US drama The Pitt is similar enough to medical series ER for a lawsuit against its producers to progress, a court in the US has ruled.
The widow of Michael Crichton, who created ER, argues The Pitt is effectively a reboot of the series, which has been made without proper permission or credit.
Sherri Crichton says her husband’s contract included a “frozen rights” provision that prohibited any spin-offs, sequels or reboots of ER being made without his express consent.
A three-judge panel said there are “clear and numerous similarities between The Pitt and ER,” which means the case can go ahead. Warner Bros previously described the lawsuit as “baseless” and sought to have it dismissed.
Listing the similarities between the two shows, the court cited the emergency room setting, the fast pace, use of medical jargon, graphic depictions of injuries, and younger doctors fresh from medical school being trained.
“We find the details here suffice for a prima facie case,” the judges said.
It means the case will now go to a jury trial in Los Angeles Superior Court.
The shitshow these judges just opened up is hilarious.
I can name 10 shows matching those criteria…
I was gonna say. There’s enough prior art that arguing “this is ER with the serial numbers filed off” won’t fly. At least, I hope.
Good to know we’ll never have any new TV shows based in an emergency room ever again
This bullshit! How judges going rule this is a reboot. Fuck the judge with cactus. Now this great show will get canceled. But come on better cancel or pay out for every single hospital show. Fucking cunt just like her asshole husband. Hope they fight this and bury her in court fees.
Edit: wife called it exact comparison Grey’s Anatomy would fit all the same criteria. Why didn’t the bitch sue creator of that show?
It’s because the showrunners of The Pitt worked on E.R and were in talks with Crichton’s widow to make a sequel, but the network didn’t want to pay the royalties she was asking for. So they pivoted to making an original medical drama that was very similar to E.R, hence her suing them.
Which will easily get defeated when they can point to something like Grey’s and the lack of legal action.
Is Grey’s based in an emergency room setting? Does it share key actors and staff? What about Scrubs? House?
Is it pure coincidence that a bunch of ER alumni happen to create a completely unrelated show that happens to feature the comings and goinga of doctors in an emergency room?
Valid points that the Pitt should just lean into. “We wanted to do a sequel. We couldn’t come to terms. We dropped any ER (the show) based stuff and kept all the ER medical stuff.”
Does 24 have standing to sue because they did the 1 hour per show format?
Nothing of the sort was ruled. There hasn’t been any substantial proceedings at all. The only thing that has been decided is that there is enough of a plausible claim to proceed with a case.
Perhaps there is nothing there but an ER-based medical drama featuring a common actor and some common show runners and staff. Perhaps discovery will uncover some damning evidence of (surprise) TV evecs being shitty people and trying to screw over creators of an IP.
Time will tell
They could have chosen not to cast Noah Wyle. I legit thought it was a sequel to ER.
That’s kinda like saying Michael Imperioli couldn’t take a role as a mob boss because he played Christopher Moltisanti and that would make it a Sopranos spin-off.
Or Lorne Michaels suing every show Pete Davidson is in for being Pete Davidson in the show.
Well the secret there is that all of those shows and movies are actually produced by Michaels’ production company and he’s not gonna sue himself.
Sure. Just providing an outside perspective. I haven’t watched either show, and that’s the connection I made.
Right, but Allison Janney and Bradley Whitford were both in The West Wing. Now they’re both in The Diplomat playing characters in the White House. But that doesn’t make the Diplomat a sequel to the West Wing.
It would make me think so at first. Like, I wondered if Rob Lowe was going to get involved when I read that Janney and whitford were doing a political drama together.
It’s not enough to win the case, but I absolutely agree that there’s enough there to bring the case.
No they aren’t. These two shows are about as close as Gilligan’s Island and Lost. Both shows are about a group of people lost an island but that’s about it. Same here.
Crichton’s widow is just pissy that Noah Wyle is starring in another successful medical drama. I guarantee if Noah wasn’t involved, she wouldn’t have even noticed this show existed.
💯
Listing the similarities between the two shows, the court cited the emergency room setting, the fast pace, the use of medical jargon, graphic depictions of injuries and younger doctors fresh from medical school being trained.
With the exception (maybe) of the younger training doctors, though I imagine doctors gotta learn, everything described there is a definitional part of a medical drama set in an emergency room. I understand the court letting this move forward because there may be good reason to explore the more detailed similarities. But the ones they listed there… that is baseless.
You cannot copyright a real world setting or genre. The subject matter of emergency room medicine is not owned by Michael Crichton, Warner Brothers, or anyone. Would be like saying the creator of Honeymooners owns the rights to domestic abuse. ER’s copyright encompasses its characters, and specific stories. Not the entire concept of an ER or triage medicine. It did not create any of those concepts. It also doesn’t own the style of narrative, pacing, editing, cinematography, etc. used, either.
You ever been so out of the loop that this article is where you found out that Michael Crichton died?
Holy shit, man. It was in 2009…
lmao, I literally just said “Michael Crichton died??” to my husband when I read the bit about his widow. Apparently in 2008.
grays anatomy:
Gray’s wasn’t/isn’t solely based in the ER, a lot in the OR and patient rooms. There are also numerous other medical dramas before and since that haven’t been sued.
As someone who never saw ER i wonder if these broad descriptions are enough for the claim to succeed with a jury. A key point is probably going to be that Noah Wyle was in ER and in talks for a sequel that the estate shutdown before The Pitt.
Bro what?
Wait, the Librarian is also a doctor?
Dude if you haven’t seen The Pitt yet, do yourself a favor and watch it ASAP.
It’s some of the best TV currently on. It’s early to say, but I’ve seen some go as far to potentially put it up there with the likes of The Sopranos and The Wire.
Personally, I’ll give it another season or two before making a claim like that. But the show is outstanding imo
Youd have to be the Marvin Gaye estate to think that the pitt is plagiarising er…
TiL Michael Crichton wrote ER.
…and that he’s dead!
Coincidence? I think not.
All I’m hearing is “They used the same actor! And it’s more medically accurate!” which is about where the similarities end.
Having not watched ER, is there anything that makes it unique? As far as I can tell, it’s a show about an ER.
It had substantially more melodrama than the Pitt. The Pitt is too real sometimes. ER was…a different time.
I always forget that Crichton created ER. He was so prolific.
He also racist asshole.
And a climate change denier
Well Noah Whily or whatever his name is is a huge Zionist. So them losing is a win for me.
Next up Crichton’s widow will be sued by the creators of E/R
Even had Clooney (and Mary McDonnell who played Carter’s mom in ER)
