It's Flaming Brilliant!!

kidboots

I have read that Raymond Burr was so fed up by the end of the Perry Mason series, he had no idea the show was destined to take up 9 years of his professional life. Before that he had played some of the nastiest villains on film ("The Whip Hand", "Rear Window" etc) so he must have jumped for joy when given the opportunity to portray one of the straightest lawyers in history - Perry Mason!!! Nine years later he was offered another police series - "Ironside" but this cop was different. As the pilot showed he was gunned down by an unknown assailant and forced to come to terms with life in a wheelchair - his abrasive, forthright and refreshing "politically incorrect" manner shows that the number of suspects will be limitless (the crime is solved within the pilot). Along the way he picks up ambitious young officer Ed Brown (Don Galloway) and private school educated Eve Whitfield who Ironside thinks has the makings of a fine police woman. As well he enlists the help of a young black juvenile offender, Mark Sanger, to look after him - their confrontations are some of the highlights of the show.

With a pulsating theme by Quincey Jones (his first major series), the different episodes took viewers through such diverse issues as civil rights, the world of drugs, hippies, extreme vigilante groups etc. The pilot took Ironside into the existential world of art and beatniks - Tiny Tim (remember him!!) was even featured. One of my favourite episodes, "The Man Who Believed", was about Ironside's fight for justice when a young singer is presumed to have died from an overdose - he believes and proves it was murder!! There were old time actors like Gene Raymond in the very timely "Force of Arms" - he played the head of a nationwide vigilante group who are tirelessly collecting dossiers on United States citizens. Another one was "The Past is Prologue" with a young Harrison Ford whose father has been on the run from a murder charge for the past 19 years.

I found the episodes that were not so great were the ones that gave Don Galloway the occasional lead - "wooden acting" was a term invented for that guy. Another minus - Ironside seemed to have a few quirky mannerisms that were eased out as the series took hold. Especially his catch phrase "Flaming" this and "Flaming" that - even his offsiders started to say it (although not with the same ease and glibness) but after a few episodes it was gone. I always thought it was a pity.

score 8/10

kidboots 12 November 2013

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2904430/