Grey's Anatomy turns 20: Shonda Rhimes reflects on creating a TV sensation... - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

TMC · 03-28-2025, 01:20 AM

...with "zero experience in television"

https://ew.com/shonda-rhimes-greys-a...rview-11695521

"You have to understand, (I had) zero experience in television," said Rhimes, who 20 years ago was best known for writing the Britney Spears movie Crossroads, in an interview with EW. "I didn't even realize how it all worked with studios and networks, and who you're supposed to suck up to. I didn't understand any of that. But I thought the pilot was really good, and I knew that I wanted to see it. And Betsy (Beers) thought the pilot was really good, and she really wanted to see it. So to me, I was like, 'Okay, we'll have experience making a pilot,' and we made it, and I thought it was really good. But I wouldn't have made it if I didn't think it was really good. I wasn't even thinking about Will the audience think it's really good? I hadn't gotten there yet. I think the moment I realized we were special in some way was they were doing audience testing with the pilot. It used to be that they'd bring you in and there'd be this screen, and the audience would be on the other side and they'd be turning dials as they watched the show. And so we were there in real time watching it, and the trajectory kept going up, up, up — and it never dipped. Somebody turned to me and said, 'This has literally never happened in the history of ABC.' And I don't know if it really never happened in the history of ABC, but that's how they said it to us. And I thought, 'Oh, so we're doing really good,' but I still felt like a student getting my A-plus." ALSO: Shonda Rhimes looks back at the Grey's spinoffs that never made it.

03-28-2025, 01:20 AM	#1
TMC Member Forum Idol Join Date: Jan 09, 2001 Posts: 126,703	Grey's Anatomy turns 20: Shonda Rhimes reflects on creating a TV sensation... ...with "zero experience in television" https://ew.com/shonda-rhimes-greys-a...rview-11695521 "You have to understand, (I had) zero experience in television," said Rhimes, who 20 years ago was best known for writing the Britney Spears movie Crossroads, in an interview with EW. "I didn't even realize how it all worked with studios and networks, and who you're supposed to suck up to. I didn't understand any of that. But I thought the pilot was really good, and I knew that I wanted to see it. And Betsy (Beers) thought the pilot was really good, and she really wanted to see it. So to me, I was like, 'Okay, we'll have experience making a pilot,' and we made it, and I thought it was really good. But I wouldn't have made it if I didn't think it was really good. I wasn't even thinking about Will the audience think it's really good? I hadn't gotten there yet. I think the moment I realized we were special in some way was they were doing audience testing with the pilot. It used to be that they'd bring you in and there'd be this screen, and the audience would be on the other side and they'd be turning dials as they watched the show. And so we were there in real time watching it, and the trajectory kept going up, up, up — and it never dipped. Somebody turned to me and said, 'This has literally never happened in the history of ABC.' And I don't know if it really never happened in the history of ABC, but that's how they said it to us. And I thought, 'Oh, so we're doing really good,' but I still felt like a student getting my A-plus." ALSO: Shonda Rhimes looks back at the Grey's spinoffs that never made it.