Listen, we may have nothing but warm feelings for the firefighter that Billy Burke is playing now — Chief Vince Leone, on Fire Country, going into its second season on CBS in the fall — but that wasn’t the case when he was on 9-1-1: Lone Star.
Burke played Billy Tyson across eight episodes in Seasons 1, 2, and 3 of the Fox first responder drama (which is heading into its fifth), and to say he was, at best, a frenemy to the 126 would probably be generous. The former captain of the 126 was a thorn in Owen Strand’s (Rob Lowe) side for most of his time on the show — and even got punched by the other captain when he took a position offered to Owen (Deputy Fire Chief) and decided to shut down the firehouse. (They, of course, found a way to save it.)
So when TV Insider spoke with Burke about the Fire Country Season 1 finale, we had to ask: Would Vince want to punch Billy Tyson? “A thousand percent yes,” he said immediately. “I don’t think Vince would trust Billy Tyson any further than he could throw him.”
But hey, Billy Tyson wasn’t all bad. He helped Owen rescue T.K. (Ronen Rubinstein) and Carlos (Rafael Silva) after an arsonist set their house on fire (though there were certainly trust issues all around during that storyline) and stepped up when Grace (Sierra McClain) was in labor during the ice storm.
For Burke, who praised the “great group of people” on 9-1-1 Lone Star, “that guy was fun to play, I have to say, because he was just awful. And then he was like, ‘Oh, you’re not so bad.’ And then he was awful again,” he laughed. “That was cool.”
And while we can’t help but sometimes wonder what would happen if Billy Tyson showed up again but would be OK not knowing, Vince has had us on his side from the beginning.
Fire Country, Season 2, Fall 2023, CBS
9-1-1: Lone Star, Season 5, TBA, Fox
