Emergency! Season One
Studio: Universal Studios Home Video
Year: 1972 (2005 Release)
Rated:
Aspect Ratio: 4x3
Audio: English DD 2.0
Captions/Subtitles: English SDH; Spanish Subtitles
Time: 655 minutes
Case Style: Keep Cases, with a cardboard slipcase
Disc Format: Dual Sided / Dual Layered (DVD-18, 2 disc set)
The Feature:
Jack Webb had a penchant for shows with buddy cops. First, there was the original buddy cop show,
Dragnet. Then he produced
Adam-12 in the late 1960’s. Then he branched out to the fledgling area of paramedics in 1972’s
Emergency!. Today, we take for granted that trained medics are a 911-call away from our doorstep, but back then it was a new concept gaining respect across the country.
I watched
Emergency! as a kid, during its original run and in syndication (back when the series donned a second name of
Emergency One! to avoid confusion in TV Guide). And I was very excited to hear that the series was being released on DVD, along with other shows of the day including
Adam-12. When the screener package showed up on my doorstep, needless to say, it was a happy occasion.
The series follows the efforts of Squad 51, manned by Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics John Gage (Randy Mantooth) and Roy DeSoto (Kevin Tighe), as they are dispatched in a variety of rescue and field situations. Gage and DeSoto’s partners in medical treatment are the doctors and nurses in the emergency room at Rampart General Hospital—Dr. Kelly Brackett (Robert Fuller), Nurse Dixie “Dix” McCall (Julie London), and Dr. Joe Early (Bobby “Route 66” Troup), in particular.
Of notable inclusion in this set is the pilot episode, “The Wedsworth-Townsend Act.” Like a few of you mentioned in this
great earlier thread, I don’t recall seeing the pilot episode, although it was vaguely familiar. Some research on the equally great
Emergency Fans website shows that the pilot was recycled as a 2-part flashback episode in 1975. The pilot sets out how we meet Gage and DeSoto, how Dr. Brackett was initially against putting medics into the field, and how Nurse McCall was for it. We also see that Dix and Kel are involved (although I am pretty sure this went over my head as a kid).
There is a definite chemistry between the characters, which is why the show worked and lasted so long. And I’ll have to admit that the situations are entertaining and even suspenseful on occasion, although the show is cut from the formula that everything resolves itself in the constraint of the hour episode, and generally with a happy ending.
This is 1972, and the realism we’ve come to expect from shows like
e.r. just isn’t there (
Love’s Labor Lost with Bradley Whitford? I think not.) Overacted melodrama? That’s more like it, but again, that was part of the formula.) Oh, sure, we get to see people zapped with the defibrillator, and the occasional gross makeup effect, but so far I’ve never seen anything gushing out that might make me want to forego supper.
Frankly, and I mean this with endearing respect,
Emergency! seems like the basis for a great college drinking game. For example, any time Dr. Fuller tells Gage or DeSoto to start an IV of lactated ringers D5W, you could take a shot. Of course, if you take too many, you could end up with a paramedic at the scene and a trip to the emergency room.
Season One contains the pilot and eleven episodes--the show started airing mid-season, so later seasons have roughly twice the shows. The episodes are spread across two dual-layered, double-sided discs (DVD-18). I'm not a huge fan of DVD-18 (nor are many of the readers here) because of the tendency for discs not to play or to be easily damaged. In my case, I have a hard time reading the
tiny print on those inner rings, although I think we finally figured out how sides are indicated on Universal releases.
The episodes can be played individually, by scene, or with a play-all option (per side, of course). Menus are in 4x3, as is the feature.
Disc 1 – Side A
The Wedsworth-Townsend Act (Original TV Movie)– 1:35:38
The Mascot – 50:52
Botulism – 50:47
Disc 1 – Side B
Cook’s Tour – 50:48
Brush Fire – 50:47
Dealer’s Wild – 50:51
Disc 2 – Side A
Nurse’s Wild – 50:47
Publicity Hound – 50:51
Weird Wednesday – 50:52
Disc 2 – Side B
Dilemma – 50:51
Hang-Up – 50:50
Crash – 50:51
The Feature: 4 / 5
Video:
This is not a perfect video transfer, but it is very good. And when you consider how silly it seems to be reviewing it on a 50-inch 4x3 screen when I originally watched the show on a 13-inch color TV—well, you get the idea. My, how times have changed.
The colors are accurate with a liberal does of the Seventies. Remember Harvest Gold appliances? Avocado Green? Speaking of greens, the color palate is wonderful, from the green surgical uniforms, to the yellow-orange surgical theater lights, to the blue paramedic uniforms. The reds are especially red—and tortuous. The blacks are rich. The flesh tones look accurate even in the presence of red fire trucks and orange jumpsuits. It all looks fine on a properly calibrated set—and that is no small feat even if your color decoder is up to the challenge.
Disc 1/Side A and its 197 minutes of content concerned me with a lack of fine detail (names on name tags, for example, and occasional grain and background blurriness). I also detected what appeared to be some slight edge enhancement. The detail improved significantly on Disc 1/Side B and Disc 2, where there were only three standard-length shows per side, clocking for a total per side of 152 minutes. Detail was greatly improved—check out the grocery store shelves in the episode where Roy is going to cook dinner to see what I mean. Colors continued to be stellar.
The only other sources of concern with the video quality do not relate to the transfer, but to the source material itself. There are some speckles and dirt. I would expect that for a show 33 years old.
All in all, I am pleased. I think you will be, too, and if not—perhaps you need to pull out that old 13-inch color TV and compare.
Video: 4 / 5
Sound:
The English soundtrack is monophonic, presented in Dolby Digital 2.0. It sounds very full-range on the full-range center-channel speaker. (Wow, what a difference from the little speaker on that 1970’s console television.) Dialogue is crisp and understandable. There is no distortion. Even the sound effects are good. If I want to put the home theater through the rigors of a 360-degree fire and rescue experience with modern THX theater playback, I’ll put on
Backdraft . Meanwhile,
Emergency! is good for what it is.
Sound: 3 / 5
Extras:
There were no extras, but isn’t almost 11 hours of classic television enough? No? How about this... Universal gave me two extra copies of the set for giveaway. Answer this simple trivia question and you'll qualify for a drawing for one of the two copies:
Julie London, who played Nurse McCall, was related to two of the primary contributors to Emergency!. Who were they, and what was the relationship?
Sorry, but since I'm paying postage, I'll have to limit this to entries in the United States. Just click on the email icon above, and send an email with the subject "CONTEST" and your answers. The winners will be chosen at random from those entries with the correct answers. The contest closes at midnight CDT on August 31, 2005.
Extras: 0 / 5
In Conclusion:
Emergency! is a real blast from the past, and a sentimental favorite. If you take the extras out of the rating, this would rank very high—so that’s exactly what I am going to do. If you want to find out more regarding the show, there is a good link above.
Overall Rating: 4 / 5
Release Date: August 23, 2005
Display calibrated by Steve Martin at http://www.lionav.com/
