Private Practice

A spinoff of the hugely popular Medical Drama Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice follows one of its most popular characters, fiery redhead Addison Montgomery (formerly Montgomery-Shepherd) and her new life and job in Los Angeles, at a private practice founded by Addison's friends from Med School, Sam and Naomi. Other coworkers include Pete, the alternative medicine expert, Violet, the psychiatrist who is so good at helping others but can't help herself and Cooper, a brilliant pediatrician who dates girls he meets in online chats. Also in the cast is Charlotte, a chief of staff in a local hospital who doesn't like Private Practices much.

""If that didn't satisfy, there's another showing in an hour. And it's wet.""
 * Abusive Parents: Addison's. Later subverted with a Reveal.
 * Alliterative Name: The title.
 * Ascended Extra: Sheldon started as a guest star in Season Two, was upgraded to "also starring" status in season three, and became main cast in season four. Fans probably breathed a sigh of relief, since Sheldon is the most consistently level-headed person on the show. Amelia also guest-starred in Season Three before becoming main cast in Season Four.
 * Badass: Charlotte getting her arm sewn up without any kind of pain relievers because she's allergic to local anesthetics and is also.
 * Berserk Button: Cooper once punched a patient's father when he the child mentioned being touched. The dad wanted to sue him.
 * Biggus Dickus: Apparently.
 * Bittersweet Ending: Episode 14 of the Fourth season, full stop:.
 * Chew Toy: in Season 4.
 * in Season 5.
 * Dark and Troubled Past: Amelia Shepherd, who along with her brother Derek . Also Pete.
 * Defrosting Ice Queen: Charlotte, since she began dating Cooper.
 * Double Standard: The entire cast is suggest to this every now and then, though it applies especially to Violet (and of all people,, calls her on it in Season 4 Episode 19!).
 * Driven to Suicide:.
 * Dysfunction Junction
 * Fiery Redhead: Addison, of course.
 * Gag Penis:, of all people, is reputed to have one, and he knows how to use it!
 * Happily Adopted: Coop.
 * Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: All of The first season episodes were titled In Which followed by an event in the episode, a la Friends.
 * Idiot Ball: Pretty much every single main character has carried it around for awhile.
 * Informed Ability: Amy is supposed to be a crack neurosurgeon, but so far she's killed more people than she's helped.
 * It Got Worse: was supposed healed. However, . The last scene we see is.
 * The first part of Season 5 has Amelia's substance abuse getting worse and worse, especially after.
 * Jerkass: Addison's father, and her mother too. Also Violet in Season 2. And Fife in Season 3, in spite of being wheelchair-bound, manages to come off as a complete asshole. And then there's Cooper's recent uber-asshole behavior towards Charlotte.
 * Charlotte is a pretty big Jerkass herself, what with all the lying and cheating.
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Archer may not be very nice, but he really likes his sister (not THAT way,pervs). Also, Charlotte. Fife (see above) seems to be headed this way, too.
 * Killed Off for Real:.
 * Law of Inverse Fertility: Addison.
 * Let Them Die Happy: Pete with.
 * Looking for Love In All the Wrong Places: Addison is an expert at this trope, but the rest of the cast is certainly no slouch in this department.
 * Love Triangle: Sam/Naomi/Dell, Violet/Cooper/Charlotte, Pete/Violet/Sheldon, Addison/Noah/Noah's-poor-wife-whose-name-fans-don't-even-remember-any-more.....
 * Also now Naomi/Fife/William, Pete/Addison/Sam and then Addison/Pete/Violet.
 * More like a Love Dodecahedron.
 * Mauvaise Belle: Charlotte.
 * Medical Drama
 * Mr. Fanservice: Dell. Lampshaded in an early episode, where the ladies pretend not to notice him as he's walking out to the beach with a surfboard.


 * Older Than They Look: Real Life example: Tim Daly (Pete) is 53 and doesn't look a day older than 41.
 * One of Our Own: Most notably Violet; at the end of Season 2 she is . Also recently Cooper, who was imprisoned for refusing to disclose where a  kid was staying to avoid his  abusive stepfather, and Dell,.
 * His wife, who.
 * Charlotte, who between the end of "All in the Family" and the beginning of "Did You Hear What Happened to Charlotte King?".
 * Amelia, a former addict who's started to relapse.
 * Only Sane Man: Sheldon occasionally fills this role, giving advice to other members of the practice, and staying (comparatively) drama-free.
 * Patient of the Week
 * Please Don't Leave Me: A variation happens to in the fourth episode of the fourth season, when no one is willing to step in and . This character's line  is quite poignant, considering that . As Violet put it :
 * Poorly-Disguised Pilot: The two part episode "The Other Side of This Life" in Grey's Anatomy.
 * Real Life Writes the Plot:.
 * "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Amelia has various for all of her colleagues, but especially Addison, during an intervention. Borders on being a Hannibal Lecture at points.
 * Spin-Off
 * Straw Feminist: Addison in one episode in which the practice was holding a meeting to decide whether or not to perform abortions, when she said that the vote of anyone who didn't have a vagina didn't count. They may be guys, but they're partners in the practice too. They have to have their say.
 * Of course, considering her past -- aborting a child even though she really wanted to be a mother because the father wasn't the "right guy" -- it was probably a little to personal an issue for her to see clearly how unfair she was being.
 * And to be fair, this is a real life limitation commonly imposed on abortion debates and generally considered acceptable by both pro-choice and pro-life women; if it hadn't been an issue that had a direct impact on how they would have to run their business, some would consider it reasonable.
 * To be even fairer, she didn't say their votes wouldn't count, she said for them to leave the room unless they wanted to fight with her. Which they didn't. As much as the issue was debated, it was never put to a vote onscreen with or without the guys.
 * Teen Pregnancy:.
 * Troubled but Cute: Pete. Amelia.
 * The Unfair Sex: Everything Violet does is justified by this, and the sheer power of Wangst. Dell's, and when he gets insanely pissed off about it (wouldn't you?) he's being a bad, baaaad parent. This in spite of the fact that , after all of which the beautiful fair lady went ahead and decided . Seriously, what could possibly go wrong?
 * And then he was deemed wrong for . Really?
 * Wham! Episode: The final episode of Season 2 and the first of Season 3. Then, Episode 7 of Season 4 came...
 * What the Hell, Hero?: Dell is the frequent invoker of this trope - He's called out Violet, Naomi, Sam and even Addison about their bad decisions on more than one occasion. Fans practically cheered their lungs out when Violet finally got a good telling-to. Go, Dell!
 * What Were You Thinking?: Happens every now and then.
 * You Did Everything You Could
 * Your Cheating Heart: Addison, full stop.
 * Your Cheating Heart: Addison, full stop.