The One Item Banned From The Pitt Set, According To Isa Briones

There isn't a more brutally intense show on television at the moment than "The Pitt." Created by R. Scott Gemmill, the hospital drama makes "ER" look like "Dr. Kildare" with its ferocious onslaught of calamity and shockingly graphic medical gore. There's never been anything quite like this show on television, which is why everyone who's currently watching it won't stop bugging you to join its rapidly growing legion of fans.

"The Pitt" was always destined to earn scads of eyeballs, at least initially, on Max due to Noah Wyle doing a PTSD riff on his Dr. John Carter character from "ER." He's never been better, but it's really the phenomenal supporting cast and wildly perilous situations that have turned the show into a is-it-Thursday-yet viewing sensation. Oh, and Crosby the dog. Crosby's a big deal (especially when you find out he was named after the legendarily mercurial musician David Crosby).

Every episode of "The Pitt" is such an electric experience that, after a certain point, you're left wondering how the cast and crew conjured that energy over what must've been an arduous 15-episode span. One important ingredient in this secret sauce required the surrendering of one questionably essential modern device, while making sure all involved had access to one of the most necessary artforms available to humanity. That's right, no phones on set.

In a very entertaining profile for Variety, journalist Adam B. Vary reveals that Isa Briones, who plays Dr. Trinity Santos on "The Pitt," revealed to him that cell phones were banned from the show's set. This isn't a terrible idea. Obviously, we all have stuff going on in our lives, but aside from extraordinary circumstances (a sick child, a pregnant partner, a massive 16-game parlay on the opening day of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament), it's not unreasonable to ask actors and crew members to go without smartphones while they're shooting a harrowing television series that requires them to be emphatically in the moment. Major filmmakers like Christopher Nolan do this, and just about every actor on the planet would drop everything to work with him.

According to Briones, Wyle encouraged everyone working on set to crack the spine of a book. To help feed their hunger for the written word, Briones said Wyle contributed to a lending library that the production set up next to craft services. She said the star would walk around the set asking people, "What are you reading right now?"

When Vary asked Wyle if he was solely responsible for the library, he grew cagey. "I don't know," told Vary. "Some incredibly noble and generous person. I can't even imagine who would think of such a thing."

It's pretty obvious that Wyle was the driving force behind this library, and I hope other productions follow his example from "The Pitt." Libraries are marvelous institutions that need our support now more than ever. Smartphones have their place, but that place is not in our palms at all hours of the day.