In a recent Entertainment Weekly article, T.R. Knight talked about leaving Grey's Anatomy. There was a lot of dancing around when it came to the tension between him and Shonda Rhimes, the show's producer, in regards to what exactly happened during the Isaiah Washington scandal.
After looking through past articles and different interviews given by various cast members, it seems pretty clear what happened--Shonda Rhimes was pissed that she had to let go of one of her main characters just because he made a homophobic slur.
Now, I understand being inconvenienced and ticked off by something like that. I'm sure Chris Brown's entire staff feels a very similar pain. What ticks me off is that it isn't impossible to get rid of a character immediately. Anyone watching Grey's at that time could have probably come up with more than a few ways to have gotten rid of Dr. Burke--perhaps getting hit by a bus? At that time, his character wasn't exactly a fan favorite anymore. It seems like Rhimes just wanted to keep him around as long as she could before the network forced her hand.
To this day, she has NEVER come out and publicly condemned what was said, and what's worse, she's never been asked why she hasn't. Instead of coming out in support of T.R. Knight, she proceeded to dwindle down his character, first making him a complete jerk, and then rendering him practically invisible. All the while he had to go to work knowing that his boss had an opportunity to support him and didn't. Rhimes actually had the audacity to say that she didn't say anything about the situation at the time because they all had to go to work every day and see each other--Gee, imagine how hard that must have been for poor Shonda Rhimes--I'm sure ignoring the situation really made everyone feel much more comfortable, and didn't just let Washington feel like he'd been let off the hook.
Washington has stated several times that he thought he was going to be able to keep his job--and if you read between the lines, you can tell what he's really saying is that Rhimes didn't want to let him go. He was her first choice to play McDreamy after all--because God knows he and Meredith have so much chemistry.
Not only did Grey's kill off one of it's most interesting couples last year because of discomfort with the fact that there was lesbianism involved, but T.R. Knight's exit without so much as a retrospective apology from the producer about how poorly the situation was handled, is just another slap in the face.
I've always been a fan of Grey's Anatomy, but I keep getting this sinking feeling that the person running it isn't a big fan of me.
After looking through past articles and different interviews given by various cast members, it seems pretty clear what happened--Shonda Rhimes was pissed that she had to let go of one of her main characters just because he made a homophobic slur.
Now, I understand being inconvenienced and ticked off by something like that. I'm sure Chris Brown's entire staff feels a very similar pain. What ticks me off is that it isn't impossible to get rid of a character immediately. Anyone watching Grey's at that time could have probably come up with more than a few ways to have gotten rid of Dr. Burke--perhaps getting hit by a bus? At that time, his character wasn't exactly a fan favorite anymore. It seems like Rhimes just wanted to keep him around as long as she could before the network forced her hand.
To this day, she has NEVER come out and publicly condemned what was said, and what's worse, she's never been asked why she hasn't. Instead of coming out in support of T.R. Knight, she proceeded to dwindle down his character, first making him a complete jerk, and then rendering him practically invisible. All the while he had to go to work knowing that his boss had an opportunity to support him and didn't. Rhimes actually had the audacity to say that she didn't say anything about the situation at the time because they all had to go to work every day and see each other--Gee, imagine how hard that must have been for poor Shonda Rhimes--I'm sure ignoring the situation really made everyone feel much more comfortable, and didn't just let Washington feel like he'd been let off the hook.
Washington has stated several times that he thought he was going to be able to keep his job--and if you read between the lines, you can tell what he's really saying is that Rhimes didn't want to let him go. He was her first choice to play McDreamy after all--because God knows he and Meredith have so much chemistry.
Not only did Grey's kill off one of it's most interesting couples last year because of discomfort with the fact that there was lesbianism involved, but T.R. Knight's exit without so much as a retrospective apology from the producer about how poorly the situation was handled, is just another slap in the face.
I've always been a fan of Grey's Anatomy, but I keep getting this sinking feeling that the person running it isn't a big fan of me.
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