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| Doctor's Report #4/GA News - News and Information
Figured I'd restart this thread with the most recent news I came across the past few days while FF was down...
Quote: 'Anatomy' lesson has us McDreamying up a hit
BY DOUGLAS DURDEN
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Apr 14, 2006
Contact Douglas Durden at (804) 649-6359 or ddurden@ timesdispatch.com
TV & Radio
Today, we examine TV's most burning question.
No, not who will win "American Idol."
No, not can Jack Bauer save the world, or maybe should he even bother since he'll just have to do it again next season.
No, not even why is "According to Jim" still on the air.
But why, when and how did "Grey's Anatomy" become so popular.
"How popular is it?" you ask (unless you're a fan, and then you already know).
For the past several weeks that both it and "Desperate Housewives" have been on the air, "Grey's Anatomy" has topped "DH" in the ratings.
And the reason this is so special is that "Desperate Housewives," which airs an hour earlier on Sundays, is the reason for "Grey's" popularity in the first place. It's like the little sister who tags along to the prom and suddenly gets all the invitations to wait, TVChat has no idea what people do at proms anymore.
Here's the first thing in the show's favor: It has a cute cast in cute situations. One of its surgical interns is even supposed to be a former model. How often does that happen in real life?
I like to call the series "ER" without a conscience.
There are patients and emergencies; there are deaths and near deaths. But mostly, there's an obsession with sex.
It all started a year ago with Meredith Grey's obsession with Derek Shepherd, better known as Dr. McDreamy.
(TVChat, which knows a good thing when it's particularly obvious, just thought of another reason for "Grey's" popularity: Patrick Dempsey as McDreamy. He is ever so much better-looking now than he was 20 years ago playing teenagers in "Can't Buy Me Love" and "Loverboy.")
That obsession has now continued through various permutations of various interns with other interns or medical staff.
But sometimes, I think we flock to "Grey's Anatomy" like Meredith to McDreamy because it reminds us of high school -- brief, intense crushes; closed cliques; awkward missteps; and a lot of avoiding each other in hallways.
This week, ABC is pulling a fast one.
Instead of "Grey's Anatomy," the network is offering a preview of its new "What About Brian" at 10 p.m. Sunday. Don't be fooled. Yes, its ensemble cast is also young and attractive. But there's no operating room and there's no Dr. McDreamy.
. . .
Here's what I learned in response to last week's give-her-a-chance column about Katie Couric. You either like her a lot or not at all.
Here's a sample from both sides:
"So now the seat once occupied by Cronkite, Murrow and Severeid is to be saddled with this perky little cheerleader chipmunk? Don't get me wrong; I like Katie. Every day I TiVo 'Today' and fast forward to her interview to check out her legs. But I can't envision her staring down Joe McCarthy or telling the nation that their president had been assassinated," e-mailed Jerome.
Brenda's phone call was complimentary, but still related to Couric's legs.
"One thing that I haven't heard anyone mention with her leaving the 'Today' show is her great dancing. She's so into the dancing and so good at it. That has been a fun part of what she brought to the show, besides being so witty and being good with the bantering.
"On the opposite side, I've seen her put people in their place when she confronts them. I don't know if she'd be able to do that on the CBS News. But that will be missed, too." | Quote: 'Grey's' is shot in arm band needs
Leonard Martinez
El Paso Times
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Doctors are used to bringing people back from the brink. Even fake doctors are getting in on the act.
The band Get Set Go has the medical drama "Grey's Anatomy" to thank for helping it.
" 'Grey's Anatomy' breathed new life into the band," Mike TV, vocalist-guitarist, said in a phone interview from Baton Rouge, La. "It's provided revenue and sparked renewed interest from our record label."
TV said TSR Records had spent money pushing the group's first CD to commercial radio without much success. Then the TV shows "Jack and Bobby," which was canceled in May, and "Grey's Anatomy" called, wanting to use the band's songs. It also got the record label thinking about approaching things differently, TV said.
"They started thinking, 'Maybe there's a different way to skin this cat,' " TV said. "So we outlined a plan to go the college-radio route and take more of an indie rock approach."
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The band's songs have been featured on the "Grey's Anatomy" and a song is on the show's soundtrack.
"I'm actually a fan of the show because it is an effectively, intelligently written soap opera and has compelling characters," TV said. "The use of 'Wait' as the scenes were changing worked well. The lyrics underscored the scenes incredibly. With 'I Hate Everyone,' that also was really well placed. It's certainly strange to see our songs on TV, but if it creates additional interest in the band then that's great."
