Spinoffs are a tricky business.

For every success like “Frasier,” which was birthed by “Cheers,” there’s a “Tortellis” flop of the same lineage. The “All in the Family” DNA gave us the “Jeffersons” hit — and the “Gloria” disaster.

In recent years, the Los Angeles Times notes, spinning off has been largely replaced by cloning — as with the three “CSI” shows, which replicate the same format but with different casts in other cities.

But Thursday, “Grey’s Anatomy,” ABC’s celebrated and culturally resonant medical soap opera, is going old school: The pilot of its presumptive spinoff, starring Kate Walsh as the popular character Addison Montgomery, is embedded within a two-hour episode of the show.

The opportunity represents a big leap forward for Kate Walsh, 39, who, pre-Addison, fell into the “I gotta look her up on IMDB” category.

“I’ve been very fortunate to be a working actress who hovered along,” she said. “And then it was like, boom, ‘Grey’s Anatomy.’”

Half of Thursday’s episode, “The Other Side of This Life,” will be a normal episode, filled with love triangles, wedding dilemmas and medical crises; the other half will establish Addison’s new world by jettisoning her from the show’s Seattle hospital backdrop into a Los Angeles full of old friends and fraught relationships.

Shonda Rhimes, the obsessively secretive creator of “Grey’s Anatomy,” has let few plot details leak, but the new show’s cast members — Taye Diggs, Amy Brenneman, Merrin Dungey, Tim Daly and others — will all make their first appearances Thursday.

Rumored to be titled “Private Practice,” the show must vie for a place on ABC’s fall schedule, which the network announces to advertisers and the press in mid-May.

But considering that “Grey’s Anatomy” is ABC’s top-rated scripted show, and more than that, has helped define its upscale, girl-power brand, it stands a good chance of becoming a series.

Stephen McPherson, ABC’s entertainment president, said that when Rhimes and fellow executive producer Betsy Beers approached him with the spinoff idea in the fall, “I immediately kissed them,” he remembered with a laugh.

“I flipped for it.”

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Another fine edition of the Grey’s Anatomy Insider Caption Contest is officially in the books. Let’s take a look at who submitted the best caption for this picture, of the interns cramming during “Desire.”

It was a difficult choice as always, with a number of terrific possibilities for us to choose from. Becky M, shades_of_grey, Marcie and Cat all made us laugh. But we have to go with Kim, who sent in what we thought was the most creative. Congratulations!

Good luck to all again this week, thanks for playing as always, and we appreciate you making us the top Grey’s Anatomy fan site on the web.

This week’s Caption Contest image: 

Cristina: “Blonde Ambition Tour. Blonde Ambition Tour! Vogue! With the Voguing! Look at me! Cones! Sean Penn! Sean Penn! Cones!”
George: “Time!”
Cristina: “How can you guys not know Madonna!?”

A pair of Grey’s Anatomy beauties - Patrick Dempsey and Katherine Heigl - are featured in People magazine’s Most Beautiful People of 2007. Here are the pictures of the terrific twosome from the magazine, as well as what they both have to say about their wonderful heads of hair…

“Hair to me is not a priority. All I ever do is throw it in a bun,” admits Katherine Heigl, 28. “The only thing I know how to do is hot rollers, which is sort of over. I can’t style bangs even though I love them and I’m always like, ‘Let’s cut some bangs!’ And then I’m stuck with hair I can’t figure out.”

“The gray hairs certainly have come in the last few months,” says the 41-year-old leading man of Grey’s Anatomy. “The last year has been difficult on many levels, with the show moving to Thursday, and everything that happened this year, and worrying that everything was going to go all right with the boys [newborns Darby and Sullivan] and my wife [Jillian, 41]. But they’ve ceased to come in as quickly.”

After Thursday’s “Desire,” we all saw the previews for next week. It looks like quite the two-part episode brewing. Along similar lines, we happened across this ad in TV Guide for the two-hour Grey’s Anatomy special - “The Other Side of This Life (Parts I & II)” an episode that as the pilot for the long-awaited Kate Walsh-led spin-off, Private Practice…

It’s a cool ad, and appropriate that it features the cast of Grey’s Anatomy along side the new stars of Private Practice (including Taye Diggs and Tim Daly), with Addison Montgomery on the verge of a major life change.

