The BEST episodes of Emergency!
Every episode of Emergency! ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Emergency!!
Emergency! is a reality-based show that takes a good look at what goes on in the daily lives of the fire department and hospital work, and everyday life-and-happenings. The series focuses on two locations: LA Fire Station 51 with paramedics John Gage and Roy DeSoto, and Rampart General Hospital with Doctors Kelly Brackett and Joe Early and Nurse Dixie McCall. Another work of Jack Webb's Mark VII Limited, the show was based on the paramedic program that started in Los Angeles, California in 1969. Produced in cooperation with the Los Angeles County Fire Department and Department of Hospitals, it is well-regarded for its realism. Senator Alan Cranston actually praised the show for informing the public about the value of funding such programs!
#1 - Communications
Season 5 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/13/1975
Cross-talk between squad 51, another squad and Rampart makes it hard for anyone to understand what's going on, creating a hazard. An airline stewardess wishes to end her life; she won't allow the paramedics to treat her, forcing them to wait until she passes out. A boy gets his arm caught in a press and may lose it. Two joyriding kids manage to get their car on top of a house! Chet purchases a pair of skis and while trying to wax them, accidentally sets them on fire. Roy and Johnny must cope with an explosion while rescuing someone pinned under a car.
#2 - The Game
Season 6 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/25/1976
Roy and John are assigned to work the big football game at the Coliseum. A woman accidentally pulls her husband off the roof into a tree. At the game, the paramedics treat a choking victim, a man with breathing difficulties, an injured photographer, and a TV announcer with heart trouble.
#3 - Welcome to Santa Rosa County
Season 6 - Episode 10 - Aired 12/25/1976
Roy and John try to go fishing in Santa Rosa County, but are delayed when they rescue climbers from a cliff face and a fishing boat blows up. They help the sheriff come up with ideas for implementing emergency medical services in his county
#4 - The Hard Hours
Season 3 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/2/1974
Dr. Early is diagnosed with a heart condition and undergoes a bypass. A pro football player is embarrassed to admit that his son tackled him too hard. The firemen rescue a boy trapped in his homemade rocket, a woman with her toe stuck in a bathtub faucet, and an electrocution victim.
#5 - Snake Bite
Season 3 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/27/1973
Returning from a fishing trip, Roy, John, and Chet help the victims of a car accident. On duty, after rescuing some joyriders whose car went over a cliff, John is bitten by a rattlesnake.
#6 - Most Deadly Passage
Season 7 - Episode 3 - Aired 4/4/1978
Roy and Johnny are sent to Seattle to study the techniques used there. A skydiver jumps off the Space Needle, a worker is trapped at the top of the Kingdome, and a fuel pumper loads a ferry with gasoline instead of diesel fuel, which sets the ferry on fire in the middle of the Elliot Bay.
#7 - Isolation
Season 6 - Episode 20 - Aired 3/19/1977
Roy and John are trapped at Station 86 when a rain storm washes out the bridge, and they become the only medical treatment in the area. They assist two victims of an auto accident and a child with bronchitis. Doctors at the hospital treat a policeman hit by lightning. With the aid of a female psychiatrist, the paramedics treat an elderly woman with a hip injury and a man with heart trouble. Copter 15 transports the victims to the hospital, where a power failure complicates matters. Dr. Morton accompanies the paramedics back to Station 86, where they respond to an auto accident with multiple injuries.
#8 - The Boat
Season 6 - Episode 19 - Aired 3/12/1977
Richard Bakalyan returns as Charlie, Squad 51's trouble-prone mechanic. The paramedics decide to purchase a boat from Charlie, intendig to sail it on their days off and rent it to others when they're on duty. Of course, things don't quite go as planned, thanks to a wide variety of emergency calls, including the rescue of two boaters from a particularly treacherous stretch of water off Catalina Island, a bookie suffering from a coronary in a locked office, and an explosion in the hospital lab.
#9 - Firehouse Quintet
Season 6 - Episode 18 - Aired 3/5/1977
The Station 51 basketball team qualifies for the semi-finals. The paramedics rescue victims at a gas explosion. While at basketball practice, the firemen treat an injured gymnast. The night before the big game the firemen get very little sleep: they respond to a number of emergencies, including a workman trapped at a studio.
#10 - The Girl on the Balance Beam
Season 5 - Episode 16 - Aired 1/17/1976
Fourteen year old Nancy Benedict's father pushes her hard, wanting her to achieve Olympic fame - but a bad fall from the balance beam might crush those hopes. Paramedics rescue a girl suspended by wires and free a drunk driver trapped in a car. A train fire involving explosive ammonium nitrate endangers the firefighters.
#11 - On Camera
Season 5 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/6/1975
A documentary crew follows the paramedics as they rescue a teen-aged snakebite victim, help a dangling stuntman, retrieve a boy who fell off a cliff and rescue a driver from a truck fire.
