Some pictures for tonights final crossover episode after the jump…

Images thanks to CU

More promos and sneak peeks after the jump.

You have to believe that ABC wasn’t expecting miracles when it gave a midseason episode order to “Grey’s Anatomy” in 2005, given the TV track record of its creator. It isn’t that Shonda Rhimes had a bad one; she merely lacked one. Rhimes had written the 1999 HBO original “Introducing Dorothy Dandridge.” And that was it. Yet here Rhimes is with “Grey’s ,” having achieved 100 episodes . She spoke about getting her baby to this point with The Hollywood Reporter’s Ray Richmond.

The Hollywood Reporter: So why do you think “Grey’s Anatomy” was able to make it to 100 episodes?

Shonda Rhimes: The truth is that it’s the fans loving the show who are responsible for keeping you on the air. If they weren’t watching, then we obviously wouldn’t still be here.

THR: Was 100 episodes a goal for you to reach from the start?

Rhimes: Not necessarily. We were just hoping to go as long as we could tell good stories and not get stale, or static. But I feel like we helped to ensure that by having a large cast. In hindsight, that was a pretty smart thing to do. Besides putting Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) through quite a ringer, we’ve been able to effectively explore pretty much all of the characters on this show.

THR: What’s been the most difficult part about getting “Grey’s” to this point?

Rhimes: At the end of the day, it really is about making sure the characters keep moving forward. In a sitcom, you can have your people stay relatively the same and tread similar situations. That isn’t how it is in drama.

More after the jump…

THR: Was your having the cast be essentially a cultural melting pot a goal from the start, or a happy accident?

Rhimes: It’s incredibly encouraging that our viewers haven’t gotten hung up on the race thing. It’s not about the fact that she’s Asian and he’s black. It’s about the fact that she’s a slob, and he’s a neat freak. That’s what the whole relationship is all about.

THR: Is it still difficult to strike a balance between the medical and personal details in the episodes?

Rhimes: I can feel it when there’s too much medical and not enough personal, and that’s the most important balance to keep. We’ve done episodes where there’s a ton of personal and not very much medical. Works just fine. But when the medical sort of overtakes the personal, the show doesn’t feel like the show.

THR: Where do you see the show heading now?

Rhimes: Let’s just say it’s a different place than I’d ever expected at the beginning.

THR: How long do you see “Grey’s” going? Have you always had an end-point in mind?

Rhimes: I used to say I knew exactly how the show was going to end. But now, after 100 episodes, I have no end story or date in mind at all. I just want us to tell stories as long as we feel it’s relevant. We’re essentially working without a map and have been for a little while now.

Hollywood Reporter

Those unfamiliar with ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” might be under the impression that it’s a squishy hospital soap opera where wacky incidents are interspersed with necking in the locker room.

They might not be entirely wrong. But that’s not the whole story, according to creator/executive producer Shonda Rhimes. The show, which reaches its 100th episode today, was designed with a sharp scalpel edge to it.

“I loved the idea of a world in which competition wasn’t just accepted, but fully expected of people,” she says of the inception for “Grey’s.” “For me, it was about finding a world in which being cutthroat was rewarded.”

In just four years, “Grey’s,” like Rhimes, has become a dominating force in TV. With ratings averaging in the 8s during the past five seasons among adults 18-49, the drama — which focuses on a close-knit set of interns and doctors at Seattle Grace Hospital — has become a zeitgeist phenomenon at a time when dwindling audiences and fragmented viewership have all but declared that impossible.

“Our show was really on the cusp of a lot of new global things, like how it’s marketed, how it’s distributed and how it reaches a global audience immediately,” co-star Sandra Oh says.

Not that getting it off the ground was so easy.

Executive producers Betsy Beers and Mark Gordon had met Rhimes as an up-and-coming writer and helped her develop a pilot for a series about war correspondents. But in the early 2000s, that idea was an especially tough sell, so they started over.

