Oscar Winners

There are a lot of initial discrepancies about NBC's The Black Donnellys from the moment you watch the show.
If you are a born and raised New Yorker, you might find it initially hard to relate to the creators insistence on piecing together different but real geographical areas and their claim that it's one fictional neighborhood, unlike other shows using a New York backdrop such as The Sopranos, Law and Order or even Sex and the City.

If you are Canadian, you might be even more confused by the creators choice of the title, which until recently has been a famous historical reference to one of the most gruesome murders in Canadian history.

Bobby Moresco and Paul Haggis, the Oscar winning team behind Crash and the creators of The Black Donnellys implore you to throw pre-conceived notions out the window when you watch the premiere Monday night and want to remind us that although the show is heavily based on their personal experiences growing up in New York City's Hell Kitchen, the story and places are indeed fictional and should feel timeless.

I've got to be honest with you all: I purposely phrased my headline the way I did because, six months later, I still can't believe the Three 6 Mafia actually won an Oscar for their song "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp." Not that the song is bad; in fact, it's quite the opposite. But I just can't believe the stuffy Academy had the foresight to give the award to anything other than some sappy Elton John song from a Disney movie (and, yes, I know that Eminem won a few years ago, but this was even more of a surprise). The group's genuine enthusiasm at winning the award was one of the highlights of this year's Oscar ceremony.

MTV liked these guys enough to give them a reality show, called Adventures in Hollyhood. In the series, set to air next year, cameras will follow Juicy J and DJ Paul and their entourage as they journey from Memphis, Tenn. to Los Angeles. It's being billed as a "comedy reality series," so it looks as if no one's going to take anything too seriously. If they're as fun as they were at the Oscars, it should be a good time.