50 Fun Facts About Emergency!

Which California governor signed the 1970 paramedic law that gave the Emergency! pilot film its title?

Ronald Reagan signed the Wedworth-Townsend Act, which let firefighters in one part of the state try out paramedic care. The pilot film borrowed the law's name.

In a 1972 episode of Emergency!, which future film star played an injured hiker rescued from a brush fire?

John Travolta was making his first screen appearance in California, four years before Carrie gave him a notable film role.

On Emergency!, the jazz performers who played nurse Dixie McCall and Dr. Joe Early shared which real-life relationship?

A married couple since 1959, the pair were hired together by the producer, who was the bride's own former husband.

Which Dragnet creator produced Emergency! and cast his own ex-wife as head nurse Dixie McCall?

Jack Webb had quit acting in 1970 to concentrate on producing, and the paramedic drama turned out to be his last long-running hit.

Which actor played unlucky-in-love paramedic Johnny Gage on Emergency! and later directed two of its episodes?

Randolph Mantooth did many of his own stunts in the early seasons, and the real fire department later made him an honorary fire chief.

On Emergency!, which actor played Roy DeSoto, the calm, more mature half of the Squad 51 paramedic team?

Kevin Tighe also directed four episodes of the series and is credited with writing its final one.

In one Emergency! episode, Johnny Gage misses the ending of which real police drama made by the same producers?

Adam-12 was the parent show, and its two patrolmen had already turned up in person in the pilot, so the cop series is both real and fictional at Station 51.

On Emergency!, what bites Johnny Gage after a cliffside car rescue, sending him to Rampart on Engine 51's hose bed?

A rattlesnake bites him after the crew rescues joyriders whose car went over a cliff, and he rides to the hospital lying on top of the fire engine.

Which institution took Emergency! helmets and a defibrillator into its public-service collection, not entertainment?

The Smithsonian accepted the gear in May 2000, nearly 30 years after the premiere, filing a TV drama under public service.

Which network launched Emergency! in January 1972 as a midseason replacement for two sitcoms?

NBC dropped it in for The Partners and The Good Life, and the stopgap stayed on the schedule for six seasons.

On Emergency!, head nurse Dixie McCall was played by which torch singer famous for the hit Cry Me a River?

Julie London had recorded more than thirty albums before the series, and her turn as the unflappable nurse earned a Golden Globe nomination in 1974.

Which star of the western Laramie twice turned down the Emergency! role of ER chief Dr. Brackett before accepting?

Robert Fuller gave in only after the producer bluntly reminded him that TV westerns kept getting cancelled.

On Emergency!, neurosurgeon Dr. Joe Early was played by which songwriter of the highway standard Route 66?

Bobby Troup saw Nat King Cole turn the song into a hit in 1946, and he had already acted in several episodes of Dragnet.

Which future TV star played an animal control officer in 905-Wild, an Emergency! episode meant as a spin-off pilot?

Mark Harmon and Albert Popwell were to lead a series about county animal control officers, but the pilot failed to sell.

On Emergency!, basketball Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar guest-stars as a player who gets stuck in what?

His luxury car trapped him in the episode Foreign Trade, the same hour in which a Chevrolet El Camino is left teetering on the edge of a drawbridge.

The first Emergency! reunion TV movie, about office workers trapped by a high-rise fire, echoed which hit disaster film?

The Towering Inferno was the model for The Steel Inferno, the 1978 movie in which a Coast Guard helicopter lifts trapped people off the roof.

Squad 51 and Engine 51 from Emergency! were both turned into which brand of die-cast toy vehicles?

Hot Wheels sold the squad truck as Emergency Squad and the engine as Fire-Eater, which first appeared in 1977 with a 51 on its sides.

For most of its run on Saturday nights, Emergency! went head to head with which top-rated sitcom?

All in the Family was the top-rated show on television, yet the paramedic drama still built a large following among young viewers.

In the Saturday-morning cartoon spin-off Emergency +4, what does the +4 in the title refer to?

Four children and their three pets joined the two paramedics, who were voiced by the same actors as in the live-action series.

As a tribute to Emergency!, which Hollywood studio had the fire station on its lot renumbered as Station 51?

Universal made the series there, and its on-lot Station 60 became 51 more than 20 years after the premiere, with a working Engine 51 inside.

The actor who played Roy DeSoto on Emergency! later played Anthony Cooper, father of John Locke, on which drama?

Lost brought him back to TV audiences in the 2000s; he had earlier won a Genie Award for the film I Love a Man in Uniform.

On Emergency!, what do Johnny Gage and Roy DeSoto buy from a scrapyard for $80 and restore for a parade?

An old fire engine, a Dennis model never sold in America, became their pet project until a burning building collapsed onto it on the way to the parade.

The Squad 51 rescue truck seen on Emergency! was a studio-built replica on which one-ton pickup chassis?

Dodge D300 chassis carried all three squads used on screen, and the last of them, a 1974 model, is now a fire museum exhibit.

In an Emergency! episode, which Olympic gold medalist played a man whose pregnant wife is accidentally shot?

Mark Spitz shared his scenes with Suzy Spitz, who played the wounded mother-to-be, in the episode Quicker Than the Eye.

In an Emergency! episode, which star of a 1960s superhero series played an actor trapped on a film set by a bear?

Adam West's character thanks Johnny and Roy with an invitation to a Hollywood bash, where they end up reviving a musician shocked by his microphone.

