In case you haven’t heard, there won’t be a fifth season of Rescue Me this summer—that’ll have to wait for next summer, although we’ll be getting 22 episodes then, which is pretty great. [Why we're not getting in the fall is beyond me, other than as part of an FX strategy to air the show in the summer when most other shows are in re-runs. Personally, I don't want to wait until 2009 for more Rescue Me.]

That said, we’ll see five-minute mini-episodes of the show starting in June. The eps are to air at 10pm EDT on Tuesday nights. Can I just hope that one is a hockey fight between Cam “Mungo” Neely and Denis? Wouldn’t that be awesome?

FX hopes that this project will keep the show on viewers’ minds during the unusually long hiatus. Denis Leary and executive producer Peter Tolan are co-writing the minisodes’ content, which was described as “comedic hijinks” by FX.

Hmmm … I wonder if the writers for It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia might get involved. They write some zany sketches … but hey, Denis’s comedy routines are funny.

The release date for the Rescue Me Season 4 DVD is unknown at this point. Amazon.com does have its standard “we’ll let you know when it’s released” page up if you’re interested. As soon as I found out when it’s available, I’ll post it here.

[As expected, I'm seeing requests for this info on the Season 4 entry, so I'm posting this separately...]

After how the fourth season went, I wasn’t sure if Rescue Me would get another season. After all, every other season had seen a renewal before the previous one was finish, and then we went a few months before we heard anything about the show’s future. In that time, Andrea Roth has joined Lost [and has also done some guest starring work on Numb3rs]. But indeed, Rescue Me has gotten a fifth season, with a 22-episode order. It remains to be seen whether or not the 22 episodes will be aired at once or in two distinct seasons, as FX did with The Shield.

TVSquad is reporting some changes in FX’s lineup for the summer, which includes news about our belove Rescue Me:

Plus, FX has suddenly changed its mind about Rescue Me’s placement on the schedule. This weekend, I told you that the premiere date was set for Tuesday, June 12th. Well, as of today that premiere has been bumped back to Wednesday, June 13th and Rescue Me will air on Wednesdays at 10 pm through the summer.

Now, my TiVo will pick it up on either date, but for those of you who make time to watch shows in real time, you’ll want to make a note of this. [Understand that the "10 pm" is the ET/PT timeslot and adjust accordingly.]

No release date for the season 3 DVD for Rescue Me has been announced. As soon as it is, I’ll update this entry.

Because all questions coming in to my old Season Three entry relate to this topic, I’m closing comments there.

Update, 9 Mar 2007: Amazon.com has a page up for Rescue Me: The Complete Third Season. There’s a place there to sign up for info as it’s known. Worth doing, I’d say.

Update, 26 Mar 2007: It’ll be out June 5, 2007, a week before Season 4 starts on FX.

According to TVIV’s page for Rescue Me, the fourth season will premiere on 12 Jun 2007. There’s still no definitive word on a release date for the season three DVD, but given when the first and second season releases have happened, I don’t expect it anytime before mid-May 2007.

Why the long wait? I think the fine folks at Apostle understand that we’ll slavishly buy the DVDs and watch each of the old episodes a couple of times before the next season re-airs, building all the anticipation that you need for a summertime-release show. If they put the DVDs out in time for, say, Christmas … well, you might not anticipate the summer show so much. While TiVo and time-shifting-via-DVR in general have made it far easier to stay current with shows—and kudos must go out to FX for re-airing each week’s episode multiple times before the next week hits—it’s just harder for a show that airs new episodes only in the summertime to get an audience, because of all the other things you could be doing on a summer evening besides planting your ass on the couch to watch Tommy, Garrity, Lou, and Franco, y’know?

Update, 6 Feb 2007: It’s my understanding that the show goes into production on Thu 8 Feb 2007.

Update, 9 May 2007: The premiere has moved back one day, as noted elsewhere on this site. And if you were looking for the season three DVD release date, it’s 5 Jun 2007. As TV-on-DVD releases typically happen on Tuesdays, it won’t move concomitantly with the timeslot change.

No, I don’t know when it will come out.

I don’t expect it before March 2007, given when the first and second seasons have come out on DVD.

When I find out, I will edit this post to reflect that. If you have verifiable information, post it in the comments.

Update 30 Dec 2006: Given a mid-June premiere for Season Four, don’t expect the DVDs out before mid-May or so.

So yes, my little entry on Season Three of Rescue Me made it a whole season without spoilers being posted in the comments, even after the finale on Tuesday. [My feelings on that? They largely mirror Jonathan Toomey's [warning: there be spoilers!]: not enough resolution, other than the obvious ones you’d expect. They hit the three main A-lines and sorta left the B-lines askew. Unlike Toomey, however, I want Tommy and Janet together. Yes, that might make the show jump the shark, but honestly … this show probably doesn’t have 100 episodes in it without major cast overhauls.]

