Grey's Anatomy

Grey's Anatomy is an Emmy, SAG Award, and Golden Globe award-winning popular American primetime television medical drama. It debuted on ABC as a midseason replacement on Easter Sunday, March 27, 2005, immediately following the popular Desperate Housewives. The story revolves around Dr. Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo), a surgical resident at the fictional Seattle Grace Hospital in Seattle, Washington. The show features an ensemble cast, though Meredith is featured as the central character, providing voice-over narration at the beginning and end of most episodes. It last approximately 42 minutes and has a spin-off named Private Practice.

The title of the show is a reference to the anatomy textbook Gray's Anatomy.

Current cast and characters
More characters can be found here.

The characters of the series include a group of surgical residents, the various physicians who serve as mentors to the them, and additional people in their professional and personal lives.

Lexie Grey

The show has been applauded for its non-traditional cast. The show's producers pride themselves on the fact that they used a "blind-casting" technique, resulting in a racially diverse cast. The writers carefully chose the specialty of each doctor as an important analogy to their character and foreshadowing of their development, which adds a layer of complexity to the show.

Seasons

 * Season 1
 * Season 2
 * Season 3
 * Season 4
 * Season 5
 * Season 6
 * Season 7

Award wins
All the award wins and nominations can be found, here.

Webisodes
After Holidaze, Grey's Anatomy released its first webisode, On Call, Part 1.

DVD releases
Season releases

Other releases

 * A novel depicting the lives and minglings of two bit-part characters; Joe the bartender and Nurse Debbie. The book is double sided written in blog and IM form, while gossiping on the actions of the Grey’s characters. The events discussed give background information for Joe and Debbie themselves and give insight on the events and cases the doctors deal with in the show.


 * A bi-monthly magazine has also been produced and is currently being sold in stores across Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The title of the magazine is GREY’S ANATOMY and it is a published work through Titan Magazines, and ExpressMag (for subscriptions). The first issue was released in March 2007.


 * In January 2008, Grey's Anatomy was made into a mobile game on behalf of video game publisher Gameloft. A Reuters.com article states that it "gives players and fans the chance to experience intense emotions and drama unique to their favorite show in unlimited different skill-based surgery mini-games taken from actual episodes of the show".


 * In March 2009, Ubisoft released Grey's Anatomy: The Video Game for the Wii, Nintendo DS, and PC.


 * The Grey's Anatomy soundtrack

Music
The show's main title theme during its first two seasons is an excerpt of "Cosy in the Rocket", by British artist Psapp. It is featured on the soundtrack album released via ABC corporate cousin Hollywood Records on September 27, 2005. A list of all the songs featured in each episode, which are all selected, mixed and supervised by Alexandra Patsavas, can be found on the program's official website. Patsavas similarly gained acclaim for selecting the music used for the FOX series The O.C. prior to her work with the ABC series.[citation needed] A second soundtrack, featuring songs from the series' second season, was released September 12, 2006.

In addition to use within the series, certain songs have been become key to promotion of Grey’s Anatomy. Prior to the series debut, The Postal Service's song "Such Great Heights" was used as part of series previews aired on ABC. As the series has continued, it has been instrumental to the success of songs such as Snow Patrol’s “Chasing Cars” and The Fray’s “How to Save a Life”, both of which became top 5 hits after appearing in the show. Anna Nalick's "Breathe (2 A.M.)" also regained popularity after appearing in the "As We Know It" episode (the second of a two-part episode which premiered after Super Bowl XL). “Chasing Cars” gained in popularity after its use late in the second season, and was used in a video of second season clips. “How to Save a Life” was the song used for the series' third season promotional music video, and all Grey’s Anatomy previews for the season. Brandi Carlile’s “The Story” and Mat Kearney’s “Breathe In, Breathe Out” have also been featured prominently.

Music plays a key role in the creation of Grey’s Anatomy. Each episode of the show is uniquely named after a song. The episode titles usually have something to do with the theme or moral of the episode's storyline and this moral is reproduced by the voice-overs heard at the beginning and end of each episode. Many artists featured on Grey’s Anatomy include Meiko, Adele, Beck, Tegan and Sara, Kate Havnevik, Róisín Murphy, Snow Patrol, Kanye West, Interpol, Maria Taylor, Mat Kearney, Medeski Martin & Wood, Ingrid Michaelson, Joshua Radin, The Hereafter, Jem, Brandi Carlile, Anya Marina, Erin McCarley, Duffy, Corinne Bailey Rae, Chris Garneau, Devics, KT Tunstall, Sia, Anna Nalick and Meaghan Smith. Icelandic singler Emiliana Torrini specifically wrote the song Beggar's Prayer for use in the show. On the Season 5 premire, Taylor Swift debuted "White Horse" from her sophmore album, Fearless.

Catchphrases
The characters on Grey's Anatomy speak in a very contemporary way, resulting in unique dialogue. As a result, the show has spawned several catchphrases, many of which are only used once or a few times. The use is noted in the following form (Season, Episode # of that season)


 * A trend began of "McLabeling" characters or adding "Mc" to other terms
 * Euphemisms for female genitalia or other sexually-related terms
 * Va-jay-jay: Dr. Bailey's euphemism for vagina: during the season 2 episode "(As We Know It)", George was assisting Addison Shepherd in Dr. Bailey's childbirth, and Bailey told him to "stop looking at my va-jay-jay!" On the "Frequently Asked Questions" page of the show's official website, Shonda Rhimes credits assistant Blythe Robe as her source for the phrase. The network tries to limit the use of the word "vagina."
 * My good girl: A supporting character called her genitalia "my good girl" in the episode Damage Case.
 * V-card: Chief Webber's wife Adele (Loretta Devine) used the phrase "cashing in her V-card" to describe her niece losing her virginity in the second-season finale.
 * Cristina used the term "the Nasty Nasty" to refer to sex. This was first used in the episode Time Has Come Today [3,01], when Cristina said "You and McDreamy did the Nasty Nasty?"
 * The characters often say "seriously", usually at the end of a sentence, as a question or as a pronouncement. On the "Frequently Asked Questions" page on the show's website at ABC.com and the audio commentaries, creator Shonda Rhimes explains that one of the writers, Krista Vernoff, used the saying all the time and it spread to the writing staff, and eventually, to the dialogue.

Private Practice
Due to the great success of Grey's Anatomy, Shonda Rhimes decided to create a spin-off show titled Private Practice. The main character of Private Practice is Addison Montgomery and also includes Naomi Bennett, Sam Bennett, Dell Parker, Cooper Freedman, Violet Turner, Charlotte King and Pete Wilder.

Drinking game
Grey's Anatomy has inspired a drinking game. When watching Grey's Anatomy if either "seriously", "mc" or "double board certified neonatal surgeon" is mentioned, then the person must drink a glass of wine.