The Best Episodes of Ironside Season 1

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

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

Cars are being stolen in worryingly high numbers, and with the numbers recovered falling dramatically, the signs point to a crooked cop somewhere in the department. Mark is convinced that the cop in question is innocent, but nobody else seems very sure.

Director: N/A

Writer: Luther Davis

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

A compulsive (and unlucky) gambler is in debt to a local mobster for $32,000. Ironside wants to put the mobster away, but only can if the gambler is prepared to turn state's evidence. The Chief has to persuade him to turn against the man who is offering him a way out of debt. (NB - The second episode to feature original song From The Day You're Born.)

Director: Robert Butler

Writer: Anthony Terpiloff

Two killers break out of their cell in the precinct and hold Ironside and Eve Whitfield hostage, forcing the Chief to come up with a fool-proof plan for their escape. As always Ironside has a trick or two of his own up his sleeve.

Director: Charles S. Dubin

Writer: N/A

Ironside is having problems keeping a group of local kids on the straight and narrow, and enlists the help of football star Bat Masterson, an old friend of Mark's. Bat's brother Joe, however, is a rather less savoury character, and Bat has to choose which side he is on.

Director: Don Weis

Writer: N/A

A friend of Ironside's turns out to be an amnesiac victim without a past. The need to discover who she really is comes to the forefront when somebody tries to kill her, and it becomes clear that the Chief's hopes for a long term relationship might not be possible with this particular girl.

Director: James Sheldon

Writer: N/A

When Ed and two colleagues arrest a violent man they don't take his threats seriously, but when the other two officers are murdered, Ed is convinced that he knows who the killer is. Suspended from duty he sets himself up as the next victim, determined to prove that his suspicions are correct.

Director: Anton Leader

Writer: N/A

A psychiatrist friend of Ironside's is murdered, and the only clues are his collection of artworks. Is one of the artists the murderer? And if so, which one?

Director: Anton Leader

Writer: John McGreevey

Ed is charged with police brutality following a raid on a hippie drug den. As always, of course, things are far from being as they seem, and the trail leads to a group of apparently model students at a local private school.

Director: Anton Leader

Writer: N/A

A visiting Soviet athlete vanishes during a practice run, and Ironside is placed on the case. It soon turns out that the 'trustworthy Soviet hero' is anything but, and that the athlete is working for American Intelligence. Has he simply disappeared, however, or has he been found out?

Director: Don Weis

Writer: Ivan Goff, Ben Roberts

An old friend of Mark's is a suspect in a murder investigation, but Mark refuses to accept that the man may be bad. Ironside tries to convince him otherwise, but in the process risks breaking his own friendship with Mark.

Director: Charles S. Dubin

Writer: Sy Salkowitz

A substantial sum of money is stolen from a race-track, whilst Ironside and his team are present, and the Chief is determined to crack the case. The only clue is a car, crashed by the inside man, but if it has a secret to tell it is not going to give it up easily.

Director: Michael Caffey

Writer: Don Mankiewicz

Lonely old women are being strangled, and Chief Ironside believes that there is more to it than just a serial killer at work. Setting Eve up as a potential victim requires a little ingenuity, but it might just prove to be worth the effort.

Director: Leo Penn

Writer: N/A

When TV personality Francesca Kirby starts to receive death threats, her old friend Robert T. Ironside is soon on the case. When the threats become attempts on her life, he begins to delve deeper. Will he like what he finds?

Director: William A. Graham

Writer: N/A

A woman who wrote a cheering letter to Ironside when he was recovering from being shot, dies in an apparent suicide. Convinced that it was murder Ironside investigates, and uncovers the sad truth. (NB - As part of the incidental music, this episode heavily features the original song From The Day You're Born, which was reused later in the season, in episode Something For Nothing, where it was sung by guest star James Farentino).

Director: Anton Leader

Writer: N/A

A cop goes bad and shoots a fellow officer, then offers to give himself up to Chief Ironside. Instead, he takes the Chief and Mark hostage, and plans to kill them as soon as his escape is certain. Ironside has to convince the man's wife that her husband is no longer the man she married.

Director: Charles S. Dubin

Writer: N/A

A baby is found abandoned in the Chief's van, following an explosion at an airport. The Chief suspects that the child's mother was the intended victim of the attack, and plans to make her come forward, using the baby as bait.

Director: James Sheldon

Writer: Bill S. Ballinger

Mark's date is found murdered in Golden Gate Park, and he is determined to catch the man responsible, with or without Ironside's help. When he decides to take the law into his own hands, however, he finds himself under arrest for the murder of the chief suspect.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

A notorious gangster is preparing to turn State's evidence when he is murdered, but Ironside pretends that the man is still alive, and ready to talk, in order to catch the killer and nail a major criminal.

Director: Don Weis

Writer: N/A

A recently blinded woman is witness to a murder, and not knowing that she couldn't see him the murderer attempts to silence her. Ironside is on hand to protect her, and also to help her to come to terms with her new way of life.

Director: Charles S. Dubin

Writer: Robert Van Scoyk

A friend of the Chief's turns out to have been living under an assumed identity for the last nineteen years, and is wanted in New York for murder. The mayor is determined to have him extradited back to NY for execution, but Ironside is equally determined to save him, especially when it becomes clear that he is innocent.

Director: Don Weis

Writer: Paul Mason

While on vacation, Chief of Detectives Robert Ironside of the San Francisco police force is shot by an unknown assailant and paralyzed from the waist down. Fearing he will be forced to retire he convinces the powers that be to to make him a Special Consultant to the Commisioner of Police, who is an old friend. With his team, consisting of police detective Ed Brown, police woman Eve Whitfield, and reformed Juvenile offender Mark Sanger. he tries to find the gunman who put him in a wheelchair.

Director: James Goldstone

Writer: N/A

An apparently accidental death occurs, but Ed risks his shield on the certainty that it was murder. When Ironside gets on the case a murky tale of murdered ex-servicemen and an old robbery is soon uncovered.

Director: Charles S. Dubin

Writer: N/A