NBC’s college comedy ‘Community’ back for fifth season

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 paralysed 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-cancelled 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 on 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 also said it is cancelling 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, one-time 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 comedy for autumn has already lost its leading lady. Parker Posey has left The Family Guide, according to a person close to the project who wasn’t authorised to discuss it publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. Posey had starred as a divorced mum with an 11-year-old son who idolises his blind father.