Continuing to add to their series orders for 2013-14, NBC has picked up the contemporary adaptation of the 1960s crime drama Ironside starring Blair Underwood.

My generation will no doubt remember the old TV show on, back in the late 60’s to the mid-70’s or so. It was a huge hit for the network.

If you remember it, I’ll bet you will also remember the show’s theme music. And I’ll also bet that it’s even been sampled by rappers.

Starring Raymond Burr, who already was a TV icon for playing lawyer Perry Mason, Ironisde was a detective series in which Burr played a tough big city cop who was shot and left paralyzed from the waist down, from an assassination attempt; and with a group of young able-bodied assistants, he solved hard crimes plaguing the city.

Now NBC has decided that what worked in the past can work again, and cast Blair Underwood in a reboot of Ironside. It’ll be his first TV series gig since the failed sci-fi NBC series The Event.

Interestingly, this kind of shows you how have things have changed… somewhat.

On the old show, there was a black character, played by Don Mitchell, whose basic job was to push Ironside around in his wheelchair. Now, this time, it’s the black guy who’s boss, who gets pushed around.

This is part of the development/talent holding agreement Underwood signed with NBC/Universal TV last year.

Here’s the logline NBC has for the reboot: A remake of the 1960s series that starred Raymond Burr. The reboot stars Blair Underwood as a tough, sexy but acerbic police detective relegated to a wheelchair after a shooting who, hardly limited by his disability, he pushes and prods his hand-picked team to solve the most difficult cases in the city.

The cast includes Spencer Grammer, Brent Sexton, Pablo Schreiber, Neal Bledsoe, and Kenneth Choi.

The series is written and exec produced by Michael Caleo (Rescue Me, The Sopranos), exec produced by David Semel, Teri Weinberg, John Davis, and Jon Fox.