The BEST episodes of Ironside
Every episode of Ironside ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. 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 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.
#1 - If a Body See a Body
Season 5 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/16/1971
On a day out with Mark, Ed finds a body in the park, but when Homicide arrives it has gone. Teased by his rival, Homicide Sergeant Larry Mullen, Ed is anxious to prove that there really was a body, but the Chief would rather have him working on a kidnapping case with the FBI. It soon appears, however, that the two cases may in fact be the same one.
#2 - A Man Named Arno
Season 5 - Episode 24 - Aired 3/9/1972
Alone in the office, Fran Belding is attacked by an escaped convict, and helped by a mystery man who refuses to tell her his name. The next morning he is reported missing by his wife, and his disappearance seems to be connected to the case of a major drug dealer whose very existence has always been suspect.
#3 - No Motive for Murder
Season 5 - Episode 15 - Aired 12/23/1971
The son of an old friend, fearing that his father's life is in danger, asks the Chief to go to Tokyo. Once there Ironside finds his old friend wheelchair-bound as a result of an accident, and begins to work on his own theory about who might have hired a hitman to kill such a respected old man.
#4 - 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.
#5 - Class of '57
Season 5 - Episode 14 - Aired 12/16/1971
Ed discovers that Bernie Simmonds, a man sought on assault charges, was in his high school class. Whilst pursuing the investigation, he meets with Ann Garfield, his first love; now widowed with two small children. Love, it seems, is set to blossom twice; unless Ann knows more about Bernie than she is letting on.
#6 - Seeing Is Believing
Season 3 - Episode 8 - Aired 10/30/1969
When a lowlife bookie is found severely beaten, five witnesses identify Ed as his attacker. Unable to provide an alibi, Ed finds himself having to prove his own innocence; and when the victim dies and Ed is arrested on a murder charge, the team have to find out who the real killer is.
#7 - 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.
#8 - Riddle Me Death
Season 6 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/2/1972
A man dies in what appears to be an accident, but his estranged daughter is convinced that the story is not nearly so simple. A complex Japanese puzzle appears to be the only clue to the truth and the Chief struggles to solve it alone. Meanwhile the daughter of the murdered man has problems of her own; but these can only be solved by Ed's special touch.
#9 - Split Second to an Epitaph (1)
Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/26/1968
Ironside is the only witness to a murder, but has to go into hospital for exploratory surgery immediately after the events that he witnessed. The murderer is determined that he should not leave hospital alive, and as the Chief deals with the possibility of maybe one day being able to walk again, his presence in the hospital helps various other citizens right wrongs in their lives. Meanwhile Ed, Eve and Mark deal with their own worries and fears for the Chief as the murder attempts escalate.
#10 - Accident
Season 4 - Episode 23 - Aired 3/11/1971
Driving to the garage whilst tired, Mark knocks down an old lady, with whom he develops a close relationship. It soon seems, however, that his guilt over the affair is going to lead to some revelations about his new friend that he might rather not hear.
#11 - License to Kill
Season 5 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/2/1971
A policeman is killed, and his murderer is subsequently shot by the dead man's partner; and when it transpires that both officers were at the Police Academy with Ed, Ironside becomes involved. When he begins investigating, the Chief discovers that the second death was no murder, but a set up.
#12 - Cold, Hard Cash
Season 6 - Episode 14 - Aired 12/14/1972
When the team gets word of a kidnap plot, Ed goes undercover as the wheel man; but he soon finds himself battling with a fellow gang member who wants the victim dead, and is happy to kill Ed too if he gets in the way. Meanwhile the Chief struggles to gain the trust of the victim's mother, a film star whose head is being kept firmly in the clouds by her manager.
#13 - 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.
#14 - Good Samaritan
Season 5 - Episode 11 - Aired 11/23/1971
Ed is shot during a raid on a jewellery store, and his life is saved by a stranger who vanishes as soon as the authorities arrive on the scene. When it later transpires that the stranger is a soldier gone AWOL following the murder of a colleague, Ed is determined to prove him innocent of all charges.
#15 - The Target
Season 4 - Episode 17 - Aired 1/28/1971
An ex-con determined to go straight is roped into a scam to steal dynamite, after his son is kidnapped. The Chief manages to get the boy back, but by then a bomb has already been planted, and there may be no time to stop it before it blows up. The Chief not only has to find the bomb, he also has to work out how to defuse it.
#16 - 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.
#17 - Too Many Victims
Season 4 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/12/1970
A policeman's daughter crashes her car after taking cannabis, and her father sets out to catch the man who sold her the stuff. When it becomes apparent that he has framed the man responsible, the task falls to Ironside to decide whether to charge a known pusher or an old and trusted cop who has clearly gone off the rails.
#18 - The Sacrifice
Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/3/1968
A policeman friend of Ironside and the team is the prime suspect in a murder investigation. Is he really guilty, though, or is the evidence just a little too damning?
#19 - The Savage Sentry
Season 6 - Episode 3 - 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.
#20 - Desperate Encounter
Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/24/1968
A friend of the Chief's invites him to stay and then promptly disappears, leaving Ironside to figure out what has happened to him, whilst also running the gauntlet in a town determined to cover up a secret.
#21 - The Happy Dreams of Hollow Men
Season 4 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/1/1970
The Chief travels into the mountains to spend the weekend with an old friend, only to be snowed in following a bad blizzard. Trapped in a small cabin, Ironside discovers that his friend is now an addict, violent and unpredictable without the fix he cannot get.
#22 - The Lonely Way to Go
Season 4 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/22/1970
The accountant for the Police Pension Fund confesses to the murder of his secretary, but all of the evidence suggests that he could not possibly be guilty, instead pointing to another culprit and a man merely suffering from alcohol-induced hallucinations. As always, however, the Chief does not go along merely with what is 'obvious'.
#23 - Check, Mate: and Murder (2)
Season 4 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/5/1970
Ed goes undercover at the docks to try to identify and capture the murderer, whilst the rest of the team continue investigating the case. Finally, with a terrorist plot to defuse, a parade to protect, and Ed masquerading as the arrested murderer, Ironside has plenty to work on; but still has enough time to spend with his old girlfriend.
#24 - Backfire
Season 4 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/3/1970
Mark investigates an old case as part of his coursework research, and uncovers an apparent miscarriage of justice which implicates Ed in a fit up. The pair investigate the case to try to work out what really happened, and discover that the truth is not necessarily what it appears to be.
#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.