List of Emergency! characters

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This article lists characters of the television series Emergency!.

Contents 1 Roy DeSoto 2 Kelly Brackett 3 Johnny Gage 4 Chet Kelly 5 Hank Stanley 6 Joe Early 7 Dixie McCall 8 Mike Stoker 9 Marco Lopez 10 Dr. Mike Morton

[edit] Roy DeSoto

Roy DeSoto was portrayed by actor Kevin Tighe. DeSoto worked with partner John Gage as a firefighter/paramedic for the Los Angeles County Fire Department at Station 51. He first met Gage when he was recruiting personnel for the newly designated paramedic program, of which he was in the first group of six graduates. He assisted the physicians with instruction during Gage's class at Rampart General Hospital. He was married (his wife's name was Joanne) and had a son (Chris) and a daughter, though only his wife appeared as a minor character once during the series.

While his single partner was often portrayed as intense and impulsive, DeSoto was more quiet and often served to keep Gage under control. The relationship (and physical appearance) between the two was purposely made similar to that of the main characters of another successful Jack Webb production, Adam-12, where the older, more experienced character of Officer Pete Malloy served as a brake on the sometimes impulsive rookie Jim Reed. As with his partner, very little is discussed about DeSoto's life prior to the fire service, other than he spent some time in the military (Tighe himself was in the U.S. Army) during the 1960's.

During the third season, DeSoto is offered a promotion to engineer, which he eventually turns down in order to remain a paramedic. However, in the last episode ("Greatest Rescues of Emergency!"), he and Gage are promoted to captain, and they are each assigned to new stations.

[edit] Kelly Brackett

Kelly Brackett, M.D. / F.A.C.S., was portrayed by Robert Fuller. Dr. Brackett was the leading character of the show who was also dedicated and fairly no-nonsense senior ER physician at Rampart General Hospital, who appeared in almost every episode of the series. Brackett and ER head nurse Dixie McCall were romantically involved with each other in the early days of the series, but were only close friends during the series run. In the pilot episode, "The Wedsworth-Townsend Act", it was revealed that Brackett went to Johns Hopkins and took residency at the Mayo Clinic.

Brackett, along with neurologist Dr. Joe Early and nurse McCall, trained the first two classes of paramedics for the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Initially Brackett was opposed to the newly designated program, but would eventually change his opinion after an accident involving E/R nurse McCall and her subsequent emergency medical treatment initiated by firefighter/paramedics John Gage and Roy DeSoto. In a surprise trip to Sacramento he put his support behind the passage of a state bill that would fully authorize the paramedic program ("The Wedsworth-Townsend Act"). As the series progressed he would become very supportive of the paramedics themselves, and even defended them when Paramedic DeSoto was severely criticized for his actions in the field by another Rampart physician (who suddenly ducked away when Brackett approached and demanded an explanation).

In the pilot episode, Brackett was firmly cautious in his work, fully aware that emergency medicine was by no means an exact science. His personality borderlined on hard-nosed, and he rebuked those around him when they overstepped the boundary of their own capabilities (or authority). But when Emergency! became a series, Brackett began to show a penchant for flying by the seat of his pants, at times going with gut instinct on limited information. For example, in Season 1 when a patient began to suffer respiratory paralysis and double vision, Brackett speculated the condition might be botulism. Thorough investigation later proved his theory right.

In another episode Brackett became a patient himself when he was involved in a traffic crash; his car was broadsided by a reckless drunk driver who was killed at the accident scene; the drunk's daughter, a backseat passenger, survived with only a broken foot. Though witnesses at the scene proved Brackett's innocence, he still blamed himself for the death of the girl's father until she later explained the situation to the good Doctor when he visited her in her hospital room- she was also a patient at Rampart.

[edit] Johnny Gage

John Roderick Gage (aka Johnny Gage) was portrayed by actor Randolph Mantooth. Gage worked with slightly senior partner Roy DeSoto as a firefighter/paramedic for the Los Angeles County Fire Department and rode "shotgun" in Squad 51. Prior to working as a paramedic he worked for the rescue squad at Station 10. Initially against working as a paramedic, he decided to pursue it after a couple of incidents where he felt he could have done more with specialized medical training. He met DeSoto when applying for the new program ("The Wedsworth-Townsend Act") and after graduation decided to partner with him at the newly built Station 51. He and DeSoto would remain partners until the last episode ("Greatest Rescues of Emergency!"), when both would be promoted to captain. Gage, like DeSoto, was then assigned his own station.

