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The Best Episodes of Ironside

Every episode of Ironside ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Ironside!

Binge this in 8d 5h•Peaking at 8.6/10

When an assassin's bullet confines him to a wheelchair for life ending his career as Chief of Detectives, Robert T. Ironside becomes a consultant to the police department. Detective Sergeant Ed Brown and policewoman Eve

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
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    Ironside Season 3 Episode 20 - One Hour to Kill
    8.6/10(91 votes)

    #1 - One Hour to Kill

    S3:E20

    Ironside becomes trapped in his office on his own, when a man comes looking for revenge. With Mark at school and Ed dragged to the opera by Eve, the Chief has to improvise a series of defences, whilst his team gradually come to realise that something is very wrong.

    Director:Richard Benedict
    Writer:Unknown

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  2. Ironside Season 5 Episode 12 - Gentle Oaks
    8.6/10(86 votes)

    #2 - Gentle Oaks

    S5:E12

    A string of deaths at a convalescence home leads the Chief to go undercover as a patient, whose two children (Fran Belding and Ed) hint that they wish he were "no longer their problem". It soon appears that violence and murder are considered due care by certain members of the staff.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  3. Ironside Season 2 Episode 16 - Rundown on a Bum Rap
    8.5/10(115 votes)

    #3 - Rundown on a Bum Rap

    S2:E16

    Mark's old boxing coach, an alcoholic, is found at the scene of a serious assault, and nobody seems prepared to entertain the theory that he might just be innocent. Mark battles to prove that he has been falsely accused, assisted by the rest of the team, and in the process wins the affections of his law school teacher.

    Director:Allen Reisner
    Writer:Unknown

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  4. Ironside Season 4 Episode 26 - Walls Are Waiting
    8.5/10(80 votes)

    #4 - Walls Are Waiting

    S4:E26

    A parole officer famed for his hard line against drug pushers begins to fear for his life after a shooting. The line of suspects, however, as well as including one of his current clients, also seems to include that client's lawyer, and even the parole officer himself.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  5. Ironside Season 5 Episode 2 - Contract: Kill Ironside
    8.5/10(70 votes)

    #5 - Contract: Kill Ironside

    S5:E2

    Due to give evidence, the Chief discovers that there is a contract out on his life, and that the chosen killer is a highly dedicated man. Whilst the authorities see only the lethal killer, however, it seems that everybody has another side to their personality.

    Director:Don Weis
    Writer:Unknown

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  6. Ironside Season 7 Episode 18 - A Taste of Ashes
    8.5/10(62 votes)

    #6 - A Taste of Ashes

    S7:E18

    A girl thought to have died years previously turns up at the home of her mother just as her brother is found murdered. Clearly somebody is trying to kill the family off, but is it connected to the girl, and is she really who she says she is?

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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    The 20 WORST Episodes of Ironside

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  7. Ironside Season 8 Episode 3 - What's New with Mark?
    8.5/10(58 votes)

    #7 - What's New with Mark?

    S8:E3

    Mark and his girlfriend come across a murder whilst on a date, but decide to defend the killer when it transpires that he acted in self defence. During the case the pair get married, and Ed decides to move in with the Chief in Mark's place.

    Director:Charles S. Dubin
    Writer:Unknown

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  8. Ironside Season 3 Episode 22 - Little Jerry Jessup
    8.4/10(72 votes)

    #8 - Little Jerry Jessup

    S3:E22

    A thirteen year old boy is the only witness to his mother's murder, but finds it hard to co-operate with the Chief, knowing that it was Ironside who put his father in prison. Allowing Marty Jessup a temporary pass is the only way for the Chief to solve the murder and to lessen his conscience at the same time.

    Director:Don Weis
    Writer:Unknown

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  9. Ironside Season 4 Episode 21 - The Riddle in Room Six
    8.4/10(69 votes)

    #9 - The Riddle in Room Six

    S4:E21

    A court case is put in jeopardy when it seems that the jury is irrevocably hung over its verdict; until the Chief realises that one member must surely be on the take. He has a race against time to unmask the guilty party, however, before the judge must dismiss the jury and let the defendant walk free.

