User reviews

Hardly any actor so credibly reinvented himself as many times as Raymond Burr. In the late 40's into the mid 50's he often played the villain, usually in westerns and noirs, and once he even had a minor but crucial role as the villain in Hitchcock's "Rear Window". Then there were all those years playing unbeatable defense attorney Perry Mason that I figured he'd be typecast forever after that series ended. However, he did such a credible job playing the wheelchair-bound Ironside that the staff at restaurants were surprised when he would show up for reservations walking in on his own two legs. The show had camera-work that was ground-breaking without being annoying, there was a feeling of family and camaraderie among the cast that oddly enough reminds me of Joss Whedon's "Angel" in that regard, it had much better plots than the other ensemble cop shows of that era, and it even had lots of counter-culture material that worked out pretty well without being cheesy or preachy considering the age of its main star, Burr, who was 50 when the show premiered.

The premise of the show is that while vacationing in an isolated farmhouse, Robert Ironside is shot by an unseen assailant. The result of this wound is that he is paralyzed from the waist down. Accustomed to being Chief of Detectives, and not wanting to be put out to pasture, he turns to his old friend, the Commissioner of Police, who makes him his Special Consultant so that Ironside can go on working on cases rather than face living the life of a retiree on a disability pension. The supporting cast, and his team in solving crimes during the series, consists of rookie detective Ed Brown, policewoman Eve Whitfield, and somewhat reformed juvenile delinquent Mark Sanger. Up to this time, police detective shows had consisted of able-bodied young white men dressed in suits complete with hats, no matter what the occasion. This was one of the first TV shows of that genre - maybe the very first - to mix things up with an interracial cast, a policewoman who was an integral part of the team, a handicapped leader, and a member of "the establishment" in Ed Brown thrown in for good measure.

If this formula sounds a lot like Mod Squad, that's because it is, except Mod Squad came out the following year on the coattails of Ironside's initial success. Ironside had its share of guest stars that made it big in later years. In this first season keep a lookout for a young Harrison Ford in "The Past is Prologue", for Ed Asner in "The Fourteenth Runner", and Susan St. James in "Girl in the Night".

I have fond memories of watching this well crafted detective show during my growing up years. The series portrays the story of San Francisco Chief of Detectives, Robert Ironside, who has been hit by a sniper's bullet, paralyzing him from the waist down. Confined to a wheelchair, he must forego his previous detective position but stays on with the Police Department as sort of a consultant. Ironside ferrets out crime while working from a special Police Department office complete with exercise equipment and sleeping facilities. Assisting him is his own special unit, a diverse trio consisting of regular cop Detective Sargent Ed Brown, educated policewoman Eve Whitfield, and black ex con Mark Sanger. During the course of the series Sanger progresses from Ironside's bodyguard to a police officer and finally a lawyer.

In this series we see this formerly tough Chief of Detectives endeavouring to nail San Francisco's bad guys, all the while coping quite successfully with his recent disability. The program shows that this previously high profile crime fighter can still lead an equally productive life from his wheelchair. The show reveals his character development as well as his interactions with the trio of assistants, all providing viewer interest in addition to the crime solving elements.

Raymond Burr, alias Perry Mason, was born to solve TV crimes! The actor gives a masterful performance here as the wheelchair bound Ironside. This is generally quite an engaging detective series and frankly, I wish that there was more TV programming of its quality these days.

I mentioned this before on a review of a third series that Raymond Burr had after Perry Mason and Ironside, that most actors are lucky to have one successful series let alone two of them back to back. Burr did it with two very different kinds of characters.

Perry Mason was cool and calculating until he sprung a trap in court that nailed the real murderer and/or the helpless prosecutor be it Hamilton Burger or someone else. But Robert Ironside had already faced his life crisis when that bullet severed his spinal cord. With that kind of baptism of fire nothing ever fazed the Chief. He was hostage a couple of times during the course of the show and he faced some unusual life threatening situations that were more stressful because of his paralysis, but he always kept a cool head.

