Turns out 9-1-1 viewers missed out on the chance to see a love triangle between Oliver Stark, Connie Britton and Peter Krause.
For those that need a refresher, season 1 showed Us Buck (Stark) going on a date with Abby (Britton) that led to her performing a tracheostomy when he choked on bread. The episode showed Bobby (Krause) stopping by to check on Buck in the hospital.
“I was in a hospital bed because 9-1-1, Connie Britton’s Abby was at my bedside. And, RIP, Bobby Nash walks in, and the original plan was that there was going to be a little love triangle there,” Stark, 33, revealed to TV Insider on Wednesday, May 14. “I remember at the time being like, ‘No, what do you mean? No, that’s Buck and Abby. You can’t.’”
Stark didn’t support the idea of bringing Bobby into the mix with Buck and Abby but luckily, the idea got cut before it made it onto the show.
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“I was really, like it was my own relationship, against it, so I’m glad it didn’t work out. I’m glad we never went down that road,” he added. His costar Aisha Hinds agreed, saying, “That would ensue very strong [feelings].”
Instead of exploring a connection with Abby, Bobby found love with Athena (Angela Bassett). The fictional couple was going strong when the ABC series shook things up after eight seasons by killing off Bobby in an April episode.
“I don’t even know what the show would be like without them together,” Bassett, 66, told People in March, one month before the death aired. “It’s hard to imagine.”
After the show faced backlash for killing off Bobby, Krause, 59, released a statement about leaving following eight seasons.
“I’ve heard that many fans are upset by this loss and they have a right to be. It is a loss. That said, it was more than a bold creative choice on a bold show. Bobby Nash was written in sacrifice and he was built for this,” Krause wrote in a statement. “First responders risk their lives on the job so that others can see another day. His story arc honors them. We at 9-1-1 salute all the incredible men and women who do these dangerous jobs and strive to keep us safe.”
According to showrunner Tim Minear, 9-1-1 isn’t in a rush to bring in a replacement for Bobby.
“I’m not solving that problem right away for the rest of this season,” he told TV Insider in April. “There is an interim captain there who is not going to be the captain going forward, but the last three episodes are not about who’s in Bobby’s chair. The last three episodes are about that chair is empty.”
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Minear noted in a separate interview with Variety that the two-part “Contagion” special “is not Krause’s final appearance this season.”
“I still think people grip their seats and are excited when Athena lands a plane on the freeway or a ship capsizes — but after eight years, it just felt like, if we have any hope of creating stories going forward that have actual stakes, then someone’s got to die,” he explained about why it “made sense” Bobby to be killed off. “If you track the tragic arc of his character, of where he started, and how he came to L.A. looking for atonement, it just makes a kind of tragic sense for his character in a way it wouldn’t for another character.”
Minear concluded: “But also, I just didn’t want to go small. Not that any of the characters are small, but Bobby’s death affects every single character’s story in a way that really no other character death would.”
9-1-1 airs on ABC Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET.