Click here for some Private Practice promotional pictures. We’re eagerly looking forward to the pilot and to both parts of next week’s Grey’s Anatomy event. We’ll post some longer previews (as well as potential spoilers) as the big day draws nearer.

Just another update to let you know that we’ve posted our comprehensive episode guide to tonight’s “Desire.” And what an episode it was. So much to discuss. George talking about transfering, Derek unsure of himself, Richard getting a badly-needed kick in the butt, more wedding talk from Burktina and so much more. Share your thoughts in our forums by clicking here.

We’ve added our music guide with lyrics - leave us a comment if you can find any of the ones we’re missing, and click here to learn when each track was played during last night’s show - and we’ve posted our image gallery as well. There are some good ones this week! We’re working on our list of quotes, although that’s a work in progress for the time being.

We will keep you updated!

Once again, special thanks go out to our devoted fans (like McDreamy02 and BurktinaForever) for getting tonight’s official episode forum thread started early!

“Desire” promises to be another exciting episode, and you can share all your thoughts on it on our site - before, during and after the show. Click here for the episode forum!

We can’t wait to see what transpires in the race for Chief, as well as between Meredith and Derek, Cristina and Preston and the rest of the Seattle Grace team tonight. Follow this link for a preview and extended clip from “Desire.”

As usual, we’ll have our official episode recap, music guide, image gallery, and list of quotes up after the show as soon as we can. Thanks for visiting, and we look forward to watching tonight, right along with you.

Men’s Health magazine has picked our own Dr. McSteamy to be on its cover for its May issue, which includes a photo spread of the actor in all his sexy, healthy glory. he certainly has a chiseled physique.
We’ll have more from Eric Dane and his feature in the magazine once we get ahold of it. In the meantime, enjoy these pics.

They’re definitely best friends, whether they’re portraying interns at Seattle Grace or hanging out in real life (or bringing each other the occasional new puppy).

So it’s only fitting that T.R. Knight presented Katherine Heigl with the “Superstar of Tomorrow” award at Movieline’s Young Hollywood Awards this past Sunday.

This is possibly the cutest picture of the two of them ever. We’re always glad to see Grey’s Anatomy stars recognized for their accomplishments, and think it’s even better when they can present them to one another.

Congratulations to Katherine!

Grey’s Anatomy star Isaiah Washington will not be submitting his name for Best Actor or Best Supporting Actor Emmy consideration, Entertainment Weekly reports.

No reason for his decision has been reported, but this doesn’t come as a shock.

Meanwhile, all the other Grey’s Anatomy stars, besides stars Ellen Pompeo and Patrick Dempsey, who are going for Best Actress and Actor, respectively are submitting in the Best Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress categories.

While he is certainly worthy of Best Actor or Supporting Actor honors, Washington probably wishes to remain out of the award-show spotlight, given the controversy he sparked in recent months. Which is probably a wise move, as his remarks about T.R. Knight would likely cloud his accomplishments.

Hopefully, he’ll get the recognition he deserves next season, when all this has blown over and his fine work on Grey’s Anatomy will once again be the focus.

On Thursday’s all-new episode of Grey’s Anatomy, “Desire,” the attendings vie to be Chief. Not surprising, we know.

But here’s one that you might not see coming - two characters who haven’t slept together before will do so. Dr. McSteamy’s 60-day vow of chastity, meanwhile, comes to its conclusion.

Elsewhere, we’re introduced to a boss, his assistant, and his wife. We also get to see someone being treated in the clinic, and Derek (surprise) has more questions about his relationship with Meredith.

Here’s a preview…

Here’s an extended clip from the episode…

As usual, we’ll have our episode recap, music guide, image gallery and list of quotes up after the show. Follow these links to our thorough recap from last week’s “Time After Time,” as well as its music, pictures and quotes.