'Nine' strangers have odd bond

LOS ANGELES -- ABC's new series "The Nine" might be the first TV drama to be inspired by a blind date from hell.

K.J. Steinberg, who created the series along with her brother, Hank Steinberg, recalled how she once talked with a friend about a disastrous evening that left him certain he and his date had no future together. Walking after dinner to their car, the couple were robbed at gunpoint by a mugger who fled with all their money.

"My first thought was to ask my friend, 'So, you still seeing her?' " Steinberg said. "I wanted to know how that experience changed him, how it changed their destiny."

The outcome of that incident led to "The Nine," which premieres tonight and examines the lives of nine strangers who were hostages in a 52-hour siege at a bank. It's clear from the drama's tense pilot that what transpired over those 52 hours permanently altered the hostages' lives, forging unlikely ties among them.

"We've focused on how a group of strangers can experience something that binds them and causes them to re-examine their lives," Steinberg said. "They get a second chance."

The cast includes Tim Daly as a police detective who winds up at the center of the robbery, Chi McBride as the shy branch manager, Scott Wolf as a hotshot surgeon and Owain Yeoman as a bank robber who hopes the crime will be successful enough to give him a brighter future.

Episode by episode, the drama will look at the core nine strangers and reveal another piece of what happened during the siege.

Daly, who has starred in "Wings" and numerous other series and movies, is enthusiastic about the concept.

"When any person reaches consciousness, they have a plan of how they want their life to go, and then inevitably something throws that plan off course," he said. "How you adapt to that defines your character."

Daly noted that he knew little about what his character goes through during the robbery: "There's so much secrecy that surrounds the show. We get as much information as we need to know. The writers need to leave themselves a lot of latitude."

"The Nine" has received plenty of positive buzz from critics who have seen the pilot, which executive producer Hank Steinberg finds encouraging.

And what ever happened to the dating couple that inspired the series?

Said K.J. Steinberg, "They're getting married."