Kyla Clark
Professor Claire
TAR 400
22 March 2018
Research Paper: Shonda Rhimes
Shonda Lynn Rhimes is an American television producer, writer, screenwriter, and author. Rhimes was born January 13, 1970 in Chicago, Illinois to Vera P. (Cain) and Lee Rhimes Jr. Her mother was a university administrator and her father was a college professor. Both of her parents were advanced in there educating showing Rhimes how talented she could be. Rhimes was the youngest of her six siblings. Rhimes had two older brothers and three older sisters. Growing up Rhimes had a passion for storytelling, at age four she would tell stories and recite them into a tape recorder so her mother would write them down.
Rhimes attended public school until her family moved out of the city of Chicago into a suburb University Park. She went to her first Catholic School at fifth grade. St. Mary’s and then she went to Marian Catholic. Subsequently, following her primary school education She went to the prestigious ivy league school Dartmouth College for her undergrad and received a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in English literature and creative writing in 1991. Rhimes and her family supported her every step of the way and knew she could become more. Even though her family thought she couldn’t make a living off of writing she decided to move to San Francisco and get a job in writing copy for an advertisement agency. Rhimes then discovered she did not like writing advertisements. She then wanted to further her education and enrolled at University of Southern California (USC), School of Cinematic Arts and earned a Master of Fine Arts in writing in 1994.
After her time at USC it she took Rhimes some time to find a job in the Film Industry. Her first job that she took was a director of research for 1995 Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream. While having that job she still continued to write her first script was in 1996 and it was a pilot for a series about female war with Disney production company Touchstone Picture. This pilot never got produced but she did get good practice for her writing. Rhimes later got hired in 1999 to write Dorothy Dandridge an HBO movie. Dorothy Dandridge was an African American singer and actor. This film script won many awards including Nation Association for the Advancement of Colored People NAACP image award for best television movie in 2000.
Her film and television success led to then write screenplay Human Seeking Same which was about an old black woman seeking love. This film unfortunately did not ever get made but it got Rhimes foot in the door. Her next screenplay writing was Crossroads and starred Britney Spears, Zoe Saldana and Taryn Manning. Crossroads was about three childhood friends who go on a cross country trip with no money and no plans but want change. Rhimes also helped out with Princess Diaries II: Royal Engagement who starred Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews.
As her career became more successful she realized she also wanted a family. Rhimes adopted a girl who she named harper in 2002. Taking care of harper left her home watching many television shows such as Friends and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. These popular shows discover everyday like friendships and portrayals of women. Rhimes that these shower were a little too white so she began to sit on her computer and write a script. This is when her fascination for medical shows came to action.
Rhimes was the first African-American woman to create and executive produce a Top 10 network series the medical drama Greys Anatomy. Rhimes had always been passionate of medical shows and she even watched real surgery in documentary. This show was romantic and professional and created a medical drama for the doctors at the Seattle Grace Memorial Hospital. The goal of the show was to save a life with humanity and heroism. The characters she put in this show was very diverse making the show realistic. She thought about her mom when making the character Miranda Bailey. Miranda Bailey was strong and inspiration and had a mother’s instinct. The other characters just came along as she continued to write the script.
Grey’s Anatomy was brought by ABC in 2005 for production. As an executive producer of the show she began looking for a cast. To her it did not matter what ethnicity someone was it matted that the actor fit best for the part. "I just wanted a world that looked like the one I know," she told Oprah Winfrey in an interview in O, The Oprah Magazine. The show just happened to be the most diverse cast on a television network. Creating a realistic world for African Americans, Asians, Latinas and white working together and sharing friendship. Rhimes refused to stereotype in meetings she would not allow scripts to include black drug dealers, prostitutes, and or pimps.
This show was pleased by viewers almost twenty million viewers watched this show. Most of the views being women. Rhimes perspective makes female characters look in this show strong and powerful with independent and romantic relationships. After the forth season this show was on the top ten most watched television programs and won many awards. Those awards being NAACP Image Award, a Producers Guild Award, and a Writers Guild of America Award for best new series.
Grey’s Anatomy being an all time favorite it did have Historical Precedents. “The television medical drama has a long history of grappling with American social changes in terms of race and gender. One response, the evacuation of cultural specificity for racialized characters, also known as racial colorblindness, has televisual antecedents preceding Rhimes hit series”. ( Warner) . Like warner said this show had a lot of social norms. Medical shows suggest that networks have not noticed African-Americans desire to be seen as something more than just a pimp, thug, baby momma, etc. Instead they are responding to what and how white viewers want to see of African-American lives. Rhimes is powerful in such she made all of her characters not be the stereotype that some people think they are. This show using diversity the world of doctors and innovative. Rhimes describes her vision of a diverse American landscape as it related to casting Grey’s: “I basically walked in saying I didn’t write anybody’s race into the script” (Duffy 2006, P1). Making the show have a different perspective on everyday hospital life.
For example, Rhimes using interracial couple in the series. In the series one interracial couple is Preston Burke and Christiana Yang. Preston Burke African American and the top surgeon in the hospital. Christina Yang Asian American and is a medial intern. Rhimes unintentionally experiences with color blindness. She wanted the world not to just get caught up on if they were white or black or Asian or Latino. Her perspective was that we are all one human race. The public compared Grey’s Anatomy to the medical show Julia. Julia was similar to Grey’s but her position as an African American nurse who worked with a white doctor set up the dynamics for the medical genre. Julia became a hot topic because of the hospital drama and Julia’s Family life.
Grey’s Anatomy was successful and still continues to be watched all over the world. Rhimes created a new project that was a campaign that showed women and people of color on television. This landed the show Private Practice . Private Practice came out in 2007 and was a spin-off of Grey’s Anatomy. While working on Private Practice she also signed a contract with Disney and helped develop three movies. This show went 2007- 2013. Next was Scandal she was the creator and writer of this show it was discovered in 2012. This lead her to winning the Writers Guild of America award for all of her amazing series.
Rhimes did have criticism from the public but she did not let that stop her from being the amazing person she is. All of her works are original and are different from other everyday show we see on television in today’s 21st century.
Works Cited
biography.com. www.biography.com/people/shonda-rhimes-21292767.
"Shonda Rhimes." Contemporary Black Biography, vol. 67, Gale, 2008. Biography in Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/K1606004034/BIC1?u=uarizona_main&xid=f3f66559. Accessed 23 Mar. 2018.
"Shonda Rhimes." Who's Who Among African Americans, Gale, 2017. Biography in Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/K1645547091/BIC1?u=uarizona_main&xid=a342d7fb. Accessed 22 Mar. 2018.
The Racial Logic of Grey’s Anatomy: Shonda Rhimes and Her “Post-Civil Rights, Post-Feminist” Series Kristen J. Warner Television & New Media Vol 16, Issue 7, pp. 631 – 647
"Ronald E. Busuttil, executive chairman of the UCLA Department of Surgery, and Shonda Rhimes, executive producer and creator of 'Grey' s Anatomy,' were honored at the 'Future in Hand'." Los Angeles Business Journal, 3 July 2006, p. 20. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A148858276/ITOF?u=uarizona_main&sid=ITOF&xid=fd9ae4cd. Accessed 23 Mar. 2018.