Ironside: Season 2 DVD Review
By Jude Clement
Wheelchair-bound retired Chief of Detectives Robert Ironside (Raymond Burr, Perry Mason) rolls back onto San Francisco's streets as a special consultant to the city's Commissioner for Ironside: Season 2. Back on the beat are also Detective Sergeant Ed Brown (Don Galloway, Arrest and Trial) and policewoman Eve Whitfield (Barbara Anderson, Mission: Impossible). Also aiding the Chief is Mark Sanger (Don Mitchell, Scream Blacula Scream), a former juvenile delinquent who helps Ironside in return for college tuition.
If you've forgotten any of these details from season one, don't worry-the two-part "A Split Second To An Epitaph" recaps the entire thing, filling the screen with pointless flashbacks to the Chief's original shooting rendered in dizzying quickcuts and nearly nonsensical editing. Did I mention that these are the second and third episodes of the season? I guess the producers figured most viewers had bad memories and needed this little refresher course. Viewers who are swifter on the uptake can have fun watching the episode's cavalcade of guest stars, including Don Stroud (Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer), Lorraine Gary (Jaws), Troy Donahue (A Summer Place), Joseph Cotton (Citizen Kane), Andrew Prine (V), and Margaret O'Brien (Meet Me in Saint Louis). Whew!
Ironside still isn't the nicest person to work with, but he mellows a bit in season two. Perhaps his wheelchair had better cushioning. A few episodes even have Ironside befriending animals in order to solve cases. In "The Macabre Mr. Micawber," a mynah bird holds the key to clearing murder suspect Burgess Meredith (Rocky). "Sergeant Mike" features a dog who may be the only witness to a murder. Bill Bixby (The Incredible Hulk) guests as a playboy.
Maybe Ironside's new attitude has something to do with the number of friends who come out of the woodwork looking for his help. These episodes include "The Sacrifice," "Desperate Encounter," "An Obvious Case of Guilt," "In Search of an Artist," "Why the Tuesday Afternoon Bridge Club Met on Thursday," and "A Drug on the Market." Having Ironside as a pal is great for the innocent, but the guilty should beware!
Milton Berle guests in "I, the People," a trite episode in which he plays loudmouth Bill O'Reilly-esque talkshow host Ross Howard, a rabble-rouser known as "The People's Voice." When he starts getting death threats, it's not a matter of who would want to threaten his life but who wouldn't. This episode is run-of-the-mill and-believe it or not-co-written by Uncle Miltie.
Among the familiar faces you'll see in Ironside: Season 2 are Ed Asner (The Mary Tyler Moore Show), Sorrell Booke (The Dukes of Hazzard), Ricardo Montalban (Fantasy Island), Paul Winfield (The Charmings), Dick Anthony Williams (Homefront), Diane Ladd (Kingdom Hospital), Anne Baxter (Hotel), Jack Albertson (Chico and the Man), Broderick Crawford (Highway Patrol), Susan Sullivan (Dharma and Greg), and both Gary Collins and Mary Ann Mobley.
The twenty-six episodes that make up Ironside: Season 2 are divided onto seven discs. The discs are housed in four slim, clear plastic keepcases, each of which holds two discs. The fronts of the cases feature the same large photo of Raymond Burr, each one tinted in a different color. The backs of the cases include titles, brief synopses, notable guest stars, and original airdates for each episode. The interiors of the cases include a stylized concentric circle pattern while the discs themselves feature a silhouette of Ironside. The keepcases slide into a cardboard outer sleeve.
The DVD menus are simple and easy to navigate. Viewers can play all of the disc's episodes or choose them individually. The episodes are divided into chapters, but there are no scene selection menus.
