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TO VIEW ALL EPISODES OF SEASON 1 IN ORDER IN WHICH THEY WERE PRODUCED

posted 18 years ago by terry_l_kiser-1
18 replies | jump to latest

Now that the officially sanctioned by NBC/UNIVERSAL release on DVD of Ironside by the Shout Factory has kicked off with the availability of the complete first season including as a bonus the NBC Made For Television pilot motion picture, those of you who have already purchased your sets of copies or are planning to do so will find the following of use if you've long been desirous of or perhaps might after reading this post be interested in viewing each and every one of the episodes in the successive order in which they were produced at Universal City Studios (for unknown reasons the brass at Universal had NBC originally air the first six episodes as well as several others insinuated in among the rest and out of order). Now for the first time you finally have the option to experience and appreciate the subtle yet integral technical continuity and contextual character developement those particular productions successively impart to the oddessy that is Ironside when viewed in their original production order as revealed here for the very first time! To us truly diehard fans this is one of the long hoped for and awaited "holy grail(s)" of the series:

1. IRONSIDE PILOT.................................................................................................... Produced by Collier Young, Music by Quincy Jones
2. LEAF IN THE FOREST............................................................................. Executive Producer Collier Young, Music by Quincy Jones
3. EAT, DRINK, AND BE BURIED ............................................................... Executive Producer Collier Young, Music by Quincy Jones
4. THE MONSTER OF COMUS TOWERS ................................................... Executive Producer Collier Young, Music by Quincy Jones
5. SOMETHING FOR NOTHING .............. Executive Producer Collier Young, Theme Quincy Jones, Music Supervision Stanley Wilson
6. TAGGED FOR MURDER ............................... Executive Producer Collier Young, Theme Quincy Jones, Scoring Music Oliver Nelson
7. MESSAGE FROM BEYOND ............................. Executive Producer Frank Price, Theme Quincy Jones, Scoring Music Oliver Nelson
8. DEAD MAN'S TALE ........................................... Executive Producer Frank Price, Theme Quincy Jones, Scoring Music Oliver Nelson
9. THE MAN WHO BELIEVED ........................... Executive Producer Frank Price, Theme Quincy Jones, Scoring Music Oliver Nelson
10. AN INSIDE JOB ..................................................... Executive Producer Frank Price, Theme Quincy Jones, Music Score Benny Carter
11. THE TAKER .................................................................................................. Executive Producer Frank Price, Music By Quincy Jones
12, LET MY BROTHER GO ............................................................................... Executive Producer Frank Price, Music By Quincy Jones
13. LIGHT AT THE END OF THE JOURNEY ................................................. Executive Producer Frank Price, Music By Quincy Jones
14. A VERY COOL HOT CAR ........................................................................... Executive Producer Frank Price, Music By Quincy Jones
15. THE PAST IS PROLOGUE ........................................................................... Executive Producer Frank Price, Music By Quincy Jones
16. GIRL IN THE NIGHT .................................................................................... Executive Producer Frank Price, Music By Quincy Jones
17.THE FOURTEENTH RUNNER .................................................................... Executive Producer Frank Price, Music By Quincy Jones
18. FORCE OF ARMS ......................................................................................... Executive Producer Frank Price, Music By Quincy Jones
19. MEMORY OF AN ICE CREAM STICK ...................................................... Executive Producer Frank Price, Music By Quincy Jones
20. TO KILL A COP ........................................ Executive Producer Frank Price, Theme Quincy Jones, Music Supervision Stanley Wilson
21. THE LONELY HOSTAGE ....................... Executive Producer Frank Price, Theme Quincy Jones, Music Supervision Stanley Wilson
22. THE CHALLENGE ................................... Executive Producer Frank Price, Theme Quincy Jones, Music Supervision Stanley Wilson
23. ALL IN A DAY'S WORK ......................... Executive Producer Frank Price, Theme Quincy Jones, Music Supervision Stanley Wilson
24. BARBARA WHO ...................................... Executive Producer Frank Price, Theme Quincy Jones, Music Supervision Stanley Wilson
25. PERFECT CRIME ..................................... Executive Producer Frank Price, Theme Quincy Jones, Music Supervision Stanley Wilson
26. OFFICER BOBBY .................................... Executive Producer Frank Price, Theme Quincy Jones, Music Supervision Stanley Wilson
27. TRIP TO HASHBURY ............................. Executive Producer Frank Price, Theme Quincy Jones, Music Supervision Stanley Wilson
28. DUE PROCESS OF THE LAW ............... Executive Producer Frank Price, Theme Quincy Jones, Music Supervision Stanley Wilson
29. RETURN OF THE HERO ........................ Executive Producer Frank Price, Theme Quincy Jones, Music Supervision Stanley Wilson

