Emergency!
"Rampart, this is squad 51 . . . stand by for
vitals"
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 to 'Rampart'. The emergency
staff of Rampart General Hospital 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, and 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,
special two-hour movie versions were periodically aired during
1978.
An animated Saturday morning spin-off of the show titled Emergency
+ 4, aired on NBC from September 1973 to September 1976.
Trivia Note : Squad 51's mascot was a dog named Boots.
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