It’s been a big week for Grey’s Anatomy, which just celebrated the airing of their historic 332nd episode on Thursday, Feb. 28, making the show the longest-running medical drama in television history. Series star Ellen Pompeo, who’s been with the show since it premiered in 2005, stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live! to talk about the historic episode. During her chat with Kimmel, Pompeo shared the one thing she wants Grey’s Anatomy episodes to stop doing and shared the one good side effect of the show being on the air as long as it has been.
While on topic of Grey’s Anatomy reaching it’s historic 332nd episode, Kimmel asked Pompeo if there was a party to celebrate the milestone episode. “Oh, we keep having parties,” Pompeo said knowingly. “I said to Shonda [Rhimes, Grey’s Anatomy‘s creator], ‘Enough with the celebrations now!’”
She went on to explain why she wants to put an end to celebratory episodes and honestly, it makes sense to us.
“[When] we celebrated the 300th [episode,] typically the writers will write some sort of big episode where there’s everybody celebrating. That takes forever to film because when you film any kind of party or celebration, there’s a ton of people in every scene,” Pompeo told Kimmel. “At this point, every episode is a milestone and a celebration so we’ve got the party situation handled.”
Not one to miss out on making a joke, Kimmel amusingly accused Pompeo of being “a party pooper” on set, to which Pompeo laughed and said, “I am the party pooper.”
But just because Pompeo wants to put an end to celebratory episodes, as we saw on the 332nd episode which focused on a party that got the whole cast together in one place, doesn’t mean Pompeo doesn’t appreciate the fans or the magical longevity of the series. As she remarked to Kimmel, tons of new viewers come to the show and the fanbase continues to grow. Pompeo said she’s thrilled so many young people have discovered the show and are working their way through it from Grey‘s earliest seasons.
“It’s also such an amazing blessing that all the original cast in the pilot and all those original episodes from, like, the first five or six seasons are so incredible that they hold up. Because I think if the kids today watched it and it wasn’t great, they would just be like, ‘Oh, this stupid, old show…’” Pompeo observed, later telling Kimmel that teen viewers think older shows like Friends and The Office, along with Grey’s, are “still cool and that’s amazing.”
Overall, this week feels like a victory lap for Pompeo and hopefully, she’s making the most of it because if she gets her way, this may be the last of them for quite a while.
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