View Full Version : "Grey's Anatomy" EP Krista Vernoff Confirms Season 17 will Address Coronavirus
JamesG 07-21-2020, 03:17 PM "Grey's Anatomy" EP Confirms Season 17 will Address Coronavirus Pandemic
by Rebecca Iannucci
July 21, 2020
Art will imitate life during "Grey’s Anatomy‘s" upcoming 17th season, which plans to tackle the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic.
“We’re going to address this pandemic for sure. There’s no way to be a long-running medical show and not do the medical story of our lifetimes,” showrunner Krista Vernoff confirmed in a Television Academy panel, which will stream in full on Tuesday night.
Vernoff said she and the "Grey’s" writers are currently crafting Season 17 stories, and they’ve been speaking directly with doctors who have been on the front lines of the outbreak.
“The doctors come in, and we’re the first people they’re talking to about these types of experiences they’re having,” she revealed. “They are literally shaking and trying not to cry, they’re pale and they’re talking about it as war — a war that they were not trained for. And that’s been one of our big conversations about [Kevin McKidd’s] Owen [who served in the Army], that he’s actually trained for this in a way that most of the other doctors aren’t.”
“I feel like our show has an opportunity and a responsibility to tell some of those stories,” Vernoff continued. “Our conversations have been constantly about how we keep alive humor and romance while we tell these really painful stories.”
https://tvline.com/2020/07/21/greys-anatomy-coronavirus-season-17-pandemic/
Grey's Anatomy re-signs Kim Raver, Kevin McKidd and Camilla Luddington through a potential Season 19 (https://deadline.com/2020/07/greys-anatomy-kim-raver-camilla-luddington-kevin-mckidd-sign-new-contracts-deals-continue-abc-drama-season-17-18-renewal-1202989259/)
The actors behind Drs. Teddy Altman, Owen Hunt and Josephine Karev have each signed a new three-year contract after their last contracts expired at the end of last season. "I hear the pacts are for three years, indicating that ABC and Grey’s Anatomy producer ABC Studios are looking to extend the blockbuster medical drama beyond its upcoming, record-breaking 17th season," reports Deadline's Nellie Andreeva. Grey's Anatomy is currently in the middle of a two-year pickup that expires at the end of next season, Season 17. But ABC is hoping that Grey's will be renewed for Season 18 and beyond. “I’m hopeful that Grey’s Anatomy stays a part of our schedule," ABC Entertainment president Karey Burke told Deadline last month. "They certainly know that we’d like it to be part of our schedule for as long as they are interested in making more episodes.” Raver was a series regular from Seasons 6 through 8, before returning in Season 14 for a guest arc that led to her full-time comeback in Season 15. McKidd has been with Grey's since Season 5, while Luddington joined in Season 9. ALSO: Grey's coronavirus storyline won't be all "death and despair." (https://tvline.com/2020/07/31/greys-anatomy-season-17-coronavirus-storyline-fun-with-quarantines)
Giacomo Gianniotti: Grey's Anatomy's Season 17 premiere will be set a month and a half into the coronavirus pandemic (https://www.etonline.com/greys-anatomy-season-17-begins-month-and-a-half-into-covid-pandemic-giacomo-gianniotti-says-150921)
"We're going to start the season about a month and a half (into) full COVID, so it's going to take place a little beyond where we left off in the last season," Gianniotti tells ET, adding that he hasn't received any season 17 scripts. "We might have some flashbacks. We might have some things where we're referencing last season, just to have context leading up. But we are going to have a little leap when we start this season in terms of time. We're not picking up right where we left off."
Grey's Anatomy boss was initially reluctant to tackle a coronavirus storyline -- until she was told "it’s the biggest medical story of our lifetimes" (https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/greys-anatomy-coronavirus-season-1234788445/)
When Krista Vernoff met with her writers via Zoom, she remembers telling them: “I think that people have fatigue of COVID, and I think they turn to our show for relief." So she challenged them to change her mind. “Who wants to be brave and convince me that I’m wrong?” she said. Co-executive producer Lynne E. Litt went first, Vernoff recalled, and said, “’I think it’s the biggest medical story of our lifetimes.'" And then Litt pitched a story. Vernoff said the doctors on her writing staff -- including Naser Alazari, who has been working on the frontlines of the pandemic -- also convinced her coronavirus was an important topic for the show. Vernoff recalled Alazari telling her, “This is the biggest medical story of our lifetime, and it is changing medicine permanently. And we have to tell this story.'" Meanwhile, Vernoff of filming Grey's Anatomy amid a pandemic: “Everyone was willing to scale the mountain,” Vernoff said. “I keep saying to people, ‘No, no really, we’ve actually reinvented the wheel. We are changing everything everyone has ever understood about how you make television.’ ...Everything is changing. And I’m proud of what we’re doing.”
Sherrie Anson 10-07-2020, 03:12 AM "Grey's Anatomy" EP Confirms Season 17 will Address Coronavirus Pandemic
by Rebecca Iannucci
July 21, 2020
Art will imitate life during "Grey’s Anatomy‘s" upcoming 17th season, which plans to tackle the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic.
“We’re going to address this pandemic for sure. There’s no way to be a long-running medical show and not do the medical story of our lifetimes,” showrunner Krista Vernoff confirmed in a Television Academy panel, which will stream in full on Tuesday night.
Vernoff said she and the "Grey’s" writers are currently crafting Season 17 stories, and they’ve been speaking directly with doctors who have been on the front lines of the outbreak.
“The doctors come in, and we’re the first people they’re talking to about these types of experiences they’re having,” she revealed. “They are literally shaking and trying not to cry, they’re pale and they’re talking about it as war — a war that they were not trained for. And that’s been one of our big conversations about [Kevin McKidd’s] Owen [who served in the Army], that he’s actually trained for this in a way that most of the other doctors aren’t.”
“I feel like our show has an opportunity and a responsibility to tell some of those stories,” Vernoff continued. “Our conversations have been constantly about how we keep alive humor and romance while we tell these really painful stories.”
https://tvline.com/2020/07/21/greys-anatomy-coronavirus-season-17-pandemic/
Excited to watch this season and how covid will come into play. Grey's Anatomy is really a nice medical show.
Kelly McCreary shows what the Grey's Anatomy set is like in the coronavirus era (https://www.primetimer.com/item/Kelly-McCreary-shows-what-the-Greys-Anatomy-set-is-like-in-the-coronavirus-era-70SmWr)
"You know, we just don't want to take any risks," she says in a behind-the-scenes video she made for Good Morning America.
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