Daniel Sunjata
Rescue Me is back from its 18-month hiatus, and the early episodes of Season 5 prove the show is again firing on all its raucous and raunchy cylinders. But it's also turning a more focused eye back on 9/11 and its impact on the men of 62 Truck.
In doing so, this season brings mainstream attention to widespread conspiracy theories that suggest the 9/11 attacks were an "inside job." Fireman Franco Rivera — played by Daniel Sunjata, who in real life subscribes to these same beliefs — becomes the mouthpiece for these ideas on the show, something Sunjata admits he wasn't expecting to see on his script pages.
"I was pretty shocked because..."
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Calista Flockhart, Dave Annable and Sally Field in Brothers & Sisters by Craig Sjodin/ABC
How’s this for irony? All last week, trying not to get too depressed about what a protracted writers’ strike might mean for the TV season and the industry at large, I was secretly looking forward to a weekend getaway: catching former Alias star Jennifer Garner’s Broadway debut in a revival of Cyrano, opposite Kevin Kline and Rescue Me’s Daniel Sunjata. Unfortunately, my tickets were for Saturday night, by which time the stagehands’ union had initiated their own sudden walkout and work stoppage.At this rate, I might actually finish the book I’ve been reading since mid-October.(Thankfully, I was lucky enough to catch Aaron Sorkin's new play, The Farnsworth Invention, before the strike. It was scheduled to have its official opening night later this week, but when it reopens, I predict a healthy run for this fascinating, entertaining play recounting the birth of television.)While consumers of TV, movies and even theater wait for unions and producers to reac...
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Jennifer Garner courtesy Columbia Pictures
Alias' Sydney is teaming with another undercover agent of sorts — shy and super-schnozzed Cyrano de Bergerac — in a new Broadway staging of the romantic classic. Playing Cyrano to Jennifer Garner's Roxanne is Kevin Kline, while Rescue Me's Daniel Sunjata will fake ownership of Cy's poetic profferings as the delish-yet-dim Christian. Cyrano starts previews Oct. 12 before opening Nov. 1.
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Daniel Sunjata as Reggie Jackson in The Bronx Is Burning
Walk into the Yankees' locker room on the set of ESPN's new eight-hour miniseries The Bronx Is Burning (premiering tonight at 10 pm/ET) and the only thing missing is the smell. The odor that permeates the bowels of the real House that Ruth Built combines tobacco spit, wet socks, dog hair, moldy basement and body odor into one toxic brew. But the spot-on replica in a Waterford, Connecticut, studio, where the Bombers' 1977 world-championship season is being re-created, smells just fine. Daniel Sunjata (Rescue Me), who plays Reggie Jackson, gives a visiting sports writer an annoyed look and says, "Well, is the smell all we're missing?"
Actually, yes. To stroll on the set of The Bronx Is Burning is to take a remarkable walk back in time. Inside the Yank
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It's midsummer, and for many of us that means it's all about baseball (especially with next week's All-Star Game). But what makes ESPN's docudrama miniseries The Bronx Is Burning (premieres Monday, July 9, at 10 pm/ET) so impressive is that it's the rare sports movie that acknowledges there's life going on outside the stadium.
Airing in eight hourlong chapters (after this week, each airs Tuesdays at 10 pm/ET), this gritty and gripping adaptation of Jonathan Mahler's book recounts the tumultuous events of 1977 in New York City. It's a tabloid trifecta: There's the feared Son of Sam serial killer on the loose, a boisterous mayoral campaign under way, and, racing to the World Series, a Yankee team dominated by the outsized personalities of owner George Steinbrenner, manager Billy Martin and star Reggie Jackson. A blackout dur
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Callie Thorne, Rescue Me
As FX gears up for the third season of its red-hot firefighter drama Rescue Me (premiering tonight at 10 pm/ET), count on Callie Thorne's Sheila to carouse and connive her way around the firehouse, causing a whole new set of problems for Denis Leary's Tommy. TVGuide.com chatted with Thorne to tease the new season (the first episode of which she had yet to see), find out what it's like hanging with the boys as well as guest stars Susan Sarandon and Marisa Tomei, and why she'd be willing to swing from
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Susan Sarandon
As first teased in last week's Ausiello Report, Oscar winner Susan Sarandon has signed on for a three-episode arc on FX's Rescue Me. The actress who made The Hunger so memorable will play Alicia, a successful older woman who seduces Daniel Sunjata's Franco. She first shows up in the second episode of Season 3, which is now in production and due to premiere in early summer.
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Question: Considering the wonderful praise given to Rescue Me by you as well as other critics, it saddens me that this show seems to be snubbed come nomination time. It's made plenty of critics' Top 10 lists and I'm happy it made AFI's list. It simply amazes me how Denis Leary does not get an acting or writing nomination for Tommy Gavin and Season 2 for the Golden Globes. It's not the first time a deserving series has been ignored, but I am just surprised given the "FX is the new HBO" attitude as of late. In HBO's prime, it got tons of nominations. Finally, what saddens me most of all is that the ensemble of this show will simply never be recognized. Jack McGee and Daniel Sunjata deserve recognition for their story lines. The wonderful work of Steven Pasquale, John Scurti and Michael Lombardi will never be awarded since their story lines are mostly comedic in a dramatic program, even though the show would not work without them. The drama is so poignant because we are able to laugh with ...
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Question: Any scoop on how Diane Farr will be written out of Rescue Me now that she's replacing Sabrina Lloyd on Numbers?
Answer: All Farr would tell me plotwise is that "Laura and Franco (Daniel Sunjata) go through a wild ride" as we approach the Sept. 13 finale (aka Farr's last episode).
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Daniel Sunjata
On FX's dramedy Rescue Me (Tuesdays at 10 pm/ET), none of the characters is as straightforward or stereotypical as they look on paper. Take Franco — played by Daniel Sunjata — a ladies' man who has taken guardianship of the young daughter he just found out he had, then developed a painkiller addiction, which put his kid in jeopardy. The 33-year-old Sunjata tells TVGuide.com he's loving the changes in his character and looking forward to the rest of the show's fiery season.
TVGuide.com: I finally started watching Rescue Me this season, and now I'm totally hooked!Daniel Sunjata: Well, that's a good sign, we're happy to hear that. It's like Sex and the City for men. If women want to hear what men talk about when they're not around, watch Rescue Me.
TVGuide.com: Your ch
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