[–] sweet1310452 18 years ago

I was wondering about the order of the episodes. Barbara Anderson and Don Mitchell's hair changes in length from episode to episode on the DVDs as does Mark's disposition towards Ironside. In Leaf in the Forrest I believe he sarcastically says something like "Yes massuh" or "yessah boss" when Ironside gives him instructions. Makes sense that that one was the first produced after the pilot. raymond Burr's hair also changes from show to show- more or less grey or hair dye or whatever, and in some shows it is flat on his head and in others he has a mild pompadour.

[–] terry_l_kiser-1 18 years ago

In LEAF IN THE FOREST the first, second, and last scenes take place on the office/living quarters set built on the soundstage being used by HARBOUR PRODUCTIONS UNLIMITED at Universal Studios and were the very first filmed right after the cast and crew returned from completing episode specific location filming in downtown San Francisco. All subsequent in-studio filming at Universal occured immediately after Burr acquired the closely cropped haircut he can be seen sporting throughout the remainder of the episode. In EAT DRINK AND BE BURIED, THE MONSTER OF COMUS TOWERS, and SOMETHING FOR NOTHING the shorn locks were in constant evidence. However, by the time production began on TAGGED FOR MURDER the fact that his hair was returning to the natural pompadour stage was starting to become obvious. Burr's hair was never dyed, it just occasionally appeared so on camera depending on its length at any given time and how the lighting director had been instructed to light particular scenes. As to Barbara Anderson's hair: in LEAF IN THE FOREST the style was moderately changed from how it was arranged in the pilot, while the length essentially remained the same. By the way, that's a noteworthy observation regarding Mark's disposition towards Ironside in that specific episode being more consistent with his general demeanor towards the Chief in the pilot made-for-television movie. Here's another technical fact you might find of interest: about halfway through scheduled filming on the office/living quarters set for the episode SOMETHING FOR NOTHING the first alteration to that particular structure was made. As you may know, economics, not cronology is the first arbitour in determining the order in which scenes are to be filmed, so in the case of this structural change that was made to the set, for one scene it is in evidence, then in the very next it's absent, and a little later on it reappears. At the very beginning of filming for the series the set still had its original pair of wooden, glass paneled double entrance doors that were seen in the pilot. These were retained until production of SOMETHING FOR NOTHING was ongoing. At that point it was decided to replace the two doors with the identically styled wider single glass paneled wooden door with a single matching narrow side window and panel below which was then in constant evidence in the the very next episode, TAGGED FOR MURDER, (the last episode crediting Collier Young as the Executive Producer). This single door and its "side light" framing were a consistent facet of the set's design throughout all the episodes that followed, right up to and including the very last one ever filmed (i. e. "The Rolling Y").

[–] sweet1310452 18 years ago

Why did Susan St James appear twice in the same season as two totally different characters? I can accept recasting actors over the course of a show's run, but within the same year it is distracting (although she did a good job in her appearances).

Overall the actors were good though, particularly the female guest stars. Marcia Strausman's non-appearance in the episode where the folk singer is murdered is quite noteworthy (i don't know if that was her singing). Also Lee Grant in her episode and Geraldine Brooks in the pilot (she brought life to a real weirdo character).

[–] terry_l_kiser-1 18 years ago

Geraldine Brooks' unforgettable interpretation of the Honor Thompson character in the Ironside made-for-television motion picture that inspired the powers that be at Universal to consider and then employ its ratings success to pitch it as a series to the same network (NBC) that had aired it was indeed exceptionally convincing. Lee Grant's performance was equally believable, exuding a level and style of feminine classiness that has rarely been seen on television! As to Marcia Strausman: I have no confirmation on this, but I do have an ability to accurately discern and correctly identify a considerable number of actors and actresses voices from various eras of motion picture and television. In listening to Marcia's speaking voice as reproduced in the episode and comparing it with what was attributed as being her character's singing voice, I would have to say there is a strong possiblity that that part of the work was also done by the actress.

