Private Practice News (Page 3)

Good news for the future prospects of Private Practice, in the early going anyway. People at least seem willing to give the Grey's Anatomy spin-off a chance, a recent AOL poll shows. Over 93,000 respondents chimed in to AOL regarding the programs they plan to watch Wednesday.

As you can see, Private Practice has the lead in this sampling of potential viewers, leading both CBS' established and successful crime show Criminal Minds, and NBC's much-anticipated remake of the sci-fi series Bionic Woman.

Another buzzed-about new show, The CW's Gossip Girl, is also in this time slot and finished a distant fifth. If this poll is any indication, Kate Walsh and her co-stars have a good chance to stick this fall!

Although Private Practice was born out of ABC's hit medical "dramedy," Grey's Anatomy, series stars Kate Walsh and Tim Daly assure us that their upcoming show is quite different from its parent, as it will not only introduce viewers to new faces, but to some fresh storylines as well.

"It feels different, [but] it doesn't feel like we're consciously making it different," Walsh, best known as Dr. Addison Montgomery, told ET.

"Some scenes feel the same in some ways and then totally different in other ways because it's a whole new cast of characters... they are all completely new."

Tim Daly, who will appear on Private Practice as Dr. Pete Wilder, echoed Kate Walsh's statement, telling ET, "We're not Grey's Anatomy... We're a different cast, we're different actors; we have different lines and different professions."

The public first caught sight of the new medical drama when an extended episode of Grey's Anatomy introducing the new show aired in May.

In the backdoor pilot of Private Practice, viewers got their first glimpse of Daly, Amy Brenneman (Judging Amy), Paul Adelstein (Prison Break), Chris Lowell (Veronica Mars), and Taye Diggs (Kevin Hill).

Merrin Dungey appeared in the pilot as Naomi, the wife of Diggs' Sam Bennett, but her character is now going to be played by Audra McDonald (Kidnapped). KaDee Strickland (The Wedding Bells) joined the cast late.

Private Practice, scheduled to debut next week, will follow Addison as she settles into her new life in Los Angeles. An all-new special promoting both Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice airs tonight on ABC!

Rumors of an upcoming, joint ABC hour-long special for Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice are true: "Come Rain or Shine: From Grey's Anatomy to Private Practice" is scheduled for Wednesday, September 19 at 9 p.m.

The special offers an intimate look at Dr. Addison Montgomery from her arrival in Seattle to her turbulent life and quest to start a new one.

While there have been scant marketing efforts to promote the Grey's spin-off this summer, this special is clearly meant to prepare us for Private Practice.

Addison (Kate Walsh) has put her ex-husband Derek (Patrick Dempsey) and the rest of her life in Seattle behind her. She's ready for a new beginning!

Additionally, this special will feature a new Grey's Anatomy music video made out of the song "Breathe In Breathe Out" by Mat Kearney.

The special will also feature a first look from the new season of Grey's Anatomy and clips from the series premiere of Private Practice. Should be great to watch and get people involved. Check out this promo in the meantime!

For awhile, notes James Hibberd of TV Week, Private Practice was widely assumed to become the biggest slam-dunk new hit of the fall season.

But as excitement for NBC's Bionic Woman and ABC's own Pushing Daisies has grown exponentially this summer, the Practice buzz has waned.

• The PRIOR Private Practice pilot that aired in May as part of a two-hour Grey's Anatomy episode was disastrously haphazard, causing critics and fans to slam the promising concept with surprising vehemence.

• The FUTURE Private Practice premiere was then re-cast, shot, then re-shot again. The result is a premiere episode that's firmly better than the May intro and more successfully captures the Grey's sense of humor.

The most despised elements of the "backdoor" pilot (talking elevators, women fawning over a young staffer) are gone. What weaknesses remain, ABC hopes to address in future episodes.

One source noted that both Grey's Anatomy and Brothers and Sisters started out shaky, then successfully course-corrected, and that ABC plans the same ongoing fine-tuning for Private Practice.

The sour taste of the May effort has partly lingered because, unlike most fall first-year dramas, until recently, ABC hasn't had a completed Private Practice premiere for critics and insiders to view.

The show's launch is set for September 26 and hardly anybody has seen the show (including most ABC employees, who are typically treated to early screenings).

Also, ABC elected to shiftmarketing efforts to tough sells like Pushing Daises, Dirty Sexy Money and Cavemen rather than its perceived fall flagship debut.

