I’m sorry for reviving a dead thread but the 50th anniversary of the premiere of “Emergency!” was last week and I had to chime in. The original poster stated that the premiere episode was a two parter. That is correct in the sense that all of the two hour movies were edited down to two parts for syndication. The premiere of “Emergency!” was a two hour movie that was first televised on NBC on January 15, 1972. During the show’s 5th season the movie was cut into two parts and the filler reminiscences of Johnny and Roy were filmed and edited into the cut. This allowed NBC to show 24 episodes that season. Those two episodes (‘The Wedsworth-Townsend Act’ pts 1 & 2) are what most people today have seen in the last 20 years in syndication on TVLand or Antenna TV or METV or Cozi TV.
The real question is what ever happened to the 1970 squad that Universal bought from L.A. County and used as Squad 10 then as a filming stand in for the ‘72 Dodge. There are episodes from the 1st season where Station 51 is on a run and you can see the white grill and older cab of the ‘70 Dodge as Squad 51 is responding. Were those days that the ‘72 wouldn’t start, wasn’t ready or did the studio use the ‘70 to get their money out of it, especially running through red lights at intersections. That stock footage is used occasionally throughout the first 3 seasons. If anyone knows what happened to the ‘70 Dodge, please chime in. I’m sure the L. A. County Fire Museum would be interested.
