‘The Pitt’ Creator Did Everything to Ensure Max Medical Drama Was Not ‘ER’: ‘There’s No Incentive There’

“The Pitt” may take place in an emergency room and star Noah Wyle, but nothing else about Max’s new medical drama resembles the classic series “ER” — at least according to the show’s creators.

The new series, which premiered with the first two episodes Thursday, follows Dr. Michael “Robby” Rabinavitch (Wyle), who leads a team of doctors, nurses and interns as they deal with the chaos of treating emergency patients and all the red tape, scarce resources and drama that comes with the job. Told in real-time, the 15-episode first season chronicles a single shift in the ER, which provides an authentic look at what medical professionals deal with every single day.

The creative team behind “The Pitt” has done this before expertly. Executive producer John Wells produced “ER,” which also starred Wyle and ran for 15 seasons. “The Pitt” creator R. Scott Gemmill also served as an EP in the later seasons of “ER.” But as Gemmill and Wells tell it, the intention was never to make another “ER.”

“I don’t ever want to do the same thing twice, nor do John or Noah (who also serves as an EP on the show)… There’s no incentive there,” Gemmill told TheWrap. “As far as medical shows go, ‘The Pitt’ is as different as we could have made it, everything from characters to the location to our set design and how we shot it to make it a completely new show.”

“The last thing I want is for people to say ‘Oh, I’ve seen all this before,’ ” he added.

A hard task for a medical drama, a tried-and-true television genre mastered by beloved series like “ER,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Chicago Med” and beyond. The partnership that led to “The Pitt” has even led to litigation, with “ER” creator Michael Crichton’s estate suing production company Warner Bros. Television and the producers for breach of contract.

But watching even one episode of “The Pitt” shows the lengths the team took to make this new series stand out from the rest. The real-time storytelling allows the show to stay grounded, keeping the action focused on the team’s work without adding far-fetched medical mysteries or outlandish dramatic twists (at least for now.) Sets were built as realistically as possible to mirror modern-day emergency rooms at the Warner Bros. lot, and scenes are mostly filmed with handheld cameras to offer a verité vibe to the proceedings. The majority of the cast is featured in every scene, and there’s no video village — behind the scenes workers and producers are dressed in scrubs in case they are caught in a shot. Wells said that the show even recruits real-life doctors and nurses to act as background actors for an added layer of authenticity.

The fact that “The Pitt” is a procedural made for a streaming platform also helps. Without standards and practices restrictions that abound in broadcast television, “The Pitt” is free to show doctors actually performing medical procedures — with the cast undergoing a two-week medical boot camp before filming to learn the basics — and injuries are more graphic without becoming caricature.

“We pride ourselves in the authenticity of what you see,” Gemmill said. “We don’t do the usual setup of people talking while their hands are just making salad motions underneath the camera.”

“The Pitt” also marks a new start for content created for streaming services. As a 15-episode procedural, the show resembles the broadcast formula for a TV show. Being produced mostly on a set also makes this a cheaper production than the big-budget shows that used to be favored by streamers — proof that these platforms are looking to spend less on their original programming while aiming to mimic the success of library procedurals like “Suits,” “Grey’s” and others with their subscribers. Even Netflix is stepping into the medical procedural fray later this year, with the new medical drama “Pulse” starring Justina Machado.

Could these new shows bring a more broadcast-looking era for programming on streaming? It’s too soon to tell. But in terms of “The Pitt,” writing for the series started in December 2022, and filming kicked off in July 2024. Production on Episode 13 was underway this week before pausing due to the Los Angeles wildfires, with two episodes left to go and hopes of resuming filming by Friday.

Though there’s still a long way to go, the team is confident “The Pitt” would not have too long of a wait if there’s a Season 2.

“If the question is, could we be back on the air at the same time next year? Yes,” Wells said.

The first two episodes of “The Pitt” are now streaming on Max. New episodes are released Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT.

The post ‘The Pitt’ Creator Did Everything to Ensure Max Medical Drama Was Not ‘ER’: ‘There’s No Incentive There’ appeared first on TheWrap.