I have no doubt that the earliest pitch for the show that would eventually become, “The Pitt”, started with, “What if ER came back but”. Which is probably how almost every show idea gets its start.
The people involved went to the estate of Michael Crichton and tried to hash out the details, but they couldn’t reach a deal.
But at this point Noah Wyle was on board and the creatives had put together a nice idea for a script, so it moved forward. The show couldn’t be tied to ER anymore and so any references they might have had were removed.
And you know what happened? We got a much better show. I am a huge fan of ER. It’s was and perhaps still is the best medical drama ever created. But a new season would have just added baggage. Yes, it also would have been able to directly reference the old show and that would have been fun, but it also would have limited what the show could do. Instead The Pitt had to stand on its own and introduction their own characters.
The Crichton Estate is just upset that they made a bad call.
Given how conservative Michael Crichton was when he was alive, it would make sense his family is equally conservative and falling all over themselves to profit off the legacy of someone else. The Pitt turned out to be a good medical miniseries and they clearly are greedy fools.
They’re both derivative of real life, so good luck against the obvious prior art!
It’s a better show. Chrichton’s wife is just salty she lost the opportunity to be part of it.
