A California appeals court has found that ER and The Pitt have enough similarity that a lawsuit brought by the widow and estate of ER creator Michael Crichton alleging The Pitt is an unauthorized reboot can move forward.
Crichton, the author of Jurassic Park and many other novels that became hit movies and TV shows, wrote the pilot script for ER, the NBC show about a Chicago emergency room that redefined the medical drama genre and drew tens of millions of weekly viewers in its run from 1994 to 2009. Television, which also produced ER. But the judges dismissed Noah Wyle — the star of both shows and a producer on The Pitt — as a defendant along with two other producers who worked on both series. The lawsuit is a clash between the makers of multiple Emmy-winning TV series, each among the most important and acclaimed shows of their eras. The lawsuit brought by Sherri Crichton was filed two years ago, before a single episode of The Pitt had aired. The HBO Max series that shows a real-time day in the life of a Pittsburgh emergency department has since become perhaps the most lauded series in television, winning two Emmys for best drama for its first two seasons and two best actor Emmys for Wyle. The fast-paced dialogue is (to a layperson) frequently incomprehensible shorthand and jargon, lending an air of immediacy and accuracy. Warner Bros. Nothing in the Court of Appeal’s decision establishes otherwise, and WBTV looks forward to defending its position as the case proceeds.”
The opinion also said that both feature “very fast pacing, and reactions to multiple overlapping crises. Television said in a statement that “WBTV continues to maintain that The Pitt is an entirely original series and that the claims against it are without merit. A three-judge panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled unanimously on Wednesday that the trial court judge was correct to reject a motion to throw out the case from The Pitt production company Warner Bros.
