# Question about Adam-12 and Emergency **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 19, 2013, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-adam-12-and-emergency/650755 "2013-02-19T01:06:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-adam-12-and-emergency/650755/61 "2013-02-20T22:18:25Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > I remember that ep. {the man who swallowed the pull-tab} I do, as well. Strange, the things that get stuck in your brain. 😃 In watching some of the old episodes on DVD, it struck me that they’d only have “big” emergencies (lots of other squads showing up, big fires, etc.) a couple of times a season. My suspicion was that the production staff saved up their budgets (pyrotechnics, acting extras, additional engines, etc.) by having several episodes that consisted of “small” (i.e., not expensive to film) emergencies, then blew the budget on the big fires. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-adam-12-and-emergency/650755/62 "2013-02-20T22:22:41Z")
Jack Webb like to use actors multiple times if he liked them. actors who portrayed victims and witnesses were reused many times Virginia Gregg was a frequent female role, very good as criminal, in Dragnet and also appeared both in Adam 12 and Emergency. Chet a firefighter in Emergency was various criminal/witness in Adam 12 and more in Dragnet as really pathetic characters. Milner appeared on Dragnet radio 1940s and tv 1950s. ---
**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-adam-12-and-emergency/650755/63 "2013-02-20T22:35:09Z")
Kevin Tighe was also the owner of the titular establishment in _Roadhouse_. There really are people in the world who get in the way and make things difficult during an emergency. Since this leads to interesting stories, Webb and his writers used those kinds of characters a lot. But they often turned the tables, as well. I remember one episode of Adam-12 where they were having problems with criminals who would escape into the hills on dirt bikes, where the patrol car couldn’t follow. Malloy suspected the local dirtbag motorcycle club, and had a talk with their leader which was full of insults from the bikers. The next time the cops chased the dirt bikers into the hills, they watched as the bad guys got chased back toward Adam-12 by the biker gang that had waited for them in order to clear their wounded honor. ---
**Author:** ![Missy2U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-adam-12-and-emergency/650755/64 "2013-02-20T23:06:50Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > I remember that episode! > > The guy was drunk, crashed his car, and was arrested. His loudmouth friend then called the officer a pig and his wife a pig. There were varying versions of the story from each of the drunk’s three friends. They all worked at a furniture store and the girl had been doing an impression of an opera singer just before their party broke up. > > The proof that the loudmouth assaulted the officer was the officer’s torn uniform blouse, brought in by the officer’s wife. > > In spite of this, he still gets suspended without pay for a month. That’s the one. You’re GOOD! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-adam-12-and-emergency/650755/65 "2013-02-20T23:34:12Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > Virginia Gregg was a frequent female role, very good as criminal, in Dragnet and also appeared both in Adam 12 and Emergency. Oh, yes, I remember her well! She was also in Jack Webb’s movie, “The DI.” She played the crybaby recruit’s widowed mother, who wanted the drill instructor to kick the kid’s butt. ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-adam-12-and-emergency/650755/66 "2013-02-20T23:38:32Z")
Back in the days when Hubster and I were dating (when the buffalo herds still covered the Great Plains), we went to Universal Studios. Audience members were invited to participate in a staged episode from Adam-12. He and I got parts, just a “random couple” sitting at a table in a nightclub. Our scene was then filmed and spliced into the original episode, through the magic of editing. SOMEWHERE we’ve got the copy of that…what a relic! (and that was before VCRs were invented!) ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-adam-12-and-emergency/650755/67 "2013-02-21T00:20:54Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > Some of the stories I vaguely remember are (snip) the hospital operating on injured animals after a barn fire If it’s the one I’m thinking of, this was actually a pilot called 905 WILD, starring a young Mark Harmon. I believe it was the last episode of Emergency. The pilot never got off the ground AFAIK. You can see it on Hulu–I watched it recently, along with the rest of the run of Emergency (I watch old childhood favorite TV shows while leveling WoW characters.) 🙂 Don’t watch it if you’re sensitive to animal deaths, though. There was one in particular that really got to me. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-adam-12-and-emergency/650755/68 "2013-02-21T00:40:11Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > Virginia Gregg was a frequent female role, very good as criminal, in Dragnet and also appeared both in Adam 12 and Emergency. > [@VOW](#): > > Oh, yes, I remember her well! > > She was also in Jack Webb’s movie, “The DI.” She played the crybaby recruit’s widowed mother, who wanted the drill instructor to kick the kid’s butt. > ~VOW she did tons of roles on radio. was a regular on radio Have Gun–Will Travel as Miss Wong (maid and girlfriend of Hey Boy) and a regular on Richard Diamond, Private Detective. she then went to do tons of tv. ---
**Author:** ![Chanteuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de053/32.png) [@Chanteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chanteuse)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-adam-12-and-emergency/650755/69 "2013-02-21T02:47:38Z")
Mmmmm, Randolph Mantooth! _sigh_ I remember the bathtub episode, and the pull tab episode, too. I remember one about a teenager who ate two loaves of raw cinnamon bread his mom had left rising (for his birthday). Of course, his stomach swelled horribly and he had to be taken to the hospital, moaning in pain. As I recall, one of the paramedics (I think it was Gage) told him that they’d get him back so he could have some cake, causing the young man to groan even louder. ---
