Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone.
IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY: March 27, 2005
PROGRAM ORIGINALLY AIRED ON THIS DATE: Grey’s Anatomy, “A Hard Day’s Night” (Season 1, Episode 1) [Stream on Netflix]
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: The very first image of Grey’s Anatomy‘s first episode is a pair of bare legs dissolving out into a series of images of surgeons’ hands at work. The very first proper scene sees Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) pulling a blanket off of Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey), showing a fleeting glimpse of bum, before fleeing a one-night stand. And if you remember the season 1 opening credits song, you’ll remember that it was full of Sexy Singles imagery combined with medical imagery.
The message of all of this was crystal clear: this was going to be the Sexy Doctors show. You thought you’d seen sexy doctors back when Clooney was on E.R.? Maybe you were a longtime General Hospital fan? FORGET IT! Grey’s Anatomy arrived in the dregs of March TV in 2005 and made the world safe for sexy doctors again.
Back before we knew what to expect from a Shonda Rhimes show, the Grey’s Anatomy told us everything we needed to know. Taking the general set-up of a romantic comedy, Rhimes made sure viewers knew that Meredith wouldn’t be sacrificing her career for a man, nor would she be taking a back seat in terms of pursuing romance. Love in Shondaland is all-consuming, destructive, and never, ever simple. Meredith and McDreamy became hot stuff from literally minute one, but you weren’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing for actual years.
Meanwhile, Meredith’s professional life was alive with possibilities. The initial quintet of interns — including Sandra Oh, Katherine Heigl, T.R. Knight, and Justin Chambers — was a remarkably sturdy set of characters to hang the medical plots on. It’s easy to make fun of Grey‘s for the oft-hoary “here’s how this week’s surgery comments on the emotions of the soap storylines” devices, but the show has enjoyed the kind of longevity that other shows can only dream about, and they’ve done so by evolving the particulars of the show (characters and actors cycle in and out; long-running characters grow and change) while keeping its emotional center intact.
Also, go back and watch how horrifyingly YOUNG everybody looked back in 2005. Ellen Pompeo is a willowy child. Katherine Heigl looks like a high-spirited teen. Watch the Grey’s Anatomy pilot and remember when life was full of hope!
