Week of May 21: Burr's "Ironside" Was a Barrier Breaker

By Sylvia Gurinsky

As it continues to muddle around in search of past glories, NBC has decided to revive a past glory, casting Blair Underwood ("L.A. Law") in a new version of "Ironside."

Everything from the casting of able-bodied Underwood in the role of the wheelchair-bound Ironside to a change in scenery (from San Francisco to yet another NYPD show) to a perception the character will be changed to a corrupt cop has raised plenty of hackles - which it should.

We already know about the reboot concept paling a new show in comparison to the original ("Hawaii Five-O," anyone?). It has to happen in the case of "Ironside," simply because the original show was such a barrier breaker.

The casting of the able-bodied Raymond Burr as paralyzed Chief Robert Ironside mattered less in 1967, because wheelchair-bound leading characters were almost non-existent to that point, anyway. (Ironically, Burr had played a bad guy in the 1954 movie "Rear Window," which had Jimmy Stewart's lead character recovering from a broken leg in a wheelchair.) Burr's Ironside would open doors for the portrayal of disabled characters in primary roles on television.

Before the series went on the air, a two-hour movie showing the shooting that left the chief of detectives paralyzed premiered on NBC. The movie teamed all the people who would be carried over to the series: Besides Burr, there was Don Galloway as Detective Sergeant Ed Brown; Barbara Anderson as Officer Eve Whitfield; Don Mitchell as Ironside's aide Mark Sanger and Gene Lyons as Police Commissioner Dennis Randall.

Mitchell's character would develop the most through the run of the series. The African-American Mark Sanger went from juvenile dropout to lawyer. By the 1993 reunion movie, he was Judge Mark Sanger.

The movie got high ratings and achieved something else: Letting viewers accept Burr in a role other than Perry Mason. They would embrace the crusty-but-tender-hearted Ironside for eight seasons.

Halfway through the series run, Anderson (who had won an Emmy) left and was replaced by Elizabeth Baur as Fran Belding. Except for Lyons, who died in 1974, the rest of the cast would appear in the 1993 movie, "The Return of Ironside."

Also making a mark was Quincy Jones with his memorable theme. Here's the theme and a few minutes of the first one-hour episode:

Message From Beyond

The first two seasons are available on DVD (Get them complete and avoid the annoying partial-season releases.); the first three seasons can be viewed at Hulu.com. The new show may prompt the release of more seasons.

See you next week. Until then, Happy Viewing!