“I was a serious medical junkie,” Rhimes says. “I love to watch the surgeries on the Learning Channel.”

Read more after the jump…

The turning point, Beers says, was when Rhimes came up with the idea to use interns as a viewer entree to the jargon-heavy medical world. “If you took the point of view of people who also didn’t know what was going on, that was the way to let the audience in on the process in an understandable fashion.”

In the end, “Grey’s” became not “a hospital drama, but a human drama,” says Mike Benson, executive vp marketing for ABC.

But it was different from just any other new show — medical or otherwise — on TV. One reason was the emphasis on

diversity in casting: Nearly every character was cast without a previously established ethnic description, in order to hire a wide range of potential players.

“There are plenty of times when I’m watching television and I think, ‘Not one of these people looks like me,’ and that’s ridiculous in this day and age — and honestly a little shameful,” says Rhimes, one of Hollywood’s few black showrunners. “It was important to have the cast reflect what I think the world looks like.”

The rest of the world responded. The show got a strong lead-in from “Desperate Housewives” and immediately took off. Catch phrases like “McDreamy,” and later “va-jay-jay,” began peppering the national conversation, a ripple effect that proved TV shows could still have a wide reach.

ABC jumped on the marketing bandwagon, creating “Grey’s”-branded product that included games for Wii, a book “written” by fictional character Dr. Sydney Heron (“Grey’s Anatomy Guide to Healing With Love”), and three soundtracks. There were even greeting cards for Valentine’s Day.

“Those elements have contributed significantly to the revenue of the franchise,” Benson says.

That wasn’t ABC’s only response: Success with “Grey’s” meant Rhimes earned the right to create a spinoff, and “Private Practice” premiered in 2007. She also is working on a pilot, “Inside the Box,” which the Alphabet is considering.

“People who can deliver from whole cloth shows that have legs and life and success are few and far between,” ABC Entertainment president Stephen McPherson says. “It’s not surprising to me that she could do that.

” ‘Grey’s’ has been one of the cornerstones of (the network’s) turnaround,” he adds.

The show hasn’t been without its challenges. Original co-star Isaiah Washington was dropped after making an antigay slur and co-star Katherine Heigl has at times been vocal about her desire to leave the show to focus on her film career.

To questions about those issues, Oh simply says, “Go watch (the 1950 film) ‘Rashomon.’ It’s been blown out of proportion, but it’s about economics — selling magazines, selling gossip.”

While “Grey’s” is the highest-rated scripted series this season among adults 18-49, its ratings dropped to 5.9/14 in the same demographic this season, a fall from a series’ high of 8.9/21 during its second season. That has led some to suggest Rhimes has spread herself too thinly over all three projects.

“I think we went through those growing pains last year when she was frankly doing too much on both shows (‘Grey’s’ and ‘Private’) and trying to put all the weight on her shoulders,” McPherson says. “I think she’s figured out a way to be a good manager, preserve her vision, be there hands-on when she needs to be, but allow herself to empower the right people.”

Rhimes’ vision continues to draw millions of viewers each week, which causes producers to take a long-term view of the show.

“The possibilities are endless,” Beers says of the next seasons. “There’s no end to the amazing surgeries and medical issues that occur in a hospital.”

Perhaps most heartening for the long-term future of any show is when its creator can step back and let it fly, which is what Rhimes says she can do while focusing on “Private” and “Box.”

” ‘Grey’s’ is a very well-oiled machine at this point,” Rhimes says. “There’s an ease for us now. It’s all about how to make the engine work.”

Ellen and her little baby bump were pictured helping husband Chris load some boxes into their car. See the pictures after the jump!

Images taken from Just Jared

Go to Variety to read more great articles from their 100th episode feature.

ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” is a show about a lot of things — doctors, relationships, life and death — but before the show even began its pilot, producers realized there had to be one more thing included in that list: music.

“We knew going into the pilot that we had to make the lives of the interns as accessible as possible, and the music allows that,” says exec producer Betsy Beers.

