Hot on the heels of his success with Adam-12, Jack Webb produced another show for NBC… Emergency! This time out, the focus wasn't on the police but on the firemen and hospital workers in Los Angeles. The two main characters were paramedics named Johnny Gage (Randolph Mantooth) and Roy DeSoto (Kevin Tighe) who worked out of Station 51. In each hour long episode we'd see them involved in all manner of incidents, small and large, much like the format used in Adam-12. The show also had that fantastic attention to detail and sense of realism that gave Adam-12 its realistic and almost documentary like approach to storytelling.

Just like Webb's earlier series, Emergency! was based on real life incidents reported at through the Los Angeles paramedic program that started up in the late 1960s (the Los Angeles fire department gave their blessing to the series). As such, you get an interesting mix of high drama and very human emotions running through the adventures. But again, like Adam-12 a lot of the enjoyment that is to be had out of the series comes from watching the relationship between the two main protagonists develop over each episode. They've got a great sense of friendship and as their characters develop, the series gets stronger and more interesting. It's also interesting to see the paramedics deal with Dr. Early (Bobby Troup) and nurse Sally Lewis (Deirdre O'Connell) at the hospital, as they very often see things differently than they do. That's not to say that this is a male bonding soap opera, however, as there's plenty of action and danger in each and every one of the hour long adventures presented in this set.

The first season of Emergency! is made up of the feature length made for TV movie pilot episode and eleven regular episodes spread out over two double sided discs. They're laid out as follows:

The Wedsworth-Townsend Act - This one was the extra long pilot episode that introduced us to Johnny Gag and Roy DeSoto and all the men and women that they interact with on a daily basis not only at Station 51 but also in the emergency room at the local hospital. This two part introduction was directed by Jack Webb personally and features a guest appearance from Martin Milner and Kent McCord of Adam-12.

Mascot - When a woman gets injured and sent to the hospital after a bad car accident, she asks John to look after her dog while she's gone. He agrees, but he finds that looking after a pet is a lot more work than he first thought it might be. Meanwhile, at the hospital, a woman has stopped breathing and a drunk guy is causing problems. A hunting accident almost kills a man and a party turns dangerous.

Botulism - John's co-workers always seem to find a way to play some pranks on him, but he's not going to take that lying down and he starts to plan on getting them back. To complicate things, a man brought into the ER room off of a movie set turns out to have botulism and they find that they may have an outbreak on their hands.

Cook's Tour - John finds himself delivering a baby but that scenario is not without its complications. Meanwhile, Roy is getting teased about his skills in the kitchen by the rest of the firemen. That's all put by the wayside when they're called in to help save a man who has somehow managed to get trapped at the top of a crane!

Brushfire - When a fire breaks out in the woods outside of town, the men of Station 51 are called into action to take care of the problem before it gets out of hand. Meanwhile, an old lady and her sister are in trouble – good thing John and Roy are on the scene to take care of things for them and get them to the hospital on time.

Dealer's Wild - As if it weren't bad enough that John's cooking skills get made fun of, he's also a really bad card player and whenever he loses, which is most of the time, he finds himself on dish detail. When a boy and his father take their plane up for a ride, the father has a heart attack. The boy will have to land the plane on his own, and Roy tries to talk him into a safe and successful landing. The paramedics also have to help out with a teenage drug overdose and a suicide attempt as well.

Nurse's Wild - John and one of the nurses hit it off and soon, love is in the air. He's going to be too busy this shift to woo the lovely lady, however, as a robbery attempt finds a store owner shot and in need of attention and a fire at a local chemical processing plant finds the men's services in high demand indeed.

Publicity Hound - When one of the other paramedics on the team becomes the darling of the media, John starts to get a little jealous of him. He doesn't let it get to him when it counts though, as soon he and Roy are off to save a man who is trapped inside his boat. There's no rest for them once that's taken care of, however, as a young boy finds himself stuck in a well and they're off once more to save the day.

Weird Wednesday - In a rather strange day on the job, the boys find themselves having to get a parachute jumper out of a tree, take an old woman who breaks her leg on the dance floor to the hospital, and saving a kid from freezing himself for posterity's sake. Meanwhile, a john has a heart attack while with a good natured hooker and a man is bitten by a rattlesnake while out shooting eighteen holes.

Dilemma - A man suffers a heart attack when his elevator gets stuck and Roy and John have to get him out alive. Meanwhile, a woman who has a thing for fireman falls for John, who wants absolutely nothing to do with the possibly crazy lady. He soon forgets about her when they're called off to save a man at a scrap yard and then to take care of a problem at the railroad station.

Hang-up - A little self referential humor never hurts, right? John is watching Adam-12 and gets upset that he misses the ending when he's called off to save a thief who gets stuck in a vent. Later they have to rescue a lab worker from a radioactive environment, and John makes a few phone calls to find out how his favorite show ended.

Crash - Roy calls John a nut and offends him, spurring John to ask Roy for an apology. Before he gets it, they're called in to rescue a big football player who gets injured on the field. Back at the hospital Dr. Early has his hands full with a hypochondriac and young girl who swallowed some pills is brought in for medical attention.

For those wondering why there are only eleven episodes on this set, it's because the show debuted in the middle of the 1972 season as a replacement series and as such, the first season is shorter than the following seasons are.

The DVD

Video:

Each of the episodes in this set are presented in fullframe, which is how it should be seeing as that's their original aspect ratio. In terms of overall quality, wow, Emergency looks really nice. The image isn't perfect, here's some heavy shimmering and mild grain present throughout but the overall level of detail is surprisingly high and the colors come through looking almost perfect. The black levels stay strong and stable and the nighttime scenes look quite good. Flesh tones look lifelike and natural, not too pink, and there really aren't any issues in terms of print damage or distracting or noticeable debris on the picture.