tell them. And… I still didn’t tell them. I’ll be eating take-out for Thanksgiving this year. But at least I’ll still have my job. Anyways… I can’t really start out with any of those things. So I’ll start with… sex. Let’s talk about George having a lot of it. We needed to show George grieving in a new way for Grey’s. We didn’t want to repeat any beats of Izzie’s grief. And because we knew we had to build to that proposal, we wanted to have George burying his grief in Callie. And in a way that would bother his best friend Izzie. We also wanted Callie to feel some remorse. She finally got George, but not in the way she wanted. She’s gotten his body, but the underlying relationship isn’t there anymore. So what does all that add up to? Make George a sex machine and it’ll bother his friends, pain Callie, and be VERY different from Izzie’s mourning. Let’s talk about the fact that Cristina and Burke are probably still having a lot of sex, despite their silent situation. In early versions of the script, we actually wanted to show just that -- Burke and Cristina having great sex, but not saying a word. Silent sex. It works in theory, but in execution (on broadcast television) how the hell do you show two people having sex, and know they’re enjoying it if it’s completely silent. You can’t have silence on television. Unless it’s for dramatic effect… waiting for a verdict on Law and Order. Or for comedic effect. The awkward but brilliant silence of The Office. But silence during sex? On TV that usually conveys boredom. Wait a second, I just remembered something. I can’t start with sex after all. My mom is reading this. So let’s start with… Richard and Adele. Richard finally goes to the board and officially got his retirement going. Which gets the race for chief going. Which gets all our attendings acting like children. Which gets the Nazi back. Which leads him back to Adele’s… only to be turned away at the door. Poor, poor Richard. Does this mean the race is over? All that was for naught? Wait – I can’t talk about the future. Crap. Okay, moving onto the next topic… So let’s start with… The fact that this was my first time. And how thankful I am that I did it with people who were so gentle and considerate, and wanted to make sure I was completely satisfied by the experience. Wait a second. Sounds like I’m talking about sex again. Um... Okay then… moving on… So let’s start with… The Amish. Yeah, we had Amish characters fly on an airplane. But I’m told that’s okay under such dire circumstances. Their daughter is 3000 miles away and she’s sick! But wait – I don’t want to upset any Amish people reading this, so I probably should move on… (possibly interesting tidbit: first day of shooting, a member of the crew, Ryan Blank, walked up to me to say that his father was Amish, and that he just happens to be in town for a few days… an amazing coincidence. we immediately set up a meeting with his father and our researcher and director and that’s how the Pennsylvania Dutch wound up in the episode. Mr. Blank made a CD of him saying the lines, and the actors memorized it and rehearsed it on their own. And I think they did a great job… even though I still have no clue what they were saying) Okay. So let’s start with… Meredith and Derek! Finally. They're a topic with no more taboos. I possibly can’t ruin when they’ll get back together, because they got back together 5 episodes ago. (or 6 depending on how you count “back together”). On the surface, their story in this episode isn’t very complicated. They had a fight that -- compared to past Meredith and Derek fights -- was barely anything. I mean, remember when Derek basically called Meredith a whore? But this was their first fight as a real, honest-to-goodness couple. And even though it was a minor fight, it’s very revealing for Meredith. She’s not used to fighting with someone and having them come back. We know how things are with her mom. We know her dad left even before she had a chance to ever fight with him. We can now picture every boyfriend she ever had leaving after just a couple weeks, if she didn’t leave first. This is probably the longest relationship she’s ever been in. And the first with someone she feels a genuine connection with. We might know Derek will come back – but she doesn’t. The scene at the end between them is actually a milestone of sorts for her. She has to admit just how new to all this she really is. The woman with a habit of getting drunk and having sex with inappropriate men – is finally in virgin territory. You know, that’ll be good title for a novel. “The Virgin Whore” I wonder if that’s been done yet… Just googled it. Crap. It’s not a book, but it’s a cocktail made with vodka, tequila, cranberry and apple juice, food coloring, and lime kool-aid. And you know what? Meredith might actually like that, considering her fondness for tequila. Okay, I’m off on a tangent… That’s not a