Grey's Anatomy Premiered 16 Years Ago Today

On March 27, 2005, ABC premiered Grey's Anatomy, the medical drama chronicling the life, love, friends, and travails of Dr. Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) on her journey from intern to chief of surgery at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital. This was also the breakthrough project for show creator Shonda Rhimes, who is now one of the reigning queens of TV with hit shows like Scandal, How to Get Away With Murder, and Bridgerton under her belt.

In this clip from Season 1, Episode 1, the hopsital is still called Seattle Grace, and Meredith, Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh), George O'Malley (T.R. Knight), Izzy Stevens (Katherine Heigl), all meet their hard-nosed mentor, Dr. Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson) for the first time. We also see George make a very bad first impression on Meredith and Cirstina. 

Grey's Anatomy is still going strong in Season 17, although only Pompeo and Wilson remain from that original crew. Cristina left to run a research hospital in Switzerland after Oh left in Season 10, while Izzy is an oncologist living on a farm in Kansas after Heigl left in Season 6. George died in a bus accident in Season 5, but recently made an appearance from the afterlife in Season 17, where Meredith's COVID-induced coma allowed her to be able to speak with him and give his story some closure.

Grey's Anatomy airs Thursday nights at 9:00 PM ET on ABC.

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Andy Hunsaker has a head full of sitcom gags and nerd-genre lore, and can be followed @AndyHunsaker if you're into that sort of thing.