Leary Gives Network TV Another Try

Zap2It.com | September 14, 2006

Denis Leary

Discuss this story now

'Rescue Me' star will exec produce FOX pilot

Four years after "The Job" was shunted aside at ABC, Denis Leary is ready to return to network TV.

The "Rescue Me" co-creator and star will executive produce a comedy project for FOX. The single-camera show will revolve around a teenage thief who moves in with his grandfather, who also likes to steal things, the showbiz trade papers report.

Don Reo, a veteran sitcom writer-producer who co-created "My Wife and Kids," is writing the script. He and Leary will exec produce the project, which has a put pilot commitment at FOX, along with Leary's producing partner Jim Serpico.

Leary last set foot in the waters of broadcast TV in the spring of 2002, when "The Job" was cancelled. He hasn't been shy since then about complaining about the way the show was treated -- critics liked the series about dysfunctional New York cops, but ABC never put much promotional muscle behind it and cancelled it after 19 episodes.

It's unclear how deeply Leary will be involved with the show. He's committed to the fourth season of "Rescue Me" on FX, which is scheduled for summer 2007.

Reo's career as a writer stretches back to "M*A*S*H" and "Mary Tyler Moore" in the 1970s. He's also worked on "Blossom" (which he created), "The John Larroquette Show" and "Action."