NBC’s ‘Line Of Fire’s Josh Safran & Peter Krause Tease New Series

NBC‘s upcoming drama series Line of Fire is bringing together the star fire of Peter Krause and Hope Davis to TV on September 21. Krause and Hope participated in a special panel discussion this morning alongside executive producer Ben Spector, showrunner and EP Joshua Safran, and EP Jenna Bush Hager.

Line of Fire follows a family of law enforcement agents who bridge personal differences and cross professional boundaries as they tackle cases for the FBI, US Marshals, Secret Service, and Department of Justice. After a seemingly cut-and-dry case turns into a deadly conspiracy, they must use the expertise from a lifetime of protecting civilians and politicians to protect one another and bring the killer to justice … even if it means betraying their sworn code.

“I think of the show a little bit of a throwback in terms of we talk about The West Wing a lot, The Diplomat, which is not a throwback. But it’s this idea of talking around the world of politics, but not being a show about politics. These people who do this job do it regardless of what state the country is in at any given time, or who is in charge. This is a job,” shared Safran.

“You have to love every person you are working with, regardless of the regime or if you ideologically see eye to eye. It’s the job. It’s about the love of the job. It’s about the love of the work,” he added.

Krause joined the NBC drama following his exit from ABC’s 9-1-1. His Line of Fire character, Mike Hollingsworth, is a father and husband, though he and his wife Jane Hollingsworth (Davis) are currently separated. The couple shares three children, who are adults; Krause calls them “the kids.”

“It’s fascinating to see [Hope Davis] with the kids, who are these young actors that aren’t really kids? We call them kids. I think they’re all going to be big stars. Tommy O’Brien and Kat Cunning and Taylor Bloom, they’re all just fantastic in their roles. But they get along so well and can get really loud. Just last week, Hope was in her dressing room trying to learn her lines, and she came out in the hallway, and I just heard, ‘Could you all just keep it down?’ She was shushing our children,” Krause said as the room erupted in laughter.

Davis added, “I had to shush them!”

As far as the format for the season, Safran said it’s going to be a mix of serialized and episodic after the pilot.

“As I said earlier, I’m kind of drawn to sort of the throwback. All the shows that I binge are the type that I hope this is. You can watch an episode and feel like you saw a story, a beginning, middle, and end, but there still is stuff that will drive you to the next episode. So I’d say 80/20, sometimes 90/10, sometimes more. Think The West Wing, The Good Wife. On The Good Wife, they’d solve a case, the case would be over, but the emotions would still be with the characters. I’d say we carry that over. And then of course there is a conspiracy element that continues,” said Safran.

“There will be some episodes that are dialed up, but most of the time you’re gonna follow a case every week. You’re gonna see one or more of these family members solve a case every week. That’s very important to all of us, including me. I’ve been very excited to do a procedural forever,” he added.