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Scandal (2012) follows the life of a former White House Communications Director who has started her own crisis-management firm. With each episode comes a new or developing scandal that Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) must attempt to solve. Although Scandal does not claim to be ripped from the headlines like many police procedurals, certain plots within the political thriller are loosely based on a few real-life scandals.

The inspiration for the Olivia Pope character came from Judy Smith, the Deputy Press Secretary for George H. W. Bush. Like Olivia, Smith was credited with guiding presidents around potential controversies. In a 2014 interview with ABC 7 Chicago, Smith revealed that she and the show’s creator, Shonda Rhimes, often work together to come up with ideas for the show. “I read every script and I send them notes, and sometimes I am on the set. It’s fun,” Smith said.

During a speech at Syracuse University, Smith elaborated that some scenarios are portrayed accurately, like affairs and election rigging. However, Smith is quick to say that unlike Olivia she did not sleep with any presidents, nor did she have to drag any dead bodies away from the crime scene.

President Fitz Grant and Olivia Pope, Scandal (ABC)

She also mentioned that while Olivia seems to be capable of handling any potential disaster that she may come across, that is not always how it happens in real-life. “I think there are some things that just cannot be fixed,” Smith said, citing the example of Florida woman Casey Anthony who was accused of killing her two year-old daughter in 2008. She says sometimes it’s best to leave a mess for someone else to clean up, especially if she feels she can’t contribute positively to the crisis.

The Olivia Pope character isn’t the only aspect of Scandal that is based on real-life situations. In the series premiere, “Sweet Baby,” Olivia must deal with the issue of a possible affair between a former White House aide and the current president. The scandal presented in the first-ever episode was based around Bill Clinton’s alleged affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

Since its premiere, Scandal has aired episodes inspired by Edward Snowden’s leaking of information about the NSA’s surveillance program, former U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner’s sexting scandal and the events that led up to the fatal shooting of Michael Brown.

Interestingly, though, episodes that appear to be inspired by a real-life event may come to fruition before the scandal plays out in real-life. Tony Goldwyn, who plays President Fitzgerald Grant III, said in an interview that Shonda Rhimes actually came up with the plot of a character’s stealing documents from the NSA approximately six months before the world knew about Edward Snowden.

One recent episode that was heavily inspired by recent events was Season Four’s “The Lawn Chair,” and although Shonda Rhimes says Season Five’s “Even the Devil Deserves a Second Chance” was not inspired by Bill Cosby, many believe the two are very similar.

Kerry Washington as Olivia Pope on Scandal (ABC)

“The Lawn Chair” eerily resembles the events that unfolded in Ferguson, Missouri in August 2014, when a police officer shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown. In the Scandal episode the Washington Metropolitan Police Department call on Olivia to assist in handling the inevitable backlash they are about to face after one of their officers shot and killed a teenager. “I woke up knowing that we were going to go write “The Lawn Chair” after Ferguson,” Rhimes told Elle. “I watched that coverage and was horrified.”

Despite many reports that “Even The Devil Deserves a Second Chance” was based off of the rape allegations against Bill Cosby, Shonda Rhimes gave a statement to Entertainment Weekly dispelling the idea. “I don’t need the Cosby scandal to inspire me to tell a story about rape. As if that is the only instance in which rape is relevant. Somewhere in America, a woman is raped every two minutes. Every two minutes. Let’s not diminish or insult the stories of these survivors by suggesting that I could only decide to tell a story about rape because of a celebrity scandal.”

The collaboration of Judy Smith and Shonda Rhimes allows for a balance between real-life and the totally outrageous, which lets Rhimes and the writers go for the crazy and outlandish storylines. Chances are that a similar, existing political scandal will soon prove that you can’t make this stuff up.