Oliver Stark’s Buck is having trouble adjusting to his new boss on the ABC first responder drama.
Getting a new boss always comes with its challenges, and 9-1-1 pours gasoline on that concept in the season 8 premiere.
In a preview clip exclusive to Entertainment Weekly (below), Buck (Oliver Stark), Eddie (Ryan Guzman), Hen (Aisha Hinds), and Chimney (Kenneth Choi) are coming literally face-to-face with their new adversary/boss, Capt. Vincent Gerrard (Brian Thompson), who is stepping back in to lead the 118 after Bobby (Peter Krause) quit heading into the season 7 finale.
9-1-1 showrunner Tim Minear explained to EW that Bobby is eager to get back to the 118, but Gerrard had already been put in power by the time he’d recovered from his heart attack and recanted his retirement. And it seems at least Buck is just as eager to have him back.
“I think it’s harder for Buck than the rest,” Minear told EW earlier this month as part of our Fall TV Preview. “Eddie was in the military, and both Hen and Chimney already served under this guy — they’ve been vaccinated, in a way. They know how to not let him get to them. Bobby is the only captain Buck has ever served under. Bobby really is his surrogate dad, so it’s just a lot harder for Buck. And not only did Hen and Chim serve under Gerrard before, but she’s got other fish to fry. She’s trying to get her foster license back. She can’t be written up at work. She has to toe the line. And Chimney’s in a similar position because he’s the one who’s watching Mara with Maddie.”
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“I think we landed in a really good place for an interesting story with Dad out of the house, I guess you could say,” Minear said of exploring the 118 without Bobby, who is still officially employed by the Los Angeles Fire Department but, without an open firehouse to captain, is working as a technical advisor on an action TV show called Hotshots.
“It’s a ridiculous firefighter TV show,” Minear explains. “Bobby’s just completely over it. He’s not lured in by Hollywood or any of that stuff. He just finds the whole thing incredibly trivial and ridiculous.”
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While Bobby is away, the 118 will face a “bee-nado” of 22 million killer bees accidentally released upon Los Angeles.
“We just wanted to generate some buzz,” Minear joked to EW, further explaining that the upcoming disaster stemmed from a conversation with co-creator Ryan Murphy. “He really just loved what we did last year with the Poseidon Adventure [storyline], and he was like, ‘What are some other great ’70s disaster movies?’ And I just threw out The Swarm, and he’s like, ‘Yes, do that!'”
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9-1-1 season 8 premieres tonight at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
