| 1 | [[quoteright:340:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/emergency_cast.jpeg]] |
| 2 | [[caption-width-right:340:The core cast of ''Emergency!'' [[note]]From left to right, Dr. Joe Early (Bobby Troup), FF/PM Roy [=DeSoto=] (Kevin Tighe), FF/PM John Gage (Randolph Mantooth), Dr. Kelly Brackett (Robert Fuller), Nurse Dixie [=McCall=] (Julie London)[[/note]]]] |
| 3 | |
| 4 | ''Emergency!'' was an American MedicalDrama series which aired for six seasons (1972–77) on Creator/{{NBC}}. |
| 5 | |
| 6 | The first television show to depict the lives and work of paramedics, this was a very well-done and medically-accurate series, which inspired countless children to want to be in Squad 51, and supposedly many communities to get their own paramedics. An hour-long drama, it had elements of comedy, drama, angst, and many other things in its episodes, and although it had a shorter run, could be said to be a domestic civilian version of one of the best shows ever in the field, ''Series/{{MASH}}''. It was also responsible for popularizing nationwide the concept of paramedics. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Stewart_%28politician%29 One technical advisor for the series]] went on to [[http://novascotia.ca/dhw/ehs/ overhaul another EMS system]] two decades later. |
| 7 | |
| 8 | ''Emergency!'' was born when TV producer Robert A. Cinader came to Los Angeles to look into creating a standard MedicalDrama. Once there, he learned of the paramedic program, which was just getting started, and realized it would be dynamite idea to create a show based around these brave special firefighters rushing about rescuing people. Executive producer Creator/JackWebb of ''Franchise/{{Dragnet}}'' fame added his trademark strict attention to accuracy, the Los Angeles County Fire Department threw in its complete support for the production, and the first and most famous live-action {{Rescue}} TV show was born. |
| 9 | |
| 10 | Even today, the show inspires many, many people to become Firefighter-[=EMTs=] and paramedics. It's a fair bet that any EMT/paramedic in the U.S. and Canada who started work between 1979 and 1995 was inspired by this show either in its first run or reruns. More broadly, the series is popularly credited in encouraging the widespread adoption of the emergency service across North America, which could be credited in eventually saving a untold number of people in distress with the service established in their area. |
| 11 | |
| 12 | Followed/accompanied -- as was virtually standard practice in the 1970s -- by a comic book series and an [[AnimatedAdaptation animated]] Saturday morning series, ''Emergency +4'', in which the ''Emergency'' paramedics were saddled with the requisite four kids and dog. After the live-action show ended, six made-for-TV movies aired in the late '70s; Gage and [=DeSoto=] were the only regular characters to appear in all six films. |
| 13 | |
| 14 | Like many other older TV series, ''Emergency!'' has found a new life on "classic TV" cable channels and on digital-streaming services. As of spring 2023, it was running on cable channels Cozi-TV and FETV ('''F'''amily '''E'''ntertainment Television). It's also available for streaming from {{Creator/Netflix}}, {{Creator/Hulu}}, the Classic TV collection at the Website/InternetArchive, and NBC's classic television webpage. The entire series has also been released on DVD in season anthologies (with the made-for-TV movies comprising a seventh collection "The Final Rescues"); the pilot movie is included in the Season 1 collection. Cozi-TV also produced and aired a 50th anniversary special featuring interviews with the lead actors and production crew. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | ---- |
| 17 | !!''Emergency!'' provides examples of the following tropes: |
| 18 | |
| 19 | * SeventiesHair: The show is a veritable time capsule of '70s hair styles: sideburns (Dr. Brackett and [=DeSoto=]), feathered mullets (Gage), {{Pornstache}} (Kelly and Marco), CarpetOfVirility (Captain Stanley, Kelly), and the Afro (Dr. Morton). Gage starts with a fairly conservative haircut in the pilot, but you'd swear he never had another haircut for the entire rest of the show's run as he grows out that feathered mullet. |
| 20 | * AbusiveParents: |
| 21 | ** In "Kids", the paramedics bring a boy to Rampart with minor injuries from falling down a hole. Dr. Brackett sees something he doesn't like while examining the boy, and investigates further. He soon concludes that the boy is being abused by one or both parents. The boy, his mother, and his stepfather all deny that any abuse is going on, but eventually the truth comes out: it's a straight case of child abuse, with the stepfather beating the boy frequently. Finally he goes too far, and the mother takes her son and leaves him. |
| 22 | ** In "Zero," Gage and [=DeSoto=] rescue a seven-year-old boy from an apparent suicide attempt. He's got bruises on his face, and it's eventually revealed that his mother (played by Mariette Hartley) was abusing him. She's treated more sympathetically (both by the show and the doctors) than one might expect, as someone who deeply loves her child and doesn't understand why she hurts him. At the end of the episode she leaves her family to seek help. |
| 23 | ** In "Communication Gaffe," there is a mother who is trying to control herself but simply can't. In an interview, Dr. Brackett suspects there is a physical issue, and he's right. A car accident two months prior caused a blood clot in her brain. It's a great relief to everyone to learn of this and its successful removal. |
| 24 | * ActorAllusion: |
| 25 | ** In the episode "Firehouse Four" (4x11), Johnny asks Dixie if she knows anything about singing. Her response? "A little." The actress who plays Dixie, Julie London, was a successful vocalist in real life. Also in the pilot, when Dr. Joe Early, while playing piano at a party, greets Dr. Brackett with an impromptu song. Brackett jokingly responds, "You know for a doctor he plays . . pretty bad." Early was played by noted jazz singer/songwriter Bobby Troup (who was married to Julie London), most famous in the music industry for Nat King Cole's hit song "Route 66." |
| 26 | ** Chief Houtz visits the station in one episode and told John to cut his hair. This was probably a dig at Randolph Mantooth's preference at the time for long hair. He initially refused the role of John Gage because he'd have to cut it so he'd look like a regulation firefighter, and it was said the production staff had to tell him to get a haircut quite a few times. |
| 27 | * AfraidOfNeedles: Although Johnny is good at giving shots, at least one episode ("Snakebite") shows that he's uncomfortable when he's on the receiving end. This despite the fact he was forced to administer ''to himself''. |
| 28 | * TheAllegedCar: |
| 29 | ** Chet's station wagon, which breaks down and needs pushing when he gives the guys a ride to the gym in "Firehouse Five". |
| 30 | ** The Dennis was the alleged fire engine until it was restored. Even then, it broke down once. |
| 31 | ** PlayedWith in the case of Johnny Gage's car, a Land Rover Late IIA model that's seen in a couple of episodes. It looks like a worn-out old beater, it isn't very fast, and it certainly doesn't do anything for his love life. However, it's a master of rough roads and off-road terrain, so it would come in handy on his rock-climbing and hiking trips. |
| 32 | * AllForNothing: In the PilotMovie, the thing that convinces John Gage to become a paramedic is when he rescues an electrocuted line man and because the lineman didn't get any life saving treatment before transport to the hospital, he was hopelessly terminal by the time he arrived. As John remarks: |
| 33 | --> '''John:''' ''(embittered by the situation)'' Rescue, Hell. All we rescued was a corpse. |
| 34 | * AlwaysOnDuty: Carefully averted, at least with the paramedics. The engine and squad get called out separately quite often, and the paramedics usually stop active involvement in cases at the hospital doors. In a few instances, Roy and Johnny start their shift and the squad is just coming back from another call with another pair of paramedics just ending their shift, or they end their shift and hand over to another pair to take over the Squad, and the Station 51 crew is often shown coming on or going off duty as part of the firehouse plot. However, it's played straight with the hospital; it seems that no matter what time of day or night it is, Brackett, Dixie, Early and Morton will always be there. |
| 35 | * AnnoyingPatient: Johnny, at least once. Brackett quickly gets tired of John regaling the nurses with his story in "Virus" |
| 36 | * ArtisticLicenseMedicine: There are scattered instances where medical accuracy is sacrificed for storytelling reasons, but by and large this was averted. The equipment and procedures were all accurate to the time, even replacing old props with new ones as new and better real equipment came out. A notable example of this was the replacement of the old Datascope 850 EKG monitor and Resuscitron defibrillator equipment at the start of Season 4 with a new, integrated Datascope M/D2 690 monitor/defibrillator, which could monitor the heart rhythm directly through the paddles, thus saving the time required to put separate EKG pads on the patient. |
| 37 | * AsHimself: |
| 38 | ** Chief Houtz in one episode, and real "original sixteen" paramedic Bob Bellveau[[note]]Bellveau had LACo paramedic cert #0001[[/note]] in a couple of other cameos. |
| 39 | ** Mike Stoker, Engine 51's engineer and driver, was played by an actual LA County Fire Engineer... by the name of Mike Stoker. |
| 40 | * AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: Firefighter Marco Lopez would sometimes be called upon to translate for a Spanish-speaking victim or witness. However, for some inexplicable reason, some of these conversations consisted of nothing but meaningless babbling between Lopez and the extra, even if the extra obviously ''could'' speak Spanish. |
| 41 | * AuthorAvatar: In the pilot - which was directed by Jack Webb - [=DeSoto=] gives Gage a very [[Franchise/{{Dragnet}} Joe Friday]]ish dressing down on the importance of the Paramedic training program. |
| 42 | * BackdoorPilot: a few episodes (most notably 555-WILD) and the later movies were intended to be possible pilots for spin-off shows, but none gained traction. |
| 43 | * BagOfHolding: Averted. One could be forgiven for thinking this trope is at work with the squad truck; Roy and Johnny can pull an awful lot of stuff out of it as needed, including some fairly bulky items. But it's not magic, just efficient use of storage space. |
| 44 | * BattleaxeNurse: The older nurse whom Gage, and later Roy and Marco, get stuck with in "The Nuisance". She was a mild case, but was generally grumpy and disagreeable. She tended to yell at John a lot, and seemed to think she had to be tough due to her background in wartime Korea. |
| 45 | * BewareTheNiceOnes: Dr. Brackett is an experienced emergency-room doctor with a very thick skin, but if you get under it, ''watch out''. In one episode an angry "Hell's Angel" type motorcycle dude with a bad cut on his head gets in a heated argument with Dixie. Brackett hears the shouting, walks into the exam room, and gets punched by the angry biker. He promptly gets up and decks the guy with one punch of his own, after which the biker lets Brackett examine his badly cut forehead without another word. |
| 46 | * BloodlessCarnage: Although there wasn't a lot of messy injuries to begin with due to '70s TV standards, even injuries that normally would be expected have a degree of blood had little to none, due to the "no bloody injuries" stipulation the censors made the producers abide by. Since 1970s, "Johnny and Roy never had to deal with this shit!" has become a common refrain among firefighters, firefighter-paramedics, and single-role medics when dealing with large amounts of blood and/or other bodily substances. |
| 47 | * BoardGame: The show had one, the object to get your color firetruck to the most completed rescues on the map/ playing board. |
| 48 | * BreakOutTheMuseumPiece: In "Parade", the first crew to arrive at an apartment fire is driving the antique fire truck (and wearing the period-appropriate costumes) they'd been test-driving for use in the titular public display. They successfully retrieve a trapped couple using its crude hand-carry ladder to bring them to safety via the roof, [[spoiler: although this trope becomes just ''Break'' The Museum Piece thereafter, when a wall collapses onto the vintage vehicle]]. |
| 49 | * BusmansHoliday: Happens to both the paramedics and the doctors. |
| 50 | ** On one occasion, Brackett takes a frazzled Dixie out to lunch at a very posh restaurant. Their lunch is interrupted by a woman who is pregnant and in labor. |
| 51 | ** Returning from a fishing trip, Johnny, Roy, and Chet come across a car accident on a lonely highway and stop to help the survivors. |
| 52 | ** Another episode consists entirely of just Roy and Johnny going on a fishing trip. They encounter so many emergencies that they never get to do any fishing. |
| 53 | ** In "The Stewardess", the fire department sends Roy and Johnny to Sacramento, with their equipment, to do a demonstration. On the return flight, a fellow passenger has a heart attack and they have to dig their equipment out of the cargo hold so they can help him. |
