9 Shondaland TV Shows We Never Got to See
Shonda Rhimes has certainly been busy since Grey’s Anatomy made her a household name in 2005. She created two more shows (Private Practice and Scandal) and executive-produced five others for ABC, wrote a book, launched a lifestyle website, and signed a record-breaking development deal with Netflix.
But those are all the projects that saw the light of day, so you might not realize how many others she worked on along the way. Allow us to fill you in! Here are nine TV shows that never made it to the airwaves.
Inside the Box
Focusing on the “hotbed of professional backstabbing and personal betrayals” of a fictional network news team, this 2009 ABC pilot starred future Grey’s Anatomy stars Sarah Drew, Jason George, Kim Raver, and Martin Henderson.
Untitled Jenna Bans legal drama
Before Jenna Bans created NBC comedy-drama Good Girls, the former Grey’s and Scandal producer wrote a 2011 ABC pilot about a “young, idealistic defense attorney” who is fired from a prestigious law firm because, he suspects, he was about to expose a sordid cover-up.
Gilded Lilys
Set in 1895, this 2012 ABC drama pilot “[revolved] around the opening of the first luxury hotel in New York City and all the intermingling of love, treachery, and disdain between the classes.”
Sarah Bolger as Violet Lily, Grant Gerard as Preston Lily, Matt Lauria as Charlie Carnegie and Matt Long as John Kidd (Facebook)
Show & Tell
Former Grey’s producer and Scandal actor Dan Bucatinsky’s book Does This Baby Make Me Look Straight? inspired this 2013 ABC pilot, “a fast-paced dramedy about the lives, loves, and scandalous secrets of a group of parents whose kids attend the same school.”
Splitsville
It takes a village (of divorced parents) to raise a child? So goes the premise of this 2015 ABC comedy pilot: “In the wake of a wave of divorces, the single residents of a suburban cul-de-sac join forces to raise their kids and get through it together,”
Emily Halpern and Sarah Haskins, producers of Splitsville (Shondaland)
Untitled Alison Schapker drama
Alison Schapker, a former Scandal producer, penned a 2015 ABC drama pilot about a group of Catholic nuns in the Bronx whose trouble-plagued convent is turned upside down by the arrival of three newcomers.
Untitled Zoanne Clack drama
A group of U.S. Army medics stationed in Baghdad “get on each others’ nerves, sleep with the wrong people, navigate ‘office’ politics and party like there’s no tomorrow” in a 2015 drama pilot written by Grey’s producer Zoanne Clack.
Grey’s Anatomy (Mitch Haaseth/ABC)
Toast
This 2016 ABC comedy pilot, written by Scandal alum Scott Foley and Alias vet Greg Grunberg, recounted the love story of a soon-to-be-wed couple through the toasts delivered at their rehearsal dinner, and the cast included former Grey’s stars Jerrika Hinton and Tessa Ferrer.
Untitled Liz Tuccillo comedy
This 2016 ABC comedy pilot, meanwhile, hinged on a simple question: “When your bossy best friend dies, who steps up to take charge?” The script came from Liz Tuccillo, author of How to Be Single and the former executive story editor of Sex and the City.
