Joe Sachs
Appearances
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
I'm Joe Sachs. I am an executive producer, writer, and also a real-world emergency physician. I came in halfway through the first season of ER and stayed for 14 and a half years.
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
Yeah, you know, back in the day, there was no streaming. There was no YouTube. Basically, there were four television networks. There was NBC, CBS, ABC, and Fox. So after I came on the show, there was a milestone.
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
the show got a 50 share. That means that 50% of all televisions in America that were on were watching ER. So, you know, right now a big hit show that's two or 3% of the American public is watching you. And it was really the classic water cooler show.
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
And what's fascinating about the pit is that I've heard so many stories and so many online postings from people who say that on Friday morning, everybody's talking about the pit in the office.
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
Well, after ER, I didn't have a strong desire to work on a medical show. And in fact, I worked for 10 years on a crime show. When John Wells, Noah Wiley, and Scott Gemmel first called me in to pitch the show, they said, well, what's changed? What's different? And my answer was everything. And I said... After COVID, you wouldn't recognize the place. There's this thing called the boarding crisis.
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
Most of the beds and all the hallway spaces are taken up by patients who can't go upstairs to be admitted because they don't have the nursing staff. They don't have the beds. The waiting room is filled to the brim, and you have to try to practice medicine from the waiting room. So people are angry. People are frustrated. Waits are long.
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
And these doctors and nurses who are trying to deliver quality, compassionate care, have the deck is just stacked against them so i said to them you want to make it real this is how it's real and they embrace that that um number one there's a crisis in emergency medicine and we're going to show that warts and all and um and number two post-covid there's tremendous
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
post-traumatic stress on emergency workers who worked during the pandemic before there was any effective treatments and who just watched hundreds and hundreds of people die.
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
Yes. How can we make the show different from anything you've seen before? And that's to do a 12-hour shift in 12 hours where every episode is an hour of the same day.
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
Yeah, and the powers that be at... HBO max decided that they wanted this show to be unique from what people are used to seeing the seven or eight hours and 12 just wasn't enough. So they wanted 15 to say, wow, here's a streaming show that can give you 50 in a year. And, um, And one of the reasons we can do 15 in a year is because we're in the same place, same set. We don't go out on location.
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
We don't go home with people to see their personal lives. So we are literally in this submarine for 15 hours. And that saves you a lot of time and money with location work and sets and costumes because everybody is wearing the same thing for the whole... The whole run, except for Whitaker, of course, who gets bodily fluids on his scrubs every now and then.
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
I honestly had no idea. how the public was going to respond to our show. I just wanted to do it as realistically and as accurate as possible. And that was the bar that I sat for the medicine, but what a delightful surprise to see that people responded in a way to seeing what we worked so hard to create.
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
I can say that people in medicine are saying, this is the first medical show I've been able to watch that feels real. And I can also say that for many emergency workers, they're saying, For years, I've tried to explain to my friends and my family what it's like, and I've never been able to put it into words. And now I just say, watch an episode of The Pit and you'll know what my workday is like.
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
And that's a big compliment. And then there are the emergency workers who see it and see the flashbacks to COVID and say, oh my God, I have been dealing with such post-traumatic stress disorder and I've been denying it and I need to get help. And that's a wonderful thing.
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
Not so far. No, no, no. The first episode, the degloved, fractured, dislocated foot.
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
Came about by the writer's room looking to me and saying, what would make a young medical student faint?
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
Med student down. That's the dramatic need of the story. It's not like I've been saying, oh, man, I want to do this degloved, fractured, dislocated foot, and I got to have that on the show. That came out of nowhere. That came out of what can we show that will just... make the audience feel the same way that this young medical student feels.
Today, Explained
Watercooler TV is back
And on other medical shows and on ER, you know, we open chests and we put in chest tubes and we put tubes in every orifice and this and that. But the degloved, fractured, dislocated ankle was a case that I had actually had as an emergency physician. And when I pitched it to the room, all the eyes lit up and they all said, that's it.