8.7/1061 votesLoading...#1 - Gentle Oaks
Season 5 Episode 12 - Aired 11/25/1971
A string of deaths at a convalescence home leads the Chief to go undercover as a patient, whose two children (Fran Belding and Ed) hint that they wish he were "no longer their problem". It soon appears that violence and murder are considered due care by certain members of the staff.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.6/1070 votesLoading...#2 - One Hour to Kill
Season 3 Episode 20 - Aired 2/26/1970
Ironside becomes trapped in his office on his own, when a man comes looking for revenge. With Mark at school and Ed dragged to the opera by Eve, the Chief has to improvise a series of defences, whilst his team gradually come to realise that something is very wrong.
Director: Richard Benedict
Writer: N/A
8.5/1080 votesLoading...#3 - Rundown on a Bum Rap
Season 2 Episode 16 - Aired 1/30/1969
Mark's old boxing coach, an alcoholic, is found at the scene of a serious assault, and nobody seems prepared to entertain the theory that he might just be innocent. Mark battles to prove that he has been falsely accused, assisted by the rest of the team, and in the process wins the affections of his law school teacher.
Director: Allen Reisner
Writer: N/A
8.5/1051 votesLoading...#4 - Contract: Kill Ironside
Season 5 Episode 2 - Aired 9/21/1971
Due to give evidence, the Chief discovers that there is a contract out on his life, and that the chosen killer is a highly dedicated man. Whilst the authorities see only the lethal killer, however, it seems that everybody has another side to their personality.
Director: Don Weis
Writer: N/A
8.5/1045 votesLoading...#5 - A Taste of Ashes
Season 7 Episode 18 - Aired 2/14/1974
A girl thought to have died years previously turns up at the home of her mother just as her brother is found murdered. Clearly somebody is trying to kill the family off, but is it connected to the girl, and is she really who she says she is?
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.4/1054 votesLoading...#6 - Little Jerry Jessup
Season 3 Episode 22 - Aired 3/12/1970
A thirteen year old boy is the only witness to his mother's murder, but finds it hard to co-operate with the Chief, knowing that it was Ironside who put his father in prison. Allowing Marty Jessup a temporary pass is the only way for the Chief to solve the murder and to lessen his conscience at the same time.
Director: Don Weis
Writer: N/A
8.4/1049 votesLoading...#7 - The Riddle in Room Six
Season 4 Episode 21 - Aired 2/25/1971
A court case is put in jeopardy when it seems that the jury is irrevocably hung over its verdict; until the Chief realises that one member must surely be on the take. He has a race against time to unmask the guilty party, however, before the judge must dismiss the jury and let the defendant walk free.
Director: John Florea
Writer: N/A
8.4/1061 votesLoading...#8 - Walls Are Waiting
Season 4 Episode 26 - Aired 4/15/1971
A parole officer famed for his hard line against drug pushers begins to fear for his life after a shooting. The line of suspects, however, as well as including one of his current clients, also seems to include that client's lawyer, and even the parole officer himself.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.4/1054 votesLoading...#9 - Down Two Roads
Season 6 Episode 4 - Aired 10/12/1972
Mark's graduation from law school coincides with the arrest of a caretaker that he has befriended. Believing the man innocent, he finds the weight of the law stacked against him, and quickly becomes disillusioned with his new career. Should he turn his back on law altogether, though, or should he just find another way to devote himself to justice?
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.4/1049 votesLoading...#10 - The Best Laid Plans
Season 6 Episode 22 - Aired 3/15/1973
The Chief is in the bank when it is robbed by a gang of three men, planning to await the arrival of a payroll delivery truck. The threesome are at odds with each other from the start, and Ironside plans to work on the antagonism between them, but they are wise to his plans and will stop at nothing to get what they want.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.4/1048 votesLoading...#11 - What's New with Mark?
Season 8 Episode 3 - Aired 9/26/1974
Mark and his girlfriend come across a murder whilst on a date, but decide to defend the killer when it transpires that he acted in self defence. During the case the pair get married, and Ed decides to move in with the Chief in Mark's place.
Director: Charles S. Dubin
Writer: N/A
8.3/1068 votesLoading...#12 - Reprise
Season 2 Episode 9 - Aired 11/21/1968
When Eve is injured during a shooting, the rest of the team recall their early encounters with her, and the Chief wonders if he was right ever to have encouraged her to join the force. Meanwhile, Ed worries over whether he wants to arrest Eve's attacker, or just kill the man outright.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.3/1062 votesLoading...#13 - Dora
Season 3 Episode 14 - Aired 1/8/1970
A fruit seller is threatened by a protection racket, who obtain false photographs of her lawyer son in an attempt to coerce her into letting them invest in her business on the docks. The racket has not reckoned on the tenacity of Dora and her son, however; or on her good friend Chief Ironside.
