Greek
Promotional Poster
Created by	Patrick Sean Smith
Starring	Clark Duke Tiffany Dupont Scott Michael Foster Spencer Grammer Paul James Jake McDorman Amber Stevens Dilshad Vadsaria Jacob Zachar
Opening theme	"Our Time Now" (played on commercials, not during credits)
Composer	John Swihart
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	47 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Lloyd Segan Shawn Piller
Running time	43 mins approx.
Original release
Network	ABC Family
Release	July 9, 2007 – present

Greek (promoted in faux-Greek alphabet as GRΣΣK) is an American, dramedy television series, which follows students of the fictional Cyprus-Rhodes University (CRU) who partake in the school's Greek system, an organization of single-sex "clubs" identified using Greek letters. The show's plots often taken place within the confines of the fictional fraternities, Kappa Tau Gamma (ΚΤΓ) and Omega Chi Delta (ΩΧΔ), or the fictional sorority, Zeta Beta Zeta (ΖΒZ). Throughout the course of the series, other non-Greek characters and situations are introduced, but they all tie into larger relationships with the Greeks.

In April 2007, ABC Family announced plans to begin airing Greek in July of that summer. The series premiered on July 9, 2007.^[2] The show depicts a school similar to a liberal arts school located in Ohio (i.e. Denison, Miami, etc.). Show creator Patrick Sean Smith began the show as a spec script of a show that he "really wanted to see," noticing a lack of shows in an hour-long format following a comedic take on college life. Citing "shows like Grey’s Anatomy and Ugly Betty" that "were pushing the envelope comedically in [sic] one-hour format," Smith saw the idea working for a younger set.^[3]

Greek became an example of ABC Family's desire to change their image to appeal to the emerging generation of viewers. The show's content is not traditionally considered "family friendly" due to its depiction of homosexuality, sex, and drinking. The producers and the network believe the friendships, which substitute for family during college, achieve the network's motto: A New Kind of Family.^[4] At the heart of the series is the sibling relationship between Casey and Rusty. The producers recognize that while it is a show about families, it is not necessarily for families, believing it is important that the authenticity of college life be portrayed, which includes the mature elements of that lifestyle. Even still, they work at making sure their depictions aren't gratuitous.^[5]

Filmed primarily in Los Angeles, California, the show is also filmed on location at the UCLA Campus in Westwood, a district of Los Angeles California. Many campus scenes have also been shot at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, California, outside of Los Angeles. They've also filmed at the University of North Carolina, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina,^[6] and used aerial footage of Stanford University. The exterior and some interior shots were filmed in the historic West Adams District within Los Angeles.The house used in the pilot to establish the ZBZ residence is the same house used in the reality series Beauty and the Geek.^[5]

The first season was halted in September 2007 due to the Writers Guild of America strike and returned March 24, 2008, to a triple digit increase in ratings over the pilot's premiere ^[7]. On May 1, 2008, ABC Family renewed Greek for a second season, premiering August 26, 2008. The series was moved from the Tuesday lineup to Monday nights.^[8] Twelve more episodes were ordered for late spring 2009 and aired beginning March 30. On January 31, 2009, it was announced that Greek would return for a third season, premiering on August 31, 2009.^[9]

The show airs in the US on ABC Family on Mondays 9/8 c, encores ran the following Friday during its First Chapter.^[10] The show also airs on BBC Three in the UK, pay-TV FOX8 in Australia, TV2 in New Zealand, MuchMusic in Canada, Virgin 17 in France, Universal Channel in Brazil, pay-TV network FOX in Germany, and on MTV Italia and MTV Greece in Italy and Greece, respectively. In Sweden, it airs on Kanal 5. It will begin airing on RTL 5 in the Netherlands.

Greek airs in chapters on ABC Family (as correspond to their DVD releases), with Season 1 comprising the first and second chapter, Season 2 comprising the third and fourth chapter, and Season 3 set to begin the fifth chapter of the series.^[11][12]

The following is a list of houses featured in more than one episode.

The pilot episode premiered on Monday, July, 9, 2007 in the US on ABC Family.

