Forgotten Gems of the 70's: Emergency!

Welcome back suckahs to Day 2 of Forgotten Gems of the 70's Week.   Boy, I can drag out a weekly title, can't I?     Well we are back in Los Angeles again but this time around we won't be following flatfoots or plain clothes detectives.  We instead will be keeping up with the Los Angeles County Fire Department's Squad 51.   With creator/writer Harold Jack Bloom (The Naked Spur, You Only Live Twice, Dante, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and 12 O'Clock High) and producer/actor Jack Webb (Joe Friday of Dragnet, 77 Sunset Strip, Dragnet 1967, Adam-12 and Sam) along with producer Robert A. Cinader (Dragnet 1967, Adam-12, Escape, Chase, The Specialists, The Seekers, Quincy M.E. and Knight Rider) came a TV series combining the drama of a medical show and enough action to rival most cop shows.  This is Emergency!

Well, don't stick that in your ear next time.

Dr. Brackett: Get outta here, you hosespoiler!









A shift's LACoFD collection of firemen/paramedics work hand in hand with each other in order to save lives, prevent death and property damage, private or public and it is a helluva task.  Parmedics/Firemen John Gage (veteran TV actor Randolph Mantooth of The Bold Ones: The Senator, Vanished, Adam-12, Emergency + 4, Operation Petticoat, Agent Red and As the World Turns) Roy DeSoto (Kevin Tighe of Emergency + 4, Sierra, K-9, Road House, Another 48 Hrs., Newies, A Man in Uniform and Rose Red) work tirelessly to co-ordinate with firefighters Chet Kelly (Tim Donnelly of Dragnet 1967, Adam-12, Project U.F.O., The Clonus Horror, The Death of Ocean View Park,  The Toolbox Murders and The A-Team) Captain Hank Stanley (Writer/actor Michael Norell of Emergency!, Sex and the Married Woman, Three on a Date, Featherstone's Nest, Long Gone, The Incident, Doomsday Rock and Nash Bridges) Mike Stoker (Real LAoFD firefighter Mike Stoker).
 
Trained firefighters attending first aid and care for sick and injured victims on the scene of an accident all the while the instructions of care, medical procedures where be shouted across CBs to ER department Rampart Hospital with main physician Dr. Kelly Brackett (Robert Fuller of The Big Valley, What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice?, The Hard Ride, The Gatling Gun, Megaforce, Bonanza: The Next Generation, Repossessed, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. and Walker, Texas Ranger) , M. D. Joe Early (Bobby Troup of Bob Girl Goes Calypso, The Five Pennies, The Gene Krupa Story, Banning, Number One and Mannix) and Resident Nurse Dixie McCall (Julie London of Saddle the Wind, Man of the West, The Barbara Stanwyck Show, The George Raft Story, Follow the Sun and The Eleventh Hour)

HONEY, I HAVE NO IDEA WHEN I WILL BE HOME!!!

A few comments and compliments on the show now.  With seven seasons under their belt this show got placed mid-season in January 15, 1972 and had ran until May 28, 1977 along with six two-hour movies during the last two years.  With Jack Webb and Robert A. Cinader both meticulous in detail and fine print, most of the actors had to sit-in paramedic classes and ride-alongs with the LACoFD to get a feel for the nerve wracking insanity that was the theme of this show.  Unlike Dragnet and Adam-12 which were bother half-hour shows this series ran a full-hour and even managed to work in the 1971 earthquake that demolished the Olive View Medical Center in San Fernando Valley as well as the 1973 Crenshaw Fire in Palos Verdes.

Using the proper equipment, terminology and procedures of the time, the credibility to the show along with showing the reality of firefighting isn't a quick couple of blasts from a hydrant and that's lunch gave the show the proper scope that was needed and kept people interested with the various accidents and events each week.  With good exterior shots of the 127 Station in Carson California and the Harbor General Hospital Universal sound stages took care of interior scenes rather nicely.  

The National History Museum in the Smithsonian Institution has various helmets, turnouts, biophone and even a defibrillator from the memorabilia of Emergency!   Not too shabby.

Prep the clown pants, Steve! We're losing him!