History Trivia / Emergency

* The pilot movie was called "The Wedsworth-Townsend Act," which was the name of the bill that passed in California authorizing the ability for paramedics to practice, signed into law by then-governor Creator/RonaldReagan.

* HeyItsThatGuy: the series being a Universal Studios production, the minor characters are a plethora of Universal's B-list and character actors:
** Creator/JohnDeLancie played two doctor characters in the TV movies. He shared an emergency room with [[{{Film/Spaceballs}} Dr. Colonel Sandurz]].
** [=DeSoto=] is [[{{Series/Lost}} John Locke's dad and responsible for the deaths of Sawyer's parents]]. He also is the proprietor of a {{Film/Roadhouse}}.
** [[Series/AdamTwelve Sgt. [=MacDonald=]]] left the LAPD to join the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
** [[UsefulNotes/OlympicGames Mark Spitz]] accidentally shoots his pregnant wife (played by his [[RealLifeRelative real-life wife]]) in one episode.
** [[Series/{{NCIS}} Gibbs]] apparently worked in animal control before he was a Marine or with NCIS and shows up in the PoorlyDisguisedPilot episode titled "905-Wild".
** There were probably more than a few fans disappointed that Nurse Dixie and Dr. Early never got together to sing a few jazz tunes on their off hours. (Though, as noted in "Actor Allusion", above, they couldn't resist in the pilot having Early play a little and Dixie joking about singing in a later episode. But sadly, no MusicalEpisode was ever produced.)
** Richard Kiel (Jaws from the ''Franchise/JamesBond'' franchise) is a ''very'' grumpy and intimidating butcher in one episode.
** Adam West is a movie star rescued from a bear in "The Bash".
** Lennie Weinrib -- the constantly-rescued Fred Gibson in "Firehouse Four" -- is also the voice of Scrappy Doo.

* HeyItsThatGuy:

** [[Series/CagneyAndLacey Sharon Gless]] appears in two separate episodes as a police officer Gage pines for, and later as an eccentric sculptor.

** Creator/JohnDeLancie played two doctor characters in the TV movies. He shared an emergency room with [[Film/Spaceballs Dr. Colonel Sandurz]].

** Creator/JohnDeLancie played two doctor characters in the TV movies.

** [=DeSoto=] is [[{{Series/Lost}} John Locke's dad and responsible for the deaths of Sawyer's parents]].

** [[OlympicGames Mark Spitz]] accidentally shoots his pregnant wife (played by his [[RealLifeRelative real-life wife]]) in one episode.

* DontTryThisAtHome: In a manner of speaking. Apparently, there were instances of viewers injuring themselves or others, or worsening the condition of already injured people while trying to imitate what they saw onscreen. A voice-over disclaimer was added to each episode saying "you can't learn first aid from watching "Emergency" or any other television show" and encouraging viewers to take first aid classes from professionals.

* EnforcedMethodActing: The snake in 'Snakebite' was supposed to be defanged so it couldn't bite. However, it was not, which made pulling off the bite scene rather hairy for Mantooth.

** Gage was originally going to be named James Cage, after a real life paramedic, but Cage and the department weren't happy with the plan. So, the character was named John Gage instead.

* OnSetRomance: Of a minor sort. Mike Stoker met his wife while they were both working on the series.

* TheOtherDarrin:
** A minor one. The original actor playing the recurring character Craig Brice could not appear in the "Greatest Rescues" movie due to another project, and a different actor played him when he was promoted to Captain along with Gage and Desoto. The odd thing was, the second actor was a black man.
** Given that the vehicles used on this show were as much the stars as the humans (well, for young fans, anyway), over time Squad 51, the engines, and even the ambulances evolve into newer, more state-of-the-art (for the 1970s) vehicles.
* TheRedStapler: The show is popularly thought to be the best advertisement about the merits of the paramedic program ever and lots of cities and counties started setting up their own. Pretty much {{lampshaded}} in one episode when Gage and [=DeSoto=], after being involved in a rescue in a rural area outside their jurisdiction and which couldn't afford to run its own paramedics even after seeing their value, described a system of volunteer emergency medical responders such a region could set up to the local sherriff.

* NamesTheSame: Mike Stoker has often been rumored to be trying to get into politics. This, however, is another Mike Stoker from California. The fan confusion isn't hard to understand.

** RichardKiel (Jaws from the ''Franchise/JamesBond'' franchise) is a ''very'' grumpy and intimidating butcher in one episode.

* DawsonCasting: An unusual example of this trope being applied in a non-school scenario. In the original pilot movie (filmed in 1971), Nurse Dixie [=McCall=] is described as being approximately 30 years old. The actress, Julie London, was actually in her mid-40s at the time.
** Dixie is also said to be a Korean War veteran, which would make her 9-10 years old if she were 30 in 1971.

** Since this show ran, this trope is played both straight and subverted: paramedics are now allowed to operate largely on their own in the field with more sophisticated equipment, but that means the communications equipment such as the remote EKG telemetry feed is no longer used.
*** Not quite. Paramedics nowadays mainly operate under standing orders, meaning they have protocols to follow but don't necessarily require a "mother may I" system to function. Modern paramedic training has expanded from "90-day Kildares" to an associate's degree-level of education. They can still call a doctor to receive further orders or to get permission to do something out of protocol. ECG telemetry is still used, but full 12-lead ECGs can now be transmitted to receiving hospitals to help pre-alert hospitals for possible heart attacks.

** A minor one. The original actor playing the recurring character Craig Bryce could not appear in the "Greatest Rescues" movie due to another project, and a different actor played him when he was promoted to Captain along with Gage and Desoto. The odd thing was, the second actor was a black man.

** Most people in the 70s hadn't even heard of the term "paramedic," but this show demonstrated what paramedics do and their value in real life, allowing the idea to propagate throughout jurisdictions in the United States. Modern prehospital medicine hence evolved from throwing a patient into an ambulance and hauling ass to the hospital, to treating the patient on scene and providing stabilizing treatment en route, ensuring patient survival. Compare that to a contemporary other series, ''Series/TheStreetsOfSanFrancisco'' where a critically wounded cop is rushed to the hospital and ''nothing'' is done for him en route beyond Lt. Mike Stone holding his hand sympathetically. As a result, it looks criminally negligent to modern viewers to see an emergency patient being transported like that without being treated along the way.