Timeline

This page contains timelines from Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice.

Pre-Show

• Seattle Grace Hospital was established in 1947.
• Adele Webber married Richard Webber at 25.
• Mark Sloan was born in 1968.
• Anna Wilder died at the age of 40 in 2001.
• Season One begins in 2004 or later (most likely 2005 or 2006).

Grey's Anatomy Season 1

• Seasons 1-3 take up a year and is reflected in the summer and autumnal weather of Season 1.
• Seasons 1-3, Meredith, Cristina, Izzie, George, and Alex are 1st year surgical interns and in the first year of their surgical residency.
• Bailey is in her fourth year of surgical residency. Torres is also in her fourth year of residency, but in her third year of ortho residency, as confirmed later in Season 6 by The Time Warp.
• The first season was roughly 2 months.
• Derek moved to Seattle 6 weeks before the second episode.
• Shake Your Groove Thing the Chief says Mrs. Drake was operated on in 1999 and later says the towel was in her for five years, making the year 2004.
• The First Cut Is the Deepest finished roughly at 6pm.
• The First Cut Is the Deepest lasts about 2 days.

Grey's Anatomy Season 2

• Seasons 1-3 take up a year and is reflected in the winter like weather and mention of holidays of Season 2.
• Seasons 1-3, Meredith, Cristina, Izzie, George, and Alex are 1st year surgical interns and in the first year of their surgical residency.
• Bailey is in her fourth year of surgical residency. Torres is also in her fourth year of residency, but in her third year of ortho residency, as confirmed later in Season 6 by The Time Warp.
• Season 2 takes place minutes after season 1.
• Season 2 takes place over December and January.
• Joe has owned the Emerald City Bar for more than 14 years as of Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head
• When Cristina had her surgery for ectopic pregnancy the OR Board said she was 28.
• It's the End of the World and As We Know It, respectively, are direct continuations of each other.

Grey's Anatomy Season 3

• Seasons 1-3 take up a year and is reflected in the spring and summer like weather of Season 3.
• Seasons 1-3, Meredith, Cristina, Izzie, George, and Alex are 1st year surgical interns and in the first year of their surgical residency.
• Bailey is in her fourth year of surgical residency. Torres is also in her fourth year of residency, but in her third year of ortho residency, as confirmed later in Season 6 by The Time Warp.
• Callie puts Izzie on "Georgewatch 2007" in Great Expectations.
• The time between Great Expectations and Wishin' and Hopin' is roughly 8 days.
• Walk on Water, Drowning on Dry Land and Some Kind of Miracle, respectively, are direct continuations of each other.
• Larry Jennings was admitted to Seattle Grace shortly before May 18, 2007.
• Addison is 39 in the season 3 finale.
• Nearing the end of Season 3, it is the year 2007.

Grey's Anatomy Season 4

• Seasons 4-5, Meredith, Cristina, Izzie, George, and Alex are in their second year of their surgical residency.
• Bailey is in her fifth year of surgical residency. Torres is also in her fifth year of residency, but in her fourth and final year of ortho residency.
• There is a 17 day gap between season 3 and 4.
• Lexie is in her first year of residency.
• There is a six week gap between Lay Your Hands on Me and Where the Wild Things Are.

Grey's Anatomy Season 5

• Seasons 4-5, Meredith, Cristina, Izzie, George, and Alex are in their second year of their surgical residency.
• Bailey is in her fifth year of surgical residency. Torres is also in her fifth year of residency, but in her fourth and final year of ortho residency.
• Lexie is in her first year of residency.
• Some of Season 5 takes place in October.
• Dream a Little Dream of Me, Part 1 took place from roughly 4:15pm.
• Dream a Little Dream of Me, Part 2 finished roughly at 2:30am.
• Life During Wartime takes place a week after There's No 'I' in Team.
• Lexie is 24 in Season 5.
• In Wish You Were Here, Izzie celebrated her 29th birthday.
• Wish You Were Here, Sympathy for the Devil, and Stairway to Heaven, respectively, are direct continuations of each other.
• The Grey's Anatomy episode Beat Your Heart Out runs in parallel with the Private Practice episode Acceptance.
• Beat Your Heart Out/Acceptance, Before and After, Ex-Life, and An Honest Mistake, respectively, are direct continuations of each other.
• When Izzie wakes up in Now or Never, she claims it is 2009
• Beat Your Heart Out establishes that a residency year begins in July of the current year and ends in June the following year.

