In Season 2, Chief Ironside's crack team includes Sgt. Ed Brown, Don Galloway, ex con turned assistant Mark Sanger, Don Mitchell, and beautiful policewoman Eve Whitfield, Barbara Anderson, who won an Emmy for this role. With superb story lines dealing with socially important topics like racism, drugs, abortion, and terror on a college campus, Ironside's second season continued the tradition of attracting special guest stars including Milton Berle, Anne Baxter, Bill Bixby, Ricardo Montalban, Burgess Meredith, Ed Asner and many more.
The toughest cop on four wheels returns with this seven-disc set containing all 26 episodes from the second season (1968-69) of Ironside. Of course, that also means that Raymond Burr is back in the title role, portraying a former San Francisco chief of detectives who returned to the force as a consultant following the shooting that left him wheelchair-bound (also returning are his core team, including Don Galloway as Detective Sgt. Ed Brown, Barbara Anderson as Officer Eve Whitfield, and Don Mitchell as Mark Sanger, Ironside's bodyguard and driver). As ever, Burr's Robert Ironside is one of the more distinctive characters on the cop show landscape. Gruff, stubborn, impatient, and utterly unwilling to suffer fools, he commands respect with a combination of tough love and unwavering fairness. There's nothing touchy-feely about this guy. Take "Split Second to an Epitaph," a two-parter near the start of the season. When Ironside regains sensation in his feet, a doctor advises him to immediately undergo an operation that could heal him for good. But the chief refuses to go under the knife as long as the team's current case is unsolved. When he finally shows up at the hospital and another paraplegic asks him how to cope with his disability, Ironside replies, "It starts out as pure hell. Then it gets worse." And when the doc asks him what he'll do should he be able to walk again, the answer is classic Ironside: "Probably sit down." The second season's episodes run a fairly wide gamut, dealing with issues ranging from black militancy (in "Robert Phillips vs. the Man," Ironside refuses to submit either to Paul Winfield's hostile taunts or to the white racists eager to jail the black leader for murder) and professional sports (in "The Tormentor," a baseball player is threatened by an extortionist) to abortion ("A Matter of Love and Death" finds Eve posing as a pregnant young single in order to flush out a criminal abortionist--these were the days before Roe v. Wade) and boorish TV talk show demagogues (Milton Berle in a decidedly non-comic role in "I, The People"). There are also a few more personal stories than were found in Season One (Eve falls in love in one episode and hovers near death following a shooting in another, while Mark continues his quest to become a lawyer). That's all good, but like other series of its era, Ironside often seems rather dated; you'll find folks smoking in hospitals (and, in Ironside's case, having a couple of stiff drinks, with his doctor's approval, the night before his operation), star athletes struggling to put together a $100,000 payoff (a hundred grand is about what waterboys make these days), and gigantic American-made cars easily finding street parking spaces in downtown San Francisco. But while such details can be written off as mere anachronisms, the show's cheesy sets, slow-moving action and overall lack of genuine tension are more problematic. In the end, though, Ironside is mostly driven by its star power--not only Burr's, but also guests like Berle, Winfield, Broderick Crawford, Joseph Cotten, Clu Gulager, Diane Ladd, Ricardo Montalban, Anne Baxter, Ed Asner, Burgess Meredith, and Chad Everett. There are no bonus features in the box set. --Sam Graham
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0
Still plenty of meat left from Season 1:
I read a review somewhere that tells that the second season of "Ironside" was weak. I wholeheartedly disagree. Mind you it started off with "Shell Game" which was the weakest of all the second season. It makes up with the 2 part episode "Split Second To an Epitath", also "Desparate Encounter" which is downright intense, "I The People" is a terrific showcase which showcases Milton Berle in a drama, and he proves he can straddle comedy, and drama, and also can write a really good script, "Why The Tuesday... more info
Go Go Ironside:
I loved this show as a kid but sometimes what you experience in youth doesn't hold up as well as you remembered. I bought Season One on DVD last year and it was just - ok - at best. It was very dated and not written very well as the show was just finding it's way. I debated getting season Two, but I did and VERY GLAD I did. Season Two is MUCH better than Season One. Still a little dated but better written and much closer to the show I remember watching in the late 60's and early 70's. And even then I knew I... more info
Ironside - best ever:
The second season gives more insight to the main characters - for it's time, excellent character studies being developed. If you are a Raymond Burr fan, this is a must for your collection.
Keep the Seasons coming !:
Growing up I watched a ton of Cop shows on TV.S.W.A.T.,Baretta,The Streets of San Francisco,The Rookies,Starsky & Hutch,McMillan and Wife and My Favorite: Columbo.Luckily these series have begun to make their way to DVD.On Dec.18,07 comes the 1st Season (Vol. 1....Don't You hate when the season is broken into volumes !!??!!?? I hate it !)of The Mod Squad.
During the late '60's-early '70's I never watched Ironside. I don't know why.About 3 years ago I came across repeats of Ironside on a local... more info
