Emergency! - The Complete First Season (DVD, 2005, 2-Disc Set)

First there was DRAGNET, then ADAM-12, and then came EMERGENCY! Jack Webb was a tv series actor, writer and producer that really knew how to make the human side of public servants entertaining and informative. EMERGENCY! was a pilot show in the very early 1970's that told the story of how we (the US) ended up with paramedics. Los Angeles county trained rescue fire fighters in the practice of advanced first aid and using radio telemetry to allow a remote doctor to give the fire fighters the legal authority to administer drugs and electric shock "CLEAR!" to save a patient. Now we take all this for granted and have 911 EMTs rolling nearly everywhere in the USA.

I remember watching this weekly series as a kid with my family and bought this set to share with my young family. My elementry school kids LOVE IT! In fact my 2nd grader took it to her school and her whole class LOVED IT. The combination of fire engines, fires, car crash victims, trapped little kids, and kids just stopping by the fire house to climb on the fire trucks, and the NURSE/DOCTOR love interest all done in a tasteful, non-gory, 1970s style makes this great TV edu-tainment. And you just can't beat that catchy theme song that sounds like something you played in High School Jazz band.

I highly recomend this great set - watch it for the memories of really bad fashion and 1970s social issues, watch it for teaching moments with your little ones, watch it for discovery of what TV used to be, or just watch it for fun. The story lines are a bit corny, and the dialog is sometimes weak, but if you look beyond these items, you will have a great time watching. One of the episodes has a cameo from Wally Cleaver (Tony Dow) who plays a wild fire looter that crashes his motorcycle.

Get it, Watch it, and you will be hooked.

This show started it ALL !!!! The chronicles of Firefighter/Paramedics John Gage & Roy DeSoto of the Los Angles County Fire Department Rescue Squad/Engine Company 51. Season one is particularly improtant because it details the inception of the "Paramedic" program in the UNITED STATES. Before L.A.County began this program in the late 60's early 70's the BEST you could expect to recieve within the realm of pre-hospital emergency medical care ANYWHERE in the U.S. was basic first aid and CPR, that's about it. With the Vietnam conflict winding down and the soldiers coming back home having medical training many of them were still going to be without jobs to return to. They had enough training to work in a doctor's office and perform mundaine medical tasks in a hospital setting but not enough to be a nurse. The fact is not argued, EMERGENCY single handedly brought extensive pre-hospital emergency medical care to the patient not the patient to the care. Many things have changed in 30+ years. Now just about all care you can need in the first few seconds of a severe medical emergency can be given at you side instead of waiting for the ambulance to get you there(The White Ambulance Uniforms Are Gone Too, Thank God). Many of the skills you see on Emergency are still used today. THANK YOU to Mr. Cinader, the producer of Emergency. Without his forsight into this field many Paramedics would not exist today if it were not for this show to watch as we were growing up. Emergency is the sole reason that I became a Firefighter/Paramedic at 20 years old and I still continue to serve my community 21 years later.

This series is the defining moment of EMS in this Nation.
Without the attention brought by this series, you could still have to dial full phone numbers and wait for a doctor to come by and see you, or just take your chances with getting to a Hospital.

Never before, or since, has a TV show had such an impact on healthcare in America.

Watch the unfolding of history when the fledgling Paramedic program was first introduced.
See representations of what actual Rescues were like, and how Paramedics became front line lifesavers.

The story lines also include the first rumblings of dissatisfaction at outdated and atiquated systems.

This series ignited the modern EMS wildfire that swept this country and had everyone demanding better Emergency Healthcare, and rocketed this PROFESSION from barely known to everyday conversation.
It also raised awareness and brought about public education and use of CPR, 911, and other improvements.

These "tapes" have even been used by hundreds of real EMS for training. (no kidding)

So if you are glad that the days of "having Two 'Ambulance Attendants' toss you in the back of a converted hearse and HOPE they got you to the hospital on time" are long gone, then you should enjoy this entertaining and wonderful series.

But then, as a Paramedic, I might be a little biased.

Quality FAMILY programming that will give you hours of viewing pleasure.

Paramedics.....Firemen....Dari​ng rescues......Cheesey acting. What's not to like about this video?

I remember watching the show in first run as a kid, seeing them again when cable became ubiqitous and they'd be running on one of the higher number channels. They were fun to watch back then and they are fun to watch now. Of course there's no commercials, but after a while I even started missing the old commercials that my well trained TV mind would naturally expect when the show faded to black.

Fan of the original show? Get the video.

Fan of some of the newer Firefighter or Paramedic shows on TV today? Get the video and see the deepest root of your favorite show.

Got a youngster who's really into firefighters, fire trucks or maybe even paramedics? Then this is a great video for them. This is truly plug in and let play for the youngsters with no worries for you, because these shows are cleaner cut than most major productions for youngsters today.

I biught this as I had been a fan of the show when it was on the air. It's fun to see how things were back in the '70s-- you wouldn't want to get into an accident then, would you??
The quality of the video transfer is not the best, as the whole series was done on FILM, not videotape. Audio is fine, not harsh or too soft. I've since gotten season 2 and 3, and some of those episodes are really bad transfers. It's watchable, and since I'm seeing it on an HD TV, any flaw that was in the originals does get magnified, even though it's SD video. I'll probably buy the other seasons just to have the complete set.

There's one odd thing I've got to mention: I have bought the Available seasons of Hawaii Five-O, which also was produced on film, but it doesn't have any of the visual problems that the Emergency! transfers do---