Jennifer Grey Joins Grey’s Anatomy for Mysterious Multi-Episode Arc
It’s the job she was born to do: Jennifer Grey is checking into Grey’s Anatomy.
TVLine has learned exclusively that the Dirty Dancing icon is joining ABC’s still-thriving medical drama for a multi episode midseason arc. An ABC rep confirmed Grey’s Grey’s (ha!) stint, but declined to provide details on her character and/or exactly how many episodes she will appear in. One possibility has the actress playing Jo’s estranged mother. (Camilla Luddington previously confirmed to TVLine that viewers would meet her character’s MIA parents this season.)
The gig brings Grey back into the ABC fold eight years after her Mirror Ball-winning Season 11 stint on hiatus-bound Dancing With the Stars. It also comes nine years after her father, Joel Grey, graced Grey’s with his presence. The acting legend played an Alzheimer’s-afflicted, former science teacher of Izzie’s (Katherine Heigl) whom she sought medical treatment for (after helping him flee a nursing home) in the Season 6 episode, “New History.”
As TVLine reported earlier this week, Grey’s returns on Jan. 17 to a slightly rejiggered Thursday lineup. ABC’s promising rookie drama A Million Little Things will shift into the cushy post-Grey’s 9/8c perch, temporarily replacing spinoff Station 19 (which resumes its second season in the spring).
I think Jennifer Grey is great! But I couldn’t care less about Jo’s backstory.
you surely cared enough to comment.
Will I ever understand people who must feel such a strong need to point out how little they care about something? If you truly didn’t care, you wouldn’t comment at all.
Before ripping into someone for their opinion, look at the article. It’s about Jennifer Grey joining the show, & the user commented that she thinks Jennifer Grey is great. She cares enough about Jennifer Grey to comment on the story. Just because she is not as enthused about the speculation that she could be playing Jo’s mother does not discount her opinion or reason for posting.
I respect people’s opinions but I think writing something like “I couldn’t care less” is such a vain statement. To me it just shows that person wanted to add some negativity to a topic they could have just as well ignored. The whole purpose is to show some dislike for Jo. Hers being the first comment then just creates a negative vibe for the whole comment section, as if the common feeling that Grey’s viewers have is that Jo’s backstory is irrelevant. Which to me is not the case because I actually have a similar backstory to Jo’s. Only difference is I got adopted. But I saw enough children who never were. And now I’m getting the feeling from these comments that people couldn’t care less about stories like these being told when they are important. Maybe if she had added why she couldn’t care less, it wouldn’t have personally bothered me but she didn’t feel the need to because her purpose was just to hate on Jo’s story.
Jeez… talk about over-analyzing a simple comment. You and the other people attacking the original poster for saying she likes Jennifer but isn’t interested in Jo’s backstory are the ones creating a negative vibe here. You’re not Jo, so stop taking an opinion on a fictional character personally. Not everyone likes Jo like you do, and that’s ok because none of the characters are universally liked. And whether a person likes a character or not usually dictates the interest that person has in seeing a story line centered on that character. It has nothing to do with people not caring about foster children or adoption. SMH
I like Jo, but this comment thread, proves what I’ve been feeling for a long time. Jo fans must be the most entitled in the Grey’s fandom. Everybody who ever dares to say a negative word about Jo will get called out on it. And everybody who doesn’t care about Jo’s hardships, clearly does not care about foster kids or DV in real life either. I do like the character, but the fandom’s starting to tarnish her.
I agree and I’m a Jo fan and Jolex shipper. But some Jo fans are really giving the rest of us a bad reputation. Accusing people of not caring about foster kids or that they are victim-shaming and don’t support DV victims because they don’t like Jo or didn’t like a story line (I thought the Paul story was handled poorly) is wrong and such a reach. They are trying to shame people into liking Jo which is ironic given what they accuse others of. Jo fans needs to accept that some people just don’t like the character and it has nothing to do with her being a foster kid or DV victim. And everyone is entitled to an opinion, be it positive or negative, when it comes to all of the characters and that includes Jo.
I agree. She’s the least interesting character on the show. Just because we comment on a show we watch doesn’t mean we can’t state our opinions. SMDH
Least interesting when she must have had the most exciting life of all characters? Really couldn’t agree less with you. I’m dying to know more about her childhood and her foster care experience, why her mother had to abandon her, how she made it through her teenage years. I think there is so much to tell for Jo so I really can’t understand your statement.
