For the creators of award-winning medical drama “The Pitt”, it is “time to trade scrubs for a suit”, said Vulture. US judges have found that the multi-award-winning American show has enough “clear and numerous similarities” to hit 1990s hospital drama “ER” for a court case to proceed.
This only adds fuel to a “high-stakes legal battle” that started before “The Pitt” first aired in the US in 2025, said The Times. The case, brought by the widow of “ER” creator Michael Crichton, will now go to a jury trial in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Uncredited reboot
“The Pitt” is a “gritty depiction of a fast-paced” A&E department “dealing with a wave of crises”, said The Times, and, right from its debut, it “revived memories of a ground-breaking hospital drama from three decades earlier”. Sherri Crichton maintains it is indeed a rebranded but uncredited reboot of “ER”.
In their 33-page opinion, the judges compared the scripts of each show’s opening episode and found details that “suffice for a prima facie case”. They cited similarities in “plot, themes, dialogue, mood, setting, pace, characters, graphic injury detail and sequence of events”, said the BBC.
But claims against Noah Wyle, actor-producer of “The Pitt”, as well as executive producer John Wells, and showrunner R Scott Gemmill, were dismissed. All three were involved with “ER” – Wyle played Dr John Carter – but the judges found no evidence to suggest that they know they could be breaching Crichton’s contractual rights. They could, however, still be called as witnesses during the trial.
‘Uncoupled’ from ‘ER’
“At the centre of the dispute is a so-called frozen-rights provision” signed between Michael Crichton and Warner Bros. in 1994 before the release of “ER”, said The New York Times. It stipulates that any publishing relating to “ER”, which includes theatrical releases, spin-offs and additional works would be “frozen” until they got his approval. When Crichton – who also wrote “Jurassic Park” and wrote and directed “Westworld” – died in 2008, that control passed to his widow, Sherri.
In August 2024, before “The Pitt” first hit US screens, Sherri Crichton “dragged the yet-to-debut” drama into court in a breach of contract action, said Deadline. There had been prior negotiations between her and Wells about a reboot of “ER” but they “fell apart”, and the creators of “The Pitt” say they only “birthed” their idea for the show after that. They see the lawsuit “as sour grapes and a money grab” by the Crichton estate.
Wyle has “spoken openly” about his new show’s origins, said The Independent. He told Amy Poehler “Good Hang” podcast that he and his team had had a “near-miss” with rebooting “ER”, but had “uncoupled” from that intellectual property.
The trial could come “as early as next summer”, said Deadline, “unless the parties settle”. That isn’t “impossible” but it does seem “unlikely, given all the bitterness and bad blood between the principals”.
‘Numerous similarities’ between the two medical dramas means a ‘high stakes legal battle’
