Michael Crichton’s Estate Sends The Pitt to the Courtroom

Clear! [Buzz.] A Los Angeles judge has revived a lawsuit by ER creator Michael Crichton’s estate against Max’s new hit show, The Pitt, reports Rolling Stone. In August 2024, Crichton’s widow, Sherri Crichton, filed a lawsuit that The Pitt is just a knockoff of ER — Sherri claims that when Michael originally sold the show to Warner Bros., he would have to approve of any revival or future production related to ER. They also claim that they were working with Warner Bros. on a reboot of ER, and when negotiations were unsuccessful, they “rebranded” it as The Pitt “without any attribution or compensation for Crichton and his heirs.” “Sherri Crichton was thrilled that the original team behind ER wanted to do a reboot and was shocked when Warner Bros. abruptly broke off negotiations and announced The Pitt — a carbon copy of the ER reboot that was pitched to her,” a rep for Sherri explained to Rolling Stone. “The Crichton Estate looks forward to presenting its case to a jury and is confident it will prevail.” It doesn’t help that The Pitt stars Noah Wyle, who also starred in ER for 11 seasons, and is produced by John Wells, original ER showrunner.

“The judge has not decided any of the claims in this case. She simply ruled that the case will proceed. We continue to believe in the strength of our position and that we will ultimately prevail,” a spokesperson for Warner Bros. told Rolling Stone in a statement about the lawsuit. The next hearing takes place on March 26. Wyle also denied any similarities between the two shows in a statement, explaining, “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.”

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