| 54 | * ButtMonkey: Gage always seems to come out on the wrong end of ''anything'' that's going to go wrong. During the series, he was hit by a car, infected with a monkey-transmitted flu, snakebit...it's a miracle he's alive by the series' end. Add to that his lack of luck with women and frequent failures of his ideas for whatever... |
| 55 | * CallBack: |
| 56 | ** In season 1, Johnny promises to take care of a patient's prize-winning dog while she's hospitalized and she promises him a puppy from the dog's first litter in return. In season 3, the girl shows up with the puppy. On both occasions HilarityEnsues. |
| 57 | ** In season 3 Roy and Johnny buy a junked antique fire engine with the idea of restoring it. In season 4, the restoration is finished. In season 5, they try to sell it. |
| 58 | ** In season 2 episode 1, "Decision aka Problem", Dr. Brackett gives [=DeSoto=] a pep talk after [=DeSoto=] has a very bad experience on a rescue and considers quitting the paramedic program. In season 4 episode 15, "Transition", a trainee paramedic is having some confidence problems, and [=DeSoto=] gives him the same advice that Brackett gave [=DeSoto=] two years before. |
| 59 | ---> '''[=DeSoto=]''': You have to look around and ask yourself 'Is there anybody here right now who can do this job better than I can?' If the answer is no, you go ahead and do your best. |
| 60 | * TheCameo: Dozens of Hollywood stars, from undiscovered to well-known, played victims and patients throughout the series. |
| 61 | ** Creator/AdamWest plays an actor that gets cornered by a bear ("The Bash"). |
| 62 | ** Creator/KareemAbdulJabbar played a victim trapped in his car ("Foreign Trade"). |
| 63 | ** Dick Van Patten appeared twice. In "Women", he had his finger stuck in a garbage disposal, [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in a Nick-at-Night promo. In "Grateful", he plays a grateful husband who along with his wife start imposing on Station 51 after the station rescues them. |
| 64 | ** [[Series/BattlestarGalactica1978 Laurette Sprang]] was the wife of a Vietnam vet ("Kidding"). |
| 65 | ** [[Series/{{MASH}} Jamie Farr]] was a patient at Rampart ("Boot"). |
| 66 | ** Football star and actor Dick Butkus had one of his very first TV roles as a [[ActorAllusion retired linebacker]] with a broken ankle ("The Hard Hours"). |
| 67 | ** [[Series/AmericanGladiators Larry Csonka]] appeared as a worker high on tetraethyl lead fumes, and he fights the paramedics before he's sedated ("The Screenwriter"). |
| 68 | ** [[Series/CagneyAndLacey Sharon Gless]] appears in two separate episodes, as a police officer Gage pines for ("Fuzz Lady"), and later as an eccentric sculptor ("Election"). |
| 69 | ** Wolfman Jack appeared as a TV producer trying to film a skydiving stunt that went wrong ("The Inspection"). |
| 70 | ** The cast of ''Series/Adam12'' appear in a few episodes ... even though one episode has characters watching the TV show! Kent [=McCord=] of ''Adam-12'' also makes a cameo appearance in the ''Emergency!'' blooper reel. |
| 71 | ** Creator/JohnDeLancie appears as a doctor in three seventh-season episodes. |
| 72 | ** Creator/RichardKiel plays a deli owner with anger issues ("I'll Fix It"). |
| 73 | * TheCaptain: Captain Hammer (first season) and Captain Stanley (seasons 2-6). Captain Hochrader was a character of the week, and Gage and [=DeSoto=] become captains in one of the films. Various other captains pop up when other stations are assisting on fires, and they are identified by the white stripe on the helmet. |
| 74 | * CarpetOfVirility: Chet Kelly's chest is covered in hair, as is Capt. Stanley's. Chet is not only a ConfirmedBachelor, but also one of the show's constant womanizers who brags about all the women he dates. |
| 75 | * CasanovaWannabe: Gage. He considers himself a ladies' man, but the ladies usually think the exact opposite, and any time Gage tries to give advice on women to [=DeSoto=], the advice turns out to be the exact wrong thing to do. Rarely do we see him actually have a ''successful'' date, which is pretty hilarious considering he's a rather attractive young man. |
| 76 | * CharacterCatchphrase: |
| 77 | ** "Squad/Engine/Station 51, KMG-365" [[note]]Whenever the response is made ''from'' the station, using its fixed radio antenna, they will use this call sign. It is still a valid FCC call sign licensed to the Los Angeles County Fire Department.[[/note]] |
| 78 | ** Whenever the paramedics would call in a patient report to the hospital: "Rampart, this is Rescue/Squad/County 51." |
| 79 | ** "10-4, Rampart." [[note]]In the police/firefighter "ten code", "10-4" means "acknowledged, will comply." In this case, it means the paramedics have acknowledged and are carrying out what one of Rampart Hospital's doctors (Brackett, Early or Morton) or the nurse ([=McCall=]) has directed them to do with the patient at hand.[[/note]] |
| 80 | * ChildhoodFriendRomance: Roy and Joanne [=DeSoto=]. One of the few things we learn about them is that they were childhood friends who later fell in love. |
| 81 | * CleanPrettyChildbirth: |
| 82 | ** Season two episode "The Professor" has a woman apparently in the last throes of delivery -- evidently without any prior warning signs at all, despite it being the mother's second pregnancy -- and just a few seconds after Gage & [=DeSoto=] get there, they only lay her flat on her back, the woman pants a bit, says the baby's coming, and then Gage is holding a clean, blanket-wrapped kid, with the mother smiling & not a hair out of place. For a show that's otherwise dedicated to realistic procedure (even given that things had to be cleaned up for the censors), the scene's a huge anomaly. |
| 83 | ** Almost every single childbirth presented in the series happens this way. Gage & [=DeSoto=] come in, woman is in childbirth, and after a few seconds of the woman panting and yelling, one of the paramedics will stand up holding a blanket-wrapped bundle, while the women lies back & smiles, with not a hair out of place and no blood anywhere. |
| 84 | * CodeEmergency: In "The Boat", there's an explosion and fire in the hospital basement. Dr. Morton pages "Dr. Evac" over the intercom to signal the need to evacuate without alarming the patients. As he's speaking, the P.A. is calling a Code Red. Code Red is also called in "Family Ties".[[note]]This is TruthInTelevision. Although the actual procedures can vary from system to system, most have a means to covertly alert staff to internal emergencies so things can be carried out discretely. And Code Red is a common hospital signal for a fire.[[/note]] Meanwhile, the fire department uses logical internal letter codes on occasion. For example, Code R means to respond as in an emergency (use lights and sirens)--it's significant if a unit is told to ''not'' use Code R, Code I means a fireman has been injured on site, and a Code F means a fatality. |
| 85 | * ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Regular firefighters wear black helmets with black plates and white unit numbers. Paramedics have green unit numbers. Captains have white plates with black numbers and a white stripe on the helmet. Chiefs wear white helmets. |
| 86 | * CombatMedic: |
| 87 | ** A former one was training to be a paramedic in one episode, yet failed because he kept trying to rely on his army medical skills, without waiting for the hospital to advise on what to do. He kept arguing with the paramedics and eventually learned a hard lesson when he thought a diabetic was on an acid trip and could have died without advice from the hospital to give him glucose. What he learned was that a field medic and a civilian paramedic encounter very different types of patients and thus require very different sets of skills. |
| 88 | ** In the pilot movie, Dixie is cited as being an ex-Army nurse, formerly stationed in Korea, who has experience with trained medics and medical corpsmen, which is why she's a strong proponent of the paramedic program. |
| 89 | * ComicBookAdaptation: Charlton Comics published both a color comic and a black-and-white illustrated magazine aimed at older readers based on the series. |
| 90 | * ConfirmedBachelor: Chet. Every time there's an emergency with a married couple that results in Station 51 being called to the scene, Chet will make some comment about being glad he's still single. |
| 91 | -->'''Chet''': I'm all for weddings...as long as it's not my own. |
| 92 | * ContaminationSituation: "Virus", where John and Brackett get a deadly flu strain from a monkey. |
| 93 | * CordonBleughChef: |
| 94 | ** Chet. The time he combined a bunch of health food leftovers into a steak sauce, it was so bad, the guys chased after him to make '''''him''''' eat it! |
| 95 | ** Mentioned in "The Game" when Chet mentioned they would never forget his latest creation, and Johnny quips he hadn't forgotten the dish Chet made ''last'' year. |
| 96 | ** Played with & ultimately subverted with Roy in the season 1 episode, "Cook's Tour". Throughout the episode, the guys rag on Roy for his non-existent cooking skills, as the last time Roy cooked for the station, no one could eat the result. In response, Roy keeps talking about the great new recipe he's going to make for them, though his teammates keep up the jokes, cheap-shots, & insults. When Roy's dish is finished, the fire fighters are called out to a trash fire, leaving Roy and Johnny at the station. Johnny tries the dish, and is surprised to find it's actually good, and Roy demands that Johnny sign an affidavit attesting to that. Before Johnny can do that, they are called out to an emergency, and return to find the kitchen table cleared off, the others playing chess, and Chet claims they "sent out for Mexican" instead of eating Roy's cooking...only for Roy to find that they not only ate Roy's dish, but completely devoured it, leaving no leftovers at all! |
| 97 | * CousinOliver: In ''Emergency +4'', the paramedics and fire-fighters are saddled with four kids who get to chase the grown-ups around in a van/ambulance labelled "+4". |
| 98 | * CowboyBeBopAtHisComputer: Gage and [=DeSoto=] aren't Squad 51. The truck is. Whenever they needed something from the truck, they'd refer to it as "The Squad." This is often highlighted when we see a second group of paramedics using Squad 51 during a shift change. |
| 99 | * CrashCourseLanding: In a first-season episode, a man and his teenage son are out flying in a light plane when the father has a heart attack. The son has zero flying experience; Roy has to talk him through landing the plane before the paramedics can treat the father. |
| 100 | * {{Crossover}}: |
| 101 | ** Three difficult-to-reconcile crossovers with ''Series/Adam12'': |
| 102 | *** "Hang-Up" involves Gage and [=DeSoto=] trying to find out [[MindScrew how an episode of]] ''[[MindScrew Adam-12]]'' ended.[[note]]For the record, the episode was "Ambush".[[/note]] |
| 103 | *** They could have just ''asked'' Reed and Malloy, since the officers had a guest appearance in the series pilot, "The Wedsworth-Townsend Act." |
| 104 | *** AND Gage and [=DeSoto=] help the officers deal with a lost diabetic boy who wandered off from Rampart on the ''Adam-12'' episode "Lost and Found". |
| 105 | ** Also with a short-lived series called ''Sierra''. |
| 106 | ** ''Series/QuincyME'': |
| 107 | *** Robert A. Cinader wrote an episode that featured paramedics from Squad 44 calling Rampart Emergency to deal with a heart attack at a bowling alley. The patient is directed to a different hospital as it's closer. [[spoiler:If they hadn't redirected the patient, he may have lived -- an incompetent replacement doctor killing the patient set off the episode's key plot.]] |
| 108 | *** In season 7's "Smoke Screen" Engine 51 is called as part of the battalion to deal with an apartment building fire, although none of the usual ''Emergency!'' cast are present. |
| 109 | *** While not explicitly stated to be Rampart General, the Rampart sets were used for the season 1 episode "Has Anyone Seen Quincy?" at least implying it was the same hospital. |
| 110 | * CryingWolf: Two instances in the season three episode, "Messin' Around." First, there's the case of "Old Bill" who likes to hang around the ER because he's lonely. He complains of false symptoms but he's harmless and usually entertains children. One night, his back gives him problems and Dr. Brackett sees what happens. Brackett says he wants to examine Bill when he has a moment but Bill leaves. [=DeSoto=] and Gage are later called to his house, where they find him struggling to breathe. By the time he gets to the hospital, he's in a coma. Dr. Early muses that Bill had complained of the same symptoms many times over the past few weeks, but given his history and how vague his descriptions of his discomfort were, there was no way to be sure he actually had a problem. Later in the same episode, Squad 51 is called to a house to look at a child who's swallowed ant poison. The mother stops them from entering the house because the boy has called the gas company to report a false gas leak and the sheriff to make a false report of a python in the house. A sheriff's officer comes by and advises the woman to let the paramedics enter. Turns out this time, the boy really is in trouble. Earlier, in "Seance," a teenager is taken to the hospital over the objections of his friends who think he's faking it (again), but it turns out to be a real case of taking his mother's drugs and suffering some side effects (thankfully not long-term). |
