The Black Donnellys

• ABC's canceled serial thriller "The Nine" will air six more episodes starting in August, says the Futon Critic.
• The makers of Indiana Jones 4 are insisting on not using any CG effects in order to maintain the style of the older Indiana Jones movies, reports the New Haven Register.
• The Los Angeles Times says fans of "The Black Donnellys" are sending crackers to HBO, hoping the channel will pick up the series.
• Variety brings news of a Dirty Dozen remake written by Zak Penn whose credits include X-Men 2 and Fantastic Four.
• Billboard reports that Miley Cyrus' (a.k.a. Hannah Montana) album is beating out Kelly Clarkson's and is topping the Billboard 200 chart.
• Joan Baez, the Shins and Donovan are among the artists recording "Little Boxes" for the third season of "Weeds," Zap2it reports.
• According to TV Guide, Lara Croft will be getting her own online animated series, with Minnie Driver as Croft's voice.
• "Everwood" alum Stephanie Niznik will star in The CW's "Life is Wild," writes the Hollywood Reporter.

Photo copyright 2007 ABC, Inc.

Fans of "The Black Donnellys," it's time to shake off that cancellation-induced coma and head over to NBC.com. The first two unaired episodes have made their way to NBC's video player, where other two filmed episodes should also wind up eventually.

I'm glad that "Donnellys" at least has a venue online to "broadcast" the rest of its episodes; plot lines can get tied up and fans don't have to hope for a DVD set to see what happens. But I do wonder how many people actually follow the shows online once they're off TV. I swore up and down that I'd finish the "Day Break" season once those episodes got posted on ABC's site, and I still haven't watched. What about you? Will you follow "Donnellys" online?

Source

Let's take the bad news first: According to Variety, "The Black Donnellys" is done, effective immediately. NBC had already planned to bump it in two weeks, but its poor showing this week apparently pushed NBC to shut it down earlier. According to Variety, the remaining episodes will stream on NBC's video site eventually.

Now the good news: "30 Rock" is coming back!

Yes, it's still early here on the West Coast, but I'm willing to bet this is the happiest news I'll hear today (unless, you know, "Friday Night Lights" gets renewed). I think "30 Rock" was the best new comedy this year — and it's evolved into one of the best shows, period. It's a perfect fit in NBC's Thursday lineup, and there's always at least one line that I can't believe they got away with saying on network TV. Plus, I know I don't have to tell you how I feel about Alec Baldwin.

To celebrate, I've got this excellent clip of some of Tina Fey's best moments from the show, which you can watch if you read more

Hope you weren't getting too attached to "The Wedding Bells" or "Six Degrees." They were two of the shows axed this week as the networks reshuffled their schedules. Among the other casualties: "The Black Donnellys," which might only get to air two more episodes, and "7th Heaven," which is being canceled (supposedly for real this time). According to Variety, the networks said low ratings were behind all of the decisions.

Here's a summary of the changes:

• "The Wedding Bells" will air this Friday but is unlikely to be back after that.
• "The Black Donnellys" will get bumped from its time slot on April 23 to make way for "The Real Wedding Crashers." It's unclear if NBC intends to pull "Donnellys" completely before the 23rd or air the remaining episodes at another time; it only will have aired eight of its 13 episodes by then.
• "Six Degrees" is done, effective immediately, and — for the moment, at least — it will be replaced by episodes of "Wife Swap" (hey, at least it's not more "George Lopez").
• "7th Heaven" is scheduled to air its finale on May 13.

There's some good news for fans of "October Road": The show was only going to get to air four of its six episodes, but it's doing well enough that ABC is planning to let it finish out the season on Thursdays at 10. It will take a one-week break April 12 to make way for the premiere of "Notes from the Underbelly," but then "Notes" will move to Wednesdays at 8:30.

The CW's "Hidden Palms," which sounds like "Desperate Housewives" crossed with "Dawson's Creek," also finally got a time slot, and it will start May 30 at 8 p.m.

Photos courtesy of ABC, Fox, and NBC

Now, I've heard of deleted scenes — but a whole deleted episode? That's what NBC has done with "The Black Donnellys." Apparently this episode, called "God is a Comedian," was "too shocking" for network TV, so NBC put it online instead.

Like a lot of you, I'm kind of digging the show so far, so I'm curious to give this bonus episode a look. On the other hand, I wonder how "Donnellys" will deal with any important developments that only fans dedicated enough to watch online will see. That can be tough even with deleted scenes, as this article points out, so I imagine it would be a bigger problem when a whole episode gets pulled. I mean, what if someone dies? How would they explain that? I guess I'll just have to watch.

The song that played over the final scenes of "The Black Donnellys" on Monday apparently wasn't the original choice for that spot. There are two versions of the ending floating around right now: one that aired on Monday and features Snow Patrol's "Open Your Eyes" over the climactic scenes, and one from the original, unaired pilot with Arcade Fire's "Rebellion (Lies)" playing instead.

After watching both versions, I'm amazed at how much the song changes the character of the ending. The Snow Patrol song fades into the background, making the acting and dialogue carry the drama. The Arcade Fire song, on the other hand, makes the scenes feel much more urgent, and the lyrics match the action better. For my money, the Arcade Fire version is more powerful, though the Snow Patrol ending picks up steam when Tommy Donnelly starts the gunfight (about three minutes in).

I haven't seen an official explanation for the change, though this story rhapsodizing about the Arcade Fire version chalks it up to licensing issues. That would make sense; the only time I remember hearing that song on TV is during Nate Fisher's 40th birthday party on "Six Feet Under" (someone correct me if I'm wrong).

By the way, these five minutes were the best part of the pilot, so if you missed the premiere but watch these scenes, consider yourself caught up. Here's the ending as it aired, with the Snow Patrol song:

To see the leaked Arcade Fire version and weigh in on which works better, read more

I'm just going to say this up front: NBC's "The Black Donnellys" is a little like "The Sopranos," if all of Tony Soprano's associates were incredibly attractive young men. Between the good-looking cast and the cinematic, almost epic look of the pilot, "The Black Donnellys," which premieres tonight, is definitely doing just fine in the eye-candy department.

The show, which is taking over the "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" time slot for an undetermined amount of time, also has star power: creator/producer Bobby Moresco and writer Paul Haggis, both of Crash and Million Dollar Baby fame. Though both have worked in television before (most notably on the mid-'90s crime drama "EZ Streets"), their film work has garnered them most of their recognition. So it's no surprise that the first episode of "The Black Donnellys" feels like a movie, with its expertly composed visuals and tricksy editing. Yet for all its glitz, the show's pilot was only OK. To hear why, read more

Turns out, NBC really, really wants you to watch "The Black Donnellys." First, the network made the first episode of the show — which is bumping "Studio 60" off the schedule — available on Netflix back in January. Now, they've put the whole pilot online — for free — over at Yahoo! TV.

I'm glad to have the chance to see the show ahead of time, but how does NBC actually expect anyone to watch the premiere on Monday? Even if I like the pilot when I watch it online, I'm not going to tune in a second time when it's on TV. That's exactly what happened with "The Agency" — I loved the first episode, but now I have no reason to watch tonight.

Then again, this kind of move can generate buzz if the people who watch the pilot early tell their friends it's good. I'll check out the episode this week and let you know what I think. Have any of you seen it yet?