From Shonda Rhimes, creator and writer of upcoming post-Super Bowl episode

Episode Airdate: 2/5/06 -- After the Super Bowl!!!

So I’m all…”Pitch for the Superbowl episode?  Sure, why not…they won’t pick us...so it’s no big deal…”  I typed out a one page synopsis and sent it in to the powers-that-be at Touchstone and ABC.  Then I lay back down on the couch and promptly forgot about it.

They picked us.

Now, to understand what this meant to me, you have to understand how I write.  I don’t.  Not until the last possible minute.  Then I churn it all out in a crazed frenzy while eating ice chips and cursing the gods for not making me something sensible like an astronaut or a prima ballerina.  Prima ballerinas do not have to write things.  But I guess since they have to be freakishly thin, they may have it worse off than me.   

But I was sick.  Actually sick – not my usual drama sick.  So sick that members of the cast were peering through the door at me in my office and very kindly trying to suggest that maybe I might want to consider heading over to the nearest hospital and moving in for a while.  So sick that the medical research team did an intervention and sent one of their own in to examine.  So sick that the entire show had to be shut down for a week so that I could recover enough to not cough up pieces of my lung on my computer screen while writing.  Let me tell you: it sucked.

Now, I tell you this as a shameless ploy for sympathy.  I love sympathy as I am a neurotic writer.  And to distract you from the fact that, because I am a neurotic writer, I procrastinated and procrastinated until literally the DAY of the read-through (a read-through is when we gather together the entire cast and they do us the honor of reading the script out loud at a big round table – even after a season and a half, it is amazing to me that I get to hear my words read aloud by these truly talented people).  At which point, I started writing like a crazed fiend.  I finished writing the script just in time for my team to make copies of the script and race them over to put them into the cast’s hands as they were taking their seats at the big round table.  None of us, including me, had any idea if what I’d written would even work.   I was nervous and wishing I was still sick.  Because you never know.  I love my actors and my actors like me well enough.  But still…

Perhaps they would chase me with torches and stone me to death with rage at my idiocy.  Perhaps they’d smile politely but coldly at me and run to call their agents so that they could beg to get off this show.  Or, you know, perhaps they would raise me on their shoulders and carry me around singing showtunes in my honor.

They did nothing of the sort.  What they did do was gasp, yell, hoot with laughter, applaud and openly weep as they read the pages aloud.   Ellen Pompeo shrieked “HOLY CRAP!” right in the middle of the reading.  Katie Heigl started to cry somewhere around page 20.  Sandra Oh just kept whispering “oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh, oh, OH MY GOSH.”  And after I got hugs.  I am not the hugging kind but still…if you stand very still and hug back, it is nice.  The director, Peter Horton, was thrilled.  The writers were thrilled.  The studio and the network were thrilled.

Thrilled.  It’s good, that word.  Thrilled.

So please watch.

I hope you like it.  A lot of work by the cast and crew went into this episode.  Work I’ll be able to explain to you after the episode airs and it stops being the big giant secret episode that we don’t talk about…

Comments

[K.C. from GA]

Okay Shonda, you are awesome for giving us this show. Thank you.
Cannot wait until Sunday! After I watch on Sunday nights it takes me a while to go to sleep because I cannot get GA off my mind (is that sad or what)-- but oh well! :)

I am a Mer/Der fanatic. The closet seen was truly amazing and I was crying so badly and P. Demp is a fantastic actor because I so believed he loves her with all that he is. And Ellen is unbelievable. But I have to say I am a George fan too. While you guys are waiting to get Mer/Der back together; give Mer something with George-- his character is terrific. I could talk about all the character's because they all are "something else". Shonda thanks for giving these actors such awesome characters to portray.

Can't wait until post Super bowl!!

[Alison]

If the cast is that excited and shocked by what you've written, I can only imagine. I'm excited to see Alex and Izzie's throw-you-against-the-wall passion in the previews!