Director: John Florea
Writer: N/A
8.3/1052 votesLoading...#14 - Murder by One
Season 7 Episode 2 - Aired 9/20/1973
The teenage son of a friend of Fran's appears to commit suicide, however the evidence seems to point in a number of different directions. Did he kill himself, or was it a murder made to look like suicide? Or, alternatively, was a suicide made to look like it could have been murder? The Chief has to unravel the story, but he has little real evidence to help him along.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.2/1096 votesLoading...#15 - The Taker
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 10/12/1967
A policeman known to Ironside for some years is shot dead whilst on an investigation. The evidence points to him being crooked, but the Chief is determined to prove otherwise.
Director: Don Weis
Writer: Winston Miller
8.2/1089 votesLoading...#16 - The Monster of Comus Towers
Season 1 Episode 11 - Aired 11/16/1967
An ingenious art theft takes place at Comus Towers Art Museum, and a guard is murdered in the process. Chief Ironside takes the case, but another death is to follow; this time the proprietor of the museum, who is an old friend of the Chief's.
Director: Don Weis
Writer: N/A
8.2/1077 votesLoading...#17 - Force of Arms
Season 1 Episode 17 - Aired 1/4/1968
A local businessman sets up an organized vigilante force to try to clean up San Francisco. When a key member is murdered, it becomes clear that the "Second Force" has got severely out of hand.
Director: Anton Leader
Writer: Ivan Goff, Warren Duff
8.2/1068 votesLoading...#18 - Shell Game
Season 2 Episode 1 - Aired 9/19/1968
A notorious jewel thief named Justin arrives in town at the same time as a shipment of famous jewels arrives for display in a local museum. Ironside must keep the thief guessing about the method of shipment so that the jewels will remain safe; but he is up against a mastermind and there is still an inside man who has to be unmasked.
Director: Anton Leader
Writer: N/A
8.2/1067 votesLoading...#19 - I, the People
Season 2 Episode 6 - Aired 10/31/1968
An obnoxious talk show host known as ""The Peoples' Voice"" begins to receive death threats, and the Chief is assigned to protect him. Firstly he must overcome his own feelings of dislike for the man, but are those feelings entirely misplaced? Events escalate when the host's wife is killed by a car bomb apparently meant for her husband.
Director: Barry Shear
Writer: Stephen Lord, Milton Berle
8.2/1050 votesLoading...#20 - The Man on the Inside
Season 4 Episode 10 - Aired 11/19/1970
When a drug pusher is arrested following a spate of botched drug raids he fingers Ironside as a gang informer. Ed is press-ganged onto a team set up to investigate the Chief, which leads to conflict with Eve. Meanwhile Ironside himself seems to be taking the investigation very calmly, which leads to concern all round.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.2/1047 votesLoading...#21 - Unreasonable Facsimile
Season 5 Episode 17 - Aired 1/6/1972
A string of bank robberies are being committed, all with the exact hallmarks of a certain thief recently released from prison. Having a liking for the ex-con, however, the Chief wishes to believe in his innocence, and sets out to prove that it may be a copycat who is responsible for the raids.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.2/1045 votesLoading...#22 - And Then There Was One
Season 5 Episode 19 - Aired 1/20/1972
A military-issue fragmentation grenade is used in an attack on two Vietnam veterans, one of whom - a friend of Mark's - is killed. When it transpires that another of the pair's old unit has come under similar attack, the Chief sets out to trap the killer, using Ed in a cunning disguise as bait.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.2/1070 votesLoading...#23 - Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Murder
Season 5 Episode 21 - Aired 2/3/1972
The small daughter of a friend of the Chief's dabbles in witchcraft, and becomes convinced that she is responsible for the death of her parents' landlord. Taking to the case to show her that the truth is otherwise, Ironside discovers that the man arrested for causing the death might be equally innocent.
Director: Christian I. Nyby II
Writer: N/A
8.2/1040 votesLoading...#24 - Close to the Heart
Season 7 Episode 20 - Aired 2/28/1974
When a woman crashes her car into the Chief's van after suffering a minor heart attack, doctors discover a bullet lodged in her chest, where it has apparently been for several years. When she claims to have no knowledge of ever being shot, the Chief investigates, and soon links her case to that of an unsolved murder.
Director: David Friedkin
Writer: Pauline Stone, Michael Cosgrove
8.2/1052 votesLoading...#25 - Riddle at 24,000
Season 7 Episode 22 - Aired 3/14/1974
A man dies of a heart attack whilst flying his plane, but the town medical examiner, a charmingly eccentric Cuban doctor, is convinced that there was foul play. By chance Ironside and Ed are on their way to visit and soon become involved in his investigations; but between pregnant ducks and volatile banana cocktails they have their work cut out as never before.
Director: Don Weis
Writer: Lane Slate
The Best Episodes of Ironside
Every episode of Ironside ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Ironside!
When an assassin's bullet confines him to a wheelchair for life ending his career as Chief of Detectives, Robert T. Ironside becomes a consultant to...
Genres:CrimeDramaMystery
Network:NBC
Best Episodes Summary
"Gentle Oaks" is the best rated episode of "Ironside". It scored 8.7/10 based on 61 votes. Directed by N/A and written by N/A, it aired on 11/25/1971. This episode scored 0.1 points higher than the second highest rated, "One Hour to Kill".