The wave of mixed opinions generated by the death of Bobby Nash (Peter Krause) on “9-1-1” hasn’t made the series’ co-creator, Tim Minear, regret killing off the character. From the pilot episode in 2018 up to the end of “9-1-1” Season 8, Bobby was one of the ABC cop procedural’s main characters. The Los Angeles Fire Department captain had a difficult past. He dealt with drug addiction and suffered the loss of his family in a fire prior to the show’s events. Bobby’s “9-1-1” arc established him as a beloved character who always led with courage and compassion.
Bobby died heroically in “9-1-1” Season 8, Episode 15, losing his life in a chemical lab explosion. After the shocking event, Minear told TVLine why he made the decision to conclude Bobby’s “9-1-1” story. “This was entirely a creative decision on my part, really. I’ve been thinking about it for a while. I kind of hinted at it in the ‘Hot Shots’ episode when Brad Torrance is saying that [his character] isn’t going wake up from his coma, and he had that fan going, ‘You can’t kill him off! He’s what holds the [firehouse] together!’ I was really thinking seriously about it when we wrote that scene.”
Ultimately, Minear wanted to make the series’ dangers feel as real as possible. As he put it, “if the stakes are never real, if there’s really no chance that any of this peril in which these characters find themselves amounts to anything, I think the show could die.”
Bobby Nash’s death on 9-1-1 had to do with more than just stakes
Minear also shared that he and the writers always planned to give Bobby a sacrificial death on “9-1-1.” “I had the opportunity to give somebody an epic death and I didn’t want to waste it,” he said. Despite the showrunner’s explanation that killing off Bobby was a storytelling decision, financial considerations contributed to Peter Krause’s exit. “You’ll see this across the board on network shows, where they start culling the cast and culling the production and trying to make things more affordable so you can keep making the show,” Minear said during an interview with the Washington Post.
Bobby’s death sent shockwaves through the “9-1-1” fanbase when it happened, and for some, Krause’s departure marked the last time they would ever watch the show. Even though Minear remains confident in his reasons for eliminating Bobby, he feels a sense of guilt about the matter. “I have tons of regret about it,” he revealed. “I still think it was the right move. But it’s been really wrenching for me.”
“9-1-1” has aired just one season since Bobby took his last breath, and viewers still haven’t recovered. Nonetheless, the likes of Athena Grant-Nash (Angela Bassett) and Evan Buckley (Oliver Stark) are carrying Bobby’s legacy forward as “9-1-1” Season 10 nears.
