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Tavis: Shonda Rhimes is the creator and executive producer of the new ABC medical drama "Grey's Anatomy." She's also an accomplished screenwriter with films like "Introducing Dorothy Dandridge " and "The Princess Diaries 2" on her resume. "Grey's Anatomy" premiered last night to good reviews and solid ratings. Not a bad way to start. Here now, a scene from "Grey's Anatomy."

Richard Webber: The seven years you spend here as a surgical resident will be the best and worst of your life. You will be pushed to the breaking point. Look around you. Say hello to your competition. Eight of you will switch to an easier specialty. Five of you will crack under pressure. Two of you will be asked to leave. This is your starting line. This is your arena. How well you play, that's up to you.

Tavis: Shonda, nice to meet you.

Shonda Rhimes: Thank you.

Tavis: Glad to have you on. So you had a good night last night.

Rhimes: We had a great night last night. It was wonderful.

Tavis: You pleased with it?

Rhimes: Very pleased. Yeah.

Tavis: There are two things I noticed about this immediately. I did not know that there was a black woman producing the project, so congratulations on that.

Rhimes: Thank you.

Tavis: There are two things that jump out at you pretty quickly about a project like this. Number one, you just happen to notice it's a medical drama, so let me start with that. TV needs another medical drama?

Rhimes: Well, to me, "Grey's Anatomy" is more about, not necessarily being a medical drama as it is about people who are starting a job, and on a bad day you kill somebody. On a good day, you save a life. To me, it's not so much about the fact that it's medicine as about it's surgery and it's competition, and that feels fresh. It's also very much about their personal lives.

Tavis: But I can only imagine when I see a show like this that there's something about medicine that you are intrigued by.

Rhimes: I happen to think medicine is kind of sexy.

Tavis: You watching TLC?

Rhimes: Yeah, I watch sort of the Discovery channel, TLC, surgery shows. Yeah, I love to watch all that stuff.

Tavis: Where'd that fascination come from for you?

Rhimes: I have no idea. I think it started a long time ago. My sisters and I would call each other on the phone and say are you watching the surgery? Are you watching the surgery? We loved to watch these surgeries. I have no idea why.

Tavis: So you like all that blood and guts and gore and all that kind of stuff?

Rhimes: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Tavis: OK, Shonda. Ha ha ha ha! That said, the other thing one notices pretty quickly about this, and if you're paying attention, and our audience is very astute, I'm sure they noticed even from the trailer, and if you saw the show last night, you really see that the show has a wonderfully diverse cast. Sometimes in this business that happens by happenstance, which ain't usually the case. More often than not it happens by design. I assume in this case it happened by design?

Rhimes: Well, I mean, being a woman of color, I wanted to have a diverse cast. But what was interesting was I never specified a race for any of the actors, for any of the characters or any of the roles. So I just said, we're going to audition people, actors of every race for every single role, and wh...ver we love we're going to put in the role. Wh...ver we want in the space, we're going to fight for. And we did and it worked. I mean, I think television has a responsibility to create a diverse world, period. And if we can do it on the show with not just the main cast but with the guest stars and people who come on, I think it's a good idea.

Tavis: That's an amazing concept. It really is an amazing concept, but I must say, with all due respect, it ain't the deepest concept I've ever heard.

Rhimes: Absolutely.

Tavis: But I say that not to cast aspersions, but only because it seems to me that if more people in this--I mean, I'm ranting about this all the time, as our viewers know, and I will continue to rant about it until this business gets better at this, but it seems to me that if more people used that philosophy, if they wrote a good piece of work and auditioned everybody, or as we like to say eerrbody, if eerrbody got a chance to audition for the role and the best person stepped forward and received the role, that this business might change much more rapidly than it is now.

Rhimes: This business would change exponentially and go forward in leaps and bounds. What was interesting about it was we sent out the script and they only sent us white actors.

Tavis: So even when you didn't specify that the actor had to be white, they still sent you white actors.

Rhimes: Yes. And we had to call back and say, excuse me, where are all the actors of color? Where are the Hispanics, where are the Asians, where are the African Americans, where are the actors of color? And they went, oh, so this is a diverse role. And I said, they're all diverse roles. All of the roles in the show are. And now we're at a point where when our casting director sends out something for a guest-starring role, everybody knows. If you have an actor who you think is great, we don't care what they look like. We don't care what color they are. Send them over, because they might get the part.

Tavis: Let me ask you as a writer--now I'm fascinated by this. How does that challenge you as a writer? does it--and maybe challenge is the wrong word. does it challenge you as a writer? does it give you more of a canvas to paint on? does it restrict you in certain ways when you write something? I mean, there are some stories clearly that have to be told where the actor has to be a certain race, because that's what the story's about. But talk to me about how that challenges your writing.

Rhimes: Well, when the story is about an actor having to be--like I think in our next episode we have a story abouto-I think it's about illegal immigration, and we went with the actress being Chinese. But even then I hadn't specified exactly what country they were from. We had to sort of make a decision of where we were going to have them from. Were they going to be Russian, were they going to be Chinese, were they going to be Hispanic? But when you're writing for a role in which clearly there's no race specified and it doesn't matter, the role does change based on wh...ver you cast, no matter what. You meet them, you see how they walk, you see how they talk, you see how they feel inside of a role, and it changes. The same way for a white actor like T.R. Knight becoming George, the role changed just sort of based on his talents and what he brings. Isaiah Washington, that part changed based on his talents and what he brought. It's more about the person than it is about the race.

Tavis: talk to me about what you think these kind of medical dramas, these medical shows give to the audience. And I ask that because half the stuff they talk about, I mean, one standing back looking at this objectively has to admit that half of the dialogue we don't really process because it's a medical drama. But these things must give the audience, the viewing audience something, because there's so many of them and they do so well. So what am I missing about what the audience gets from these dramas that you obviously have figured out?