| 111 | * CurseCutShort: John, in "Gossip". He was training for the fireman's olympics and his lower anatomy was sore. |
| 112 | -->'''John''': I mean, right now, I hurt all the way from my toenails all the way up to my—''[alarm blares]'' |
| 113 | * DayInTheLife: Although fires and rescues are the centerpiece of each episode, the show doesn't stint on showing the more mundane duties of firefighters as well: drills, training, equipment maintenance, inspections and public education all get their due. |
| 114 | * DeadpanSnarker: All of the regular cast do at least a little of this. Nurse Dixie's comments about hospital management can be ''scathing''. [=DeSoto=] usually stays out of it, befitting his NiceGuy personality, but when he does get involved, his snark can leave second-degree burns. Gage and Chet are both frequent offenders and also frequent targets, especially for each other. Once or twice Gage and Chet get into mild SnarkToSnarkCombat. Some subjects are off-limits, though -- for example, they ''never'' snark at or about the patients. |
| 115 | * DeathOfAChild: One episode has a boy who ate ant poison and later died. It hits the guys hard and Chet even warns Johnny off a cabinet with one of his water bombs set up in it. There was also a teen who died of a drug overdose. |
| 116 | * TheDeterminator: In "Propinquity", Roy and Johnny respond to a call involving a man playing poker with his buddies. He had refused to stop playing even though he had already won a lot, causing them to play all night well into the morning. Then he starts having a heart attack. And he ''still'' refuses to leave despite his friends and the paramedics telling him how serious his situation is. And since he's still conscious and alert, they can't force him. He ''finally'' relents and agrees to go to the hospital on the condition that Johnny finish his hand, which Johnny does. Even as he's being wheeled away he tells Johnny not to fold under ''any'' circumstances.[[note]]Johnny later eventually reveals ''the guy had been bluffing''![[/note]] |
| 117 | * DidntThinkThisThrough: Appeared more than once, sometimes in a comic way, sometimes more serious. |
| 118 | ** In one comical example, a sculptor building a "modern art" sculpture out of trash crawled ''inside'' the sculpture to finish it. However, he forgot to leave a way for him to get back out. The Station 51 crew had to figure out how to extract him without destroying the sculpture. |
| 119 | ** In a more serious example, Gage and [=DeSoto=] were called to help a man who had a heart attack while being held hostage by bank robbers. Gage [[ExploitedTrope exploited this trope]] by convincing the robbers that they blew their whole plan when they called the paramedics to help the sick man, because it proved to the cops that they wouldn't follow through on their threats to kill the hostages. |
| 120 | ** One of the most tragic examples was a woman whose son was displaying early symptoms of polio. She at first insisted it had to be something else then said that she hadn't gotten him the vaccine because she thought it had been controlled to the point where it was impossible to contract the disease anymore. |
| 121 | * DisapprovingLook: Dixie and Roy were both good at this, and often used it in place of a snarky comment. |
| 122 | * DoomItYourself: |
| 123 | ** One episode had the paramedics try to fix their malfunctioning truck themselves. The regular Fire Department mechanic is annoyed at them doing his job and the truck keeps breaking down even more. Eventually, the mechanic fixes the problem and the station captain tells the paramedics to leave vehicle maintenance to the professionals. |
| 124 | ** In another episode, Chet and Johnny try to repair the station's TV. When they plug it back in after their "repairs," [[MadeOfExplodium it catches fire]]. |
| 125 | * DoubleTake: Sometimes, the things the Rampart receives from Squad 51's Biophone elicits this. For example, in "Mascot," Kel and Dix exchange a look when Gage explains they're surrounded by drunks because they're treating a heart-attack victim in the middle of a drunken party. And in "Nagging Suspicion," Kel and Dix exchange a look when Gage calls in and they hear go-go music in the background (because the patient is a dancer who collapsed in a bar). Joe gets in on the trope in "Paperwork" when he learns a patient accidentally drank ''2600-year-old wine'' (recovered from an archeological dig).[[note]]And that wasn't what made him sick. It was too-warm chicken salad that ended up tainted with staph.[[/note]]. The most serious Double Take occurs in "Loose Ends" when Dr. Brackett gets in a car accident (see "One of Our Own" below). |
| 126 | * DownLADrain: One run required the station to rescue the driver of a car that had crashed in one of the LA River drainage channels. |
| 127 | * DrJerk: |
| 128 | ** Doctor Morton starts out as an excellent example. In the early seasons he has no bedside manner whatsoever, a fault which gets lampshaded by Gage in one episode. He also has a tendency to jump to conclusions, such as a case where he harshly interrogates a young man who had brought his unconscious friend to the ER. Morton angrily insists that the man stop lying to him and tell the "truth" about the drugs the patient took, even though the friend says over and over that there were no drugs. It takes Dr. Brackett coming in to calm the situation down, and to discover that the patient was having a reaction to a black-widow-spider bite, not drugs. |
| 129 | ** Somewhat justified in that Morton is identified early on as an intern, and later as a resident. This meant that he's not long out of medical school, and is still learning the finer points of being a doctor. He mellows a lot over time; by the later seasons, his attitude has substantially improved. For instance, in a late episode, a heavy rainstorm traps the paramedics in a remote fire station with no accessible hospital or even a local doctor's office, with only their own supplies and a psychologist for help. Morton flies in with fresh supplies, and his arrival is all that's necessary for the audience to know the medical situation at the station is now well in hand. |
| 130 | ** In Season 3 Episode 17, "Fools", there was an intern named Donaldson, whose [[InsufferableGenius arrogance]] made Dr. Morton look a lot ''[[JerkWithAHeartOfGold friendlier]]''. Dr. Brackett prescribed spending a shift or two riding with Squad 51, and it worked like a charm. |
| 131 | * DrunkDriver: Several episodes include the paramedics responding to car accidents caused by drunk drivers. In Season 1 these are played for humor, but in subsequent seasons it's treated much more seriously, following the sharp change in thinking about drunk driving that was happening around the same time in real life. |
| 132 | ** Season 1's "Weird Wednesday" has a man so drunk that when he pulls his car out of his driveway, he ends up rolling it down a steep embankment into the trees. When Gage & [=DeSoto=] make it down to the crashed car, the man is so drunk that he only laughs at the incident, and both the paramedics break into laughter when they see how drunk the man is. |
| 133 | ** Season 2's "Peace Pipe", though, has a drunk driver crash into a parked car, where a young mother left her daughter while she did grocery shopping. The drunk rants and complains about how the crash and his drinking aren't his fault -- in earshot of the child's grieving parents -- showing him to be a huge JerkAss, as the paramedics & doctors fight to save the child's life. This episode has several disgusted and angry lectures from the policeman and doctors about what the man has done and how dangerous drunk driving is. |
| 134 | * EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: |
| 135 | ** Dixie and Dr. Brackett kiss in the pilot, and there are a couple of scenes in early episodes where he goes to her apartment to angst about his job; he also begins to change his opinion of paramedics after Gage and [=DeSoto=] save her life. After season one their romantic relationship is never referenced again. |
| 136 | ** The pilot and early episodes are noticeably different in style than the rest of the series; this is because executive producer Jack Webb directed the pilot and his influence lingered until the crew decided to do things their own way. |
| 137 | ** In the pilot, Gage is initially seen serving with Station 10. It just doesn't feel right until he is transferred to Station (and Squad) 51. |
| 138 | ** The pilot is one of the few episodes in which NoAntagonist does not apply, with (of all people) Dr. Brackett depicted as the "villain" given his initial reluctance to support the paramedic program. However, by the end of the story, he is speaking to a legislative committee in support of a new law allowing paramedics to operate in the field. |
| 139 | ** For the first few episodes, the Station 51 crew didn't use their [[CatchPhrase assigned callsign "KMG-365"]] when acknowledging a Dispatch transmission from the station. |
| 140 | ** Invoked with the evolution of Rampart's control station over time. Initially Rampart only has one base station to handle 3 paramedic squads, which eventually causes severe issues when all 3 are calling in at the same time. As time passes and the paramedic program gains traction, the base station at Rampart evolves. First, the reel-to-reel recorder is replaced with a cassette recorder in season 2 ("Decision, aka Problem"). By Season 3 ("Frequency" and "The Old Engine"), Rampart is handling 5 squads and gets a major upgrade: a second monitoring station, a radio receiver so they can listen to the fire dispatches, and a board to track the squads in their dispatches. Also, St. Francis Hospital is set up as an alternate call location should Rampart be unavailable for any reason. In Season 5 ("The Stewardess"), the monitoring station becomes an enclosed room. |
| 141 | * EpisodeOnAPlane: "The Stewardess", partially. The episode opens with an in-flight medical emergency where John and Roy have to improvise a solution. |
| 142 | * ExpospeakGag: In "Cook's Tour," Johnny removes a boy's handcuffs with a "stetso-hydraulic activator," aka pliers. |
| 143 | * {{Expy}}: Sort of. Roy & Johnny are pretty much the Firefighter/Paramedic answer to ''Series/Adam12''[='s=] Malloy & Reed, respectively. |
| 144 | * AFatherToHisMen: Captain Hank Stanley (played by [[https://www.firerescue1.com/celebrity/articles/emergency-actor-michael-norell-captain-stanley-passes-away-cEtlK969bwtFbJcr/]] the late Michael Norell). He isn't just Station 51's commander on truck runs; he encourages his men to work as a good team and takes an interest in their off-duty lives as well. On one occasion when Gage and [=DeSoto=] are very obviously moping around the station, he pushes to find out what's wrong: both men are down because Dr. Early, who's their friend as well as their colleague, has been diagnosed with a serious heart condition and is undergoing open-heart surgery. |
| 145 | * FireHoseCannon: On one occasion, the paramedics are trying to help a police officer who's been shot by a sniper in an apartment building. Engine 51 uses the truck's water cannon to spray the apartment windows and block the sniper's vision, giving the paramedics cover to evacuate the wounded police officer. |
| 146 | ** In the two-hour special, ''The Convention'', a similar scene plays out with a Vietnam vet who goes off the deep end of SanitySlippage and shoots a SFPD officer helping the paramedics evac the vet's landlord he shot earlier in RageBreakingPoint fury for threatening to have him thrown out forcibly by the police. While he's distracted by two other SFPD lawmen firing their revolvers through his door while he was firing down on everyone from his fire escape balcony fortified position, an SFFD engine company opens fire on him with their monitor, pinning him down in his apartment while Rescue 2 helped get the wounded and paramedics out of the line of fire. |
| 147 | * FiremansSafetyNet: An episode, "Details," had the firefighters have to use a life net to evacuate John and Roy off a burning building. The Station 51 captain noted that was the only time he's ever seen that piece of equipment used. |
| 148 | * FiremenAreHot: Played with and subverted with paramedic Johnny Gage, a CasanovaWannabe who continually struck out with the ladies despite being a young, good-looking single fireman. In one episode he's even asked to be in a calendar shoot with sexy models, but at the end of the episode the photographer decides to go with his comparatively dull, married partner Roy [=DeSoto=] instead. Played straight in the eyes of fans of ''Emergency!''. Yup. There's plenty of Johnny Gage fangirls/guys who think he's just [[{{Pun}} smokin' hot]]. His awkwardness is also part of it. Why Johnny was written as "Mr. Romantic Dry-spell" is, according to the cast in the 50th anniversary special, ExecutiveMeddling- the people in charge didn’t want Johnny to get the girl. |
