he 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.”© FilmMagic
Also 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.”
Last 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.”
The 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.”
