News Here’s how Disney lost Shonda Rhimes to Netflix over a Disneyland pass

TheDisneyDaysOfOurLives

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
Yes
From her own words, she wasn't even at Disneyland. It was her nanny and her kids, and then at the last second her sister showed up and wanted to get into the park for free too. And they probably all had an attitude like "I'm So-And-So's sister! Don't you know who I am? I deserve a free ticket! Let me talk to your manager while I call corporate on you!"

Blech. 🤢 Typical Hollywood attitude and give-me outlook. And she wasn't even there! It was her nobody nanny and her nobody sister demanding free entry into an amusement park.

Good riddance to her, and everyone who thinks like her. :rolleyes:



Me either. I had to Google her name, but at first I thought maybe she was related to that LeeAnn Rhimes girl that sings the country western songs? Nope. She's a TV producer. She has zero face recognition; if I saw her in the Glade Candle aisle at Target I wouldn't know or care. But she wants extra free stuff for her sister.



I dunno... I read her little sob story. She wanted extra free stuff for her sister who crashed a free trip to Disneyland for her nanny and kids. If sis wants to go to Disneyland, let sis buy a ticket, because I guarantee you sis is not mentioned on her employment contract with Disney.

Why can't her sister also have a free dental exam and cleaning on Shonda's medical insurance from Disney? Shonda makes a lot of money for Disney! They owe her. And her sister. 🧐

Per the article, she negotiated for a second pass for her Nanny to take her kids. Her sister wanted to tag along. She called and they said they would take care of it (though apparently with some run around and grumbling, which on top of the nickle and diming her on the shows that produced billions in revenue was probably the straw that broke the camel's back) and when her sister arrived, it wasn't taken care of. You trying to tell me you never got to a restaurant and they didn't find your reservation and you were a bit ticked off? You've never been ticked off before?

That's hysterical!

I can only imagine how miserable it must be to be around this Rhimes woman most days. And God help you if you are simply the manager of the Disneyland ticket booths trying to figure out who her sister is and why her sister doesn't have to pay for a ticket into the park.

Good riddance to this type of Hollywood trash. I hope I do see her in the Glade Candle aisle at Target now; I'm going to hog smelling all the good ones for several long minutes and only let her near the gross melon scented ones.

I can be cutthroat at Target if I don't like your tone. Don't push me. :cool:

Miserable? Based on what?

Wait... are you coming back out of retirement? ;)

This story just keeps on giving!

I got a surprise DM from a CM (follow that?) who lurks here that knows about this incident first hand, as when a crazy Karen is yelling at you that "I'm Shonda Rhimes sister! Let me in!" and you have no idea who Shonda Rhimes is, it's a memorable day at work. 🤣

I got tons of information from this CM, but I sifted through it and figured it out and I'm going to paraphrase a bit to protect the innocent, but what I learned is this (and it's even more unflattering for poor Shonda)...

Shonda Rhimes had a "Main Gate Pass", because she was an employee of the Walt Disney Company. A Main Gate Pass is nothing special, it's given out to every full time Disney employee coast-to-coast as part of their benefits package, from janitors in Orlando to bigwig TV Producers in Hollywood. A Main Gate Pass gets you and/or your legal spouse, plus your "dependency listing" of your legal children that is on file with Disney HR, into the park with one-day park hopper tickets. There are blockout dates for Main Gate Passes, just like lower level AP's.

Shonda Rhimes is an unmarried ABC employee with three children on file with HR, so her Main Gate Pass is good for herself and 3 guests. What makes Shonda Rhimes interesting is that she's too busy to take her kids to Disneyland, so she has her nanny do it for her. But previously she ran into trouble with that because her nanny is not her legal spouse, so her nanny was not listed on the Main Gate Pass. Shonda had her lawyers negotiate with Disney to break their own established rules and let the nanny be listed on the Main Gate Pass so that the nanny can use it without Shonda having to be there. A legal spouse may use their spouse's Main Gate Pass, but no one else. Certainly not a household employee like a nanny or a cook. But let's not forget how very, very special Shonda Rhimes is. :rolleyes:

So before the nanny showed up with the kids at Disneyland that fateful day, Shonda was already used to thinking the rules of the Main Gate Pass don't apply to her. This is where Disney has some blame for sowing their own scandal by establishing the rules don't apply to Shonda Rhimes. But on the day in question, it wasn't just the nanny and three kids using the Main Gate Pass, Shonda's sister also tagged along. Shonda's sister put them over the limit of three guests, because now there are four people trying to get into the park with the nanny who is using Shonda's Main Gate Pass. And the CM at the turnstile said "Sorry, your Main Gate Pass only prints out three extra comp tickets. I'll need to have a fourth ticket to let you all in."

