I’m betting somebody else here remembers this:

In the 1970s one of the most popular prime-time TV series was “Emergency!” It was about the adventures of two paramedics in the Los Angeles fire department. The show was very popular with kids, what with all the fire engines and doctors and nurses back at the hospital.

In 1973 there was a Saturday morning cartoon spinoff that ran while the prime-time series was still on the air. It was called “Emergency + 4,” and it had prime-time stars Randolph Mantooth and Kevin Tighe providing the voices of the cartoon versions of their characters. The “+ 4” referred to their sidekicks, two teenage aspiring paramedics and a brother and sister who were closer to cartoon viewers’ ages.

IIRC (and I was very little at the time and have only scattered memories of the show) it told much the same sorts of stories as the original series, but they ventured farther afield from LA than usual. In places the writing sounded more sophisticated than what you’d usually hear on a Saturday morning show of the time. However the animation was VERY minimal. Apparently it has never been released on video. You can find just enough clips online to get an idea of what it was like. Here’s the opening title sequence:

Sure, I watched a few episodes back in the day. We watched the prime-time show regularly too.

Emergency was on of John Byrne's first comic book gigs, by the way. IMWAN worlds are colliding.

That's some crappy animation. Like 10 frames a second or something.

I remember the Emergency cartoon. I didn't remember the +4 part of it. I was very young. I remember thinking at the time that they must make cartoon versions of every show, because there was also a Star Trek animated show.

Whose bright idea was it to make a cartoon out of a Jack Webb procedural show?

Jack Webb.

Don't show this to Dick Wolf. He'll have a Saturday Morning SVU series in the works.

And "Gilligan's Island," and "Brady Bunch," and "Lassie." That's how creatively bankrupt most TV cartoons of the 1970s were. They didn't even bother to come up with new titles for half of the shows!

I remember "Emergency +4" as having been better than the other cartoon spin-offs of prime-time shows. Since I was so young my memories can't be relied upon--stuff you like seems so much cooler when you're little and haven't yet developed much in the way of critical faculties. From what I can recall "Emergency +4" was the closest to the original of the bunch. The old cartoons had extremely strict standards regarding violence. That's why the "Super Friends" and the "Star Trek" crew were never shown actually fighting anybody on Saturday mornings. But "Emergency!" wasn't about fighting. It was about dealing with dangerous situations, usually caused by somebody's carelessness. So they could more or less faithfully adapt it to cartoon form--even call it educational because it showed what NOT to do. The heroes got to keep doing what they usually did in prime-time.

I wish I could see it again, because I have so many memories of it. There was one episode where they had to rescue a pilot from a crashed plane that had sunk. Another time there was a tornado. One episode had a bunch of old cars in a rally, with one team cheating. In another Carol, the little girl, fell and had a sprain, and I knew how she felt because I'd just recently sprained my ankle in real life. Even though it's probably not nearly as good as I remember it would probably be fun to watch.

Emergency! (or Emergency One! as the syndicated reruns were called) was regular viewing when I was a small child. We'd watch the reruns at 7, then go to bed at 8. On Saturdays, we could stay up until 9 to watch the new episodes.

My favorite episode was when the guy choked on the pull tab of a beer can, which he'd put back in the can before he'd drink it.

I remember boys putting the pull tab back into soda cans before drinking. What was that supposed to be about? So glad they stopped making the removable pull tab.

When I was a kid, being a friend to the environment meant holding your empty soda can underwater until it sank (instead of tossing it out of the boat and letting it float away).

I remember that one. IIRC, Johnny and Roy were already on the scene rescuing a guy who'd gotten his head stuck in a washing machine. The guy's friend was having a beer and watching the rescue when he suddenly starting choking on his pull tab. Funny stuff.

That was our version of living life on the edge.

There wasn't anything to do with it -- if you left around, it could cut somebody's foot. But it seemed a pain to find a trash can just to throw away the tab, when you're going to have to do something with the can after you're done anyway. So we used to put that tab in the can.

I found it hard to believe that someone could drink a pull tab.

A Blu-ray set of the complete live action series is being on Tuesday:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FLKJMQ4B/?tag=imwan-20

I got my dad the whole set on DVD some years back. I watched them before giving them to him. And we had some fun watching some of them together when I was home visiting.

They're still great viewing, although the scenes of the guys back at the station can be kind of goofy. I know an EMT who was too young to remember the original series who saw an episode during training. He said that it was hoot, since things have changed so much since then. But the series was actually very faithful to the emergency procedures of the day. The first-responder characters are always very professional. The main cast members were actually trained to the point where they could reportedly be given a scenario and improvise realistic dialog to go with it. Many of the show's incidents were based on things that actually happened. One of the regular supporting cast was an actual firefighter.

And the Squad 51 vehicle was the real thing! The producers had it built according to actual fire department specs to use in filming. After the series wrapped, they donated it to an actual fire department, and it served for some years. Now it's in a museum.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squad_51

I learned somewhat recently, while reading Wikipedia, that Randolph Mantooth went to the same high school as my dad. I asked him if that was why we always watched Emergency! when I was a kid. He said he had no idea they went to the same school, they just liked the show.

This is from the 1963 Crown & Scepter yearbook, San Marcos High, Santa Barbara California. Randy was a Junior, and my dad (Ken) was a Sophomore.