The Worst Episodes of Ironside
Every episode of Ironside ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst 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 the police department. Detective Sergeant Ed Brown and policewoman Eve Whitfield join with him to crack varied and fascinating cases. Ex-con Mark Sanger is employed by the chief as home help but eventually becomes a fully fledged member of the team also. Officer Whitfield leaves after 4 years service, and is replaced by Officer Fran Belding.
Lowest Rated Episodes Summary
The worst episode of "Ironside" is "Return of the Hero", rated 1/10 from 1 user votes. It was directed by Ralph Senensky and written by Robert Pirosh. "Return of the Hero" aired on 4/4/1968 and is rated 4.5 point(s) lower than the second lowest rated, "Programmed for Panic".
1.0/10 1 votes#1 - Return of the Hero
Season 1 Episode 29 - Aired 4/4/1968
A decorated Vietnam war hero is found guilty of murder, but the Chief, amongst others, does not believe that he is guilty. Whilst he is trying to find out the truth, somebody else is killing off the witnesses, and the Chief himself may be next on the list.
Director: Ralph Senensky
Writer: Robert Pirosh
5.5/10 52 votes#2 - Programmed for Panic
Season 6 Episode 3 - Aired 9/28/1972
After a murder is committed in a San Francisco park, the Chief takes part in a live TV broadcast in the hope of provoking such a panic in his prime suspect that the man will make a mistake, or lead Ed to some hard evidence.
Director: Daniel Petrie
Writer: N/A
6.3/10 53 votes#3 - Eden Is the Place We Leave
Season 3 Episode 16 - Aired 1/29/1970
A young boxer from San Francisco's Samoan community is anxious to break free from the old traditions of his people, which he feels are holding him back. He finds the process a lot more distressing than he had imagined, however; and his own life, and those of the people he spars with, are put at risk.
Director: Daniel Petrie
Writer: N/A
6.3/10 48 votes#4 - The Armageddon Gang
Season 7 Episode 5 - Aired 10/11/1973
A scientist disappears, sparking fears at the research centre where he works that he might have defected. Suspicious at the nature of the evidence and concerned for a wife clearly devoted to her missing husband, the Chief investigates further, and finds that another of the scientists at the centre is developing some very dangerous technology indeed.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
6.4/10 50 votes#5 - From Hrûska, with Love
Season 4 Episode 16 - Aired 1/21/1971
The Chief and his team are detailed to escort a spy to Mexico, in order to make an exchange with the Russians for an American scientist. When Ironside and the spy are kidnapped by a Mexican political group, Ed has to keep the Russians at bay long enough to get the pair back, so that the exchange can be made.
Director: Alf Kjellin
Writer: N/A
6.6/10 68 votes#6 - All in a Day's Work
Season 1 Episode 22 - Aired 2/15/1968
During a night on the town, Eve Whitfield kills an armed robber who tries to shoot her. When he turns out to be a boy just turned seventeen, she doubts her abilities as a police officer, particularly when half of the town seems convinced that he was a model teenager. It soon turns out that this is far from the truth.
Director: Charles S. Dubin
Writer: Evan Hunter
6.6/10 50 votes#7 - Escape
Season 4 Episode 19 - Aired 2/11/1971
Ed and Eve travel to Mexico to assist in the interrogation of a former suspect in a murder case, who has been arrested for a similar offence across the border. The local police are determined to convict him, but Ed and Eve are equally certain that he is innocent; and when he is helped to escape from police custody, suspicion falls on them.
Director: John Florea
Writer: N/A
6.7/10 62 votes#8 - And Be My Love
Season 2 Episode 19 - Aired 2/20/1969
Following a series of robberies amongst San Francisco's richest inhabitants, Eve Whitfield falls in love with one of the victims, only to discover that he is the Chief's prime suspect. Whilst the rest of the team worry about how to catch the thief, however, Eve is wondering if it may be time to quit the force to get married.
Director: N/A
Writer: Dale Eunson
6.7/10 48 votes#9 - Raise the Devil (2)
Season 8 Episode 2 - Aired 9/19/1974
The Chief links his case with a psychiatrist, who turns out to be a psychopath with a passion for brainwashing. Before he can get his evidence together, however, Fran is taken as the next victim of the doctor's peculiar brand of therapy, and is programmed to kill Ironside. Meanwhile Susan has to face past guilt over the death of her brother before she can be safe from herself.
Director: Russ Mayberry
Writer: Jimmy Sangster, Anthony Lawrence
6.8/10 65 votes#10 - Perfect Crime
Season 1 Episode 25 - Aired 3/7/1968
Lecturing on a law course at a local college, the Chief finds that one of the students is planning to prove that the perfect crime can be committed. The person responsible appears to be particularly cold and calculating, and the Chief finds that he is facing true genius.
Director: Charles S. Dubin
Writer: N/A
6.8/10 62 votes#11 - The Machismo Bag
Season 3 Episode 8 - Aired 11/13/1969
Mark encounters a group of freedom fighters at his local college, who appear to have more attitude than sense. When it turns out that they also have a roomful of stolen automatic weapons, the Chief has to decide whether or not they represent a threat to the security of San Francisco.
Director: Don Weis
Writer: William Douglas Lansford
6.8/10 51 votes#12 - Warrior's Return
Season 3 Episode 21 - Aired 3/5/1970
An ex-thief on parole is suspected of a jewel robbery, but the Chief, who has supported him since his release, is sure that he is innocent. Of all those with the means to commit the crime however, it seems that only this man and his young cousin are likely suspects. The fate of an entire rehabilitation programme may hang on Ironside's ability to prove his friend innocent.
