Somehow, 17 years have passed since the first episode of Grey's Anatomy aired, and the drama hasn't let up. Many shows have their own pilots and establish themselves in season one (or even season two), but Grey's Anatomy hit the ground running and hasn't looked back. It truly shows what an incredible showrunner and creator Shonda Rhimes is — her voice is just so powerful — and makes this medical drama one of the most rewatchable One of the sets. If you rewatch the entire show for the fifth time and go back to the beginning every time, you're not alone.
A lot has changed on Grey's since the first episode, including the fact that nearly everyone we meet is now dead, working elsewhere, or inexplicably raising twins together in Kansas. As Izzy might say, seriously? ! Not to mention the hospital has a completely different name. But at the same time, the Grey's Anatomy pilot introduced elements of the series that would go on to become major hallmarks of the show — clues and random props that made what we now know feel more important.
Here are some of the funniest things you'll notice when rewatching the Grey's Anatomy pilot in 2022.
Soundtrack So 2005 (Even Somber 17 Years Later)
Grey's Anatomy's soundtrack is almost cliche at this point—it's like, the show has cornered the alt-pop market. Sure enough, the first episode introduced several hilarious moments in the middle. The first song played in this episode is "Portions For Foxes" by Rilo Kiley. Also included in the episode are Jem's "These" - which was played at almost every show during the 2005/2006 season - and Butterfly Boucher's "Life Is Short".
"Into the Fire" from "Thirteen Senses" was also performed and became the sad main theme of the play. In the pilot, we heard the song while Meredith and Derek were having their first surgery together, but it played a decade later when Derek was in the hospital with a fatal brain injury (by Erin · McCully cover, because Gray likes a good show). Ouch.
Speaking of music…
Even the title of the episode is important
"Grey's" was a game-changer in multiple ways from the beginning. Take the episode's title: "A Hard Day's Night," borrowed from the Beatles song of the same name. Not only did the title fit the episode's premise perfectly, but it also started a Grey's tradition of naming nearly every episode after a song. (Typically, network shows tend to start with a first episode titled "Pilot," a convention that Rhimes followed on How to Get Away with Murder and For the People. Not so with Grey's Anatomy !)
There's a major MerDer Easter egg
Well, maybe you can't call it an Easter egg because it probably wasn't intentional. But in Meredith and Derek's first scene (review: they've just woken up at her house after spending the night together), there are Post-it notes—including the blue kind! — can be seen all over Meredith’s walls. Five seasons later, the couple wrote their wedding vows on a spare post-it note in the hospital.
RIP Izzy's glasses
Izzy rocked a pair of glasses in the first episode of Grey's Anatomy. In fact, even if she's not wearing them, they're on her head and ready for action. These spectacles wouldn't appear as often in later seasons—possibly because they were leftover ideas from Katherine Heigl's audition. "I liked the idea that I could go in and do something very different from the characters I usually play," Heigl said at the Paley Center for Media in 2006. "I put on my glasses, slicked my hair back, and I didn't wear makeup. I put on a sweatshirt and tried to show that I could be a surgeon."
George's stark warning
Sadly, this is the episode where George earns his nickname "007" - but the patient he loses on the operating table isn't the only major mishap in the first episode. He also assured another patient's wife that her husband would be fine (he was not). When the latter joked that George should "kill me right now" because he needs to switch to a strict, heart-healthy diet after bypass surgery, George said, "I wish I could, but I'm a therapist ."coin.
Alex Karev is missing
As we all know, Alex Karev wasn't originally a character on Grey's Anatomy , but the writers added him to give George's character a male foil. Once you know this, you can't see it in the pilot. After the pilot was filmed, Justin Chambers was digitally added to the pilot, and it was pretty obvious - he just showed up. For all his mistakes (and very questionable decisions he made later), without him there wouldn't be MAGIC (Meredith, Alex, George, Izzie, and Cristina), but just, well, MGIC. Who knew he would go on to become such an important figure in Mel's life?
There are a lot of random doctors
Of course, there must be other doctors at the hospital in addition to the core surgeons, but early on, it seems like there will be a lot of extra doctors in the pilot. The locker room was packed with a bunch of interns, but right now, it would be worth noting if there were four of them in there at the same time. In the lunch scene where Cristina tells everyone that Meredith is Ellis Grey's daughter, there are just three random doctors sitting next to them. who are they? Where did they go? Did they withdraw from the program?
The guest star is the real Bratz
This episode's medical case involves beauty queen Katie Bryce, who suffered a ruptured aneurysm. She is played by actress Skyler Shaye, who starred in the 2007 film Bratz . Yes, this is a movie based on a puppet line.
Derek has a soft side
Derek has clearly been a McDream from the get-go - but the first episode reminds us why we love him so much, and it's not just about looks or charm (although there's plenty of both). He took the time to shave Katie's head before surgery and "promised [he] would make her look cool". Not a doctor here, but pre-operative hair removal seems like something a nurse would do (and WebMD recommends), so it's nice that Derek is doing it even though it's not on his neurosurgeon's official list of duties.
His frosted hat is also different
Another cute Derek detail? His hospital hat: it’s not the ferry boat that we associate with him, but the fish pattern. We later learn that fishing was actually an important, cathartic part of Derek's life in Seattle, so he embraced the Pacific Northwest vibe early on.
Cristina and Meredith are instant friends
Despite a few bumps in the first episode (the whole "I slept with Derek, had surgery, and you're mad" thing), Cristina and Meredith are already best friends. In Remus' world, there is no unreasonable competition between women and women, only friendship. That's not to say there's no room for conflict - of course there is, just like real life - but it's much deeper than typical depictions of female relationships.
