Nicholas Kulish at The New York Times:

In February 2020, the actor Noah Wyle decided the moment was ripe to bring back his most successful television character, Dr. John Carter from the hospital drama “ER.”

Mr. Wyle wrote an email to John Wells, who had served as the showrunner on “ER,” to propose a “character study in the vein of LOGAN, PICARD and JOKER.” He described his idea for the show as “a 12-episode Hulu limited series, where we take another look at the guy who showed us the world the first time,” adding: “Darker and grittier. Aged. But still him.”

“Get a few band members together,” he suggested to Mr. Wells, “and write a beautiful new song in an old and familiar key.”

From the kernel of that idea emerged the hit HBO Max hospital drama “The Pitt"….

I find this question of copyright law fascinating. When does using genre tropes trend over into copyright infringement? A serialized TV show set in an emergency room is going to have to follow certain story formulas. It’s going to be fast-paced, will use a lot of medical jargon, etc.

My gut feeling as an Internet lawyer is that “The Pitt” is going to lose this one if it goes to court. No one is disputing that “The Pitt”’s creators and the Crichton estate were in talks to make an ER sequel. And Noah Wylie plays the main character, an ER attending physician.

As the article points out, it ended up being a better creative choice to not have the show be an ER sequel. When you create a sequel, it’s creatively limiting — cameos and guest spots by former stars, and so forth. Hard to maintain the fourth wall of viewer disbelief.

Also: copyright should not extend 17 years past the death of the author. “ER” should be in the public domain. I am firmly a Doctorovian on this matter; copyright is a brilliant invention and should be limited, as America’s Founders intended.

Also: We love “The Pitt.”

Also: Noah Wylie’s character on “ER” vs. “The Pitt” are internally inconsistent in a fundamental way: John Carter on ER was heir to a fortune who, by the end of the series, was running his own clinic with the support of that fortune. His character on “The Pitt” is head of the ER, but he answers to the hospital bureaucracy and is apparently living on his doctor’s salary. Different people.