Q&A With Shonda Rhimes

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…

Shonda Rhimes Talks About The End Of The Season

Lot’s of articles about the 100th episode today! Here is an article taken from Hollywood Reporter where Shonda Rhimes talks about getting the show up and running to the well established show it is today.

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…

Casting Chemistry Keeps ‘Grey’s’ Fresh

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…

TV Is A ‘Journey’ For ‘Grey’s’ Creator Shonda Rhimes

I’ve just found this great interview with Shonda Rhimes. It contains spoilers for those at UK pace and a spoiler for the 100th episode so read it after the jump.

Shonda Rhimes Tweets About Her Feelings On The Rest Of The Season

Shonda Rhimes was asked how she feels about the rest of season 5…

I feel like rest of season is a great ride. Fans will be happy because a lot of their hopes come true in unexpected ways.

It sounds like a great end of the season