A California appeals court ruled Wednesday that the Emmy-winning medical drama The Pitt shares “clear and numerous” similarities with Michael Crichton’s 1990s TV hit ER, handing Crichton’s estate a critical victory in its legal battle with Warner Bros. Television.
In a 33-page opinion, a three-judge panel unanimously upheld a lower court’s ruling that Crichton’s estate had presented enough evidence to pursue its claim that The Pitt is an unauthorized reboot of ER. Warner Bros. sought to toss the lawsuit on appeal, arguing the shows shared only “generic similarities” common to “any dramatic story involving emergency room doctors.”
The justices with the Second District Court of Appeal said they compared the pilot scripts for both shows and found sufficient similarities in terms of plot, themes, dialogue, mood, settings, pacing, characters, and sequence of events to allow the lawsuit to proceed at this early stage.
“Both shows take place, with little exception, in the emergency room, as opposed to other medical shows which track patients as they move out of the emergency room, or indeed never enter it. The pacing of events is also common: very fast pacing, and reactions to multiple overlapping crises,” the justices said in their opinion obtained by Rolling Stone.
“The fast-paced dialogue is (to a layperson) frequently incomprehensible shorthand and jargon, lending an air of immediacy and accuracy to the presentation,” they wrote. “Both shows feature a series of patients: they are presented in overlapping sequences, with medical personnel interrupting their work with one to attend to another, layering on crisis after crisis.”
The two shows also “display graphic depictions of injuries,” and each “includes a young doctor, fresh from medical school and incompetent.” This is evidence that the plot, themes, dialogue, mood, setting, pace, characters, and sequence of events in two works are similar enough to warrant a possible trial, they said.
A lawyer for Warner Bros. and the producers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The underlying lawsuit was first filed in August 2024 by Crichton’s widow, Sherri Crichton, against defendants Warner Bros., producer John Wells, and actor-producer Noah Wyle. It alleged that when Crichton sold Warner Bros. the screenplay for what became the pilot episode of ER, Warner Bros. promised that no subsequent productions derived from ER would go forward without Crichton’s consent. It claims that 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 Pittsburgh, rebranded it The Pitt, and has plowed ahead without any attribution or compensation for Crichton and his heirs.”
In their ruling Wednesday, the appeals court justices dismissed separate claims against Wyle, Wells, and producer-showrunner R. Scott Gemmill, saying there was insufficient evidence to show the producers were aware they could be violating Crichton’s contractual rights.
“I am deeply gratified by the Court of Appeal decision and look forward to discovery and to our case, which affects writers, creators, and their families and estates, being presented to a jury,” Sherri Crichton said in a statement shared by her lawyer on Wednesday.
Warner Bros., Wells, and Wyle denied the allegations in the lawsuit and sought to dismiss the case on the basis that it was frivolous and an attempt to violate their rights to free speech. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Wendy Chang was the first to reject their challenge, known as an anti-SLAPP, saying the estate’s complaint met the “minimal merit standard” to proceed.
Wyle, who starred in ER alongside Anthony Edwards, George Clooney, and Julianna Margulies, plays the lead character in The Pitt. The show’s producer, Wells, was the original ER showrunner.
In a sworn statement, Wyle denied the new show is an unauthorized offshoot of the Crichton hit. “I do not see how The Pitt could be deemed derivative of ER because they are two entirely different shows,” he said.
“ER and The Pitt do not have any of the same characters. Dr. Carter from ER was a blue blood, wealthy, and highly educated doctor. He came from a waspy background. Dr. Robinavitch comes from a blue-collar background, he is Jewish, did his residency in New Orleans, and is recovering from PTSD,” Wyle said.
The next hearing in the case is set for Jan. 21, back in Judge Chang’s courtroom in downtown Los Angeles.