I agree with you, Lauren!
Sorry but least interesting really made me laugh. Her whole life since her birth has been a total rollercoaster. Say you don’t like her and then we will all happily accept your opinion but Jo is by far not the the least interesting character. I’d love to see you and many others handle all the hardships she had to overcome to this date.
Agreed. I wish Jo had left for her Fellowship and stayed away. I don’t want to see her backstory or present story.
Honestly if she’s not playing Derek’s psychiatrist sister Kate then I’ll be disappointed.
I wonder how long it will take for DeLuca to fall for her.
This made me laugh out loud for real.
Ha! I laughed, too. Poor Deluca. He’s getting a rep!
Don’t really care about Jo’s backstory tbh if she’s really playing her mother.
There are a lot of us who care, Jessica. You keep watching for the parts of Grey’s you care about.
I’ll be disappointed if she doesn’t end up playing Jo’s Mom! I’ve been waiting forever for her to show up and it’s already been eight episodes into the season — let’s give Jo and Alex a storyline already!
She’s another long lost sister for Meredith!!!
;)
That was actually my first thought as well! Or maybe Ellis’s or Thatcher’s sister. Maybe Thatcher’s since he’s in hospice right now. Or the daughter he had before he met Ellis. Meredith has so many half sibs at this point it would be kind of funny if one more popped up.
She has three sisters. The older sister of Lexie was never really presented and appears to have quietly disappeared off the show as an existing character. It would be perfect if Jennifer Grey was chosen to play her in a return that could center on Meredith’s father being ill or dying now. I think it would make more sense than Jo’s mother.
Meredith is Lexie’s older sister.
Thatcher and Susan had two daughters: Lexie is the oldest and Molly is two years younger. I really hope Molly shows up after Thatcher’s death – neither she, nor Meredith have ever tried to have a relationship with each other and unlike Lexie/Maggie there isn’t the whole “we’re all surgeons” common bond. Molly is a wife and mother (she has a daughter who is a few months younger than Bailey’s son Tuck) and her husband Chris (?) Thompson served in Iraq during the same time Owen, Teddy, Megan and Nathan were there.
Molly Thompson first showed up late in Season 2 when her doctor referred her to Addison. Then in Season 3 she has a baby girl with Addison and Meredith in the O.R. with her (I believe it’s the episode when George’s dad is first admitted to the hospital).
Thanks for that. I, honestly, only remembered Lexie had a sister and thought her older due to her being married and having the child that was in the episode where she was having complications threatening the baby. I don’t think they ever really showed her, did they? I remember only her lower body being shown in a room through the doorway as her health was being discussed in the hall outside.
George was on Addison’s service in the Season 2 episode (he wasn’t speaking to Meredith at the time due to their disastrous sex experience). Both Molly and Susan had several scenes talking to Addison, George met Thatcher in the hallway where he learned he was Meredith’s dad and then when Susan came out of the patient room figured out Molly was Meredith’s half sister.
Later in the episode George told Izzie the secret and said it was her problem (before that he used the secret to get out of trouble with Addison clueing her onto the fact Meredith had a sister). During lunch Izzie attempted to find a way to break the news to Meredith and was happy when Meredith shared that she thought she saw her father. Before Izzie could say anything Cristina asked if she met her sister as well.
After Meredith lurked outside Molly’s hospital room and Addison invited her in, introducing the two (though she just called her Meredith) and suggested the intern take Molly’s blood pressure and other stats. Addison left the room.
A friendly Molly shared some personal details with Meredith: she was 22, newly married after she proposed to her boyfriend before he was scheduled to be shipped out to Iraq and that a lot of her friends thought she was too young to be married and expecting a baby. She shared the news that her dad was so proud when he walked her down the aisle and cried – though that may have been because she was ‘the baby’ and her older sister was no where near ready for marriage.
Curious Meredith prompted for more details about her sister.
Molly shared that she was super-proud and their dad beams with pride ever day when he talked about how Lexie was at Harvard Medical School.
Meredith quickly left after that and went to Callie’s lab where she proceeded to beat on old plaster cases in anger.
