If You Did Not Already Love 'Grey's Anatomy,' You Will After Reading These Facts About The Show

Inception: Hospital bathrooms make it hard to shave your legs.

Shonda Rhimes was obsessed with surgical-type shows that she would watch on the Discovery Channel, but she had not come up with a great idea for a medical drama of her own. It was not until a doctor had mentioned to her how difficult it was to shave her legs in a hospital shower. This is where the idea for Grey's Anatomy was born.

The show was originally planned for Chicago.

Rhimes has planned on her show taking place in her hometown of Chicago. But, she wanted the show to differentiate from the hit show ER that was also set in Chicago.

It was once called Complications.

While playing with medical jargon, the show's title was meant to show how many things could go wrong in the medical field. By the time the show was set to air, Grey's Anatomy was in place. It was a play off of the name of a medical textbook.

Storylines come from fans and medical readings.

Since it has been set as a mega-hit, fans are constantly submitting their ideas or stories about strange medical events. If the show's writers like the idea, they will put it on the show. Other medical events come from the show's writers who have read about various cases.

Actress Kate Walsh was originally hired for only a few episodes.

Kate Walsh did so well with the cast that she was brought on the show as a regular. She eventually got her own spin-off show, Private Practice, that ran for seven seasons.

Rhimes stocked character lockers herself.

Rhimes knew her characters so well that she personally stocked their lockers full of goodies. Every shot that you see them at their lockers can be credited to her personal handiwork,

There's a secret for diverse casting.

Rhimes has her own recipe when it comes to casting on all of her shows. She describes it as: "Take half the characters that you made men and make them women. Take one character you were gonna cast one color, cast them differently."

Meredith is loosely based off of Carrie from Sex in the City.

Plenty of fans have been able to point out the similarities, and they are not wrong. When the show was originally pitched, Meredith was supposed to be a "more grounded version" of Carrie. The personality just stuck.

Debbie Allen's friend was diagnosed after watching the show.

Debbie Allen said that a friend of hers saw an episode of Grey's where the character has similar symptoms to hers. It made her go to the doctor and she was diagnosed finally.

Several actors have directed episodes.

A handful of the main characters have made their debuts as directors by stepping behind the camera throughout the show's time on television.

Alex Karev wasn't in the show's original pitch.

He was introduced into the pilot and has been on the show ever since.

Ellen Pompeo and Patrick Dempsey are in every episode.

Have you ever realized that? They are the only two characters that have had some part in every single episode since the show started. That is until Derek was killed. (spoiler, sorry.)

Rob Lowe was almost Derek Shepard.

Rob Lowe ended up declining to star in Grey's so that he could take on a role on another show on CBS. That show was eventually cut, but it ended up freeing him up to take on his new role on Parks and Rec.

ABC producers got a private concert to convince them to do a musical episode.

Do you remember that one musical episode back in Season Seven? In order to get the higher-ups to agree to the idea, Rhimes commissioned a private concert, and they ended up voting yes on the musical episode.

There have been a lot of hidden cast pregnancies.

Real life pregnancies were covered up in some of the most creative ways. Do you remember when Meredith donated her liver? Or that time that Arizona took off for Africa? How about Lexie's issue with binge eating? They were all pregnancy cover-ups.

Henry Burton and Eliza Minnick are married in real life.

Lauren Boswell and Denny Duquette are also married to each other in real life. Who would have thought that this medical drama would also end up being a great matchmaker?

So, which one of these Grey's facts did you find to be the most surprising?