I loved the position he was in as the head of that special squad. He had a picked team in Don Galloway, Barbara Anderson, and Don Mitchell. He worked only the most important cases or something that interested him. I worked for NYS Crime Victims Board and believe me I always looked for interesting cases where people filed claims. So much is dull and routine. Burr had the dull and routine out of his life.

Barbara Anderson did not go the full run of the series, but Elizabeth Baur came in and moved seamlessly into the team Ironside.

Beneath all the gruffness and the demands on his people that work be finished yesterday, the Chief had a good heart and was an inspiration to all around him. I suspect to many viewers as well.

I didn't know much about Ironside, apart from my mum, explaining to me what Raymond Burr did apart from Perry Mason. So, in 1999, the BBC started to do re-runs of it, and i watched a few, and I liked it alot. Channel five showed the 1967 TV Movie, and the Priest Killer (1971, scary and a bit controversial) and it was the best i've ever seen. It blows all the other cop shows out of the water, and quincy jones's score, is addictive. the support cast, proved their worth, especially Ed and Mark, and Eve's razor sharp wit. It shows that people (the characters) who are from different backgrounds Mark, a young black ex-con, Eve's upper class background, to Ed's (i'm assuming working class catholic boy, who lost his way when his fiance died) can gel quite well, but, that was what San Francisco was like from 1967 onwards, a melting pot, of people from different backgrounds.It is worthy of a big screen remake, but they have to it justice and not go for the starsky and hutch spoof hollywood have managed to botch together. It needs a director who is a fan, rather than somebody who sees this as another remake of an old show, it's more than that. and what i can't get, is that what actually happened to the actors from Ironside, Galloway has appeared on Perry Mason a couple of times, looking 10 years older than his real age! but in comparison to him in Ironside galloway aged 30 was a catch.

enough of my female observations. It's a great programme, but i think it needs to be brought to attention of a new audience, i'm 22 years old, and i think that the programmes of today are trash!!

Raymond Burr was a very good actor, he has left behind a memorable legacy from his television work. "Ironside" isn't exactly an exciting or dynamic series. To me, it looks and feels amateurish and too talky. With the exception of Burr, who is very good in the title role, the regular cast are an incredibly dull and boring lot. There is nothing that stands out and it beggars belief that the series lasted several seasons! There are occasional moments of interest but that isn't enough for me. Another problem I found with "Ironside," is that it is studio-bound nearly all the time and that is very disappointing. The writing rarely rises above being ordinary and this reduces the pace of the series a good deal. This could have been a good show potentially but it wasn't to be.

Raymond Burr had just done a 1957 to 1966 stint as Perry Mason-probably the TV detective that is most known in the history of television when he embarked on this project that was to run well into the 1970's. I watched the 1968/69 season and I was surprised to see that the burgeoning US space program, and at the opposite end of the spectrum-the Vietnam War-seemed to make no appearances in any form in any of the episodes. The 68/69 season overlaps the the first time man walked on the moon as well as one of the most turbulent periods of the Vietnam War. Watching this show you would think that the US was the epitome of ordinariness-where nothing bad happened and also nothing particularly interesting ever happened either. In that way I thought the show was curiously out of step with the times it was set in which is unusual. The show would appear very dated if ran back to back with say a newer episode of Hawaii Five 0 or NCIS. For fans of the 'whodunit' genre this show will go over well. For people who demand a bit more in the way of period accuracy-keep going.

I lived in San Francisco from 1964-1980 and had a great fondness for the city. Raymond Burr had an immediate hit with this show and I enjoyed it immensely. It was always interesting to see the shots of where Mark Sanger was driving and how they would cut to a studio set when they got out of the van. I always wondered how they made the old Hall of Justice look like it was still on Montgomery Street when it had been torn down by the start of the series.

Another enjoyment was the development of the characters, particularly Mark Sanger who went from an uneducated street punk to a cop and then an attorney over the years.

Barbara Anderson got an Emmy for her work on the series as I recall.

If you look at the guest star list, there are a lot of character actors on it who appeared in everything from the 50's to the 80's including Richar Anderson, Michael Conrad, and Jack Soo.

