‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Turns 20: Fun Facts You Didn’t Know About ‘A Hard Day’s Night’

It’s been 20 years since Grey’s Anatomy premiered on ABC and ushered in a new era of television medical dramas. Shonda Rhimes‘ breakthrough drama was steamy, whipsmart, and full of fresh talent seriously bursting to shine. “A Hard Day’s Night” set the tone for a show that would (and continues to) set records for the subgenre.

Chances are, you’ll remember the moment Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) realizes her one-night stand Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey) is her boss, when Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.) delivers his famous intern speech, and even when Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson) lists out her rules to her frightened crop of new doctors. What you might not know, though, are these fun facts about the Grey’s Anatomy pilot.

The title of the show was originally something very different.

As detailed in the tell-all How to Save a Life, there were several alternative titles going around before Grey’s Anatomy was chosen, including Complications, Surgeons, and Miss Diagnosis.

Shonda Rhimes wrote the pilot when she was in the newborn mom haze.

Nowadays, Rhimes is something of an empress of television, but when she first came up with Grey’s, she was a new mom who wasn’t quite sure about what she was doing. As she told Variety, “My daughter was just three months old when I wrote the script, and I remember thinking ‘I have no idea what I’m doing with this, baby.'” Turns out, she did know what she was doing!

An executive almost pulled the plug on the show.

During Ellen Pompeo’s “Actors on Actors” chat with Katherine Heigl, the two clowned on the unnamed executive who almost “slept” on Rhimes’ pitch for Grey’s. Separately, Rhimes said on the 9-5ish podcast, “I remember getting called into a room full of old men to tell me that the show was a problem… They said that nobody was gonna watch a show about a woman who would sleep with a man the night before her first day of work, and they were dead serious.”

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#ellenpompeo and #katherineheigl talk about the executive who almost didn’t air the #GreysAnatomy pilot.

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She almost had another show for ABC, but the timing was totally wrong.

Rhymes told Oprah Winfrey that her Grey’s script was written on a “whim” and that it came from her obsession with watching shows about surgeries. However, it wasn’t the first show she pitched to ABC. “A few years ago, I did a pilot for ABC. It was about journalists covering a war. I really loved it, but then we went to war in Iraq, and the pilot suddenly felt like poor taste because the characters were having too good a time,” she explained. “There’s something fascinating about the medical world — you see things you’d never imagine, like the fact that doctors talk about their boyfriends or their day while they’re cutting somebody open. So when ABC asked me to write another pilot, the OR seemed like the natural setting.” (In her Masterclass, she also admitted, via Variety, that she knew Bob Iger was interested in medical shows.)

Rhimes wanted to write about ‘real women.’

Meredith Grey was the first character she formed when creating Grey’s Anatomy, and Rhimes told Oprah Winfrey she came up with the characters while writing in her pajamas and babysitting her child. “My daughter was still fairly small, so she was hanging out in a basket on my office floor. I kept asking myself, ‘What kind of woman should the heroine be?’ I thought she should be someone who had made some big mistakes.”

She was partly inspired by Sex and the City.

Rhimes admitted during her Masterclass presentation that she had the steamy HBO hit in mind when pitching Grey’s as “Sex in the Surgery.” She said it was a workaround to entice the “guys who were buying the show at the network.”

Ellen Pompeo got the lead role because another ABC pilot failed.

Pompeo was initially pitched for the now-iconic role of Meredith Grey after ABC shot down another pilot with her in the lead called Secret Service. “The network didn’t go for it. Me as the head of the Secret Service!” Pompeo joked in How to Save a Life.

She initially resisted the job for one pretty ironic reason.

After Rhimes showed an interest in Pompeo, thanks to her work in Moonlight Mile, the actress was reluctant to meet about the show because, as she remembered in How to Save a Life, “I said, ‘I hate medical shows! They make me think I’m gonna die all the time!'”

Pompeo didn’t expect the show to get picked up, which is what convinced her to do it.

At the time, the actress was trying to forge a career in films, but, as she explained on Call Her Daddy podcast, she needed dough fast, and her agent promised she could get paid for the pilot and pocket the cash without worrying about a commitment to the rigors of a television schedule. Talk about a happy accident!

Miranda Bailey was not as originally pictured.

Rhimes told Oprah that she initially envisioned Bailey 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, once she heard Chandra Wilson audition, she thought, “That’s exactly who Miranda is.”

Miranda actually scared Katherine Heigl.

In a commentary with T.R. Knight, the actress admitted, “As an actor, I was scared of her because I didn’t know that she was nothing like this person.”

