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Emergency! turns 50

January 15, 1972 The NBC Universal television series EMERGENCY! broke new ground in both the entertainment industry and in the fire service. Often referred to as the first reality-based television show, EMERGENCY! introduced the American public, and the world, to the then-revolutionary concept of using specially trained fire fighters in the field to provide advanced life saving services. In the early 1970’s very few people had ever heard the word “paramedic.” At the time the show debuted on January 15th, 1972, only twelve paramedic squads were in service in the entire country – eight of them in Los Angeles County. By the end of the show’s seven year run, more than half of U.S. citizens were within four to seven minutes of advanced lifesaving care.

EMERGENCY! aired on NBC at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday nights. The TV firefighter/paramedics Johnny Gage and Roy DeSoto of the fictional “Station 51”, the apparatus Squad 51 and Engine 51, and the doctors and nurses at “Rampart Hospital” quickly became America’s babysitters. To this day, an entire generation of firefighters, paramedics, EMTs, doctors, nurses, police officers and dispatchers proudly say that EMERGENCY! was their inspiration for answering the call to public service and emergency patient care that has saved countless lives in the last five decades.

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