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Addison Montgomery is officially out the door at Seattle Grace and coming to Oceanside. We've compiled a gallery of photos from the Private Practice series opener, set for September 26 and entitled, fittingly, "In Which We Meet Addison, A Nice Girl From Somewhere."

They don't give away much, but it appears a Grey's Anatomy star (other than Kate Walsh, that is) makes appearance in the first episode!

Find out who, and check out the official stills in our gallery.

"Oh, God. Are you kidding me?"

Unfortunately for Dr. Addison Montgomery, the answer to that question is no. Inside the slick offices of Oceanside Wellness — the setting for ABC's highly anticipated Grey's Anatomy spin-off, Private Practice (debuting at 9 p.m., September 26) — Addison (Kate Walsh) is shocked that her pregnant patient has requested a holistic birth from sexy alternative-medicine practitioner Dr. Pete Wilder (played by the sexy Tim Daly).

She nervously pivots in her scrubs.

"People have babies in hospitals," says Addison. "That's normal! This is..."

"A change of pace?" asks Pete.

You could say that.

When Grey's Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes first conceived Private Practice, a drama-comedy about a consortium of sexy, not-getting-younger medical careerists in Santa Monica, she had one hope for her second baby: that it not look identical to her first.

"I feel it's lighter than Grey's Anatomy," Rhimes tells Entertainment Weekly, which features Walsh and Private Practice on the cover of its fall TV preview. "It's got all the drama without the surgery! Grey's has always been high school kids with scalpels. These people are a little bit more grown-up."

Funny, Walsh isn't feeling like the picture of maturity right now.

Outside a hideaway café in Los Feliz, Calif. — not far from the house she shares with her new husband, Alex Young, a 20th Century Fox exec — she's arriving 30 minutes late for a meeting.

Rushing through the door, the Private Practice star apologizes repeatedly and sheepishly admits she forgot her wallet.

The 39-year-old actress mutters something about a bad impression, but that's hardly the case, given the commotion she's caused.

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The doctors will be in the house when Private Practice - the Grey's Anatomy spin-off - premieres on Wednesday, September 26, at 9 p.m. on ABC, and ET's Mark Steines was the first to go behind the scenes of this not new show.

Of course, everyone is familiar with Kate Walsh's Dr. Addison Montgomery, who is moving from Seattle Grace Hospital to Los Angeles and introducing viewers to a stellar cast of co-stars along the way.

Joining Kate Walsh on the new ABC comedy / drama will be a terrific ensemble featuring Taye Diggs, Tim Daly, Audra McDonald, Amy Brenneman, KaDee Strickland, Paul Adelstein and Chris Lowell.

Kate Walsh, of course, is currently engaged ina juggling act with the new series and her personal life, as her wedding to fiancé Alex Young is happening this coming weekend in a posh Southern California location.

As we discussed earlier today, Kate's had at least one Bridezilla meltdown.

While Kate sure is covered in the romance department (regardless of isolated Bridezilla episodes), what about her TV persona? Grey's Anatomy is quite the steamy show - and Addison shared a passionate kiss with Tim Daly's character in the pilot for Private Practice.

"There's been no actual [bed] hopping so to speak," Tim Daly reveals. "I think something's inevitable, something's going to happen. These are adult people that are clearly attracted to each other, so there's nothing really impeding them from hooking up, as the kids say."

So will there be an equal amount of bed hopping when Private Practice officially shows up on the fall schedule on Wednesday, September 26?

"I don't think there's any shortage of heat," Walsh said. "I think people will be quite toasty when they watch the show!"

"Are you guys talking about me?" asks Kate Walsh.

The faux fire is 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 same sassy style as her Grey's Anatomy alter ego, Addison Montgomery, is playing host to a large, rather loud table of actors at Hollywood's chic Ammo eatery.

It's the first-ever sit-down dinner with the cast of her hotly anticipated Grey's Anatomy spin-off, Private Practice (missing is four-time Tony winner Audra McDonald, who ended her run in Broadway's 110 in the Shade hours before).

But as TV Guide reports, the group already seems like a rowdy, frat-house family even though they've only finished their first week of shooting.

Stunning in a royal-blue version of Marilyn Monroe's cleavage-bearing Seven Year Itch dress, her plate piled high with lasagna and wild salmon, Kate Walsh is quickly shot down about the topic of discussion.