I do not yet know the actual reason why Susan St. James guest starred in two episodes so closely produced one after the other, but I speculate that it had something to do with the order in which story ideas were assigned their numerical production codes before being considered for developement and production as well as the fact that it is the executive producer who has final say on which ones are picked. When you take that into consideration in light of the fact that the first episode the actress appeared in (SOMETHING FOR NOTHING), in addition to being only the fifth episode of the series was also the next to last executive produced by Collier Young before he left, while the second (GIRL IN THE NIGHT) was executive produced by a different individual (in this case Young's immediate successor, in the position, Frank Price) and that this changing of the guard occured right in the midst of producing the first season you begin to see how such a fluke could have come about.

[–] sweet1310452 18 years ago

I know that St James was on just before she did Name of the Game and both series were made at Universal, so I guess she was under contract to Universal and they liked her and decided to use her twice. Vera Miles was also good. She was one of the few guest stars to play the same character in more than one season. Barbara Who turns up in another story I remember seeing that was in the third year.

Another question I have about this series is the use of what would today be considered mild profanity. Words such as damn, hell etc. Many have said that there is a third season (1968-69 Star Trek episode where Capt Kirk says something like "Let's get the hell out of here" at the climax and a 1965 episode of My Favorite Martian where an old woman says something like "What the hell" but Ironside used these types of words in the 60s as well. In the episode where Eve kills the teen jewel thief Ironside says something like, "You're not worth a damn if you let your emotions get the best of you" or something along those lines. I was surprised that the censors allowed that in 1967-68. Also in the second episode with Vera Miles in 1969 the sherriff at one point says, "Dammit, Ironside". Damn is also used in the season 3 show Eden is the Place We Leave. I really thought that damn, hell etc weren't used on tv until All in the Family in 1971. After that show those words and others became much more common. Some shows that were on before 1971 which never used them now seemed to begin sticking a word per week into their scripts just to prove how relevant they were.

Speaking of censorship, much has been written about Barbara Eden not being allowed to show her belly button on I Dream of Jeannie on NBC, yet Ironside on that same network in the same era had bikini clad women (the wife of the mobster who was murdered in the episode with Jack Lord for example). Considering that Ironside came on relatively early in the evening this seems like a double standard.

[–] terry_l_kiser-1 18 years ago

I suspect the reasoning as regards Barbara Eden not being allowed to show her belly button when the censors gave the green light to the fully exposed one in the swimming scene in whch the actress who played the wife of the mobster who was murdered in the episode Jack Lord appeared in (DEAD MAN'S TALE--by the way, that was just months before Mr. Lord went on to star in the long running Hawaii Five O series) had to do with the fact that Miss Eden would have regularly been seen in that manner every time her character was required to appear in the harem costume whereas the actress who played the murdered mobsters' wife was about to go for a swim wearing the typical bikini style swim suit of the time, and she only appeared dressed in that manner in that one brief scene. Remember also that Ironside was begun in the fall of 1967, one year before the zenith of the drug-crazed, morally degenerate hippie counter culture, and the series had its setting right in the midst of those exceedingly turbulent times--right in the city where the congregated and most influential nexus of that rebellion had its home. Every integral, foundational moral aspect of our society was being subjected to an unrelenting, direct assault. Then at the start of the 1970's All In The Family surfaced and served as a pivotal weapon in furthering the acceptability of some of the most destructive, immoral effects of that rebellion. Whereas the incidents you cited in those other series were very few and far between, (and exceptionally mild by comparison) Norman Lear's program more-often-than-not intentionally pushed far beyond the long estabished, remaining--and still largely in tact boundaries of our culture's Biblically-based Judeo-Christian ethics and morality. Specifically focusing on the incidents you sight in Ironside however: the character Raymond Burr was portraying was an exceedingly tough, no-nonsense, and even on occasion, hard-bitten individual (not to mention cantakerous and obstinant--most especially in those early years of the series). In fact it was in the pilot made-for-television motion picture when the first use of the expletive you cited surfaces (and very early on). The Chief, grogily waking up in the hospital from the gun shot-induced coma he'd been in up till that moment queried Sister Agatha with the line, "Dammit, who shot me?" Her response is a somewhat shocked, then stern look accompanied by an equally stern, almost venomous delivery of the line "You hush now!" He then expresses what soon would be recognized as his characteristic impatience to the Sister when he illicits from her that his employer (i.e. the San Francisco Police Department) hadn't yet managed to nail the person who'd committed the deed on him during the few days he'd been unconcious (his verbatum response is "Dammit, what are we paying them for?"). In those days censors were actually a far tougher group of individuals to get material past than they are today. I can guarantee you that Mr. Young, Mr. Burr and their associates had to go to bat big time to keep all those "Dammits" and even that later belly button from being excised from their creation. It is evident they successfully proved to what was then a very discriminating board of review that the "damns" and "dammits" were not only vitally essential to the conveying of the very tough, worldly character of the role Mr. Burr was assailing, but most particularly that each and every use of those expletives by that character or any other was not in any way being portrayed in a light that would make it appear to young impressionable minds that such behavior was a morally acceptable practice to emulate.

