Long before Grey’s Anatomy, E.R. and Chicago Hope, there was Emergency! The series ran between 1972 to 1979 and starred Kevin Tighe as fireman Roy DeSoto and Randolph Mantooth as fireman John Gage. The series revolved around the adventures of paramedics of the Los Angeles Fire Department and featured rescues ranging from the slightly humorous to the full-blown disasters. The series was so popular and successful that it encouraged five made-for-TV movies. Currently, when NBC’s Trauma is not being compared to its most recent predecessor, ‘E.R.’, those old enough to remember will quickly mention ‘Emergency!’ in those comparisons. And there is no doubt that the creative team must have gained some inspiration from the original as well.
Trauma has already inserted several small shout-outs into its scripts, thus continuing the tradition of paying proper homage to one’s predecessors. And the homage continues with the return of Kevin Tighe to a guest role. While he will not be reprising his Roy DeSoto character (pictured on left with his co-star Mantooth), we will be able to spot him playing a substitute captain instead. Kevin has had a very successful career spanning over forty years which has included appearances most recently on ‘Lie to Me’, ‘Leverage’, ‘Law & Order’, ‘Numbers’ and ‘Lost’, to name a few. It will be nice to see him again making an appearance on the current series that has drawn inspiration from his old playground. Trauma can be seen on NBC Mondays at 9:00 pm.
That's awesome! I can remember watching "Emergency" when I was a little girl! I loved it! I really think that it made an impression on me, as I am now an EMT. I know alot of people have criticized "Trauma", but it IS fiction, People!!! Real life EMT work can be pretty boring alot of the time, many of the runs are relatively uninteresting. I enjoy watching "Trauma" because of the characters, not to nit-pick the procedures.