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🎬🔊Dive into the behind-the-scenes magic of the Greys Anatomy pilot episode with Katherine Heigl and T.R. Knight! 🎬✨ They discuss Bailey’s infamous scene where she lays down the rules for the interns and the thrilling helicopter scene in Seattle with Katie Bryce. 🚁😱 From their first impression of Bailey’s intense performance to filming at the VA hospital in Northridge, CA, they reveal it all! Discover how they handled helicopter training to stay safe during those epic rooftop shots. #GreysAnatomy #KatherineHeigl #TRKnight #Bailey #VAHospital #Seattle #HelicopterScene #BehindTheScenes #TVPilot #IconicTV #HelicopterTraining #GreysAnatomyCommentary #PilotEpisode #GreysBTS #HeiglAndKnight #MerDer #ShondaRhimes #TVDrama #MedicalDrama #SeattleGrace #TVHistory #ActingSkills #BehindTheCamera #TVSet #OnSet #TVProduction #IconicScenes #ClassicTV #FavoriteShow #HospitalDrama #MedicalShow #TVActors #CastInterviews #OnLocation #NorthridgeCA #FilmingLocations #TVMagic #DramaSeries #BaileyFan #FirstEpisode #BehindTheScenesGreys #GreySloanMemorial #HelicopterTraining #PilotCommentary #EllenPompeo #MeredithGrey #SandraOh #CristinaYang #JustinChambers #AlexKarev #KatherineHeigl #IzzieStevens #TRKnight #GeorgeONeill #PatrickDempsey #DerekShepherd #ChandraWilson #MirandaBailey #soundon🔊 #greysanatomy #greysabc #greys #fy #fypage #foryou #foryoupage #fyv #fyviral

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There’s a curious case of a traveling nurse in the pilot.

T.R. Knight and Sandra Oh noticed a pretty hilarious continuity error in the pilot, and the video has since gone viral.

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🔊🎬Sandra Oh and T.R. Knight share a hilarious behind-the-scenes moment from the Grey’s Anatomy pilot! 😆 Watch them laugh about an editing mishap when Dr. Weber meets Meredith, and hear about Alex Karev and Chief’s past as male models! #GreysAnatomy #PilotCommentary #SandraOh #TRKnight #EditingError #BehindTheScenes #TVTrivia #GreySloanMemorial #MedicalDrama #greysfan #greys #GreysAnatomy #SandraOh #TRKnight #MeredithGrey #EllenPompeo #DrWeber #JamesPickensJr #AlexKarev #JustinChambers #CristinaYang #GeorgeOMalley #ChiefWebber #EditingError #ContinuityError #BehindTheScenes #TVTrivia #GreySloanMemorial #MedicalDrama #GreyAnatomyFans #GreySloanFanbase #IconicTV #TVHistory #ClassicTV #MustWatch #TVSecrets #FunFact #PilotEpisode #commentary #behindthescenes #greysabc #shondarhimes #shondaland #EditingError #fy #fypage #foryou #foryoupage #fyv #fyviral #mustwatch #viraltiktok #toofunny #greysfandom #greysanatomytrivia #medicaldrama #mustsee

♬ original sound – EpicScreenShots

The role of Preston Burke originally belonged to someone else.

Paul Adelstein was the first choice for the role but dropped out due to a conflict with his film Be Cool. He would later return to the Grey’s universe for a role in Private Practice. Meanwhile, Isaiah Washington originally auditioned for the role of Derek Shepherd.

Another ’80s legend almost became McDreamy.

Director Peter Horton revealed in How to Save a Life that Rob Lowe had the job of Derek if he wanted it, saying, “The network wanted us to cast Rob Lowe as Derek Shepherd. He’s not exactly who we had in mind for McDreamy, but we met with Rob. He had a choice of either doing our show or Dr. Vegas for CBS. He chose Dr. Vegas.” For Lowe’s part, he remembered, “The vibe around Dr. Vegas was great. The script for Grey’s Anatomy was great. I went with the vibe over the script.”

McDreamy had a … different nickname behind the scenes.

Rhimes admitted in How to Save a Life, “We called him Dr. McScreamMeF—Me during the pilot. [McDreamy was] the PG-rated version.”

One cast member was added after the fact.

Due to a suggestion from test screenings that the show needed a “bad boy,” Alex Karev was added in “surgically” after Justin Chambers shot his scenes later.

The director had a different vision for the opening scene.

Peter Horton described an opening that would’ve had a “tight lens that was out of focus, going all over the curves of [Meredith’s] body” to honor the Grey’s Anatomy title, but explained, “We just didn’t have time for it, plus Shonda had an instinct to start the show with more of a bang than the grace of that. I kind of regret it.”

The show was filmed at an abandoned VA hospital.

As Horton explained, “We needed a practical hospital that had the topography that could double for Seattle. Since I was from Seattle, I was being really picky. When we walked into the lobby of Northridge and looked out that huge lobby window, I could’ve sworn I was looking across Lake Washington to Bellevue! The fact that it’s a veterans hospital was an added bonus in that it was almost empty, sadly. Perfect to shoot in.” (Some exterior scenes are now filmed at Veterans Administration Sepulveda Ambulatory Care Center, while interior shots are produced at Prospect Studios in Los Feliz.)

The Grey’s pilot was the last script Shonda Rhimes ever outlined.

In her Masterclass, Rhimes revealed that even though she has since developed plenty of other hit shows, she doesn’t use outlines and only did so with the Grey’s pilot because it was required.

There are a ton of Easter eggs in the pilot.

From a shirt that gets reused to the introduction of the ferry scrub cap and post-it notes as a symbol of Meredith and Derek’s love on to the music choices that would come back to play later, the pilot is filled with foundational pieces that would continue to inform the show for two decades to come.