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- Neil Middlemiss
Ironside Season One
Studio: Shout Factory
Year: 1966 ('Pilot') 1967/68
US Rating: Unrated: Some Adult Themes
Film Length: 1380 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audio: English Dolby 2.0
Subtitles: None
The Show - :star::star::star:
"You'll pardon my asking but WHAT in the flaming blazes are you people doing here!?"
The grumpy and curmudgeonly Ironside, the youngest chief of detectives with the SFPD, while vacationing for the first time in 25 years at police commissioner Randall’s (Gene Lyons) farm is gunned down in the late evening while enjoying some scotch on the porch. The injuries sustained leave him paralyzed and wheelchair bound. Unable to continue as the Chief of Detectives (equal opportunity laws were not around) but eager to investigate his own shooting and itching to get back to work, he is allowed to create a special investigative unit, bringing onto his team Detective Sergeant Ed Brown (Don Galloway, 'Arrest and Trial'), policewoman Eve Whitfield (Barbara Anderson, 'Mission: Impossible') and former juvenile delinquent Mark Sanger (Don Mitchell, 'Scream Blacula Scream').
With this unique unit in place, Ironside finds a good space inside the police building, decks out a police wagon with a throaty sounding engine, a wheelchair ramp and small cabinets to house his scotch.
The stories of Ironside cover familiar crime territory; inside jobs, escaped convicts, crime rings and plenty of murder. Managing to explore but never exploit Ironside’s paralysis, this show quickly becomes quite the unique crime drama among the plethora of ‘cops vs. the bad guy’ shows that have been a staple of the television landscape since broadcasts began.
Some of the standouts from this first season are the well paced ‘Pilot’, ‘An Inside Job’ – guest starring John Saxon and Norman Fell, ‘Light At The End Of The Journey’ - a rather taut story about a blind ‘witness’ and my personal favorite, ‘The Challenge’, filled with a perfectly good mystery and satisfying payoff.
There are also quite a few recognizable guest stars that pop-up throughout the 28 episodes, including Ed Asner ('The Mary Tyler Moore Show'), Susan Saint James ('Kate & Allie'), David Carradine ('Kung Fu'), Jack Lord ('Hawaii 5-0') and Lee Grant ('Peyton Place').
I may not hold a library of knowledge about shows from the 60’s (aside from the stellar ‘Star Trek – TOS’) but Ironside strikes me as a well devised show that delivers solid, well constructed stories, a certain edginess and a gruff and enjoyable lead with the Ironside character. It is shackled at times by the era in which it was shot, struggling with how society traditionally viewed African Americans, women and the artistic community (and hippies), but in this first season, those confines do manage to get stretched a little.
“Ironside” is a notable show. It’s one of those shows that made its way into the great lexicon of American television. And, quite frankly, it belongs there. It was the first to “pilot” a series, premiering on NBC to 24 million viewers a full year and a half before the series aired weekly and it gave the world its first handicapped lead. And so, it proved to be quite a dynamic show on the small screen and was able to play around with convention while grinding down a few barriers.
The Episodes
Disc One -
Pilot: Ironside World Premier (Pilot)
1: Message From Beyond
2: The Leaf in the Forest
Disc Two -
3: Dead Man’s Tale
4: Eat, Drink & Be Buried
5: The Taker
6: An Inside Job
Disc Three -
7: Tagged For Murder
8: Let My Brother Go
9: Light at the End of the Journey
10: The Monster of Comus Towers
Disc Four -
11: The Man Who Believed
12: A Very Cool Hot Car
13: The Past Is Prologue
14: Girl in the Night
Disc Five -
15: The Fourteenth Runner
16: Forces of Arms
17: Memory of an Ice Cream Stick
18: To Kill a Cop
Disc Six -
19: The Lonely Hostage
20: The Challenge
21: All In a Day’s Work
22: Something For Nothing
Disc Seven -
23: Barbara Who
24: Perfect Crime
25: Officer Bobby
Disc Eight -
26: Trip to Hashbury
27: Due Process of the Law
28: Return of the Hero
The Video - :star::star::star: out of :star::star::star::star::star:
The image is framed at 1.33:1, consistent with broadcasts of the day, and is of generally good quality through the 28 episodes. There are a number of dust elements that pop up frequently and a fair amount of film grain that is to be expected for a show filmed and broadcast in the 1960’s. The exterior shots are hardest hit in that regard. Even the interior shots, in addition to some grain, suffer at times from a softness that is intermittent through the season. The pilot and episodes on the first disc look especially good but somehow, the episodes throughout the rest of this 8 disc set don’t always maintain that same standard.
The Sound - :star::star::star:
A generally solid Dolby Digital 2.0 audio track really shines when Quincy Jones’s delicious theme leaps through the speakers. The center channel handles a great deal of the duties in these episodes, producing a good sounding dialogue, free from a majority of hiss and generally clear. Overall, a solid audio presentation.
The Extra’s - No Stars out of :star::star::star::star::star:
None, unless you count the inclusion of the ‘World Premier Television event, ‘Ironside’, from March of 66.
Final Thoughts
There is much to enjoy about the 23+ hours of entertainment over 28 episodes and the original ‘Pilot’. This was Raymond Burr’s second successful television series in a row, following his decade run as ‘Perry Mason’. Here, Burr is a delight to behold with his grumpy, single-minded, semi-smug and hard line approach to his duty and his profession.
Watching Ironside, I was reminded of an exemplary murder mystery show growing up in the UK called ‘Inspector Morse’, starring John Thaw. The character of Morse, outside of not being bound to a wheelchair, had a great deal in common with Burr’s impatient and crusty character, managing to berate everyone around him whilst in pursuit of criminals, slicing off just enough humility and heart to maintain audience respect and a likeability without becoming the typical ‘good guy’. Quite the balancing act and one that I think Morse, and Ironside those many years before, pulled off well.
While the crime procedural elements date it heavily, the show does well within the confines of the 60’s by prodding and stretching those limits, helping it even to become edgy at times. I imagine those with a fondness for “Ironside” will not need too much convincing to pick up this lengthy 28 episode inaugural season set, but those not familiar with it and open enough to experience a show tethered to the decade in which it existed but solid entertainment nonetheless, would do well to give it a spin.
Overall Score - :star::star::star:
Neil Middlemiss
Kernersville, NC
