"You're looking at 19 months off the air, which is technically cancellation, I believe," says Peter Tolan, Rescue Me writer and producer.  Due to the writers' strike, the FX dramedy series about New York firefighter Tommy Gavin (Dennis Leary) faces a prolonged break, which, in today's fast-paced world of ridiculously short attention span, almost automatically translates to fading into oblivion.  As new shows are being churned out by networks, even a critically acclaimed series like Rescue Me can just as easily be forgotten.

To remedy this delay (new episodes won't arrive until April), the people behind Rescue Me opted to launch a series of weekly five-minute segments they like to call “Minisodes” that will air Tuesdays at 10pm ET/PT.

"We felt there was some risk there, and the best way to hedge our bets is to give us some face time with our audience so they don't drift away," says Tolan.

It was FX chief John Landgraf who came up with the unusual tactic, worried that loyal fans of the series might “forget it exists” if they wait that long.  To offset the delay, fans will get 22 full episodes once normal airing begins, up from 13 in previous seasons.

FX realistically doesn't expect millions to actually tune in and wait for a 5-minute segment, so they are exploring other platforms.  They will also be streaming the minisodes on several video-hosting sites, such as YouTube, Hulu, and Crackle.

While the minisodes won't necessarily connect to the storyline in the upcoming fifth season, they will reflect the type of comedy Rescue Me had been known for and loved, particularly “the guys talking in the kitchen about sex, their lives, and foolishness in the (fire) house.”

When the long wait is over, however, Rescue Me will be on with its storyline, where “Tommy [was] left off emotionally, with the death of his father (Charles Durning) and the fact that everyone else is in grief about it, but he's not.”


-Glenn Diaz, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: USA Today
(Image Courtesy of Sony Pictures Television)