Emergency!

For other uses, see Emergency! (disambiguation).

Emergency!
Emergency! title screen
Created by	Robert A. Cinader Harold Jack Bloom Jack Webb
Starring	Robert Fuller Julie London Bobby Troup Randolph Mantooth Kevin Tighe Tim Donnelly Mike Stoker Marco Lopez Michael Norell Ron Pinkard
Theme music composer	Nelson Riddle
Composers	Nelson Riddle Billy May (incidental music)
No. of seasons	6
No. of episodes	129 (including 6 TV movies) (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Jack Webb Robert A. Cinader Hannah Louise Shearer
Producers	Robert A. Cinader Edwin Self William Stark
Editors	Richard Belding supervisor and others
Running time	approx. 50 minutes
Original release
Network	NBC
Release	January 15, 1972 – May 28, 1977
Related
Sierra Adam-12

Emergency! is an American television series that combines the medical drama and action-adventure genres. It was produced by Mark VII Limited and distributed by Universal Studios. It debuted as a midseason replacement on January 15, 1972, on NBC, replacing the two short-lived series The Partners and The Good Life, and ran until May 28, 1977, with six additional two-hour television films during the following two years. Emergency! was created and produced by Jack Webb and Robert A. Cinader, both of whom were also responsible for the police dramas Adam-12 and Dragnet.

Nearly 30 years after Emergency! debuted, the Smithsonian Institute accepted Emergency! memorabilia into its Natural History Museum.

Central characters and core format

The show focuses on paramedics John Gage and Roy DeSoto (played by Randolph Mantooth and Kevin Tighe respectively) of the Los Angeles County Fire Department's Squad 51 based out of Station 51 in Carson (Actually LACoFD Station 127), and Rampart General Hospital emergency room headed by chief staff physician/surgeon Dr. Kelly Brackett and Head Nurse Dixie McCall, worked with physician/surgeon Dr. Joe Early and young intern Dr. Mike Morton (played by Robert Fuller, Julie London, Bobby Troup and Ron Pinkard) with whom the paramedics work to save lives. The Squad crew was stationed with LACoFD Engine Company 51 who often responded with them. The show, which portrayed dedicated civil servants who handled two or three varied and unrelated incidents during a typical shift, often showed real-life medical and firefighting procedures. It was also the first show to show paramedics who help rescue people injured or in peril.

Broadcast history

See also: List of Emergency! episodes

Never a Top 30 series, Emergency! still garnered a loyal audience and enjoyed a six-season run before its cancellation in 1977. The show spawned six "Movie of the Weeks" during the next two years. Three of the TV movies show the two paramedic characters traveling to Seattle (April 1978) and San Francisco (both in mid-1979) for EMS conventions. While in both cities, they end up assisting the local agencies (Seattle's Medic One and San Francisco's Rescue-2) with several rescues. The others were "The Steel Inferno", which dealt with a high-rise blaze (the final episode featuring most of the series cast), "Survival on Charter #220", in which two airplanes crash over a residential neighborhood—at the time it was reportedly the most expensive TV-movie ever made), and the "Greatest Rescues On Emergency!", consisting mainly of clips from previous episodes, in which the firefighter/paramedics are both promoted to captain. Series stars London, Troup (who were husband and wife), Mantooth and Tighe appeared in all the episodes of the series, throughout its run; Fuller appeared in all but one episode. Years after the cancellation of the series, it was sold into syndication on TV Land, RTV and MeTV.

Music

Composer Nelson Riddle wrote the series' theme song and scored the first two seasons, with Billy May taking over the scoring duties in the third season.

Overview

See also: List of Emergency! characters

Cast

Fire Station 51

The series follows the early years of the paramedic program in the Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACoFD) with the focus on the personnel of Fire Station 51 A Shift, in particular of young firemen/paramedics John Gage (Randolph Mantooth) and Roy DeSoto (Kevin Tighe). The paramedics coordinate with the Emergency Room (ER) staff of Rampart General Hospital: head physician Dr. Kelly Brackett (Robert Fuller), head nurse Dixie McCall (Julie London), neurosurgeon Dr. Joe Early (played by Julie's real-life husband Bobby Troup), and young intern Dr. Mike Morton (Ron Pinkard).

