# Holy Shit! How can they show that on TV? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [November 21, 2023, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-shit-how-can-they-show-that-on-tv/993457 "2023-11-21T03:56:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-shit-how-can-they-show-that-on-tv/993457/1 "2023-11-21T03:56:31Z")
Just watching an episode of **Emergency!** You know the 1 hour drama about to paramedics and their adventures. They show the guys going into a rock concert with serious and I MEAN serious strobe light action. It wasn’t even seemingly tamed down for the TV screen. I thought I was gonna have a seizure. I couldn’t get it off fast enough. That was really weird! ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-shit-how-can-they-show-that-on-tv/993457/2 "2023-11-21T03:59:00Z")
_Emergency_ aired a long, long, long time before _Pokemon_ made strobe lights on TV a liability. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-shit-how-can-they-show-that-on-tv/993457/3 "2023-11-21T04:04:14Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > _Emergency_ aired a long, long, long time before _Pokemon_ made strobe lights on TV a liability. - Also, TV screens were much smaller and lower resolution. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-shit-how-can-they-show-that-on-tv/993457/4 "2023-11-21T04:13:00Z")
I closed my eyes after and I was still strobing. I’m glad I didn’t have occasion to hit any psychedelic parties. Those must have been terrible. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-shit-how-can-they-show-that-on-tv/993457/5 "2023-11-21T04:17:14Z")
I first learned about strobing or flashing light causing seizures from the movie “The Andromeda Strain” It was also the first time I saw a man’s bare butt on the screen. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-shit-how-can-they-show-that-on-tv/993457/6 "2023-11-21T04:19:23Z")
Aaaaacccckkk. Don’t look! I have read about the seizures happening like that. I wasn’t sure it was true. I just felt weird seeing it.not the butt, the strobe I’m sure it wasn’t real seizure activity. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-shit-how-can-they-show-that-on-tv/993457/7 "2023-11-21T04:43:09Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > It was also the first time I saw a man’s bare butt on the screen. Missed the original _Planet of the Apes_ film, did you? ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-shit-how-can-they-show-that-on-tv/993457/8 "2023-11-21T04:47:54Z")
I saw that movie, but only after it had been out for a while, so I saw the other first. As for PoTA, I saw it and it’s four sequels in one day. A local theater showed them one after the other on Juy 4, 1974. They even sold bananas in the lobby. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-shit-how-can-they-show-that-on-tv/993457/9 "2023-11-21T14:04:51Z")
So, seeing a man’s bare butt can cause seizures in some people? Is that what I’m getting from this thread, or did I misread something? 😄 Speaking of TV and bare parts, a 90s medical show, not ER but I believe knockoff Chicago Hope, had an episode where a woman with breast cancer had a masectomy of one breast, and the results of the breast reconstruction were shown. It was well-advertised with content warnings beforehand, but I think it was clearly a ratings-grabbing ploy. The patient was not an older woman, as would be expected for someone who needed a masectomy, but a very young, attractive woman. The ‘breast reconstruction’ was not surprisingly, an amazing job-- they looked just like a perfect pair of young, healthy female breasts. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-shit-how-can-they-show-that-on-tv/993457/10 "2023-11-21T14:12:42Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > _Emergency_ aired a long, long, long time before _Pokemon_ made strobe lights on TV a liability. That may be true, but why show the rerun here in 2023? Quite a few specific episodes of old shows have been quietly shelved for various reasons, so how did this one sneak onto the air? ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats2)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-shit-how-can-they-show-that-on-tv/993457/11 "2023-11-21T14:19:34Z")
_Emergency_ made me wonder if one of the main jobs of a paramedic was to get unconscious electrocuted construction workers down from scaffolds on half-finished skyscrapers. It seemed like a daily occurrence on that show. Where the hell was OSHA? ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-shit-how-can-they-show-that-on-tv/993457/12 "2023-11-21T14:27:46Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](#): > > _Emergency_ made me wonder if one of the main jobs of a paramedic was to get unconscious electrocuted construction workers down from scaffolds on half-finished skyscrapers […] Where the hell was OSHA? Did not exist until [April 28, 1971](https://www.osha.gov/osha50/). ‘Emergency’ debuted in 1972, and it probably took a few years for proper OSHA procedures to be fully instituted, so all those endangered construction workers depicted in the series may not have been all _ **that** _ far from the reality of the time. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-shit-how-can-they-show-that-on-tv/993457/13 "2023-11-21T14:30:59Z")
