Emergency!

Does anyone remember this TV show?



I watched it religiously during its original run and hadn't watched it again until last week. The dialogue gets hokey but for the most part I still like it. What I find most fun is that the show captures my old stomping grounds as they were back then. There are so many familiar areas shown and some in my own backyard. It is a portrait of LA frozen in time. Even the horrible smog we had back then is captured. How can anyone forget those beautiful purple and brown skies?

I started digging and learned a few interesting things too. Dixie (Julie London), who played the head nurse and shown in the photo, was actually married to Bobby Troup, who is front left in the photo and played a doctor on the show. Before that she was married to Jack Webb of Dragnet. She was also a singer who put out over 30 albums. Bobby Troup was also a singer, songwriter, and a jazz pianist.

 

I remember it vaguely. When was it made?

 

Bobby Troup performing Route 66

 

It ran from 1972 to 1979.

 

I use to watch it here and there in reruns. Kevin Tighe played John Locke's father on LOST

 

It was used to introduce the concept of the fireman paramedic. They didn't exist before this. Technically it was about the first such team who drove Squad 51. The rescues are done in a documentary style. Many scenes are quite good even by today's standards.

I remember that this made the paramedic programs incredibly popular. After this show came out, the paramedic programs were flooded with applicants.

 

~ Yes in the 1970's there was much television filmed in Los Angeles. It was a common occurrence.
I used to see location shoots all the time. CHiPs, Quincy, Adam-12, Charle's Angels . Hunter and Starsky & Hutch were filmed on my Mom's street .

 

Thanks. The promo pic you posted looks like it was from the end of their run - 1979. The hair and general styling is proto-80's

 

YES! I remember an episode of The Rookies that was filmed at my grocery store. Also, the Mod Squad often used areas I knew well. From time to time I encountered celebrities.

I was about a block from the 91 freeway when OJ drove by.

 

The 70s version.

 

Much better. Shades of Mike Brady

 

LOL!

 

~ There was once a restaurant in Toluca Lake — The China Trader — where Julie London, her husband Bobby Troup and Ex-husband Jack Webb would hang out.
"Those were the days ... "

 

Very cool! I did a little more digging and found this. And for starters, I had missed the fact that Jack Webb (who I met once) created the show Emergency!. That is how Troup and London got involved.

When Webb was creating his (first) Dragnet radio shows and then later the TV version, he turned to a young LAPD officer to supply him with stories and then later write the show scripts with him. That LAPD Officer was Gene Roddenberry – who later created Star Trek. Roddenberry and Webb would write their Dragnet episodes at Jack’s Toluca Lake home, but when they were done for the day they’d head over to the China Trader for some relaxation time. So – who knows what Star Trek characters may have been dreamed up at the China Trader bar.
https://www.tolucalakechamber.com/history/remembering-toluca-lake/

 

Wow, that brings back memories.

In addition, in my senior year of '78-'79 I got to go to work as a respiratory therapist in a local hospital. No college, no testing, no nothing. I'd give breathing treatments and do CPR and ambu bagging full time while going to my remaining 3 classes in the morning.

I once asked my kid's if they had any programs like that these days. No way.

My, how things change.

 

No kidding. Fields evolve but they can be like the wild west early on. And memories are right! One thing that makes Emergency! unique is that it wasn't just filmed around LA. Each rescue has a specific location that they cite, and many are real. They made a point to highlight landmarks all over LA county. One of the coolest ones that comes to mind is their rescue at Olive View Hospital, which collapsed during the San Fernando earthquake, in 1971. I still remember flying over the wreckage in a plane owned by a family friend. They were clearly on site at the recently collapsed hospital for the filming.

I know where their station used for filming was located. It was out by the oil fields in Carson. But in the show they respond to calls from South Long Beach and possibly South of there, all the way out to the North end of the San Fernando Valley, which was about a 90 minute drive. If they really covered that range, I'm sure most of their critical patients wouldn't have survived.

 

~ Did a patient ever die on 'Emergency ' ... ?

 

Yes. In one episode I just saw, a child dies because his mother thought he was faking symptoms. I wouldn't be surprised to learn the rescues were based on real events. At the least they surely used real cases as an outline for the scripts. The rescues are very realistic and believable. I think that is what keeps my interest.

 

I HATE doctor/hospital shows and have NO idea why anybody would watch one, but lots of people must.

 

Way to brighten up the room!

 

aren't you full of good cheer !!

 

I know! We have a perfectly good thread about death and destruction here and of course someone has to be a wet blanket.

 

It's not just that they're depressing but then I find I have everything on the show.

OTOH does anyone remember a British show about Interns called "Doctor in the House"? The teaching physician was (I think) the same guy who played the floorwalker in "Are You Being Served? " It was utterly and outrageously hilarious but I've not seen it on for years

 

They had a number of people die from drug overdoses.

In related comments, have you ever wondered how many wounded soldiers died onscreen on MASH? As an avid fan I counted it up once and it came to 12 to 17 though several of those had come in mortally wounded anyway.

 

I didn't remember this. Season 4, episode 22 of Emergency, Webb tried to embed his formula in a pilot about LA County Animal Control. They brought in David Huddleston, Albert Popwell, and someone most people would know, Mark Harmon. Popwell and Harmon drive a Chevy truck just like Squad 51 and go around rescuing animals. In this case it was an escaped lion. Huddlestson plays a vet and replaces the doctors at Rampart General. Gary Crosby appears to be the comic relief. The concept was a mirror image of Emergency and similar in tone to his other hit shows, Adam 12 and Dragnet. But apparently it never took off.

PS. Bobby Troup and Julie London died within a year of each other, with Troup going first in 1999.