Dr. Robby from ‘The Pitt’ is the TV hero we need right now

Noah Wyle stars in “The Pitt.” (Warrick Page/Max via CNN Newsource)

Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch is the doctor you want standing over you in an emergent situation – calm-mannered, determined, with soulful eyes and a good looking beard. He may be a fictional character on a scripted television show, but the hype around this golden-hearted physician serving on the frontlines in a Pittsburgh emergency room on Max’s “The Pitt” is very real.

“I’ll say from a fan girl, I think he exudes this quiet, calm sincerity,” Dr. Janet Semple-Hess, an emergency department doctor at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, told CNN of the character played by actor Noah Wyle. “Not only is he knowledgeable, but he cares and he wears that care on his face. You can see the care and what’s going on in his mind. We all have those days where we have those faces, too.”

Semple-Hess will retire after 33 years of service at the end of April. The weight of stepping back was made even more emotional when the cast of “The Pitt,” including Wyle, recently visited CHLA during their Make March Matter campaign, which raises money for the hospital. In a social media video that went viral, Semple-Hess can be seen in tears meeting the actor.

“I would watch (“ER”) when I was a young attending and full of a lot of energy and hope for the world and the desire to do good,” she said. “And now, after 33 years, this is kind of the end for me. It’s not the end for Noah Wyle by any means!”

When she first watched Wyle on TV in his breakout role on “ER,” where he played Dr. John Carter for 15 seasons, she was a first-year attending. As she saw Wyle’s Carter grow from an intern into an expert physician, she too grew in her career. Watching Wyle as Robby, she said, has felt like something of a bookend to her career. She described the cast’s visit as uplifting, because “all those things kind of just bring a feeling of we’re being seen.”

“Looking at the careers of emergency medicine physicians and how much they give and how much the ER nurses give, you can tell that the whole cast of ‘The Pitt’ give all that they’ve got every day,” she said.

Seen and heard

For a person in a medical emergency, nothing means more than having your concerns, worries and anxieties acknowledged by the person tasked with helping you. On “The Pitt,” a harrowing show that doesn’t censor the audience from the realities of emergency room medicine, the doctors — most of them, anyway — do exactly that.

Robby, especially, sets a tone in his emergency room that values honour — honouring a patient’s struggle, honouring the people left behind when tragedies take loved ones and honouring - if even for a moment - the emotional impact of losing a patient before the job requires you to quickly move on and help more.

In one scene, amid a panic attack that leaves him pale and crumpled on the floor after a mass casualty event, Robby recites the Shema prayer, which in Jewish tradition is said in the morning and evening. In his darkest moment, he turned to his faith - though he has seen enough tragedy to openly question it.

Earlier in the season, which ends with an episode that will be available for streaming on Thursday evening, Robby had his staff gather for what was called an honour walk, where they lined up to pay tribute to a patient whose parents agreed to donate his organs when the young man showed no signs of brain activity.

“I do think we’re looking for a certain kind of humanity in people,” executive producer John Wells told CNN of why Robby has resonated as a character. “Everything since Covid, everyone’s very stressed and angry. There’s lots going on. It’s a very stressful time. And (Wyle) has this remarkable presence as an actor and as the character that I think you just want to walk into a hospital and hope that he’s the doctor who walks through the door.”

He added: “That’s a real testament to the way the character’s written and to Noah’s performance as the character.”

Dr. Bradley Goldberg, who like Semple-Hess is an emergency room physician at CHLA, agreed, saying he connects with Robby’s ability to juggle the action of the ER with authenticity.

“In the emergency department, we’re experts at triage, so that’s constantly what we’re doing. We’re triaging problems, triaging patients. And you can see Dr. Robby doing that on the show. He’s being pulled in so many different directions all at once, and there’s never an eye roll or like a sarcastic sigh,” he said. “You can see it in his eyes, when someone needs his attention and he feels bad that maybe he can’t be there in that moment, whether it’s just a glance across the room or an acknowledgement. And I think we feel that in our work, too.”

Much has also been said of “The Pitt’s” attention to real life issues – like hospital staffing shortages, anti-vaccine sentiment and every day dangers with horrible consequences.

“Sometimes there’s a public service message in that all – let’s prevent drownings or public safety or things like that. And they’re very powerful messages for the people that watch the show,” Semple-Hess said.

Goldberg called the show invaluable as an education tool, especially because of its accuracy.

Goldberg doesn’t watch a lot of medical shows. (Semple-Hess admitted she only watches “The Pitt” on her days off. Otherwise, “I come home and watch people selling houses and moving to interesting countries.”) But “The Pitt” – like “ER” when he would stay home from school and watch endless reruns – is special, he said.

Procedures are correctly depicted. The protocol is properly followed. Even the doses that are prescribed are appropriate for the situations, he said. More importantly, Goldberg said, the struggles faced by a “safety net hospital,” are properly highlighted.

“You see, um, all walks of life coming through the doors – children, adults, the unhoused, the affluent, and that’s our experience, as well,” he said. “It’s not a depiction of a glitzy surgical center in Miami. It’s real life, and the challenges that we face every day.”

To be seen and heard – it may not be a cure for every problem, but in crisis, it’s certainly a step toward feeling better.