Other regular characters

The crew of Engine 51 was Chester "Chet" Kelly (Tim Donnelly), Marco Lopez (Marco Lopez, an actor using his real name), Mike Stoker (LACoFD firefighter Mike Stoker as himself), Captain Dick Hammer (LACoFD Captain Richard Hammer as himself; later, John Smith, first season), Captain Henry "Hank" Stanley (Michael Norell, during the remaining seasons. 51s C shift Captain Gene "Captain Hook" Hookrader also led A shift in couple of later episodes). LACoFD Dispatcher Sam Lanier portrayed himself in an uncredited voice role (over the radio) throughout the series, and he is also occasionally shown in a brief clip at the dispatch office just before a dispatch is heard in later seasons.

Lopez spoke Spanish, and occasionally translated for the crew when a victim or onlooker spoke Spanish but no English. Lopez had done this occasionally on Dragnet as well.

Other recurring characters included Battalion Chiefs Conrad (Art Balinger), Sorensen (Art Gilmore), Miller, and McConnike (William Boyett), Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Vince (Vince Howard), and recurring ambulance attendants Albert "Al" (Angelo DeMeo) and his assistant, George (George Orrison). Boyett was also a regular on Adam-12, playing Sergeant MacDonald.

Series format

Where Webb's Dragnet typically followed a pair of detectives investigating a single crime or a series of related crimes, Emergency! much more resembled Adam-12, typically following the firemen and paramedics of Station 51, and the Emergency Room staff of Rampart General Hospital, through a series of incidents, some of which advance one or more overall plot threads that serve to unify the episode, and others of which are completely unrelated. Usually, the very first incident or its aftermath will begin the overall plot. Most episodes included at least one incident included strictly for comic relief, which usually involved someone or something humorously trapped in a basically harmless manner, yet which requires intervention by the crew of Station 51 and/or Rampart Hospital. Episodes frequently concluded with a spectacular fire or rescue taking up the entire final act, with the overall plot usually concluding in concurrence with the final incident in some way.

Where Dragnet and Adam-12 were half-hour shows, Emergency!, because of the greater scope of its format, was a full-hour series.

Actual local disasters were worked into some story lines, such as the 1971 Sylmar earthquake which destroyed the newly completed Olive View Medical Center in the San Fernando Valley; and the 1973 "Crenshaw Fire" brush fire on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

Fire apparatus, equipment, stations and personnel

The creators of Emergency! tried to accurately portray the Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACoFD) by using apparatus and equipment in current use. Although a few key items were fictionalized, such as the identification of Station 51 and its equipment, many of the locations and apparatus reflected the operating reality of locations used in some filming. The extensive cooperation of the LACoFD is repeatedly apparent in the program.

Apparatus

Squad 51

Squad 51 before restoration, picture taken in the 1970s

The vehicle which represented Squad 51 was constructed by Universal crews and was an accurate replica of the units built in-house on stock truck chassis by LACoFD at the time. The LACoFD shops were unable to fulfill a request from Universal to build a unit for the show within the short deadline the studio asked, but did provide the blueprints to Universal crews so the studio could build its own unit on a 1972 Dodge D300 "dualie" (two rear tires on each side, on one axle) chassis. (This conversion was subsequently completed on a 1973 and 1974 Dodge D300 chassis as well.) The replica's accuracy is evident that the white light atop the "Twinsonic" lightbar was part of the blueprint, but never installed by LAcoFD on its departmental units. This light was supposed to differentiate paramedic units from regular rescue units. After the filming of the show, the studio donated the unit to LACoFD in 1978, which pressed it into occasional service as a reserve unit before it was eventually retired from service.

In 1999, LACoFD donated the Universal-built squad to the Los Angeles County Fire Museum, which restored it and put it on display.

Engine 51

The original Engine 51 was a 1965 open-cab Crown Firecoach, and was portrayed by LACoFD Engine 127's 1965 Crown in stock footage at the fire station (in reality LACoFD Station 127), and by LACoFD Engine 60's 1965 Crown (the unit assigned to Universal Studios) for filming on the grounds of the studio. In a few instances in the first and second seasons, the regular apparatus borrowed from LACoFD and used for filming appear to have been unavailable as some scenes show a slightly different vintage Crown Firecoach pumper, most evident by the different style of emergency lights on the cab's roof. The mixing of stock station and response footage with footage filmed for specific storylines created continuity errors by mixing these apparatus.

