It disappoints me to see a good actor like Isaiah Washington in a groundbreaking drama shoot himself in the foot. There are so few black men playing characters that can be considered role models on TV. Furthermore, there are so few talented black actors surrounded by an amazing cast like that on Grey’s Anatomy. There is something for everyone on that show which is why it is a monster hit. When you are in the public eye with as much exposure as any member of the Grey’s Anatomy cast is, common sense should tell you to keep cool and keep your mouth shut if you don’t have anything good to say. I wish someone told Isaiah that.

Not only did Isaiah almost come to blows with Patrick Dempsey on set, but he called T.R. Knight a faggot. This forced T.R. Knight to come out publicly. As if that wasn’t bad enough and didn’t cause enough of a media storm, Isaiah denied that the incident happened to the press after the cast’s Golden Globes win. This irritated members of the cast including Katherine Heigl and of course T.R. Knight who voiced their opinions on Access Hollywood and the Ellen DeGeneres Show respectively.

It is bad enough that Isaiah made a homophobic statement and let his temper get the best of him on set, but his actions forced another cast member to reveal more to the public than he was ready to. Furthermore, denying the incident happened after publicly apologizing for it is puerile and speaks to his lack of integrity as an actor and as a person. Mr. Washington should take some time to look around the landscape of prime time television and realize how few men of color have been given the type of opportunity he has. Maybe he would think twice about his actions and humble himself on set. If not, I don’t see any reason why his character needs to remain on Grey’s Anatomy at all. Just make his character fail to recover from the second neurological surgery and have him lurk off into the Seattle gloom with his trumpet to play jazz. Let’s see how well his career does after he leaves (or is asked to leave) Grey’s Anatomy. He can be the next Eriq LaSalle. Anyone remember seeing him in anything after leaving ER aside from One Hour Photo? Me either.

I love Grey’s Anatomy. It entered the scene at a time when I was losing hope in television altogether from the exes all the way down. I have always been a big fan of ER but since Noah Wyle left the regular cast, I feel like there was no one there for him to pass the torch to. At any rate, no one expected a little mid-season replacement with a cast as fresh as Grey’s to take off like it did, but here we are two season’s later and the world practically stops when the show airs.

I recently watched the entire second season again as ABC was kind enough to replay it leading up to the premiere. It is obvious that this cast gels together like very few that we have seen in recent years. Furthermore, the characters aren’t segregated into little cliques so it is truly an ensemble. Miranda Bailey’s interns started out as a little clique, but their interpersonal relationships have developed immensely with other characters very quickly. They also force characters to interact who would not necessarily do so willingly or regularly, like Preston Burke and Derek Shepherd who start out the show in contempt of each other but have cultivated a grudging respect and admiration for each other. All of this points to brilliant writing and the writer’s ability to get into the human psyche.

Somewhere along the way while re-watching the second season of Grey’s I got that warm fuzzy feeling that I haven’t had since Buffy ended. If you’re a BtVS fan you know what I’m talking about. It’s a mix of nostalgia for the crew you ran with in High School mixed with grown-up teen angst and a dab of super-hero worship. Somewhere along the way I came to the realization that the leading characters in Grey’s Anatomy were the Scooby Gang with scalpels. Let me break it down: