Knight Ridder Newspapers

Tight-lipped coaches for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Seattle Seahawks would never, in their right minds, consider revealing key pieces of their Super Bowl game plans, so why should “Grey’s Anatomy” executive producer Shonda Rhimes?

When a reporter asked her to divulge “just a general description” of Sunday’s big post-Super Bowl episode, the woman who created one of television’s most lusciously entertaining dramas doesn’t exactly bubble over with details.

“Something happens and bad things follow,” she teased, refusing to budge any further.

This kind of deft side-stepping is typical for Rhimes, who operates under a shroud of anti-spoilers secrecy and has been known to pass out memos to her cast and crew warning them to clam up – or else. So if you’re looking for revelatory insights into the love triangle involving Meredith (Ellen Pompeo), Derek (Patrick Dempsey) and Addison (Kate Walsh), or if you’re wondering what the future holds for the oversexed surgical interns of Seattle Grace Hospital, you’ve come to the wrong place.

“I grew up watching a lot of television and one of the things I feel strongly about is not knowing what’s going to happen on an episode before you see it,” she said. “It’s crazy. Why tell people what’s going to happen rather than getting them to watch it and see for themselves? To me, the show is more interesting because no one knows what’s going to happen next.”

So far, the strategy is working. “Grey’s Anatomy” is one of those warm-and-fuzzy television success stories that seem to pop out of nowhere. When it debuted last March, the series was only intended to be a temporary place-holder for “Boston Legal” on Sunday nights. But taking advantage of the hefty lead-in audience of “Desperate Housewives,” it attracted 16 million viewers to its premiere.

That sent “Legal” trudging off to another time slot, and ever since, the “Grey’s Anatomy” fan base has been swelling. The medical drama currently ranks No. 9 in total viewers, and ABC hopes that number will climb even higher after millions of post-game fans sample its addictive blend of comedy, drama and soap.

“We feel like it’s going to be a huge part of our future, so we wanted to give it every boost we could,” said ABC entertainment chief Steve McPherson on why “Grey’s Anatomy” was awarded the showcase position.

Whenever a series hits big, there is an urge to search out clues by breaking down its DNA. Although “Grey’s Anatomy” is labeled a medical drama, it in no way can be confused in style and tone with an “ER” or a “House.” It mainly hinges on five first-year surgical residences – three of whom are strong and distinctive women – and floats along at its own breezy pace. Another vital cog: It’s a show in which ever-changing relationships take precedence over brain surgery.

“I can feel it when there’s too much medical and not enough personal (in the scripts) and that’s the most important balance to keep,” Rhimes insisted. “When the medical overtakes the personal, we’re going down the wrong path.”

And then there’s the diversity factor. Unlike so many of prime time’s white-washed shows, “Grey’s Anatomy” features African-American and Asian doctors and a Latina character will arrive soon. Rhimes, the lone African-American woman running a broadcast network drama series, said she and her collaborators made a choice from the start to bring in “all kinds” of actors during the casting process and not worry about skin color.

“Casting is really important to the show’s success, not just because they’re phenomenal actors and bring so much to the roles,” she said. “But also just because someone can look at the show and think, “OK, there’s no longer anything unusual about having half your cast be people of color.”‘

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And although the narration for “Grey’s Anatomy” comes from Meredith Grey’s perspective, it is undeniably an ensemble production, with subplots centering on, among other things, the pregnancy of tough-as-nails resident Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson), known as The Nazi, and the dysfunctional coupling of doctors Christina Yang (Golden Globe winner Sandra Oh) and Preston Burke (Isaiah Washington).

But it’s that aforementioned love triangle that has most fans buzzing – and wondering if former lovers Meredith and Derek will ever reunite. In last season’s finale, Meredith discovered that – gasp! – her so-called “Dr. McDreamy” actually had an estranged wife, Dr. Addison Shepherd, who has followed him from New York to Seattle and joined the hospital staff.

This season, Meredith has spent much of her time in a funk, silently, and sometimes embarrassingly, pining for him. Along the way, there have been hints that Derek might be tempted to rekindle their forbidden love, but Addison isn’t about to go down without a fight.

As for Meredith, Rhimes likes the fact that she’s a flawed heroine who “doesn’t always do the right thing” and is “a little screwed up.” Adds Pompeo, “I welcome all the crazy things (Meredith) does, because it’s a challenge to learn how to tackle them and how to play them and make them believable.”

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The challenge for the “Grey’s Anatomy” team is to keep their momentum going, beginning with Sunday’s highly hyped episode. It comes with a sensationalistic title – “It’s the End of the World” – and a promotional ad spot looked more like an amped-up “ER” disaster plot than a typical “Grey’s Anatomy.” It even contained a reference to something ominous called a “Code Black.”

“I know what it is, but I can’t tell you. She’d have my head on a plate,” said Walsh, referring to you-know-who.

Oh yes, Rhimes does love her little secrets – and she’s apparently pretty adept at plotting them out.

She reveals that she already knows “exactly what’s going to happen in our season finale,” and she even knows what the “last scene of the last episode ever of “Grey’s Anatomy’ is going to be.”

ABC bigwigs, who have given Rhimes the OK to proceed on another drama project about female journalists, obviously hope she won’t have to put that last scene on film for many years.