**Author:** ![GythaOgg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/49beb7/32.png) [@GythaOgg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GythaOgg)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-adam-12-and-emergency/650755/70 "2013-02-21T02:54:44Z")
I remember the episode where Johnny got hit by a car and Roy spent the entire story dealing with Brice the OCD paramedic as his partner. The actor who played Brice was another Jack Webb favorite, and was one of the leads in a very short-lived (6 episodes) Webb effort about park rangers called ‘Sierra’. I don’t know how I remember all this trivia… ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-adam-12-and-emergency/650755/71 "2013-02-21T04:41:45Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > Jack Webb like to use actors multiple times if he liked them. actors who portrayed victims and witnesses were reused many times > > Virginia Gregg was a frequent female role, very good as criminal, in Dragnet and also appeared both in Adam 12 and Emergency. > > Chet a firefighter in Emergency was various criminal/witness in Adam 12 and more in Dragnet as really pathetic characters. > > Milner appeared on Dragnet radio 1940s and tv 1950s. Hell, even Adam-12 main cast members got recycled on Dragnet. Kent McCord was some nameless uniform a couple of times before he was established as Reed. Once he played an undercover cop accused of robbing a liquor store, resulting in an episode-long grilling from Friday (and wouldn’t ya know it, it turned out to be a guy who looked just like him wearing the same exact clothes!). And I remember William Boyett (Sgt. Mac) playing a crook or a drunk or something. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-adam-12-and-emergency/650755/72 "2013-02-21T05:13:36Z")
I used to watch these in reruns. I think my favorite Emergency was the episode when they had restored some old fire engine and were driving it to a parade but then they saw smoke and proceeded to the fire manually ringing the bell. I think Jack Webb and Aaron Sorkin must be related or have the same mental illness. Both treat dialogue in a very similar fashion. Jack Webb is really kind of disturbing in Sunset Blvd. He smiles in it. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-adam-12-and-emergency/650755/73 "2013-02-21T12:18:10Z")
Remember the Saturday cartoon version, **Emergency +4**? ---
**Author:** ![Drum\_God](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drum_god/32/44_2.png) [@Drum\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drum_God)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-adam-12-and-emergency/650755/74 "2013-02-21T14:47:34Z")
Hey, everyone remembers episodes, but who (besides me!) had the _Emergency!_ LUNCH BOX (complete with Thermos)! ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-adam-12-and-emergency/650755/75 "2013-02-21T15:09:36Z")
No, but I had the board game. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-adam-12-and-emergency/650755/76 "2013-02-21T15:13:34Z")
> [@Drum\_God](#): > > Hey, everyone remembers episodes, but who (besides me!) had the _Emergency!_ LUNCH BOX (complete with Thermos)! I did, I did! 😃 Some friends of ours host a big Halloween party every year, and each year’s party has a theme for costumes. A few years ago, the theme was “1970s / 1980s TV shows”, and so, my wife and I went as Gage and DeSoto. (My wife is a brunette, so she was Johnny; I’m blonde, so I was Roy.) I found the actual style of shirts that they wore on the show (a particular Dickies work shirt), found reproductions of the LA County Paramedic patches they wore on their sleeves, had name badges made up, etc. We even got some (costume) fireman’s helmets, which I spray-painted black…we had a graphic-designer friend make graphics to mimic the “plates” they had on the front (saying “LA County 51”). We brought along a picture of Gage and Desoto (so people would know who we were); another friend, who was a huge fan of the show (and had a huge crush on Randolph Mantooth) demanded the picture. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-adam-12-and-emergency/650755/77 "2013-02-21T15:35:30Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > I used to love Adam-12. I fondly remember an episode where the guys kept adding gas to the sergeant’s (?) car so he’d think he was getting incredible mileage. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-adam-12-and-emergency/650755/78 "2013-02-21T16:03:31Z")
> [@Icerigger](#): > > Remember the Saturday cartoon version, **Emergency +4**? Yeah, that was it! It had four snot-nosed teens helping out. And man was I right about [the crap-a-mation!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8TmDvPMifU) ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-adam-12-and-emergency/650755/79 "2013-02-21T16:15:00Z")
MST fans may remember that Tim Donnelly, who played Chet Kelly on \*Emergency!, \*was the lead idiot clone in _Parts: The Clonus Horror_. I was also amusingly shocked by the even then outdated attitudes towards women on the show. I remember laughing as Johnny described the dating problems with all the nurses at the hospital. Some of them were even in their _late 20’s_! ---
**Author:** ![Algher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-adam-12-and-emergency/650755/80 "2013-02-21T16:32:14Z")
> [@Jungian\_Camisole](#): > > TV’s Johnny Gage was my first crush when I was but a small t-shirt. I remember eating my fingernails off when the character was bitten by a rattlesnake and had to be rushed to the _Emergency!_ room. > > I was such a little dork. 😃 I have an autographed picture of Johnny Gage sitting here in my office. That’s right - I have met Randolph Mantooth himself! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-adam-12-and-emergency/650755.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-adam-12-and-emergency/650755.md?page=5)