Actor and writer Denis Leary has said the emotional whiplash he witnessed inside New York City firehouses after the 11 September 2001 attacks helped shape his FX firefighter drama "Rescue Me." Leary spent time with FDNY survivors as they searched the World Trade Center wreckage, and a single moment—watching a firefighter overwhelmed with grief after finding a colleague's remains, only to see the same room erupt in laughter minutes later—convinced him and co-writer Peter Tolan to abandon their original concept about a firefighter killed on duty in favour of a show blending tragedy and comedy.

"Rescue Me" starred Leary as troubled veteran firefighter Tommy Gavin, alongside Andrea Roth, Steven Pasquale, Daniel Sunjata and others, drawing heavily on real accounts supplied by FDNY members and firefighting consultants, with younger firefighters praising its authenticity before launch. Leary's connection to the fire service predates 9/11: his cousin died in a 1999 Worcester warehouse fire, and he founded the Leary Firefighters Foundation in 2000. He also recalled witnessing the chaos of 9/11 firsthand from a Manhattan ice rink that was turned into a temporary morgue.