Grey's Anatomy needs its own 24 hour channel.. sort of like that Truman Show movie :)

[Angela]

Just wanted to comment on the last show where Izzie explained that she gave up her little girl. I just want the public to know that there is more a person can do than give up (if she wants the child, that is). There are public programs that will help a single mom with college, housing, daycare, etc. It won't all be handed to you on a silver platter, though. With a LOT of hard work and sacrifice, Izzie still could have become a doctor. I don't like the impression that the show gave: If you love your child you should give it up because you will never be able to provide and get an education. You don't have to give up...you can fight, and there are programs that will help. You just have to try.

[Angela]

Just wanted to comment on the last show where Izzie explained that she gave up her little girl. I just want the public to know that there is more a person can do than give up (if she wants the child, that is). There are public programs that will help a single mom with college, housing, daycare, etc. It won't all be handed to you on a silver platter, though. With a LOT of hard work and sacrifice, Izzie still could have become a doctor. I don't like the impression that the show gave: If you love your child you should give it up because you will never be able to provide and get an education. You don't have to give up...you can fight, and there are programs that will help. You just have to try.

[Allie]

I think next week's episode's going to be about some epidimic type disease...I'm so scared I can't even tell you! I've seriously had dreamns about it. I really hope everyone's okay and no one dies, that would just be too heartbreaking!!!

[Grey's Anatomy is amazing]

I"M LITERALLY DYING TO SEE THE NEXT EPOSIODE!!

[BOB]

OMG you are killing us. We want to know what a code black is please give us a hint. I love the show i too think it needs to be on more then once a week.

[Shonna]

well poo. Now I'll have to watch the superbowl so I won't miss any of this magnificent show.
dammit man.

[Meredith]

I SOOO want to see the superbowl episode...WHAT'S A CODE BLACK!?!?!?!
I'm really happy Grey's got picked..it's one of my fav. TV shows..coming in a tie with the O.C
(Cut me some slack okay?)
But I'm an aspriing writer..so I really look up to you.

[Shannon]

You Go Girl! You are the Bomb! All that good stuff keep up the good work Shonda!

[Sarah Hilary]

Shonda,

This is seriously such an amazing show. The writing is so brilliant!The medical cases are so crazy and interesting,and the characters are so incredible! I also love how accesible the show is, with the blogs and music guide. I really hope you and the whole cast and crew get recognized for all your work. I eagerly anticipate every new episode, which i watch with my roommates every week.

thanks,
shk

[Courtney]

you are soo freakin amazing! this is the only show i have ever become obsessed with... and i do mean obsessed... but i agree with whoever said that GA should be put on to iTunes... they definitely should be on there... but i cant wait until after the superbowl... JUST TO WATCH GA! haha but this show is just the most amazing show ever and keep up the good work! and lost should stop getting all of the awards...

[T.]

I just have to say that reading this entry shows me how completely and utterly YOURS the show is. The actors have done such an excellent job in bringing the vision to life. I'm more impressed now than I was before reading this entry [...and for a Grey's fan, that's saying something]. Thank you for a great show, and keep up the good work!

[Norris]

My family and I love your show. It's the one show that we all lay up on the bed and watch. I think that the story lines are great. I think that Sandra Oh is hot!!!

[Anne from Holland]

Reading this blog is completly frustrating. Why? ... I'm watching the show in The Netherlands and we are at season 1 episode 6. So I,m a long way from the Mer/Der scene in the closset. In Holland we never heard about Addison. Hmmm so I know more than thats good for me. Please, Please someone write in this blog how the eppisode on superbowl day will go ( sorry for the bad english, but hell I.m a foreign) It will be probably 2007 when it will hit the dutch screen, and I can't wait that long!! I am totally hooked on the show. Thank you
for making thuesday even better. (thats when the show is on tv in holland) First desperate housewives than the Girlmore Girls and as icing on the cake... Grey's Anatomy!! The perfect evening

[Ruthi]

I know, I know, I already posted a comment. But I'm sitting in Computers class, and they've blocked www.jadegaforum.com, so I'm rereading your blog for the thousandth and one time.
Two days. *Lets out BIG breath*
I cannot wait. Shonda, you are a genius, seriously. I just wanted to thank you SO much for creating this world that I get to lose myself in for one precious hour a week. You are...indescribable. Your writing is phenomenal, and this show deserves to win every award out there, even the ones that aren't even for TV shows-that's how brilliant it is. I have to get off now, but let me just say, you are an inspiration. I can't WAIT until Sunday, and I hope you write a billion more GA episodes in the future.
All love,
*~*Ruthi*~*

[Vicky]

Thank you for creating this show, thank you for your vision, and your brilliance.