Early in the third season, Engine 51 was represented by a 1973 Ward LaFrance P80 Ambassador triple-combination pumper. LACoFD was purchasing numerous P80s at the time, and Ward LaFrance donated a P80 unit to Universal Studios specifically for use in the show. The Ward LaFrance Engine 51 was thus not a disguised unit and did not require the use of LACoFD resources for filming.

The Engine 51 from Ward La France, shown in a photo shot in the 1970s.

Engine 127's 1965 Crown, one of the two originally used for the show, was later refitted with a closed cab. Eventually it was placed into reserve status when Station 127 received a new engine. In its reserve capacity, it was serving temporarily as Engine 95 when it was involved in a collision. Beyond repair, it was salvaged for parts and sold as scrap. The County of Los Angeles Fire Museum Association now owns and has restored the 1965 Crown which formerly served as Engine 60 at Universal Studios and appeared most often as the Crown version of Engine 51.

The Ward LaFrance P80 Ambassador that represented Engine 51, owned by the studio outright, made its final Emergency! appearance in the movie The Steel Inferno, but was marked as Engine 110. The Ward remained at Universal Studios as a prop following the conclusion of the show, and made brief appearances such as in the 1979 film The China Syndrome and a short educational film produced by the National Fire Protection Association in 1984. Eventually, the Ward was pressed into active duty at Yosemite National Park, as MCA Recreation Services (Universal's then-owner/operator) was under contract to provide visitor services at the park at the time, and it remained with YNP Fire after MCARS' involvement at the Park ended. It served continuously as YNP Fire's Engine 7 until it was retired and replaced in July 2008. Per terms of a previous agreement between the Park and the County of Los Angeles Fire Museum Association, the museum assumed ownership of the Ward and added it to the museum collection. In 2012, the museum finished a complete restoration of the Ward to its original appearance in the show.

Locations

Station 51

Station 51 was represented by LACoFD Fire Station 127, located at 2049 East 223rd Street (between Wilmington and Alameda Streets) in Carson, California (33°49′28″N 118°14′18″W - Maps Street View), and it is still in use today. Universal was permitted to use the station number of "51" for the program because at that time there was no existing Station 51 since the closing of LACoFD Station 51, which had been located near the intersection of Arlington and Atlantic Avenues, and closed in the late 1960s due to the area being annexed by the city of Lynwood.

Station 127 was chosen for its natural lighting by series co-creator Robert A. Cinader, and the station was eventually named in his honor. A plaque honoring Robert A. Cinader is now mounted on the station next to the office front door. At the time of filming Station 127 housed Engine 127 and Truck 127, but it has never actually fielded its own paramedic unit.

For filming on location, Truck 127 was moved off-site and replaced with Universal's Squad 51, while Engine 127 was disguised as Engine 51. After Universal obtained the 1972 Ward LaFrance for Engine 51, both of Station 127's companies would be replaced by Universal's Engine 51 and Squad 51 for filming on location. While some filming of scenes set at Station 51 were done on sets at the studio, these sets accurately recreated the interior of Station 127.

Despite being "kicked out" of their own station for filming, Truck 127 still appeared in numerous episodes under its own callsign. The Carson location of Station 127 was directly referenced in one episode where a phone call was traced to a house "in Carson" that Engine 51 and Squad 51 eventually responded to.

"KMG365", which is said by the crewmember acknowledging a call for a unit at Station 51, is a real FCC call sign used by LACoFD assigned to Fire Station 98 in Bellflower, and it appears on the Station Patch for Station 127, which today still houses Engine 127 and Truck 127 (now known as Light Force 127) as well as Foam 127.

In a nod to the show, LACoFD officially changed the designation of the fire station on the grounds of Universal Studios from Station 60 to Station 51 in 1994, more than 20 years after the debut of Emergency! The companies at Station 60 were also changed so that this station is now indeed the home of Engine 51 and Squad 51 as well as Patrol 51.

Rampart General Hospital

At the time of filming, Rampart General Hospital was represented by Harbor General Hospital, located in Torrance, California at 1000 West Carson Street, the intersection of Vermont Avenue and Carson Street (33°49′49″N 118°17′30″W). The pairing of Station 127 and Harbor General as "Station 51" and "Rampart" was accurate, since if a squad had actually been quartered at Station 127, it would likely have operated from Harbor General Hospital, since they are only 2.1 miles (3.4 km) apart. Truck 127 appeared in one episode where a rescue event occurred at Rampart (Harbor General), as the hospital really is in Truck 127's "first-due" district.

