''Ironside'' is an American police drama television series created by

Collier Young Collier Hudson Young (August 19, 1908 – December 25, 1980) was an American film producer and writer, who worked on many films in the 1950s, before becoming a television producer for such shows as NBC's '' Ironside'' and CBS's '' The Wild, Wil ...

, that aired on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

from October 2 to October 23, 2013 during the 2013–14 television season. It was a remake of the original television series '' Ironside'', which ran from 1967 to 1975. It starred

Blair Underwood Blair Erwin Underwood (born August 25, 1964) is an American actor. He made his debut in the 1985 musical film ''Krush Groove'' and from 1987 to 1994 starred as attorney Jonathan Rollins in the NBC legal drama series ''L.A. Law''. Underwood has a ...

as the title character, wheelchair-using cop Robert Ironside, the only character re-created from the original series. The remade ''Ironside'' was grittier and considerably more violent than the original, and the setting was changed from San Francisco to New York City. Ratings and reviews were unfavorable to the series, and it was canceled on October 18. Only four episodes were aired.

Production

The pilot was written by Michael Caleo, who was also the executive producer, while

Universal TV Universal TV, formerly Universal Channel, is an international pay television network specializing in movies and television series in the thriller, drama, comedy, horror, crime and investigation genres, owned by NBCUniversal International Netwo ...

Davis Entertainment Davis Entertainment (also known as Davis Entertainment Company) is an American film and television production company, founded by John Davis in 1984. Davis's three divisions–feature film, independent film, and television–develop and produc ...

and Yellow Brick Road produced the show. According to various news outlets, the plot of the show revolved around "a tough, sexy but acerbic police detective using 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 pilot episode was released for free early on September 10, 2013, via iTunes Store, Amazon.com, and Hulu.

Cast and characters

as Robert Ironside *

Brent Sexton Brent Sexton (born August 12, 1967) is an American actor best known for his roles in the television series '' Bosch'', '' The Killing'', ''Life'', and '' Deadwood''. He has guest starred in several other television series, such as ''The Expanse' ...

as Gary Stanton *

Pablo Schreiber Pablo Tell Schreiber (born April 26, 1978) is a Canadian-American actor. He is best known for his stage work and for portraying Nick Sobotka on ''The Wire'' (2003), William Lewis on '' Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'' (2013–2014), Mad S ...

as Virgil *

Spencer Grammer Spencer Karen Grammer (born October 9, 1983) is an American actress best known for her roles as the voice of Summer Smith in the Adult Swim animated science-fiction series ''Rick and Morty'' and as Casey Cartwright in the ABC Family college come ...

as Holly *

Neal Bledsoe Neal Bledsoe (born March 26, 1981) is a Canadian and American actor, writer, and filmmaker. Early life Bledsoe was born in Toronto, but grew up in Seattle, Washington. Both of his grandfathers served in the Air Force during World War II and his ...

as Teddy *

Kenneth Choi Kenneth Choi (born October 20, 1971) is an American actor. He is known for playing Henry Lin on the television series ''Sons of Anarchy'' (2008–2014), Chester Ming in Martin Scorsese's '' The Wolf of Wall Street'' (2013), and Judge Lance It ...

as Captain Ed Rollins *

Jake Picking Jake Picking (born March 2, 1991) is a German-born American actor. He is best known for portraying Rock Hudson in the Netflix series ''Hollywood'' (2020), created by Ryan Murphy. He is also known for playing the role of Sean Collier in '' Patri ...

as Nate

Episodes

Reception

The new ''Ironside'' received negative reviews. A summary on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

said, "''Ironside'' is an unnecessary, lackluster remake that could be a decent police procedural if it wasn't so mundane and monotonous." Brian Tallerico of HollywoodChicago called it the "Worst New Drama of 2013" and awarded it 1 star out of 5, saying: " 'Ironside'' isthe most clichéd, least believable, least fun, and just awful new drama of the year. It is aggressively bad. Avoid at all costs. Blair Underwood ... deserves better than the horrendous, uninteresting writing here. 'Ironside''should be a way to explore how our physical well-being is only one part of our lives and how we approach our work, even crimefighting. It’s not. It’s just manipulative drama that hopes to make you stand up and cheer by reminding you over and over again how tough its title character remains."

Neil Genzlinger Neil Genzlinger is an American playwright, editor, book reviewer, and theatre and television critic who frequently writes for ''The New York Times''. Family Genzlinger is a grandson of the late '' The Philadelphia Bulletin'' columnist Don Rose. ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' called the title character "an unpleasant combination of macho and brusque" and the handling of his disability "thuddingly didactic" and "one that is not doing real people with disabilities any favors". He called the storylines "bland", the reason for Ironside's disability "predictable" and the writing "plodding". (The backstory of Ironside's disabling wound was different in the remake than in the original series.) Robert Bianco of ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

'' gave the show 1.5 stars out of 4. He called it an "atrociously clunky" remake that "jettison dwhatever wit and intelligence the original possessed".

Controversy

Controversy arose over the decision to cast non-disabled actor

in the role of

paraplegic Paraplegia, or paraparesis, is an impairment in motor or sensory function of the lower extremities. The word comes from Ionic Greek () "half-stricken". It is usually caused by spinal cord injury or a congenital condition that affects the neura ...

Robert Ironside. ''

Sons of Anarchy ''Sons of Anarchy'' is an American action crime drama television series created by Kurt Sutter for FX. Originally aired from September 3, 2008 to December 9, 2014, ''Sons of Anarchy'' follows the lives of a close-knit outlaw motorcycle club ...

'' actor

Kurt Yaeger Kurt Yaeger (born January 3, 1977) is an American actor, director and professional athlete, who is also a below-the-knee amputee. Recent work includes roles on the CBS series '' NCIS'' and the HBO/Cinemax series ''Quarry''. Kurt is notable fo ...

, himself an amputee, compared the act to

blackface Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used predominantly by non-Black people to portray a caricature of a Black person. In the United States, the practice became common during the 19th century and contributed to the spread of racial stereo ...

, and said disabled characters should be played by disabled actors. Auti Angel, a paralyzed actress who appears in the Sundance Channel's reality series ''

Push Girls ''Push Girls'' is an American reality television series on the SundanceTV. A sneak peek episode, and original premiere date, aired on April 17, 2012, with the official debut on June 4, 2012. ''Push Girls'' chronicles the lives of four women— An ...

'' was quoted as saying "What are they afraid of? There are so many extremely talented individuals who are performing artists with a different ability." Larry Sapp, a disabled independent filmmaker, went as far as to boycott the show by starting a

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

page called Don't Shoot Ironside. However, fellow ''

'' star Angela Rockwood says she is not opposed to ''Ironside'' because the drama, like her show, challenges perceptions of how those in wheelchairs should look and act. Teri Weinberg, executive producer of ''Ironside'', stated that the role was cast with a non-disabled actor because the show features flashbacks to Ironside's life before he became a paraplegic, which "required an actor to be on their feet in their previous life".

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 2787278, Ironside 2010s American crime drama television series 2013 American television series debuts 2013 American television series endings 2010s American crime television series 2010s American drama television series 2010s American police procedural television series English-language television shows Fictional portrayals of the New York City Police Department NBC original programming Television series by Universal Television Television shows set in New York City Television remakes American detective television series