Starting next week, FX will begin airing five-minute "minisodes" of the Denis Leary dramedy Rescue Me. The idea was conjured up by FX President John Landgraf, who believed (rightly) that audiences might forget about the series in the 19 months between the end of the last season and the start of the next one, which isn't till April 2009. (They may also represent a nod to the decreased attention spans of viewers, who are becoming used to watching bite-size programming on the Internet.)
The minisodes will feature a lot of comedic firehouse talk, along with some dramatic references and, we're guessing, plenty of adult language. They'll air on Tuesdays at 10 p.m.
Meanwhile, TV Guide is reporting that the show plans to bring Tatum O'Neal back next season, despite her recent drug arrest. (Considering the bad behavior of her character on the show -- and of all the other characters, for that matter -- it's not too surprising.) This summer, she'll play a school principal in a Lifetime made-for-TV movie called Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleading Scandal.