And that's where it all fell apart very quickly. Shonda's sister immediately starting throwing the name Shonda Rhimes around, right there at the turnstile. The CM was an elderly lady who had no idea what the words "Shonda Rhimes" meant, she just needed to have the adult yelling at her give her a ticket to be let into the park. Managers were summoned, the group was moved off to the side to figure it out, but it was clearly apparent; this was a Disney employee of some type trying to bully their way into the park with a 4th guest on a Main Gate Pass that was only valid for 3 guests. The manager and "Lead" shift supervisors also had no idea who Shonda Rhimes is, although they did have basic knowledge of the show Grey's Anatomy as that reference was used often by Shonda's sister.

Shonda's sister was on the phone with Shonda, the phone was passed to the manager on duty and Shonda tried to tell the manager that he was making a big mistake and he would be fired if he didn't let Shonda's sister into the park immediately. The Disneyland CM's and turnstile manager dug in their heels and stood their ground. Shonda's sister fumed and also told them they were all losing their jobs by morning. Shonda called some executives in Burbank demanding they "do something" and get her sister into Disneyland ASAP. More calls were made.

Disneyland's Guest Relations team was then involved, but they had no record of any extra ticket being set aside for Shonda Rhimes that day, and no previous communication on the matter at all. Lots of CM's were then Googling Shonda Rhimes to try and figure out who she was and what she did for Disney, just out of curiosity.

Eventually after some time, a separate department in TDA was involved by Burbank who brought a comp ticket out to the Esplanade and gave it to Shonda's sister to use for the day. The party then went into the park with lots of attitude and more scorn heaped on the turnstile CM's who dared not let Shonda Rhime's sister into Disneyland for free. Peasants!

It was their very rude and horrible attitude that made this incident so memorable for the CM's involved.
If Shonda's sister there in person, and Shonda via the phone, had all just been more polite about it, had been kinder to the CM's doing their jobs, and just played it off as a misunderstanding, the incident would not have been so memorable to the CM's involved.

Of course, no CM's involved lost their jobs. No one was reprimanded, because all CM's involved did exactly what they were supposed to do. The managers thanked all the CM's involved for performing so well, and the elderly CM who took the brunt of the Rhimes family scorn was given a Starbucks gift card by her supervisor. It was just another crazy day at the Disneyland turnstiles.

It seems my jokey reference earlier about Shonda Rhimes letting her sister use her dental plan wasn't too far off. Basically... Shonda Rhimes was infuriated that her Main Gate Pass valid for 3 people wasn't simply turned into being valid for 4 people because she is Shonda Rhimes and she has a sister. And so she left Disney and now works for Netflix.

Just another day in Hollywood, gang. They're such pleasant people to be around! Let's adore them! :rolleyes:

I'm willing to bet 10% of this story is true.

And I'm sure it never even occurred to her to just buy her sister a ticket. Anyone have a guess what her compensation package is (was)?

It was time for Grey's to end anyway. I'll be sorry to see it go, but it was time.

The show is still going on. New season this Thursday.

I should add, one of the funniest parts of the information given to me was the repeated use of the phrases "Shonda Rhimes!" and "Don't you know who I am?!?" as the situation played out in person and on the phone there at the Disneyland turnstiles.

No, Ms. Rhimes, no one knew who you were. Your name had zero recognition with multiple people. CM's were having to Google you to find out. And even then it still doesn't change the terms of use for your Main Gate Pass.

Ms. Rhimes, if name recognition is important to you, and apparently it is, maybe you should get a better PR team? 🤣


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I wouldn't expect most people to know who she is. My mom and I do, but that's because she's a black showrunner in Hollywood. You can't just find those on every corner. I had a spec script once checked out by ABC based on Grey's Anatomy.

Grey's Anatomy was ER if it was written by someone that had never heard of hospitals or dr's before.

They actually have medical students and interns consult with the show (UCF's new medical school had one student fill that role for a while).

In season one of Grey's Anatomy, the residents referred to their supervisor, a black woman, as "the nazi".

Isn't that just locker room language? ;)

Not to be crude, but I think Arnold's housekeeper got the better deal. :cool:

Guess we know who you fantasize about

I'll own it. I love the show. Might start again from season 1, episode 1 if Biden wins. ;)

How goes the re-watch :p

Were those really the plotlines of this TV show? And this is what Ms. Rhimes produced? And for that she got a Main Gate Pass for her nanny?

If so, I'm reminded why I stopped watching network TV shows around 2010.

Do people really still tune in to ABC, NBC, etc. on a weeknight to watch this stuff? When there's vastly superior stuff like Schitt's Creek, Downton Abbey, a hundred brilliant YouTubers, etc., etc. available via streaming at any time?