[–] gppressingon 12 years ago

An old Trekkie (and new IRONSIDE fan) checking in with a confirmation that Captain Kirk did indeed utter, "Let's get the hell out of here" on April 6, 1967 in the first season STAR TREK episode "The City on the Edge of Forever."

[–] tenement-funster 18 years ago

Good observations. Mark and Ed's relationship is another thing that shows how far along the storyline is. Although they became close friends quite quickly, to begin with they were still a little aloof. I was re-watching the pilot the other day, and there's some lovely little touches there, such as Ed's apparent jealousy towards Mark.

There's a similar situation in season five, too. As broadcast, Fran arrives in episode three, "The Gambling Game", but she isn't featured at all in episode nine, "If A Body, See A Body". She doesn't appear to have arrived yet.

http://www.46664.com/

The World Is Quiet Here

[–] terry_l_kiser-1 18 years ago

Here's a tidbit regarding the episode, IF A BODY, SEE A BODY: the person hired to portray the "body" Ed found in the bushes and who also provided the voice recording of that victim was former Garden Grove, California congressman Robert "B1 Bob" K. Dornan.

[–] tenement-funster 18 years ago

Cool! Never heard of the guy, but I always like bits of information like that.

http://www.46664.com/

The World Is Quiet Here

[–] yogi_bear_k2 18 years ago

Are you able to also give us the year(s) in which the shows were transimitted? This would be very usefull information. They have started to re-run them here in the UK, but they seem to have not played any of the titles you have given in the list. Thank you!!

Steve

[–] terry_l_kiser-1 18 years ago

yogi bear k2: I can do you one better--go to http://www.tv.com/ironside/show/974/episode_guide.html You'll not just find the years the episodes were aired, but the actual air date for each one (beginning with the pilot made-for-television motion picture) along with the synopsis for each--hope that helps!

[–] sweet1310452 17 years ago

Funny, I have both seasons on DVD and I'm enjoying the second season eps more- the 2 parter where the Chief almost dies is one of the best storylines of all the episodes I've seen (I saw the majority of the eps from year 3 onward in syndication in the 80s), Barbara Anderson has several good eps this season such as the one where she's shot, the one with the abortionist and the one with Chad Everett as her boyfriend.

[–] bradnfrank 17 years ago

Thanks for the list! I knew they were broadcast in a different order than they were filmed, because Ironside keeps alternating between a powered wheelchair and a manual one.

[–] terry_l_kiser-1 17 years ago

bradnfrank: When I first began watching the series I noticed that particular inconsistency, but as I gave it more thought I recalled from personal experience that it was not exactly uncommon for paralyzed veterans in the late 1960's and onward to have more than one wheelchair (remember the Chief was an old Navy vet), and that on extremely rare occasions their therapists actually had the presence of mind to recognize the need for both a manual chair as well as an electrically powered one (saves the shoulder muscles and joints big time "don't you know")! I would have written off my own perception at that point that the episodes were being shown out of order except for the obvious back and forth changes in the length of Mr. Burr's hair as well as subtle variations to the character of certain of the regular supporting roles which also switched back and forth with the appearance and disappearance of the baby blue power drive system on the chair.

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] Mahogany-Rush-Steve 11 years ago

This is a good list however from all the searching I have done I can only find 29 episodes for the 1st season on IMDb list the only one that appears to be missing is the Pilot Episode, which if added to the other 28 episodes makes up the 29.
Double checking the above list there is no number 8 as it goes from number 7 to number 9, which if corrected would make 29 episodes.

I also believe that "FORREST" in 2. LEAF IN THE FORREST should be spelt FOREST.

[–] terry_l_kiser-1 11 years ago

Mahogany-Rush-Steve: Thanks for bringing those mistakes of mine to my attention. I've made the necessary corrections!

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