Emergency! fifth-season blurb differences (1 Viewer)

[bmasters9]

Was just browsing EBay on the season releases of Emergency!, and came across what is, to me, a striking difference in the blurbs on the release of the fifth go (1975-76): basically, one printing states "all 24 gripping episodes" (implying that a fifth-season two-part clip show called "The Wedsworth-Townsend Act" was included, which has never been included on any Emergency! release to my knowledge); a later printing says "all 22 gripping episodes," because, as I recall, that's how many it really had.

What I'd like to know is, why the difference?

 

[Dave Jessup]

"The Wedsworth - Townsend Act" is included on disc 1 of season 1, the pilot TV movie.

Can't speak to a 5th-season two part clip show, but is it possible you're thinking of "Greatest Rescues of Emergency," one of the specials in the year after the 6th season (collected in "...The Final Rescues")?

No solid knowledge, but I presume first copies of the season 5 box have "24 episodes" as a typo, corrected to "22" for later press runs. My wife and I bought these as released; our copy is one of the erroneous "24."

 

[bmasters9]

Can't speak to a 5th-season two part clip show, but is it possible you're thinking of "Greatest Rescues of Emergency," one of the specials in the year after the 6th season (collected in "...The Final Rescues")?

No solid knowledge, but I presume first copies of the season 5 box have "24 episodes" as a typo, corrected to "22" for later press runs. My wife and I bought these as released; our copy is one of the erroneous "24."

--That could indeed be it on that score (however, I have a book by Greg Enslen that is a Binge Guide to Emergency!, and on page 241 of that, "The Wedsworth-Townsend Act" is indeed shown as a clip show [Part 1 is described starting on that page, and Part 2 is described on page 245]). I do know, however, that the Greatest Rescues film was included with The Final Rescues (not in doubt, that one). Enslen does state that this clip show has only been shown in a syndie version, and has never been on home media.

--On the second part, I have the all-in-one condensed release (with the discs stacked on top of each other), and the blurb on that makes no mention of what I spoke of earlier (simply saying "Six Bonus Episodes! The Final Rescues" and "Crossover Episode with Adam 12").

 

[Wiseguy]

"The Wedsworth - Townsend Act" is included on disc 1 of season 1, the pilot TV movie.

Can't speak to a 5th-season two part clip show, but is it possible you're thinking of "Greatest Rescues of Emergency," one of the specials in the year after the 6th season (collected in "...The Final Rescues")?

No solid knowledge, but I presume first copies of the season 5 box have "24 episodes" as a typo, corrected to "22" for later press runs. My wife and I bought these as released; our copy is one of the erroneous "24."

It may not be a typo, but originally was intended to include them. I have had Mill Creek's "The Best of Jack Benny Collection" which states "40 episodes" on the cover on DVD for more than 10 years, and after hearing that another version was put out that stated "39 episodes" (appropriate number) and the GE Theatre episode "The Face Is Familiar" was pulled for some reason, I checked the actual discs (which have the titles on the discs themselves) and there is no "Face Is Familiar" episode on the disc even though the cover states there is. I am not sure if the 40-episode version was ever released.

 

[bmasters9]

And believe it or not, the running time is the same on both the 24-episode printing (blurb stating 24 episodes) and the updated 22-episode printing (17 hrs. 13 min.).

 

[LeoA]

I suspect it's a bit of a misnomer to call it a clip show.

While I've never seen the episodes in question, most likely the pilot movie was converted into a two-part flashback episode much like I Love Lucy, Father Knows Best, and Ozzie & Harriet used to do when rerunning an older episode during the course of a newer season. A fresh opening and closing were likely filmed with Johnny and Roy reminiscing about their start as paramedics, if I had to guess.

As an Emergency! fan I'd love to see this particular iteration of the pilot movie. I wonder if it got touched when the rest of the series was remastered after the vault fire?

 

[John Sparks]

After lunch, someone would say, "Let's go watch the experts" and we would retire to the chairs in the TV room.

 

[bmasters9]

After lunch, someone would say, "Let's go watch the experts" and we would retire to the chairs in the TV room.

Experts?

 

[John Sparks]

I'll take the bait...a play on words. Everything they did on the show always turned ok at the end.