I still watch. Usually on Thursday nights unless my schedule is weird. Same with This Is Us.
 

TP2000

Well-Known Member
I wouldn't expect most people to know who she is. My mom and I do, but that's because she's a black showrunner in Hollywood. You can't just find those on every corner. I had a spec script once checked out by ABC based on Grey's Anatomy.

I don't even know what a "showrunner" is, never heard of it until this thread. I assume it's like a producer, or one of those names that scrolls in the credits at the end of a show? Obviously it's more of a bigwig than the person in charge of snacks?

I don't think they track the race/ethnicity of studio employees in the credits (yet), but I could care less if the costume designer is purple or the "showrunner" is from Antarctica, just so long as the TV show was fun to watch. But then I've always tried to judge people by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. ;)

I wish Ms. Rhimes all the luck in the world with her "showrunning", and as part of her contract I hope she was able to negotiate a free subscription to Netflix for her sister. Her sister clearly deserves that.
 

TheDisneyDaysOfOurLives

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
Yes
I don't even know what a "showrunner" is, never heard of it until this thread. I assume it's like a producer, or one of those names that scrolls in the credits at the end of a show? Obviously it's more of a bigwig than the person in charge of snacks?

I don't think they track the race/ethnicity of studio employees in the credits (yet), but I could care less if the costume designer is purple or the "showrunner" is from Antarctica, just so long as the TV show was fun to watch. But then I've always tried to judge people by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. ;)

I wish Ms. Rhimes all the luck in the world with her "showrunning", and as part of her contract I hope she was able to negotiate a free subscription to Netflix for her sister. Her sister clearly deserves that.

Making it harder to believe you’re a puppet of Zenia and not know how Hollywood works ;)
 

truecoat

Well-Known Member
They actually have medical students and interns consult with the show (UCF's new medical school had one student fill that role for a while).

I'm sure they do for medical terminology but applying what a doctor would do in a real situation is thrown out the window. Cutting an artery on purpose for example.
 

LastoneOn

Well-Known Member
They actually have medical students and interns consult with the show (UCF's new medical school had one student fill that role for a while).
So, they have technical consultants that are not license to practice medicine.
Kind of like having a guy humping through Basic consulting on the next Special Forces movie.
 

DrAlice

Well-Known Member
I enjoyed Grey's and even the spinoff, Private Practice, for awhile. They had fun characters, and ridiculous story lines that were fun to watch. But like all soap operas, they try to out-shock themselves from season to season. Eventually that just becomes tiresome and harder to suspend disbelief. *shrug* YMMV
 

jaklgreen

Well-Known Member
I think that I would be ashamed to complain about not getting another free ticket to the parks so that someone else can go with her nanny and kids. Good grief. She has millions of dollars and can't fork over $100 for a ticket.
 

TP2000

Well-Known Member
I think that I would be ashamed to complain about not getting another free ticket to the parks so that someone else can go with her nanny and kids. Good grief. She has millions of dollars and can't fork over $100 for a ticket.

Thank you for getting it.

It was surprising to me how many folks here didn't get it, or wanted to give her a pass for some weird reason.
 

Sailor310

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
You know, I was just hoping to be the first to put out this amusing bit of Disney news. I'm pleased that it's been going on this long, and even managed to appeal to TP's snarky sense of humor. I can die happy!
 

jaklgreen

Well-Known Member
Thank you for getting it.

It was surprising to me how many folks here didn't get it, or wanted to give her a pass for some weird reason.

Some people have a thing called integrity. If I were that rich, not only would it be a non issue to buy my sister a ticket, I would probably even find some random family and pay for theirs too. Money does not turn you into a jerk, your either a jerk or your not.
 

TP2000

Well-Known Member
You know, I was just hoping to be the first to put out this amusing bit of Disney news. I'm pleased that it's been going on this long, and even managed to appeal to TP's snarky sense of humor. I can die happy!

Hooray!

Although, credit where it's due; this topic really got interesting when the CM poster here messaged me and filled me in on all the gory details. I have not seen that person post in any other threads here, and that's understandable if they want to keep their anonymity.

But without that person I would have been relegated to just Googling what Grey's Anatomy was and learning that Shonda Rhimes is not a country-western singer. 🤣
 
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truecoat

Well-Known Member
Hooray!

Although, credit where it's due; this topic really got interesting when the CM poster here messaged me and filled me in on all the gory details. I have not seen that person post in any other threads here, and that's understandable if they want to keep their anonymity.

But without that person I would have been relegated to just Googling what Grey's Anatomy was and learning that Shonda Rhimes is not a country-western singer. 🤣

I think there's a country song somewhere in this story.
 

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