Grey's is truly the BEST thing out there on tv. And its all cos of you and your dream team!

I know you plan on taking up other projects later on but PLEASE dont ever stop writing for Greys. We love you too much!

Cant wait till sunday, I know its going to be awesome! with you writing and peter horton directing, how can it be anything other than spectacular?

[Er]

Shonda: Such an amazing show-can't wait until Sunday!

[Michelle]

I cannot wait until Sunday - my beloved Pittsburgh Steelers are playing in the Superbowl, and then I get to watch my favorite currently airing TV show, GREY'S ANATOMY!

Definitely planning on taking a nap on Sunday afternoon so I can stay up and not be totally dead at school on Monday.

I dream of becoming a screenwriter, and I can't even describe how much the brilliant writing of Grey's Anatomy inspires me. Keep up the awesome work!

[Daphne]

Omg I can't wait till sunday!

[Amz]

I am so out of touch. I had not even thought of how the superbowl might have effected my favorite TV show. In fact it had not occurred to me that Grey might not be on. Look at this wonderful little gift called "awesome tv" that will be on sunday night!

Thank you so much for the best show I've seen in a long time.

[Orange Tang]

Shonda,
I came here today as a "Blog Virgin." Never been, never did. But while curling my hair and getting ready for my job as an Astronaut this mornign, I thought about who it is that write these episodes of G's Anatomy. Now I know. And I'm a better person because of this visit.

Bless you for being a creative and dedicated writer. We are better entertained because of you. Pass along my thanks to the other writers as well. I especially appreciate the ways you write the ethnic actors...the same way as you write everyone else. This is definitely a no-race...and at times no-gender show! That's a great thing that truly reflects today's society.

Oh, by the way, never be satisfied...keep writing cutting edge stuff for these talented folks.

Thank you especially for writing the story of the elderly lady. My grandma died similar to her...and it really allowed me to remember her, though not without tears. Thank you again!

Best,
Jennie Tang

[Amy]

Ok, I have to say that I have been excited about this show ever since I heard that Grey's Anatomy had the post -super bowl slot. This one sounds sad especially since you said that Katherine Heigl cried while reading the script. You are a procrastinator like I am, so I give you credit for pulling this off. I am going to be going crazy Sunday night just waiting for the Super Bowl to end!!! I am going to be "Is it over yet, is it over?? I want Grey's Anatomy to start!!!" I hate football, so Sunday is going to suck until Grey's comes on. THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FOR A GREAT EPISODE!!!!!!!! (I know that it is going to be AWESOME!!!!)
Shonda: You are an amazing writer, so keep up the good work.

[Jake Lipson]

Shonda,

Thank you SO MUCH for Grey's Anatomy. I personally think that it is the best thing in the history of television. Some friends who don't watch were asking me what it is today, and I said "It's a medical show, but it's so much more than a medical show." What really makes it shine above, say, "ER" for me is the GREAT character dynamics. As an aspiring published author with a book in progress, not only does the entertain me but it inspires me to be the best that I can in my work. My book doesn't share many plot simmilarities with the show, but if it ends up with half of the emotion that GA has I will be very pleased.

And the show's emotion is why I'm really looking forward to Sunday's show. I'm not a sports fan so I could care less about the Super Bowl, but for me GA is the defining event of this weekend.

Thank you again -- I can't wait!!

[Mary D]

Shonda- Love the show. Izzie breaks my heart. George cracks me up. And Merideth- well, she's so complex and intruiging -keeps me coming back each week. I'm taking a nap during the Super Bowl, 'cause I'm on the East Coast, the Patriots aren't playing, and it'll be well past midnight when the episode airs. Can't wait!