Why Grey's Anatomy's fans hate the spin-off

The Grey's Anatomy boards and blogs, and even some of our articles here at TV Squad, have been experiencing a surge in negative comments and posts. Those comments are directed at solely one thing: the potential spin-off featuring the character of Addison.

Why are fans so unhappy with the end result? Will fan comments have ABC not pick up Private Practice?

Let's analyze a few of the negative comments left by the TV Squad visitors in our "Grey's Anatomy vs. the spin-off -- Part 2" post.

"I think the biggest disaster was the mesh of the two shows." - Alison

When ABC decided to use two Grey's Anatomy episodes to launch a possible spin-off, they probably reviewed examples of series where this type of test worked. Let's take the case of NCIS. Two episodes of CBS's JAG were used to test waters for the potential spin-off. However, ABC should have taken the time to actually watch those NCIS spin-off episodes. They would have seen that they had their own opening credits (and soundtrack) and where not a mesh of JAG scenes and NCIS scenes but where in fact NCIS episodes featuring some of the JAG cast. This way of doing things for NCIS allowed fans to focus on the spin-off and not constantly compare it to JAG (quality of acting, writers, humor, etc.).

Sadly, meshing the two "series" together actually worked against Private Practice. Fans kept comparing the writing, acting, setting, characters, storylines, etc., of the two shows. Private Practice had a funny and light mood whereas Grey's Anatomy was mostly dramatic last week. Due to the differences between the two series, Private Practice felt like a fish out of water. ABC would have benefited more if one hour had been solely devoted to the spin-off and the other to Grey's.

"The spin-off part with Addison was so weak and it was annoying to watch." - Majella
"There is something so superficial and empty about it." - Jane

Comments like these two have been pouring on TV Squad. If the spin-off and Grey's hadn't been meshed, fans would have probably felt less cheated by the spin-off as it wouldn't have been so easy to compare the Grey's portion, filled with drama and featuring characters we know well, to the Practice portion, featuring characters we do not know and with storylines that are not too thought-provoking.

A lot of people, like Majella and Jane, felt that the storylines during the spin-off portion were bland. Thing is, the writers couldn't write complicated stories and develop the characters too much as they weren't sure the spin-off would be picked up; plus they had limited air time. However, I agree that they could have put a bit more thought in the Addison storylines... maybe settling for only one or two good ones instead. (We could have done without the Chris Lowell without his shirt scene for example.)

"I didn't see the chemistry with Tim Daly and Kate Walsh. I like Tim a lot but he just seemed stiff here. [...] Please drop [Chris Lowell] from the cast and find a new hunk. He is not hunky at all and that made the surf board scene seem just silly." - Tammy

Personally, I thought that there was chemistry between Daly and Walsh. I guess it all depends on point of view. By the way, did you know that Kate Walsh played Tim Daly's ex-wife in episode 3 of ABC's short-lived series Eyes? As for Chris Lowell, I'm with Tammy on this one. Chris looked out of place and he is not hunky enough to be able to romance Merrin Dungey.

"The cast kind of feels old to me. Most everyone in it I can remember from a canceled show." - RG
"Too many stars. Why did they think star power was needed for this show to be a success but went with little known actors for Grey's?" - Carissa

Indeed, most of the Private Practice cast was once on a canceled-quickly show. Tim Daly was on Eyes and The Nine. Taye Diggs was on Day Break. Merrin Dungey was on Summerland. Chris Lowell was on Life As We Know It. Will TV fans be able to look past those failures and believe that Private Practice will soar? Or are those stars cursed? (I call this the Eric Balfour curse. The actor has been in many failed pilots and series. Could his curse be what is hurting this season of 24? Anyway, that is another topic on its own.) As for why ABC didn't go with less known people? My guess is that 1) they hired those actors because they could, 2) they thought that each actor would bring viewers that are used to follow them around.

"I didn't like the spin-off because it was a stretch. [Addison] takes a leave of absence to go to L.A. and try to have a baby and instantly becomes a member of the staff and gets a crazy case. Not believable and trying too hard." - Rose

I was thinking the exact same thing when I saw how fast things were going for Addison. Yes, we have known for a while she was ready to settle down with a man. But a baby? Things go bad in her personal life and she thinks the answer is to go to L.A. to have a baby on her own? Addison is a sensible character who (usually) takes time to think. Having her want a baby the way it was shown to us was rather out of the blue. I guess that since they didn't have much time to plan the spin-off ahead, they had to rush things in the spin-off episodes. If they had had more time, I hope they would have shown us how Addison wanted to have a family in Grey's episodes that preceded the spin-off.

Will fans' comments have ABC not pick up Private Practice?

Doubtful. Most of the comments point the fact that the spin-off tanked because it was meshed with a powerful Grey's Anatomy episode. On its own, the spin-off could have done better. Fans complained that characters were bland and that the storylines were boring. Given proper time to write episodes and develop the series, the crew behind the series could give fans what they want: a series with more content.

Some comments also pointed at the fact the actors seemed out of their game. Remember that in most pilots, actors (and even storylines) are often not that great. This is mostly due to the fact that the cast and crew don't know enough about the series yet: characters have not been well-developed, storylines are not too complicated so that the test audience can understand what is going on easily, etc.

Do you really think that ABC will pass a chance to make some more money? Even though a lot of the fans who did post said they didn't care much for Private Practice, a lot of them will surely tune in to how the spin-off will do on its own and see if any tweaks were made. The series, with a few tweaks (and maybe even a new title), has a good chance to bring good enough ratings.

ABC has yet to announce if Private Practice will be part of the 2007-2008 season. The news will come during ABC's Upfront presentation on May 15.