Tony Award Winners Audra McDonald, Sara Ramirez and Loretta Devine will all headline “Good Medicine” - a once-in-a-lifetime musical event with casts of the popular ABC television shows Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice.

Almost all the stars of these two popular TV series will be participating, and the evening will include musical performances by Paul Adelstein, Amy Brenneman, Tim Daly, T.R. Knight, Chris Lowell, James Pickens, Gina Taylor-Pickens and Chandra Wilson. Justin Chambers, Eric Dane, Taye Diggs, Katherine Heigl, Chyler Leigh, Sandra Oh, Ellen Pompeo, Brooke Smith, Kadee Strickland, Shonda Rhimes (creator/executive producer of both series) and Kate Walsh will also participate.

“Good Medicine,” from the Private Practice and Grey’s Anatomy cast, is held to benefit the Solidarity Fund - set up by the Writer’s Guild of America to help members of film and TV productions who were put out of work by the strike.

The event is being held at Royce Hall at UCLA, on Friday, February 29 at 8:00 p.m. Tickets for the event ($85) are on sale and open to the general public. For more information and to purchase tickets click here.

Any Grey’s fans interested in a discussion of Private Practice can follow the link in this post to our sister site’s forum thread. The spin-off officially made its debut last night, and was significantly better than the pilot we saw in May. But what we’re really excited for is the real deal - Grey’s Anatomy - at 9 tonight!

“Grey’s Anatomy season premiere tonight?! Sweet! High five!”

The pilot of Private Practice, embedded in the two-part, May 3 episode of Grey’s Anatomy, left much to be desired, but the spin-off has been received very well by critics this summer, raising hopes for Kate Walsh’s new series.

With its veteran, talented cast, many observers feel Private Practice will appeal to a smaller, slightly older audience than Grey’s Anatomy, but it has a lot going for it - the good will of many Grey’s fans, and a strong, familiar lead character fronting the cast in Walsh’s Dr. Addison Montgomery.

In any case, the buzz surrounding the spin-off is growing. Star Kate Walsh is on the cover of the new Entertainment Weekly advertising the new fall season.

Here’s a new promo released by ABC for the new series. Private Practice is set to debut Wednesday, September 26 at 9 p.m., just 24 hours before the Season Four premiere of Grey’s Anatomy.

In an interesting strategy, ABC is stacking Wednesday night with its three hottest new shows - Private Practice, Dirty Sexy Money and Pushing Daisies - to make the most of each in hopes that all three shows become successes.

The Grey’s Anatomy Insider team is proud to introduce our new sister site, Private Practice Insider. Like the spin-off series itself, it’s a work in progress. But it is, and will only continue to be, the top source for all Private Practice news, episode guides, pictures, quotes, videos and more.

While it’s no Grey’s Anatomy, we hope that fans who are also interested in the new Kate Walsh series will visit our sister site (link above) as well.

As for this site, we thank you for your continued support and for making it the top Grey’s Anatomy fan site online. We are planning a lot of new and exciting things here to prepare for the fall season, including a site re-design, a forum upgrade, updated cast and character bios, and a whole lot more.

Feel free to leave questions or suggestions as comments - and if you or any other Grey’s Anatomy fans are interested in helping us out with these projects by compiling new information, let us know! Thanks!

“Are you guys talking about me?” asks Kate Walsh, the faux fire flashing in her languid, blue-green eyes.

“‘Cause I don’t trust a-one of you!”

On a recent Sunday evening, the actress, who shares the sassy style of her TV alter ego, Dr. Addison Montgomery, is playing host to a large table of actors.

This is the first sit-down dinner with the cast of her Grey’s Anatomy spin-off.

But, as TV Guide reports, the group already seems like a family even if they’ve only a week of shooting.

Kate Walsh is then shot down about the topic of discussion.

“Um, no, you egomaniac,” says her old friend and fellow cast member, Paul Adelstein.

“But I gotta tell you, that dress you’ve got on is very good for the boobs!”

That could easily be a quip from Alex Karev. But Shonda Rhimes, the executive producer of both shows, has been discussing a “lighter, more comedic tone” for Private Practice, so it surely fits the spin-off as well.

Follow the link to continue reading this TV Guide feature on Private Practice …

Spin-offs don’t always work, and the May 3 debut wasn’t perfect. But in this case, ABC liked what it saw enough to take a shot.

The network is hoping that Kate Walsh will serve as its secret weapon next fall, and officially chose to pick up the Walsh-led Grey’s Anatomy spin-off, currently entitled Private Practice, for next season.