Rhimes: I feel like when an audience watches a medical drama, the thing that goes into it, unlike a cop show, for instance, where hopefully you're never going to be shot and you're not going to be in jail, everybody goes through a hospital at some point. And we like to believe those people are her...s. As a matter of fact, we need to believe they're her...s in order to feel safe in the world. And when we sort of undress that hero mask and make these people human, I think it's fascinating for an audience to sort of see that world. And yeah, I think some medical shows keep them as her...s, and some medical shows go with sort of pure adrenaline drama. But "Grey's Anatomy" is trying to walk the line in the middle and give you a little bit of both.

Tavis: I am not going to tell your age. I only raise this because you are very accomplished in this business, as I indicate already by addressing some of the things on your resume. You're very accomplished in this business. You are under the age of 40. You have a drama now in prime time on network television. Tell me more about you, and I'm asking this because I know that there are a lot of people watching, and certainly a lot of kids of color who think that the only way to make it in the business is to be in front of the camera. Your resume is growing by the day and you're doing some remarkable stuff behind the camera. Talk to me more about the journey that you took to end up on this chair on PBS tonight.

Rhimes: Well, went to college, went to film school at USC for graduate school. Got out, paid my dues working as an assistant. Kept writing at night. Sold a spec script, which really changed my life overnight. And getting an agent, doing all those little things--

Tavis: You should explain what a spec script is.

Rhimes: A spec script is a script that you write on spec, basically hoping that somebody will buy it.

Tavis: So in other words, nobody had hired you to do this. You just start writing.

Rhimes: And here's the reality that I think is important for anybody out there. Writing is the only talent in this business of show that you can do whether or not anybody else is there or anybody is paying you or anybody is allowing you to do it. In order to act, you have to be hired. In order to direct, you have to have film and camera and crew. In order to write, all you need is a pen and piece of paper. And if you write something and it's good, people don't care who you are or where you came from. You will get a job.

Tavis: Is the message here that more of us ought to start writing?

Rhimes: Absolutely. And everybody has a story to tell.

Tavis: And yet there is--see, it seems simple enough, and yet, one has to juxtapose what you've just said with the reality that there are, comparatively speaking, so many fewer writers of color in this business. Certainly writers of color who get an opportunity, and one of the things that people fight for all this time--all these years, rather, and they continue to fight for is that there are more people who are writing stuff on these shows.

Rhimes: Absolutely.

Tavis: So I'm just trying to figure out--the advice seems so simple, and yet there are apparently not enough people taking it, or there are a lot of folk taking it, but still not getting an opportunity.

Rhimes: And I also thinko-I mean, you're out there, you're writing, say you finally get representation and an agent. What I think is also interesting is when we're hiring writers for the show, we send out a call for writers, they only sent us white writers. It wasn't that I could tell from the writing, it was when we started meeting people, I kept thinking, where are the writers of color? And then when I called the agents and said are the writers of color, they said, oh, you want writers of color, which they put in a separate category, which I find very disturbing. And I'm going to work to do what I can to make that change, and I think all the writers out there should be calling their agents and sort of demanding that you don't segregate us based on a category in that sense.

Tavis: Let's move beyond the race factor for just a second. I'm curious as to why you think you were chosen, why you think you've been gifted in the way you are to be where you are doing what you do. Because a lot of folk, again, we meet folk every day, I see them all around town, you see them all around town, people who are trying--I'm thinking of two or three folk who I know are watching right now, who I just read somebody's screenplay the other day. Said Tavis, take a look at this. What do you think of this? I get this stuff all the time from people I know, from folk I don't know, and yet you have been blessed to have the opportunity now. Why do you think that is?

Rhimes: I have no idea. Seriously, I have no idea. I love to write. I can't imagine not doing it for a living. It's probably the only thing I know how to do, and so I try really hard to do it well. I feel really lucky to have a show. It's enough hard to get a show on the air, much less have a show that airs after "Desperate Housewives," which is considered the best time slot on television.

Tavis: I was about to ask you that, so since you mentioned it, let's go there. How did that happen? I mean, it is one of the most coveted time slots on television right now. How did you end up with that slot?

Rhimes: I had my fingers and my t...s crossed. That's all I can say.

Tavis: Tell me how--and this is inside Hollywood talk, but I'm fascinated by this, so forgive me for just a second. Tell me how following a show like "Desperate Housewives," one, given the kind of show that it is, dramatically different than what your show is, but given the all hype around it, tell me what it means to follow--the upside and downside of following a show like that?

Rhimes: Well, the upside of following a show like "Desperate Housewives" is you get their entire audience has the opportunity to stay tuned and watch the show.

Tavis: That's how you got me.

Rhimes: Also, though, it's not that different in the sense that they're both geared towards women, they both sort of end delving into the personal lives of the characters, they both have a lot to do with relationships. They are different shows, but they're sort of geared toward the same audience.

Tavis: What do you want to do with this long term? I mean, you're off to a pretty good start here.

Rhimes: Yeah. I'd love to do more shows.

Tavis: Producing and writing?

Rhimes: Yeah, producing and writing. I'd love to keep doing this show as long as ABC will keep it on the air, and then absolutely do more shows and enjoy myself.

Tavis: But you don't want to do one versus the other. You want to write and produce.

Rhimes: I definitely want to write and produce. I definitely want to write and produce, yeah.

Tavis: Well, you're good at it. All the best to you. Shonda Rhimes is the sister behind the new show on ABC, "Grey's Anatomy." Check it out. Is it going to stay in that time slot?

Rhimes: I hope so.

Tavis: Yeah, so do we. Nice to have you on. Congratulations.

Rhimes: Thank you so much.