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crack_van2007-12-05 03:27 pm
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"Squad 51, KMG-365"... an Emergency! fandom overview.
Hi I'm Audrey (no, not that one). Welcome to my Emergency! fandom rundown. There's a lot to take in here, but believe me, it's worth it. This fandom holds a special place in my heart, since it was my first.
First, a special thank you to Emergencyfans.com for a lot of this information and some of the pictures. Anything you need to know about this show, you can find there.
Now with that out of the way...
First, a special thank you to Emergencyfans.com for a lot of this information and some of the pictures. Anything you need to know about this show, you can find there.
Now with that out of the way...
The show centers on Station 51 and Rampart Hospital. Los Angeles County Station 51 was home to our heroes, the hottie-filled A-shift. A-shift consists of four firefighters, and two firefighter-paramedics. The show begins with the pilot movie showing the paramedic program in its infancy. It follows the characters of paramedics John Gage and Roy DeSoto to the point when they are promoted to captain.
The show premiered in 1972, and ran until 1977. After its regular run, there were a few made-for-TV movies that most fans don’t consider canon (except for one, but I’ll explain later).
Most earlier episodes were split between rescue scenes in "the field" and follow-up treatment at the hospital afterward. As a child, I loved this. As an adult, I tend to fast-forward over much of the hospital scenes, as they are very Jack Webb-heavy (I’ll explain later).
When the producers realized they had a hot, sexy property on their hands (Randolph Mantooth), the shows started to skew more toward Station 51 and the rescue scenes. In the last few seasons, there were many more episodes focusing on all six men at Station 51, and the doctors and nurses of Rampart were kind of left in the dust. This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, either, IMHO.
Our main characters:
FF/PM John Gage (Randolph Mantooth)
FF/PM Roy DeSoto (Kevin Tighe)
FF Chet Kelly (Tim Donnelly)
FF Marco Lopez (Marco Lopez)
Captain Hammer (Dick Hammer, 1972 only)
Captain Hank Stanley (1973 on) (Michael Norrell)
Engineer Mike Stoker (Mike Stoker)
Dr. Kelly Bracket (Robert Fuller)
Dr. Joe Early (Bobby Troup, yes the the Bobby Troup of “Route 66” fame)
Nurse Dixie McCall (Julie London, yes the Julie London of “Cry Me a River” fame)
Johnny Gage is a firefighter/paramedic. He’s single. He’s the resident girl magnet, disaster magnet, prank magnet… you name it, he attracts it. He’s also kind and caring and does his job well. He’s played by Randolph Mantooth, who later made his name in soap operas and now travels the country advocating for fire and EMS.
Roy DeSoto is the station’s other firefighter/paramedic. He was one of the first paramedics in Los A ngeles County, and is a tireless advocate for the program. We know he’s married with kids. He’s also Gage’s long-suffering partner. He’s played by Kevin Tighe, possibly one of the most well-known character actors in the world. Recently Tighe was Locke’s dad on “Lost”.
Chet Kelly is a firefighter and Station 51’s resident prankster. His alter ego, “The Phantom”, goes after Johnny on a regular basis. We also know that Chet is single, and is a good firefighter. He may or may not be dead (see below). Actor Tim Donnelly played Chet very well, but never went anywhere with his acting career after that.
Marco Lopez is also a firefighter. He’s Hispanic, which unfortunately lends itself to a lot of annoying stereotyping in bad fic. He’s a good cook, animal lover, single and a good firefighter. He’s played by actor Marco Lopez (clever, huh?), who has done many bit parts over the years in American and Latino TV and movies.
Captain Hammer was only around the first season. He was played by a real firefighter, Dick Hammer. Unfortunately Hammer was a crappy actor and too busy, so he was replaced after the first season by…
… Captain Stanley. Played by screenwriter and sometimes-actor Mike Norrell, Captain Stanley was a complex bundle of neuroses. We know he’s married, and once set Chief McConnekee’s hat on fire when he was a young fireman. He cares about his men, and is a father-figure to Johnny. Norrell wrote several Emergency! scripts in later seasons, and his listing at IMDB shows many programs he wrote for after E! ended.
