Once in Los Angeles, Ironside landed a leading role as Ham Tyler in NBC's miniseries "V: The Final Battle" (1984) and subsequent "V: The Series" (1984-85), after which he pursued his film career, working with distinguished directors like John Schlesinger ("The Falcon and the Snowman", 1985), Walter Hill ("Extreme Prejudice", 1987), and Paul Verhoeven ("Total Recall", 1990). Ironside segued to screenwriting and producing with the Canadian feature "Chaindance" (1991) and followed up with roles as the evil park owner in "Free Willy" (1993) and the baddie opposing Pat Morita in "The Next Karate Kid" (1994). He created the character of Dr. William Swift who shows up periodically on NBC's "ER" and joined the cast of "seaQuest DSV" (NBC) as a regular for its 1994-95 season. Ironside reteamed with Verhoeven to play a schoolteacher who joins in the fight against invading insects in "Starship Troopers" (1997).