An exciting show and I find little on TV today which makes me want to watch it every week like I did with Ironside.

George Senda Martinez, Ca

Raymond Burr is excellent as Robert T. Ironside and proves that despite being crippled by a snipers bullet, manages to trap his would be assassin and bring the culprit to book.

Great locations,(set in San Francisco), powerful score by Quincy Jones and excellent supporting cast.

This film captures the mood of the late 60's in America, better than any other film of its time.

Naturally with the above combination it was decided to make a successful tv series that ran for eight years and quite rightly so, I always thought Ironside was one of the best cop shows of the 60's & 70's and it was exciting to see how he would cope in dangerous situations when confronting crooks, when his friends were not always around to help him.

Raymond Burr as Ironside proved that he could solve cases sitting down better than any other tv cop standing and despite being paraplegic he was more than a match for any able bodied villain or crook, with his sharp mind and 26yrs experience on the SFPD.

Excellent film and tv series, its a pity there is nothing like it around like it today.

I purchased the complete first season not knowing what to expect out of this old TV show. I was pleasantly surprised because the writing and acting is quite well done. Raymond Burr, like some other actors features a screen presence and charisma that are shared by very few people nowadays. This TV show is no exception -- Raymond Burr was good at playing the character where he was tough as nails on the outside, but a marshmallow on the inside. A particularly good episode showing this talent is "Officer Bobby" from the first season. There is also a fair amount of humor in the script, and it comes across very nicely. The only really "dated" thing about the show is Barbara Anderson's hair -- nowadays it looks really funny.

What impressed me partly was how beautiful San Francisco was in 1967. In every episode, they show a portion of San Francisco, and it is stunning! Very different from Columbo or other 70s TV shows that show Los Angeles. Los Angeles is ugly. Every single shot of San Francisco is breathtaking in this series.

Plus, there are some VERY famous guest stars in the first season. One is a household word by now. I won't spoil it for you who have not watched these yet. Overall, an excellent series. Highly recommended, even for kids.

Actor Raymond Burr just couldn't relax after nine seasons as defense lawyer/super sleuth Perry Mason. So,after many years on the Tiffany network,CBS-TV,the actor switched networks this time over to the Peacock Network,NBC-TV where the majority of its programming was in living color.

The show is called "Ironside" and when it premiered in the fall of 1967,it came around a time where the fight of the civil rights movement was being followed(three years after President Lyndon B. Johnson sign in into law the civil rights act in 1964),the protest of the Vietnam War,and at a time where the nation was at a crossroads with the death of two of the nation's most famous leaders were cut down at the peak of their prime(Bobby Kennedy,and Dr. Martin Luther King,Jr.)not to mention at the same time the nation's most rioting of its cities and the summer of love and so forth. This show also came about during the escalation of the Vietnam War,the fall of Watergate and ended its run with the final Presidency of Richard M. Nixon. All of this occurred during the show's run. It is also to note that this series was Raymond Burr's second successful show,after playing America's most recognizable lawyer for more than a decade. "Ironside",was a consistent ratings winner throughout the eight years that it ran on NBC-TV from its premiere episode in September of 1967 through the show's final episode of the series in April of 1975.

"Ironside" was the first crime drama series to show a person who had a disability but at the same time had a knack for catching the baddies and so forth and Raymond Burr was a master actor at what he did. Just like Perry Mason,Ironside also knew the law and how it was to be used and not abused. Burr's character was the chief of police of the San Francisco Police Department who was in charge of special cases along with his partners Don Galloway,Don Mitchell,and Barbara Anderson who were all police officers. If there was something going down,you know that Ironside was on the case! The show had everything and I do mean everything that included crooked officers not to mention social issues of its day and so forth. Oh yeah,the music....was composer Quincy Jones the greatest ever! Yes,the best theme score ever made! Also to note that this show had a array of guest stars to boot as well that made their appearances including one episode which featured a very successful and popular Motown singer making his acting debut. The others including a array of stars that were regulars or special guest starsone of which including veteran actors Severn Darren and Bernie Hamilton. The series also show some of the best drama and high octane drama anywhere and you'll see this in some of the episodes too. You also got the chance to see Ironside's helper Mark Sanger go for being his assistant, to private detective,to police officer,and by the final season of the series go from getting married to being a district attorney and from there district court justice of the peace.

