Denis Leary & Peter Tolan To Co-Write Half-Hour Comedy For Leary To Star; Tolan Gripes About "The Insanity Of Pilot Season''

Ray Richmond is contributing to Deadline's coverage of TCA. With their seriocomic firefighter drama Rescue Me ending its run on FX in September, series co-creators Denis Leary and Peter Tolan are embarking on another series project together. "I guess I can say right now that Mr. Leary and I are tomorrow starting writing on our next show, a half-hour for him to star in," Tolan told Deadline today after the TCA panel on the final season of Rescue Me. He described it as "strictly a comedy, like nothing we've done before. It's not a traditional comedy, probably for cable. We're doing it totally on spec and taking it out." Before Rescue Me, Leary and Tolan co-created the underrated ABC cop comedy The Job, which also starred Leary. Tolan said that after 10 years of working together, first on The Job and then on Rescue Me, he figures that he and Leary "have some connection in our comic sensibilities." Leary has another half-hour project in the works as a writer: He recently signed on to co-pen with Bob Fisher an adaptation of the upcoming British series Sirens for USA Network. Tolan also reflected on this past development season, when he re-entered the broadcast arena with four projects that landed buyers. Two of them, comedies Council of Dads at Fox and Brave New World at NBC, went to pilot but didn't make the cut to ... Read More »

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