When it comes to jaw-dropping television, 9-1-1 sits comfortably at the top. Every season delivers disaster scenes so massive, so chaotic, and so incredibly realistic that fans often wonder—How do they even make this stuff happen? Whether it’s an earthquake ripping through Los Angeles, a tsunami swallowing the pier, or a blackout plunging the city into darkness, the show consistently pushes the boundaries of what network TV can do. Today, we’re diving deep into the behind-the-scenes magic—breaking down how the 9-1-1 team brings these legendary catastrophes to life.
9-1-1 has one of the most loyal fanbases—and it has earned that. Whether it’s tsunamis, earthquakes, or pet snakes going rogue, no TV drama can pull off a disaster quite like the Ryan Murphy series. The latest season is no exception, with first responders getting launched into outer space. Now, as the series heads into the season nine finale, nine years after its debut, we’re taking a look back at where it all started. Featuring a star-studded cast and wild adventures, here are fan-favorite episodes from the first three seasons, which you can binge on USA Network.
Season 1, Episode 1 – “Pilot”
9-1-1 hit the ground running with a premiere episode straight out of a nightmare when an exotic pet owner found herself in a slithering chokehold as a giant boa constrictor slowly tightened around her neck. The stunt actress first practiced with a prop snake, then graduated to rehearsing with a real snake to build trust, according to Collider. When it came time to film, a crew of stunt coordinators and animal trainers stood nearby. In the end, firefighter Evan “Buck” Buckley (played by Oliver Stark) decapitated a prop snake, saving the character—and the day.
Season 1, Episode 4 – “Worst Day Ever”
What makes 9-1-1 such a compelling watch? Well, here’s your answer, an episode that starts with a plane crash and features Bobby Nash (Peter Krause) and Athena Grant (Angela Bassett) conducting an intense rescue mission. For this episode, the production team bought a decommissioned plane and shipped it in parts to set, which happened to be a lake they dug out just for the scene. “We have professional stunt supervisors and paramedics,” director Tim Minear told the New York Post in 2018. “We have a former fire battalion chief who’s a consultant. The actors love doing those scenes; it’s some of their favorite stuff.”
Season 2, Episodes 2 and 3 – “Help is Not Coming” and “Stuck”
Los Angeles is earthquake country, and the “Big One” certainly warranted two episodes. Inspired by a hotel collapse in another country—“we’d seen rescue footage, with rescue workers sliding on the floors,” Minear said— some scenes were CGI while others were shot at the W Hotel on Hollywood Boulevard.
And when it came time for total devastation, the filmmakers recreated the hotel on a soundstage and brought in their own rubble. “We built a hotel suite on a giant steel gimbal— or teeter-totter,” Minear revealed. “The actors were on a set that tilted at a 30-degree angle. The actors were trying to walk up these staircases, and we got the effects of gravity on their performances.”
Season 2, Episode 11 – “New Beginnings”
We admit, the premise is a little ridiculous, but that’s what we’re here for. A marine biologist (Al Carabello) was transporting a tiger shark in a water tank attached to a tractor-trailer when a car T-boned the vehicle, sending the shark flying—and turning the biologist into a snack. The scene involved one animatronic shark, another rubber shark, and at least three days of shooting on the Pacific Coast Highway near San Pedro—along with a whole lot of fake blood.
Season 2, Episode 18 – “This Life We Choose”
Watching a real fire engine explode is not for the faint of heart. The episode serves as a testament to the intensity of practical effects, as reportedly no CGI was used to achieve the wild scene.
Shot in downtown Los Angeles over two nights, the special effects team loaded the firetruck with explosives—which were planted by a mail bomber in the episode—and set up cameras at every angle to ensure not a moment of the action was missed. A stunt driver was behind the wheel as the truck veered through the 2nd Street Tunnel and exploded, all in one take. “He’s a fit 70-year-old,” Minear told outlets at the time. “They strap him in, blow up the truck, and pull him out. He collects his check and goes home.”
Season 3, Episodes 2 and 3, “Sink or Swim” and “The Searchers”
There are few episodes television more jaw-dropping than this tsunami storyline, where a wall of water devastates Santa Monica. Instead of relying just on CGI, the show’s creators utilized water tanks at a studio in Rosarita, Baja California, where scenes from the Titanic were filmed in 1997. Actors waded through 42 inches of water, but expert camera angles made it look deeper and more terrifying on-screen. For the rescue scenes, the crew returned to the L.A. area, filming in Pomona streets that they filled with fake debris.