    Director:John Florea
    Writer:Unknown

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  10. Ironside Season 6 Episode 22 - The Best Laid Plans
    8.4/10(63 votes)

    #10 - The Best Laid Plans

    S6:E22

    The Chief is in the bank when it is robbed by a gang of three men, planning to await the arrival of a payroll delivery truck. The threesome are at odds with each other from the start, and Ironside plans to work on the antagonism between them, but they are wise to his plans and will stop at nothing to get what they want.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  11. Ironside Season 7 Episode 22 - Riddle at 24,000
    8.4/10(68 votes)

    #11 - Riddle at 24,000

    S7:E22

    A man dies of a heart attack whilst flying his plane, but the town medical examiner, a charmingly eccentric Cuban doctor, is convinced that there was foul play. By chance Ironside and Ed are on their way to visit and soon become involved in his investigations; but between pregnant ducks and volatile banana cocktails they have their work cut out as never before.

    Director:Don Weis
    Writer:Lane Slate

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  12. Ironside Season 1 Episode 23 - Something for Nothing
    8.3/10(116 votes)

    #12 - Something for Nothing

    S1:E23

    A compulsive (and unlucky) gambler is in debt to a local mobster for $32,000. Ironside wants to put the mobster away, but only can if the gambler is prepared to turn state's evidence. The Chief has to persuade him to turn against the man who is offering him a way out of debt. (NB - The second episode to feature original song From The Day You're Born.)

    Director:Robert Butler
    Writer:Anthony Terpiloff

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  13. Ironside Season 2 Episode 9 - Reprise
    8.3/10(89 votes)

    #13 - Reprise

    S2:E9

    When Eve is injured during a shooting, the rest of the team recall their early encounters with her, and the Chief wonders if he was right ever to have encouraged her to join the force. Meanwhile, Ed worries over whether he wants to arrest Eve's attacker, or just kill the man outright.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  14. Ironside Season 6 Episode 4 - Down Two Roads
    8.3/10(71 votes)

    #14 - Down Two Roads

    S6:E4

    Mark's graduation from law school coincides with the arrest of a caretaker that he has befriended. Believing the man innocent, he finds the weight of the law stacked against him, and quickly becomes disillusioned with his new career. Should he turn his back on law altogether, though, or should he just find another way to devote himself to justice?

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  15. Ironside Season 1 Episode 11 - The Monster of Comus Towers
    8.2/10(119 votes)

    #15 - The Monster of Comus Towers

    S1:E11

    An ingenious art theft takes place at Comus Towers Art Museum, and a guard is murdered in the process. Chief Ironside takes the case, but another death is to follow; this time the proprietor of the museum, who is an old friend of the Chief's.

    Director:Don Weis
    Writer:Unknown

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  16. Ironside Season 3 Episode 14 - Dora
    8.2/10(76 votes)

    #16 - Dora

    S3:E14

    A fruit seller is threatened by a protection racket, who obtain false photographs of her lawyer son in an attempt to coerce her into letting them invest in her business on the docks. The racket has not reckoned on the tenacity of Dora and her son, however; or on her good friend Chief Ironside.

    Director:John Florea
    Writer:Unknown

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  17. Ironside Season 4 Episode 3 - The Happy Dreams of Hollow Men
    8.2/10(85 votes)

    #17 - The Happy Dreams of Hollow Men

    S4:E3

    The Chief travels into the mountains to spend the weekend with an old friend, only to be snowed in following a bad blizzard. Trapped in a small cabin, Ironside discovers that his friend is now an addict, violent and unpredictable without the fix he cannot get.