Get Set Go is touring in support of its CD "Ordinary World," released last month. There was plenty of material to choose from for the new CD.
"We took 64 completed songs that had been written between the first and second record and we took 28 of them, the 28 that were dramatic ... and culled them down" to the 21-track CD, TV. "Some songs work on the same themes, the same ideas."
TV is already thinking about the band's next CD. He'd like to put a new CD out every six months, but he knows that may not be possible in today in the music industry. He plans to hit the studio in June to record the new material.
"There's 26 songs that have been written for the next one, but I think we're only going to keep four or five of those and I'll try to write eight or 10 more. It will be in a different vein than the first two records.
"Because I'm bored and it's cheap and easy, I write music all the time," TV said. | Quote: The allure of Grey's Anatomy
Apr 12, 2006
Grey's Anatomy is a sassy, sexy take on the medical drama and it has taken the world by storm.
2005 was a big year for hot new television drama's with Desperate Housewives and Lost so it was quite a surprise when Grey's came along.
The drama is centred on the personal and professional lives of five surgical interns and their supervisors and it has been both commercially and critically successful.
Last year it was nominated for three Emmy's (casting for a drama series, directing and supporting actress for Sandra Oh), though it won none and in 2006 it was given the nod for three Golden Globes (Supporting actress for Oh, best actor for Patrick Dempsey and best TV drama) with Oh winning in her category.
Added to that it is regularly out-rating Desperate Housewives in its Sunday night slot in the US.
So what is it about Grey's Anatomy that makes it so successful? The cast have their own ideas.
Isaiah Washington, who plays surgeon Preston Burke, thinks the personal touch has a lot to do with it.
"It's not really a medical show, in those 43 minutes we cram in a lot of life and personal relationships, falling in and out love, looking for love, looking for humanity in ourselves," says Washington.
But Sandra Oh, who plays his on screen sweetheart Cristina Yang, puts it down to one of her co-stars personal style.
"Patrick Dempsey's hair... I think it's a combination of the casting, and the writing, the style of the show... and the way it balances the comedy and the drama," she told Close Up.
All joking aside legions of female fans do believe Patrick Dempsey - aka Dr Mcdreamy - is a reason to watch the show.
Dempsey came to prominence in Hollywood playing a loveable nerd, who hires a cheerleader to be his girlfriend in 1987s Can't Buy Me Love. But, working on a medical drama has provided all sorts of challenges for Dempsey, not least of all overcoming dyslexia.
"I'm still overcoming it, it's always difficult with the medical terminology, I always get it backwards... it's frustrating but, you know its good because I forces me to work on the lines more than other people because I have to have it memorised," says Dempsey.
Just getting work can be a challenge for other cast members. As an Asian American actress Oh says it is difficult to get roles that tell her story, but she'd like to help change that and things are slowly changing.
"Its just a larger issue of who gets to tell our stories and its a part of what society is at this point and its a part of hopefully a wave that I would like to be a part of that would changing the face of who is on television and who represents ourselves," says Oh.
The Grey's Anatomy cast is almost as hard working as the doctors that they play, working seventeen hour days is the norm.
Katherine Heigl plays intern Isobel "Izzie" Stevens.
She is well known to New Zealand audiences. Heigl got her start playing Gerard Depardieu's daughter in the film My father The Hero and then hit our screens in the teen TV hit Roswell, where she played an alien, also called Isabel. She says with such a big cast its hard to fit everything into the day.
"It's a 10 person cast, which is hard to fit into any episode and then you've got the medical story lines... the surgery scenes themselves take up to 12 hours to shoot, one surgery scene so you factor that in and you've got maybe two or three surgery scenes in an eight day episode - you're going to be there a very long time," says Heigl.
Through those surgery scenes we do get to see a bit of blood and guts, but the operating theatre isn't centre stage in this drama. It is more about the mixed up lives of its characters some we love and some we love to hate.
Adding the link to this article since there's a video posted there...one I have yet to actually watch...article | Quote: Star World to kick off medical soap 'Grey's Anatomy' on 12 April
Indiantelevision.com Team
(8 April 2006 6:00 pm)
MUMBAI: English general entertainment channel Star World will start airing the medical soap Grey's Anatomy every Wednesday at 9 pm from 12 April.
Nominated for three Emmy awards and winner of a Golden Globe Award for Sandra Oh as supporting actress, the medical drama following the lives of first year surgical interns Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo), Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh), Izzie Stevens (Katherine Heigl), George O'Malley (T.R. Knight) and Alex Karev (Justin Chambers).It is the sexual tensions and relationship foibles in the hospital that's making this one of the most exciting series to hit TV screens in recent years.
