The " Grey ’s Anatomy " Season 1 finis , which notably put in Addison Montgomery , almost end in a unlike way .
There are obviously MAJOR spoiler ahead forGrey ’s Anatomy ! And # 20 quotation intimate violation .
1.First, in order to differentiateGrey’s AnatomyfromER, creator Shonda Rhimeswanted to make this show"more personal" and less adrenaline-driven. The idea came after a female doctor told Shonda that it’s “incredibly hard to shave her legs in the hospital shower.” What seemed like a “silly detail” inspired Shonda to write a medical drama where the doctor’s personal lives are front and center. She also thought it was interesting how no one really thinks about that doctors “talk about their boyfriends or their day while cutting somebody open.”
2.Shonda Rhimes notably wrote the pilot ofGrey’s Anatomywith minimal character descriptions and simply cast actors who she felt were right for the part, not wholookedthe part. Shondatold O Magazine in 2005that the only character who had a description in the original script was Dr. Miranda Bailey, who she pictured as “a tiny blonde with curls” because she thought “it would be unexpected to have this sweet-looking person open her mouth and say tough things.” However, when Chandra Wilson came in to audition, Shonda instantly knew that she was Bailey.
3.The pilot ofGrey’s Anatomywasfilmedbefore Justin Chambers was cast as Dr. Alex Karev. After booking the role, Justin flew to LA and filmed his scenes, which were then added to the already-completed episode using CGI. When you go back and watch, you’ll notice Alex only interacts with Meredith, George, and a few other random characters, and his scenes feel disconnected from the others.
4.The idea to have Addison show up in the Season 1 finale with the big reveal that Derek is married came from wanting to present a character who seemed like the perfect guy but actually has a huge flaw that you don’t see until you’ve already fallen in love with him. Shonda Rhimesexplained, “Isn’t that the way it often happens in life? You get hooked before you discover the truth?” Although this moment ended Season 1, it wasn’toriginallysupposed to be the season finale. However, the network decided to only air nine of the 13 episodes they filmed for the season.
5.The series was the first to use the term “vajayjay.” Reportedly, the networksaidthe show used the word “vagina” too much, so they had to find an alternative. Shonda Rhimesrecalledhearing one of the assistants onGrey’suse “vajayjay,” and she thought it was the “greatest phrase.” Having to cut the word “vagina” highlighted a double standard because the show was allowed to use the word “penis” as many times as they wanted. At the time, Shonda called out the Broadcast Standards and Practices team because “vagina” is a medical term, and they should be allowed to use it as much as they want on a medical show.
6.In order to keep big moments from leaking, sometimes scripts were given out “without the last five pages,“according to Shonda Rhimes. One case of this happening was the Season 5 finale, which featured George’s death. Most of the crew and cast did not know George was going to die, but they found out while filming the episode. Only certain crew members knew because they had to help apply makeup and prosthetics to T.R. Knight’s face in order to film George’s final moments.
7.Jeffrey Dean Morgansigned onto play Denny Duquette in Season 2, knowing that the character was going to die. However, it was originally only a four-episode arc, and he thought he was going to be “opposite of Ellen Pompeo’s character because the sides were with Denny and Meredith.” Jeffrey said that he didn’t know he was going to be working with Katherine Heigl until he showed up to set.
8.“Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol debuted onGrey’s Anatomyduring the Season 2 finale, almost a month before it was released as an official single in the US. Music supervisor Alexandra Patsavasrecalledwatching the song take off after the episode, saying, “I remember waking up the next morning, and the Snow Patrol song had sort of climbed to the top of a chart, which was not as mobile back then.” The song ultimatelypeakedat No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2006, and it is the band’s biggest-selling single to date.
9.The nickname “McDreamy” actually came from Shonda Rhimes and the crew giving Patrick Dempsey that nickname behind the scenes while they were filming the first episode ofGrey’s Anatomy. Shonda Rhimestold O Magazine in 2005, “We’d watch the monitor and think, ‘Look at his dreamy eyes!’ So we started calling him Patrick McDreamy, and it stuck.”
10.For the bomb exploding in Season 2, a professional stunt actor was brought in to film the moment when Meredith gets blasted back after the bomb goes off. However, after she suffered a concussion, they needed one more take, and the director convinced Ellen Pompeo to do it herself. Ellenrecalled to EW in 2017, “We had a knock-down, drag-out fight because he insisted I do the stunt. I said, “A fucking professional stuntwoman just gave herself a concussion doing it. I’ve been working 18 hours. I can barely see straight. Now you want me to try it?” The final version is a combo of the stunt actor and Ellen’s stunt.
