American television crime drama. It aired on NBC for a little less than eight seasons from 1967 to 1975. It starred Raymond Burr as Robert T. Ironside, a paralyzed consultant (and formerly chief of detectives) for the San Francisco Police Department. The program was a production of Burr's Harbour Productions Unlimited in association with Universal Television.
Chief Ironside was shot in the spine by a sniper while he was on vacation and was then forced into retirement, as he was no longer able to serve as an able-bodied police officer. But he manages to trick his friend, Police Commissioner Dennis Randall, into appointing him a special consultant for the police -- and he even gets a large portion of the department's fourth floor to use as office space and his own apartment! He even gets a number of officers assigned to him as his own personal police force.
Cast members included:
The show had tons of guest stars during its run, including Desi Arnaz, Ed Asner, Richard Basehart, Anne Baxter, Bill Bixby, Geraldine Brooks, David Carradine, John Carradine, Leo G. Carroll, David Cassidy, Jackie Cooper, Ellen Corby, Wally Cox, James Farentino, Norman Fell, Harrison Ford, Jodie Foster, Scott Glenn, Sharon Gless, Jonathan Goldsmith, Frank Gorshin, James Gregory, Barbara Hale, Quincy Jones, DeForest Kelley, Walter Koenig, Bruce Lee, Jack Lord, Gavin MacLeod, Dorothy Malone, E.G. Marshall, Burgess Meredith, Ricardo Montalban, Alan Napier, Susan Olsen, Robert Reed, Pernell Roberts, Mort Sahl, Susan St. James, John Saxon, Rod Serling, William Shatner, Martin Sheen, Jack Soo, George Takei, Tiny Tim, Fritz Weaver, and Paul Winfield, among dozens more.
Maybe the actually cool thing about this show is that the lead character, who was a gruff old crank, got by on being smarter than your average cop. He couldn't go out and chase suspects -- he was in a wheelchair, and it was the '70s, so he didn't even have a motorized chair. Sure, he had the officers on his personal squad who'd go out and do legwork, but Burr was the star of the show, and they had to give him the most camera time. And so the whole show was about a guy who was not a supercop action hero -- and that was a big change from most cop shows of that era.
The show's theme music was composed by none other than Quincy Jones. In fact, Jones had planned to write the score of every episode of the program, but ended up only having time to write the opening theme and the music for eight episodes. The theme was also first TV theme song recorded primarily with a synthesizer.
The ratings of the show were alright -- but it was never at the top of charts. The show likely survived as long as it did on the strength of Burr's star power and its excellent premise. Burr earned six Emmy nominations and two Golden Globe nominations for "Ironside."
After its cancellation, another couple decades passed before there was a made-for-TV reunion movie in 1993. Galloway, Mitchell, Anderson, and Baur reprised their roles, while Burr, of course, returned as Ironside. Lyons had died way back in the mid-1970s. At the time of the movie's production, Burr no longer had to pretend to need a wheelchair -- after fighting kidney cancer and liver cancer, he wasn't able to stand without assistance. Burr died only a few months after the movie aired.
"Ironside" was remade in 2013, with Blair Underwood taking over the role. The show was critically unpopular and a dud in the ratings. It was cancelled after just four episodes were aired.
sidequest