The Pitt Creators Cut Dr. Robby And Dr. Collins Relationship Moments For A Good Reason

Even if you haven't seen "The Pitt," chances are you've heard about what has been praised as one of the most accurate medical dramas ever made. Created by "ER" producer R. Scott Gemmill alongside former star Noah Wyle and producer John Wells, "The Pitt" season 1 depicted a full 12-hour shift in the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center, with each episode representing an hour of that shift. The fact that the show doesn't use music at all and "The Pitt" cast are mostly younger, lesser-known actors also contributes to the realism. But the show wasn't envisioned simply as a way to depict emergency medicine in as realistic a way as possible.

During the press tour for the HBO Max series, Wyle has spoken widely about how there was a new story to tell when it came to medical professionals. Not only were emergency doctors already working under immense pressure, they had just endured the global pandemic, and the lingering trauma was something Wyle and his co-creators wanted to interrogate with their medical drama.

This is realized in Wyle's Dr. Michael Robinavitch (aka Dr. Robby) and his frequent flashbacks throughout the season, wherein he recalls losing his mentor Dr. Montgomery Adamson during the pandemic. Couple that with "The Pitt" providing an unflinching look at the pressures faced by emergency doctors in general, and you have a show that's not only fascinating to watch, but which also clearly has something to say about the state of the world — or at least the state of Emergency Rooms and their staff.

Of course, this is not a documentary, so the writers still needed to inject the series with the requisite drama that would keep people watching — and there's plenty of that. Interpersonal conflict punctuates the medical developments throughout "The Pitt" and it seems finding the balance between the two was of the utmost concern to the showrunners, as evidenced by the fact that large parts of Dr. Robby's relationship with Tracy Ifeachor's Dr. Heather Collins had to be cut before the show debuted.

When we first meet Dr. Robby, he's making his way to work and as soon as he arrives the drama begins. After finding Sean Hatosy's Dr. Jack Abbott on the roof of the hospital and talking him down, Robby enters a packed waiting room before actually arriving in the ER. Here we're immediately introduced to the expansive cast, which includes Dr. Heather Collins — a senior resident who is clearly very competent and who has a shared personal history with Dr. Robby. The pair obviously had a relationship in the past, though the exact nature of it remains unclear. Still, Dr. Robby is very fond of Dr. Collins, and we see him experiencing a tinge of jealousy when he sees Collins talking to a security guard.

As the season goes on we see Dr. Collins and Dr. Robby clash over certain medical decisions, but there remains a closeness between the two, with Robby ultimately comforting Collins following a miscarriage and consoling her over a previous abortion. Their interactions throughout the season hint at quite a deep connection which will surely be explored further in "The Pitt" season 2, which has been officially greenlit. But it seems we would have seen a lot of this exploration in the debut season had certain scenes not been cut prior to the show's debut.

Though Dr. Heather Collins is absent from the last few episodes of "The Pitt" season 1, she was clearly one of the most important characters on the show, and fans will be eager to see more of her relationship with Dr. Michael Robinavitch in season 2. Had the showrunners stuck with their initial scripts for season 1, however, we would have a much better understanding of the two doctors' shared history.

Tracy Ifeachor spoke to People about the series and revealed that "there was more" between her character and Dr. Robby, but those scenes were cut from the season. "I think [the show creators] didn't want to make it soapy or something," she said. "But I thought some of the things that were in the script were so, so wonderful, and I would have loved to have seen more of them together."

Clearly, the writers were consistently aware of that balancing act between the medical and drama aspects of their medical drama, and didn't want their message about traumatized medical workers to be diluted by too much in the way of the latter. But I think it's fair to say that nobody would complain if we got more of Dr. Robby and Dr. Collins' relationship. Noah Wyle and Tracy Ifeachor have an obvious chemistry and Collins might even be the only character that can help Robby with his unaddressed trauma. Ifeachor herself said that she's rooting for the pair, calling herself a "hopeful romantic" and talking about how Collins and Dr. Robby "really understand each other and work well together." Thankfully, there's plenty more of "The Pitt" to come, with talk of a potential "Pitt" spin-off already making the rounds. As such, there will be a lot of opportunities for the relationships established in season 1 to develop.