good sign. Means I need to pick a topic with more going on… hmm… Let’s start with… Alex and Addison. Ouch. That’s all I can say. I watched the episode with a group of friends, and when Alex says “you’re my boss, what was I supposed to do?” (when he explained why he kissed her back in the last episode) – it stung the entire room. We all felt what Addison feels in that moment. But what’s most painful about that scene? Not that Alex effectively shut Addison down in such a cold and direct manner. But that it seems like such a waste of chemistry. When they went into that closet, the last thing we wanted to see them do is pour water on their fire. Okay, I’m getting frustrated just thinking about it. Not a good topic for me. So let’s start with… Well, what’s left? Mark Sloan? Can I just say that Eric Dane, who plays Mark, is like the nicest guy ever? During the read thru for the episode, he paid me my first compliment ever as a writer (from a professional actor). Sara Ramirez got to a line I wrote in the Izzie-Callie hallway scene (a line that never made it to air actually), and she totally sold it. And Eric looked up and said “way to go, Bucky.” And what had been an incredibly nerve-inducing experience, all of a sudden became very relaxing. My nerves went away. I was able to enjoy the remainder of the read thru. Hopefully the excised line will wind up on the DVD. I can’t tell you what the line was, though, because ABC Standards and Practices requested its removal. In fact, I can’t really talk about those network matters at all, so I guess I should choose another topic… So… Let’s start with… the opening credits! Did you notice that Marti Noxon is now in the opening credits!!! Yes, Buffy fans, THE Marti Noxon. Or as we like to call her. TV’s Marti Noxon. And you know what’s even better than having her here as a consulting producer for the rest of the season? Her writing an episode. And you know what’s even better than her writing an episode? Her writing and episode WITH Shonda. And you know what’s even better than all that? (wow, I’m beginning to sound like game show host slowly revealing some big prize) Them writing an episode you can see in less than a month! Wait a second – Shonda is telling me that I’m revealing too much. I can’t say anymore, and I’ve already said too much. Darn…okay then… I guess there’s only one thing left for me to say… So let’s just start with the closing. Thank you all for watching last night’s episode. Thank you for reading this blog. I hope you enjoyed the episode almost as much as I enjoyed working on it. Oh, and thanks, Mom, for being so patient! (even if you’ve been IMing me all day while I’m busy taking notes in the writers’ room) January 26, 2007 in Eric Buchman -------------------------------



merdermaid	Apr 29 2007, 06:51 PM Post #17
Posts: 157 Group: Grey Girls Member #254 Joined: April 24, 2007	[size=7]3.14 "Wishin' and Hopin'" writers Tony Phelan & Joan Rater [/size] Original Airdate: 2-1-07 So … Tony, my writing partner who also happens to be my husband had brain surgery last year. He’s fine. Totally fine. But it was brain surgery and there was a chance that he wasn’t going to be fine. And Tony has a good brain. The kind of brain that remembers everything. And I mean, everything – names, dates, entire casts of television shows from the 70’s. His whole family is scary smart, trivia contest winning smart, and even they acknowledge the superiority of Tony’s Brain. So, when Tony was about to have his head cut open we were all worried about Tony’s Brain. What if it isn’t the same? Who is he if he isn’t the guy who knows everything? During this time, I discovered something about my brain. Stress - especially the stress of having a husband about to have a craniotomy - makes me forgetful. The name of my kid’s teacher would suddenly elude me. The lyrics to a song. I’d go upstairs to get something but forget what I was there for. There was one day, a few days before his surgery, where I was standing at an ATM unable to remember my PIN number. The PIN number I’ve had for 10 years, the one I punch in without thinking everyday. I needed money for parking but my secret code eluded me. So I had to call a friend to bring me money. I knew it was just the stress of the surgery, but still, while I waited on a street corner for my friend, I felt frustrated and embarrassed. I tell you these things about Tony’s surgery and my stressed out brain because those scary, frustrated feelings were on my mind a lot when I was writing this episode. This episode was obviously about a lot of things, but for me, it was really about Alzheimer’s disease. How devastating it is to families, how it turns spouses and children into caretakers, how it robs people of their memory, their identity. The concept of someone with this disease having a lucid day is real. The disease varies for everyone, but experts we talked to said that patients have