‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Cast and Producers Pick Their Favorite Episodes

GREY'S ANATOMY - Ellen Pompeo
Frank Ockenfels/ABC via Getty Images
GREY'S ANATOMY

It must be tough to choose your top Grey’s Anatomy pick from a show with over 300 episodes, but we asked the actors and producers to do just that.

Ellen Pompeo: (A Hard Day’s Night, March 27, 2005)
The pilot introduced a young group of surgical interns to life—and death—at Seattle Grace Hospital. “It was just such magic,” Pompeo says. “So many people have tried to re-create it and failed miserably, because you can’t re-create magic like that. That’s my absolute favorite episode.”

Executive producer Krista Vernoff: (Six Days, Parts 1 and 2, January 11 and 18, 2007)
George’s (T.R. Knight) dad dies after undergoing a risky surgery. “These episodes are the most personal to me,” Vernoff shares. “Through George’s dad, I told the story of the death of my own father. Shonda let me dedicate the episode to his memory.”

Chandra Wilson: (Death and All His Friends, May 20, 2010)
The second episode of a two-parter about a shooting spree at the hospital is widely considered one of the best arcs Grey’s has done. “My favorite scene in the series,” Wilson says, “is when Bailey had to [control her fear] when resident Charlie [Robert Baker] was shot and hold him so he could die peacefully.”

Debbie Allen: (The Sound of Silence, February 11, 2016)
Denzel Washington directed this episode (below), about a patient who assaults Meredith and the aftermath of her recovery. “Getting Denzel was a big coup,” Allen says. “Shonda and I kept that secret for months! Every aspect of the episode was one of the best: the direction, the writing and Ellen’s performance.”

Kevin McKidd: (Out of Nowhere, November 16, 2017)
McKidd chooses the latest midseason finale, in which the hospital’s computers are hacked. “It had a different tone,” says the actor, who directed the episode, “more like an intense, high-stakes thriller.” Indeed. FBI agents take over when internet blackmailers demand the hospital pay ransom to regain control of the medical equipment.