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1 When asked how she decided to develop a medical drama, Shonda Rhimes (creator and executive producer) responded:
‘I was obsessed with the surgery channels. ... My sisters and I would call each other up and talk about operations we'd seen on the Discovery Channel. There's something fascinating about the medical world—you see things you'd never imagine, like the fact that doctors talk about their boyfriends or their day while they're cutting somebody open. So when ABC asked me to write another pilot, the [operating room] seemed like the natural setting’.

2 Francie Calfo, executive vice president of development at ABC Entertainment, commented that ABC was looking for a medical show that was unlike the others airing at the time. She pointed out that:
‘Medical shows are hard, and it was hard trying to figure out where ours could be different. But where everybody else is speeding up their medical shows, Rhimes found a way to slow it down, so you get to know the characters. There's definitely a strong female appeal to it’.

3 Rhimes had 3 goals in mind when she created Grey’s Anatomy:
1) ‘ER is high-speed medicine. The camera flies around, adrenaline is rushing. My show is more personal. The idea for the series began when a doctor told me it was incredibly hard to shave her legs in the hospital shower. At first that seemed like a silly detail. But then, I thought about the fact that it was the only time and place this woman might have to shave her legs. That's how hard the work is’.
2)‘I wanted to create a world in which you felt as if you were watching very real women. Most of the women I saw on TV didn't seem like people I actually knew. They felt like ideas of what women are. They never got to be nasty or competitive or hungry or angry. They were often just the loving wife or the nice friend. But who gets to be the bitch? Who gets to be the three-dimensional woman?’.
3) She initially conceived Grey's Anatomy as a statement against racism. She worked to create a show featuring a racially diverse cast that allowed viewers to relate to characters regardless of race. Grey's Anatomy used a color-blind casting technique, resulting in a racially diverse ensemble. Each role was cast without the character's race being pre-determined, keeping Rhimes's vision of diversity
—Rhimes on the creation of Grey's Anatomy.

text from Wikipedia