A lot will be different at the 118 when 9-1-1 returns for season 9.
The biggest difference, of course, will be the absence of fire captain Bobby (Peter Krause), who died heroically at the end of season 8 — though series star Oliver Stark acknowledges that the Bobby Nash-size hole was felt a little less on set than it is for the characters on the show…at least at first.
“I think it almost took a little bit of time to sink in, because if you look back to season 7 and season 8, Pete wasn’t really with us for the opening three or four episodes of those,” Stark, who plays firefighter Buck on the ABC drama, tells Entertainment Weekly. “He was off on the cruise ship or Gerrard [played by Thompson] was captain. We’re almost used to not seeing Pete with us for a little while when we come back for a new season, so it took a little bit of time for it to sink in that ‘Oh, those relationships away from the camera are as strong as they ever were and ever will be, but this time around he’s not coming back.”
As EW broke exclusively, the fire station will be dedicated in Bobby’s name in the season 9 premiere on Thursday.
“It’s emotional — for the characters, but also for us,” Stark teases of the dedication ceremony scene. “When I talk about it taking a little bit of time to hit us for real, it’s moments like that that do hammer it home. You know, we’re making big changes here. We’re renaming the firehouse.”
“I think it’s a moment of mixed emotions within the show,” he continues. “You know, there’s obviously sadness, but then I think there’s pride and there’s joy in the sense of him being properly celebrated and remembered.”
Buck will also have mixed emotions about some other changes that occurred during the six months that will have passed for the characters between seasons. That includes Eddie (Ryan Guzman) stepping in to partner with Hen (Aisha Hinds) on the EMT team as Chimney (Kenneth Choi) serves as acting captain for the 118.
“I think Buck’s trying to hold on to things that feel safe and known to him,” Stark explains.
“He’s not struggling, but…having some difficulty adjusting to it,” he adds of his character seeing Eddie and Hen (…Heddie?) grow closer. “It’s not in the most serious way, where he can’t deal with it, but he’s certainly taking note of it and being loud about the fact that things are new and this isn’t what he’s used to.”
So where is Buck to turn for comfort if not Eddie?
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Stark teases a “quieter, more intimate” and reflective moment: “a lovely scene with a maybe unexpected character where he really gets to spill his heart a little bit and be a bit more emotional and a bit more vulnerable.”
“It’s not to somebody that we’ve necessarily seen him talk to before,” he adds, “and I just think it’s a nice opportunity for Buck to let go and be more honest because he’s not with somebody who he feels is gonna judge him.”
Quick on the heels of famously sassy, phrase-turning R&B singer and reality TV star Tamar Braxton’s announcement her recently released album, “Bluebird of Happiness,” will be her last — at least for a while — and news that her husband, music executive husband Vincent Herbert, founder of Streamline Records, was legally ordered to pay Sony more than $3.7 million to settle a lawsuit over a 2013 advance, the couple hoisted their grandly proportioned and glamorously appointed Mediterranean mansion in Calabasas, Calif., up for sale at $15 million.
The Herbert-Braxtons, married in late 2007 after about five years together, purchased the 13,716-square-foot mansion inside the double-gated Estates at The Oaks enclave in April 2013 for $10.5 million and public records show since then there have been several notices of default filed and subsequently canceled against the two-acre spread that provides a total of seven bedrooms and nine full and two half bathrooms between the main house and poolside guesthouse.
Wrought iron and glass front doors open to an entry vestibule and foyer with black and white floral-patterned inlaid floor and a floating, wrought iron railed staircase that curves up to the bedrooms on the second floor. The main living and entertaining space makes a great sweep across the rear of the residence with gleaming wide-plank hardwood floors laid in a classy chevron pattern.
A central gallery with glossy grand piano is flanked to one side by a lounge with semi-circular sofa in front of an ornate fireplace and to the other by a “champagne bar” modeled after The Dorchester Hotel in London with tufted velvet sofas and a stately wood-paneled ceiling.
Arched French doors open the vast space to an immense, stone-paved loggia with retractable canvas shade awnings and a bowling alley-length dining table that easily seats at least two-dozen al fresco diners. With elaborately carved cabinetry, granite countertops and a super-sized commercial-style range under a hand-hammered copper hood, the kitchen is open to a spacious informal dining area that, in turn, opens to a family room with fireplace and French doors to the backyard.
The three-story mansion’s creature comfort also include a home theater, a game room, an office, a wine cellar with tasting room and, unsurprisingly, a recording studio along with an elevator, an camera-equipped security system, a gentlemen’s lounge with authentic barber chair, a mirror-walled gym and a subterranean parking garage that will accommodate over a dozen cars. The mansion makes a U-shaped embrace around a broad and grassy courtyard with swimming pool and spa beyond which a soccer pitch-sized lawn gives way to a panoramic view over rugged ravines and undeveloped mountaintops.
Some of the other, equally sized and similarly luxurious estates in The Estates sections of The Oaks are owned by reality television’s Kourtney and Khloé Kardashian, Michael Jackson’s mother Katherine Jackson, Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and Jay McGraw, elder son of extraordinarily well-compensated TV therapist Dr. Phil McGraw, and his Playboy model wife Erica Dahm.