bad days and good days and then sometimes they have great days where it seems like they are their old selves. Maybe it’s a moment, maybe an hour, for some a whole afternoon, but we were fascinated with the idea of getting this time, this gift, and knowing that it’s only temporary. What would you do with that one day? And what would it mean for Meredith? The words “ELLIS HAS A LUCID DAY” have been up on the board in the writers’ room since last season. We knew it was a cool idea - what it would mean for Mer and Ellis to be able to connect again – but we never really knew what to do with it. I can’t tell you the number of times we’ve tried to put it in episodes but it never felt quite right. If you’re going to give Meredith her mother back and then take her away again, you’d better have a pretty good reason. Last season Meredith had her hands full with the Derek/Finn of it all. The beginning of this season was so much about the aftermath of Denny. But now it feels to me like the interns are entering a new period, a period that is really about identity. Who are they as surgeons? Can they have a life and a career? Can they be happy? Meredith is … or at least she should be. She and Derek are together and she finally has a chance at happiness. Perfect time for her mother to show up. I really mean that. Not because the writers love to torture poor Meredith, but seriously, if Meredith is ever going to be happy she’s got to deal with the fact that she had a really terrible childhood. On the set, when we were shooting the scene where Ellis Meredith what happened to her -- and tells her how disappointing it is that Meredith turned out so ordinary -- after the first take when the amazing Kate Burton really just went all Ellis Grey on Meredith, there was this silence. It was so awful and raw and ugly, these terrible things Ellis was saying. And the silence was broken by someone on the crew who said, “Oh, now I get all the drinking and the sex with inappropriate men.” And it was cathartic to be on the set when Meredith finally stood up to her and said, “You want to know why I’m so ordinary? What happened to me? You. You happened to me.” I think Ellen’s work in this episode, especially in that scene, is exceptional. And then finally, Ellis and Richard. With him she lets her guard down and we see her be vulnerable. And when she tells Richard that she wishes she could do things differently, she made so many mistakes, if she could do it all over, she’d be fine with being happy, like Meredith says she’s happy, that she’d be satisfied to just be ordinary … Shonda took the final pass on that scene, and the actors did a remarkable job with it. It gets me everytime I watch it. Because that’s really what it’s all about. We have to cherish the time that we have here, and love the people who surround and support us, even if they make us crazy. Because things happen. Brain surgery, and Alzheimer’s and weddings. And the worst thing is to come to the end of your life and realize, like Ellis, that you should have tried harder. I know this isn’t an ordinary blog – there’s so much that happened in this episode that I didn’t talk about. But this wasn’t an ordinary episode. And I just wanted to give you a little window into what I was thinking about when I wrote it. February 02, 2007 in Joan Rater -------------------------------



merdermaid	Apr 29 2007, 06:51 PM Post #18
Posts: 157 Group: Grey Girls Member #254 Joined: April 24, 2007	[size=7]3.15 "Walk on Water" writer Shonda Rhimes [/size] Original airdate: 2/8/07 Holy crap, am I glad it is my turn to blog again! I have missed it, let me tell you! How is everyone? You still out there? Still good? 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? I don’t blame you for the cursing. But please remember that next week, things get even more interesting and then the week after that, they get REALLY interesting. I don’t want to talk about it. Or give anything away…. Which means there’s not much I can blog about. Damn it. I can tell you that this episode (as well as the next) was directed by the famous Bossy McBossy Rob Corn. And that before he had a script, he kept coming into my office to say in that quiet, calm voice of his: “YOU. ARE. KILLING. ME.” See, it’s that time of year again. That time of year when I get all sick and flu-y and my brain goes stupid and so I start to lie face down on the carpet in my office threatening to flee the country because my ability to write has clearly leaked out of my ear while I was sleeping. Every year, like clockwork, it happens. And every year, like clockwork, it takes me by surprise. You’d think I’d learn. But I don’t. I don’t learn. So Bossy McBossy is waiting for pages and I’m gathering my passport and calling the airports and Betsy (who sits in the office next to mine and keeps me sane) very kindly keeps coming in to remind me that I have pitched the entire 3 episode arc