To make that music a force of its own, “Grey’s” and showrunner Shonda Rhimes hired Alexandra Patsavas as music supervisor, with the hope she could bring the same magic she supplied to her previous work, such as “The OC” and “Rescue Me.”

“Shonda always intended it to be a musical show,” Patsavas says. “From the start, the producers were never afraid of listening to the unusual.”

Read more after the jump…

Beers also notes that “Grey’s” has never focused on just one genre of music, instead broadening its reach with pieces from the Fray to Kanye West, and credits some of the show’s growth and development over the years to that.

“Part of the way we view the show is as an evolving organism, and that is the way the music works as well,” Beers says. “As the interns evolve and get older, the music evolves as well.”

The one thing Patsavas and many of the execs agree upon is never to predict how big a song or act will get after being heard on the show.

Everything from the Fray’s “How to Save a Life” to Snow Patrol’s “Chasing Cars” climbed the charts, with the acts gaining more popularity once their songs were heard on the show.

“You always hope, but we never could have predicted what the music is doing now,” Beers says.

Show execs aren’t the only ones in the ABC family to notice the importance and popularity of music in their shows. May brings the launch of ABC’s online Music Lounge, featuring on-demand musicvideos and a single-stream online radio station playing songs from all shows and promos you hear on the network.

Dawn Soler, veep of ABC’s TV music division and co-creator of the lounge, says the idea appeared two years ago and credits “Grey’s” for expanding that interest in the area.

“‘Grey’s’ is definitely a tastemaker show,” Soler says.

Shonda Rhimes, Betsy Beers and casting director Linda Lowy talk about casting and who did and didn’t work out on the show.

New characters bring integrated backstories
By PAULA HENDRICKSON

From the start, “Grey’s Anatomy” creator and executive producer Shonda Rhimes hoped the large ensemble cast would keep the show, set in a teaching hospital, fresh.

“When I came up with the pilot, it was about this group of young people and the people who taught them, and it just evolved,” Rhimes says. “In the first season, we were only telling stories about the interns and their relationships. We still are, but to a greater extent, the show has expanded to where we tell full stories about (characters such as) Bailey now, which is something we never did in season one.”

Creating storylines around Dr. Bailey (Chandra Wilson), the Chief (James Pickens Jr.), and newer characters like Sloan (Eric Dane), Lexie (Chyler Leigh) and Callie (Sara Ramirez) has other advantages. Each character brings new conflicts for existing characters, which prevents the show from growing too dependent on any of its core players.

Read more after the jump…

This technique has proved successful for other long-running series like “ER,” and could help propel “Grey’s” far beyond tonight’s 100th episode.

“For keeping a show alive, you really have to be able to adapt and be flexible and figure out new ways to introduce new characters that the audience is going to care about,” Rhimes says.

“Every single season is slightly different,” adds “Grey’s” executive producer Betsy Beers. “The characters are growing at different paces. Some you get to know very quickly, like Meredith (Ellen Pompeo); then there are people like Alex (Justin Chambers) who we’re still getting to know.”

As for new addition Dr. Owen Hunt (Kevin McKidd), Beers says, “We’re just scratching the surface with him. Won’t it be interesting to get to know him?”

Casting director Linda Lowy, who’s been with the show since its inception, says the key to hiring the right actors is to make sure they fit with what she calls the “‘Grey’s’ world.”

“They need that certain kind of humor: not overly melodramatic, not overly funny in a sitcom sort of way, but in the ‘Grey’s’ way,” Lowy says.

The tone was set with the original cast: Pompeo, Patrick Dempsey (Derek), Sandra Oh (Cristina), Isaiah Washington (Burke), Katherine Heigl (Izzie), T.R. Knight (George), Chambers, Wilson and Pickens.

“The original (members were) well-cast all around,” Chicago Tribune TV critic Maureen Ryan says. “There were people whose faces you’d seen before, but you might not be able to name them. When you’re not overwhelmed by their previous resume, that’s the ideal thing. You want them to know what they’re doing, you want them to have chemistry with their fellow actors, and you just want to get into the story.”

