A California appeals court has ruled that a lawsuit alleging The Pitt is an unauthorised reboot of ER can proceed, finding the two medical dramas share enough similarities for the case to move forward.
The unanimous decision by a three-judge panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal upheld a lower court’s refusal to dismiss the claim against Warner Bros Television, which produced both series.
However, the panel removed The Pitt star Noah Wyle and producers John Wells and R Scott Gemmill from the case. The judges said there was no evidence that the three men knew about the provisions of Michael Crichton’s contract which the lawsuit alleges they interfered with.
The legal action was brought by Sherri Crichton, widow of the late ER creator, and his estate. It claims that The Pitt is a rebranded version of an unauthorised revival of the long-running hospital drama which she had rejected.
Crichton wrote the pilot script for ER, the NBC series set in a Chicago emergency room which ran from 1994 to 2009. His contract included a “frozen rights” provision preventing Warner Bros from making sequels, remakes, spin-offs or other productions derived from the show without his consent, or that of his estate after his death from cancer in 2008.
The lawsuit alleges that, after the studio failed to reach an agreement with Sherri Crichton over a proposed ER reboot, it developed and produced a series based on the same premise without permission.
Appeals court identifies similarities between ER and The Pitt
The judges stressed that their ruling concerned only an early legal challenge and did not decide whether the plaintiffs had proved that The Pitt was derived from ER.
They nevertheless accepted that the shows had sufficient similarities to allow the claim to continue. The court said both offered commentary on the healthcare system, concentrated on emergency rooms and depicted the difficult conditions faced by medical staff.
It also pointed to their fast pace, overlapping medical crises and dialogue filled with shorthand and jargon. The defendants had argued that these were generic features that could be expected in any drama about overworked doctors and staff.
Warner Bros Television said it continued to maintain that The Pitt was an entirely original series and that the claims had no merit. “Nothing in the Court of Appeal’s decision establishes otherwise,” the company said, adding that it looked forward to defending its position as the case proceeds.
The lawsuit was filed two years ago, before an episode of The Pitt had aired. The HBO Max series, which follows a day in real time at an emergency department in Pittsburgh, has since won two Emmys for best drama for its first two seasons, while Wyle has received two best actor Emmys for his performance.