Mike Stoker is the engineer (the guy who drives and pumps the engine). He was also played by a real firefighter, Mike Stoker (clever, huh?). Stoker was a so-so actor, but luckily he didn’t have many lines to say. The few he did say were usually sarcastic and/or funny. This has led many fic writers to characterize the engineer as quiet and sometimes cynical. We don’t know much about Stoker on the show, except that he’s a good engineer. In real life, Stoker retired from the LA County Fire Department a few years back and got into real estate.
Meanwhile, over at Rampart….
Dr. Kelly Brackett is prickly, twitchy and annoying, but a damn fine doctor. He’s played by Robert Fuller, star of stage and screen. Bracket has an on-again, off-again romance with…
… Nurse Dixie McCall. Dixie is every boy’s wet dream, a woman with long eyelashes who can give you sponge baths. It says something that Julie London was 46 years old when cast as Dixie and she still had more sex appeal than the rest of the cast combined. On the show, Dixie was a hard-as-nails, soft-on-the-inside charge nurse who had a little thing going with Dr. Brackett. Off the show, London was married in real life to….
… Bobby Troup, who played kindly Dr. Joe Early. Funnily enough, the show’s creator, Jack Webb, was London’s ex-husband. He apparently got over his disappointment enough to cast them both in Emergency! I can only imagine those Thanksgiving get-togethers….
Mantooth and Tighe, by the way, are still best friends. 30 years later Tighe stood up at Mantooth’s wedding. Now that’s friendship. Makes Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul seem like distant acquaintances, LOL.
What tends to turn people off this show is the first season or two, when Jack Webb had a heavier hand in scripts and production. Webb’s writing style is, well, kind of boring and earnest… and it doesn’t really allow the actor’s personalities to come through. But somewhere around season 3, Webb backed off, and we really start to care about these guys. That’s when most of the good fic takes place, at or after season 3. Fortunately, the first three seasons are already out on DVD for comparison’s sake… and season 4 is due out in January 2008.
Secondary characters we learn to care about include intern Mike Morton, paramedic Craig Brice (a by-the-rules kind of guy who subs at Station 51 on occasion), Nurse Sharon (who takes a lot of crap from Dr. Brackett), Captain Hookraider (an annoying captain who scares a lot of firefighters), Chief McConnikee (who reduces Captain Stanley to a bowl of fearful Jell-o), and Roy’s wife, Joanne DeSoto (who is never shown but whom we hear about a lot).
There are also two firehouse dogs: Boot and Henry.
This is Henry. He slobbers a lot.
Fic has invented a few more fanon characters, including Roy’s children Christopher and Jennifer, Mike’s wife, Johnny’s aunt, and Chet Kelly’s sister. There is endless fanon argument over these characters.
Johnny’s accident-proneness (supported by endless canon) is a focus of a lot of fic. In fact, if you are an H/C fan, this is the fandom for you. It’s a standard joke that the basic Emergency! fic follows the same formula: Johnny gets hurt, Johnny gets ignored, Johnny gets hospitalized, rest of A-shift mopes around hospital until Johnny gets better. I’m totally serious; that’s about half the Emergency! fic out there.
Luckily the other half is a lot more interesting and inventive. Johnny’s Indian heritage, which was discussed on the show, made for some fine stories. There are also stories that focus on the angst of fighting fires and saving lives, the pain of real recovery from injuries, firefighters maintaining romantic relationships in a dangerous job, and the complex relationships between the firefighters on A-shift. The good authors in this fandom research their stuff and get it right.
One of the most controversial fanon items is the “death” of Chet Kelly. Many writers have seized on a moment in the TV movie “Greatest Rescues of Emergency” when newly-crowned Captains Gage and DeSoto reminisce in sad tones about Chet Kelly’s exploits. The fanon assumption is that Kelly is dead, probably in a fire, although that is never explicitly said. It has resulted in some mighty fine fic, though.
Het pairings tend toward Johnny and anonymous females, Roy and his wife, Dr. Brackett and Nurse Dixie, and various firefighters with wives, girlfriends, etc.
Slash pairings tend to match up Johnny and Roy (obviously), Johnny and Mike, and Hank and Mike. It’s the fascination with Stoker’s “quietness”, I guess, that makes him slash fodder. No word on what the real Mike Stoker thinks about that.
