Months before the premiere of The Pitt, a show featuring Noah Wyle that earned critical acclaim and won Emmy and Golden Globe awards, the showrunners faced a lawsuit over alleged plagiarism. In August 2024, Sherri Crichton, the widow of ER creator Michael Crichton and the owner of his estate, claimed that The Pitt was initially intended to be a reboot of the NBC series ER and that it duplicated several aspects of the original show. Warner Bros. argued against this, maintaining that The Pitt and ER are distinct shows. However, on November 4, a California appeals court rejected Warner Bros.’s argument, enabling Sherri to proceed with her lawsuit.
Many social media users criticized the Crichton estate’s claims, suggesting that similar elements exist in many procedural shows and do not indicate intellectual property infringement. The lawsuit claimed that the widow sued The Pitt for violating a 33-year-old contract. ER, which aired from 1994 to 2009 and was created by Michael Crichton, became the second-longest-running medical drama on American television, following Grey’s Anatomy. In ER, Noah Wyle portrayed Dr. John Carter, who evolved from a clumsy medical student to a skilled physician. R. Scott Gemmill and John Wells, the show’s creators, were also executive producers of The Pitt.
Court documents reveal that Michael Crichton had an agreement with Warner Bros. in 1994 that prohibited creating works that were “derivative” of ER without his or his estate’s approval. The lawsuit contended that creating The Pitt violated this contract. Warner Bros. sought to dismiss the lawsuit under California’s anti-SLAPP statute, which protects freedom of expression. They argued that The Pitt does not incorporate protected elements from ER, and that any similarities between them are generic and found in many dramas involving emergency room doctors. A judge, Wendy Chang, denied this motion last year, stating that Sherri had provided sufficient evidence.
Recently, a three-judge panel from the appeals court determined that there are clear similarities between the two series, which allows her to continue with the lawsuit. A jury will ultimately decide if The Pitt is a “derivative” work of ER and if it breaches the contract unless the parties reach a settlement beforehand. However, the court did dismiss one claim against the creators of The Pitt, ruling that there was no evidence they were aware of potentially violating the 1994 agreement between Crichton and Warner Bros.
After reviewing the pilot scripts, the judges noted that both shows predominantly take place in an emergency room, unlike other medical dramas that follow patients outside of it. They highlighted that both series include overlapping patient sequences, where medical staff shift attention from one patient to another, escalating crises. The judges also pointed out similarities such as rapid dialogue, graphic injury portrayals, and the depiction of an inexperienced young doctor.
Online, some users ridiculed the judges’ findings, arguing that any medical drama would naturally share these features. One user humorously compared ER and The Pitt, saying their similarities are as superficial as those between two different baking shows, while another asked if Grey’s Anatomy had also been sued. What do you think about the lawsuit?
Sources:
Source: Bored Panda, by Dinara Luz