Denis Leary saw grief and laughter collide inside FDNY firehouses in the devastating aftermath of 9/11 – an emotional whiplash that ultimately helped inspire "Rescue Me."
That collision of heartbreak and humor would become central to "Rescue Me," with Leary drawing from the firefighters he knew and the raw moments he witnessed inside their firehouses in the months after 9/11.
"A lot of the guys I knew that had survived, I was spending time with them and in their firehouses as they were digging through The Pile in the fall right after 9/11," he told the New York Post. "We were witnessing the grief that they were going through."
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The original idea Leary was working on with writer Peter Tolan was about a firefighter killed in the line of duty, but one moment changed his mind completely.
"It was literally in the blink of an eye," he explained. "We went from watching a guy come up from downtown from ‘the pile’ – they had found a friend, a piece of a friend, and so he was just overwhelmed with grief. I mean, he could barely talk."
"Watching him trying to fight to talk in that firehouse kitchen was a very tough experience to watch," Leary recalled. "Maybe 20 minutes later… all of us were laughing about something."
That moment – moving from crushing grief to laughter in a matter of minutes – helped Leary envision what "Rescue Me" could become.
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"We’re going to make a show where people are on the edge of their seat watching an action sequence involving fire," Leary told the outlet. "And then the next minute they’re crying because they’re so sad, and then the minute after that, they’re laughing their a--es off."
"Rescue Me" stars Leary as Tommy Gavin, a veteran New York City firefighter struggling with alcoholism, family turmoil and survivor’s guilt in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The supporting cast includes Andrea Roth, Michael Lombardi, Steven Pasquale, Daniel Sunjata, John Scurti and Jack McGee.
Leary and Tolan didn't have to hunt for information. FDNY members and firefighting consultants gave the show's creators plenty of real-life firehouse stories to draw from.
"We had so much information on a daily basis, not just comedically, I’m talking about dramatically," Leary said. "All the ideas for our fires came basically from experiences those guys had."
Feedback from younger firefighters was overwhelmingly positive before the show's launch, according to Leary. "They said, ‘You got it. You totally nailed it.'"
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Leary had been playing a game of pick-up ice hockey on the fateful day 25 years ago.
He watched an "endless flow" of dust-covered corporate workers fleeing uptown New York City for hours from the West Side Highway.
"They turned the rink into a morgue, and they lined up all the ambulances," he recalled.
Leary added, "The sound of the buildings … it’s almost like it goes into your bones."
Leary had experienced the bond between firefighters firsthand years earlier, after his cousin and close friend Jeremiah Lucey was killed alongside five other Worcester firefighters in a 1999 warehouse fire. He recalled FDNY friends traveling to Massachusetts to help search the ruins.
The actor launched the Leary Firefighters Foundation in 2000, shortly before the 9/11 attacks took the lives of many FDNY firefighters and friends of Leary.
"I knew I was going to hear about firefighter friends of mine from the FDNY that didn’t make it," Leary recalled. "But the next day, to hear that 'Ace' Bailey had died in the thing as well, we were just like, ‘That is crazy.’ I mean, it’s insanity."
The acclaimed firefighter drama premiered on FX on July 21, 2004, and ran for seven seasons, ending in September 2011.
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The show's blend of tragedy and dark humor may have resonated with audiences, but Leary recalled that not everyone in Hollywood believed comedy had a place in a post-9/11 world.
"I remember a network executive saying to me at the time or a movie executive saying this is going to alter the way people feel about comedies," Leary said during an appearance on Joy Behar's show in 2011. "And I was like, 'What are you talking about? They're going to need to laugh more than ever. If anything, they are going to be looking to laugh.' And he was full of fear."
Reflecting on the series alongside Leary at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in 2024, Tolan – co-creator of the show – acknowledged the weight of building a television series around a tragedy that remained deeply personal for so many.
"When you know that, you always have to sort of be vigilant to how far am I going and is it too soon to do this? And I'm not going to say that we were hugely careful because there are elements of the show that are raucous – that are just inappropriately funny," Tolan said. "But that's the human experience."
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"That is what happens, that is the most pure essence of how people move forward in their lives – is at a certain point, they're able to laugh," he added. "Not about the event, but about how they're dealing with the event and how they are responding to it."
Throughout its run, "Rescue Me" explored the friendships and conflicts inside the firehouse while showing how its characters coped with grief, family struggles and the everyday risks that come with their profession.