9-1-1’ Creator Says Season 8 Bee-Nado Was Inspired by Eddie’s 1970s Disaster Movie,Un-Bee-Lievable……..

For 9-1-1’s first season on ABC (and seventh overall), the executive producers of the series decided to pay homage to The Poseidon Adventure, Irwin Allen’s 1972 classic disaster film about the survivors of a capsized ocean liner. But when they went back to the drawing board for the eighth season of the hit procedural drama, 9-1-1 co-creators Tim Minear and Ryan Murphy wanted to up the ante by combining two more ’70s disaster films: The Swarm and Airport 1975.

Thursday’s season premiere finds Athena being forced to transport Dennis Jenkins, the man who killed her fiancé decades ago and whom she brought to justice in Season 3, back to Los Angeles on that ill-fated plane. Meanwhile, the rest of the 118 are all left to deal with a new normal at work. Following the rash resignation of Capt. Bobby Nash (Peter Krause), who is now forced to take a job as a consultant for a Hollywood firefighter show, Vincent Gerrard (Brian Thompson), the demanding and bigoted former captain of the 118, has officially taken back control of the fire station, where all the remaining firefighters except for Buck (Oliver Stark) seem to be falling into line.

On a quick break from writing the new season, Minear — the mastermind behind the 9-1-1 universe — opened up about how Athena’s brush with the past will affect her going forward, why he decided to bring back Gerrard at the end of last season, and the reason for Eddie’s (Ryan Guzman) new look this season. (Following Fox’s cancellation of 9-1-1: Lone Star, which just premiered its fifth and final season, Minear declined to comment about the rumors of another 9-1-1 spinoff in the works.)