ER and The Pitt have been found to have enough similarities that a lawsuit involving the two hit TV dramas has been given the green light to move forward.

The lawsuit has been brought by the widow of ER creator Michael Crichton, who claims The Pitt is an unauthorised reboot of the show.

A three-judge panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled unanimously on Wednesday (local time) that the trial court judge was correct to reject a motion to throw out the case from The Pitt production company Warner Bros Television, which also produced ER.

But the judges dismissed Noah Wyle — the star of both shows and a producer on The Pitt — as a defendant, along with two other producers who worked on both series.

The lawsuit is a clash between the makers of multiple Emmy-winning TV series that were each among the most important and acclaimed shows of their eras.

Crichton, the author of Jurassic Park and many other novels that became hit movies and TV shows, wrote the pilot script for ER, the NBC show about a Chicago emergency room that redefined the medical drama genre and drew tens of millions of weekly viewers in its run from 1994 to 2009.

ER ran from 1994 to 2009 with a cast including George Clooney and Anthony Edwards.

The lawsuit brought by Sherri Crichton was filed two years ago, before a single episode of The Pitt had aired.

The HBO Max series that shows a real-time day in the life of a Pittsburgh emergency department has since become perhaps the most lauded series in television, winning two Emmys for best drama for its first two seasons and two best actor Emmys for Wyle.

Along with more technical legal issues, the judges had to decide whether the shows had at least the minimal similarity that would give the lawsuit enough merit to move forward.

The court agreed with the plaintiff that “both shows provide commentaries on the healthcare system; they focus specifically on the emergency room and the difficult conditions under which the medical staff operates”.

It added: “Both shows take place, with little exception, in the emergency room, as opposed to other medical shows which track patients as they move out of the emergency room, or indeed never enter it.”

The opinion also said that both feature “very fast pacing, and reactions to multiple overlapping crises. The fast-paced dialogue is (to a layperson) frequently incomprehensible shorthand and jargon, lending an air of immediacy and accuracy.”

The defendants argued that the shows have “generic similarities” that would exist in “any dramatic story” that features “overworked doctors and staff.”

The panel also unanimously dismissed as defendants Wyle, John Wells, who created The Pitt and worked on ER, and R Scott Gemmill, a Pitt executive producer who also worked on both shows. The judges found there was no evidence the three men knew the provisions of the Crichton contract that the lawsuit alleges they interfered with.

Sherri Crichton’s lawsuit alleges The Pitt is a rebranded version of an unauthorised ER reboot that she had rejected.

–AP