The latest 9-1-1 spin-off, starring Chris O’Donnell, Jessica Capshaw, LeAnn Rimes, and Kimberly Williams-Paisley, is taking shape.
Just a few months after the franchise’s first spin-off, 9-1-1: Lone Star, was cancelled after five seasons, creator Ryan Murphy confirmed a new one will take its place, this time one based in Nashville.
And now that it’s a few weeks into production, we’re getting a glimpse of how it will differentiate itself from its franchise siblings.
Teasing some of the action-packed moments already in the works, previews showrunner Rashad Raisani told TVLine: “We have an Airstream trailer that ends up on top of a bridge and a poor guy on a Segway tour of the city who ends up impaled on a water tower,” adding that the show will bring “a bunch of crazy emergencies where people end up in places where they shouldn’t be.”
And while the spin-off’s “DNA, of course, is 9-1-1,” Rashad went on, it is taking inspiration from some prestige TV heavyweights to set itself apart.
“There’s some Succession…and some Dynasty slipped in there,” Rashad further shared, revealing: “The show begins with an explosive revelation that affects the central dynamic of a character’s world. And then we shamelessly use tornadoes to great effect as a metaphor for the storm that has come into these characters’ lives.”
© FilmMagicAlso giving insight into the characters of Jessica and Chris — who have known each other for over 20 years since appearing together on The Practice — he shared “there’s a story of class” as Jessica’s character “comes from money, but there was a fire at her ranch, and she fell for this blue-collar firefighter.”
“I’m sure I wasn’t her parents’ first pick,” Chris joked, noting that his character, Don Sharpe, “straddles being a firefighter and then also being in this very high-end, well-known family here in Nashville.”
© GettyLast month, Jessica also opened up about what a joy it has been to be on set in Nashville. Speaking with her Grey’s Anatomy co-star Camilla Luddington on their podcast Call It What It Is, she first shared of Chris: “I adore [him] and have known him for a really long time,” and recalled: “I remember feeling like a baby actress, and I remember feeling like he was not a baby actor. He was accomplished, and I’d seen so many movies he’d done that I love so much.”
Jessica’s character, Don’s wife, is Blythe, and their son Ryan will be played by Michael Provost. “My first work was with Michael, and I adore him,” Jessica also said of her on-screen son, adding: “I feel so, so lucky to have such a talented and kind and just awesome person to work with.”
© GettyThe show will also feature LeAnne Rimes, who Jessica said is balancing filming with her concert schedule. “It actually probably says a lot, which is that she’s game, and here she is, coming in and out,” she noted. “She literally did a show in Hawai’i and then got on a plane and had, like, two connections to then arrive in Nashville at who knows what time in the morning, and then woke up for a 5AM call, and then was having a fitting before she had hair and makeup, and then there we were in a scene.”
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