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| | Introduction |  | This section is devoted to a reproduction of the contents of the 1974-75 Syndication Guide for “Ironside”.
Issued by MCA, this seventy-page, 165 mm x 190 mm (6½" x 7½") booklet—enclosed within a glossy-card cover—was presumably issued to those TV stations that bought the series, to enable them to include episode information in their TV listings. (At least, this is what the text on the cover suggests, anyway…)
The booklet would appear to have been produced some time after the completion of the show's seventh season in the spring of 1974, but before work had been completed on its eighth; while the details of the episodes produced between 1967 and 1974 are bound within the body of the booklet, the information for the episodes of the final year are on loose leaves, held inside a pocket on the back cover.
There are some other points of interest...
The series’ name on the front and inside cover appears on an adhesive sticker. Beneath it can be seen the words, “The Raymond Burr Show”, in the same style and colour of type. This was the name given to the series' reruns, at the time it was still in production—presumably so that viewers would be able to discern between old and new episodes (The reruns even had a different—and somewhat crudely executed—title sequence). Presumably, the sticker was added to the booklet after the series had been cancelled, and no new episodes were in production.
Although the booklet contains information on all the regular series episodes and feature-length stories, it does not include the pilot film or “Priest-Killer”.
Included with each episode description is its production number, and the stories are listed in that order—which varies considerably from the order in which the stories were filmed and broadcast.
It's also interesting to note that the plot descriptions for the eighth season episodes vary in a number of aspects from the stories that were broadcast, suggesting these synopses were written while the final segments were still being filmed and, therefore, represent early versions of them…
My original intention for the booklet was to incorporate the information it contained within my own episode guide.
I found, however, that many of the synopses are crudely written, difficult to read, and contain the odd inaccuracy here and there (characters are sometime referred to by the name of the actor, and vice versa). In the end, I decided to add it in its entirety, in a section of its own. I was even going to include the numerous spelling errors, but decided against this. Although one or two of my own may have crept in…
In determining the layout, I have stayed as faithful to the original presentation as possible. This has created some unpleasant line breaks in the guest cast listings, which I may decide to eliminate. I have retained the peculiar, shifting order of the Chief’s co-stars, however.
One significant change I have made is to divide the episodes into their appropriate seasons. In the booklet, the stories were presented as a single mass, with one season running into the next.
Finally…
This section represents almost twelve months of work on my part: purchasing the booklet at auction to begin with, scanning the pages, designing the page format, squaring, cropping, resizing and enhancing the images, transcribing the text, proofreading…
All that I have left to do is say…
ENJOY!
| | Mark
July 31st, 2005 |
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