"Emergency" was a bit of a departure from the medical shows I'd seen before. And I'd seen many; my parents were a doctor and a nurse, and they loved "Marcus Welby", "Medical Center" and such shows. But "Emergency" got me hooked as it featured much more action than those other medical dramas. Exciting rescues from burning buildings, car crashes, plane crashes, explosions, all those crises that appeal to the attentions of a kid. The show also had quite a few humorous touches, from the interactions between the staff at Station 51 to the odd 'rescues' the guys would sometimes be summoned to.
Of course, much of the credit for the show's success and appeal was due to the strong cast. Centered generally around paramedics John Gage (played by Randolph Mantooth) and Roy DeSoto (Kevin Tighe), along with the rest of the crew of their station ( among them fireman Chet Kelly , a frequent source of comic subplots). Additionally, the show prominently featured events at Rampart General Hospital, led by Dr. Kelly Brackett (Robert Fuller), Dr. Joe Early (Bobby Troup) and head nurse Dixie McCall (played by Troup's real-life wife, Julie London). The rapport between paramedics Gage (single, and often with some scheme in mind) and DeSoto (married, and more levelheaded) was
evident , and presaged the "buddy flicks" that came soon after.
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| "Emergency!" lunchbox |
"Emergency"s blend of action, drama and humor made it popular enough to become a Saturday night fixture for much of the decade. No small feat, as it was scheduled against perennial ratings winner "All in the Family". Indeed, the show was sufficiently popular to inspire an animated Saturday morning version, "Emergency Plus 4". I watched both shows faithfully, eager to see what disaster would be encountered cach week.
A few favorite episodes featured:
Gage being bitten by a rattlesnake while on a rescue
An explosion and fire at Rampart Hospital
A thankful patient rewarding the crew of Station 51 with a sackful of cash, which they weren't supposed to accept
Finally: the show had one of the coolest openings on television:
Any other fans of the show out there? "Squad 51, KMG365, over"...
13 comments:
Geez, I used to love this show so much in the first and second grades - along with Hawaii 5-O, this was must-see TV for me. I even had an Emergency! lunchbox.
I loved the camaraderie between John and Roy and the other firefigthers, and Fuller as the hospital physician really sticks out in my memory in particular - he was so authoritative and Spock-like. Also, watching the title sequence that you linked, it's interesting that the hospital staff appears in the credits first, even though the show mainly focused on the two paramedics and the goings-on at the fire station.
I remember when I was a kid that I really liked the show "Emergency", but unfortunately it aired directly across from "Wonder Woman", and back in the day there were no VCRs or DVRs to record things. If I had to choose I would always pick to watch Wonder Woman (I had a huge crush on Lynda Carter), but my older sister liked Emergency because of the "cute guys" on the show. Well, also back in the day we only had one TV (yes it was truly the dark ages). So, my mother would make us alternate weeks in which we could watch our respective shows. One week I got to watch WW, and the next week my sister got to watch Emergency.
Then came the day that there was a 2-part episode of WW coming on. It was the one where Wonder Woman's sister (played by a young Debra Winger) came to visit her. So I begged my sister to let me watch WW 2 weeks in a row, and then I would let her watch Emergency 2 weeks in a row. But she refused to do it no matter how much I pleaded. So she got her way (of course) and I missed the first part of the 2-parter. I eventually got to see it at some later date, but it just wasn't the same.
So, I kind of have bitter sweet feelings toward the show "Emergency". LOL
I loved this show too as a kid. My friend and I used to play Emergency on our tricycles (I think I was John and he was Roy ... or maybe it was the other way around). I think the show was in syndication when I watched it, because I seem to remember it being on every afternoon at 5:00. (Up here in Canada, we only had two channels back then, and Emergency was on one of them!)
I don't remember too many episodes (and the ones you mentioned don't ring a bell, Redartz), but a couple of things stand out: a guy falling down from a Ferris wheel and getting stuck in the spokes; Roy going around the back of someone's house to try to get in and being knocked into the swimming pool by a big German Shepherd; and a really graphic (for the time) accident scene where it looked like one victim was bleeding out of his eyes!
Mike Wilson
Mike W. - we used to play Emergency also. I remember having a red tackle box that was filled with a plastic stethoscope and fake blood pressure pump. We'd crash our bikes and then run over and play paramedic. The show was fairly family friendly and different than the modern medical and trauma shows.
I liked how the show blended humor and a real crisis. I remember one episode where a kid got his finger caught in a gumball machine. And another where there was an impromptu car race on a canyon road that led to some vehicle going over a cliff.
I read once that the cast went through paramedic training to make it as real as possible when it came to the rescue techniques and the terminology used.
William - that is a great story. I am trying to recall on what channel I saw EMERGENCY! but it must have been in syndication after school. I recall a different opening to the show than the one Redartz shared. I recall the trucks coming out of the fire house in response to a call at the beginning.
