Emergency!
Messin' Around
Season 3, Episode 16 · Aired 1974-01-12
Synopsis
Chet, adopting a persona he calls "The Phantom Bomber," nails Johnny with a number of practical jokes, for which Johnny later gets his revenge. A child is stuck in a tree house (with the tree burning underneath) and is rescued by Johnny; the girl's widowed mother takes an interest in him, all the while, Dixie takes care of the mother, who herself also has slight burns. The girl then fields a visit from an elderly man and frequent visitor to Rampart known as "Old Bill." Dixie, Drs. Brackett, and Early think "Old Bill" is a hypochondriac until Roy and Johnny find him unconscious in his home with septic shock. Johnny and Roy help a moaning man after his wife gives him Dieffenbachia sap to shut him up, a gas station attendant with a perforated ulcer, a young boy who swallows ant poison and later dies–his mother thought he was just trying to "get attention"–and three men stuck after a bulldozer accident.
In the series
This episode is part of Emergency! (1972–1979) on NBC.
Squad 51 rolling — paramedics as heroes before medical dramas went steadicam.
Key cast
- Robert Fuller as Dr. Kelly Brackett
- Julie London as Dixie McCall
- Randolph Mantooth as Firefighter John Gage
- Kevin Tighe as Firefighter Roy DeSoto
- Bobby Troup as Dr. Joe Early