The Wedsworth-Townsend Act

Although I don't remember the first run of Emergency!, I remember seeing it in syndication from 1976 to 1980. For my friends and I, it was the THE show to watch. I was 8 in 76 and yes I loved this drama. Yes I did like shows like Happy Days and Mork and Mindy and Kotter and Whats Happening! . But this was the first drama show I (and my friends) would stop a backyard whiffle ball game to see. It had ACTION! It had CAR CRASHES!! It had FIRE!! Now as an adult I see that without a show like Emergency and Adam 12, Shows like Hill Street Blues would not have happened, St. Elsewhere and ER would not have happened, Third Watch would not have been and CSI(Vegas, Miami and NY) and Law and Order would not be. I got season 1 of Emergency and am enjoying it as much maybe even more now!

Emergency! still looks very authentic, even in today's standards of ER, Third Watch and NYPD Blue. It's truly a shame that TV Land no longer airs the show. Though I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to personally meet Randy Mantooth a few years ago in Chicago during his Project 51 tour. He is a real gentleman and was obviously very comfortable around his fans, both young and old!

The location for the show was actually Firestation 127 in Carson, CA. The address is 2049 E. 223rd St., Carson 90810. During many of the shows that involved industrial accidents, these took place in the same neighborhood as the firestation.

Grew up not too far from the station. Many times during the show the other local fire stations (Station 36, actual Station 127 trucks and others) were actually involved in the show.

Favorite show of our family just to see if there was someplace nearby where they staged the show.

We tend to take for granted that when we dial 911, or another emergency number, that police, fire, paramedics, etc will be there to assist in a timely manner. While firefighting has been strongly established in the United States since the Colonial days of Ben Franklin and bucket brigades, and rescue techniques have been studied and taught for a century, it is only in the past 35 years that emergency medicine in the field has come into being. Before that, ambulance attendants trained in basic first aid and oxygen administration would pick up patients, many of whom would die from lack of timely emergency medical attention in cases like heart attack, stroke, and trauma. Military medics returning from Korea and Vietnam in part spurred a call to establish emergency field treatment for civilians as well.

And this remarkable made for TV movie tells that story, using real facts and situations worked into a fascinating drama.

Many people were hesitant to move the hospital out into the field, and there were very few believers at first, even among the rescue-trained firefighters who would become these paramedics. Johnny Gage himself is a doubter when his battalion chief approaches him in the beginning of the episode, since he is worried that he would become an "ambulance attendant" and not the firefighter and "rescue man" that he had trained to be.

However, through incidents in the episode, including a near-fatal accident with Nurse Dixie and a tunnel cave-in, the worth of the LA County FD paramedics are proven, even to Dr. Kelly Brackett, the original greatest doubter who goes on to become the physician director and greatest proponent and defender of the program in later episodes. Brackett's speech before the California Assembly committee expressing his belief that short of more doctors and hospitals, trained paramedics were the best alternative, is vital in getting the bill passed that authorized the program.

Emergency! was definitely a show ahead of its time because it brought the reality of rescue into the living rooms of America and spurred countless people to support, and even join, paramedic and EMT programs. A show that still sparks discussion 31 years after its premiere and 25 or so years after its network series finale definitely deserves credit. The show is still relevant in firefighting and EMS circles especially, both from a historical perspective, and as examples of how incidents are handled. The only sad thing is that there is no restored DVD box set available, because although the message lives on, some film prints available on video have not survived well in color and sound quality, and some shown on TV have been shortened for time.

Still an all time favorite for me, I watched it with my father, and now I watch it with my 4 year old son.

Along the same lines as the Dragnet and Adam 12 format this 70's action series dealt with the adventures of a Los Angeles Fire Department/Paramedic crew. Each week they were fighting fires, rescuing various boneheads who had gotten themselves entrapped in everything from wells to car wrecks etc. I often wondered if any real life paramedic/firefighter had this much action each and everyday they would probably just throw up their hands and say "I never get a moments rest in this job" The show now starting to show a little datedness the episodes are never dull.