There are a few slash stories with Johnny and Dr. Brackett. There are a few more with Dr. Brackett and Dr. Early. There was a rollicking slash series in the 1990’s called Club 51 that had all six men sleeping together as well. Unfortunately the quality of most Emergency! slash is on the low side, as the canon doesn’t support it too well… but there are a few worth reading.
Speaking of sites, here are a few to whet your appetite:
KMG365 (http://kmg365.com). The first, and the best. “KMG365” refers to the FCC call letters for Station 51, and you’ll hear them a lot in both the show and in fic. This site focuses strictly on action, adventure and H/C. No romance, very little AU, and no slash or sex. It’s an H/C-lovers dream, though….
Emergency! A Celebration (http://lovegage.topcities.com/fanfiction.html). No slash, but some really hot NC-17 het… and a lot of classics too.
Brice’s Neat, Well-Organized (and occasionally alphabetized) Emergency! Fanfic Site (http://www.geocities.com/toddfe2002/brice.html). I love this site. Lots of classics made their way here after other sites closed. Angst, H/C, a little sex, no slash. And although there are some stories focusing on Craig Brice, there are many more that don’t.
Audrey’s Emergency Fan Fiction (http://audreys-efanfic.freeservers.com/). Not me, FYI… there are a lot of Audrey’s in this fandom for some reason. Anyway, a ton of stories here, AU, romance, action, H/C, angst… you name it. No slash, no sex. The fic quality varies a LOT, but there are many classic stories from dead sites here.
Emergency! Universe (http://www.emergencyuniverse.com). For the romance-lovers among you, and some mighty fine action/adventure/angst as well.
Here’s some slash sites too:
Peja’s Site (http://www.squidge.org/~peja/emergency/slash.htm), a lot of classics here.
E! Firehouse (http://www.geocities.com/efirehouse51/sitemenu.html)
Gage/Stoker Fashion City (http://www.geocities.com/efirehouse51/jgmscity/indexmap.html)
Gila’s Cave (http://gila.faking-sanity.net/misc.html) I’ve read the “Sedentary” series, very well-done!
And a few more links:
Here’s an up-to-date list of E! fic sites: http://www.geocities.com/alletvlinks/fanfiction.html
Here’s a group that focuses on finding lost E! fic, as we have lost a LOT of sites over the past few years: http://www.network54.com/Forum/199227/ (this is a very active group)
There are also some Yahoo groups. The most active is: http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/AllEFanfic/
There's not much of a Live Journal presence on this show. There have been a few attempts, but nothing that has stuck.
I look forward to reccing this, and thank you tocrack_van for letting us small fandoms get a day in the sun!
The show premiered in 1972, and ran until 1977. After its regular run, there were a few made-for-TV movies that most fans don’t consider canon (except for one, but I’ll explain later).
Most earlier episodes were split between rescue scenes in "the field" and follow-up treatment at the hospital afterward. As a child, I loved this. As an adult, I tend to fast-forward over much of the hospital scenes, as they are very Jack Webb-heavy (I’ll explain later).
When the producers realized they had a hot, sexy property on their hands (Randolph Mantooth), the shows started to skew more toward Station 51 and the rescue scenes. In the last few seasons, there were many more episodes focusing on all six men at Station 51, and the doctors and nurses of Rampart were kind of left in the dust. This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, either, IMHO.