Grey's Anatomy Season 6

• Good Mourning takes place within minutes of the season 5 finale.
• The events of Good Mourning and Goodbye take place over forty days, starting with the day of George's death.
• Meredith, Cristina, Izzie, and Alex are in their third year of their surgical residency.
• The Mercy West residents (i.e. Jackson, April, Charles, and Reed) are also in their third year.
• Lexie and her class are in their second year of surgical residency.
• Bailey and Torres are attending surgeons in general and ortho surgery, respectively.
• Izzie was born May 1st,1980 (but it could also be Alex's birthday. Since the date was only on their divorce papers, without a significant name behind the date)
• Blink is the first part of the Private Practice's Another Second Chance.

Grey's Anatomy Season 7

• Meredith, Cristina, Alex, Jackson, and April are in their fourth year of their surgical residency.
• Lexie is in her third year of surgical residency.
• With You I'm Born Again takes place 2 months after season 6 finale.
• Superfreak starts 2 weeks after Cristina has break-down in OR
• Private Practice's The Hardest Part runs parallel to Song Beneath the Song.

Grey's Anatomy Season 8

• Meredith, Cristina, Alex, Jackson, and April are in their fifth year of their surgical residency.
• Lexie is in her fourth year of surgical residency.
• Have You Seen Me Lately? is part one of Private Practice's You Break My Heart.

Grey's Anatomy Season 9

• Mark Sloan died in 2012.
• Going, Going, Gone runs parallel with Private Practice's Mourning Sickness.
• Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital was established in 2013.
• Do You Believe in Magic takes place on May 1, 2013.

Private Practice Season 1

• Runs in parallel with Grey's Anatomy Season 4.
• Violet reveals that she has fantasies of Bill Clinton leaving his wife for her in 2010.

Private Practice Season 2

• Runs in parallel with Grey's Anatomy Season 5
• Betsey Parker is 6 years old in Season 2, and Dell claims she was conceived when he was 17, making Dell about 23 or 24 years old.
• The Grey's Anatomy episode Beat Your Heart Out runs in parallel with the Private Practice episode Acceptance.
• Beat Your Heart Out/Acceptance, Before and After, Ex-Life and An Honest Mistake, respectively, are direct continuations of each other.
• Finishing takes place over 3 months.

Private Practice, Season 3

• A Death in the Family takes place minutes after Season 2's finale.
• The Way We Were takes place a month after A Death in the Family.
• Runs parallel to Grey's Anatomy season 6.
• Another Second Chance is the second part of Grey's Anatomy's Blink.
• Right Here, Right Now is the second part Grey's Anatomy's Invasion.
• Fear of Flying to Eyes Wide Open are over a course of two months. (As mentioned in Second Choices)

Private Practice, Season 4

• In Take Two, Amelia Shepherd mentions Derek getting shot.
• Short Cuts takes place before Grey's Anatomy's Superfreak
• The Grey's Anatomy episode Song Beneath the Song runs parallel to The Hardest Part. 

Private Practice, Season 5

• Runs parallel to Grey's Anatomy, Season 8.
• Grey's Anatomy episode Have You Seen Me Lately? is part one of You Break My Heart.
• God Laughs takes place minutes after ...To Change the Things I Can.
• Breaking the Rules takes place 1 month after God Laughs.

Private Practice, Season 6

• Addison receives Derek's message about Mark Sloan's death in Mourning Sickness, meaning it runs parallel with Going, Going, Gone. 

Errors

During the initial years of the show, the year set was never formally mentioned, however, as the show progressed, time frames began to be mentioned in the show, leading to continuity errors throughout the series, such as:

• Callie places Izzie on "George-watch 2007" in Season 3's Great Expectations, while Izzie claims it is 2009 in Season 5's Now or Never.
• In "Let It Be" Miranda announces that she is pregnant, and nine episodes later, she has the baby. So, at least six months must have passed for Miranda to carry the baby to term, or she was already heavily pregnant when the show started (yet she only told others about the pregnancy in season 2). She did inform Richard that she was carrying a boy at the same time as she informed him she was pregnant, indicating that she is at least 18-20 weeks pregnant at that point.