The Black Donnellys: The Brothers Come to DVD

The Black Donnellys followed the story of four young brothers — Catholic Irish-American siblings in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen. The story was told by unreliable narrator and Donnelly childhood friend Joey “Ice Cream” while being incarcerated. The series starred Jonathan Tucker, Thomas Guiry, Olivia Wilde, Billy Lush, Michael Stahl-David, Kirk Acevedo and Keith Nobbs. It was created by Crash’s Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco.

This gritty drama debuted on February 26, 2007 on NBC and replaced the struggling Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. The initial episode lost almost 40% of its viewers by the end of the episode and things didn’t get any better for subsequent episodes. It seemed that NBC really wanted to stick with the series but most of the rest of their schedule was performing poorly and the network pulled it after six episodes.

NBC streamed the rest of the episodes online and cable’s HDNet has started airing the complete series. Unfortunately, the show isn’t available to many people who followed the series on NBC — until now.

It’s been announced that The Black Donnellys: The Complete Series is coming to DVD on September 4th. All 13 episodes will be included on the 3-disc set, including the third episode (“God Is a Comedian Playing to an Audience Afraid to Laugh”) that was deemed too violent for network television. At least one deleted scene will also be included on the set.

Though the series won’t be returning for a second season, at least more people will have an opportunity to see how the explosive first season ended. Stay tuned!