Our main characters:
FF/PM John Gage (Randolph Mantooth)
FF/PM Roy DeSoto (Kevin Tighe)
FF Chet Kelly (Tim Donnelly)
FF Marco Lopez (Marco Lopez)
Captain Hammer (Dick Hammer, 1972 only)
Captain Hank Stanley (1973 on) (Michael Norrell)
Engineer Mike Stoker (Mike Stoker)
Dr. Kelly Bracket (Robert Fuller)
Dr. Joe Early (Bobby Troup, yes the the Bobby Troup of “Route 66” fame)
Nurse Dixie McCall (Julie London, yes the Julie London of “Cry Me a River” fame)
Johnny Gage is a firefighter/paramedic. He’s single. He’s the resident girl magnet, disaster magnet, prank magnet… you name it, he attracts it. He’s also kind and caring and does his job well. He’s played by Randolph Mantooth, who later made his name in soap operas and now travels the country advocating for fire and EMS. Roy DeSoto is the station’s other firefighter/paramedic. He was one of the first paramedics in Los A ngeles County, and is a tireless advocate for the program. We know he’s married with kids. He’s also Gage’s long-suffering partner. He’s played by Kevin Tighe, possibly one of the most well-known character actors in the world. Recently Tighe was Locke’s dad on “Lost”. Chet Kelly is a firefighter and Station 51’s resident prankster. His alter ego, “The Phantom”, goes after Johnny on a regular basis. We also know that Chet is single, and is a good firefighter. He may or may not be dead (see below). Actor Tim Donnelly played Chet very well, but never went anywhere with his acting career after that. Marco Lopez is also a firefighter. He’s Hispanic, which unfortunately lends itself to a lot of annoying stereotyping in bad fic. He’s a good cook, animal lover, single and a good firefighter. He’s played by actor Marco Lopez (clever, huh?), who has done many bit parts over the years in American and Latino TV and movies.Captain Hammer was only around the first season. He was played by a real firefighter, Dick Hammer. Unfortunately Hammer was a crappy actor and too busy, so he was replaced after the first season by…
… Captain Stanley. Played by screenwriter and sometimes-actor Mike Norrell, Captain Stanley was a complex bundle of neuroses. We know he’s married, and once set Chief McConnekee’s hat on fire when he was a young fireman. He cares about his men, and is a father-figure to Johnny. Norrell wrote several Emergency! scripts in later seasons, and his listing at IMDB shows many programs he wrote for after E! ended. Mike Stoker is the engineer (the guy who drives and pumps the engine). He was also played by a real firefighter, Mike Stoker (clever, huh?). Stoker was a so-so actor, but luckily he didn’t have many lines to say. The few he did say were usually sarcastic and/or funny. This has led many fic writers to characterize the engineer as quiet and sometimes cynical. We don’t know much about Stoker on the show, except that he’s a good engineer. In real life, Stoker retired from the LA County Fire Department a few years back and got into real estate.Meanwhile, over at Rampart….
Dr. Kelly Brackett is prickly, twitchy and annoying, but a damn fine doctor. He’s played by Robert Fuller, star of stage and screen. Bracket has an on-again, off-again romance with… … Nurse Dixie McCall. Dixie is every boy’s wet dream, a woman with long eyelashes who can give you sponge baths. It says something that Julie London was 46 years old when cast as Dixie and she still had more sex appeal than the rest of the cast combined. On the show, Dixie was a hard-as-nails, soft-on-the-inside charge nurse who had a little thing going with Dr. Brackett. Off the show, London was married in real life to…. … Bobby Troup, who played kindly Dr. Joe Early. Funnily enough, the show’s creator, Jack Webb, was London’s ex-husband. He apparently got over his disappointment enough to cast them both in Emergency! I can only imagine those Thanksgiving get-togethers….Mantooth and Tighe, by the way, are still best friends. 30 years later Tighe stood up at Mantooth’s wedding. Now that’s friendship. Makes Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul seem like distant acquaintances, LOL.
What tends to turn people off this show is the first season or two, when Jack Webb had a heavier hand in scripts and production. Webb’s writing style is, well, kind of boring and earnest… and it doesn’t really allow the actor’s personalities to come through. But somewhere around season 3, Webb backed off, and we really start to care about these guys. That’s when most of the good fic takes place, at or after season 3. Fortunately, the first three seasons are already out on DVD for comparison’s sake… and season 4 is due out in January 2008.
Secondary characters we learn to care about include intern Mike Morton, paramedic Craig Brice (a by-the-rules kind of guy who subs at Station 51 on occasion), Nurse Sharon (who takes a lot of crap from Dr. Brackett), Captain Hookraider (an annoying captain who scares a lot of firefighters), Chief McConnikee (who reduces Captain Stanley to a bowl of fearful Jell-o), and Roy’s wife, Joanne DeSoto (who is never shown but whom we hear about a lot).
There are also two firehouse dogs: Boot and Henry.
This is Henry. He slobbers a lot.Fic has invented a few more fanon characters, including Roy’s children Christopher and Jennifer, Mike’s wife, Johnny’s aunt, and Chet Kelly’s sister. There is endless fanon argument over these characters.
