Emergency! – Season Two
Picture: C
Sound: C+ Extras: D Episodes: B-
Picking up with Season Two of the long-running
drama Emergency on DVD, it is amusing how well the show holds up, yet
also shows its age in the then-standard approach of having every story wrap up
by the end of each episode. It has been
a long time since I have looked at the show, but it was yet another example of
Universal Television at its prime, producing hit after hit.
Mike Norell joined Robert Fuller, Julie London, Bobby
Troup, Kevin Tighe, Ron Pinkard and the irrepressible Donald Mantooth as Los
Angeles County Fire Department Station 51 found themselves over and over again
in the craziest life and death situations in then-TV history. There was always just enough action to
overcome melodrama traps and the show attracted top stars of the time
constantly due to its commercial success and solid production values for a TV
drama. Having Jack Webb as a producer
did not hurt either.
This time around, Deidre Hall was still on the show as
Nurse Sally Lewis before departing for Electra Woman & Dyna Girl and
soap opera immortality. Stars this
season included the great Henry Jones, Lloyd Bochner, Kevin Dobson, Larry
Storch, Sharon Gless, Jackie Coogan, Dick Van Patten, Melissa Gilbert, Robert
Alda, Charles Aidman, Bruno Kirby and John Travolta. The show takes itself seriously and was even a hit with children,
so its seven-season run makes sense.
Now, you have two seasons and counting to choose from to see for
yourself.
The 1.33 X 1 image is surprisingly soft for a filmed show
of its time, with good color slightly dulled.
Considering this was the 1973-74 season and we have seen great-looking
filmed TV from that time like The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Kolchak:
The Night Stalker, the condition of these shows is odd. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is a little
better, though some shows have some distortion, warping and even crackling
atypical of most audio from the time.
The Nelson Riddle theme song is still a hoot. I guess some work is going to be needed before Universal can
consider doing these for digital High Definition presentation. There are no extras, though a bunch of TV
previews are on the first side of DVD 1, but they are all the previews we have
seen before.
- Nicholas Sheffo
