User Reviews

Raymond Burr gave a magnificent acting performance in this episode. Ironside seems to have great knowledge of autistic children, which is not explained, but he isn't the gruff Ironside that we expect. An autistic boy witnesses a murder, but can't tell the police about it. Ironside offers to have the child tested to see if he will speak. The child bonds with Ironside. When they are out fishing, an attempt to kill Ironside and the boy. The plan that Ironside hatches to catch the attempted murderer of the boy leaves his staff and friends wondering what will happen to the Chief. I was kept guessing who the suspect was until the end. If you love the relationship between the Chief and Fran, Mark, and Ed, this is the episode for you.

Some people don't get the appeal of Raymond Burr. That's fine, to each their own. But he was a master and certainly had the X factor. He starred in two iconic TV programs - Perry Mason and Ironside that were beloved by viewers then and now and went on for years! I think part of it is Burr was like the tough coach that gets the most out of his players and don't want to let him down. He demanded great, not good, and the writers and actors on his shows produced it.

For example, he demanded that the first few episodes of Ironside in season 1 be completely re-shot as they just weren't up to snuff! And they did it!

And he was a unique actor.

All of this is on display in this special two-hour episode of Ironside.

The plot is quite convoluted - another reviewer is spot on by saying that the writers overreached. I admit that in the last 15 minutes I was pretty much clueless as to who and why people were doing what! That was the norm on Perry Mason by the way.

The real key to the episode is Burr playing a "role within a role." This is something he only did once on Perry Mason but did several times on Ironside. Here he does it to perfection, acting as if Ironside becomes a drunken bum, and pulling it off, in my humble opinion. The viewer doesn't believe it, but we do believe that people that didn't know him that well would believe it.

It's cool also to see the depiction of the seedy side of San Francisco that Ironside joins. Prostitution, drug dealing, violence and crime, and even the allusions to the religious-type cults that arose in the 1970's (most notoriously Jim Jones "church" in Los Angeles, eventually resulting in the mass suicide).

And, the love for Ironside by his crew is also well-depicted.

Also, this episode features wonderful character actors everywhere! Continuously popping up throughout the two hours are actors you say, "I know him!" but of course you don't know his name! They include Antonio Fargas (Huggy Bear from Starsky and Hutch), Gene Evans, William Devane, Val Bisoglio (the cook from MASH), George Dicenzo, William Mims, who looks like he just stepped off the set of one of the zillion westerns he appeared in, Lee Montgomery (the autistic kid, who also appeared as a boy genius in classic Columbo), and the villian here, William Smith, who, incredibly, started his acting career with a kid part in 1942's Ghost of Frankenstein!

I'd like to give a special shout-out to David Wayne, who plays Ironside's doctor here. Wayne is a bit like Burgess Meredith, a unique actor that you like to see. He played Ellery Queen's father in the 1975 series and was also the Mad Hatter in 1966 Batman, but I always remember him from a 1957 episode of Alfred Hitchcock's short-lived series Suspicion, called "Heartbeat." Wayne has a dangerous heart condition and any excitement could kill him but he doesn't know it and has a helluva day having fun, then dies. Wonderful performance.

The Ironside/Star Trek link is repped by Roger Perry, who was in the original Star Trek.

Sit back and enjoy this episode and don't worry too much about the who and what and why!

Note: The Director continues the Season 7 use of overlapping images of people while they talk, which I think was originally used to cover up Burr's double being used. Might be time to put that one to rest.

This special two hour Ironside story has the Chief going into deep undercover and letting himself go to seed in front of our eyes. His team was involved in a case where a campaign manager for a Board of Supervisors candidate is shot in a junkyard. The only witness is young Lee Harcourt Montgomery who is autistic, but of course the bad guys don't know that.

Later on there's an attempt on the boy's life while he and the Chief are out sailing. They've bonded you see and Raymond Burr is hoping that young Montgomery can tell him something. After that the Chief puts in a resignation. And its for real, he starts drawing his police pension and moves downtown to a small flat in a seedy area of San Francisco.

Problems in continuity and complexity plague this show and it could have been better. For one thing in a previous episode where the Chief was held hostage in a bank he was in that bank checking on his accounts and listening to an investment plan. He says his police pension's his only income. And we're never really sure why the one ultimately responsible for the original death is doing what he's doing. He says the deceased was blackmailing him mercilessly over what we're never told, but this guy has some powerful reach. Seems like he could have done in his blackmailer a bit more expeditiously. Look at the lengths and the complexity of his scheme to kill Burr.

I think the writers got carried away a bit.

The first episode is good however the two star rating is so far in the first or rather part 1. Kim Darby & William Smith have not made any appearance's. I'm on 10 mins of episode 2 still. They haven't shown up. What gives!? I hope to gosh they aren't cameos. I would be very disappointed. I do like seeing Will Devane & Val Bisoglio of Rolling Thunder & Mash Fame. Of course David Wayne of TV's House Calls is always a joy. Holy Makers. Kim Darby & Smith show up a half hour into the 2nd episode & have nothing to do with the thriller plot. What a waste. At least Antonio Fargas lightens things up as a foreigner.