| 149 | * FlatWhat: Not explicitly spoken in the series often, but Squad 51 has a tendency to call in a situation that causes this reaction in the Rampart staff. For instance, the episode "It's How You Play the Game" features a Cal Worthington-esque car salesman who gets attacked by a tiger. Gage calls in from the ambulance en-route describing the bite as a generic "animal" bite. Dr. Early reminds Gage that the dog needs to be captured only to be told that the "dog" was actually a tiger. Cue a nonverbal FlatWhat from him and Dixie, who just ended a phone conversation in time to hear Gage's response. Frequently, these kinds of reactions cause the Rampart doctor to ask the squad to repeat what they just said. |
| 150 | * TheFoodPoisoningIncident: "Botulism" has an outbreak at a potluck due to badly-canned mushrooms. |
| 151 | ** In "The Bash", a barbecue of under-cooked [[IAteWhat bear meat]] gets several people sick with trichinosis. |
| 152 | * TheFundamentalist: A mild one, in the third-season episode "How Green Was My Thumb". Curtis Murdoch (Will Hutchins) and his wife Emma are saved Christians who have only been that way for a couple of months, and have a daughter Melissa, who has suffered a mild concussion and a dog bite. Dr. Brackett wants to vaccinate Melissa because he believes the bite she suffered is from a rabid dog, but the Murdochs are reluctant, because their faith leads them to believe that the Lord wants Melissa to go through it on her own without vaccination (they also want Melissa to go home with them the same day she comes into the hospital, but Dr. Brackett wants her to stay there for a time for observation). This worries Dr. Brackett, who believes that if Melissa goes home the same day, she may die of the bite from a rabies infection. The hospital chaplain, Chuck (Don Chastain), is then called in, and explains to Curtis and Emma that the Lord will save Melissa from that dog bite, but that it will also take some cooperation on the Murdochs' part to have her vaccinated (he also says that the reluctance to have her vaccinated is tempting the Lord). This convinces the Murdochs, who admit that they haven't been saved all that long, and are inexperienced in the faith; Curtis then gives the go-ahead for Dr. Brackett to have Melissa vaccinated. Fortunately, the possibly needed vaccination is no longer needed, because the dog that bit Melissa was later examined and found to not have rabies. |
| 153 | * GenreMashup: It's a MedicalDrama + {{Rescue}} show. |
| 154 | * GhostExtras: Done to a fault at Rampart General Hospital, the ER hallway is an endless parade of extras. Also, most outdoor rescues have a tight group of extras standing nearby. |
| 155 | * HateSink: |
| 156 | ** Craig Brice (aka "The Walking Rulebook" and "The Human Regulation"), a fellow paramedic, was the most obvious. He seemed written just to make us want Johnny back on the job as soon as possible, at least in his first appearance (appropriately titled "The Nuisance"). Eventually got a comical ending as Roy ends up in the hospital, too, and Johnny joyfully reports that Brice is now partnered with Bellingham (aka "The Animal", the biggest slob in the department). |
| 157 | ** One notable HateSink in the season 4 episode "Firehouse Four": Mr. Fred Gibson, whose misguided attempts at exercise led to the paramedics having to rescue him throughout the episode -- and he always either blamed them for his predicament or gave them unfair criticism on how they did their job. The fact that the actor was also the voice of Scrappy Doo just makes you want to wring his neck. |
| 158 | * HeroesGoneFishing: Done literally in "Welcome to Santa Rosa County". Naturally, trouble follows them. |
| 159 | * HeroicFireRescue: Quite a bit, not surprisingly. Some of the rescues were solely medical, but as they were also firefighters, this was very common as well. |
| 160 | * HeterosexualLifePartners: Gage and [=DeSoto=]. Not only are they working partners in Station 51, but Roy also invites Johnny over to dinner with his family several times throughout the course of the series, the two take fishing & camping trips together, and hang out together during days off. |
| 161 | * HilariousOuttakes: An outtake reel exists which is full of bloopers and general goofing off by cast and crew, including a bit where Kent [=McCord=] (in character as [[Series/Adam12 Jim Reed]]) "accidentally" wanders onto the ''Emergency!'' set. |
| 162 | * HollywoodHealing: Not as bad as some series, but no matter how the main characters got hurt, they'd be back at work the next episode. (Granted, more time could have passed on screen than in Real Life) |
| 163 | * HoodHornament: In one episode, the paramedics are flagged down by a guy wanting to report an accident. He was dressed Western-style and had a pair of these on the hood of his car. |
| 164 | * HorribleHollywood: Several episodes, since the show takes place in LA county, including soap opera doctors, clueless producers, sensationalist writers and vapid actors. |
| 165 | * HospitalHottie: Julie London as Dixie [=McCall=]. Cool, compassionate, professional...and yet still as sexy as she was in her torch singing days. |
| 166 | * HostageSituation: In "Understanding," two bank robbers call for help when their hostage seems to be about to have a heart attack. When Johnny and Roy go in to treat him, the robbers take them hostage too. [[spoiler:Johnny manages to befriend the robbers and talk them into giving themselves up. Roy is impressed, but Johnny insists he didn't do anything special.]] |
| 167 | * HotBlooded: Gage is high-intensity in everything he does, on-duty and off. He talks so fast that sometimes it's hard to understand him. He has a different new idea every week -- some scheme for getting rich, or some new hobby, or sometimes both. Whatever it is, he always throws himself into it with all his energy. When he fails, as he usually does, it hits him hard. But he usually bounces back pretty fast, too. |
| 168 | * HouseFire: Most episodes had at least one of these – and sometimes this was the most climatic segment. |
| 169 | * {{Hypochondria}}: |
| 170 | ** A couple of episodes had patients like this. Usually, one of their complaints would end up being real. |
| 171 | ** Captain Stanley in the appropriately-titled "Hypochondri-Cap". He is convinced he has some sort of career-ending condition, but it turns out he only has strain from his "handy-dandy home gym". |
| 172 | * HugeGuyTinyGirl: In the fourth season episode "I'll Fix It", relatively speaking. The girl is average sized but the guy is played by Creator/RichardKiel. |
| 173 | * IShouldHaveBeenBetter: Roy takes it hard every time the paramedics lose a patient, but one case in particular gets this reaction. In Season 2 episode 1, "Problem", Roy is out of contact with Rampart and is forced to make a decision on his own, which endangers the life of a patient. He gets chewed out for it by the patient's regular doctor, and then the patient dies in the hospital. Roy is a NiceGuy who became a firefighter and then a paramedic out of a genuine desire to save lives and help people, and the thought that in this case he killed the patient is almost too much for him. He gets better after Dr. Brackett tells him that he (Brackett) would have done the same thing, and the patient would still have died from his injuries, but he never forgets the case. |
| 174 | * ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: A sniper in "Peace Pipe" successfully shoots a construction worker, then takes multiple shots at the paramedics without coming close to hitting them. |
| 175 | * ImprobablyCoolCar: In the episode "Foreign Trade," Roy is shown driving a 1964 Porsche 356C Cabriolet -- not one of Porsche's supercars, but even in the 1970s it was considered a classic, and a ''much'' cooler car than one would associate with a paramedic and a family man like Roy. |
| 176 | * InfoDump: A lot of technical stuff gets thrown around during the series, but the biggest dose occurs during the pilot movie when Gage first arrives at Station 51 and takes a look at the squad's new equipment for the first time. We get a rundown on the stuff they'll be using for the rest of the series: the various first aid kits, the portable [=EKG=] and defibrillator, and the orange Biophone. |
| 177 | * InSeriesNickname: |
| 178 | ** "Johnny" for John Gage, "Chet" for Chester Kelly, "Hank" or "Cap" for Captain Henry Stanley (the latter applies to any captain who appears on the show), "Dix" for [=Dixie McCall=], "Kel" for Dr. Kelly Brackett. Roy also likes to call Johnny "Junior", while Gage sometimes calls him "Pally" ("Pal" diminutive.) |
| 179 | ** Craig "the walking rulebook" Brice, and "Captain Hook" Hochrader. But no one directly calls them by their nicknames. |
| 180 | * InsomniaEpisode: The aptly titled episode "Insomnia", where John just can't get to sleep during a run of night shifts, and becomes convinced he'll be able to sleep after they get a nighttime call. At the end of the episode, the station ''does'' get a nighttime call, but not for the rescue squad. Not to be discouraged, John grabs onto the rear handhold of the leaving fire engine, partial dressed in his bumper gear, and falls asleep on his feet. |
| 181 | * TheInspectorIsComing: The Chief, in this case. Stanley goes nuts fearing [=McConnikee=] will pull a surprise inspection. Nothing bad happens when he does, but Hank still thinks the Chief is trying to psych him out. There's also another episode where John is told to cut his hair. |
| 182 | * InstantEmergencyResponse: While response times were narrowed for obvious dramatic and show-length reasons, the show did generally avert instant response by indicating several minutes or more had passed between alarm and arrival (in fact, every dispatch would end with the time in 24-hour clock style; when Squad 51 radioed their arrival at scene the dispatcher would again note the time - often ten or more minutes had passed). "Not Available" (Season 6) played the trope as its major plotline (thus the title). Paramedics are complaining of a lack of ability to prioritize calls because they can't know the full nature of the call until they get there, causing dangerous and possibly even fatal delays when multiple calls hit a single area. This is, unfortunately, TruthInTelevision. People call 911 (or their equivalent emergency number) for non-emergency medical situations. The consequence is that fewer fire/EMS units are left available for other true emergencies, such as car accidents, heart attacks, etc, and have to respond from a greater distance, increasing response times. |
| 183 | * InstrumentalThemeTune: Like ''Series/{{Dragnet}}'' and ''Series/Adam12'' before it, ''Emergency!'' used lyricless themes that convey the mood of the show. In this case, up to about season three, the theme you hear is fast-paced, like a fire or rescue truck speeding off to the scene. Later, the show started using a second opening where the music is more subdued but still lyricless; instead, the opening conveys the show's tone using voiced clips and radio snippets. |
| 184 | * TheIntern: |
| 185 | ** Dr. Morton is in the middle of his internship during the first few seasons. He then begins his residency later in the series. |
| 186 | ** An arrogant, know-it-all one rides along with the medics in one episode. |
| 187 | ** Several other interns appear as extras occasionally in Rampart, often learning from Brackett or Early. They are identified by the older-style physician's uniform tunics they wear. |
| 188 | * InterruptedSuicide: In "Understanding," a woman calls the hospital from her home, saying she swallowed a bunch of downers and turned on the gas, and just wants someone to talk to while she dies. Everyone rushes to find her name and address, complete with a PhoneTraceRace, so paramedics and a fire truck can be dispatched to her house to save her and deal with a possible gas explosion. |
| 189 | * IntoxicationEnsues: A mild case in "An English Visitor". The guys are fighting a truck fire and not wearing air tanks since they aren't inside a building. The truck turns out to contain a load of marijuana, and it's indicated by the end of the scene that the smoke is starting to give the guys a bit of a buzz. |
| 190 | * IronicEcho: In Season 2 Episode 1, "Problem", Roy is put on the spot by a doctor who tells him that the patient he brought in would have been better off being "in an ideal hospital setting" instead of treating him en route to it; the patient died four hours later. Later, said doctor tries to resuscitate a patient (a friend and fellow doctor) that collapses ''in said ideal hospital setting'' and dies after throwing in every effort to revive him. Brackett, who had earlier defended Roy's decision, [[LampshadeHanging explicitly points this out to him]] and Dixie chews him out for being way out of line, pointing out that the likes of Roy actually perform their jobs and save lives in hazardous conditions actual doctors almost never face. It’s also a bit of a double example as it’s an ironic echo of sorts to Brackett himself opposing the program for those reasons in the premiere movie. |
| 191 | * IronicName: Mike Stoker. The surname comes from, and means, someone who keeps fires burning. Mike, however, puts them out. All the more ironic, given that (as pointed out above), it's his real name, and he's an actual [=LACoFD=] engineer, playing himself. |