The pilot was a made for TV-Movie that premiered that same year before it became a TV series as part of NBC's Saturday Night Special. The series ran on NBC-TV from 1967-75,and after it went off the air twelve years later,the peacock network brought Burr back as Ironside in a made for TV-Movie called "The Return Of Ironside" in 1987,reuniting Raymond Burr with former cast members Don Galloway and Don Mitchell and a special guest appearance from Barbara Anderson. Recently,TV-Land brought back the reruns to this classic series and it needs to be seen for those of us who have fond memories of this show from the late 60's and part of the early 70's.

Ironside is a remarkable series. Firstly it actually has someone disabled as the main character. This rarely happens over 50 years later. Secondly it delivers an unrivalled exposition of the value of life experience.

Ironside is almost omniscient. He displays insight that Sherlock would be proud of.

Ironside is confined to a wheelchair but he's more mobile than 90% of the world. His disability is incidental.

Ironside is a brilliant role model for anyone with any kind of disability.

As we get older we should aquire increasing amounts of life experience. Sadly the majority, sail through life and leave this world as naive as when we came in. Or maybe such people simply can't be bothered to learn.

Ironside as a series has brilliant psychology and behavioral observations. Another rarity.

Many younger people are inhibited by older people with significant life experience. That's understandable. When we are young we only have the text books to help us.

Within minutes of venturing into the real world we quickly realise that all of that stuff is effectively useless. Only real life gives us what we need.

This happened to me. Within 30 minutes of my first professional position when I was told that I had three weeks to save the life of a baby that was failing to thrive.

Panic mode set it and the real world hit me.

30 plus years later I've got maybe too much life experience.

Ironside as a series provides a model that other scriptwriters should pay heed.

I know why this is because of life experience.

Younger people will have to work out why for themselves.

Yes, I did save the babies life. Humans can learn very quickly when they put their minds to it!

I have discovered back then Ironside when I was a child. I must have seen one or two seasons back then. Some months ago, I had an opportunity to buy the seasons on DVD, this is what I did and I watched all the 8 seasons. Raymon Burr's acting in Ironside is far superior than in Perry Meason. Ironside various episode featured and treated about civil rights problems, mob syndicates, political bribes, murder for hire and the Vietnam war. We will see evolve Mark Sanger', first Ironside's aid then becoming a cop and an attorney, also during the first four seasons the female officer was Eve Whitfield which I liked more than her successor Fran Belding. Some great guest stars like Joseph Campanella, Gary Collins, Vera Miles, Johnny Seven,Richard Anderson, William Shatner, Bill Bixby, David Carradine to name a few appeared in several episode. What was pleasing in Ironside was the use of rethorics and the way of leading an investigation. The plots in the different episodes were cleverly thought and the action was there. I recommend this series which is iconic and classic.

This was one of the last great police shows, and Raymond Burr did an amazing job. Not many shows star character is handicapped and then it was a really big deal. I wish it had stayed on even longer. I loved all the characters and especially Don Galloway. Reading some of his quotes on IMDb, he didn't really consider himself a great actor. But he like many others on the show really helped the storylines with many being personal. He was very attractive, and his character could be serious or humorous. I wish they made shows like this now where there was no particular agenda, but just trying to be entertaining.

Obviously, Burr is going to be remembered first as Perry Mason, and second as an insert into a Japanese monster movie.

Here, we see Burr in the later stage of his career, feeding off his fame, to do a series about a handicapped law man solving crimes in a more red neck way than he did as Perry.

Perry Mason was mostly about "atmosphere", and we don't get that here. Instead of the quiet room settings mingled with outdoor settings, usually away from the city in the Perry Mason series, here we get mostly city settings, which makes this dull and lifeless. City streets and motor vehicles are the worst thing possible in keeping an audience interested.