Little is mentioned in the series about Gage's life prior to the fire department. In the episode "Peace Pipe" it was brought up that Gage was Native American and grew up on an Indian reservation, though no particular tribe is mentioned (Mantooth himself is half-Seminole).

Gage was single throughout the series, and often dated (or chased after) the E/R nurses at Rampart General Hospital. Intense and professional on the job, Gage's good looks and his impulsive charm away from the job made him a perfect dramatic foil to his more low-key partner. He was also the butt of many of fellow firefighter Chet Kelly's jokes, and often attempted, with varying degrees of success, to get even. (One time Gage bought a box of chocolates and injected them with pure garlic extract--and, at the end of the episode, wound up sampling his own chocolates, to his shock and embarrassment.)

Gage was somewhat accident prone (at least compared to his partner), and on few occasions each season he wound up a patient at Rampart General Hospital. One of these occasions ensued from a hit-and-run collision (a car hit him in the street and then sped away), and Johnny, spending the rest of the episode in the fracture ward at Rampart General, is treated to emotional abuse by the nurse in the ward (Carole Cook).

[edit] Chet Kelly

Chet Kelly served as a firefighter assigned to Engine 51 with the Los Angeles County Fire Department. He was portrayed by actor Tim Donnelly, who acted in other series produced by Webb, such as the 1967-1970 incarnation of Dragnet, in which he played varying roles (including a young marijuana addict whose infant child accidentally drowns in a bathtub, and in another episode, a troubled teen who steals superhero movie posters).

Chet's full name in Emergency! was Chester B. Kelly, which was revealed during the third season episode The Promotion, where he took the test to become an engineer and placed only 74th on the list. He once mentioned that his grandfather had been a New York subway motorman.

Chet was often portrayed as a sometimes arrogant and wisecracking clown with a penchant for tomfoolery; he often made paramedic Johnny Gage the butt of his practical jokes, such as a series of showering water bombs (an example highly prevalent in the 1974 episode Messin' Around), and tricking John into thinking that his current girlfriend was telling him secrets about their dates. The practical joker- Chet's alter ego- is known as "The Phantom" around the station. On lesser occasions the tables were turned, case in point when Johnny planted a CPR dummy in the trunk of Chet's car and waited for him to scream loudly when he found it.

But Chet's competency as a firefighter was unquestioned when the alarm rang; his compassion also showed through at times as well. This was prevalent in Messin' Around: Johnny and Roy had just returned to the station from taking a poisoned child to E/R; the boy later died. At the station, Johnny is unknowingly about to open a booby-trapped cabinet door, but Chet stops him saying, "The Phantom doesn't like to strike at times like this; he knows how much you two tried to do for that kid." John gratefully got the message. (At the end of the episode Chet, having forgotten about the booby trap, later opened the same cabinet door, becoming a victim of his own water bomb; Gage said satisfyingly, "Well, it do look like the Phantom got caught!") Tim Donnelly's brother Dennis was director on several episodes of Emergency! he went on to direct shows like; Hawaii 5-0, Riptide, Simon and Simon, Charlie's Angels, Hart to Hart, The A-Team, and many more.

[edit] Hank Stanley

Henry "Hank" Stanley, captain of Los Angeles County Fire Station 51, was portrayed by actor / screenwriter Michael Norrell. Stanley replaced Captain Dick Hammer in the beginning of the second season and remained 51's commanding officer throughout the remainder of the series.

Little is discussed in the series about Stanley outside the fire department, though one episode mentions he is married, has children, and that his wife drives an Edsel. Often addressed as "Cap" by the other firefighters on the A-shift, he is very competent and relatively easy-going, and has a good sense of humor. In the Season 6 episode Onward And Upward Stanley begins studying to become a chief, but when he finds out his old station captain, now Battalion Chief McConnaghey, is on the review board, Stanley becomes paranoid, having convinced himself that McConnaghey still holds a grudge for an incident in which Stanley deliberately set McConnaghey's hat on fire.

In the sixth season, a basset hound suddenly appears in the station when the crew returns from a call. The crew decides to keep him as the station's new mascot and John Gage names him "Henry". The captain initially rejects the name but finally allows it as long as "no one ever calls him 'Hank'."

[edit] Joe Early

Joe Early, M.D., F.A.C.S., was portrayed by actor Bobby Troup. Early worked at Rampart General Hospital as a neurosurgeon, but often assisted Dr. Kelly Brackett in the emergency room.

