A couple of days ago the news was released that NBC had recently signed actor Blair Underwood in a deal to relaunch the 1967 -1975 detective series drama Ironside with him in the lead role as Michael Ironside!
Well, last night at the Pan African Film Festival, which Underwood supports, we got a chance to speak to him EXCLUSIVELY about the new role and the changes that the show will take with him as the lead. You will see that there are going to be some dramatic differences in the role then when actor Raymond Burr starred in the title role.
Take a look at the interview below;
In the original version of the show, it was centered around a detective (Raymond Burr, of Perry Mason fame) who was wounded in placed in a wheelchair and he solved cases with his team from the chair.
Check out the article from Deadline below;
Robert T. Ironside is mounting a comeback. I’ve learned that 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 an acerbic, sarcastic detective in a wheelchair (Underwood) who pushes and prods his hand-picked team to solve the most difficult cases in San Francisco. The project originally had David Semel attached to direct. He is no longer directing, he just signed on to direct/executive produce CBS’ Intelligence,but he remains an executive producer alongside Caleo, Teri Weinberg of Yellow Brick Road, John Davis and Jon Fox. 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 original Ironside series, from Universal TV, ran on NBC from 1967 to 1975 with Raymond Burr as the paralyzed Chief of Detectives.
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