Rusty Cartwright (Jacob Zachar) is a freshman at Cyprus-Rhodes University, and in an effort to shed his nerdy image, he pledges Greek. His older sister, Casey (Spencer Grammer), is an active member of the Zeta Beta Zeta sorority, and is dating Evan Chambers (Jake McDorman), an active member of the Omega Chi Delta fraternity. Evan offers Rusty a spot in Omega Chi but gets declined after Evan gets spotted cheating on Casey with Rebecca Logan (Dilshad Vadsaria). Rusty later accepts an invitation for Kappa Tau by Cappie (Scott Michael Foster), Casey's ex-boyfriend, much to Casey's concern. Additionally, Rusty's straight-edged roommate, Dale (Clark Duke), is concerned for Rusty's involvement with the Greeks, but later accepts Rusty's new lifestyle, even befriending Rusty's homosexual friend Calvin (Paul James), who gets accidentally outted by Ashleigh (Amber Stevens). The biggest scandal for the Greeks erupts after Rusty's new girlfriend, Jen K, a Zeta Beta Zeta pledge, is outed for writing a newspaper article based on the secrets of the Greeks and getting them in trouble and forcing Dean Bowman to lay down strict rules on the Greeks. Since the article encircles the Zeta Beta Zeta sorority, the National Board for ZBZ forces Frannie to step down as president and have Casey take her place.

With elections around the corner, Casey and Frannie (Tiffany Dupont) rally for the presidential bid. After the sharing of words at a house-meeting, the girls ultimately select Ashleigh to be president. With this, Frannie leaves ZBZ along with some of the girls to start a new house, Iota Kappa Iota. When her new beau, Evan, accepts a multi-million trust fund from his parents, Frannie uses this to her advantage as how to fund her new sorority. Meanwhile, Casey starts dating Rusty's RA, Max, but the pair struggles when it comes to his graduation and spending the summer apart. When the new year begins, it is found out that Max had turned down a full scholarship to Grad School to stay at CRU with Casey. As far as relationships go, Rusty starts dating ZBZ pledge, Jordan. Additionally, Cappie and Evan are among the very few to be selected for a secret society headed by Dean Bowman, and it is there as to how the two begin to settle their differences. At a Kappa Tau party Casey confronts her feelings for Cappie but to her surprise Cappie does not want her to mess up things with her beau, Max, so she dumps him.

Casey broke up with Max, who in turn leaves for England. When Rebecca confesses she kissed Fischer in a drunken stupor, Asheligh breaks up with him. Omega Chi starts an all-greek game of "Gotcha!", and Rusty and Jordan are the two left standing, which puts a damper on their effort for alone time. Meanwhile, Evan found out about Calvin and Grant's relationship and helps them keep it a secret from the rest of Omega Chi. Additionally, Casey is putting her political savvy to good use, starting with the Pan-Hellenic vote on the annual "Undie Run".

• The Plain White T's "Our Time Now" played during commercials advertising Greek during the show’s first chapter promotional run. The band has appeared in numerous Greek episodes, making their debut in the season one episode, "The Rusty Nail". They appeared in subsequent episodes "Friday Night Frights", "A New Normal", and "See You Next Time Sisters"^[19]. The show incorporated some members of the band as KT brothers in the episode "The Great Cappie". The Chapter Two DVD features a video for the band’s song, "Natural Disaster", which features Tiffany Dupont.

• The Dollyrots appeared in the season one episode, "Multiple Choice", playing “Because I’m Awesome”.^[19]

• Marié Digby performs “Better Off Alone” in the penultimate season 1 episode, "Barely Legal".^[19]
• American Bang performs two songs in the season 1 finale, "Spring Broke": “Wild and Young”, and “Move to the Music”.^[19]

• The War Tapes are the featured band during the season 2 finale, "At World’s End", playing, “Always Falling”, and “Dreaming of You”.^[20]

Greek often calls out pop culture references related to their cast or guest stars.

• In season one, episode three, “The Rusty Nail”, Evan and Casey mention watching Frasier. Frasier starred Kelsey Grammer, Spencer Grammer’s famous father.

• In season one, episode nine, “Depth Perception”, Jen K calls her roommate lonelygirl15, referencing Jessica Rose’s noted character.