| 192 | * {{Irony}}: The occasional instances where they set something on fire in the station, especially the time they were trying to come up with firefighting inventions. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Johnny the first time it happens, when Chet sets his skis on fire: "Cap, we've got a fire in the station! Call dispatch!" |
| 193 | * JawDrop: Appeared a few times, mostly under conditions that would make pretty much anybody get a little slack-jawed: |
| 194 | ** Johnny, Roy, and Chet are on a fishing trip and have to take a couple of accident victims to the local doctor, a "Dr. Frick." Johnny expects to see a middle-aged family doctor type, but when the doctor appears he's about thirty and looks like a classic hippie, right down to the long fuzzy hair. Johnny is dumbstruck. |
| 195 | ** One call for Station 51 requires them to get a man out of his car after a minor accident left the driver's side door jammed. They get the door open without too much trouble, and the driver gets out and stands up ... and up ... and UP. Both Johnny and Chet do perfect "oh my god" jaw-drops when they see how tall the driver was. It was an understandable reaction since the car wasn't very large and the driver was [[TheCameo basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in a cameo appearance]]). |
| 196 | * {{Jerkass}}: A couple of examples. |
| 197 | ** In the Season 2 Episode 6, "Saddled"- An [[GrumpyOldMan owner of a soda shop]] (played by F-Troop star Larry Storch) tries to throw the paramedics out while they're treating a girl who was injured by a soda bottle explosion and knocked unconscious, complaining that his shop is not a hospital. Five minutes in, [[IgnoredExpert Roy]] [[CassandraTruth tries to tells the owner his heater isn't up to code and improperly installed]], the [[EntitledBastard owner]] scoffs at and berates Roy for being a pest. Hardly some time passes, and the team goes back to the place after a call is sent out for an [[StuffBlowingUp explosion]]. [[AssholeVictim Guess who was caught in it]]. And as he is wheeled down the hall, the UngratefulBastard yells about suing the hospital, as well as Roy and Johnny. |
| 198 | ** In Season 4 Episode 16, "The Smoke Eater," there is a member of a motorcycle gang who calls himself "Spike" (played by the late Creator/SidHaig) who comes into Rampart and requests a bandage for a cut on his head. He isn't interested in following hospital procedures; he just wants his bandage NOW! Nurse [=McCall=] shows the biker to a treatment room, where she examines that cut (the biker says a chain to his head caused it), and determines that the biker does indeed need stitches (also that a doctor will have to examine the cut). Spike then threatens [=McCall=] and says he'll tear the hospital apart if he does not get a bandage. Dr. Brackett happens by the treatment room and hears Spike threatening the nurse, and intervenes. Spike then delivers a roundhouse punch to Brackett's face, but Brackett says that two can play that game, and [[BewareTheNiceOnes delivers a return punch to Spike's jaw, and puts him down for the count]]. Brackett then asks Dixie what happened; Dixie updates him on Spike's complaint (that he had a cut on his head, and that Dixie determined the need for stitches, to which Spike took violent offense). Spike then recovers, and Dr. Brackett insists that Spike needs stitches for the cut. Spike then submits, seeing no other choice (but then asks if Dr. Brackett can see to his jaw as well). |
| 199 | * JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Dr. Morton again. Despite his DrJerk persona (see above), he genuinely cares about the people that come through Rampart, and is always willing to help, even in one situation involving a man with a grenade fired into his stomach where his own life was in danger because of said grenade. He also ''hates'' when bad things happen to kids. In one episode he tries to help the firemen of Station 51 with a new, healthier diet; in another he quietly researches dog medicine when station mascot Boot seems unusually low energy, causing Dixie to lampshade that he was a "pussycat", to which Morton said, "Sure, but don't tell them that". |
| 200 | * KarmaHoudini: In the episode, "Nurses Wild", a student nurse makes a snark to Johnny about being humble despite his job. In the end she gets a job on a cruise ship's medical ward before Johnny get the chance to set her straight. |
| 201 | * KiddieKid: In "Alley Cat," the protagonists rescue a girl from a plane crash who looks about twelve, but acts closer to four. She calls her parents Mommy and Daddy, refers to her injured, unconscious father as "asleep in the plane," does an impression of a lion, and even calls her mother's bandages a "funny hat" and asks if she can have one. The adults around her act accordingly, with lines like "Why don't you one, two, three, four drink your milk." |
| 202 | * LastNameBasis: Brice called everyone he worked with by last name. |
| 203 | * LeFilmArtistique: In "Convention" Gage is upset that De Soto wants to spend their first night in San Francisco watching a movie on TV with a BLT instead of enjoying the night life. He's even ''more'' upset when De Soto watches an inscrutable Russian art film that's practically a parody of this trope. |
| 204 | * LeaningOnTheFourthWall: |
| 205 | ** In the first episode of season 4, "The Screenwriter," a man comes to the station to prepare for a film he wants to make about the paramedic program. He's seated in the middle in the squad as the paramedics answer a call. He exclaims, "This is fantastic! This is dynamite! We could mount the camera right on the hood of the truck!" Of course, you're looking at this scene through the viewpoint of the camera mounted on the hood of the truck. Heck, pretty much the entire episode is LeaningOnTheFourthWall or LampshadeHanging of one sort or another. |
| 206 | ** The last episode of the live-action series, "All Night Long," has a subplot in which Johnny is trying to write a pitch for a game show. He eventually gives up when his idea turns out to be unoriginal. Roy offers the idea of writing a show about paramedics; Johnny replies, distractedly, "Story of my life." To top it all off, the episode was written by Kevin Tighe, who plays Roy. |
| 207 | ** 4th season episode, "The Bash" has Johnny & Roy rescuing a movie star from a bear; movie star invites the pair to a party in gratitude. Cue the [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall Fourth Wall Leaning]] in ''spades'': |
| 208 | ---> '''Marco:''' You know what would be great? If you guys would get discovered! |
| 209 | ---> ''[Roy & Johnny only look at each other, then resume eating]'' |
| 210 | ** Quite a few 6th season episodes lean hard on the fourth wall: |
| 211 | *** "Family Ties" has Chet asking both Chief & Johnny if Roy could "pass as a movie star": cue disbelief and sarcasm. |
| 212 | *** "An Ounce of Prevention" is full of meta-references and fourth-wall-leaning snark, as Johnny & Roy go on a TV show to do a fire-prevention demonstration, and Johnny tries to teach Roy how to handle being on-camera. |
| 213 | * LethalChef: |
| 214 | ** Marco's Mexican can get spicy at times. So can Chet's, apparently. One time, Roy and Johnny are called to another station to handle a fellow fireman who has severe stomach pain. Turns out to be way-too-spicy chili he was cooking (and tasting) resulting in severe heartburn. |
| 215 | ** The guys try to convince Chief Houtz Mike is one in an episode, but that may have been an attempt to scare the chief out of staying for dinner. It doesn't work, either. |
| 216 | * LethallyStupid: According to Randolph Mantooth, many of the rescues featured are based on real runs by real paramedic units. If so, there must be some ''fearfully'' stupid people out there... |
| 217 | ** In one episode, Johnny and Roy get called to help a guy who was tossed and then gored by a bull while playing chicken with it on a motorbike. The two take in a Stokes litter to pick up the guy...and then the bull starts to charge. The two about-face, chuck the litter over the fence, and dive headfirst over. Eventually they bring the squad in to provide cover, and after they pull the guy out with him riding in the squad, the victim ''asks them to go back for the bike'', since he worked all summer to pay for it. |
| 218 | --->'''Johnny''': You wanna go tell the bull that? |
| 219 | ** A homeowner goes up on his roof and starts cleaning his chimney using gasoline and sandpaper. The resulting explosion gives him some serious burns. |
| 220 | ** A {{Jerkass}} hot-dog stand owner chooses to ignore Roy's warning that his gas heater is dangerously unsafe. Later that day, Station 51 gets a call to guess where? |
| 221 | ** A used-car dealer who loves to make weird ads tries to film one with a full-grown tiger in the car with him. Despite being warned "no food!" by the tiger's handler, the dealer has a packet of salted peanuts in his pocket. The tiger smells the food and attacks him. |
| 222 | ** A tragic example: In one incident, Station 51 is called to a movie set after a stunt with a car goes awry. The driver and a passenger are trapped in the car, so a crewman grabs an acetylene torch and starts cutting open the wreck so the two men can get out. The gasoline leaking from the car's tank puts a quick end to that. The crewman survives, although with extensive burns. The two men in the car don't. |
| 223 | ** In the episode "Peace Pipe", Station 51 responds to a small fire in a house's toilet. The firemen get a nasty surprise when water from a garden hose actually feeds the flames! After putting out the fire using tarps and the untainted water from the fire engine's own water tank, the paramedics trace the problem back to a street worksite, where gas monkeys are using municipal water lines to flush a high-pressure fuel line from a refinery. |
| 224 | ---> '''Roy''': Did you ever hear of a clapper valve?\ |
| 225 | '''Gas monkey''': Yeah, it stops something from backin' up. Sure I have.\ |
| 226 | '''Johnny''': Then why aren't you using one?\ |
| 227 | '''Gas monkey''': No need. There's only 500 pounds pressure in this [gas] line.\ |
| 228 | '''Roy''': There's only ''80'' in the hydrant. What does that tell ya?[[note]]That the gas is forcing itself ''back'' into the hydrant line, contaminating the water supply and rendering it flammable.[[/note]] |
| 229 | * LimitedAdvancementOpportunities: Dealt with when Roy passes the engineer's exam. He can't take the promotion without giving up being a paramedic, and he decides he likes being a paramedic too much to give it up. In the "Best Rescues" movie, when they finally get promoted to captain, they mention having given the department years to change the rules about paramedics holding rank, implying that the reason they stayed one of the lowest ranks in the department the whole show really was for love of the work. There's a bit of possible contradiction with Captain Stone, who still had his certification in an earlier episode. It's possible that they could maintain certification, but just couldn't man a squad anymore. |
| 230 | * MagicalDefibrillator: While usually averted in early episodes, with the portable defibrillator used primarily when it would have worked in real life, starting from about Season 4 onward, the show started to slip, with this trope being played straight in several episodes. Both Rampart doctors and the paramedics shock victims who are flat-lining, and once or twice it actually brings the patient back. |
| 231 | * MagicalNativeAmerican: Averted/subverted. Johnny's Native American heritage comes up, but he never displays any magic powers, and when he decides he's going to get into a rodeo and use his Native American riding skills, he winds up so sore he can barely walk the next day. |
| 232 | * MagnificentMustachesOfMexico: Marco, starting in season two. Also qualifies as a PornStache. |
| 233 | * TheMainCharactersDoEverything: Generally averted. While the focus is always on the main characters for obvious reasons, they're not superheroes and they don't try to be. |
| 234 | ** It's not unusual for Station 51 to arrive at a call location, see that what they've got isn't enough for the job, and call for additional units. |
| 235 | ** They also leave policing to the police. In one episode, Roy and Johnny rescue an injured motorcyclist from a brushfire, then discover that he was taking advantage of the brushfire to loot evacuated houses. They treat his injuries, take him back to the firefighter base camp, and turn him over to the sheriff's deputy there. |
| 236 | ** It's also not unusual for the ER doctors to decide they need help with a case and call for a specialist - cardiologist, neurologist, orthopedist, etc. In other cases they get the patient stabilized and diagnosed, and then move him or her to a room in another ward -- Intensive Care, Cardiac Care, etc. |
| 237 | ** Even nurses occasionally get the spotlight. In one episode, a cardiac patient accidentally breaks off the tip of his catheter -- a potentially life-threatening problem if the fragment gets lodged in a blood vessel and causes an embolism. The nurse in the room sees it happen and acts on her own to trap the fragment with a tourniquet and reduce the chance of an embolism, ''then'' calls for a doctor to remove the catheter tip. |
