Grey’s Anatomy to resume filming in LA after coronavirus break

The cast and crew of Grey’s Anatomy are about to head back to work, set to return to set September 8th in Los Angeles.

Before that, stars of the Shonda Rhimes show will have a virtual table read on Thursday, September 3, according to Deadline.

The medical drama was able to complete 21 episodes of its season 16 run before the coronavirus pandemic shut down production in March, leaving four additional episodes in limbo.

Back in action: Grey’s Anatomy will start production on their 17th season in Los Angeles on September 8th 2020

ABC has yet to set a release date for the upcoming 17th season of the show. 

The last episode of season 16 was aired in April, giving the season a surprise finale.

Showrunner Krista Vernoff said she wasn’t planning on covering the pandemic on the show until her team of writers convinced her it would be ‘irresponsible not to.’

‘I spent the whole hiatus kicking it around, and I came into the writers room thinking that I had made the decision that we were not going to do it,’ the 46-year-old screenwriter told The Hollywood Reporter last month.

The right choice: Showrunner Krista Vernoff said she wasn’t planning on covering the pandemic on the show until her team of writers convinced her it would be ‘irresponsible not to.’ She’s seen August 2019 above

Balance: ‘…The conversation became, how do we tell this very painful, brutal story that has hit our medical community so intensely…’  the Vernoff said. ‘How do we do that and provide some escapism? How do we do that and create romance, and comedy, and joy, and fun?’

‘[The writers] really convinced me that it would be irresponsible to not,’ she went on. 

‘To be kind of the biggest medical show and ignore the biggest medical story of the century felt irresponsible to them to the medical community. These doctors are traumatized. They are not trained or wired to hold the hands of dying people all day who are alone without their families.’

‘They were saying things like, kids, their first year out of medical school, are seeing more death in the first year than many doctors see in a decade, and it just felt like we had to tell this story,’ Vernoff continued.

But the team knew they had to find a way to balance the gravity of the pandemic with the ‘escapism’ viewers are craving during these tumultuous times. 

Shutdown: Grey’s was one of the first shows to shut down production in March. At the time executive producers told the cast and crew ‘This decision was made to ensure the health and safety of the whole cast and crew and the safety of our loved ones outside of work’

‘We have to tell this story, and so the conversation became, how do we tell this very painful, brutal story that has hit our medical community so intensely — and as they keep saying, permanently changed medicine?’ she said. 

‘How do we do that and provide some escapism? How do we do that and create romance, and comedy, and joy, and fun?’ 

Grey’s was one of the first shows to shut down production in March.

At the time, Vernoff along with executive producters Debbie Allen and James Williams wrote a note to the cast and crew explaining: ‘This decision was made to ensure the health and safety of the whole cast and crew and the safety of our loved ones outside of work. Please take care of yourselves and each other.