The Pitt's Secret Weapon, According To Noah Wyle

Watching an episode of the hit Max medical drama "The Pitt" can feel as intense as being in the thick of it in a real emergency room, and that's no accident. Created by former "ER" producer R. Scott Gemmill, the series is as close to "real-time" as it gets, with each episode following a subsequent hour in the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center over the course of one wild shift. In order to make one of the most medically accurate fictional television series yet, the team put in quite a bit of effort. Everyone on set, cast and crew both, had to wear scrubs to ensure a sense of camaraderie and prevent any crew from accidentally ruining a shot, for example, and medical professionals were hired to work as some of the supporting extras, providing quick and easy corrections and assistance in keeping things accurate. All of this leads to one seriously well-made television series. Just as a good emergency room is a cohesive team, the folks behind "The Pitt" clearly are all in on this thing together, and it's tangible even as a viewer. 

In an interview with NPR, star Noah Wyle, who portrays senior attending physician Dr. Michael "Robby" Robinavitch, shared a bit more background about the training everyone went through to make "The Pitt" feel real and revealed that they had a special secret weapon in the form of one of their technical advisors.

In the interview, Wyle explained that the team all went through two weeks of "medical boot camp" to learn the basics of emergency medicine, and that he was specifically separated from the lower-level doctors and students for things like lunch, where everyone was grouped according to their "rank" in the hospital. This helped recreate some of the structure of an actual hospital team, but the really special thing, Wyle said, was one of their technical advisors: 

"Our secret weapon is a man named Dr. Joe Sachs, who is a board-certified emergency room physician. He was a technical advisor and a writer on 'ER,' and he is with us again. And he is meticulous, his attention to detail, and he basically does those trauma scenes. He will sort of present what the appropriate medicine and procedures are, what each person in the room's role is, given their hierarchy in the hospital, and even weighing in a little bit on emotionally how they may be feeling given the circumstances and stakes of the case."

There are quite a few folks who worked on "ER" also working on "The Pitt" (and no, it's not a spin-off), but it sounds like Sachs was really vital to helping both shows feel truly authentic. Other little rules, like banning cellphones from set to keep everyone in the moment, make "The Pitt" feel more like a real hospital than any other show on television. Honestly, season 2 cannot get here fast enough — we need more "The Pitt," stat!