| 238 | * ManOnFire: Happens to a paint factory worker in one episode, a doctor trying to retrieve records in another episode, and a firefighter of another company when the fighter jet that had crashed into an apartment building had its fuel tank explode. |
| 239 | * MaternityCrisis: Impromptu deliveries are a somewhat common call for Squad 51, which is why the squad keeps an obstetrics kit for such occasions. Then, in "Camera Bug", Kel and Dix are having lunch at a restaurant when ''they're'' called to handle one. |
| 240 | * MedicalDrama: One of the best-known examples. |
| 241 | * MenAreUncultured: Played with when the personnel of Station 51 are visited by a female TV reporter who assumes they are not cultured. Indignant, Roy sets out to prove her wrong by showing all the sophisticated hobbies they indulge in. Unfortunately, he does ''too well'' as she switches out the football game tickets she promised them, and which they were eagerly anticipating, for opera tickets on the assumption that they would prefer them. |
| 242 | * MessOnAPlate: In one episode, the heroes save the life of a celebrity chef, who rewards them with an autographed copy of his latest book. When they later try to put together a dinner for the rest of the crew at their station, using the book, they swiftly realize that they did something wrong, and that dinner is ruined. They dump everything they were cooking into a single pot in order to hide the evidence. Just as they're taking it out back to dump it, the fire crew comes back, assuming dinner is ready. Despite having an odd gray color, and the consistency of paper maché paste, the "stew" is universally deemed fantastically delicious by the other fire fighters, and the crew expects it to be made again in the future. |
| 243 | * MissionControl: Rampart has a radio desk and, eventually, a separate communications room for the doctors and nurses to communicate with the paramedics to hear their description and vitals about the patient and give instructions to deal with the medical situation before they are transported. Starting in season 5, we also start seeing the Keith Klinger Center (the Fire Department's East L.A. headquarters) where [[TheVoice the dispatcher]] issues the alarms. |
| 244 | * MrFanservice: Hey there, Johnny. You should take your shirt off more often. |
| 245 | * NeatFreak: Brice, Brice, '''Brice'''. He insists that everything be done by the rulebook and that everything be organized. His partner says in one ep that he checked the drug box three times between runs. |
| 246 | ** There was also the supply nurse in "Paperwork". She was as meticulous and demanding as Brice was, only in the hospital. She got on ''so'' many nerves that Nurse [=McCall=] contrived an excuse to get the position removed. |
| 247 | * {{Nephewism}}: One of the few tidbits about John's backstory was that he lived with an aunt for a time. |
| 248 | * NoAntagonist: |
| 249 | ** Since it was a MedicalDrama, and Jack Webb stayed mostly clear of personal life drama, a large portion of the eps were like this. Led to a few HateSink characters in some episodes. |
| 250 | ** The pilot film actually casts Dr. Brackett in the antagonist role, as he spends much of the film opposing the idea of creating paramedic units until he eventually begins to see their value (especially after his [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness girlfriend]] Dixie is saved by them). |
| 251 | * NoGuyWantsToBeChased: 1st season episode "Dilemma": Womanizer Johnny changes a tire for a passerby, then gets irate and turned off when the woman starts calling him & sending him gifts. |
| 252 | * NoSeatBelts: For paramedics who have to rush to emergencies, the fact they do that without buckling up is incomprehensible to modern viewers. In fact, most fire departments and ambulance services would see a lack of seat belt usage a sackable offense. Although in 1972, seat belts were ''optional'' on the kinds of trucks used to make the Squad. |
| 253 | * NoSocialSkills: Brice, again. He functions well enough to do his job, but has no patient skills in the field. He insists on being literal and telling it like it is, even if telling his heart attack patient what's likely happening only makes it worse. Roy calls him on it later. Brice just says they look at things differently and there's no point in discussing it. |
| 254 | * NoodleIncident: Hank setting [=McConnikee=]'s hat on fire as an engineer. |
| 255 | * NumberTwo: Dixie is effectively this for Dr. Brackett. He's in command of the Rampart ER staff, but she takes care of all the administrative details and makes sure that things get done when and where they need doing. |
| 256 | * ObnoxiousInLaws: Roy sees Joanne's mother as this. He goes nuts when she is about to visit. He mentions that she thinks he has the brains to be a doctor, but settled for being a paramedic, and she doesn't understand it. |
| 257 | * OfCorsetsFunny: The heavyset woman whose girdle Johnny cuts off when she can't breathe. It snaps him in the face after coming loose. |
| 258 | * OhCrap: |
| 259 | ** All of the firefighters flinch any time the word "brushfire" is mentioned or even hinted at. They've all been on brushfires, and know how bad they can get. TruthInTelevision: Southern California is known for very bad brushfires, which can move fast, burn very hot, jump fire-lines, and destroy hundreds of acres in no time at all. |
| 260 | ** If Station 51's battalion chief, Battalion 14, is called in, you ''know'' this is a massive fire. Or if there's a call for a ''second'' alarm, or even higher. |
| 261 | ** The longer the tones go on, the more you know it's going to be ''bad.''. This is TruthInTelevision for the tone-based paging systems used even today by many Fire Departments. A call for multiple stations on such systems begins with all the individual stations' calling tones strung together. |
| 262 | ** Sometimes, something just goes down right in their midst. In which case, ''they're'' the ones who report the emergency to the dispatcher in what's termed a "still alarm". An example of the term in use happens in "The Old Engine Cram". A visitor to the station suddenly collapses, so Captain Stanley radios, "''LA, Station 51. We have a still alarm: a medical emergency at the station. Respond an ambulance.''" |
| 263 | *** One example is when Johnny is bitten by a rattlesnake ("Snakebite"). The moment he tells the engine crew he's been poisoned by snakebite... |
| 264 | ---> '''Captain Stanley:''' "L.A., this is Engine 51. We have a paramedic bitten by a rattlesnake. Engine 51 is no longer available. Time out: 1 hour. Repeat, paramedic bitten by a rattlesnake."\ |
| 265 | '''L.A. County Fire Dispatch:''' "10-4, Engine 51."\ |
| 266 | (At Rampart, having hear the communication over the radio, Dixie grabs the phone)\ |
| 267 | '''Dixie:''' "Get me the County Fire Dispatcher." |
| 268 | ** Several episodes avert this when the 51 crew arrive on the scene and realizes the initial reports overstated the situation, or they're able to get a handle on it quickly and have Dispatch cancel some of the called units. The reverse is also true; Station 51 can arrive and realize they need more help and can ask the dispatcher for additional units or even a second alarm. The worst is if Station 51 is still en route to the scene and LA County starts calling in ''more'' units before they even get there, including mutual aid from local fire departments like Pasadena or Compton; it's going to be a monster. |
| 269 | *** One example was in the two-hour special ''The Steel Inferno'', where the fire was so bad, after Battalion 14 got there, Battalion 21 arrived shortly thereafter, then Assistant Chief 7, who is a rank higher than the Battalion Chiefs, manning the command post outside with the building inspector while Dr. Brackett manned the triage center in the garage with Dr. Morton and several nurses. The United States Coast Guard (USCG) also sent one of their helicopters from the Los Angeles heliport to assist as well with rooftop evacuations. |
| 270 | *** Another was the two-hour special ''Survival on Charter #220'', where when Engine 18 and Squad 18 are the first units on scene of the plane crash, horrified by the scale of the carnage, they radio for a "[[RedAlert third alarm]]" to get more units there quickly before Battalion 14 Chief [=McConnikee=] and Vince arrive with Carson Police, with [=McConnikee=] taking command of the scene while asking Vince to have his officers clear the area of civilians and set up roadblocks to keep traffic out of the way of arriving emergency vehicles. Compton sends several of their fire companies to help as well. |
| 271 | * OneOfOurOwn: Quite a few times. |
| 272 | ** Johnny is hit by a car ("The Nuisance"), infected with a virus ("Virus"), quarantined with Roy for radiation exposure ("Hang-Up"), and bitten by a snake ("Snakebite"). |
| 273 | ** Cap ("The Great Crash Diet"), Roy ("The Indirect Method"), and Marco ("Insanity Epidemic") are all electrocuted. |
| 274 | ** Roy also has to get what's left of his tonsils out in "Syndrome", and is injured in a building fire along with Marco another time. |
| 275 | ** Chet is injured in an explosion in "Equipment" and breaks his shoulder in "Syndrome". |
| 276 | ** Johnny ("Surprise"), Marco ("Computer Error"), and Roy ("The Girl on the Balance Beam") get caught in explosions, too. |
| 277 | ** Dr. Early needs heart bypass surgery ("The Hard Hours"). |
| 278 | ** Dr. Brackett is a car accident victim ("Loose Ends") and was infected by the same virus. In the former case, Dr. Early quotes the trope when Johnny reports it in. |
| 279 | ** Dixie is seriously hurt at least three times (the pilot, "Surprise", and "The Boat"). |
| 280 | * OnlySaneMan: Among the fire station crew, Roy frequently comes off as one. Whenever Johnny comes up with a money-making scheme, Roy's the one who tries to talk sense into him...not that Johnny listens, at first. |
| 281 | * OutrunTheFireball: A few times (such as "Gossip", "Kidding", "Involvement", and "The Unlikely Heirs"), the firemen, paramedics, and/or victims have to run for cover before something blows up. Usually they make it, but in "Surprise", John didn't make it out of the building in time and was injured, and Roy gets his turn in "Equipment". |
| 282 | * ParachuteInATree: The lady jumper who didn't want her chute damaged while she was being rescued in "Weird Wednesday." One of the guys pops her reserve chute, too, and she complains about the repacking fee. [[spoiler:It turns out this is her ''94th'' jump...''AND'' this jump is the closest she's ever been to landing on target.]] |
| 283 | * PatientOfTheWeek: There were usually 2 or 3 of these per episode, with the Rampart segments rotating in between rescue scenes, and the storylines being tied up before the week's big, climactic rescue. |
| 284 | * ThePerfectionist: Brice, "the perfect paramedic". Besides being devoted to the rules, he insists on being as perfect as he can in his work. |
| 285 | * PilotMovie: "The Wedsworth-Townsend Act," a two-hour made-for-TV movie which focuses on the effort to train L. A. County firefighters as paramedics and get the legal backing necessary for them to use their training. Though the after-series movies get split in two for re-airing, this has sometimes been severely edited to fit the usual one-hour slot. The edited version is done as late series Roy and Gage reminiscing on the start of the program, which allows the very different story to be inserted into the random episode rotation of syndication. |
| 286 | * PlayingSick: Both the paramedics and the doctors have to deal with examples of this. |
| 287 | ** In one case, Johnny and Roy are called to help an old man with crippling back pain. After he's transported to Rampart, his symptoms confound the doctors because they don't add up to anything recognizable. Eventually the truth comes out: he's been faking it all just to have fun and to get a few days of pampering in the hospital. He's done this so many times that he knows just what to tell the doctors in order to keep them guessing a little while longer. |
| 288 | ** Another run involves a house the paramedics have been to before: an aggrieved wife who [[FakeFaint repeatedly fakes collapsing]] in order to get back at her husband. Johnny wakes her up with a vial of smelling salts, then explains to the couple that these repeated calls for fake emergencies are a waste of the paramedics' time, and they really shouldn't be doing it. |
| 289 | ** In a more serious example, a man says he was hit and seriously injured by the squad as they were racing to a call. A police detective starts investigating, and it looks bad for Johnny and Roy. However, the detective eventually finds out that the man is an ex-circus acrobat and faked his injuries -- and he's done it at least three times before, each time getting significant amounts of money from insurance settlements. |
| 290 | * PluckyComicRelief: Chet, quite often. He is always the one joking around and playing pranks on the other guys. He does have a few decent moments, though. When the chips are down, he is a consummate professional. In fact, Chet's duties gradually evolve into becoming an informal basic EMT medic who can do elementary medical duties while Gage and [=DeSoto=] can tend to sophisticated matters they are certified for. |
