Emergency!
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50 free Emergency! trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Emergency! put two firefighter-paramedics, Johnny Gage and Roy DeSoto, into American living rooms in 1972, at a time when most ambulances offered little more than first aid and a fast ride. Over six seasons and a run of reunion movies, the series is credited with showing a whole country what paramedics could do, and with nudging states to license them. This quiz covers the people and the machinery: the Station 51 crew and their practical jokes, the doctors and head nurse at Rampart, the squad truck and its radio link to the hospital, the station mascots, memorable rescues, surprising guest stars and the spin-offs. A few questions step behind the camera to the real firehouse, the technical advisers and what became of the vehicles. It is written for viewers who grew up with the show and for anyone catching it in reruns. Most questions reward a casual fan; a handful are for people who can still hear the station tones.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which California governor signed the 1970 paramedic law that gave the Emergency! pilot film its title?
Ronald Reagan
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.
Q 02In a 1972 episode of Emergency!, which future film star played an injured hiker rescued from a brush fire?
John Travolta
John Travolta was making his first screen appearance in California, four years before Carrie gave him a notable film role.
Q 03On Emergency!, the jazz performers who played nurse Dixie McCall and Dr. Joe Early shared which real-life relationship?
Married couple
A married couple since 1959, the pair were hired together by the producer, who was the bride's own former husband.
Q 04Which Dragnet creator produced Emergency! and cast his own ex-wife as head nurse Dixie McCall?
Jack Webb
Jack Webb had quit acting in 1970 to concentrate on producing, and the paramedic drama turned out to be his last long-running hit.
Q 05Which actor played unlucky-in-love paramedic Johnny Gage on Emergency! and later directed two of its episodes?
Randolph Mantooth
Randolph Mantooth did many of his own stunts in the early seasons, and the real fire department later made him an honorary fire chief.
Q 06On Emergency!, which actor played Roy DeSoto, the calm, more mature half of the Squad 51 paramedic team?
Kevin Tighe
Kevin Tighe also directed four episodes of the series and is credited with writing its final one.
Q 07In one Emergency! episode, Johnny Gage misses the ending of which real police drama made by the same producers?
Adam-12
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.
Q 08On Emergency!, what bites Johnny Gage after a cliffside car rescue, sending him to Rampart on Engine 51's hose bed?
A rattlesnake
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.
Q 09Which institution took Emergency! helmets and a defibrillator into its public-service collection, not entertainment?
The Smithsonian
The Smithsonian accepted the gear in May 2000, nearly 30 years after the premiere, filing a TV drama under public service.
Q 10Which network launched Emergency! in January 1972 as a midseason replacement for two sitcoms?
NBC
NBC dropped it in for The Partners and The Good Life, and the stopgap stayed on the schedule for six seasons.
Q 11On Emergency!, head nurse Dixie McCall was played by which torch singer famous for the hit Cry Me a River?
Julie London
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.
Q 12Which star of the western Laramie twice turned down the Emergency! role of ER chief Dr. Brackett before accepting?
Robert Fuller
Robert Fuller gave in only after the producer bluntly reminded him that TV westerns kept getting cancelled.
Q 13On Emergency!, neurosurgeon Dr. Joe Early was played by which songwriter of the highway standard Route 66?
Bobby Troup
Q 21The actor who played Roy DeSoto on Emergency! later played Anthony Cooper, father of John Locke, on which drama?
Lost
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.
Q 22On Emergency!, what do Johnny Gage and Roy DeSoto buy from a scrapyard for $80 and restore for a parade?
An old fire engine
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.
Q 23The Squad 51 rescue truck seen on Emergency! was a studio-built replica on which one-ton pickup chassis?
Dodge D300
Bobby Troup saw Nat King Cole turn the song into a hit in 1946, and he had already acted in several episodes of Dragnet.
Q 14Which future TV star played an animal control officer in 905-Wild, an Emergency! episode meant as a spin-off pilot?
Mark Harmon
Mark Harmon and Albert Popwell were to lead a series about county animal control officers, but the pilot failed to sell.
Q 15On Emergency!, basketball Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar guest-stars as a player who gets stuck in what?
His luxury car
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.
Q 16The first Emergency! reunion TV movie, about office workers trapped by a high-rise fire, echoed which hit disaster film?
The Towering Inferno
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.
Q 17Squad 51 and Engine 51 from Emergency! were both turned into which brand of die-cast toy vehicles?
Hot Wheels
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.
Q 18For most of its run on Saturday nights, Emergency! went head to head with which top-rated sitcom?
All in the Family
All in the Family was the top-rated show on television, yet the paramedic drama still built a large following among young viewers.
Q 19In the Saturday-morning cartoon spin-off Emergency +4, what does the +4 in the title refer to?
Four children
Four children and their three pets joined the two paramedics, who were voiced by the same actors as in the live-action series.
Q 20As a tribute to Emergency!, which Hollywood studio had the fire station on its lot renumbered as Station 51?
Universal
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.
Dodge D300 chassis carried all three squads used on screen, and the last of them, a 1974 model, is now a fire museum exhibit.
Q 24In an Emergency! episode, which Olympic gold medalist played a man whose pregnant wife is accidentally shot?
Mark Spitz
Mark Spitz shared his scenes with Suzy Spitz, who played the wounded mother-to-be, in the episode Quicker Than the Eye.
Q 25In an Emergency! episode, which star of a 1960s superhero series played an actor trapped on a film set by a bear?
Adam West
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.
Q 26On Emergency!, what name do Station 51's firefighters give the stray dog who takes a dislike to Johnny Gage?
Boot
Boot keeps up the grudge on later visits, and in one episode the whole station frets when the mascot stops eating after a scolding.
Q 27Henry, the droopy-eyed dog who becomes Station 51's mascot late in Emergency!, is which breed?
Basset Hound
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.
Q 28Which Station 51 firefighter on Emergency! adopts a prankster persona, the Phantom, to torment Johnny Gage?
Chet Kelly
Chet Kelly, played by Tim Donnelly, springs a run of practical jokes in the episode Messin' Around before his victim finally takes revenge.
Q 29What was the name of the orange portable radio the Emergency! paramedics used to send heart readings to Rampart?
Biophone
Biophone units carried both voice and an EKG trace, ran for about an hour of talk time and recharged in fifteen minutes.
Q 30On Emergency!, what is the name of Roy DeSoto's wife, who joins him as a contestant on a TV quiz show?
Joanne
Joanne and Roy quarrel in another episode, and things only get worse when Johnny Gage offers to help patch it up.