In direct contrast to the more dynamic, quick-tempered Kelly Brackett, Joe Early was more low-key, avuncular and certainly more tactful: when a hotheaded, powerful tycoon (played by Gene Raymond) threatened to take Brackett to court because of Brackett’s treatment of the tycoon’s son, Joe Early spoke to the father and successfully placated him. Early also apparently choked back tears and anger when talking to a man (played by Cliff Norton) whose wife was severely burned by a fire resulting from improperly stored gasoline (hoarded by the man in the midst of the 70's "gas crisis"). And he gave a severe lecture to one man who had given another a “precordial thump in the rib cage"—after “learning” CPR from watching television. Dr. Early snapped, “I don’t know whether your friend is having a heart attack or not, but your ‘miracle cure’ may have caved in his rib cage!”

In one episode all the other characters are morose as Early undergoes heart surgery.

[edit] Dixie McCall

Dixie McCall, R.N., was portrayed by actress/singer Julie London.

McCall, who served as an army nurse in a MASH unit during the Korean Conflict, was the chief nurse of the emergency room of Rampart General Hospital and was involved in the very beginning of the paramedic program. She assisted in training and running calls with the newly designated paramedic squads of the Los Angeles County Fire Department until the passing of a state bill authorizing paramedics to work on their own in the field. She was knocked unconscious at an accident scene while running a call with Squad 51 paramedics John Gage and Roy DeSoto in the pilot episode ("The Wedsworth-Townsend Act"). Gage and DeSoto went beyond their authorizations to cover for and help her. This incident led Dr. Kelly Brackett to change his opinion and fully support the program.

McCall's exceptional beauty was matched only by her determination-- she was dedicated, skilled, unflappable, and tenacious. In an episode in which a hospitalized man has come in with a son (played by Poindexter Yothers), who has nowhere else to go, Gage and DeSoto care for the kid--but he shows himself to be unruly. At the end of the episode, he sits quietly in a corner of the room--and speaks politely when Dixie calls him. Roy asks, "How did you do that?" Without batting an eye, Dixie says, "The same way I handle Joe and Kel." She also helps a klutzy student nurse overcome her awkwardness "by explaining Brackett to her." Right away, the young nurse, no longer fumbling, has also assumed Dixie's mannerisms.

During the series McCall turned down a "desk job" offer to become Rampart's nurse supervisor.

[edit] Mike Stoker

Mike Stoker, played by Mike Stoker who used his real name for the series, is an engineer, and also drives Engine 51. Both the character and the actor operated the pump unit at his real station, LACoFD Fire Station 69 in Topanga Canyon.

In the season 2 episode Helpful it is revealed that Stoker makes excellent spaghetti. Recall that firefighters take turns cooking when on duty. This causes some tension between Roy DeSoto and his wife JoAnne, when Roy tells her how great Stoker's spaghetti is and she thinks he is putting her cooking down. This goes on until John Gage, Roy's paramedic partner, calls Mrs. DeSoto and gives her Stoker's recipe for spaghetti. After Roy finds this out he bawls Johnny out; although Joanne had sounded happy to get it, Roy said, "She was just being polite. You should have been there for the fireworks after she hung up! You're positively dangerous!" However, Joanne still tries the recipe. She loves it and her anger is mollified. So is Roy's, but he tells Johnny he would have left well enough alone.

[edit] Marco Lopez

Marco Lopez, played by Marco Lopez who, like Stoker, used his real name for the Series. Lopez, of Mexican-American ancestry, spoke with a slight Spanish accent; the actor, then sometimes billed as Marco Antonio, did likewise in episodes of Dragnet. He sometimes lapsed into Spanish (including in one episode in which the firemen found a huge pile of money and Lopez counted it in Spanish), but his Spanish was not exactly proper (using cambiarse in the episode "Fools" to refer to a family that had moved, instead of the proper mudarse or trasladarse, for example).

[edit] Dr. Mike Morton

Dr. Mike Morton, played by Ron Pinkard was a bespectacled intern of African-American ancestry. Unlike Brackett or Early, Morton usually wore an older-style physician's uniform tunic with a buttoned neck or the standard green surgical "scrubs." Dixie commented on the relationship between Morton and the paramedics "our high-ego intern gave our low-threshold paramedics a bad time"; indeed, early on Morton often flaunted his status over that of Johnny and Roy, and was initially portrayed as uptight and somewhat cynical. However, the character softened during the run of the series and he became more friendly with the paramedics, and was also shown to be a caring and competent but sometimes hard-nosed physician.