NBC is rebooting “Ironside,” the classic detective show about a sleuth in a wheelchair formerly starring Raymond Burr. Blair Underwood plays the modern day Robert Ironside, confined to a wheelchair after a shooting on the job.
Not only is Blair Underwood a very different man than Burr, but the new “Ironside” is quite the ladies man too. This question was raised on the Television Critics Association panel for “Ironside,” and Underwood cited the documentary Murderball, about quadriplegic athletes, an aspect of which is how they still retain sexual function. I got to speak with Underwood one on one about the new “Ironside” and follow up on some of the topics raised by the new series.
CraveOnline: On the panel you addressed the practical aspect of this Ironside being sexually active. I have also seen Murderball and I love that you referenced that.
Blair Underwood: Oh, how great was that movie?
Phenomenal. I wanted to ask in a sort of different way. Was it important to you that there be a sexual component to Ironside?
No, it wasn’t important, but when I saw it, because it was in the initial script, I thought it was important that we, not justify, but explain it in some way or make it clear that this is something he is able to do. Whether he is able to perform or not, there is intimacy to still be had. That’s a different conversation. I just thought it would be important that we be clear on if he can or cannot.
Sure, but he’s a downright Casanova.
Okay, I’ll go with that.
Does he have love interests every week?
Not every week, but he’s a commitment phobe for sure. The actress that you saw on the flashback, who he said, “I want to marry her.” That’s the one that got away. That’s where his heart is. So that character will float back. If he could be with anybody, it would be her, but he can’t be with her. Everything else in between is casual affairs.
They didn’t mention it in the pilot but was it significant to you that they were introducing an African-American Ironside? Is it a good thing that we’ve gotten to a point where it’s not an issue?
I think that’s a good thing. You’re the first person that’s mentioned that today.
But I led into it by asking if it was important.
But I love that you did and I love that it’s not an issue. It is what it is but I love that it’s not.
Well, it’s a fact there was Raymond Burr and now there’s you.
Exactly. I think to your point, that shows progress.
Is there a lot of action for Ironside in the wheelchair as far as chasing down bad guys and being a badass?
I think in different ways. The kind of action he has, he’s not chasing people per se but it’s more intellectual warfare. There’s physical warfare when he can reach out, like in that opening scene in the backseat of the car. So yeah, different kinds of physicality. You’d be surprised.
The bad guys will learn not to get too close to Ironside.
That’s right. So we have a new bad guy every week.
What makes Ironside such a great detective?
Well, that’s what we’ll learn as we go further. It’s part of his backstory and history. It has to do with his proximity to crime and his DNA. Does that makes sense?
It sounds like you’re suggesting he might have grown up on the other side of the law?
Exactly. That’s good.
But we haven’t seen that yet.
No, no, that’ll come.
How long before you think that’ll be addressed?
In the very next episode we get clues to that, but I can say the element of crime and the criminal mind is not far from a world he’s very much aware of.
How far back will the flashbacks go?
Two years, we go to one now that’s 12 years back. Can’t go back too far, I can’t pull it off too much further.
At one point in “The Event” did you have a sense that it wasn’t quite going to go and you weren’t going to get to complete that story?
Wow, you know they took us off the air for four months. Once they took us off the air I knew it was going to be kind of dicey coming back. When we came back, the ratings had slipped. I think after the third week after coming back, we saw the ratings weren’t coming back up.
