A Rescue show/movie focuses on a group of professional Emergency Services personnel who specialize in helping people and animals when trapped in dangerous situations out in the field.
Typically, the story formula often shows the development of the emergency which turns into a life and death crisis that no one can help but the rescue force. They in turn usually are alerted at their base with an Emergency Squad Scramble with their driving theme music playing as they board their vehicles and proceed full speed to the emergency to perform the rescue.
Although these series are expensive to stage with all the explosions and location shooting (unless you use puppets or animation), they have the advantage that, during times of crackdowns on media violence, they're action shows where the heroes save people instead of killing them.
Examples include:
- 240-Robert
- Baywatch
- Burning Rangers
- Chicago Fire
- Code Blue
- Code Red
- Dinosaur Expedition Born Free
- Emergency — The Ur-Example and Trope Codifier
- Fire Force - though a bit of a stretch.
- Five Minutes Of Silence is a Russian series about a team of EMERCOM rescuers based in Karelia (a Russian republic bordering Finland), specifically Unit 4221, under the command of Major Gireyev.
- High Mountain Rangers
- Kyukyu Sentai GoGoV
- Its adaptation Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue
- Machine Robo Rescue
- Medicopter 117, a German example.
- 9-1-1
- PAW Patrol
- Planes: Fire & Rescue
- Promare
- Police Rescue, an Australian example.
- Rescue 911
- Rescue Heroes
- The Rescue Mission Trilogy in the Metal Heroes franchise:
- Rescue Special Ops
- Search And Rescue
- Thunderbirds
- Third Watch - With a bit of Police Procedural, increasingly so as the show goes on
- Tomica Hero Rescue Force
- Tomica Hyper Rescue Drive Head Kidou Kyuukyuu Keisatsu
- Transformers: Rescue Bots
- Yomigaeru Sora — Rescue Wings
