A Real-Life Family Emergency Inspired Ryan Murphy to Create '9-1-1'

Ryan Murphy’s new hit Fox drama 9-1-1 was inspired by a terrifying real-life family [...]

Ryan Murphy's new hit Fox drama 9-1-1 was inspired by a terrifying real-life family emergency.

According to Entertainment Tonight, the mastermind behind the American Horror Story and American Crime franchises opened up at Fox's winter Television Critics Association press tour on Thursday about how inspiration struck for the new procedural drama.

"My son Ford was 11 months old [at the time], and in the middle of the night, stopped breathing," Murphy explained. "We called 9-1-1, and obviously, we were in a panic and doing CPR. They showed up and at two in the morning, there were four responders. They were incredibly calm and nurturing, and they brought him back to life."

Murphy, 52, continued to explain that the first responders only allowed one parent to be with the 11-month-old as he was transported to the hospital.

"Three of the officers and responders stayed to get a report from me, so I had an experience of sitting with them and talking to them and they really talked me off the ledge. My interest in this show came from a very life-or-death situation for my son…I'd really been interested in the lives of [first responders] and how they are forced to show up to be the balance in stressful situations."

9-1-1, which is centered on the lives of emergency responders, premiered Wednesday night to strong numbers, making it the highest-rated Wednesday premiere in Fox in over a year.

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