The characters were okay enough, but like the show, a bit lifeless.

When this show came out, I remember one high school teacher, familiar with the arts, claiming the entire concept of Burr in a wheelchair was made simply because Burr weighed too much, and couldn't stand for long shoots. This is probably just a bit of an exaggeration, but still it was a good idea to have a handicapped hero. This one solved crimes mostly on experience rather than deduction, I believe.

In all, it was very dull, though, and forgettable, but Burr provided a bit of fire from his wheel chair to keep it from being too boring.

There are precious few actors who can create two successful television characters. More recent examples include Mary Tyler Moore (Mary Richards and Laura Petrie) and Bob Newhart (Bob Hartley and Dick Loudon). In 1966, Burr completed a nine-year run as the most recognizable attorney on television. In 1967, returning to television, his challenge was to create a new character that wouldn't stand in Perry Mason's shadow. The result was Ironside -- a rough, former chief of the San Francisco police forced to retire when an attempted assassination leaves him paralyzed. (The theme music is reprised in "Kill Bill Vol. 1", whenever the Bride flashes back on her paralyzing injuries.) Bob Ironside had none of Perry Mason's polish, frequently spoke without thinking, and enjoyed fast cars as much as he relished good police work. He was given a special task force that included a regular joe beat-cop, Ed Brown (even in the sixties, a more vanilla name was never given a character); a highbrow, educated female detective (Eve Whitfield); and a troubled black youth, Mark Sanger, who was to Ironside what Charlie Young is to President Bartlet on "The West Wing". Instead of the Los Angeles setting of Perry Mason, Ironside was in San Francisco. In addition, while Perry Mason kept the lights on at CBS for nearly a decade, Ironside was a steady performer for NBC for almost as long. The show was an instant critical and commercial success.

I think the reason Ironside is not as popular in reruns now as it was in the late 70s and early 80s is it will always be in the shadow of Mason, and that's a shame. The two shows are not the same, and there are many memorable episodes of Ironside. One in particular features Ironside isolated in his apartment, being stalked by a killer, that always reminded me of the climactic scene in "Rear Window" -- in which the killer was played by Raymond Burr! One of my favorite lines of dialogue, from the pilot, was his ribbing of his female detective: "By all means, ask Detective Whitfield. She's had the benefit of a classical education." That line -- which would never have passed Perry Mason's lips -- is a good sample of Ironside's tone through the series.

For many of us who watched unlimited TV in the '60s and '70s as children, police show stand out as the ones we remember the most. The three I will always remember are "Hawaii 5-0", "Ironside" and "The Streets of San Francisco".

The only one of those shows not found on complete DVD sets is "Ironside". All seasons never seemed to be anywhere to stream, either. Well, guess what? Roku TV, which is free, has all eight seasons of "Ironside" right now!

"Ironside" was considered a standout type of TV show by critics because the lead character, Robert T. Ironside, was in a wheelchair. I considered it exceptional strictly because of the cast and stories. The pilot movie, which showed how Chief Ironside ended up crippled for life, was an excellent made-for-TV movie.

Raymond Burr gave an edge to the character, while still seeming likable and compassionate. Don Galloway was a favorite of mine, while Barbara Anderson and Don Mitchell added diversity as a rich society girl and a young black man.

Lots of 1960s-1970s issues are explored, as is life in San Francisco at the time. The fifth season starts off with the 2-part episode that launched "Sarge", a notable short-lived series with George Kennedy as a cop turned priest. (Too bad that series is not on DVD and currently can't be streamed anywhere.)

The list of guest stars on "Ironside" includes so many actors and actresses the viewer will quickly recognize and remember. Hopefully, Roku TV will stream the series long enough for me to watch all the episodes. Not all TV shows watched as a child are still watchable as an adult. "Ironside" fortunately is still highly watchable.