Also adding to the eye candy and star power is Patrick Dempsey as Derek Shepherd - the flirtatious but very capable surgeon who shares a forbidden but undeniable sexual attraction with Meredith. The channel says that 16 million viewers tuned into the debut in the US.
The first episode is called A Hard Day's Night. The interns are guided by an established team of doctors who are determined to shape them into skilled surgeons or break them: Miranda Bailey, a senior resident responsible for training them, is so tough that she's nicknamed "The Nazi" and Preston Burke's arrogance is second only to his skill with a scalpel. Overseeing them all is Dr. Richard Webber, Seattle Grace's paternal, but no-nonsense chief of surgery.
On the next episode called The First Cut is the Deepest, the surgical staff tries to be optimistic as a young woman clings to life after a brutal attack. Meanwhile, Meredith puts her career on the line to save a newborn in the hospital nursery, and the other interns learn that it takes more than just medical knowledge to be good at their jobs. | Quote: Ups and downs galore on latest 'Grey's Anatomy'
Updated Tue. Apr. 4 2006 4:07 PM ET
Associated Press
Even by her usual glass-half-empty standards, things looked pretty bleak for Meredith at the start of last night's "Grey's Anatomy." Perched on a stool at Joe's Bar — alone and attempting to knit a sweater — she announced that she'd taken a vow of celibacy.
(Spoiler alert: stop reading now if you've taped the episode for later viewing.)
But after some unsettling discoveries (she's got two half-sisters, one in med school, and her estranged father wants to reconnect), she met a veterinarian (Chris O'Donnell) who seems just as sweet and hunky as the still-married McDreamy. Expect the celibacy — and the knitting — to disappear awfully soon.
It was the same for nearly all the major characters last night: Things went from bad to worse to much, much better.
George, who initially freaked out at stumbling on the secret of Meredith's step-family, ended up using a conversation with her dad to get past some of the anger that's been warping him. It also freed him to seriously pursue Callie, who earlier told Izzy that George "makes my world stop."
Bailey, who complained of being "mommy tracked" by the chief, was brought to tears by a young brain surgery patient. But after trying to hide her display of emotion, she seemed to discover that this newfound maternal warmth might just make her an even better doctor.
Hyper-competitive Cristina started off the episode in the dumps after losing a board game, then got out-performed by the chief in a laparoscopic technique class. But at least the chief's advice about sticking to the basics helped her kick George out of the apartment she shares with Burke: all she had to do was walk into the kitchen naked to convince Burke that George had to go.
And even Alex, who began the episode in his usual venomous mood, managed to identify his one redeeming characteristic — a knack for no-holds-barred honesty — and then stand up for himself when Burke called him on it. By lecturing a dying cancer patient (a nearly unrecognizable Laurie Metcalf) for lying about her illness to her teenage daughter, Alex helped them share a touching deathbed moment.
But there's trouble on the horizon, because Burke doesn't share Alex's view on the value of bluntness. | Quote: The doctors are in on ‘Grey’s Anatomy’
Hot medical drama no longer even needs ‘Housewives’ lead-in
Ellen Pompeo's character's name is in the title of "Grey's Anatomy," but the supporting cast is a large part of the show's success.
Updated: 8:08 p.m. ET April 5, 2006
If someone wanted to write a book called “How to Create a Hit Show,” “Grey’s Anatomy” would be an excellent case study.
It’s a medical drama that’s hitting its stride as perennial ratings winner “ER” continues its long, slow descent into irrelevance. Because the medical drama is a tried-and-true archetype for successful television, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Take a good-looking group of doctors, add an attractive group of guest stars as patients, sprinkle with a liberal amount of sexual tension and a dash of rare and compelling medical mysteries, and voila — compelling television.
To go with that tested format, the producers came up with a top-notch ensemble cast, featuring talented actors and actresses without the genuine “stars” that can distract viewers from everything else that’s going on.
There was That Girl from “Old School” (Ellen Pompeo), The Cool One from “Sideways” and “Arli$$” (Sandra Oh), and of course “The 80s Heartthrob Who Everyone Sort of Forgot About” (Patrick Dempsey), all of whom were recognizable, but none of whom are big enough to throw focus on the actor as opposed to the character Add additional cast members such as T.R. Knight, Isaiah Washington, Chandra Wilson, Katherine Heigl, Justin Chambers and James Pickens Jr, and the result is a group where any combination can carry the show for any given week.
