Ten Original, Standalone Minisodes Premiere June 24th on FX & Online at Sony Pictures' Crackle

LOS ANGELES, June 2 /PRNewswire/ -- The writer's strike may have delayedthe fifth season return of Rescue Me until next spring, but Sony PicturesTelevision and FX will deliver ten minisodes of new, original content of thecritically acclaimed series from Denis Leary and Peter Tolan, which will aircommercial-free on FX, Tuesdays at 10 PM ET/PT beginning on June 24th.

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Each of the five-minute minisodes will feature Denis Leary and the rest ofthe show's ensemble cast in weekly comedic, standalone episodes, and will beavailable the day following the FX telecast on Crackle.com(http://www.crackle.com/rescueme) and via SPT's The Minisode Network on otheronline and mobile partners.

'Fans of Rescue Me have come to expect their favorite show to run duringthe summer, but because of the delay in production due to the writer's strikethat wasn't a possibility,' said John Landgraf, President and General Manager,FX Networks. 'These minisodes are hysterical and will provide fans theopportunity to enjoy the characters they have come to love. The minisodes aredesigned to keep the series top-of-mind in preparation for next season's22 consecutive episodes, which will be an unprecedented single-season run of ascripted series on basic cable.'

'Denis, Peter, Jim Serpico & their team were enthusiastic about keepingthe show salient, and this is a smart way to give viewers their much neededRescue Me fix this summer,' said Zack Van Amburg, co-president, programmingand production, Sony Pictures Television. 'It's an added bonus that we'll beable to leverage the studio's existing digital network to deliver theminisodes to a vast online audience,' added co-president Jamie Erlicht.

The minisodes will feature Rescue Me's regular cast, which in addition toLeary includes: Adam Ferrara, Michael Lombardi, Steven Pasquale, Andrea Roth,John Scurti, Daniel Sunjata, and Callie Thorne.