Oh brother! As if Mannix wasn't bad enough (old dude running up emergency exit ladders, carefully climbing VERY SLOWLY over scaffoldings and running up bridges after a bad guy half his age), they brought us tubby (William Conrad's Cannon) and now this: this one has all his hair left but he's old, he's fat, he's got tons of furry eyelashes and... he's running around after bad guys in a wheelchair!

*Facepalm* the 70' s were every bit as unimaginative as the 2020's. Old, hideous people inside the TV. Not much else to say except...why didn't the young handsome one get the lead? Maybe only Ray here was willing when it came time to get Harvey Weinsteined. Pity the TV channels are filled with only this at 3 o'clock in the morning and not much of anything else! 1/10.

If Perry Mason was Raymond Burr's defining role, then this was his second most famous role. This show proved that you didn't need a lot of violence to be a great detective show. This was more cerebral than most of the shows that were around at the time. Also the supporting cast of Don Mitchell, Don Galloway, Barbara Anderson and, later Elizabeth Baur, were all great as Ed, Mark, Eve and Fran respectively. The most compelling character on the show though was Mark. We got to see him evolve from Ironside's body guard, to a police officer and, finally, becoming an attorney. Too bad they don't make shows like this anymore.

Never watched this but it was a frequent clue in the TV guide crossword

There have been three Halls of Justice buildings in San Francisco's history and the building that appears in every episode of Ironside, which ran from 1967 to 1975, was the 'second' Hall of Justice and it is often referred to as the 'Old' Hall of Justice. It contained the city's jail, police station, courtrooms, and District Attorneys Office. Its address was 750 Kearny Street, which placed it on the east side of Kearny between Washington and Merchant.

The 'original' and 'first' Hall of Justice stood on the same spot but was destroyed in the great San Francisco earthquake on 18th April 1906 during which it burnt to the ground. The original building bore a passing resemblance to its successor except for the addition of a tall clock tower that overlooked Kearny Street.

The Old Hall of Justice was first occupied in 1912 but by 1950 it had outgrown the purpose for which it was built. A 'third' larger Hall of Justice was built about 11/2 miles distant on a new site at 850 Bryant Street, between 7th and Harriet.

The Old Hall of Justice was finally abandoned in 1961 and was subsequently gutted of its luxurious fixtures and fittings, comprising wood and marble panelling, brass door knobs and hinges, carpets, furniture and other decorative features. It was finally demolished in 1967 after standing derelict.

Stock footage of the derelict building was used to highlight the location of Ironside's office, which was on the top floor, left hand side, as viewed from the front of the building. A row of semi-circular windows adorned the top floor offices. Ironside's office, which also doubled as his apartment complete with semi-circular window, was recreated in the studio for the filming of the series.

Also seen in the same stock footage is the Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill, which is located a short distance to the north of Portsmouth Square. Portsmouth Square, which is located on Kearny between Washington and Clay, was once the centre of 'old' San Francisco and is now part of the Chinatown district of the city.

Looking eastward from Portsmouth Square prior to 1967, the frontal view of the Old Hall of Justice would have been instantly familiar to Ironside fans. Its sides and rear aspects were never filmed, presumably because they were far less attractive.

Midway along the front of the Old Hall of Justice was a street-level entrance to an underground car park. It was through this narrow entrance that Ironside's personal transporter, a grey-painted, blue-striped, supercharged police van, originally painted black, was occasionally seen to use. His subsequent transport, a sand-coloured Ford van, which was introduced into the series after the police van was destroyed in one episode, is never seen near the Old Hall of Justice because the building had been demolished and a new building was in the course of erection.

Today, the site is occupied by the 27-floor, Hilton San Francisco Financial District Hotel and the Chinese Cultural Centre, which share the same address. Behind the Hilton Hotel on Montgomery Street stands the famous Transamerica Pyramid, another of San Francisco's noteworthy landmark buildings.

There are ongoing arguments concerning the wisdom of demolishing a building such as the Old Hall of Justice and replacing it with a modern skyscraper structure. Many of San Francisco's inhabitants regard the design and appearance of the Old Hall of Justice as having more character and beauty than the edifices that replaced it.