to her eight or nine times in vivid detail over the past five months. All I have to do, she says (using, I might add, the exact same voice one uses with a three year old who won’t give you the sharp objects in her mouth), all I have to do is WRITE DOWN the things I have pitched her. All I have to do PUT THEM ON PAPER. HA! Everyone knows the key component of serious, rampant procrastination is the inability to put anything on paper. Okay, I am actually procrastinating by writing about procrastinating. On to the point, which is this: Rob Corn worked his behind off shooting this episode with pages being fed to him as he shot and for that, I will no longer be referring to him as Bossy McBossy. Instead from this moment on, I will call him by his new tribal name: Shoots With No Script. Now, Shoots With No Script will tell you that I had very definite ideas about this episode. And I did. But they were all character-based. They were all about Meredith’s attitude and the little girl and Izzie and her tub of butter and Cristina and the notion that, in choosing to marry, she fears that she is LITERALLY being left behind in more ways than having to stay at the hospital while everyone goes to the accident site. They were all about Derek and Burke and their conversation about “these women” and Richard and his badly dyed hair. My thoughts were all about disappearing. They were not about things that Shoots With A Script needed to know. They were not, for instance, about what the ferry should look like when we first see it. Because, if you know anything about me, you know I don’t want to think about hurting a ferry boat. I, like McDreamy, have a thing for ferry boats. Ferry boats are awesome and, in fact, very safe. Ferry boats are amazing. Ferry boats are a metaphor for Meredith, you know. 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. The little girl? She’s also a metaphor for Mer. A motherless lost girl who can’t speak for herself and disappears? Okay, that’s too obvious. But you all know Meredith’s been doing a dance with death for some time. Y’all know that if you’ve been watching. She’s dark, our girl. She’s dark and twisty. And I worry about her. Now, I’m really worried about her because she’s in the water and I want to be clear with you: I don’t put people in the water for no reason. Meredith’s got issues, she’s got serious Mommy issues and she’s broken and she’s in the water. I killed Denny. I blew up Dylan. I’m not entirely playing by the rules of TV here. There’s a point. And it’s coming. Shoots With A Script and I have our fingers and toes crossed that it works. Because what happens next…well, just wait and see… Okay, I rambled and I procrastinated and I should just stop writing and let you go ahead and yell at me now… February 09, 2007 in Shonda Rhimes -------------------------------



merdermaid	Apr 29 2007, 06:52 PM Post #19
Posts: 157 Group: Grey Girls Member #254 Joined: April 24, 2007	[size=7]3.16 "Drowning on Dry Land" writer Shonda Rhimes [/size] Original airdate: 2/15/07 So, yeah, that was Denny and Dylan. I’m trying to be all casual about it. Like I don’t care. Like, you know, Denny and Dylan, whatever…I’m cool, I’m good. But I almost hugged Jeffrey Dean Morgan to death when he arrived on set. He was nice about it considering the restraining order he should have taken out against me during Season Two. I was glad to see him. And I was glad to see Kyle Chandler who was gracious enough to fly out here and film on one of his very few days off from the very well-written Friday Night Lights. See, I miss Denny and Dylan. A lot. So it was nice to see them for a moment, wasn’t it? Even if Meredith is dead? You all have some pretty strong feelings about this. I’ve been reading your comments. STRONG feelings. Which I respect. Grey’s is in its third season and we’re doing something a little…different. It’s about time we did. Because, just as I said when you all shouted your horror about the Meredith/George sex, I remind you that we writers like to follow the characters here and we try very hard not to make story just to make story. We like to have a point. Meredith being dead is about…well, you will see what it is about next week. She was in pain, this girl. And… …okay, I don’t want to talk about that. Meredith being dead at the end of this episode. I can’t. Not yet. What I want to talk about is the other interns. Because they all take some truly interesting journeys. Izzie and Alex especially. Izzie’s is one my favorites. I didn’t come up with the “rock star” line and I wasn’t standing on set when it was shot but that was one of my favorite Katie Heigl moments this season. She’s good, that girl. What I like about Izzie is that, right now, she’s fighting for George. No one else agrees with her and she’s going about it all wrong but still…she truly believes her best friend is in trouble and she’s fighting to make him see it. It may