Emergency Realism: Production Designer Nina Ruscio’s Blueprint for “The Pitt’s” Immersive Medical World

Producer John Wells and creator R. Scott Gemmill took a big swing with The Pitt and hit a home run that would have cleared the 410-foot deep left-center field wall of Pittsburgh’s PNC Park. The riveting series, which has garnered the kind of collective enthusiasm we usually associate with dark comedies set at fancy resorts, is powered by gruesome surgical procedures, arcane medical terminology, and volatile personalities. The high concept: each episode constitutes one hour in an emergency room over the course of a 12-hour shift,