semorebel-48384 Although today's television audience may find this show a little campy at times, it was very up-to-date and a real representation of emergency situations in the 1970's. Today our ambulance drivers are the EMT's, but back then they were two seperate entities. This show was one of my very favorites as a child, and still is today. I own the entire DVD set and still watch EMERGENCY! regularly, as good TV shows like this have seemed to vanish to make way for "reality" garbage and foul-mouthed politician-haters.

Dalbert Pringle At best, this TV show from 1972 was only marginally entertaining.At times it became quite monotonous and predictable as they desperately tried to make each episode's emergency rescue mission seem unique and interesting. But, in the long run, it all ended up seeming like the same old thing.This show was partly ruined by the 2 asinine characters John and Roy from Squad 51. These 2 goofs and their dumb and pathetic attempts at generating some humor (as weak as it was) were almost unbearable to watch at times.I do not recommend this show at all.

grzinnj I remember watching it back in the 70's. Never missed an episode. Along with the exciting rescues, there were also some amusing situations. There was the call they got for a guy who got his big toe stuck in the tub faucet. Another was for a guy who was building a ship model and accidentally super-glued his hands to the model. He wouldn't let them cut the model from his hands, so they bring him into the hospital with the ship still attached to his hands as nautical music played in the background. Another was the one where they responded to a toilet on fire. When they arrived, they went to use their fire hose, but the hose caught on fire. Meanwhile, outside, a man threw a cigarette on a lawn where a sprinkler was going. The lawn caught fire. They figured out that the gas and water lines got crossed at a work site.But you could always count on a huge incident to climax each show. I seem to remember one episode where they were responding to a house fire, and while they were working that fire, a house across the street also caught fire. Another was a man who climbed out to the end of the crossarm of a 100 ft tall construction tower to commit suicide. He changed his mind, but then was afraid to move. When I heard about the new NBC show "Trauma", I was so hoping it would be much the same, however Trauma concentrated too much on the everyday lives of the characters and not enough on exciting rescues. Also, instead of the camaraderie and humor that the station 51 crew on Emergency had, Trauma's crew seemed to be conflicted and at odds with each other. The first episode of Trauma was the most exciting, but after that, things seemed to go downhill. I hear that Trauma has been canceled. I wish it would have worked. TV needs another show with the excitement and humor of Emergency!I just got the Season 1 DVD set! For the most part, it's great. There was one problem with disk 2, side 2, 2nd episode "Publicity Hound". When it got to the scene near the end when they are bringing the child up the ladder, it sticks then cuts out to the menu. There are only 4 scene selection options, the last starts before that rescue. The problem continued with the beginning of the 3rd episode, "Wierd Wednesday". After a bit of the beginning, it skipped to the opening credits. I missed the first rescue, something about a parachutist stuck in a tree.Now that Comcast is in the process of buying NBC/Universal, I hope they add this show to their On Demand TV Shows section.

DKosty123 In a way, Jack Webb cloned his Adam-12 success with this series in 1972. The setting & cast are different, I mean how can anyone with a colorful name like Randolph Mantooth fail? The regulars on this series provided some spark for sure as like the Adam-12 team they provided some of the spark for this show too.Another similar thing is the action. Being set in a fire house & on the streets often on calls, Emergency has it's fair share of action sequences. Most of them are very well done too. One difference between this & Adam-12 is that it is set in a 60 minute format so the stories could be bigger & more extensive.This had to be an easy sell to NBC execs, as you have the experienced Jack Webb production team who seems to endlessly come up with good action stories & endlessly keeps finding cast members that play off each other well. This show was a very good show.Once again, rerun heaven for it might be established once it is released on DVD, as it might pick up some fans.