Five shocking Grey’s Anatomy stories, from Katherine Heigl’s Emmy snub to its toxic work culture, in How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Grey’s Anatomy

How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Grey’s Anatomy, by Entertainment Weekly’s Lynette Rice, contains a mix of interviews and scandalous stories from the set

The drama on camera was matched by stories behind the scenes, from Patrick Dempsey’s ‘terrorising the set’ to Isaiah Washington’s use of a homophobic slur

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Grey’s Anatomy premiered in 2005 and became a bona fide hit. The show, however, saw more than its fair share of drama behind the camera. Photo: ABC

Published: 7:15pm, 23 Sep 2021

Why did Katherine Heigl really leave Grey’s Anatomy? Did McDreamy’s McAttitude cost him his surgical privileges? When will this beloved show seal its scalpels away for good?

Answers – well, speculation – to these questions lie in How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Grey’s Anatomy, out now, by Entertainment Weekly editor-at-large Lynette Rice.

Rice wrote an oral history of television’s longest-running medical drama (its 18th season premieres on September 30) with near-surgical precision, including a mix of extensive interviews with writers, actors, former crew members and executives, not to mention a compelling collage of archived interviews from over the years. But some stories will likely stay behind operating-room doors.

“It’s the story of one of the greatest successes in television history, and the rise of an amazing creator, actors, all that stuff,” an unnamed source told Rice. “But to me, the real story is never going to be fully told, because people won’t talk – at least on the record, like me.”

The cover of Lynette Rice’s book. Photo: St. Martin’s Press

The series – created by then unknown Shonda Rhimes – premiered in 2005, starring Ellen Pompeo (Meredith Grey) and four fellow surgical interns (Sandra Oh, Katherine Heigl, T.R. Knight and Justin Chambers) who navigated medicine and relationships. What became (and remains) a bona fide hit in front of the camera, however, saw more than its fair share of drama behind it.