Emergency!

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Image:Emergency-dvd.jpg Emergency! was an American television series which ran from January 1972 to 1979 on NBC. It was produced by Jack Webb and co-produced and created by Robert A. Cinader.

The series followed the Paramedic Program of the Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACoFD) with the focus on the personnel of Fire Station 51, in particular paramedics Johnny Gage (played by Randolph Mantooth) and Roy DeSoto (played by Kevin Tighe). The paramedics coordinated with the staff of Rampart General Hospital: Dr. Kelly Brackett (Robert Fuller), Dr. Joe Early (Bobby Troup), and chief nurse Dixie McCall RN (Julie London).

Other regular characters included: Captain Dick Hammer (first season alternately portrayed by Dick Hammer and John Smith), Firefighter engineer Mike Stoker (who, in real life was a Los Angeles County firefighter). Chet Kelly (Tim Donnelly), Marco Lopez (uses his real name), Captain Hank Stanley (Michael Norell) (seasons two through seven), Dr. Michael Morton (Ron Pinkard) (in the pilot episode, his character is "Dr. Tom Gray"), and Dispatcher (uncredited Sam Lanier).

Other occasional regulars included Battalion Chiefs Conrad (Art Balinger) and McConike (William Boyett), and Los Angeles County Sherrif's Deputy Vince (Vince Howard)

While Troup and London were married in real life, the character of McCall was written to be a love interest for Brackett. Further muddying the picture, before marrying Troup in 1959, she had been married to Webb from 1947 to 1953. That divorce must have been amicable, as Webb had repeatedly hired Troup for roles on Dragnet and Adam-12.

The show highlighted the adventures of the still fledgling paramedic program and its popularity encouraged various communities in North America to establish and improve emergency services as hiring paramedics. The show was also credited for demonstrating first aid techniques that enabled some viewers to save lives in real emergencies. However, the show later had to add a disclaimer, stating that the first aid techniques demonstrated should only be performed by trained persons.

The series spun-off an animated version called Emergency +4 (featuring four teenagers who participated in adventures with the paramedics) which ran from 1973 to 1976. The series itself was considered a spin-off of an earlier Jack Webb series, Adam-12. Strangely, the characters in Adam-12 appear in one episode, while another episode had a subplot in which one of the paramedics watched Adam-12 as a television show. Further complicating things, is the fact that the Los Angeles County Fire Department does not serve the City of Los Angeles, it makes the spin-off somewhat factually dubious, which is not typical of Jack Webb productions.

Charlton Comics published several issues of an Emergency! comic book in the mid-1970s.

When the program was first syndicated it went by the title Emergency One. Renaming programs for syndication was commonplace until the 1980s. It is rarely seen today since the series is now owned by the Jack Webb Estate.

Universal Studios (the series' original distributor) has so far issued domestic DVD editions of the series' first two seasons. The North American DVD release date for season 1 was August 23, 2005. The North American DVD release date for season 2 was February 7, 2006.

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Trivia

The station used in the series is actually Los Angeles County Station 127 in Carson, California. The fire station is located off the San Diego Freeway near Alameda Street. It was chosen for its natural lighting and was later named in honor of Robert A. Cinader.
In 1994, the L.A. County Fire Department officially changed the designation of the fire station located on the grounds of Universal Studios to Station 51. It houses a three-person engine, and a two-person paramedic unit. The radio call sign of the paramedic unit is indeed Squad 51.
Rampart General Hospital is actually Los Angeles County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, located in Torrance, California at 1000 West Carson Street, the intersection of Vermont Avenue and Carson Street. At the time of most of the filming it was known as Harbor General Hospital, as the name change was approved by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in 1978. [1]
Gage and DeSoto, the main characters used in this series, are actual names of two Los Angeles streets: Gage Avenue is located in South Los Angeles, and DeSoto Avenue is a street in the San Fernando Valley.
The character "John Gage" was named for James O. Page, a LACoFD battalion chief in charge of development of the paramedic rescue squads who was a technical advisor to Webb and Cinader. Page went on to become a lawyer and publisher of the Journal of Emergency Medical Services. He died of a heart attack while swimming in 2004 at age 68.
The Squad 51 vehicle is a 1972 Dodge utility body, which was supplied to Universal Studios for use on the program and had its rear section built according to LACoFD blueprints by Universal. After the end of the series in 1978, the unit was given to the LACoFD and was used occasionally as a reserve unit. In 1999 it was donated to the County of Los Angeles Fire Museum Association, from the LACoFD, and was restored by the museum. The museum also is home to a 1965 Crown Firecoach which was used in the series. [2]
Engine 51 during the first two seasons was a 1965 Crown Firecoach. Universal Studios used Engine 127 for the indoor shots and Engine 60 for the outdoor. The second engine was a 1973 Ward LaFrance P80 Ambassador which is still in service at Yosemite National park.
Dick Hammer (first season captain) and Mike Stoker were actual Los Angeles County firefighters. Hammer died in 1999 and Stoker retired with the rank of Captain.
Sam Lanier was an actual Los Angeles County Fire Department dispatcher.