I think they’re supposed to be black Irish, which is defined in this Straight Dope column.
In last nights episode, wasn’t this dialogue, “Did you go to school to get this stupid?”, directly taken from Godfather 2? When Pacino tells the family he’s going to join the marines in the flashback at Brando’s b-day party, doesn’t James Caan say this or really close to this?
I haven’t seen a second episode. It is conflicting with other stuff, which generally means I’ll have to wait for re-runs (and I’m not entirely sure this show will have 'em, based on the concensus around here). Oh well…I really did think the first episode was pretty good!
I read in Entertainment Weekly that, as badly as Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip was doing, The Black Donnellys managed to do still worse, and drew only half of Studio 60’s ratings.