For the widow of the late author Michael Crichton and his estate, the new medical drama from the Max streaming service, The Pitt, sounds a little too much like an unauthorized reboot of ER, a show that Crichton based on his very own experiences. The similarities, including the casting of former ER star Noah Wyle, are so jarring that Crichton’s estate has now taken legal action against all the creative parties involved with the upcoming series.
Per Variety, a complaint was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court against Warner Bros. Television, executive producers John Wells and R. Scott Gemmill and Wyle which asserts that The Pitt is essentially a repackaged reboot of ER, which ran for 15 seasons and 331 episodes on NBC and was a monumental success. In the lawsuit, it states:
“After negotiating unsuccessfully with Crichton’s estate for nearly a year for the right to reboot ER, Warner Bros. simply moved the show from Chicago to Pittsburg, rebranded it The Pitt, and has plowed ahead without any attribution or compensation for Crichton and his heirs.”
The suit goes on to claim breach of contract, breach of implied covenant of good faith, and fair dealing and intentional interference with contractual relations. As far as the similarities between the two shows, the lawsuit doesn’t sugarcoat that The Pitt is essentially ER just with a different name. In the suit it states:
“It’s not like
ER
, it’s not kind of
ER
, it’s not sort of
ER
. It is
ER
complete with the same executive producer, writer, star, production companies, studio and network as the planned
ER
reboot.”
The Pitt Does Sound Undeniably Similar to ER…
On ER, the series explored the inner workings of the ER of Cook County General Hospital, a fictionalized version of the real Cook County Hospital in Chicago, and focused on the professional and personal lives of its staff. Noah Wyle starred as a medical student, later turned doctor, John Carter. He began as a third-year medical student before becoming a resident and eventually an attending physician. The series is also known as the big break for actor and director George Clooney.
The Pitt, meanwhile, follows the lives of the healthcare professionals working at a Pittsburg Hospital, dealing with their everyday personal and professional endeavors as doctors, nurses and patients. Wyle, who also serves as an executive producer, will be playing Dr. Michael Robinavitch. The shows do clearly sound similar, but it could be argued that most medical dramas share this DNA. What makes things look questionable is that key players involved with ER are also involved with this series and if it’s true they tried to pitch an ER reboot for nearly a year to no avail, the estate may actually have a case here.
Oddly enough, during an appearance on the Still Here Hollywood podcast back in June, Wyle spoke about a potential link between the two shows when he emailed Wells about the project and even mentioned “bringing in a couple of the old ER writers” but went on to say, “We had some issues with the Crichton estate. Negotiations became a non-starter.”
“I know you don’t want to reboot the show. I don’t either. I thought it was very smart not to franchise and dilute what we did…but if you’ve ever wanted to do something much smaller, and much more contained…I would vote for that. I’d be on board for that.”
The lawsuit goes even deeper into alleged behavior that transpired after Crichton passed away in 2008. In terms of the original ER series, the lawsuit states that Crichton “insisted upon a series of contractual promises” before Warner Bros. Television moved forward with the hit NBC show. A part of these promises was a “frozen rights” provision that would prevent the television studio from moving forward with any reboots or spinoffs of the show without the consent of the estate.
However, these promises were allegedly not kept after Crichton’s death, with the lawsuit asserting that Warner Bros. Television “undertook a disturbing pattern of conduct to diminish and ultimately erase Crichton entirely from his creations.” This included discussions taking place about an ER reboot in 2020 without informing his widow, Sherri Chricton, beforehand.
For their part, WBTV has called the claims “baseless,” and went on to state, “The Pitt is a new and original show. Any suggestion otherwise is false, and Warner Bros. Television intends to vigorously defend against these meritless claims.”
The Pitt
, which was handed a 15-episode series order on the Max streaming service, is expected to premiere in 2025.