_Emergency!_ always followed a regular pattern of three rescues per episode. There would be the serious but fairly ordinary rescue: heart attack, car accident, fall off a ladder, etc. There would be the “wacky” rescue: guy accidentally glued his forehead to the wall or something like that. And finally there would be the huge, set-piece rescue: big factory on fire, plane crashes into a suburban neighborhood, hikers are trapped by a flooded river, and yes, construction worker is electrocuted on a half-finished skyscraper. They had to have a big disaster every episode to keep the audiences tuning in. That overrides any silly concerns about industrial safety! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-shit-how-can-they-show-that-on-tv/993457/14 "2023-11-21T14:32:37Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](#): > > Where the hell was OSHA? They came in after the credits rolled, and fined the company. After all, the name of the show was Emergency! not Bureaucracy! (Though an OSHA inspector lunchbox might have been cool for kids. not) ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-shit-how-can-they-show-that-on-tv/993457/15 "2023-11-21T14:35:56Z")
I read somewhere on the internets that many of the Emergency! rescues/accidents were true stories of actual LA County Fire Dept events. Great show! ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-shit-how-can-they-show-that-on-tv/993457/16 "2023-11-21T14:54:10Z")
> [@TRC4941](#): > > I read somewhere on the internets that many of the Emergency! rescues/accidents were true stories of actual LA County Fire Dept events. > > Great show! It was a favorite of mine when I was a little kid. I recently watched a few episodes and it held up pretty well. With allowances for slightly updated procedures and different equipment, the medical treatment was very accurate. I watched one where they were doing CPR and I couldn’t find anything wrong. The thing that struck me was it was too boring for modern TV. They were saving a guy’s life but no one was yelling or panicking. They were doing their job calmly and professionally the way that real paramedics do and TV paramedics don’t. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-shit-how-can-they-show-that-on-tv/993457/17 "2023-11-21T15:07:48Z")
There are a lot of real life paramedics\* that went into the field because of that show. There are a lot of real life fire departments that _have_ paramedics because of that show. Plus of course, it’s an entertaining show! \*And they all love to do the Johnny Gage double cap thumb flip. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-shit-how-can-they-show-that-on-tv/993457/18 "2023-11-21T15:22:16Z")
> [@TRC4941](#): > > I read somewhere on the internets that many of the Emergency! rescues/accidents were true stories of actual LA County Fire Dept events. Three episodes were written by actual LA Paramedic Jim Page, under pseudonyms. The third episode features [Gage being bitten by a snake and assisting with his own treatment,](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0570687/?ref_=nm_flmg_eps_tt_1) which actually happened to Page. Their names being similar is no coincidence; producer R. A. Cinader wanted to use Page’s name but he refused. My source is the 50th Anniversary Special. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/b1h-BNGSstY/maxresdefault.jpg "EMERGENCY! 50! The Show that Saved Your Life (FULL LENGTH)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1h-BNGSstY) ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-shit-how-can-they-show-that-on-tv/993457/19 "2023-11-21T15:36:36Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > That may be true, but why show the rerun here in 2023? Quite a few specific episodes of old shows have been quietly shelved for various reasons, so how did this one sneak onto the air? Because not every channel airing cheap, decades-old rerun packages combs through the set to delete the episodes that don’t meet the standards for a modern easily-offended and sue-happy audience? ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-shit-how-can-they-show-that-on-tv/993457/20 "2023-11-21T15:39:20Z")
I guess, but quite a few channels DO go to that trouble. _shrug_ [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-shit-how-can-they-show-that-on-tv/993457.md?page=2)