In that group are a number of different character types geared towards establishing a rapport with the audience. Pompeo as Meredith Grey is the central figure, but Knight’s George O’Malley is the conscience, designed to be the audience favorite even as he sometimes makes choices that makes viewers want to throw things. Wilson’s Dr. Bailey is the no-nonsense supervisor, and so on. It takes an effort not to find someone on the show with whom to identify.
The same is true for the show's relationships, which in true TV tradition are fraught with complications and the whiff of inappropriateness. There’s the one between Dr. Christina Yang (Oh) and Dr. Preston Burke (Washington), which is above reproach except that Burke is one of Yang’s supervisors. There’s the obligatory love triangle between Grey, Dempsey’s Dr. Derek Shepherd, and Shepherd’s on-again, off-again wife, also a doctor at the hospital. And there’s the who-knows-what-the-heck-is-going-on relationship between Dr. Izzie Stevens (Heigl), Dr. Alex Karev (Chambers), and a patient who may or may not be dying of organ failure. There’s literally something for everyone; those searching for stable relationships, and those more into trainwrecks.
Once the cast was set, the show started off with the best lead-in ABC had to offer, the megahit “Desperate Housewives.” That meant it didn’t need to count on clever promos or critical reviews to gain an audience; all it needed was for the viewers to be too lazy or tired to change the channel.
Character-driven action
But the show soon took off on its own, and now "Grey's" looks as if it could carry a night even if it was preceded by the one-episode-only “Emily’s Reasons Why Not.” Episodes are well-written and expertly filmed, and the pacing is usually languid enough that it’s comforting to follow.
There’s medical drama — this season already has featured a man with an unexploded bomb in his abdomen, and a pair of commuters impaled on the same beam after a train accident — but very rarely does the show adopt the rapid-fire high-intensity pacing of a traditional hospital drama. Because "Grey's" is character-driven, the medical cases usually don’t need to take up most of the action.
Does the hospital seem to get more than its fair share of tragic figures, random illnesses, and injuries unlikely to occur in real life? Sure, because it’s hard to get viewers interested in things like sprained ankles and the stomach flu. But "Grey's" is also reminiscent of shows like “ China Beach ,” or maybe “ER” before the days when every Thursday was a “Very Special Episode You Can’t Miss Because This Show Costs Too Much And We Really Need the Nielsens.”
Since the show is character-focused, it’s succeeded at getting viewers to pick their favorites and root for them to achieve bigger and better storylines. Sure, the ensemble cast limits screen time, but a surprising number of characters are well-rounded. Even those that aren’t are unpredictable. Alex is the closest thing the show has to a villain, but he seems to have a good heart. Trailer-park raised Izzie sometimes seems as if her backstory is made up on the fly, but she also acts consistently with the motivations of her character. And so on.
And the show's writers, plus creator Shonda Rhimes, are great at interacting with fans. There’s a blog on ABC's Web site and a podcast on iTunes, catering to the hardcore viewers and nurturing them into a stronger bond with the show. Everyone associated with the program seems to acknowledge the role those little extras like that can mean in the gaining and wooing of a dedicated audience, and they’re taking advantage of it as few other shows have been able to do.
But it's going to be tricky for this show to sustain its momentum, for a number of reasons. First of all, it’s just as close to “ Melrose Place” as it is to other medical dramas. The relationship fluidity, the romantic interplay between the leading characters, and the other complicating factors that make for good television also mean that the writers have to develop ideas as fast as they can to keep walking the line between compelling and ridiculous.
The show's numerous strong characters also mean that it’s tough to keep everyone happy, both on the set and on the viewers’ couches. There are episodes when the focus is on Patrick Dempsey’s character, and then he’s barely seen at all for the next three weeks. The inevitable result is that some actors likely will grow unhappy with their roles and leave. That’s a natural part of the evolution of most shows, and one or two characters could leave without much of an effect. (Though the loss of Pompeo would be tough, since the show’s named after her character. Would they have to change the name to “Yang’s Anatomy?”).
So far, however, "Grey's" writers have excelled at nurturing storylines right to the point where they’re poised to become annoying, then backing off and restoring the equilibrium. Meredith seemingly hit rock bottom, dug herself into an even deeper emotional hole, and now is slowly crawling back out. George spent a season and a half moping after Meredith, played the martyr card until it became too much already, and has gotten his feet back under him again. Earlier in the show’s history, it was Christina who got pregnant, broke up with Burke, lost the baby, broke down in the hospital, and subsequently got back together with Burke and now has the most stable relationship on the show, at least for today.
Ultimately, the show’s big talent is making its fans happy. As long as it can keep doing that, that "Desperate Housewives" lead-in is nice, but not really necessary. | __________________  Queen of Randomosity |
