Emergency!
1 9 7 2 - 1 9 7 7 (USA)
168 x 50 minute episodes
Emergency! followed the everyday events of
Squad 51 of the Los Angeles County Fire Dept's Paramedic Rescue
Service. Paramedics Roy DeSoto and John Gage were the stars and these
two Rescue Squad heroes were always first on the scene. They would
pop open the "Trauma Box" and radio the casualties details and vital
signs through to the emergency staff at Rampart General Hospital, who
provided the backup assistance the two Fire Officers needed.
Each episode showed several incidents,
some humorous, some tragic (just like a real shift with the Rescue
Squad). A typical day's work might include; helping an overweight
woman who was having trouble breathing because her girdle was too
tight; helping a maintenance worker who had broken his back in a
100-foot-fall; saving children trapped in an abandoned building when a
wrecking crew began demolishing it; or rescuing a woman parachutist
who was stuck in a tree . . .
Former band leader Bobby Troup, who played surgeon Joe
Early, was married to Julie London, who played Nurse McCall, in real
life. She had previously been married to producer Jack Webb.
Although Emergency! ended its run as a series in 1977,
although special two-hour movie versions were periodically aired during 1978.
24 x 22 minute episodes of an animated Saturday morning spin-off of the show titled Emergency
+ 4, aired on NBC from September 1973 to September 1976.
In the cartoon, firefighters Roy and John were assisted by four kids,
a dog, a monkey and a mynah bird!
TRIVIA NOTES
Squad 51's mascot was a dog named Boots. The original engine used
on the show was an open-cab Crown. However, in 1973 Ward LaFrance
delivered a new pumper to the show's producers in New York. Two
technical consultants, a spokesman from the LA County Fire Department
and fireman Mike Stoker (who drove the engine on the show) then took
the new truck on a cross-country tour, stopping in various cities
along the way before delivering it to Emergency! producers on
the West Coast.
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