Have you noticed that the name of Eric Dane's character on Grey's Anatomy, a doctor, has the same name as another famous TV doctor?
Dane's character is named Dr. Mark Sloan, which was also the name of Dick Van Dyke's character on Diagnosis: Murder. Is the name a tribute to Van Dyke's character? No, it's not, according to an ABC publicist. Just one of those funny coincidences.
Which is probably a good thing, since fans won't want to think of Dick Van Dyke wearing only a towel around his waist. Of course, now that I've put that image in your head, how can you not think of it the next time you see him?
[via TV Tattle - also mentioned by Lee Goldberg]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-23-2006 @ 9:25AM
Toby OB said...
Back on Feb. 9th, I wrote about the two characters with the same name in my Inner Toob blog:
http://toobworld.blogspot.com/2006/02/mark-sloan-mach-two.html
My theory was that the Mark Sloan of 'Grey's Anatomy' was named after Mark Sloan of 'Diagnosis Murder'; that they were both part of the same family tree, perhaps second cousins at best. (Not close enough that the subject should ever come up in Mark Sloan 2's conversations with others at Seattle Grace.)
It made for a nice hypothetical link between the two shows.
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10-23-2006 @ 9:44AM
Rich Keller said...
How the heck could it be just a coincidence? These people never saw an episode of DM? It was only on the air for about 9 years.
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10-23-2006 @ 9:56AM
Ginny said...
Let's have Dick Van Dyke go to Seattle Grace as a patient in the character of Mark Sloane from Diagnosis Murder. There could be a little murder mystery and much mayhem and confusion written in to the episode.
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