I've been a fan of Tyne Daly going back to her Cagney & Lacey days. I loved that show! It kind of made me want to be a cop - for about three minutes anyway.

So I was ultra excited when I heard she would be playing McDreamy's mom on Grey's Anatomy. Isabelle posted a spoiler about it last week. Apparently, Tyne will be playing Derek's mom, Carolyn, who travels to Seattle to meet Meredith for the first time. You know, I can really see her as Derek's mom. That's good casting.

I've got a little clip below from Access Hollywood, but first, let me sing Tyne's praises for a minute. Here's a woman who never really fit into the Hollywood "mold" (i.e. blonde and/or thin and/or a party animal), and that's probably why she's been working steadily in the entertainment industry for some 50 years. Yes, on her IMDB page, her first credit was "girl" in a TV show called Foreign Intrigue in 1954. She went on to do bit parts in dozens of TV shows until landing the role of Detective Mary Beth Lacey in Cagney & Lacey from 1982 to 1988.

She was the stable, married partner of the wilder, more emotional Detective Christine Cagney, played by Sharon Gless. Those two had such an interesting relationship and, of course, it was a thrill seeing two female cops as partners. Have we seen that since then? I know there are lots of female cops partnered with male cops (Life springs to mind), but I'm not coming up with two female cops right off the bat. I'm sure there are some, though - post in the comments if you can think of any.

She also played the tough, opinionated mom of Amy Brenneman's character on Judging Amy from 1999 to 2005. While that show was generally too sappy for me - I couldn't get on board with women arguing at each other all the time - I appreciated the considerable acting talents of the leads.

Not only has Tyne Daly spanned across TV and movies (remember her as a cop in Clint Eastwood's The Enforcer in 1974?), she's also had a highly successful career on the stage, earning a Tony Award in 1990 for a revival of Gypsy.

She does it all, and I can't wait to see her liven things up at Seattle Grace in January. And in some cross-family-spinoff-thingy news, Tyne's brother, Tim Daly, plays Dr. Pete Wilder on Private Practice, which, of course, is a spin-off of Grey's Anatomy. Not only that, but Amy Brenneman (see above connection) plays Violet on that same show. Hmmm...

Check out this little clip from Access Hollywood: