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Robert T. Ironside is mounting a comeback. NBC has given a pilot order to a reboot of the 1967 detective drama Ironside to star Blair Underwood. The new Ironside, written by Mike Caleo and produced by Universal TV, centers on a tough, sexy and acerbic police detective (Underwood) relegated to a wheelchair after a shooting who is hardly limited by his disability as he pushes and prods his hand-picked team to solve the most difficult cases in the city. The project originally had David Semel attached to direct and executive produce but he is no longer involved and just signed on to direct/executive produce CBS’ drama pilot Intelligence. Caleo executive produces Ironside with Teri Weinberg of Yellow Brick Road and John Davis and John Fox of Davis Entertainment. I hear NBC’s pickup hinged on Underwood playing the lead. The LA Law alum’s casting stems from a development/talent holding deal he signed with Universal TV in August. The actor, repped by ICM Partners and Thruline, recently starred in A Streetcar Named Desire on Broadway and his series credits also include NBC’s The Event. This marks former NBC top programming executive Weinberg’s return to the network and Davis Entertainment’s second pilot this season, joining NBC drama The Blacklist. The original Ironside series, from Universal TV, ran on NBC from 1967 to 1975 with Raymond Burr as the paralyzed Chief of Detectives. Here is the show’s opening sequence to the catchy theme music by Quincy Jones.
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NBC! The pioneers of innovation & creativity!!!!!
good show to remake …wrong lead. wont last. another remake ruined by nbc.
Any reason why Blair Underwood is “the wrong lead?” The last time I checked, anyone could end up in a wheelchair (for various reasons), so I am not quite getting your reasoning.
I think he is great actor, but there are plenty of outstanding actors who ARE disabled – and I think perhaps they should have cast an actual wheelchair-bound actor.
There are many great wheelchair bound actors who might breathe life into this remake. NBC should have taken that stance, though Blair Underwood is a fine actor, the reality of an actual wheelchair bound actor in the part would be refreshing.
Great Blair. Great for NBC.
This is a goddamn great script!!!
this has got to be one of the worst ideas EVA!! Seriously…there are so many people out there doing great work and the Big Idea is to remake something that, let’s be honest, just wasn’t that good to start with!! I feel a bit sorry for those at NBC in a way…Smash, Chicago Fire, Grimm, …just ..sad..Can’t even talk about the comedies..if I were a gay man I would be so offended by The New Normal!!
Blair was great in In Treatment..but really he’s not going to be a great lead in this awful idea…and people , even Nikki, still only ref LA LAw when they talk about him..OMG he was on that in 1987!!
‘If I was a gay man I would be so offended by The New Normal.’ No ‘offence,’ but how do you know what you would or wouldn’t be offended by, if you ‘were’ a gay man? Truly one of the most ridiculous comments I’ve read on this site for a while.
Chicago Fire may not have great ratings, but it’s a great show. I do agree with your take on The New Normal, and I didn’t think it was a bad comment at all. I’m a straight man, and I WAS offended by it. Of course, I felt the same way about Gaymos and Andy, er, I mean, Will and Grace.
Oh man. This is wrong on so many levels. But they’ll do it anyway and cancel it after 2 showings.
I love how everyone knows everything without having seen a script, a frame of film, anything. Underwood is talented and very unsung. Let’s reserve judgement.
Didn’t you know? That’s how all TV shows are judged these days, by reading a basic description of it.
Hahaha! Great comment, hollywoodie!
This should do sooooo well. I mean,Nbc’s reboots of Knight Rider & Bionic Woman are still going strong-aren’t they?
Don’t forget their reboot of The Munsters too!
And their reboot of The Rockford Files with Dermot Mulroney.
I don’t know about this reboot, but the music is brilliant. I also assume that Quentin Tarantino agrees, if only because his ‘Kill Bill’ films overused a snippet or two.
QT’s use of the IRONSIDE theme is actually a reference it’s extensive use in the kung fu film FIVE FINGERS OF DEATH (it was common for Hong Kong producers to “borrow” music from American movies and tv shows; of course, when one of those films got released HERE, audiences would recognise the music, and think of it as a joke!)
That said, hellz yeah that is one badass them song.
Heaven Forbid they should actually cast a REAL disabled actor in a wheelchair for the lead. How often do disabled actors get these opportunities??!! So unfair and unnerving.
Is the PCTV crowd ever happy?
If they’re going to do it why remake a show with such an indelible lead? Let’s remake Perry Mason with Like Perry? That’ll get eyeballs to tune in! Go funny. Go dark. Make a completely different show. This idea of reboots smells of desperation. Always. As if no writer today can come up with an original idea that has legs?
Luke Perry
Dear NBC,
Let’s remake Shaft with John Goodman or maybe Sanford & Son with Harry Hamlin and Nick Jonas. Get your heads out of your collective asses, NBC execs! This idea is ridiculous on so many levels.
What does Blair Underwood’s color have to do with it (which is one of the points you’re implying) him playing “Ironside?”
I suspect that you have never seen the series because his color–literally–had nothing to do with anything, while the color (and physical type, which is why John Goodman isn’t a good choice) of “Shaft” was very relevant, being that it was a film in the Blacksploitation vein.
Which is a tad harder to do when you character isn’t, let’s say, black.
“Sanford & Son,” was produced and created by Norman Lear (based upon a British series, according to The Google) who was well known for his commentaries on color in America (As did “Good Times.” and “The Jeffersons.”
“All In the Family” focused on a similar equation, but perspective of a white family, as well as “One Day At A Time, “ which dealt with the humor and heartbreak of the single parent, territory he also covered in “Alice.”
Don’t blame (the awful) Alice on (the great) Norman Lear. That wasn’t his.
SANFORD AND SON is ALREADY a remake- of the British show STEPTOE AND SON. Changing race in that case didn’t work out too bad…
Because there is no such thing as a black police chief, right?
Uh, Hollywoodie… the odds are with the unread. Almost all remakes fail.
And how is a guy who was a star 25 years ago unsung?
which shows how informed you are…25 years ago? The man was nominated for a Drama Desk award LAST YEAR for Streetcar on Broadway, starred in a Sundance film & a TV series in 2011 and was nommed for a Golden Globe for IN TREATMENT like 3 years ago. ETc. Know your facts.
From the network who gave us that WONDERFUL revival of THE MUNSTERS now comes THIS…
… is NBC REALLY this deperate?
Just bring back LAW & ORDER and get it over with!
Blair is great, but this doesn’t sound good. Ironside wasn’t a great show to begin with.
Ironside was a good show, not great, but that is irrelevant when it comes to deciding what shows to remake. If it was a great show, that wouldn’t improve the argument to remake it. If it was a bad show, they can make improvements to make the remake better, but they didn’t improve on anything here, from what I have seen in the trailers.
The next President of NBC will be joking about this at the winter press event.
20 bucks says Raymond Burr isn’t up for a cameo…
You know, It wouldn’t have killed them to get a real physically disabled actor to play this part. Even thogh it might not last.
ANOTHER remake, NBC?!!!! Who’s running that network?
Danzel played a paraplegic detective in a movie which also starred Angelina Jolie (if my memory served me well), it was a good movie!!
The concept may work!
I thought it was impossible but the new NBC leadership is almost as bad as the last. I say almost because at least this one, unlike the Zucker regime, doesn’t rule via intimidation and meanness. But they’re as inept. I’m not basing this assumption of this one bad idea, but on the entire body of putrid work done.
You idiots are commenting on a script you have most likely have not read. Great producers attached. A strong piece of talent. Give it a chance people and stop the hating!!
FUNNIEST JOKE I HEARD AT WORK ALL MORNING!!
…oh waitaminnit, it’s really not a joke, is it?
~
Coat
I saw this story, and had a flashback of Carl Lumbly in “M.A.N.T.I.S.”, which was the same concept with a superhero angle back in the 90′s.