The new Max medical series The Pitt is finally out. Considering that it stars Noah Wyle, some fans are still wondering whether it has a connection to ER.
For the past few years, there has been a clamor to bring back the iconic medical series for a reboot. However, when it was announced that Wyle is going back to the medical world on a different show called The Pitt, it prompted some people to speculate on its potential connection to ER despite having a different concept.
Is Max's The Pitt Connected to ER at All?
Aside from being a medical drama and having Wyle as the star, The Pitt also has ER showrunner John Wells as one of its executive producers and director of the pilot episode.
However, despite sharing some of the DNA, The Pitt is NOT connected to ER at all and is not a spinoff/sequel/reboot of the iconic series.
The new Max series also has a different take on the medical drama genre as the entire season chronicles the 15-hour shift of the emergency room team at a hospital in Pittsburgh. Each episode is set in real-time for one hour similar to 24.
Wyle is also playing a different new character named Dr. Michael "Robby" Rabinavitch. He is not an incarnation of his iconic ER character John Carter.
While you can make some connection to ER in terms of genre and cast/crew similarities, The Pitt is an entirely different series that happens to have Wyle playing an emergency room doctor again.
Why The Pitt is Not Connected to ER?
Despite the fans' clamor for an ER reboot, reviving the series was never an intention for the people involved in the making of The Pitt.
"And then it just became, well, 'Is the old IP the easiest and most advantageous delivery system?' It seemed to be the one that people were most excited about trying, but it wasn’t really the point of the exercise," Wyle explained in an interview.
"The more we went down that road, the more the point got obscured in the reunion aspect, the retread aspect, the reboot aspect… so I was not sorry when, you know, we were sort of forced to pivot and figure out how to tell the story in a new way. In a lot of ways, [not reviving ER] unburdened us from narrative limitations that we would have had to adhere to, and pay homage to."
Last year, the estate of Michael Crichton, who created ER, sued Warner Bros. Television, Wells, Wyle, and others for alleged breach of contract on nixing the ER sequel and turning the concept into The Pitt.
Warner Bros. Television responded by filing for motion to dismiss and claimed that The Pitt is not a "derivative work" of ER and a "completely different" show.
Are you looking forward to watching The Pitt? Let us know in the comments!
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