Ironside | |
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Title screen
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Genre | |
Created by | Collier Young |
Starring | |
Theme music composer | Quincy Jones |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of seasons | 8 |
No. of episodes | 199 (list of episodes) |
Production company(s) | Harbour Productions Unlimited |
Distributor |
Universal Television NBCUniversal Television Distribution |
Release | |
Original network | NBC |
Original release | September 14, 1967 | – January 16, 1975
Chronology | |
Related shows | Ironside |
Ironside is an American television crime drama that aired on NBC over 8 seasons from 1967 to 1975. The show starred Raymond Burr as Robert T Ironside, a consultant for the San Francisco police (usually addressed by the title Chief Ironside), who was paralyzed from the waist down after being shot in the line of duty. The character debuted on March 28, 1967, in a TV movie entitled A Man Called Ironside. When the series was broadcast in the United Kingdom, in the 1970s, it was broadcast under that title. The show earned Burr six Emmy and two Golden Globe nominations.
Ironside was a production of Burr's Harbour Productions Unlimited in association with Universal Television.
The show revolved around former San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) Chief of Detectives Robert T. Ironside (Raymond Burr), a veteran of more than 20 years of police service who was forced to retire from the department after a sniper's bullet, to the spine, paralyzed him from the waist down, resulting in him having to use a wheelchair. In the pilot episode, a TV movie, Ironside shows his strength of character and gets himself appointed a "special department consultant" by his good friend, Police Commissioner Dennis Randall. He does this by calling a press conference and then tricking Commissioner Randall into meeting his terms. In the pilot, Ironside eventually solves the mystery of the ambush. He requests Ed Brown and Eve Whitfield be assigned to him.
Ironside uses a fourth-floor room (for living and office space) in the Old San Francisco Hall Of Justice building, which housed the city's police headquarters. He uses a specially equipped, former fleet-modified 1940 1½ ton Ford police paddy wagon van. This is replaced in the episode entitled "Poole's Paradise" after the van is destroyed by Sergeant Brown as part of a way to trick a corrupt sheriff. At the end of the episode the paddy wagon is replaced by a one-off fully custom modified 1969 1 ton Ford Econoline Window Van. He later recruits the angst-filled black ex-con Mark Sanger to be his personal assistant after Sanger is brought in as a suspect who wanted to kill Ironside. The show became a success as Ironside depended on brains and initiative in handling cases. Although Ironside was good-hearted and honest, he maintained a gruff persona.