When “The Pitt” plunges Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center into analog chaos, it feels like a five-alarm emergency. Twenty-five years ago, it would have been routine.
Before electronic charts and digital monitors tracked patient flow, paper files and dry-erase boards were simply how emergency rooms operated. And for series creator R. Scott Gemmill — who spent years writing and producing NBC’s “ER,” set at Chicago’s County General — the irony of treating analog medicine as a crisis isn’t lost on him.
“When I started this show, I was still back in paper charts in my mind,” Gemmill tells TVLine. “I had to learn a lot of the new stuff. Part of spending time in ERs again was seeing what has changed and what had evolved.”
In fact, for Gemmill and the more seasoned writers in the room — including fellow “ER” vet Joe Sachs, who penned Season 2, Episode 8 — this stripped-down workflow felt oddly familiar.
“The older writers, myself included, were used to writing that and throwing the films up on the light boards,” he says. “It was kind of fun to be old school again.”
Back then, even seemingly cutting-edge upgrades were largely aesthetic — like when County’s admin area was initially overhauled in Season 7 and the white boards Carter & Co. used to keep tabs on patients were swapped for a transparent board.
“We just went with the clear boards so we could see through it and give us more shooting opportunities,” Gemmill recalls of “ER.” “It was visually interesting. Cell phones weren’t really a thing. There weren’t digital charts. Half the stuff that’s there now wasn’t even available to us.”
Mel’s Brief Reprieve
John Johnson/HBO Max
Going analog throws the younger doctors off their game. Dr. Mel King, meanwhile, is already carrying more than her share of pressure before the hospital shuts its systems down to prevent a cyber attack.
Midway through the hour, she finally gets some relief. When Dr. Ellis — also named in the malpractice suit — returns from her own deposition, she tells Mel that while she’ll still need to attend her deposition, she appears to be in the clear. As it turns out, it was the mother of the measles patient at the end of Season 1 who filed suit after her son suffered intellectual decline — but test results confirm the spinal tap was not the cause.
For Gemmill, referring back to the measles case wasn’t just about continuity. It was about realism.
“We wanted to give Mel a bit of a challenge between her sister and then this deposition,” he says of Dr. King’s Season 2 storyline. “The reality is ER doctors do get sued on a semi-regular basis, so we wanted to address that. It seemed like it would have the most impact on Mel, who’s already wound a little tight.”
As for whether Ellis’ reassurance truly steadies her for the remainder of her shift?
“I don’t know if it has the effect that Ellis wants it to because of just the mindset of Mel,” Gemmill admits. “And as the season goes on, the deposition doesn’t go as well for Mel as we had hoped.”
What did you think of “The Pitt” Season 2, Episode 8? Leave your full review in the comments below.