In an episode near the end of the series, one character, an aged jazz musician, hearing the name Rampart General, says, "My grandaddy used to play on Rampart Street in New Orleans!" The name Rampart actually comes from the show Adam-12 and is the real name of a division of the LAPD.

In 1978, by the approval of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, Harbor General Hospital was renamed as Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.

Los Angeles County Fire Dispatch

Footage of a dispatcher used during the show appears to have been filmed at the LACoFD dispatch center in East Los Angeles. The screen he looked at to see the street maps is a rear projection from a Kodak Carousel projector built into the console. The man was actual LACoFD dispatcher Sam Lanier, who also lent his voice as the dispatcher for the show's entire run.

The familiar tones that called Station 51 into service were initiated by dispatch using a Motorola Quik Call I unit, a radio listening on a common paging frequency for a pair of special audio tones assigned to that station. For a large incident, one could often hear many sets of tones calling many stations, but only a specific pair would sound the buzzer for Station 51.

Personnel

During a portion of the first season, real-life LACoFD Captain Richard Hammer portrayed himself as a Station 51 captain. Hammer died of cancer in 1999.

Another real-life LACoFD firefighter, Mike Stoker, portrayed himself throughout the entire run of the series as a driver/engineer of Engine 51. Since Stoker possessed a Screen Actors Guild card, it was helpful to Universal to have an actor who was also fully trained and qualified to actually drive and operate Engine 51. Stoker retired from the LACoFD as a Captain in 1996.

LACoFD Dispatcher Sam Lanier, although rarely seen on camera, portrayed himself as a dispatcher in virtually every episode. Despite being the recognizable voice over the radio sending Station 51 and other LACoFD crews to all sorts of emergencies, he was never listed in the show's credits. Lanier retired shortly after the show ended in 1977. He died of a massive heart attack in 1997, while attempting to assist at an automobile crash outside of his home.

Numerous uncredited LACoFD personnel were used throughout the course of the series when other actual LACoFD units were used during filming.

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. Originally, Cinader requested that Randolph Mantooth's character be named after Page, but he turned it down.

Equipment

The Original Emergency! Biophone Model 3502

The orange radio Gage and DeSoto used was a model 3502 Biocom Biophone. It came in an orange fiberglass case and was fully portable. It could transmit EKG and voice simultaneously, could be charged in 15 minutes, and had one hour of talking time. The radio had eight duplex UHF channels and a total of 12 watts of transmitting power. There were two Biophones used on the show, one smaller than the other.

In "Survival on Charter #220", Gage and DeSoto are briefly seen using a Motorola Apcor, with Dr. Early and Nurse McCall using a Motorola base station back at Rampart.

Old Pal Tackle Box PF-3300: AKA Drug Box, Emergency!

The electrocardiograph (ECG or EKG) machine used in the show was a Datascope Model 850 Dual Trace Physiological Monitor. This model came out in 1971 and was the first portable, battery rechargeable unit of its kind. Its original price was $2,000. In the middle of Season 4, the show switched to a Datascope MD/2, which was a combined monitor and defibrillator that allowed the monitor unit to slide out. The paramedics also carried some medical equipment in a black model "PF-3300" Old Pal tackle box, commonly used by LACoFD at the time. Mantooth and Tighe went through paramedic training as preparation for their role, both completing the class but neither actually taking the certification exam. There were times when the actors had some difficulty pronouncing the "medical" words in the show convincingly, so some scenes show the characters from the back or behind a mask, which allowed them to dub in the correct pronunciations at a later time.

Many items of the equipment were donated to the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of American History in May 2000.

The protective clothing ("turn-out gear") that the firefighters wore, including the MSA Topgard helmets, as well as nearly all other equipment such as insignia, were standard LACoFD issue at the time.

The badges used in the series were authentic LACoFD badges. At the end of filming each day, they were collected, stored for safekeeping and then reissued the next day.

Off-screen relationships

Bobby Troup and Julie London had been married since 1959, well before being cast as Dr. Joe Early and Nurse Dixie McCall in Emergency!. The role of Dixie McCall was originally written as a love interest for the character of Dr. Kelly Brackett, though the on-screen romance between Brackett and McCall was gradually downplayed and eventually ignored during the course of the series. London had previously been married to producer Jack Webb from 1947 to 1953, though the divorce seems to have been amicable as Webb had also previously cast Troup for roles in Dragnet and Adam-12. Troup and London remained married until his death in 1999. London died the following year.