be none of her business but when do we stay out of the business of those that we love? But I gotta admit, I adore Callie and in that moment, when Izzie tells George he made a mistake marrying Callie, I hate Izzie. Just hate her. But she’s a good person and she never holds her tongue and for that, I respect her. But will George? It’s interesting to see Alex dealing with this Jane Doe and her horrible, painful to watch face. He’s got some growing to do, this guy and hopefully, we’ll see him begin to do that. Plus, I love the moment when he tells Addison that he’d notice if she went missing. I don’t know that they are in any way right for one another but it was a kind thing to say to a woman he has heat with. Cause, I don’t know if you noticed? But Addison’s lonely these days and a little bit adrift. The most interesting one to watch this episode is Derek. I don’t know if you remember that in first season, he said to Meredith: “You were like coming up for fresh air. I was drowning and you saved me.” It was good to be able to call that back (everything comes back around eventually on this show, I find) and to see what happens when Meredith is drowning. He’s not Mer’s knight in shining whatever – he gets kicked out the trauma room where Richard and Bailey are working on her. He’s forced to sit out in the hall, helpless. And he’s seeing his worst nightmare come true. Because he’s realizing: Meredith has become so important to him and the prospect of losing her is terrifying. Who is he if he isn’t the guy who rescues Mer? Who is he when he can’t save a life? Shoots With No Script was anxious about tonight. Not in an obvious way. In a Shoots With No Script kind of way. All under the surface and mellow. But I know he was. ‘Cause I was anxious too. We make these episodes and then we sit still, freaked out, and wait to see how it feels when it goes on the air. It’s a little like having to speak in public and we never get used to it. Because you all have a reaction. And we care about that. Also, because Shoots With No Script and I are both a teensy bit neurotic. But you knew that… -Shonda February 16, 2007 in Shonda Rhimes -------------------------------



merdermaid	Apr 29 2007, 06:53 PM Post #20
Posts: 157 Group: Grey Girls Member #254 Joined: April 24, 2007	[size=7]3.17 "Some Kind of Miracle" writers Shonda Rhimes & Marti Noxon [/size] Original airdate: 2-22-07 A few months ago, I got a call from Shonda and Betsy Beers. I was lying on the floor when they called. I had my computer in front of me, so I was “writing”. I’d recently had lunch with Shonda and Betsy, and a few other meals with Shonda before that. So we’d hung out . We’d dined. We’d complained about… things only lucky TV people complain about. Things related to actually having jobs. Things which, by real world standards, barely even qualify as problems. But that’s why we need each other. Because we get each other, man When the call came, despite previous eating and complaining, I was intimidated. Shonda and Betsy had created this monster hit, this highly-entertaining medical drama that millions of people watched and adored. Including me. I mean, Shonda’s kind of eerily talented -- and she knows Oprah. But, honestly, I needed a good call. I was working on a soon-to-be Ill-fated pilot. Before that it was a brief and ill-fated stay on an otherwise successful ABC show. And before that I launched a brief and ill-fated series for Fox. And before that I worked on a… brief and ill-fated series for Fox. We see a pattern. Buffy was good. Can we talk about Buffy? Problem is – Buffy was a long time ago. She lives on –- Season 8 soon to be in comic book form… But, in my nightmares, I’m 90 at a Buffy convention, and nobody wants my autograph. They’re all in line to see virtual Joss, who has invented a way to put his brain in a jar on a floaty thing, live forever and be funnier and more prolific than everybody for THE REST OF ALL TIME. I love Joss, but it’s hard being his friend. Like I was saying. I needed a good call. And it came. Would I like to “come hang out” on Grey’s for a while? I’ll skip the part where I hung up and cried and called my agent and he cried and we all cried because, try as I might, it would be hard for me, personally, to turn Grey’s into an “ill-fated” show. Especially since I was to have a vague job title, no authority and non-specific duties. So I hung out. For a few days it was all Christmas baskets and trying to make Shonda laugh (she was dying from iron deficiency and was too weak to lift the corners of her mouth – nobody knew that yet, so I danced like a little monkey. But more on that later). I also got to hang with the aforementioned Shonda and Betsy (so great at her job and so funny she makes me laugh until things come out of my nose); the amazing Krista Vernoff (amazing and pregnant and beautiful and able to write many fabulous pages in a single bound); Allan