| 291 | * PocketProtector: Played with in "Insanity Epidemic". A woman doing remodeling with her husband [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace accidentally shoots him in the chest with a nailgun.]] The nail is stopped by ''the man's pacemaker,'' penetrating the skin but not killing him. |
| 292 | * PoorCommunicationKills: Several episodes dealt with dangers caused to patients by communication issues, whether due to loss of communications or with communications getting confused between the field and the hospital, or a combination of both. |
| 293 | * PoorlyDisguisedPilot: |
| 294 | ** A Season 4 episode titled 905-Wild was intended as a spinoff involving a WhiteDudeBlackDude duo of Animal Control officers played by ''Film/DirtyHarry'' co-star Albert Popwell and future ''Series/StElsewhere'' (and much later, ''Series/{{NCIS}}'') star Mark Harmon. It wasn't picked up. |
| 295 | ** The later TV movie, ''Most Deadly Passage'', was intended as a pilot for a series about the Medic One fire department paramedic unit in UsefulNotes/{{Seattle}}, Washington, reputed to be one of the finest (as noted in a 1974 segment of a ''60 Minutes'' episode) and well-known of that time period. ''Most Deadly Passage'' starred two doctors played by George Wyner (later of ''Series/HillStreetBlues'' and ''Film/{{Spaceballs}}'') and a very young Creator/JohnDeLancie. |
| 296 | * ThePrankster: Chet Kelly. AKA "The Phantom." His colleagues aren't amused. Gage, his "Pigeon," is his most frequent target, but others have gotten hit as well. |
| 297 | * PrejudiceAesop: |
| 298 | ** In an early episode, a hippie-ish young man brought in his friend, who collapsed suddenly and won't wake up. Dr. Morton got the case and immediately made things much worse by assuming it was a drug overdose, when in fact it was a venomous bite from a black-widow spider. Lampshaded at the end of the segment: Morton clumsily apologized and the friend said, "That's okay, Doc, you can't help your prejudices. Nobody can." It was an especially sharp slap at Morton -- as a black doctor in the 1970s, he certainly had plenty of experience with prejudice himself, and really ought to have known better. |
| 299 | ** In the episode "Snake Bite", Gage, [=DeSoto=], and Chet were returning from a fishing trip when they [[BusmansHoliday came across a car accident]]. They did what they could to help the victims, then took them to the nearest doctor's office. The doctor's appearance [[JawDrop left Gage speechless]]: he looked like a classic dope-smoking hippie, but he turned out to be a good general practitioner and competent emergency surgeon. Both victims survived and recovered. |
| 300 | * PunnyName: Mike Stoker, a fireman both in the show and RealLife. |
| 301 | * RandomSmokingScene: Dixie has a cigarette on her break in one early episode[[note]]Looking back, this could be considered HarsherInHindsight, as Julie London would eventually develop lung cancer among other ailments due to her longtime smoking habit. Additionally, her smoking and drinking had resulted in a loss of vocal control that led to her not recording any further albums after 1969[[/note]]. Back then, smoking in hospitals wasn't banned as it is today. Also counts as EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, since we don't see any of the other main characters smoking anywhere. (we did sometimes catch a glimpse of a pack of smokes in Gage's shirt pocket, but that was because Mantooth forgot to take them out, not because of Gage being a smoker to our knowledge.) |
| 302 | * RankUp: Gage and [=DeSoto=], along with possibly at least one recurring character, become Captains in one of the movies. |
| 303 | * RedAlert: The distinctive Quick Call system where each station has its own series of tones to indicate it is being called up and a klaxon that sounds to confirm that Station 51 is being deployed. The dispatcher would then, along with destination info, specify the equipment and station to be deployed. If "Station" is called, all units from that station are to be deployed (so a call of "Station 51" means both the engine and the squad roll out); otherwise it's just the apparatus stated (Engine for fire engines, Squad for rescue squads, Truck for ladder/crane trucks, Foam for foam generators, Deluge for high-volume monitors, Copter for helicopters, Boat for fire boats, Batallion for batallion chiefs to coordinate larger deployments, and Assistant for assistant chiefs for even larger ones). Once, a very tired John Gage mixed them up when awakened and climbed on the engine rear by mistake, with [=DeSoto=] yelling behind him "IT'S NOT FOR US!" |
| 304 | * RedOniBlueOni: HotBlooded Gage is the Red Oni to [=DeSoto=]'s Blue. Gage is hyperactive, emotional, full of get-rich-quick schemes, and usually takes the lead on difficult rescues. Family man [=DeSoto=] is more rational, controlled, and phlegmatic, unless he's ''really'' wound up about something, like when he's planning dinner in one episode and is working hard to make it something great. When [=DeSoto=] violates procedure in "The Fool" and changes to the backup hospital in the middle of a rescue, you ''know'' he's got a damn good reason for doing it. |
| 305 | * {{Rescue}}: the Televison UrExample, and TropeCodifier |
| 306 | * RescueEquipmentAttack: Roy and Johnny occasionally have to do this, usually to deal with animals. |
| 307 | ** In one episode, they have to rescue a man from a backstage area after he's attacked by a trained bear that took a dislike to him. They use fire extinguishers to repel the bear long enough to get the victim out. |
| 308 | ** On another occasion, they're faced with a very aggressive dog defending its unconscious owner. Roy gets an air tank from the squad and uses the spray of air to drive the dog backwards, until it's in another room and he can close the door on it. |
| 309 | ** At least twice, they have to use fire extinguishers to kill venomous snakes. |
| 310 | * RestrictedRescueOperation: In the pilot the paramedics aren't (yet) authorized to give any medical treatment. |
| 311 | * ReversePolarity: In "Communications", there is a factory worker with his arm caught in a feeding hopper of a record pressing machine and Dr. Brackett rushes over to amputate it to save his life. However, Gage comes up with a better idea: they work with the factory's engineers and rewire the machine to make the hopper work in reverse to free the worker instead. The modification is successful and they are able to free him instantly, saving the worker's arm. |
| 312 | * RippedFromTheHeadlines: Some of the episodes dealt with real issues being faced by the still-new paramedic program such as distrust and second-guessing of paramedics by doctors, and response delays due to units responding to non-emergency situations. Inevitably, Gage and [=DeSoto=] end up impressing the doubters and they are the first to sing praises of the emergency service. |
| 313 | * RuleNumberOne: "Don't get emotionally involved with the patients". Roy and Dixie discuss how hard it can be to keep to that rule sometimes in the episode "The Promotion". |
| 314 | * RunningOverThePlot: Johnny gets hit by a car in “The Nuisance” and sticks Roy with an infuriating temporary partner while he’s hospitalized. |
| 315 | * ScreamingBirth: Several times. Somewhat more justified than usual, since as paramedics the only time they get called in for a birth is when the circumstances are unusual. The standout example is delivering a baby in a house with an encroaching wildfire in "Brushfire". |
| 316 | * ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: The sheriff in "Welcome to Santa Rosa County", when Gage and [=DeSoto=] point out they aren't certified paramedics outside of Los Angeles County. The sheriff calls the County Medical Commissioner and gets him to certify them over the phone so they can treat their patient. When pressed, the sheriff tells them the Commissioner is his brother-in-law. |
| 317 | * ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: |
| 318 | ** In the pilot episode, the bill authorizing paramedics to treat victims in the field hasn't been passed yet. At an accident scene, Nurse Dixie [=McCall=] (the only one who '''is''' authorized to treat victims) herself gets hurt. Gage shuts off the radio and treats Dixie and the original victim, knowing full well he's exposing himself, the fire department, and the hospital to the possibility of punishment and a massive lawsuit. |
| 319 | ** In the season 3 episode "Fools", the paramedics receive instructions from Rampart that they '''know''' are wrong for the situation. Roy switches radio frequencies in mid-case -- a major no-no -- and talks to the backup hospital. The doctor there gives him the instructions he expected to get, and he obeys without hesitating. |
| 320 | * ScrewThisImOuttaHere: In the season five episode "The Girl on the Balance Beam," the engineer of a train that's on fire refuses to move it because one of the tanks contains ammonium nitrate. He just walks away from the scene leaving it up to firefighter Kelly to move the train. (How bad would that explosion be? Captain Stanley says, "Like Texas City," a reference to a 1947 explosion of ''2,300 tons'' of ammonium nitrate on a cargo ship that's one of the largest disasters in U.S. history. Said explosion killed all but one member of the Texas City Fire Department and destroyed all four TCFD fire engines and caused widespread catastrophic damage. Almost 70 years later, a similar scenario played out in West, Texas, killing 15 people, mostly first responders and a couple of heroic civilians that offered to help fight the blaze, and injuring over 160-200 people.) |
| 321 | * ShoutOut: In a reversal of the usual, LA County Fire Station 127 (the real-life fire station that played the part of Station 51) was renamed the Robert A. Cinader Memorial Fire Station in honor of one of the show's producers. In 1994, Station 60 (on the Universal Lot) was renumbered Station 51. |
| 322 | * ShownTheirWork: Aside from when the demands of the plot required a change, the vast majority of the procedures carried out by the firefighters and paramedics were faithful to what real firefighters and paramedics did at the time. This is mainly due to Tighe and Mantooth having actually trained as paramedics, a paramedic advisor being on set, and, in many of the larger incident scenes, actual firefighters acting as extras. In addition, for the first few years, every rescue was cribbed from some real world paramedic logbook, at Cinader's insistence. |
| 323 | * SlippingAMickey: In "Parade," a man puts chloral hydrate [[DateRape into his date's drink]], but the drinks are switched by accident, so instead he passes out in the middle of the date. While he's out, some of the drug in his stomach ends up in his lungs, causing a much stronger reaction that almost kills him. |
| 324 | * SmallNameBigEgo: Gage is a very experienced and highly skilled paramedic, but off-duty he is this trope. Many episodes have a comedic subplot that orbits around one of his attempts to develop other skills -- attempts that always fail spectacularly. He tries to project a cool "man of the world" image, but his dates are never successful, his advice to Roy is almost invariably wrong, his get-rich schemes never work out, and when he has a serious problem in his own life (such as a paycheck error, or a note from the IRS), he always panics and overreacts. |
| 325 | * TheSmurfettePrinciple: Halfway justified, as firefighting is male-dominated even today. So is medicine, to a lesser extent. They did have a female trainee once and a female doctor another time, but Dixie was the sole female regular. |
| 326 | * SoapWithinAShow: While Johnny is laid up in "The Nuisance," he watches a show about a woman on a FreudianCouch talking about her philandering husband and inferiority complex towards her mother, while the psychologist accuses her of being hostile towards various people. Throughout the episode, the psychologist moves his chair closer and closer to her couch, and her position on it becomes more alluring. The last segment ends with the two of them about to start an affair. Johnny becomes hooked on the show despite thinking it's garbage, and after Roy and Lopez get injured, they become fans of the show. |
| 327 | * SoundtrackDissonance: Used to annoying and wince-inducing effect in the 6th season episode, "Breakdown". A man is unconscious on top of a sky-tower; as Johnny & Roy are climbing up the tower to get to the injured man, we're treated to lyrical, string-filled romantic music that's better suited to a love scene, not the tense, high-altitude rescue we're watching. There's no reason for the dissonance at all, as the rescue is rather routine & has no plot subtexts underlying it. |
| 328 | * SpiritualSuccessor: |
| 329 | ** To executive producer Jack Webb's other shows, ''Franchise/{{Dragnet}}'' and ''Series/Adam12''. |
| 330 | ** In many ways, every {{Rescue}} show afterwards is a SpiritualSuccessor to this show. |
| 331 | * StatusQuoIsGod: Played straight for the most part, as with most 1970s-era TV series. |
| 332 | ** Even major illnesses or injuries, such as Gage's rattlesnake bite or Dr. Early's heart surgery, [[HollywoodHealing heal completely between episodes]]. Any time a main cast character is facing a major decision such as taking a promotion, you know they'll choose to remain where they are. And any major change in a character's status will be gone by the end of the episode. |
