Ironside: Season 01  (1967)

Theatrical Release Information:
Ironside: Season 01

It was a decided advantage for Ironside that the two-hour TV movie which launched the series in March of 1967 was so popular. This enabled the series to begin its first season without resorting to long-winded explanations as to how Robert Ironside (Raymond Burr), chief of detectives for the San Francisco Police Department, had been crippled by a sniper's bullet and forced to retire as a regular member of the force. There was also no need to inform the viewers that Ironside had set up shop as combination special consultant and private eye in his combination office-apartment, assisted by police sergeant Ed Brown (Don Galloway), former delinquent (and now Ironside's bodyguard) Mark Sanger (Don Mitchell), and debutante-turned-policewoman Eve Whitfield (Barbara Anderson). Given the era in which the series debuted, it's no wonder that many of the first-season episodes deal with the hippie movement, black activism, drug addiction, the sexual revolution and the national trauma of Vietnam, along with the usual quota of master criminals and serial killers. And though there is a "good old boy" atmosphere in the proceeding, with most of the stories focusing on the male members of Ironside's team, Eve Whitfield is allowed to take center stage in a story wherein the ex-socialite is forced to kill in the line of duty for the first time. Guest stars in the series' inaugural season include a pre-Hawaii 5-0 Jack Lord in the episode "Dead Man's Tale", Quincy Jones (who of course composed the series' theme music) in "Eat Drink and Be Buried", future Brady Bunch paterfamilias Robert Reed in "End of the Journey", ubiquitous action figure David Carradine in "Due Process of Law", and a pair of promising youngsters named Harrison Ford and Susan St. James. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide