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.

Tropes used in Private Practice include:

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 a recovering narcotic addict and didn't want to break her sobriety by taking a painkiller.
Berserk Button: Cooper once punched a patient's father when he the child mentioned being touched. The dad wanted to sue him Until he finds out that had jumped to conclusions. It was the mom who was touching the child.
Biggus Dickus: Apparently Sheldon.
Bittersweet Ending: Episode 14 of the Fourth season, full stop: Charlotte's rapist finally got what he deserved... But on the other hand, Susan, Bizzy's lover, died, and Bizzy soon follow her, by committing suicide.
Chew Toy: Betsy in Season 4.
- Amelia in Season 5.
Dark and Troubled Past: Amelia Shepherd, who along with her brother Derek was in the house when her father was killed. Also Pete who revealed that he saw his mom murder the only man who gave a damn about him and then testified against her.
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, Catie, the one who cut her open, calls her on it in Season 4 Episode 19!).
Driven to Suicide: Bizzy.
Dysfunction Junction
Fiery Redhead: Addison, of course.
Gag Penis: Sheldon, 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: Susan's cancer was supposed healed. However, she collapses moments after her wedding night. She signed a D.N.R, so Addison didn't have the right to bring her back when she coded. Buzzy is devastated, and after tricking Addison into leaving her alone at the Hotel, she commits suicide, leaving only a rather cold letter to her daughter. The last scene we see is Addison crying over her mother's dead body.
- The first part of Season 5 has Amelia's substance abuse getting worse and worse, especially after her terminally ill friend commits suicide.
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: Dell.
Law of Inverse Fertility: Addison.
Let Them Die Happy: Pete with Heather, Dell's wife.
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.

"If that didn't satisfy, there's another showing in an hour. And it's wet."

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 given a C-section by a crazy patient. Also recently Cooper, who was imprisoned and beaten up in prison for refusing to disclose where a lying kid was staying to avoid his supposedly abusive stepfather, and Dell, whose house blew up with his wife and daughter in it; the daughter came out fairly fine, but the wife died of her burns.
- His wife, who was using the burner to make Meth and caused the explosion.
  - Charlotte, who has been brutally raped 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 Betsey in the fourth episode of the fourth season, when no one is willing to step in and adopt her. This character's line "Don't you want to take care of me ?" is quite poignant, considering that both her parents are dead, her aunt literally abandoned her, and now the only people she knew besides her family did the same to her. As Violet put it : "We did a bad thing. You know it."
Poorly-Disguised Pilot: The two part episode "The Other Side of This Life" in Grey's Anatomy.
Rape as Drama: Charlotte.
Real Life Writes the Plot: Amelia's pregnancy.
"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: Maya, who's keeping her baby and marrying the father at fifteen years old.
Troubled but Cute: Pete. Amelia.
The Unfair Sex: Everything Violet does is justified by this, and the sheer power of Wangst. Dell's daughter is almost killed because his wife thought it perfectly safe to cook meth in the kitchen, 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 Dell supported her through her addiction, took her back after multiple relapses, and even forgave her for kidnapping his child, after all of which the beautiful fair lady went ahead and decided cookin' meth in the kitchen with her little girl sitting in the next room was an awesomely good idea. Seriously, what could possibly go wrong?
- And then he was deemed wrong for Not wanting his daughter to see her badly burned, mutilated mother before she died. 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.