Johnny’s accident-proneness (supported by endless canon) is a focus of a lot of fic. In fact, if you are an H/C fan, this is the fandom for you. It’s a standard joke that the basic Emergency! fic follows the same formula: Johnny gets hurt, Johnny gets ignored, Johnny gets hospitalized, rest of A-shift mopes around hospital until Johnny gets better. I’m totally serious; that’s about half the Emergency! fic out there.
Luckily the other half is a lot more interesting and inventive. Johnny’s Indian heritage, which was discussed on the show, made for some fine stories. There are also stories that focus on the angst of fighting fires and saving lives, the pain of real recovery from injuries, firefighters maintaining romantic relationships in a dangerous job, and the complex relationships between the firefighters on A-shift. The good authors in this fandom research their stuff and get it right.
One of the most controversial fanon items is the “death” of Chet Kelly. Many writers have seized on a moment in the TV movie “Greatest Rescues of Emergency” when newly-crowned Captains Gage and DeSoto reminisce in sad tones about Chet Kelly’s exploits. The fanon assumption is that Kelly is dead, probably in a fire, although that is never explicitly said. It has resulted in some mighty fine fic, though.
Het pairings tend toward Johnny and anonymous females, Roy and his wife, Dr. Brackett and Nurse Dixie, and various firefighters with wives, girlfriends, etc.
Slash pairings tend to match up Johnny and Roy (obviously), Johnny and Mike, and Hank and Mike. It’s the fascination with Stoker’s “quietness”, I guess, that makes him slash fodder. No word on what the real Mike Stoker thinks about that.
There are a few slash stories with Johnny and Dr. Brackett. There are a few more with Dr. Brackett and Dr. Early. There was a rollicking slash series in the 1990’s called Club 51 that had all six men sleeping together as well. Unfortunately the quality of most Emergency! slash is on the low side, as the canon doesn’t support it too well… but there are a few worth reading.
Speaking of sites, here are a few to whet your appetite:
KMG365 (http://kmg365.com). The first, and the best. “KMG365” refers to the FCC call letters for Station 51, and you’ll hear them a lot in both the show and in fic. This site focuses strictly on action, adventure and H/C. No romance, very little AU, and no slash or sex. It’s an H/C-lovers dream, though….
Emergency! A Celebration (http://lovegage.topcities.com/fanfiction.html). No slash, but some really hot NC-17 het… and a lot of classics too.
Brice’s Neat, Well-Organized (and occasionally alphabetized) Emergency! Fanfic Site (http://www.geocities.com/toddfe2002/brice.html). I love this site. Lots of classics made their way here after other sites closed. Angst, H/C, a little sex, no slash. And although there are some stories focusing on Craig Brice, there are many more that don’t.
Audrey’s Emergency Fan Fiction (http://audreys-efanfic.freeservers.com/). Not me, FYI… there are a lot of Audrey’s in this fandom for some reason. Anyway, a ton of stories here, AU, romance, action, H/C, angst… you name it. No slash, no sex. The fic quality varies a LOT, but there are many classic stories from dead sites here.
Emergency! Universe (http://www.emergencyuniverse.com). For the romance-lovers among you, and some mighty fine action/adventure/angst as well.
Here’s some slash sites too:
Peja’s Site (http://www.squidge.org/~peja/emergency/slash.htm), a lot of classics here.
E! Firehouse (http://www.geocities.com/efirehouse51/sitemenu.html)
Gage/Stoker Fashion City (http://www.geocities.com/efirehouse51/jgmscity/indexmap.html)
Gila’s Cave (http://gila.faking-sanity.net/misc.html) I’ve read the “Sedentary” series, very well-done!
And a few more links:
Here’s an up-to-date list of E! fic sites: http://www.geocities.com/alletvlinks/fanfiction.html
Here’s a group that focuses on finding lost E! fic, as we have lost a LOT of sites over the past few years: http://www.network54.com/Forum/199227/ (this is a very active group)
There are also some Yahoo groups. The most active is: http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/AllEFanfic/
There's not much of a Live Journal presence on this show. There have been a few attempts, but nothing that has stuck.
I look forward to reccing this, and thank you to
crack_van for letting us small fandoms get a day in the sun!
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