I'm Alan Alder, and this is clear and vivid conversations about connecting and communicating.

John Wells, who directed the pilot and executive produces the show, you know, he didn't want me to socialize with the other

actors because I'm the attending. I socialized only with the fourth years and then the fourth year

sat right behind me when we ate, but then all the third years and the second years had to sit

behind them. The med students all had to sit together and only did their medical training

together, learning what medical students would learn.

So we didn't have boot camp as a group.

We had it delineated by the hierarchy of our roles

so that when we started, that emotional sense of your place

in this scene or in this world was immediately, you know, visceral.

That's Noah Wiley. He plays Dr. Robbie Robertson, the attending physician

in the HBO Max hit series, The Pit. That character has come a long way from the medical student

John Carter that Noah played in over 250 episodes of the NBC series ER back in the 1990s. Those performances have given

Noah insights into how the harrowing world of the emergency room can be improved in real life.

You know, we really have a lot in common. We both played doctors and for a really long time. For decades.

Yeah, I did 11 years on MASH and then I did a season on ER. And then after ER, you went into this

great show The Pit. Your performance is just terrific. There's not a false moment in it.

Thank you. I really admire your work. Oh my goodness. That means the world to me.

That means the world to me coming from you. I've had an opportunity four times to work with you,

and each and every time tell you how influential you've been on me in my life and in my career,

uh, and, uh, and, uh, and, uh, you continue to be. I didn't know I was influential.

It's good to hear.

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