L'homme de fer

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.

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.

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 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!!

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.