But enough about Season Three: so that everyone who comes here for Rescue Me news knows, our beloved show will indeed get a fourth season.

I’m sad to read that the wonderful Television Without Pity has dropped their coverage of Rescue Me:

Some fires burn too brightly. And some never really get past the embers stage. TWoP readers didn’t really take to the tale of a firefighter who was often drunk, irresponsible, sexist, racist, and homophobic, and therefore, it’s time to turn the hose on Rescue Me.

– TWoP Show Status page

I personally think that Rescue Me is as up-front and visceral as it is in order to present some social commentary in there. Evidently they disagree.

Janell left a comment letting me know that she’d spotted a start date of Season Three of Rescue Me of 30 May 2006. I have confirmed it, thanks to, of all sources, the Salt Lake City Weekly:

Denis Leary’s effdup firefighters series Rescue Me, the best drama on television according to True TV, returns for Season 3 on FX May 30; the Season 2 DVD comes out May 9 for you tube-phobes who watch only discs so you can trick yourself into thinking you’re watching a film. When it comes to adult shows made for adults, not prissy parental-watchdog groups (yeah, alert the Parents Television Council), Rescue Me can’t be beat.

I concur. In honor of the release of the DVD, I have a surprise that I’ll announce here at a later date.

Thanks again, Janell!

Lots of folks have been asking in the comments section of my Rescue Me Season Three News entry when the second season of Rescue Me would be coming out on DVD. Prompted by a comment from Mike, I went and did some looking: Rescue Me – The Complete Second Season shows up on Amazon with a release date of 9 May 2006. Mike says he hears it’s coming out a week earlier; I’ve emailed him with a request to let me know his source.

Either way, it looks like the goodness that is Rescue Me will be out for all to see on DVD soon!

I watch my server logs: I know that a lot of Googlers get here wondering about FX’s Rescue Me, a show that I really, really happen to love. Lately, folks seem to wonder: “When is the new season of Rescue Me going to start?” Best as I can tell, we can expect that sometime in the second quarter of 2006—I’d bet on May.

FX recently picked up Rescue Me for a third season, ordering 13 episodes. Production of season three begins early next year and will debut in the second quarter of 2006.

– Futon Critic

The pickup comes despite the fact that ratings for the show, which stars Denis Leary as a damaged New York firefighter, have been flat this season. Production on the new batch of 13 episodes is scheduled to begin early next year, with a premiere date targeted for spring or early summer.

“Once again, Denis and [co-creator Peter Tolan] have delivered a brilliant season,” says John Landgraf, president and general manager of FX. “They continue to create wholly original storylines which pull off the difficult task of blending riveting drama with raucous comedy. We’re extremely proud of this show, which is one of the very best television has to offer.”

– Zap2It

As for the odds of [Gavin sister] Maggie coming back next season, [Tatum] O’Neal says, “I think they’re pretty good. They’ve already told me they’ve written me in. Leary told me, ‘You want to work a day a week for six months, Tate?’ ‘Sure! It’s in New York. My kids are in school. No problem.’ So that’s great.”

– Zap2It

I think having Tatum O’Neal as a part of the cast next year would be great. I personally can’t wait for Season Three—I’m expecting that it’ll show up sometime in May or June.

I needed a Sunday afternoon nap, and, as always, NASCAR came through for me. But before I could go into a racing-on-TV-induced coma, I saw something joyous: Rescue Me returns to air June 21. [My earlier entry on this was erroneous, as I couldn't read that the date was related to the beginning of filming.]

The DVD of Season 1 will go on sale this Tuesday, June 7. Hooah.

A commentor asked when the second season of Denis Leary’s Rescue Me was going to start. I was curious, too, so I did a little looking. A little Googling turned me to the Boston Herald story from today on this very topic: Rescue Me returns to the air on March 8, 2005.

I can’t wait! I got a big tease a couple weeks ago when NBC’s Law & Order had Daniel Sunjata and Andrea Roth in the same episode. [I was quite, quite disappointed when they didn't have Uncle Teddy (Lenny Clarke) as the rich husband of Roth's character!]

Denis Leary’s Rescue Me, one of my favorite shows of the summer, has been renewed for a second season.

FX has renewed the show about New York City firemen, asking for at least 13 additional episodes. The series is filmed on location around New York City and draws about 9.5 million viewers over the course of its five airings each week.

It averages about 2 million viewers ages 18-49 � the key audience prized by advertisers � in its Wednesday 10 p.m. slot. That’s turned out to be the highest total in that demographic for a new basic cable show this year.

I had a minor panic when this past week’s ep mentioned “three more episodes” without noting whether it had been renewed. I’m thankful that it has—it’s rapidly become a show I very much look forward to watching each week.