RIP Randolph Mantooth of "Emergency!"

[mpcincal]

Those of us on here of a certain age remember living and dying with the TV show "Emergency!" and the exploits of paramedics Johnny Gage and Roy DeSoto. Well, Johnny Gage has left us.
Actually, Mantooth had a pretty steady career for decades, and was a regular on soaps before they started dying out.

Just want to give a proper goodbye to a huge part of my childhood.


Randolph Mantooth, Firefighter-Paramedic Johnny Gage on ‘Emergency!,’ Dies at 80

 

[Here me roar]

He was such a beautiful man. Crushed hard on him in Emergency, and then he made a living playing soaps most of the rest of his life. RIP.

 

[MTM]

Gage and DeSoto on Emergency and Malloy and Reed on Adam 12 were the first public safety officers those of us in our 60s ever knew of.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

Gage and DeSoto on Emergency and Malloy and Reed on Adam 12 was the first public safety officers those of us in our 60s ever knew of.

And younger thanks to both shows being in heavy reruns in the 1980s.

 

[brn623cl]

Gage and DeSoto on Emergency and Malloy and Reed on Adam 12 was the first public safety officers those of us in our 60s ever knew of.

I knew Friday and Gannon first but they were close behind.

 

[Batman]

Loved Emergency! as a kid, and still do. It holds up pretty well 50 years later. That show, and I suppose Mantooth and Kevin Tighe as well, sparked an obsession with fire engines that to this day sends me running to the window to see them when the siren comes screaming down the street.
RIP.

 

[Slacker]

All three series were Jack Webb productions, too.

Nothing but the facts, ma'am.

 

[SJ Staff]

RIP. I remember watching Emergency.

 

[DanOregon]

There weren't a lot of paramedics when the show began. By the time it was over, most fire departments had trained paramedics. RIP Johnny Gage. Say hi to Chet Kelly!
KMG-365

 

[maumann2]

When it was in reruns on TV Land , we'd bet in the newsroom whether the fire engine would turn left or right out of Station 51. It's also interesting to see how many future well-known actors and actresses were featured as "victims" on the show.

As noted, the show really led the advancement of standalone EMT first responders, and improved the chances of survival for millions of people.

RIP, Randy.

 

[I Should Coco]

Sorry to see this. Watched the show in reruns as a kid, then my wife and I would catch the occasional episode on Me-TV for some laughs.

It seemed to show both firefighting and medical situations realistically for its time, but also had a sense of humor — including Johnny striking out with just about every nurse at Rampart Hospital.

RIP, Randy (and yes, KMG-365).

 

[maumann2]

Ringer's lactate on the house.

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

Rampart is a real neighborhood west of downtown Los Angeles, although the hospital itself was fictional. The area became more semi-infamous a quarter-century later sadly because of a police corruption scandal.

But as a kid, I was an Emergency P1. My mom sussed the plot out quickly and kind of ruined it for me when she observed the big call was always saved for the end of the episode.

I'll take an IV with D5W on the rocks.

 

[I Should Coco]

I’m reminded of a comment someone made on here (I think it was @HC) about Rampart being the only hospital being staffed by musicians!

Some of the firefighters at Station 51, on the other hand, were actually members of the LA County Fire Department.

 

[Slacker]

When the show premiered, there were 12 paramedic units in all of North America. In the next three years, 46 states enacted laws that allowed paramedics to practice emergency medicine. Within 10 years, more than half of all Americans were within 10 minutes of a paramedic rescue or ambulance unit.

Experts say that growth simply would not have occurred without Emergency!

“When you take life-saving services out of the hospital and into the field, the number of lives that are saved is incalculable,” Mantooth said. “The stars just lined up with this show perfectly for a purpose, for a greater purpose.

“I could be remembered for driving a car that has a name like the General Lee, not that there’s anything wrong with that show. Instead I’m remembered for something that changed emergency medicine, forever. How lucky can any one person be?”

 

[Slacker]

I’m reminded of a comment someone made on here (I think it was
@HC) about Rampart being the only hospital being staffed by musicians!

Hell, yeah ... Julie London!

 

[Bubbler]

“Emergency” was my very first favorite show. When I was 4-5-6-ish, I was obsessed. I had the lunch box. I had the fire helmet. Those guys were my heroes. When I was that age, I wanted to be a firefighter. Should have stuck with it.

That cast is fascinating. Kevin Tighe had an amazing rebirth as a character actor. John Sayles memorably cast him in both “Eight Men Out” and the truly great “Matewan” where Tighe was a vicious *******.

I had no idea until adulthood that Julie London was a torch singer/sorta sex symbol in the 50s. Though her husky voice intimidated me a bit, she had the MILF vibes to me as a 5-year-old … to the degree that exists as a 5-year-old anyway. I bought a lounge Christmas album a few years ago and she has songs on it. Good stuff.

As for Raymond Mantooth, he was arguably the cooler of the two on the show, though I adored both. I don’t recall any playground debates about whether Gage or DeSoto was cooler, but there should have been.

RIP.

 

[PCLoadLetter]

“Emergency” was my very first favorite show. When I was 4-5-6-ish, I was obsessed. I had the lunch box. I had the fire helmet. Those guys were my heroes. When I was that age, I wanted to be a firefighter. Should have stuck with it.

That cast is fascinating. Kevin Tighe had an amazing rebirth as a character actor. John Sayles memorably cast him in both “Eight Men Out” and the truly great “Matewan” where Tighe was a vicious *******.

I had no idea until adulthood that Julie London was a torch singer/sorta sex symbol in the 50s. Though her husky voice intimidated me a bit, she had the MILF vibes to me as a 5-year-old … to the degree that exists as a 5-year-old anyway. I bought a lounge Christmas album a few years ago and she has songs on it. Good stuff.

As for Raymond Mantooth, he was arguably the cooler of the two on the show, though I adored both. I don’t recall any playground debates about whether Gage or DeSoto was cooler, but there should have been.

RIP.

Also had the lunch box. Loved that show.

Gotta say, watching it now, the... lackadaisical approach to emergency situations is hilarious. A mom will be screaming from her burning car and the firefighters/paramedics are grabbing their **** and wandering up with all the intensity of a union worker taking out the trash.

 

[Slacker]

Kevin Tighe had an amazing rebirth as a character actor.

And "Road House" FTW!

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

When I Wiki'd Julie London and saw that she "was," my heart sank. She was in her mid-40s in the early to mid-70s (pushing 50 at the end of the series, looking at it) and she held it together a lot better than other people of the time. Died in 2000 at age 74. She probably never touched a cigarette.

Born in 1926 and my grandmother, who was born a year later and passed away three years later and smoked probably a pack a day with the windows of her Chrysler New Yorker rolled up, had more wrinkles than Carter had pills.