In addition to Walsh’s character, Addison Montgomery, the new show stars Taye Diggs, Tim Daly, Paul Adelstein, Chris Lowell, Merrin Dungey and Amy Brenneman.

While this certainly simplifies the race for a chief at Seattle Grace (not to mention a number of love lives), many Grey’s fans would rather see Addison continue her ongoing Anatomy lesson with Dr. Alex Karev.

Then again, according to our exclusive poll, at least 50 percent of respondents either liked or loved what they saw of the spin-off as it debuted as part of “The Other Side of This Life.”

Congratulations to Kate. We’ll miss you on Grey’s Anatomy, but we’ll be watching your new venture and wishing you the best!

The Grey’s Anatomy spinoff, Private Practice, appears to have a strong heartbeat, writes Chuck Barney of the Contra Costa Times.

Plenty of viewers have panned the new series, even questioning its ability to be picked up (though our exclusive poll shows at least 50 percent of respondents either liked or loved the debut).

In any case, here’s a positive review of the Addison-driven series, which began last week as part of “The Other Side of This Life.”

Who knew that Seattle Grace’s resident neonatologist had a burning desire to be a mother? Or that she had a best friend from medical school named Naomi? Or that she looked really hot in a little red sports car?

Funny what you can find out about a character when she gets fleshed out for a proposed spinoff series.

Last week, fans of Grey’s Anatomy got their first peek at Private Practice, which promises to be one of next fall’s most buzz-laden shows.

Embedded within the highly rated two-hour episode was the conceptual setup for a proposed new drama pegged to San Jose, Calif., native Kate Walsh.

This writer liked what he saw. Mostly.

He liked the chemistry Walsh’s Addison had with Naomi (Merrin Dungey from Alias). He liked the all-star cast (Taye Diggs, Tim Daly, Amy Brenneman), the setting (sunny Santa Monica), the eye candy and even the sex-on-the-brain approach that we’ve become accustomed to with Grey’s Anatomy.

However, the who’s-the-father story thread tied to a pregnant surrogate mom was hopelessly lame.

Most of all, what impressed many was how Kate Walsh seemed very much up to the challenge, displaying the ability to smoothly shift from a strong sense of humor to poignancy and keeping us engaged every step of the way. Any doubts that she can carry her own show should have been greatly eased.

Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh) left Grey’s Anatomy last week, ostensibly for her own spinoff show, tentatively titled Private Practice.

Now it’s up to ABC to decide if that spinoff is justified.

From a numbers standpoint, it’s an easy decision. Last Thursday’s two-hour episode, “The Other Side of This Life,” in which Addison left Seattle Grace for a new start and new pals in Santa Monica, Calif., drew over 21 million viewers.

But from a critical standpoint, it’s, well, a Grey area.

The spinoff was greeted less-than-enthusiastically by many Grey’s Anatomy fans, who voiced their displeasure on online forums and message boards.

“It was the first time that Grey’s has been on ABC that I went to bed before it was over,” one fan wrote.

“Addison will never make it on her own show. The characters were not very good on the new show and it was annoying to watch.”

“Awful is an understatement,” replied another. “I had two phone calls from friends after the first hour and we all had the same opinion - it sucked.”

ABC officials, so far, have been quiet regarding the spinoff, the fate of which will be clear Tuesday when ABC unveils its upcoming fall schedule at its “upfront” presentation.

One network insider yesterday described ABC officials as “thrilled” with the show’s ratings and “very happy” with its content, which was supplied by show creator Shonda Rhimes (who wrote the two-hour episode).

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It’s a decision that could change Grey’s Anatomy forever… and spawn another hit show. But do we want it to?

When Thursday’s two-hour episode, “The Other Side of This Life (Parts I & II),” hits the airwaves, the focal point will be Addison, who is currently considering a change of scenery.

A permanent change of scenery.

We’re told that Addison talks with her god-daughter and her friends from medical school, and that she lands a job offer outside of Seattle. Many interesting people guest star in the course of Dr. Montgomery’s road trip to Los Angeles, leading us to wonder if Addison (Kate Walsh) will return… or whether Private Practice will be officially born.

As for the former men in her life, Derek has to perform emergency surgery and Mark treats a patient who wants more than surgery. Preston has a reservation about marrying Cristina, and he turns to someone unlikely for advice on the matter. The doctors also treat a woman with a rare type of cancer, and whose daughter doesn’t believe people make mistakes.

Here’s a preview of “The Other Side of This Life” …

As usual, we’ll have our comprehensive episode recap, music guide, list of quotes and image gallery up after the show. We’re looking forward to this event and will be watching right along with you. Follow this link for our episode guide, quotes and more from last week’s “Desire.”

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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