I don't recall much about the acting and characters - although I remember liking Chet because he was always doing something goofy at the firehouse - but I distinctly remember thinking that EMERGENCY! was so much better than CHiPs though in a lot of ways it followed the same format.
Edo- I know what you mean about Fuller's character having an air of authority. Indeed, he reminded me a little of my father (although Dad wasn't anywhere near that intense!
William- your ambivalence is understandable. Lynda Carter would make it a tough call...
Mike W.- your episodes don't ring a bell with me either! We must have watched alternating shows. The Ferris Wheel incident you describe sounds very cool...
And the 'bleeding eyes '- yes, "Emergency" was more free with blood than previous medical shows. But not, as Martinex1 noted, as free as today's programs. My wife and I watch "Code Black", and often must avert our eyes from the gore...
Marti- your take on the show's advantage over "CHiPs" is mine also. That show seemed to play off the star power of it's co-stars, and less on the drama.
I don't think the show ever made it to the UK.
But the lunch box is awesome.
Yep, we watched it fairly regularly, too. It was one of those shows where you could just drop into it w/out worrying about having missed too much. REALLY appreciated the injection of some easy humor (or at least lighter tone) into the program. SOMEONE finally convinced Jack Webb that a bit of laughter in a procedural show wasn't going to be a bad thing-- god bless them!
It went into syndication before it had finished its original run (which happened with several shows, in fact), so to differentiate, the early-evening re-runs were called EMERGENCY 51 on our local station.
It's also popping up a lot lately on one of our MeTV/AntennaTV stations, and I've caught several of the episodes cited above whilst making dinner. Honestly, I think Mantooth and Tighe are better actors than I gave them credit for at the time-- especially in a show that didn't rely on being character-driven at all.
Fuller was darned awesome as Dr Brackett!! And only recently I discovered that he was the leading-man type on a couple of TV Western shows earlier on (Wagon Train, possibly?). GREAT voice. It's so easy to miss that on this show. . .
HB
William - having just watched an episode online my wife confirms that the guys were indeed "cute".
Let's hope future UK reruns on the 'Gold' TV channel don't run against reruns of Wonder Woman on 'Gold 2'.
There could be trouble.
@Redartz: As far as I can tell, the Ferris wheel episode is this one.
(I also found it on imdb and my memory was a bit off; apparently some old guy was having chest pains on the Ferris wheel and a younger guy climbed out of his own seat to help, and the young guy is the one who fell into the spokes.)
Mike Wilson
Thanks for the info, Mike W.! Now I can hunt it down on Netflix...
HB- I love "Dragnet", but your comment about humor made me think of ol' Joe Friday. About as straight laced as you can get. "Just the facts, Maam"
Oh golly-- Dragnet might well be a whole 'nother post all its own-! The whole shared-universe of Jack Webb's shows has a kind of built-in appeal to comics folks, doesn't it? Dragnet (2nd TV incarnation) begat Adam-12, and Adam-12 begat Emergency, and Emergency almost begat some awful show about the LA Animal Control squad. . .
Although you didn't see the influence in Adam-12 so much ('cause both cops were such straight-laced, hero-types-- the contrast always being more rookie/veteran), I think Harry Morgan's influence (as Bill Gannon) on Jack Webb in the 1967 series may be what made Webb consider the benefits of having main characters with some amusing quirks. Morgan, in his deadpan, underplayed way, cannot help being funny on-screen-- and you can kind of see Producer Jack Webb surrender to that fact pretty early on.
Man, soooo many of those perilous-heights rescues--- if I dwell on them too long, I get that icy acrophobic reaction at the base of my spine. Ohhhhhh, the one where a poor adolescent kid with epilepsy climbed out on a huge transfer conduit up high in a quarry or something? On a dare? And then froze? And had a seizure once Roy got ahold of him, knocking them both over the side??
Great. Now I'm gonna have bad dreams. . .
HB
In those days of only three (maybe four stations) I watched Emergency a lot. Enjoyed it quite a bit. But what I most remember about the series is the Charlton comic book series which was spun off it. They did both a color and a black and white version. The color featured artwork by Joe Staton and John Byrne among others and the black white was done by Neal Adams Continuity Associates studio. The stories were legit and the artwork was outstanding.
Rip Off
Hm, reading some of the comments, I now realize why I pretty much stopped watching Emergency! after about the 2nd grade: it was aired at the same time as Wonder Woman, which took precedence. And no, it had little to do with Lynda Carter's, erm, attributes (c'mon, I was only about 8 at the time), and everything to do with the fact that it was a superhero show. However, I became all too aware of Carter's charms watching the syndicated reruns a few years later...
Martinex, totally agree about CHiPs - it was just a pale imitation of Emergency! in many ways. Never liked that show much, I think I only ever watched about 3 or 4 episodes of it ever (one of them guest-starring Leif Garrett of all people).
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