Rhimes, Beers and Lowy and her colleagues John Brace and Will Stewart strive to cast the right actors for recurring characters and guest stars.

“Our best moments are when we bring on somebody who already has a prior relationship — like Addison (Kate Walsh), Mark Sloan or Lexie — people who are already mired in the story,” Rhimes says. “I can’t tell you how many people we met for the role of Lexie Grey. Finding just the right person was extremely difficult, but when you find that person, it’s magic.”

Occasionally roles are tailored to specific actors. “I was looking for a girlfriend for George, but it was in the infancy stages, so I had no idea what I was looking for,” Rhimes says. Then she met Ramirez. “I got to shape the character around this person I knew I wanted to have in the cast.”

Some guests have caught on so well they’ve become regulars. Walsh was initially hired for a handful of episodes, quickly became a regular and soon had a spinoff, “Private Practice.”

“You can’t forget about McSteamy,” Lowy says, “We cast (Dane) for one episode, and I think the women across the nation went kind of crazy. Everyone was talking about him, so we decided to make him a regular.”

Not every character is so fortunate.

“They’ve had some misfires,” Ryan says. “Mary McDonnell (as autistic heart surgeon Dr. Dixon) is one of the finest actors working on film or TV today, but I didn’t respond to her storyline at all.”

Ryan also notes that some characters who felt like they’d be around awhile — notably Melissa George’s Sadie and Brooke Smith’s Erica Hahn — suffered abrupt departures.

“But they’ve had more successes than failures,” Ryan says. “Kevin McKidd is definitely a case of success. They cast someone like Kevin McKidd and I have to watch.”

“Look at the performances and the incredible actors we have working, and the way they interact,” Beers says. “It’s their watchability and their charisma that keep people coming back week after week.”

Variety

Variety have posted a few good articles on Grey’s Anatomy today starting with an article about the spoiler speculation. *Does contain some spoilers for those at UK pace*

‘Grey’s’ fans hit and miss with spoilers
Plot-craving audiences feed on speculation
By SANDIE ANGULO CHEN

Amid the surprising relationships, unexpected changes in sexual orientation and shocking breakups and reconciliations that the docs of “Grey’s Anatomy” have gone through in the past 100 episodes, the show has generated a robust collection of insider leaks, fan speculation and self-promoting spoiler sites.

By now, showrunner Shonda Rhimes and her staff know that you can’t get the audience passion without the occasional nuisance. In the past, many spoilers have come close to the truth; several others strayed far off script. Consider these predictions from the past seasons:

* Chris O’Donnell would play Izzie’s love interest. (He was Meredith’s.)

* Callie would get pregnant! It was George’s! It was Mark’s! (Her uterus remained baby-free.)

* Burke would be killed. (He just disappeared.)

* Isaiah Washington, who played Burke, would return as a guest. (Burke appeared only in a photo.)

* Alex would fail the medical boards. (George flunked instead.)

* Sloan and Hahn would get together. (It was Callie who fell for Hahn.)

Read more after the jump…

Spoiler-loving fans have grown so insatiable that Rhimes has had to get creative. After Rhimes pooh-poohed reports last year that Izzie would develop a brain tumor, she defended her vehement denials by pointing out that technically it was a brain metastasis.

“Let the record show that when cornered,” E! Online columnist Kristin Dos Santos wrote, “‘Grey’s Anatomy’ and ‘Private Practice’ boss Shonda Rhimes will outwit you, even if she has to stretch the truth a little.”

So when the tight-lipped creator is quoted as saying, “The only thing I’ll tell you about the 100th (episode) is that it takes place on Meredith and Derek’s wedding day,” fans and apparently even TV reporters know better than to expect an ordinary walk down the aisle.

Variety

Edit: Here’s the full interview

More pictures for the season finale after the jump.

Images Taken From Spoiler TV