Whedonesque Mobile : Comments on 11477 : Grey's Anatomy Creator Has Praise for Buffy.

September 29 2006

Grey's Anatomy Creator Has Praise for Buffy. Shonda Rhimes describes her discovery of how good character development could be in series television.

From the article:

It wasn�t until Ms. Rhimes adopted a child, now 4, that she began spending time at home and really watching television. �I realized a lot of the really good character development is happening on TV,� said Ms. Rhimes, who was huge fan of �Buffy the Vampire Slayer.� �The language was great, the world was great, and you completely invested in those characters. I�m still not over its cancellation.�

Cancellation? Graceful exit, more like.

Pointy | 02:41 CET | 35 comments total | tags: grey's anatomy

^ amen!

But still... aww.

Alex2459 | September 29, 02:48 CET

Yes. That is the first thing that came to mind as I read that. I suppose I will not fault her as much as she has some good taste. The Office, Lost, Weeds, and most importantly, BtVS!

[ edited by Dhoffryn on 2006-09-29 00:51 ]

Dhoffryn | September 29, 02:50 CET

Cancellation? Graceful exit, more like.

I'd gone with staggering around punch drunk, defiant to the end, grinning like mad whilst the corpses of lesser tv shows lay strewn around her. But I suppose graceful exit could mean the same sort of thing.

Simon | September 29, 03:00 CET

I have to say here that people are frequently misquoted in articles. The NY Times does it all the time. Reporters often take notes during their interview, and then when they get back to wherever they type it up, they don't always have perfect recall of every word that was said.

It's possible she said that, and it's also possible it's a kind of verbal shorthand. Many people consider "Angel" season 5 as a continuation of "Buffy," and Angel was cancelled, signalling an end to some of the most brilliant writing on television. Even if it wasn't that, Buffy's ending still felt like a cancellation, because lots of us grieved over its ending in the same way.

In the end, I don't really care to be picayune about how someone praises Buffy. It's clear Buffy was an inspiration to Rhimes, and you can often see it in the writing on her show. Whether she used the word "ended" or "cancelled" is really not important. Fixating on words like that sometimes comes off as harsh and critical, and I have no desire to be that way about a Buffy fan.

Nebula1400 | September 29, 03:37 CET

Heh heh (Simon).

[ edited by Willowy on 2006-09-29 01:38 ]

Willowy | September 29, 03:37 CET

I think she's talking about the end of the Buffyverse on TV with the cancellation of Angel, which I also took like a hammer to the head.

dreamlogic | September 29, 04:03 CET

Simon, your visceral imagery would make a great comic book. Maybe Willowy or Qugal would do the artwork.

jaynelovesvera | September 29, 04:03 CET

I've never watched Grey's Anatomy, but now . . . maybe I'll get cable in my cave.

Pointy | September 29, 04:13 CET

I'm with you, Pointy. I've seen some of the show and vaguely liked it, but now I'm going to try to see more and like more.

dreamlogic | September 29, 04:22 CET

Not terribly surprised that Shonda Rhimes was a Buffy fan. I really adore Grey's Anatomy as of late... in some ways it's a guilty pleasure, but a lot of the characters are really well developed and fascinating to watch. It's interesting to draw parallels between the two shows (now that I think about it, Christina's transformation reminds me of Spike's in a weird way.) Plus, it totally makes me cry all the time because I'm a sappy sobby wuss who apparently like to cry.

Lady Brick | September 29, 04:45 CET

Lady Brick, you should establish a place for Grey's Anatomy love over on whedonesque.org "Other Shows." Nobody will care if you're a wussy. We all are.

dreamlogic | September 29, 05:36 CET

Although Buffy wasn't cancelled it is still sorely missed.
Angel I am still very bitter about. I think I like this lady a lot.
Ever notice how MOST of the INTELLEGENT people in the world ARE Buffy fans? Just sayin.

cheryl | September 29, 06:24 CET

Can I tell you that I LOVE Grey's? And I agree with Cheryl.

"Are you smart enough to watch Buffy?"

Grin!
Sania D.

Sania Delian | September 29, 07:12 CET

dreamlogic: I'd feel bad starting up a subforum when I can't even keep up with all the forums I already post on.

cheryl: My parents and sister all like Buffy (thanks to me) so clearly I come from good genes :D

Lady Brick | September 29, 08:09 CET

Not that it's really germane to this discussion, but I too would like to proclaim myself as a crybaby sappy sobby weeping teary candy-ass wuss who blubbers and bawls like a little girl.

And jvl, thanks for your vote of confidence -- I agree that simon's imagery bears illustrating and I dunno about willowy's rendering talents, but for a graphic artist, my comic-drawing skills skills are fairly mediocre. In fact, if I did an comic book, it would probably look a lot like this. (Or even more likely, like this.)