    Director:Don Weis
    Writer:Unknown

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  18. Ironside Season 4 Episode 10 - The Man on the Inside
    8.2/10(67 votes)

    #18 - The Man on the Inside

    S4:E10

    When a drug pusher is arrested following a spate of botched drug raids he fingers Ironside as a gang informer. Ed is press-ganged onto a team set up to investigate the Chief, which leads to conflict with Eve. Meanwhile Ironside himself seems to be taking the investigation very calmly, which leads to concern all round.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  19. Ironside Season 6 Episode 1 - Five Days in the Death of Sergeant Brown (I)
    8.2/10(86 votes)

    #19 - Five Days in the Death of Sergeant Brown (I)

    S6:E1

    The star witness to a major case, Ed is shot and seriously injured by a mystery assailant. Threatened with paralysis he conducts his own struggle from within his hospital bed, whilst the Chief tries to find out who is still trying to kill his prize pupil. Meanwhile Ed's best chance of recovery is an untested experimental operation performed by a surgeon whose integrity is very likely about to be put to the test. The crossover continues on The Bold Ones: The New Doctors S04E01 Five Days in the Death of Sgt. Brown (II).

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  20. Ironside Season 7 Episode 2 - Murder by One
    8.2/10(67 votes)

    #20 - Murder by One

    S7:E2

    The teenage son of a friend of Fran's appears to commit suicide, however the evidence seems to point in a number of different directions. Did he kill himself, or was it a murder made to look like suicide? Or, alternatively, was a suicide made to look like it could have been murder? The Chief has to unravel the story, but he has little real evidence to help him along.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  21. Ironside Season 7 Episode 20 - Close to the Heart
    8.2/10(50 votes)

    #21 - Close to the Heart

    S7:E20

    When a woman crashes her car into the Chief's van after suffering a minor heart attack, doctors discover a bullet lodged in her chest, where it has apparently been for several years. When she claims to have no knowledge of ever being shot, the Chief investigates, and soon links her case to that of an unsolved murder.

    Director:David Friedkin
    Writers:Pauline Stone, Michael Cosgrove

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  22. Ironside Season 8 Episode 13 - Fall of an Angel
    8.2/10(55 votes)

    #22 - Fall of an Angel

    S8:E13

    A retired assassin kills the son of a mob chief, and tries to escape town after anonymously leaving his own young son in the care of Chief Ironside. The Chief soon puts two and two together, and figures out who the boy is; but he still has to find the father, before a major league gangster out for revenge can get to him first.

    Director:Daniel Haller
    Writer:Unknown

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  23. Ironside Season 1 Episode 6 - The Taker
    8.1/10(129 votes)

    #23 - The Taker

    S1:E6

    A policeman known to Ironside for some years is shot dead whilst on an investigation. The evidence points to him being crooked, but the Chief is determined to prove otherwise.

    Director:Don Weis
    Writer:Winston Miller

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  24. Ironside Season 1 Episode 17 - Force of Arms
    8.1/10(98 votes)

    #24 - Force of Arms

    S1:E17

    A local businessman sets up an organized vigilante force to try to clean up San Francisco. When a key member is murdered, it becomes clear that the "Second Force" has got severely out of hand.

    Director:Anton Leader
    Writers:Warren Duff, Ivan Goff

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  25. Ironside Season 2 Episode 2 - Split Second to an Epitaph
    8.1/10(104 votes)

    #25 - Split Second to an Epitaph

    S2:E2

    Ironside is the only witness to a murder, but has to go into hospital for exploratory surgery immediately after the events that he witnessed. The murderer is determined that he should not leave hospital alive, and as the Chief deals with the possibility of maybe one day being able to walk again, his presence in the hospital helps various other citizens right wrongs in their lives. Meanwhile Ed, Eve and Mark deal with their own worries and fears for the Chief as the murder attempts escalate.

    Director:Leonard Horn
    Writer:Don Mankiewicz

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Best Episodes Summary

"One Hour to Kill" is the best rated episode of "Ironside". It scored 8.6/10 based on 91 votes. Directed by Richard Benedict and written by Unknown, it aired on 2/26/1970. This episode scored 0.0 points higher than the second highest rated, "Gentle Oaks".