11.Since the series has been running for so long, some “newer” characters have now been in more episodes than the originals often associated with the show. For example, Camilla Luddington, who stars as Dr. Jo Wilson, joinedGrey’s Anatomyin Season 9. She’snow starred inmore episodes than Patrick Dempsey and Sandra Oh.
12.Originally, Baileywas going to get shotin the memorable hospital shooting episodes that ended Season 6. In a blog post in 2010, Shonda Rhimes wrote, “In my first draft of Part 1, Gary Clark shot Bailey.Bailey. He shot her. And I wrote it and then I couldn’t sleep, for days and days, I could not sleep and I had to remove it from the script. Bailey getting shot was just too much for me. She’s our anchor. She’s the soul. Mer is the heart but Bailey is the soul and so I had to delete it.”
13.Throughout the show’s run, some actors have pitched story ideas that have made it into episodes. One of the most memorable was Sandra Ohtelling Shonda Rhimes, “I think I can pull off a scene in which I can’t stop crying,” and that’s how the episode with Cristina’s crying breakdown in Season 2 was born.
14.Callie and Arizona’s relationship came from Jessica Capshaw and Sara Ramirez’s undeniable chemistry. In fact, Arizona was originally only going to appear in three episodes; however, after Shonda Rhimes and the writers saw her chemistry with Sara, they decided to keep her around to explore that storyline. Jessicatold NBC News, “Shonda had this idea that my character could present a storyline for Callie. It was an experiment to see what worked. It just kind of kept working.”
15.According to Shonda Rhimes, thetoughest sceneto find the perfect music for was in the Season 10 finale when Cristina and Meredith danced it out one last time. “The battle of what song to put into the show was brutal because it had to feel joyous and nostalgic and sad at the same time,” Shonda told Billboard.
16.The castfound outthat Chyler Leigh would be leavingGrey’s Anatomyduring the Season 8 finale table read. Prior to the cast reading the script together for the first time, the only people who knew about Lexie’s death were Chyler and Shonda Rhimes. Due to contract negotiations happening with several cast members, Shonda actually wrote two different cliffhangers for the plane crash because she didn’t know who would be returning for Season 9.
17.Shonda Rhimes would pitch the finale episode first before she knew what the first episode of a season would be. Ina blog post in 2008, Shonda wrote, “Right after we finished filming the finale of Season Three, I sat down with theGrey’swriting staff and I pitched them the last scene of Season Four. That’s how I do it. I start at the end. When Season Two concluded, I pitched the image of Cristina tearing off her wedding dress and crying in Meredith’s arms.”
18.There are some superstitions behind the scenes atGrey’s Anatomy. Jessica Capshaw and Camilla Luddingtonrevealedthe long-running superstition that anyone who upgrades their cast chair to a plushier one would be let go soon after. “I think the last person that bought a chair was… she was let go,” Jessica said in an episode of their podcastCall It What It Is. And Camilla added, “There are legends when you come on our show. There are myths.”
19.In the Season 5 finale, Derek and Meredith’s Post-it Note marriagewas built on screen, which is rare, according toGrey’s Anatomypropmaster Angela Whiting. While filming the scene, Patrick Dempsey actually wrote the vows on the Post-it, even though we never actually see what he’s writing on screen. She told BuzzFeed in 2013, “He could have been writing the Lord’s Prayer for all we know as viewers. But he wasn’t. He was writing the dialogue, and it was lovely.”
20.In the Season 15 episode, “Silent All These Years,” where a victim of sexual assault is ushered through the hallway by the women of Grey Sloan; the scene ismade up ofactors from the show, but also writers, crew, assistants, and more. Then-showrunner Krista Vernoffrecalled to Vulture in 2019, “Pretty much everyone, every woman in the room came up to us and said, ‘I want to be in that scene … I’m willing to lose a day’s pay, can I just be in the scene?’ Because we are lucky to work at Shondaland, we made it possible for everyone who wanted to be in the scene to be in the scene without losing any pay.”
21.And finally, even thoughGrey’s Anatomyhas done a lot of wild storylines over the course of 21+ seasons, Shonda Rhimes said the only story she had to “fight to do” was the musical episode in Season 7 after Callie was in a car crash. Shetold EW in 2025, “I’ll be forever bitter about that because it wasn’t that big a deal. It wasn’t that hard. We knew how to make the show. I will be forever bitter about the fact [I had] to fight for that.”
