The Return of Ironside
                  
Director: Gary Nelson
Year: 1993
Rating: 5.5
One of the sure signs that I am getting older is that I began watching Ironside. This is for the geriatric set. Of which I find myself slowly oozing into. Ironside ran from 1967 to 1975 starring Perry Mason, I mean Raymond Burr. I was and still am a fan of the detective/cop shows of that era. Mannix, Kojak, Hawaii 5-0, Harry-O, Rockford Files and Police Woman were my favorites and I still watch one of them when I lunch by myself at home as company. But Ironside? That was so square. Ironside and this three colorless nimrods. Maybe I tried a few times back then and thought I would turn to stone. Of course, my parents were fans. But last year for some reason I started throwing it into my rotation and basically enjoy them. They are still square but then so am I. The idea of a grumpy cop in a wheelchair yelling at all his subordinates sounds ridiculous but taking away the action component is kind of interesting - it becomes more cerebral. Some of the writing is quite good and some are real clunkers.



I can't imagine many people were asking for it but in 1993 they made this reunion show. Probably because Burr was also doing Perry Mason movies of the week and they were doing ok. There was a lot of affection for Raymond Burr because of Perry Mason - still my favorite TV show. For years a heavy Burr had played the heavy in films - almost always the bad guy. But he got the call to play Mason if he could lose a few tons and he did and he and Della and Paul and Tragg and Burger were necessary watching from 1957 to 1966. So here he is again on TV where he found a home. In fact, the whole crew is back. His main man Ed Brown played by Don Galloway - now the number two man in the Denver police; the lovely Eve (Barbara Anderson) now a mother to a police daughter; the put-upon Mark (Don Michell) is now a judge and Fran (Elizabeth Baur) who I have yet to get to in the series. And as for Ironside - he is retired and owns a vineyard and is married. And still grumpy.



Ironside of course gets pulled back in when Brown asks him to temporarily run the Denver police after the last head was murdered. Turns out their are crooked shenanigans going on in the police and he calls the old band to come together and help him. It is not a bad mystery but he has lost much of his bark. As had Burr. He was dying when he made this. Kidney cancer. He actually needed the wheelchair now. A trooper till the end. He was to pass away in 1993.