Ironside (TV Series) Who'll Cry for My Baby (1972) User Reviews

Low Priority

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 13 December 2013]

From my former job at Crime Victims Board I can tell you just how low a priority hooker killings are. Even the Ironside squad wouldn't waste time on them. Except that the girl's father comes to visit Raymond Burr and when he puts a face and a name on the girl he becomes interested. And when the Chief is interested the others have to follow.

We see flashbacks of her at every place Burr visits checking out her friends and associates. Tisha Sterling shows us many different faces, from the hardboiled girl who stands up to pimp Don Pedro Colley, to the woman who reads borrowed Anna Karenina from bookstore owner Charles McGraw, to the one who gives down and out wino Val Bisoglio a cup of coffee. More in that line than others do we show different faces to different people.

In the end the case is solved and all I can say is that this kind of hazard also comes with the territory.

Cool theme in an episode with Richard Donner as Director

[TopekaBob · 9/10 · 28 February 2022]

Very good Ironside episode for a number of reasons.

First, Richard Donner directs. Donner would go on to direct major films like The Omen, the Lethal Weapon series, and even Goonies! You can tell a real pro is directing this. Watch the chase scene that involves Ed and Reese chasing Ted Cassidy (yes, THAT Ted Cassidy. AKA Lurch from Addams Family). A lot of cool and exciting camera shots for a scene that isn't that important in the totality of the episode. Also, the flashback scenes are also well done, as Ironside looks around and then the scene transitions to him watching the deceased character interact with people. There's more care put in the camera and actor positioning and cinematography in this TV episode than a lot of feature films I've seen.

The second reason to like this episode is theme: Ironside investigates a murder of a woman that nobody cares about as she's a "loser," a "hooker." He investigates because of that, to make the point that every human has some value. A similar plot is going to show up in 1982 in an episode of MASH, where Hawkeye has to write the eulogy of a woman who nobody ever got to know, and he doesn't "solve" the riddle of her life until he finds her diary. If that MASH episode was an hour they could have easily done the Flashback technique of Ironside. Speaking of MASH, you'll recognize the wino as the cook from MASH!

Finally we get a bonus in seeing Ted Cassidy, Lurch from The Addams Family. Cassidy was not just a giant, but a gifted actor, especially voice actor! And he more than fulfills our Ironside/Star Trek connection: He appeared in three classic episodes of the original Star Trek. He was the voice of the Gorn and the voice of Balok's puppet and also played Ruk, the giant in the episode where Kirk is cloned!

There's a song with a vocal in this one!

[ed-ryba · 19 July 2017]

There's something very cool for Credits Readers (like myself) about Season 6 of Ironside. Besides the great Raymond Burr (who is in the cast of ALL of them, seeing as how HE'S "Ironside"), the ones from around this season have some pretty good songs in them. Songs, whether good or bad, don't just come out of nowhere. Someone has to write them! And if you ever noticed the writers of the songs in Season 6 (or even if you haven't) they were mostly written by Marty Paich and David Paich. "So what?" You say. Well, if you pay attention to stuff like that, you'd know that the Paich Brothers were the major creative force behind the band "Toto"! Ever hear "Hold The Line" or "Roseanna" or "Africa" for example? Those were major HITS, recorded by the Toto! In the 1980's and 1990's, Toto came up with a string of hit records, and Radio played them. A LOT! I should know, since I was a Radio. Personality when those songs came out, and at the stations where I worked, we got TONS of requests for Toto's songs. And if YOU were one of those people who paid attention to where the folks who made the tunes they really liked came from, you already knew that Toto was formed from several Studio Musicians who just happened to write GREAT songs - including the Paich Brothers!

Kids grow up

[amorehl · 9/10 · 14 July 2023]

Tito Vandis plays a sympathetic father and Raymond Burr plays a sympathetic police chief. It's easy to shrug off his daughter's death because she was a hooker, but their performance reminds us that she was a person too, with a parent who loved her. Granted, many parents do a lousy job, but many do their best; however, ultimately, kids develop into their own person, with their own ideas, who go their own way. It can be highly frustrating, remembering them as bright-eyed children who were happy, who loved us, and relied upon us. But that stage passes all too quickly. The title pretty much says it all: "Who'll Cry for My Baby." Of note is Barbara Bosson in an uncredited part as another prostitute. She came to most people's attention in 1981 as the ex-Mrs. Chief Frank Furillo on Hill Street Blues (& as the real Mrs. Steven Bochco). In another uncredited part was Anne Seymour as Mother Carrie. She had a nice scene with Burr as an ex-madam.