Grey's Anatomy is an American primetime television medical drama. The pilot episode aired March 27, 2005. The show stars Ellen Pompeo as Dr. Meredith Grey, a surgical intern at the fictional Seattle Grace Hospital in Seattle, Washington. The plot concerns her and her fellow interns, their love lives and the struggles to handle their workloads. The title is a pun on Gray's Anatomy, a famous anatomy textbook. In 2005, ABC gave the show a vote of confidence by announcing that Grey's Anatomy would recieve the coveted post-superbowl slot.

Grey's Anatomy, despite its popularity, has not been without its fair share of detractors. The show has been widely criticized by various groups, many of which reside in the medical field, for inaccurately presenting medical situations and greatly exaggerating the degree to which doctors and medical professionals fraternize with one another. However, supporters of the show have defended its lack of realism, claiming that a more realistic show would lack the charms that make Grey's Anatomy so popular with such a wide audience. Supporters likewise claim that the purpose of the hospital setting is to provide a dramatic backdrop that allows for the characters to be put into emotionally and physically intense situations that would rarely materialize in other circumstances and settings. In this sense, Grey's Anatomy is similar to such other popular shows as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which used the larger-than-life scenarios (magic realism) of each episode to metaphorically express emotions that every person, no matter how mundane or fantastic his or her life may be, goes through.