The British Grey’s Anatomy Debuted 19 Years Earlier & Has Almost 1000 Episodes More Than The ABC Medical Drama

ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy has entertained audiences for twenty years, and is the longest-running scripted primetime show still going strong. The medical drama launched the careers of creator Shonda Rimes and leading star Ellen Pompeo. However, despite the popularity and longevity of Rimes’ show, the British TV series Casualty started way back in the late 1980s and has been on BBC One ever since. Casualty is currently the longest-running primetime medical drama series in the world.

Casualty and Grey’s Anatomy are very similar shows because they’re both medical dramas focused on the challenging daily lives of doctors treating patients and contemplating complex medical cases. The difference between the two shows is that Casualty is more medically accurate and based on real-life medical procedures and scenarios. By contrast, Grey’s Anatomy includes romance and is more dramatized and less realistic in depicting medical procedures.

Casualty Is The British Equivalent Of Grey’s Anatomy, But Has Been Around Much Longer

Casualty Originated Long Before Grey’s Anatomy Back In The 1980s

Casualty premiered in the United Kingdom in September 1986, making it nineteen years older than Grey’s Anatomy, which began its run in March 2005. Created by script editor Jeremy Brock and theater director Paul Unwin, the British series is loosely based on the creators’ own hospitalizations. They wanted to create a show that heavily emphasized feminist characters and anti-Conservative values that revolutionized the way spectators in the UK viewed television amidst the policies of Margaret Thatcher during that time.

Unlike Grey’s Anatomy‘s immediate popularity in its depiction of doctors surgically operating on patients and exploring their own love lives, Casualty did not have a positive reception during its debut season. The British show was criticized for depicting the National Health Service (NHS) in a negative light by showing doctors drinking alcohol. However, the purpose was to reveal the anxiety that doctors in the UK go through every day. The caseload of the NHS includes patients impacted by violent assaults, explosions, kidnappings, drug use, and progressive diseases.

While Grey’s Anatomy generally consists of twenty episodes per year, Casualty started with forty-eight episodes annually before lowering it to thirty-six episodes per season starting in 2023 due to high production costs. Reminiscent of Grey’s, the cast members of Casualty would change over time and include guest stars who would go on to become high-profile actors. These include Kate Winslet, Orlando Bloom, Minnie Driver, Loki‘s Tom Hiddleston, and Elementary‘s Jonny Lee Miller.

Even Casualty’s Spinoff Has Way More Episodes Than Grey’s Anatomy

Casualty Expanded Its Branch With A Few Spin-offs Including Holby City

Aside from Casualty, its spin-off series, Holby City, had a long run, airing from January 1999 to March 2022. The show also takes place in Holby City Hospital, the same fictional setting as Casualty, allowing both series to feature crossovers. Holby City is another competitive medical drama like Grey’s Anatomy but with the intention of appealing to younger audience members with its themes of women’s health, including maternity, as well as transplant procedures. The single-camera setup and the inclusion of music in each episode were elements that helped enhance the show’s appeal.

Holby City would air fifty-two episodes per year, which ranged between 50 and 60 minutes from 1999 to 2020. The airtime for each episode declined to a range of 38 to 45 minutes from 2020 to 2022. While Holby City was widely viewed, it declined over time and lacked the realism of Casualty, reverting more towards Grey’s Anatomy‘s dramatizations of personal relationships, and criticisms regarding its depiction of women. The correlation between Casualty, Holby City, and Grey’s Anatomy reflects on the portrayal of doctors over the years and how audiences positively and negatively view medical practitioners.

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ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy has entertained audiences for twenty years, and is the longest-running scripted primetime show still going strong. The medical drama launched the careers of creator Shonda Rimes and leading star Ellen Pompeo. However, despite the popularity and longevity of Rimes’ show, the British TV series Casualty started way back in the late 1980s and has been on BBC One ever…