Greys Anatomy

Frequently Asked Questions
Answered by Shonda Rhimes

In response to your pleas, here are some answers to the questions y'all seem to ask most. They are in random order and they cover every topic from Dylan to scrubs to where we get the music for the show. Hope it helps!

Is Dylan dead?
Dylan is dead. He is not coming back. And he doesn't have a twin brother who is surgeon. Kyle Chandler, who played Dylan, is a very nice guy but he is busy. He is, in fact, making a pilot for a TV version of the movie "Friday Night Lights." Yes, he is cute. Yes, he is as nice as he seems on TV. Yes, we all want to lick him inappropriately. But that does not change the fact that Dylan is dead.

Why did Dylan carry the bomb in his bare hands? Because now he's dead and I'm mad and I don't think that bomb squad guys would carry bombs in their bare hands and you are a stupid-head!!!

Bomb Squad Guys (BSGs as I've decided to call them - and many of them are, in fact, not guys but women) most certainly do carry bombs in their bare hands. We had numerous BSG specialist-type people working on this episode. They emphasized to us that in a true high pressure situation, the most important thing for safety is that they have maximum control. Which means not wearing helmets that could obscure their vision or big heavy glove things that could make them drop the bomb. Having as little between them and the bomb as possible means they have more control over the situation. They also said that all the helmets and gloves in the world would not have kept Dylan from becoming pink mist should that homemade, unstable device he was carrying decide to explode.

FYI, it was the BSGs who said that Dylan would carry the bomb from the OR into the hall where he would then place it into a container. Because picking the bomb up (ie, pulling it out of Mr. Carlson) and putting the bomb down are the two most dangerous moments of bomb removal.

See? Not that much of a stupid-head, am I?

But how come no one talked about Dylan after he exploded?
Because he's dead. And Meredith was in shock. And we only had 42 minutes and 30 seconds for the show. But they grieved. They really did. And, like everything that happens on our show, the death of Dylan will come back up again. Because no way that happens to Meredith without her having some kind of angst. I love angst.

Can I have a job working on your show?
No. We are fully staffed. In order for me to hire anyone else, someone would have to quit. I went around asking people if they wanted to quit. Apparently, people like working on a hit show - despite the painfully long hours and lack of glamour. Not one was willing to give up their job so another person could have it.

Why did you do that with Meredith and George? Why? WHY????!!!
First of all, I told you that characters have to do what the characters have to do. In that one moment, Meredith was weak and George was brave and…it happened. But more importantly, Meredith is the one of only a few women on television who is truly flawed. FLAWED in capital letters. Remember, this is a woman who, in the very first episode of Grey's Anatomy, picked up a guy at a bar, brought him home, slept with him and then tried to throw him out in the morning without even learning his name (his name happened to be Derek Shepherd). Her flawed nature is the thing I love most about the character. It's why I wrote the show. Meredith is all of us on our worst and best days. And, at one time or another, we've all slept with a guy friend when we knew we shouldn't (and Dad, if you are reading this, I mean "we" in an "every single woman on the planet but me" kind of way). You know what I'm talking about, you know you do.

And here's the thing I really would like you to remember on dark nights when you lie in bed hating my guts: In movies and most TV shows, when two friends sleep together, it's a magical start to a wonderful relationship. In life, it's quite often a hideous beginning to a very long awkward nightmare. I wanted to take a leap and keep our characters honest. Come on and leap with me, people.

I've known this was going to happen from the very first day the show started. It's where Meredith and George have been headed from the beginning. They had to have this awful moment so that they could come out the other side. Now, George can see beyond the fantasy to the reality and Meredith can see George as a man more than as a brother.

What's up with the music on the show? How do you choose it?
Our super-cool music supervisor Alex Patsavas sends music she likes to me and the editors and executive producer Betsy Beers. We all listen and Betsy makes suggestions, the editors try out songs for a first cut and then I sit in a room with the editors and try more and more songs until I generally realize that the editors had the right song in the show all along. Many times, I'll have a song I'm obsessed with that I tell the editors about early on and they do all of their cuts to that perfect song. Like the song at the end of "Break On Through" where the old lady dies and Meredith cries in the linen closet with Derek. It's a crazy system but it works. You can find a listing of each song used in the episodes in the MUSIC section of our show website. And check out our music-casts for more info.

Isn't "Grey's Anatomy" the name of a book?
No. The book is called "Gray's Anatomy" and it was written by Henry Gray and first published in England in 1858. It's a textbook that was commonly used to educate doctors on the anatomy of the human body.

When are we going to meet Izzie's birth daughter? When will we see Meredith's dad again? Is Christina Ricci coming back on the show? WHAT WILL HAPPEN?
I can't tell you anything about the future.

Why not?!
Because it is the future and I hate when you already know what is going to happen on a TV show.

But just tell me this: when are Meredith and Derek going to get back together?
Seriously? You think I'm answering that question? Seriously?

Why do you and the characters say "seriously" all the time?
Because Krista Vernoff, one of our valued writers, says it constantly in the Writers' Room. CONSTANTLY. Like, four hundred and fifty times a day. And it is catching. Now we all say it. Seriously. Krista says she caught the "seriously" bug from one of her friends and brought it to work and spread it to all of us. It's an awesome word. Said correctly, it can convey sarcasm, dismay, disbelief, a sense of moral and ethical superiority and gentle chastising punishment all at once. Seriously.

Well, what about "va-jay-jay"? That was totally you, right, Shonda? You made that up? 'Cause you're so cool?
That was Blythe Robe. One of our assistants. She says va-jay-jay. In reference to her vagina. As in, "I've got to get to the gynie and do the va-jay-jay thing." Blythe is very hip and very funny and way cooler than me. But I do take credit for borrowing the phrase and having Bailey say it on national television in front of 25 million people thus bringing "va-jay-jay" to the world.

Where do the scrubs your characters wear come from? Because I'm a doctor and they're scrubs look amazing on them and, in real life, scrubs just hang from the female body like a big ugly sack.
Here's my one big nod to the fact that this show is not reality. Our scrubs are perfectly tailored to each actor's body by our very amazing costume department. They have darts and tucks and, here's the key, LYCRA in them. Because I like it when people look good on TV. I really do. When Chandra Wilson (Bailey to you and me) was pregnant and sweetly ever-expanding, we worked hard to make sure her scrubs kept her looking fabulous.

For those of you who just want scrubs of your own (and I gotta admit they make damn good pajamas), you can order similar scrubs on the ABC website. They say Grey's Anatomy on them and I don't know if they have the all-important lycra in them but I have some and they are very comfy.

I love the blogs but I want to know more and I want to know more RIGHT NOW!
We have podcasts! Yes, podcasts! Different interviews each week with actors, writers, exec producers, editors, etc. They are funny and random and give you a lot of insight into how much fun the actors really are or exactly what the heck the writers are thinking. You can check them out on iTunes. They are FREE!

More answers will appear as I get more questions…