9-1-1 showrunner Tim Minear and the crew might be the only ones at the 118 who believe Buck’s (Oliver Stark) staunch insistence that Billy Boils—whose dead corpse he accidentally messes with in a prop store snafu in this week’s Halloween-themed episode—is haunting him from beyond the grave. Per the executive producer’s own admission, putting together a spooky installment is at once a fun caper and hair-raising in and of itself.
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“We knew we wanted to do a Halloween-themed episode, which always frightens me [pun accidental] because we’re a little superstitious on the staff,” Minear told Parade in an exclusiveinterview. “We always feel like the Halloween episodes are somewhat cursed when it comes to getting over the finish line.”
And get to the finish line they did. With “Masks,” the fifth episode in Season 8, it’s the busiest time of the year for first responders, as they deal with various hijinks and a man whose head swells up inside a pumpkin. But the crux of the episode, Minear said, is the “central conflict” between Hen (Aisha Hinds) and Karen (Tracie Thoms), who accuses her wife of always missing “the big moments” in her family’s life for work.
“The question was what is the one true human element of this episode beyond the ridiculous, and, for me and for the staff, that was the idea that the first responders never really get a holiday,” he explained. “[During] the holidays, they are needed on the streets, and it’s like you have to choose between your home family and your found family.”
Underneath “all the fun and frivolity,” is an installment filled to the brim with the makings of a tragedy. While Karen shepherds Jee-Yun (Hailey and Bailey Leung), Mara (Askyler Bell), and Denny (Declan Pratt) on an evening promising doorsteps and candy, the latter ends up pinned by a car, whose owner crashed it into a home after recklessly chasing after a pair of teen pranksters. It takes the entire crew of firefighters to save Denny from the precipice of death, manufacturing a makeshift roof joist to remove the vehicle and conducting an in-field blood transfusion. For a few moments, the teen’s pulse is lost as Hen begins desperate chest compressions.
Related: Everything to Know About 9-1-1 Season 8
“Fans are probably like,’‘Boy, will you ever give them a break?!’ If you’re fans of those characters, you probably don’t want me to give them a break to get the best stories,” Minear said. Though Denny is hospitalized successfully and in recovery at the episode’s conclusion, the writer admits that his own heart-pumping storyline had him on edge.
“Even when I was cutting the episode, when I was in the editing room, when I got to that scene when the music stops, when they’re trying to save Danny with the blood transfusion, I thought he was going to die,” Minear said. “I made it, but when I got there, I was like, ‘Wow, this feels so dire.’”
But the 9-1-1 boss kept in mind one scene as the episode’s throughline. “For me, the entire thing was built around that one moment in that hospital room at the very end, when Karen says, ‘The whole time, I was just thinking, thank God you were at work.’”
When it came to crafting the tonally diverse installment, the four-time Emmy nominee leaned on his writing and producing chops honed over the last two decades, during which he brought to life cult classics like Angel (the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin-off), cult classic Firefly, and Wonderfalls, co-created by Todd Holland and Bryan Fuller.
“This hour, it has the ridiculous, and hopefully something human and real, all mixed together, is just kind of what I’ve always been about. And I think the way we approach it in the writers’ room is: We can lean into what’s ridiculous, but still have it feel like you’re attached to the characters,” he said.
The key, according to Minear, is believability and taking even the most “nutty” situations—like Athena (Angela Bassett) landing a beleaguered plane on a stretch of the 110 freeway—as seriously as possible.
“We’re like a jazz band that gets together, and we just kind of feel what it is we’re playing, and hopefully the audience responds to it.” It’s about letting the viewers in on the joke and winking back at them, Minear explained, acknowledging that they are “a participant in the story, we’re inviting you in. ‘Come, have fun.'”
Related: 9-1-1 Stars Aisha Hinds and Tracie Thoms Break Down the ‘Triumphant Victory’ of Their Adoption Storyline
In 9-1-1‘s sixth year across two networks, Minear gives credit to current home ABC for the resurgence of the firefighter procedural. With this season, coverage of the drama has expanded beyond online publications like Parade that habitually cover network TV, but to outlets like The Los Angeles Times, Vulture and The Daily Beast who have previously not engaged in consistent reporting, and have, in turn, introduced new viewers to the show.
“I think that, in no small part, it’s the move to ABC,” Minear said. “I mean, we loved Fox. Fox loved us. It was great. But when we moved to ABC, it just kind of gave us a shot in the arm because we were coming to a network that was really happy to have us come over. And I will say that the promotions people at ABC are the best I’ve ever seen. They really know how to get the word out and to find a campaign that really excites the viewers.”
“I also want to give us some credit,” he continued. “I feel like the show’s been good, and so when it’s good, people talk about it, and they’ll catch it the next day. And then if they watch it on Hulu, they might want to see [it] live.”
When teasing what’s ahead for the 118 crew, Minear said to expect “some turning points, or at least half-turning points” for certain storylines. The list includes Eddie’s (Ryan Guzman) grief over his separation from Christopher (Gavin McHugh), Chim (Kenneth Choi) and Maddie’s (Jennifer Love Hewitt) home life, and Athena and Bobby’s (Peter Krause) house-hunting efforts.
When it comes to drawing from 9-1-1’s extensive and oftentimes overwhelming lore, Minear said, “You just have to look at where you are on the road, at the time. Otherwise, you’ll go completely insane. The nice thing about building canon behind you [is] you have now history for these characters. You can go back and interrogate that history and see what piece of that might work.” And, on that note, with Episode 6 upcoming, Minear said viewers can expect a pilot plotline to come back around.
New episodes of 9-1-1 air on ABC Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. Next-day streaming is available on Hulu.
Next, 9-1-1’s Peter Krause Breaks Down Filming the Fiery Conclusion to Season 8’s Opening Crash Landing.