I sho' ain't no John Cassaday. (Mmmmm.... John Cassady/Homer Simpson's food voice...)

QuoterGal | September 29, 09:16 CET

Ha! QuoterGal, methinks our jlv was pokin' fun at our indignance at pro bono design work. Touche, jlv, by the way! Hee!

And yep, my pencil sketches all tend to turn out looking like JFK Junior. *shrug*

Willowy | September 29, 09:22 CET

Not really surprised, I believe she even included some Buffy references, during one of last year's Greys Anatomy podcasts.

Numfar PTB | September 29, 13:19 CET

Willowy and QuoterGal, I assure you my intentions were pure. There was no pokin' goin' on. Simply, Simon's imaginative, splendid sentence struck me as deserving of several pages of illustrated badassery panels before culminating in an illustrious, epic splash page.

QG, one of the guys in your first linked page looks like my cousin Pete. Your second link, I see, is on Wolfram & Hart's website. Does that mean you work there? If so, would you introduce me to Lilah? I know she's dead, but I can overlook some things.

jaynelovesvera | September 29, 15:49 CET

*snorts cereal up nose. laughs/chokes*

Pointy | September 29, 16:44 CET

Pointy, you OK? Let me know your mealtimes and I won't post at those times.

jaynelovesvera | September 29, 18:25 CET

jvl, although I do work at Wolfram & Hart, I'm a really minor artist-factotum, working in the Triangle-Packing & Symbology Department, and I don't have access to the High Evil Muckety-mucks like Lilah and Lindsey. I haven't even sold my soul to the Evil One, I've just rented it out to him a part-time basis. I'm not really bad, I just draw that way.

(And by the way, isn't "triangle-packing" the coolest notion? Or is it just me? And I say that with deepest apologies to narky, who wrote what has to be one of the all-time best whedonesque reasons for disliking a Buffy episode title: "Gingerbread is a cool word, triangle is not. It is disgusting and reminds me of math. I do not wish to be reminded of math when watching BtVS, please."

This phrase has been incorporated into my daily phraseology & it still makes me laugh...)

QuoterGal | September 29, 21:18 CET

I snack every waking hour, jaynelovesvera, particularly when surfing the net. Your last witticism caught me in the middle of a banana/strawberry smoothie.

%-()

[ edited by Pointy on 2006-09-29 19:31 ]

Pointy | September 29, 21:22 CET

You're making me say this, but, triangle-packing? Yeah, I see the symbolism to THAT phrase. And it is filthy, filthy, filthy (depending on you're, ahem, point of view, a'course).

pat32082 | September 29, 21:23 CET

pat32082, I spoke metaphorically. My metaphor was drawn from mathematics./stern Miss Prism-y kind of governess-voice

You are a filthy, filthy, filthy Human Replicant who needs re-programming. (;o)

QuoterGal | September 29, 21:45 CET

QuoterGal, no re-programming for pat-o'-many-integers, please. While I might be convinced there's a surfeit of perverse algebra, this world needs pat's kind of geometric filth.

And for a real stretch, if Warren's ex, Katrina, went by the nickname Trina and she and Angel got it on (bang a gong), the resulting ship would be Triangel. And if she loved Angel and Warren both concurrently, Triangel would be part of a triangle.

And Willowy, just sell your sketches as portraits of JFK, Jr. Who's to know?

jaynelovesvera | September 29, 22:35 CET

jlv speaks much sense.

pat32082 | September 29, 22:37 CET

pat32082, you're the first person who ever said that.

jaynelovesvera | September 29, 23:10 CET

There's a first time for everything. And I'm glad I could do that for you.

pat32082 | September 29, 23:23 CET

I would actually never really want to re-program the Mathematical Pat.

I don't believe in that kind of ... meddling.

"... A year from now, ten, they�ll swing back to the belief that they can make people... better. And I do not hold to that." -- Mal, Serenity

This goes for Replicants, too.

QuoterGal | September 30, 00:13 CET

Stop, QG, you'll make me cry. And tears and synthetic replicant skin? Do not mix.

pat32082 | September 30, 01:13 CET

matpat, they have an upgrade for that now--I saw an ad in the Ariel Times (or was it the Ariel Divide?)

jaynelovesvera | September 30, 02:55 CET

But *you know* they haven't worked out the bugs yet.

pat32082 | September 30, 03:50 CET

I snack every waking hour, jaynelovesvera, particularly when surfing the net

Pointy, are you sure you didn't type "c" when you meant "r" in that second word?

And pat, old friend, the bugs are in the new synthetic skin. I meant the new synthetic tears, which are lachromosely perfect. The Alliance tested them for many years on crocodiles.

jaynelovesvera | September 30, 05:54 CET

Well, if they're lachromosely perfect, then...

pat32082 | September 30, 05:58 CET

That, veraphile, you already knew.

Pointy | September 30, 06:21 CET

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