Primary cast

• Robert Fuller as Kelly Brackett, M.D., F.A.C.S., A.C.E.P.
• Julie London as Dixie McCall, R.N.
• Bobby Troup as Joe Early, M.D., F.A.C.S., A.C.E.P.
• Ron Pinkard as Mike Morton, M.D. (identified in the cast of the pilot as "Dr. Tom Gray").
• Randolph Mantooth as Firefighter Paramedic John Rodrick "Johnny" Gage, L.A. County FD Squad 51
• Kevin Tighe as Firefighter Paramedic Roy DeSoto, L.A. County FD Squad 51
• Tim Donnelly as Firefighter Chester B. "Chet" Kelly, L.A. County FD Engine 51
• Marco Lopez as Firefighter Marco Lopez, L.A. County FD Engine 51
• Mike Stoker as Firefighter Specialist Mike Stoker, L.A. County FD Engine 51
• Dick Hammer as Captain Dick Hammer (First Season Only), L.A. County FD Engine 51
• John Smith as Captain Hammer in episode "Hang-Up" 1st season, as Captain in episode "Crash" 1st season, L.A. County FD Engine 51
• Michael Norell as Captain Henry "Hank" Stanley, L.A. County FD Engine 51

Creators

The show was created by R.A. Cinader and Harold Jack Bloom and produced by Jack Webb and Mark VII Limited.

Guest stars

A partial list of guest stars includes Vic Tayback, Adam West, Richard Jaeckel, Marion Ross, Mark Harmon, Erik Estrada, Henry Jones, Jackie Coogan, Anne Lockhart, Dabbs Greer, George Ives, John Carradine, Ron Masak, Nick Nolte, Seymour Cassel, Jeanette Nolan, Robert Alda, Mariette Hartley, Jamie Farr, Bruno Kirby, Jock Mahoney, Michael Lerner, Melissa Gilbert, Kim Richards, John Travolta, Ruth Buzzi, and Jack Carter.

Future Eight is Enough stars Dick Van Patten and Grant Goodeve made guest appearances on separate episodes, then current Adam-12 stars Martin Milner and Kent McCord made a guest appearance on the pilot of a two-part episode, while sports figures Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Mark Spitz made cameo appearances on two separate episodes. Future Kojak stars Mark Russell and Kevin Dobson made cameo appearances in various episodes. Relatives and friends of the cast of Emergency! made guest appearances on various episodes, including those of London's and Troup's children, Ronne and Kelly, while Cynnie Troup was script supervisor. Mantooth's brother Donald and Fuller's ex-Laramie co-star John Smith each made a guest appearance on separate episodes early in the 2nd season, and former Leave It To Beaver star Tony Dow made an appearance in season one as a looter.

Legacy

Spin-offs and crossovers

Emergency! was a third-generation spin-off, having been spawned from Adam-12, which itself was spun off from Jack Webb's Dragnet.

Characters from Emergency! and Adam-12 "crossed over" twice. The police officers appeared briefly in the pilot episode of Emergency!, and the firefighter/paramedics appeared in the Adam-12 episode titled "Lost and Found." Not surprisingly, in the Emergency! episode titled "Hang-Up", there was a subplot in which the crew of Station 51 watched the television show Adam-12.

Emergency! spun off an animated version called Emergency +4 which ran on NBC Saturday mornings from 1973 to 1976, and featured four teenagers who participated in adventures with the firefighter/paramedics.

Mantooth's Gage and Tighe's DeSoto appeared in the tenth episode of Sierra, another Webb/Cinader production centered around a pair of National Park Service rangers, which appeared for only a partial season in 1974. In that episode, "The Urban Ranger", the two paramedics participate in mountain rescue training and get involved in many of the episode's subplots. Following recurring themes from Emergency!, Gage continues to fail in his attempts to get a date, while DeSoto briefly considers changing careers to become a park ranger.

The "905-Wild" episode of Emergency!, broadcast during Season 4 on March 1, 1975, was intended to be the pilot for a new show created and produced by Jack Webb. The series was to have been about the adventures of two Los Angeles County Department of Animal Control officers, and the staff of a county animal shelter. The episode featured Albert Popwell and Mark Harmon as the officers and David Huddleston and Gary Crosby in supporting roles. It failed to sell, and a follow-up show was never produced.