• In season one, episode nine, “Depth Perception”, Cappie's case number in the medical study is 867-5309, referring to the famous song by Tommy Tutone.

• In season one, episode twelve, “The Great Cappie”, Ashleigh is telling Dean Bowman how she considers Ferris Bueller's Day Off one of the best films of her generation. Alan Ruck, who plays Dean Bowman, played Cameron Frye in Ferris Bueller.

• In season one, episode twelve, “The Great Cappie”, a nameless KT brother, played by Tom Higgenson, is mentioned as having a band. In real life, Tom is the lead singer for The Plain White T's, who've made numerous appearances on the show.

• In season one, episode nineteen, “No Campus for Old Rules”, another Ferris Bueller reference is made when Dean Bowman calls his companion Sloan. Sloan was Ferris’ love interest in the movie, whom Cameron was also in love with.

• In season two, episode twelve, “From Rushing with Love”, the ZBZ girls are putting on a skit based on the The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and one of the rushies mentions how cute the character of Kostas was illiciting an "eh" from Casey. Kostas was portrayed by Michael Rady in the film.

• In season two, episode seventeen, “Guilty Treasures”, Rusty admits to having kissed Jordan. Cappie lists off several different "Jordan"s, including Jordan Catalano, the main love interest of Angela Chase in an earlier ABC show, My So-Called Life.

• In season two, episode twenty, “Isn't it Bro-mantic”, Rusty states before his first date with Jordan that her exboyfriend "dresses like a pop star." Jordan's exboyfriend was played by Jesse McCartney, an actual pop star.

In the United Kingdom, after each episode airs a special behind the scenes episode entitled Greek Uncovered, which can be found on the BBC iPlayer and on BBC Three.^[21] In the Australian iTunes store, each week, a new episode (to Australia) will appear, after it is aired on FOX8.

Greek has received a score of 62 out of 100 from review aggregator Metacritic.^[22] In a review released soon after the premiere of the show, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette called the show "light-hearted fun" and "authentic" while the New York Times claimed that Greek "captures the spirit of the hedge-fund age like nothing else."^[23][24] Other critics did not find the drama as authentic, with Elizabeth Fox of the Philadelphia Inquirer criticizing the show's predictability and lack of originality as another "teenage soap opera."^[25] Other reviews were middling, calling the writing of the show acceptable and praising the strength of the cast.^[26]

Members of the real life Greek community have claimed that Greek's depiction of fraternity and sorority life is stereotypical.^[27] USC banned the show from filming on their campus, in reaction to the promotional poster featuring the Greek logo over a red cup, since the cup is often used to symbolize alcoholic consumption during parties. However, upon viewing the pilot episode they held off on sending a letter to ABC Family, complaining about the depiction of the Greek System, when they realized there was more to the show than just parties.^[28] Others recognize it as a hyperbolic representation of "tamer, more modest" Greek life.^[29]

The show has been noted by LGBT activists for the character of Calvin, a gay fraternity brother, who struggles with the stereotyping and homophobia that coming out of the closet entails. Critics have praised the character's "three dimensionality."^[3][30]

In 2008 GLAAD nominated Greek for an Outstanding Drama Series award, and in 2009 they nominated the show in the Outstanding Comedy Series category. Actor Paul James was nominated for a 2009 Image Award as Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series.^[31]

The rating score for Greek's pilot episode was 1.1.^[32], and chapter 2 ended with 1.3 viewers.^[33]

Chapter 3 saw a ratings spike, premiering to 1.6 viewers, a 78% increase, doubling and tripling their ratings in all demographics, marked a network high for male viewers, and was the 2nd most watched cable show with females age 12-34. Greek also appeared on the list of top ten downloads on iTunes.^[5][7]

Chapter 4 premiered much lower, with a .9 rating,^[34] and ended with a .7.^[33] The third season premiere had a total of 1.21 million viewers, down almost 2 million from its lead in, The Secret Life of the American Teenager.^[35] The second episode pulled in 1.31 million viewers.^[36]

• Official website
• Template:Myspace
• Greek at IMDb
• Greek Uncovered at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com show
• Greek Speak Podcast
• Greek Central - Hungarian Fansite