Director: Don Weis
Writer: N/A
6.8/10 48 votes#13 - The Summer Soldier
Season 4 Episode 22 - Aired 3/4/1971
An old Armenian, the uncle of a friend of Eve's, appears to be hiding some secret that has his niece deeply worried. It soon transpires that his two nephews are involved in the manufacture of narcotics, drugs which are then being sold to children. But the fact that their uncle is keeping quiet about it suggests that he too has something to hide.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
6.8/10 52 votes#14 - Raise the Devil (1)
Season 8 Episode 1 - Aired 9/12/1974
A woman is killed in a locked room, and her daughter Susan confesses to the murder after apparently becoming possessed by the spirit of her long-dead younger brother. The Chief enlists a psychic to help him in his investigations, but the clues that she offers him seem to confuse more than they assist.
Director: Russ Mayberry
Writer: Jimmy Sangster, Anthony Lawrence
6.9/10 49 votes#15 - Lesson in Terror
Season 4 Episode 24 - Aired 3/18/1971
A gang of violent anarchists springs a protestor from prison and, when he is recaptured, try to force the police into releasing him again by kidnapping the son of a prominent lawyer. The boy, however, is in on the scheme, until he begins to realise just how far his new friends are prepared to go.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 6.9/10 47 votes
#16 - The Savage Sentry
Season 6 Episode 2 - Aired 9/21/1972
A man with an uncanny ability to tame vicious guard dogs commits a series of robberies in San Francisco. The Chief has a plan to stop him, but it calls for a dog of his own and a willingness to put himself right in the line of fire.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
6.9/10 40 votes#17 - Love Me in December
Season 6 Episode 17 - Aired 2/1/1973
When her fiancé is accused of murder, a young woman comes to Ironside for help; but when it transpires that the fiancé in question is an old Naval acquaintance of the Chief's, a man with whom he did not get along, the assistance is both offered and accepted somewhat grudgingly. It soon becomes clear, however, that the prejudice which exists in the couple's home town is in serious danger of destroying an innocent man's life.
Director: Don Weis
Writer: N/A
7.0/10 50 votes#18 - Check, Mate: and Murder (1)
Season 4 Episode 7 - Aired 10/29/1970
In Canada for a conference, Ironside and the team get caught up in a spate of bombings, courtesy of Quebec separatists; one of them the son of an old girlfriend of the Chief's. When one of the bombings proves fatal, Ironside suspects that there is more going on than just terrorism; and he soon links the killing to a famous stolen chess set.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.0/10 47 votes#19 - His Fiddlers Three
Season 5 Episode 23 - Aired 3/2/1972
A violin tutor at a conservatory in San Francisco is murdered, and the suspects include an eclectic mix of talented musicians. The only clue possessed by the Chief is a message sent by the dead man to one of his students, hidden in a collection of pieces of classical music.
Director: Alf Kjellin
Writer: N/A
7.0/10 41 votes#20 - The Ghost of the Dancing Doll
Season 6 Episode 18 - Aired 2/15/1973
An old friend of Ed's goes missing after promising to take him on a fishing trip, and it soon becomes clear that he has become involved in a Mob killing. Ed is determined to prove his friend's innocence, but the evidence soon mounts up; and Ed finds himself having to argue against even the Chief in order to show that his friend is not a killer.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.0/10 50 votes#21 - Mind for Murder
Season 7 Episode 9 - Aired 11/15/1973
While Fran, Mark and Ed are at a night club, a psychic sees details of a recent fire. When the Chief becomes interested, he visits the psychic to try to see more, and discovers that he has been pursuing an arsonist for some time, unable to convince the police that his visions are for real.
Director: Gene Nelson
Writer: N/A
7.0/10 38 votes#22 - Two Hundred Large
Season 7 Episode 14 - Aired 1/10/1974
A robbery goes wrong and one of the thieves is killed, whilst another, an unlikely sort to be taking part in a robbery, is arrested. The third thief manages to escape with the money, but when the young daughter of the arrested gang member is kidnapped, the ransom being the unrecovered money from the heist, the team faces a race against time to capture the missing man.
Director: Robert Scheerer
Writer: N/A
7.1/10 74 votes#23 - Girl in the Night
Season 1 Episode 15 - Aired 12/21/1967
Ed falls for a girl he meets after hearing her playing the piano in a bar in Las Vegas. While they are out together Ed is knocked unconscious and the girl disappears. Ed, Ironside and the team try to figure out the mysterious circumstances behind her disappearance.
Director: Ralph Senensky
Writer: Dean Riesner, True Eames Boardman
7.1/10 50 votes#24 - The Laying on of Hands
Season 4 Episode 12 - Aired 12/10/1970
Pablo Esteban, a young Mexican boy, is brought to San Francisco by some businessmen who claim that he can heal people just by touching them. Placed on the case to find out whether it is for real, the Chief develops a close friendship with the boy, and has to help him when he finds out that it is all just a money-making scam.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.1/10 52 votes#25 - The Quincunx
Season 4 Episode 15 - Aired 1/7/1971
A successful folk trio comprising two brothers and a sister tour San Francisco, and Eve's suspicions are roused when the girl, an old school friend, disappears without a word. When the body of another young woman turns up, brutally murdered, the Chief knows that there is a connection somewhere; but which, if either, of the brothers killed the girl? The clue to their sister's whereabouts might just be in their music.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A