#12 - Election
Season 5 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/27/1975
A construction worker trapped on a crane forces a perilous high rescue. A man finds himself trapped in an appliance drain, and his brother has an entirely different emergency. A sculptor cannot free her model from a full-body plaster mold. And Roy and Johnny stand for an election.
#13 - Boot
Season 2 - Episode 19 - Aired 3/3/1973
The firemen are puzzled by Boot's strange behavior. Meanwhile, paramedics rescue a woman whose sports car is pinned under a gas truck and investigate a series of unusual incidents in the home of a woman attempting to cook a meal for her boyfriend and his mother. An unconscious man is brought in to the hospital suffering from internal bleeding. Dr. Early deals with the victim of a curse. An explosion in a hospital lab endangers a number of workers and important records.
#14 - Brushfire
Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 2/19/1972
Station 51 is called up to fight an out-of-control brushfire. An elderly woman breaks her ankle, a man is injured by a horse stampede, a looter is injured in a motorcycle accident, a boy breaks his arm and loses his dog, and a firefighter is trapped and injured under a fallen tree. The out-of-control brushfire also threatens the house of a pregnant woman in labor, who cannot be moved.
#15 - Virus
Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/7/1972
A sick lady with a monkey provides the key to a mysterious, highly contagious, and deadly virus that strikes both Dr. Brackett and John. Meanwhile, the firemen rescue a boy from a treehouse and a man from a scaffold.
#16 - Loose Ends
Season 6 - Episode 12 - Aired 1/15/1977
Johnny tries to win a ticket-selling contest. Dr. Backett blames himself when he is involved in a car accident that leaves the other driver dead and The driver's daughter refuses to speak. While repairing the squad, the paramedics find themselves in the middle of a shootout and treat a policeman with heart trouble. A boxcar full of ammonia complicates a fire on a pier.
#17 - Saddled
Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/21/1972
Dixie injures her toe. John decides he can make a lot of money by riding in rodeos. The squad goes to a hole-in-the-wall restaurant when a soda bottle explodes in a girl's face; later, they return for a gas explosion. After falling from a tree, a young boy lapses into a coma. The firemen rescue several children and a nun from a bus crash.
#18 - The Stewardess
Season 5 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/13/1975
Gage, flying back to Los Angeles, tries to chat up a stewardess. That's actually good news for another passenger who has a heart attack; she knows right where to find him help. Back at the station, the firefighters respond to a motorcycle accident and a chemical fire.
#19 - Nurse's Wild
Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 3/4/1972
A store owner shoots an armed robber and is filled with remorse. Sparks fly between Johnny and a nurse. Dr. Early treats an alcoholic. A dog delays the rescue of an unconscious woman. Dr. Morton assumes an unconscious hippie is on drugs. The firemen rescue a man trapped at a chemical plant.
#20 - Bottom Line
Season 6 - Episode 17 - Aired 2/26/1977
Paramedics out in the field begin to question the judgment of overcautious Dr. Morton who believes in acting strictly by the book. The firemen respond to a complaint of severe back pain. A man with phosphorous burns on his arm and a boy hit in the head with a baseball are treated at the hospital. While the firemen respond to a case of difficult breathing, the victim's neighbor drowns in a hot tub. Officer Vince is injured in a traffic incident and begins to act irrationally.
#21 - An Ounce of Prevention
Season 6 - Episode 13 - Aired 1/22/1977
A man with chest pains is trapped on a ferris wheel. A child ingests an illegal pesticide. While making a TV appearance to discuss fire prevention, Gage and DeSoto become stars of a real-life emergency.
#22 - The Tycoons
Season 5 - Episode 21 - Aired 2/28/1976
Johnny's got another of his brilliant ideas - he wants Station 51 to buy a nearby hot dog stand. Roy, as usual, is the wet blanket - but this time his caution pays off. The paramedics help a man injured while mowing his lawn and rescue the victims of a fire at a chemical factory.
#23 - Dinner Date
Season 2 - Episode 10 - Aired 12/2/1972
A woman almost hits a kid on a bike, who starts choking; she later has an epileptic fit. A man is shot by his father-in-law when he learns his daughter is married and pregnant. Roy tries to set John up with his wife's cousin. Three drug addicts are treated in the hospital: a woman with a gangrenous hand, a poison victim and a man showing signs of tetanus. In the field: an alcoholic, an obese man with a pacemaker, and a child whose arm is caught in a swimming pool drain.
#24 - Fuzz Lady
Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/4/1972
John falls for a lady deputy when called to treat a mugger. Items are stolen from Rampart. The firemen rescue an elderly man from a house fire. Boot returns to Station 51. A grandfather is injured by a model rocket. The paramedics rescue a boat thief trapped on a crane.
#25 - Show Biz
Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/30/1972
A photo shoot at the station gets John excited. A country doctor helps Roy and John when they can't reach Rampart on a call. The paramedics rescue a man drowning in a swimming pool and two stuntmen trapped on a waterfall at a movie studio.