"Um, no, you egomaniac," says old friend and new cast mate Paul Adelstein (aka Secret Service agent Paul Kellerman of Prison Break). "But I gotta tell you, that dress you've got on is very good for the boobs!"

Yep, that could easily be a quip from one of the interns of Grey's Anatomy, but if Shonda Rhimes, executive producer of both shows, has been telling the truth about Private Practice's "lighter, more comedic tone," it could also be a line from her new show.

Set in sunny Santa Monica, Calif., at the Oceanside Wellness Center, a medical / holistic / psychiatric co-op run by Sam Bennett (Taye Diggs) and his ex-wife, fertility specialist Naomi (McDonald, who replaces Merrin Dungey), Private Practice finds Addison trying to "reinvent herself," as Walsh puts it, after the trauma of her disastrous relationships with McDreamy, McSteamy and McAlex.

At the center, she finds a rather good-looking group of colleagues who have achieved all they dreamed of professionally but now must figure out what the hell to do with their personal lives.

Rounding out the cast are Tim Daly (Wings) as Pete Wilder, an alternative medicine specialist and Addison's likely romantic interest; Amy Brenneman (Judging Amy) as Violet Turner, a mess of a suddenly single psychiatrist; Chris Lowell (Veronica Mars) as Dell, the resident hot surfer boy (and its receptionist) the aforementioned Adelstein as pediatrician Cooper Freedman, who fosters a nasty habit of disastrous Internet hookups.

Also added to the cast is KaDee Strickland (who wasn't in the pseudo-pilot that aired last May) as Charlotte King, the chief of staff at the nearby St. Ambrose Hospital, whose more conservative practices frequently collide with the Center's looser, laid-back atmosphere.

"As Shonda has said, Grey's was like high school," explains Kate Walsh, flashing the jubilee-cut diamond that her fiancé (20th Century Fox co-president of production, Alex Young) gave her a few months ago.

"But the group at the Oceanside Wellness Center are like a big, grown-up family."

"They've already been through the wringer together. Well, me, of course. I'm the newbie again, a fish out of water, just like at Seattle Grace."

She pauses before announcing, "Fly in the ointment right over here!"

Responding to questions regarding Grey's Anatomy at the TV Critics Summer Press Tour this week, series creator and executive producer Shonda Rhimes was asked a particularly intriguing one about Addison.

"Will Addison make her exit to Los Angeles on Grey's Anatomy or on Private Practice?" asked a reporter.

Breaking her own stringent policy about doling out advance story lines, Shonda Rhimes revealed the answer.

"We will see her tender her resignation to [Richard Webber] in the first episode of Private Practice."

Shonda Rhimes, Taye Diggs and Kate Walsh answer questions Thursday.

Meanwhile, at the event, Tim Daly said he is thrilled that his previous series, the critically acclaimed but ratings-imparted The Nine, will be returning to TV August 1 - even if the story lines won't be wrapped up.

And as for whether Kate Walsh (Addison) ever thinks of how she went from a guest spot on Grey's Anatomy to her own series?

"Yeah, I do," she muses. "I feel really fortunate. I could never have dreamed this. I don't mean to sound too Pollyanna-ish - I'm not. I'm actually a cynical bastard with a cold, dark heart."

Okay, then. Well, we love Kate Walsh just the same!

Would you take a whirl with a spinooff of Dancing With the Stars? What about expanding your Grey's Anatomy universe? ABC sure hopes so.

Dance X will showcase choreographed group dancing rather than pairs. The spinoff will feature Dancing judges Bruno Tonioli and Carrie Ann Inaba, only putting together competing troupes.

Dance X extends the Dancing With the Stars brand, said Steve McPherson, the president of ABC Entertainment.

"We've gotten really good response on the show [Dancing With the Stars] from the choreographed dances that we've done," he said.

"They are what they are in real life: choreographers. They have to decide who to take out of their groups. It's this painstaking process, which has a real emotional element to it."

Meanwhile, Grey's Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes wanted to focus on Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh, pictured) in a spinoff, Private Practice, because the character "had kind of run her course on Grey's Anatomy."

Grey's Anatomy had "a lot of really difficult, emotional stuff going on for kind of a multitude of characters," McPherson said. "Shonda has certainly listened to some of the stuff that people didn't respond to and has changed accordingly."

The result is Private Practice, which debuts Wednesdays this fall.

Follow this link to watch ABC's early trailer for the new series!