I remember reading an article where a cop said that he would actually take notes while watching the show. Find a show that well made now.
The show Aquarius is a complete love letter to Dragnet/Jack Webb. Sometimes Duchovny even looks like Webb. Love that olâ show/era. Great article!
Adam-12 takes us back to a time when Los Angeles, and America, loved the LAPD.
And that time is called, âNever.â
Itâs amazing how much âEmergencyâ is a clone of âAdam 12â, with the welcome addition of a professional hospital staff. Everyone is so polite and diplomatic.
Iâve taken to half-watching âEmergencyâ, on public airwaves, with the sound off while I work â the emergency contexts are not hard to infer. I miss some of the lame jokes, but I donât have to hear the Station 51 alarm three times a show, and I just take a guess on what the EKG or sphygmomanometer might read. They often go into homes and back yards, good for picking up retro decorating ideas.
Not to take any of the fun out of your experience, but I believe the LAPD wasnât particularly loved by certain groups of people. Namely, those inextricably found at the end of their nightsticks and pistols. Iâm sure most bb readers can guess who that might have been in the 60s.
Kent McCord is the actorâs name.
Hit the right reply button this time.
One of the most amusing things I find about both Dragnet and Adam-12 is the patter between the partners about married life vs. single life. Watching some of the early Dragnet episodes I came to the conclusion that Frank was a major jerk to Joe when needling him about how he should get married.
Tonightâs special guest star: Lorne Greene
Bad Guy: âI woulda made it out the window if I hadnât slipped on he bathtub.â
Sgt Friday: âKinda fitting, isnât it?â
Bad Guy: âWhaddaya mean?â
Sgt Friday: âBathtubs collect dirtâ
âDunn da-DUN DuntâŚ
Thank you. My typical fast and crappy editing.
It was a spinoff, but yeah same basic formula, newbie and veteran, one of them married, the other single. Only doing medical rescue/fire fighting instead of police work and Adam-12 was basically Dragnet with beat cops and better acting.
Emergency was instrumental in the push to get EMTs established around the country. And you have to give Jack Webb some major props for hiring both Julie London and Bobby Troup. Not too many people in Hollywood would give their ex-wife a job, as well as her current husband.
It worked, I wanted to be just like Randy Mantooth. For 30 minutes,anyways.
My 10 year old son and I recently went through an Adam 12 / Emergency! phase on Netflix (our King Charles Spaniel is even named Malloy as a result). Both shows were co-created by Jack Webb. The pilot episode of Emergency has some interesting character back stories that never made it into the full series (who knew that Dr. Brackett and Nurse McCall were in a relationship?). Also, the pilot seems to imply that the paramedic program was quite controversial when it was first introduced. Probably my favorite thing about Emergency is that that actors playing Dr. Bracket, Nurse McCall, and Dr. Early were all musicians/singersâBobby Troup wrote â(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66â.
Also, most episodes of Emergency! feature some amazing footage of L.A. streets filmed with cameras that were probably mounted on a carâs hood (usually during scenes where paramedics John and Roy are rushing to an emergency). In many of these scenes you can catch street signs and other landmarks that can be used to locate where these scenes were filmed and you can find them on Google Streets to see what they look like today.
Now thatâs A porn name.
I never noticed that the telephones have more screen time than any of the actors in this sequence.
âLook at that, Maude! They got a telephone in an orange plastic tackle box!â
Thatâs no ordinary telephone â itâs a Biophone Model 3502.
I figured it had to be something special to deserve so much loving camera attention. And to be a portable phone in 1972.
Edit: that could transmit ECGs. Or, as Dr Kelly used to call 'em back then, EKGs.