Heinberg -- Joss-like in his smartness and multi-talentedness; the warm, funny and ridiculously “on-it” in-every-way Tony and Joan Phelan; The Hammer – Mark Wilding – a great writer and The Godfather around here; fantastic (also lovely and pregnant) Debora, whose writing made me laugh and cry and all that other envy-inducing stuff; Stacy who can produce both wonderful scripts and amazing portraits of people made entirely of pipe cleaners… Not to mention the always enchanting Kip and Caro … Zoanne and Elizabeth, great writers and the people who actually know what doctors do and say. Every one of them was welcoming and seriously funny and dedicated. Also -- Kern, Eric, Darren, Jim, Chris, Sonay – assistants today – our bosses tomorrow. Tremendously funny and talented in their own right. Finally – a special mention of Meg, the Writer’s PA, who we all adore – in the way that only creatures in captivity can love the person who brings them food. I’ve worked quite a few places, and I can honestly say that the single greatest benefit of working on a hit show is that Meg appears, at lunch time, with hot food and everything is as ordered. This may seem like a small thing, but for some reason in has proved impossible everywhere but here. And when lunch doesn’t come, writers get cranky and they stop working. They start talking about Nascar and our ex-whatevers, shopping, musicals and what we ate yesterday. (Okay, not Nascar – but I’m doing what I can to butch up the writer image here.) So thank God for Meg, who is great at many other things – but basically keeps Grey’s Anatomy up and running. But I digress. I figured I had some time. I was just around to do… what exactly? Nobody knew. This is the truth about the “consulting” title. Nobody knows what it is. I think it has something to do with lunch. But Shonda and company had other ideas. Shonda’s first part of a two-part episode became a two-parter itself – Ferry Hell, one and two. The ones in which Meredith goes into the water and dies. So Shonda suddenly had all this work to do and it turned out she had no IRON in her blood. And very little blood in her blood. Shonda needed help. From a doctor most of all – but a little help from me on the side. Which is how I came to co-write this episode of Grey's. And the fact that there are dead people in it is just a coincidence. For those of you who fear I’m whispering in Shonda’s ear about the dark side and alternate realities and stuff – this was her thing, okay? I’m here to write MEDICINE, people. And sex. And sexy medicine. I was again – intimidated. It was a challenge to write and shoot for so many reasons. Not in a digital-ferry-crashing-into-a-digital-dock way, but still… This, again, wasn’t a typical Grey’s. Half of it takes place… where? In Meredith’s head? In Heaven? We decided, for obvious reasons, not to get too specific. And we knew Meredith had to go on a journey. But, get it wrong and it’s “Touched by an Icy Blue Surgeon.” And Denny and Dylan? I’m supposed to touch the sacredness of Denny and Dylan? I think not. All will agree that I basically punted that stuff. But you know, Denny and Izzie at the end. Shonda’s been talking about that since she pitched me the episode. It was heart-breaking then, in my office with bad lighting… So on it’s feet -- awesome. But I’ll let Shonda weigh in more on that favorite moment. Back in Seattle Grace we struggled with going to such a dark place and finding the funny. Not that we found a lot of funny. If there’s a theme here – besides the search for Miracles -- it’s “death sucks.” For me, what emerged were the love stories. Not just between Derek and Meredith, but between Cristina and Meredith. That essential friendship. Cristina walking out was something that was hotly debated here. Apparently – that’s not good doctoring (I’m new!) But it felt right. If not now, when? Meredith is Cristina’s person. And Richard and Ellis… That love coming to a definitive end. There’s a lot of grief in all of this, but there’s great hope too. It’s the lesson from “the other place” too. We are who we love. In any case - Shonda did all the heavy lifting. She found the moments that sing for me, that pull it all together. I was still running around asking dumb things like “what’s an Attending?” Then Adam Arkin, a wonderful actor in his own right, did an amazing job directing it. And, as you’ll see – all the actors are in stunningly good form. But aren’t they always? Oh yeah – they are really that pretty. That’s fun. So. Thanks for letting me blog. It really was a good call to get – “come hang at Grey’s.” The people here are tremendous, and the show’s pretty damn fun to write when it isn’t trying to kill us all. I hope to stick around, at least until somebody tells me what an Attending is. *and the agent weeps* February 22, 2007 in Marti Noxon -------------------------------



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