Disability Happens ™

by Joe Posner

The 1960s were a time of great change. With the civil rights movement, student unrest/the antiwar movement and a focus on women’s rights, everything in America seemed to be in flux. Into the mix, Hollywood, on television, offered both old and new presentations of the disabled.

Representing the old was “The Fugitive,” conceived by Roy Huggins, which ran from 1963 to 1967 on ABC. It starred David Janssen, in the title role, as Dr. Richard Kimble, a doctor on the run for a murder he didn’t commit. It costarred Barry Morse as Lt. Philip Gerard, the cop determined to capture Kimble/Janssen and bring him to death row.

Kimble was a well respected Indiana doctor who came home one night to see a one-armed man running from his home. Entering his house, Kimble found his wife slaughtered. Although Kimble asserted his innocence, claiming the missing disabled man did the crime, he was found guilty of murder by a jury.

In a train on the way to death row, there was a derailment, allowing Kimble/Janssen to escape. On the run, Kimble had a mission: remain free long enough to find the one-armed man and bring him to justice, which would(hopefully) free Kimble from his pending death sentence.

The one-armed man (Fred Johnson, as played by Bill Raisch) was stocky, unattractive and scary. Although only appearing in nine episodes of the series, his spooky presence hung over the entire series. A dangerous drifter with near superhuman powers, it looked like the Johnson/Raisch character was going to set back the public’s image of the disabled by decades!

All that was to change on March 28, 1967, during the final season of “The Fugitive,” when “Ironside” debuted on NBC. “Ironside,” created by Collier Young, featured Raymond Burr in the title role, as well as Don Galloway (Sgt. Ed Brown), Barbara Anderson (Eve Whitfield) and Don Mitchell (Mark Sanger). For the fourth season, Elizabeth Baur (Fran Belding) replaced Whitfield/Anderson, who had left the show for happier hunting grounds.

In the debut episode, Robert T. Ironside(Burr), San Francisco’s Chief of Detectives, was felled by a sniper’s bullet. Relegated to a wheelchair, since he was now a paraplegic, Ironside retired from active duty with the police department, having taken on the new job of Special Department Consultant.

Because he liked to be where the action was, Ironside now occupied a floor at Police H.Q., for office and living space. He also had a special police van, which had been modified to be wheelchair friendly. Later in the series, he had a better van that Ironside could drive himself!

Aided greatly by Burr’s dynamic and commanding presence, Ironside, using brain not muscle power, was a figure to be respected, not pitied. Although he initially had to be pushed around by bodyguard Sanger/Mitchell, Ironside was eventually self-propelled via an electric wheelchair.

Ironside was even something of a sex symbol, a first for TV’s disabled. On occasion, Ironside/Burr had time for romance with some of San Francisco’s classy, sexy and sophisticated ladies!

Category : Television