| 333 | ** In one exceptionally blatant example, Roy and Johnny are named heirs to a rich old woman's estate, worth almost a million dollars[[note]]which was a lot of money in 1975[[/note]], but other bequests and fees eat up the entire estate and leave them with only a few dollars each. |
| 334 | ** Averted with Dr. Morton, however. He gets a genuine CharacterArc: over the series run, he progresses from an arrogant, wet-behind-the-ears intern to a confident, competent, experienced ER doctor. By the sixth season, his skill is accepted to the point that when a heavy rainstorm isolates the paramedics in a rural fire station with no road access to a hospital or even a doctor's office, Morton's arrival by helicopter with fresh supplies is enough to tell both the paramedics and the audience that the medical situation at the station is under control. |
| 335 | * StockSoundEffect: Watch episodes one after another and you'll quickly notice that the show uses the exact same "sound of equipment and people shouting" background during major emergency scenes. Even worse, if the scene goes on long enough you'll notice that it's looped, so that one man's "HEY!" is the show's WilhelmScream. And the call alarm sound (two short tones, then a loud buzzer), was used in the ''Series/{{Monk}}'' episode "Mr. Monk Can't See a Thing". |
| 336 | * StrawFeminist: In the Season 2 episode "Women" (dated 1972), a female journalist rides along with the Squad to do a story on the new paramedic program--and to be fair, while Johnny does start the fight with his attempts to get her to go out with him, the journalist spends much of the episode making a pain of herself by interfering in the Squad's duties, insisting (loudly, stridently, and idiotically, despite the episode showing the dangerous situations) that their jobs are nothing that a woman couldn't do better without the need for training and are "just another boy's club", and starts lambasting Brackett over the misogynistic practices of the hospital. By the middle of the episode, even calm and patient Roy looks ready to hit her. |
| 337 | * StrictlyFormula: Most of the episodes follow a certain narrative pattern: the paramedics are in the fire station, where their personal story begins, until they are called up. Afterwards there is an alternating pattern of serious and humorous dispatches while the staff of Rampart Hospital take care of the victims along with their own concerns. Finally, the episode climaxes with a spectacular emergency such as a major structure fire or vehicle accident which the firefighters risk life and limb to resolve, followed by a humorous epilogue concluding the firefighters' personal story. |
| 338 | * StuffBlowingUp: Sometimes, the larger fires had this as part of them. Usually, anything involving combustive chemicals was at risk for this, and any fire can experience another variant called flashover, when everything in a fire just explodes in flames. John also blew up the station's TV once on accident (in the fifth-season episode "Tee Vee"), and Chet was thrown into a tree by an explosion in a burning house (in the sixth-season episode "Family Ties"). Still another call was for a kid experimenting with model rocketry in his house's attic. |
| 339 | * SuicideByPills: In one episode, the paramedics arrive to assist a teenage girl who attempted suicide by ingesting aspirin. A complication occurs when the patient refuses aid; California law prohibits paramedics from treating anyone who's an adult, conscious, and refuses aid. They must wait until the girl passes out before beginning treatment. |
| 340 | * SurgeonsCanDoAutopsiesIfTheyWant: Averted and played straight. Early and Brackett were surgeons but did a lot of emergency room work. However, Rampart was a community public hospital and may not have had as many resources as the private hospitals might. And sometimes specialists were called. Early was a cardiologist and often worked on heart cases and other specialists were sometimes called as well. |
| 341 | * SyndicationTitle: ''Emergency One''. |
| 342 | * TakeThat: In one episode, Dr. Morton is examining Gage and [=DeSoto=] to see if they've been infected by an unknown fever that turned up on one of their rescue runs. While he's doing this, he's being a little casual about his own protective gear. When Gage calls him on it, Morton answers smugly that "my people never have to worry about that sort of thing." Given the time period and the fact that Morton is African-American, it's impossible to see this as anything but a slap in the face aimed at racists who believe blacks are inferior. |
| 343 | * TaxmanTakesTheWinnings: There was one episode where a wealthy woman left John and Roy a fortune after they rescued her, but after other bequests, various expenses, and, especially, taxes, the paramedics have a few bucks left and that's it. |
| 344 | * TeamDad: Dr. Brackett is this to the Rampart ER staff. He's gruff, snarky, sometimes downright rude, and never hesitates to chew out someone who he thinks deserves it. But when one of his people is in trouble, he'll go well out of his way to help them -- as when he helps a resident doctor get a loan so she can bring her family from Eastern Europe to the States. He includes the paramedics among "his people"; when Roy considers quitting the paramedic program because of a rescue that went bad, Brackett takes a few minutes to give him some very good advice. |
| 345 | * TeamPet: A couple stray dogs end up getting adopted by Station 51. For the first five seasons, it's a shaggy dog they name Boot. In season 6, it's a ''very'' lazy hound they name Henry (Captain ''Henry'' Stanley agrees only on the condition they never call the dog by his nickname Hank). |
| 346 | * TeethClenchedTeamwork: |
| 347 | ** Roy may have to work with Brice if John is hurt, but he'll be irritated by him the whole time. |
| 348 | ** Roy, John and the character of the week in "The Trainee", due to his arrogance and refusal to wait for orders. |
| 349 | ** Anyone working under Captain Hochrader. He is apparently very demanding and strict. |
| 350 | * ThingsGetReal: In the pilot episode, Gage and [=DeSoto=] are not yet allowed to set up [=IVs=] or do many other normal tasks. Then Dixie ends up one of the casualties, and there's no one else to give her treatment .... |
| 351 | * ToTheBatpole: |
| 352 | ** Averted most of the time since Station 51 is a one-story building, but occasionally the paramedics are assigned to other stations (such as Station 10 in the pilot) that have multiple floors with firepoles. |
| 353 | ** Lampshaded in the pilot: Johnny Gage, newly assigned to Station 51, complains to Roy that a fire station just doesn't feel right without a firepole. |
| 354 | ** Discussed in the episode "The Screenwriter": while the titular screenwriter is being shown around Station 51, he makes a note on his tape recorder to find another station to use as the base, precisely because Station 51 is a one-story structure with no firepole. |
| 355 | ** Played straight in the cartoon. |
| 356 | * TokenMinority: In general, the series was pretty good for its time on this subject. |
| 357 | ** There were many African-American and Hispanic extras, including police officer Vince and an African-American detective who appears in a couple of episodes. Firefighter Marco Lopez was Hispanic and Johnny Gage was part Native American. |
| 358 | ** Strongly averted with Dr. Morton. He's conspicuously the only black person in the main cast, but he's never treated as a token. From the first episode he's an accepted member of the Rampart ER medical team. His education as a doctor is a running subplot in several episodes; in fact, he's the only main character who gets anything resembling a CharacterArc, as he progresses from an arrogant, wet-behind-the-ears intern to a confident, competent ER doctor. |
| 359 | * TheTonsillitisEpisode: "Syndrome". Roy had them out as a kid, and keeps denying they're causing his sore throat. Eventually, one of the doctors confirms that they grew back and Roy will need surgery again. John brings him a milkshake at the end of the episode. The trouble is, he's rooming with Chet, who broke his shoulder, and won't shut his mouth. |
| 360 | * TrappedInASinkingCar: A couple. Roy and John have to use the Jaws of Life underwater in "Seance" and another has a teenage boy trapped in his submerged car. |
| 361 | * TriageTyrant: In "Musical Mania", two yokels take their son with a bad case of lead poisoning and the emitting nurse brusquely tells them to wait while she fills out a report. However, Head Nurse [=McCall=] immediately tells her to process them, noting that people in need take priority over bureaucracy any day. |
| 362 | * VacationEpisode: "Welcome to Santa Rosa County". The boys try to go on a fishing trip, but it turns into a BusmansHoliday when a climber gets hurt and later, a boat engine explodes and burns another fisherman. |
| 363 | * VitriolicBestBuds: Most of the firefighters, but especially Gage and Chet. |
| 364 | * TheVietnamVet: Several examples of various types: |
| 365 | ** Roy [=DeSoto=] is one, but never shows any problems from it. |
| 366 | ** One episode has a veteran who seems to be having a PTSD episode, thinking he was back in the war. But the doctors aren't immediately sure it's psychiatric, and some tests show he actually has a brain tumor. After emergency surgery, he seems to be improving. |
| 367 | ** In one of the two-hour movies, "The Convention", Gage and [=DeSoto=] are riding with a team of San Francisco paramedics when they get called to the scene of a shooting. The shooter is a Vietnam veteran of the darker type: he lives in a run-down studio apartment, drinks a lot, and seems to be jobless. He also has a secret stash of guns and ammunition: a military M1911 pistol, a couple of rifles, and even some ''grenades''. When his landlord threatens to evict him, the guy goes full SanitySlippage, shoots the landlord, and then holes up in his apartment. The paramedics and the police have to figure out how to evacuate the badly-wounded landlord while the veteran is shooting at them from his apartment window, apparently with the sirens from arriving emergency vehicles causing him to suffer major PTSD flashbacks. |
| 368 | * TheVoice: Real-life LA County Fire Dispatcher Sam Lanier, who filled this role for all of the show's six regular seasons, plus the various TV Movies which were actually set in LA. Eventually averted when, in a few later season episodes, Sam actually appeared on screen during the dispatch scenes. |
| 369 | * WeHaveToGetTheBulletOut: "The Tycoons" featured a minor b-plot in which a patient- a criminal who had been shot by a police officer- refused removal of a bullet in his leg. Subverted from the usual drama because not only was the bullet key evidence in the crime (the criminal didn't want it out so it couldn't be used against him in court) but because the bullet was also lodged dangerously close to a major artery and failing to remove it could've been fatal if it moved even slightly. However, as the patient was conscious he was able to refuse treatment. |
| 370 | ** Another episode ("How Green Was My Thumb?") with a twist. The "bullet" in this case was an ''unexploded grenade'' accidentally shot from a launcher. Since the round was still live and could go off at any time, they had to get it out ''right there''. So instead of going to Rampart, Dr. Brackett and Dr. Morton went to the scene, along with the Bomb Squad to instruct everyone on safeguards, keep bystanders clear, and eventually receive the recovered ordnance for safe disposal. |
| 371 | * WomenDrivers: Comes up in "To Buy or Not to Buy," during a collision between two driving school vehicles. In the aftermath, it comes out that one of the women needs glasses to see anything, absolutely shocking the driving instructor -- which implies she's such a ditz that she didn't realize driving requires sight. |
| 372 | * WorstAid: Averted with the paramedics, obviously, but at one point ("Grateful") a man brings in his friend with severe chest pains. Assuming his friend was having a heart attack, he walloped him in the chest, attempting a precardial thump because "I seen it on TV a hundred times." Turns out it was simply pleuritis and all he managed to do was fracture the poor guy's sternum. Early tears into him for it. |
| 373 | -->'''Early''': I don't know if your friend is having a heart attack, but your "cure" might have caved in his ribcage! |
| 374 | * YouDidEverythingYouCould: This is invoked occasionally throughout the series to show that not every rescue is successful. The pilot dealt with the limitations of the Rescue Squad regarding certain emergencies, and this prompts John to become a paramedic. In "Frequency", John deals with a police officer friend of his dying in one episode and wonders if the busy radio at the time may have been a factor.[[note]]Dr. Brackett notes it wasn't--the officer's injuries were mortal[[/note]] Several other times, the Rampart staff have to deal with patients they lose under their care. |
| 375 | |
| 376 |
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/context.php
FollowingContext Series / Emergency
Go To
- Show Spoilers
- Night Vision
- Sticky Header
- Wide Load
