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FILE - This March 7, 2011 file photo shows actor Blair Underwood is interviewed in New York. NBC is announcing a new comedy for fall from "Scrubs" creator Bill Lawrence and an updating of the '70s cop drama "Ironside." (AP Photo/Richard Drew, file)
NEW YORK >> NBC is ordering up a new comedy for next season from “Scrubs” creator Bill Lawrence and an updating of the ’70s cop drama “Ironside.”
And in a surprise move, the network is bringing back “Community” for a fifth season. This quirky college comedy has struggled in the ratings but enjoys a devoted cult following.
The revived “Ironside” will star Blair Underwood as the paralyzed lawman who uses a wheelchair. That memorable character was originally played by Raymond Burr.
Another new drama, “Chicago PD,” is from producer Dick Wolf (“Law & Order”). It will serve as a companion piece to “Chicago Fire,” which premiered this season.
The Lawrence-produced comedy, “Undateable,” stars Chris D’Elia (from the just-canceled NBC sitcom “Whitney”) as a ladies’ man who wants to help a circle of friends who are not so successful with romance.
Other new series include “Welcome to the Family,” a comedy starring Mike O’Malley and Mary McCormack; “The Blacklist,” an action drama starring James Spader as the world’s most wanted criminal; and “Night Shift,” a medical drama.
NBC also announced Friday that it has axed its news magazine “Rock Center with Brian Williams,” as well as “Go On,” a rookie comedy starring Matthew Perry that had a promising start before its ratings collapsed, and its fellow freshman comedy “The New Normal.”
On Thursday, the network said it is canceling other rookie comedies “Up All Night,” ”Guys with Kids” and “1600 Penn.”
NBC had also announced five new series including a drama, “Believe,” from producer J.J. Abrams, and a comedy adaptation of the Nick Hornby novel, “About a Boy.”
Gillian Anderson, onetime star of “The X-Files,” will be back in “Crisis,” a drama about a bus full of high school students who are kidnapped.
Sean Hayes, the former “Will & Grace” actor, will star as a gay divorced dad in “Sean Saves the World.”
But yet another new fall comedy has already lost its leading lady. Parker Posey has left “The Family Guide,” according to a person close to the project who wasn’t authorized to discuss it publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. Posey had starred as a divorced mom with an 11-year-old son who idolizes his blind father.
NBC’s entire fall schedule will be unveiled Sunday.
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