Engine 51 and Squad 51 briefly appeared in the CHiPs episode "MAIT Team", responding from the station to a traffic accident. Further, in the episode "Cry Wolf," Squad 51 can be seen briefly, responding from the station to a false accident report.

Fire Station 51 also briefly appeared in an episode of Quincy, M.E., as an LAFD Fire Station. The episode later showed LAFD paramedics supposedly from that station on a cardiac arrest call.

TV movies

From 1978 through 1979, the show returned as a series of "Movies of the Week". The first was The Steel Inferno and was the final appearance of all the original major cast. Next was Survival on Charter #220, which featured only Dr. Early and Nurse McCall in addition to Gage and DeSoto. Most Deadly Passage saw Gage and DeSoto visiting Seattle to observe the paramedic operations there and was a back door pilot for a series, Medic 1 Seattle, about the Seattle Fire Department's renowned Medic One program. On New Year's Eve 1978, Greatest Rescues on "Emergency!" aired. It was essentially a clip show, featuring flashbacks from the original series of the notable rescues and incidents involving Gage and DeSoto and showed them both achieving the rank of Captain. This was followed by two additional movies, What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing... and The Convention that showed Gage and DeSoto visiting San Francisco.

The TV movies were in syndication on TV Land during 2001 and also were shown in syndication as two-part episodes starting in the 1980s.

Other media

The book Emergency!: Behind the Scenes by Richard Yokely and Rozane Sutherland was published in 2008.

Charlton Comics published several issues of an Emergency! comic book in the mid-1970s. One of the issues contains some of the earliest published work of John Byrne. Charlton also published four issues of an illustrated black-and-white magazine featuring art by Neal Adams and others.

Syndication

The show was first syndicated in 1976, after the fifth season. Local stations mainly aired it between 4:30 and 6 p.m. Eastern (3:30 to 5:30 Central) for the same viewers that were its most loyal audience on NBC, elementary school-aged children. Emergency!, however, was not nearly as successful in reruns as Dragnet 1967-70 and Adam-12 were. When the program was first syndicated, it went by the title Emergency One! (the stock title "Emergency!" appeared with the word "One" fading in beneath) to avoid confusion with the new episodes still airing Saturday nights on NBC and continued to be called that when the TV movies aired as well. The syndicated episodes would revert to the original title, Emergency!, in 1979. Renaming programs for syndication was commonplace until the 1980s. Although in the early 2000s it had a brief run on TV Land, Emergency! had been rarely seen in recent times because the series had come under the ownership of the Jack Webb Estate.

Emergency! seasons 1 - 6 are now available on Netflix On Demand. Reruns are also available on MeTV, an over-the-air service mainly seen on digital subchannels of local television stations.

DVD releases and film

Universal Studios Home Entertainment has released all six seasons of Emergency!, and the six post-series tele-films (as The Final Rescues), on DVD in Region 1.

Name	Ep#	Region 1
Season One	12	August 23, 2005
Season Two	21	February 7, 2006
Season Three	22	February 13, 2007
Season Four	22	January 29, 2008
Season Five	24	January 20, 2009
Season Six	24	April 13, 2010
The Final Rescues	6	March 29, 2011

Impact on emergency medical services

Yokley and Sutherland argue that the TV show led many municipalities to create paramedic units of their own. When the show premiered in 1972, there were only 12 such units in North America; by 1982, more than half of all Americans were within ten minutes of a paramedic rescue or ambulance unit.

The program introduced many in its worldwide audience to the concepts of pre-hospital care, fire prevention and CPR. The program was also credited for demonstrating first aid techniques that enabled some viewers to save lives in real medical emergencies. When the medical community saw that the general public were using First Aid and CPR in response to this show, they started the teaching programs for CPR in every state. The show later added a disclaimer stating that the first aid techniques demonstrated should only be performed by trained persons. In the episode "Grateful", one character's chest is injured when another character incorrectly performs a precordial thump, a procedure sometimes performed by Gage or DeSoto.

See also

• Biophone
• Fire apparatus
• Fire station
• Firehouse USA: Boston
• Glossary of firefighting equipment
• Glossary of firefighting terms
• List of firefighting films
• Rescue 8
• Rescue 77
• Trauma
• Squad 51

External links

• Emergency! at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com show
• emergencyfans.com
• Emergency Theater Live
• The Life And Times of Engine 51
• County of Los Angeles Fire Museum Association
• Los Angeles County Fire dispatch tone archive
• Emergency! Episode Guide at TV Gems