In Season 3 Molly and Susan returned in one of the final episodes before Christmas break (so episode 8-10, don’t remember the exact number) where Molly gave birth to a daughter. (Thatcher was said to be visiting Lexie at Harvard at the time, but he showed up in the two-part Six Days episodes – where Meredith realized she and Thatcher both snore).
Hope that helps.
Yep. You must have photographic memory! I looked it up and it was Mandy Siegfried who played Molly. Apparently, she was in three episodes total with the last being episode 24 of season 3.
They really should bring Siegfried back though, if only to touch base with Meredith’s back-story, and keep a connection to that part of her life open since they pretty much killed off that whole side of her family, which is kind of ridiculous. I rather liked Mare Winningham as Thatcher’s wife and did not care for them killing her off.
Thanks for refreshing my memory. The whole missing sister aspect of it was bugging me.
Yes, S3, E24 is the scene at the beginning in the hospital lobby where a grieving, drunk Thatcher causes a scene when he tells Meredith she is not welcome at Susan’s funeral. Molly intercedes and tries to calm him down and tells him they have to go, Lexie is waiting in the car for them.
The episode ends when a girl in the bar (Lexie) hits on Derek.
Let me guess…
Jo’s biological parents met one summer at a resort her mom’s family was vacationing at and her father worked as a dance instructor at. After their summer fling her mom found out she was pregnant but not ready to raise a family, she gave her baby up and left for college and to save the world. Jo’s dad was sadly murdered by a goon hired by his best friend to cover up a financial fraud, but with some help he returned in spirit to help his wife solve the mystery of his death and punish the bad guys. :)
I love it!!! You are good! Maybe you should write for Hollywood. : )
Jennifer Grey’s Anatomy.
It’s hard to get excited for any recurring guest star because it usually means said guest star is going to end up at either emotionally hurting a main character or is just around to be a medical mystery and die a painful death. So announcements like this tend to leave me with a vague sense of dread.
One-you are better than the pun Mr.A
Two-now I feel really, really old if she’s playing her mother
Perhaps she will be a patient of Jackson’s whose career was ruined when she had plastic surgery that rendered her unrecognizable. :-)
I say we wait for Jo’s backstory to play out before we deem ourselves not interested. Unless you don’t like like the character. But even then, a well written and acted story would still get me to tune in. I’ve been watching daytime soaps all my life and I can’t tell you the number of characters I found uninteresting, but weee involved in some really great stories.
I hope she is Jo’s mother, just because I adore Jo and really do want to know more about her past. It’s a little sad to open GA articles and consistently see such negative comments, but I still love this show and anticipate what they have in store.
I love Jennifer Gray, could be a great fit as a Dr. She did an episode of House (another medical drama.) as a patient. I hope she’s a relative of Merdith’s or a new specialty Dr. They are in great need of another excellent Dr, with Merediths experience, and more put together surgeons. Most of the female sugeons are no one to look up to and the men, besides Alex have become a sorry lot and mefiocre. I am hoping this is not an arc or more air time for Jo, and giving us more to skip over, as i do every time I see Maggie, Amelia, Betty, Glasses, Jo, Teddy CeCe, Mc Sleazy and McPlastic. Hope new Dr.s that are Merdith’s equal, like Dr. K
and Transplant Dr, get on board so we can get back to medicine and team interaction of the best in the world. Gray Sloan only has Meredith and Dr. K as world renoun. Hopefully they’ll make some good cast additions/deletions and more medical plot lines.
Just had another possible character – Jackson Avery’s aunt.
Did Harper Avery have more kids? Maybe he had a daughter who could show up when she hears about Catherine’s illness. I really hope Jackson’s dad visits Seattle for at least one episode – he may be a deadbeat but his dad died and lost his reputation last season and now his ex-wife/mother of his only (?) child is battling a serious illness.
Seeing the dynamic between him, Catherine and Richard would be interesting.
Just a thought.
I would like to know when does the Aussies get to see all of these greys episodes, because so far I’ve missed a few and I am cranky. I love greys and the little or big celebs that pop in here or there to give it a little more twist. Thank you
The comment about Grey’s character being a failed cosmetic surgery patient rendered unrecognizable…. now that was funny. Bravo.
Jennifer who?