On Emergency!, what name do Station 51's firefighters give the stray dog who takes a dislike to Johnny Gage?

Boot keeps up the grudge on later visits, and in one episode the whole station frets when the mascot stops eating after a scolding.

Henry, the droopy-eyed dog who becomes Station 51's mascot late in Emergency!, is which breed?

Basset Hound Henry turns up as an uninvited guest in the final season, and a later plot has a firefighter trying to coax him off the station couch.

Which Station 51 firefighter on Emergency! adopts a prankster persona, the Phantom, to torment Johnny Gage?

Chet Kelly, played by Tim Donnelly, springs a run of practical jokes in the episode Messin' Around before his victim finally takes revenge.

What was the name of the orange portable radio the Emergency! paramedics used to send heart readings to Rampart?

Biophone units carried both voice and an EKG trace, ran for about an hour of talk time and recharged in fifteen minutes.

On Emergency!, what is the name of Roy DeSoto's wife, who joins him as a contestant on a TV quiz show?

Joanne and Roy quarrel in another episode, and things only get worse when Johnny Gage offers to help patch it up.

Emergency! follows paramedics from which county fire department, home to one of America's first paramedic programs?

Los Angeles County's program was one of only twelve in the whole country when the series was being developed in 1971.

In the Emergency! reunion movie Greatest Rescues, Johnny Gage and Roy DeSoto are both promoted to which rank?

Captain was a step up that cost them their calling, because officers of that rank were no longer allowed to hold paramedic certification.

On Emergency!, what does Roy DeSoto need removed a second time after doctors find it has grown back?

His tonsils had regenerated, much to his dismay, and he ends up sharing a hospital room with a firefighter hurt in an arson blaze.

Squad 51 from Emergency! helps free a boy trapped under a freeway in an episode of which other California drama?

CHiPs borrowed the famous truck several times, and in the episode E.M.T. the highway patrolmen fetch gear from it to save the boy.

In the Emergency! episode Virus, a traveler back from Asia brings home which animal, the source of a deadly outbreak?

A monkey carries the infection that kills a firefighter and puts both Dr. Brackett and Johnny Gage in hospital beds.

In the Emergency! episode Musical Mania, which instrument does Johnny Gage try first, before a trombone and a guitar?

Bagpipes were his answer to a colleague's joke that the only instrument he could manage was the squad's horn.

Which character, played by future screenwriter Michael Norell, commands Station 51 on Emergency! after the first season?

Hank Stanley ran the station for the remaining five seasons, and the man who played him also wrote four of the show's scripts.

In one Emergency! reunion movie, Johnny and Roy study the Medic One program of which city, where a ferry catches fire?

Seattle's Medic One was the draw in Most Deadly Passage, in which a ferry is mistakenly fueled with gasoline and burns in the middle of Elliott Bay.

To keep Emergency! realistic, the show's co-creator told writers to take every rescue from which real source?

Fire station logbooks supplied the rescues, and medical and fire department advisers then fact-checked every script before it was filmed.

Which teen-idol singer guest-starred on Emergency! as a cocky intern, then left show business to become an EMT himself?

Bobby Sherman credited the episode Fools with steering him toward a second career, in which he trained police officers in first aid and CPR.

On Emergency!, which make is Johnny Gage's personal vehicle, a 4x4 he tries to swap for Roy DeSoto's convertible?

Land Rover wagons serve as his off-duty transport, and the first, a white 1969 model, turns up in the 1973 episode that features his fishing trip.

Which Emergency! cast member was a real firefighter, hired so the department's own engineer could drive Engine 51?

Mike Stoker already held a Screen Actors Guild card, so he played a firefighter under his own name while handling the real pumper.

Which real FCC call sign do Station 51's firefighters recite on Emergency! when acknowledging a call?

KMG365 is a genuine fire department call sign, assigned to a station in Bellflower, and it appears on the station patch of the firehouse seen on screen.

The radio voice sending Station 51 to its calls on Emergency! belonged to someone with which real-life job?

Fire dispatcher Sam Lanier did the voice uncredited for the whole run, and retired from the department soon after the show ended.

After Emergency! ended, the show's later Engine 51 spent years on active duty in which national park?

Yosemite kept it on active duty until 2008, after which a museum restored it to the way it looked on television.

The Emergency! theme music was written by which arranger celebrated for his albums with Frank Sinatra?

Nelson Riddle also won an Academy Award for adapting the score of The Great Gatsby while the paramedic series was on the air.

The actor who played Roy DeSoto on Emergency! made his film debut as a fraternity brother in which 1967 movie?

The Graduate shows only the back of his head, in a shower scene, five years before he landed the paramedic role.

Exterior shots of Rampart on Emergency! were filmed at which real Torrance medical center, later renamed for UCLA?

Harbor General sits about two miles from the firehouse used as Station 51, so a real squad based there would have taken its patients to the same place.

The real firehouse filmed as Station 51 on Emergency! was later named in memory of which co-creator of the series?

Robert A. Cinader picked the building himself, and grew so expert in emergency medicine that he was appointed to the local EMS commission.

From its third season, Engine 51 on Emergency! was a closed-cab pumper donated by which fire-truck manufacturer?

Ward LaFrance gave the studio the truck as product placement, which meant the crew no longer had to borrow and disguise a working engine.