The crew of Los Angeles County Fire Department Station 51, particularly the paramedic team, and Rampart Hospital respond to emergencies in their operating area.

The creme of Jack Webb action series ran 6 seasons from 1972-1979, inspired by CA legislation signed by Then-Gov. Ronald Reagan on July 14, 1970. The new law paved the way for creation of firefighter paramedic programs all over California. This series showcases the Los Angeles model and the emerging specialty of Emergency Hospital Medicine. In Los Angeles, firefighters train to certify as FF/PM, employed through the L.A. County Fire Department. The newly-built Station 51 has one full-size Engine and a smaller rescue squad truck which carries state of the art equipment used by the FF/PMs. This includes a mobile radio and portable EKG machine which allows them contact and transmit information to and from the field to ER specialists at hospitals like Rampart General. There are spectacular rescues and more mundane runs; prompt treatment in the field by FF/PMs keeps a large number of patients alive long enough to reach a hospital. At Rampart, teams of skilled professionals provide appropriate medical care to the patients transported by Squad 51 and other FF/PMs. A close friendship evolves between the Squad 51 FF/PMs and the Rampart emergency team. The FF/PM mantra: "take it easy" is born.—LA-Lawyer

This long-running reality/dramatic series focused primarily on two paramedics (who later were promoted as captains), Firefighter John Gage, a young, impulsive, yet, professional partner, who was a former student of the paramedic program, who is also a ladies' man who dated all the nurses (except Dixie, obviously). Firefighter Gage can also be accident-prone at times, leading him to, on-the-job injuries he sustains and Firefighter Roy DeSoto, another fellow paramedic and founding partner, who, unlike his partner, is low-key, who's also a devoted family man, who in turn, would often give specific orders to Johnny about the victims he's too involved with. Together, the two worked at Station 51, who saved the many lives of people who have been hurt, who were also assisted by the staff at Rampart General Hospital, Dr. Kelly Brackett, a handsome, no-nonsense, but hotheaded physician and Chief of Emergency Services, who attended Johns Hopkins University and took residency at the Mayo Clinic. While taking two separate classes at The Los Angeles County Fire Department, Brackett was opposed to the program, but later changed his mind, with the encouragement of his best friend and colleague, Dixie McCall, a sexy, beautiful, yet dedicated Chief Nurse of the Emergency Room (later nurse supervisor) who served at an Army unit during the Korean War, who was involved early on in the paramedic program, who argued constantly from her skills of paramedics to the dismissiveness of the head doctor, who was the teacher to Gage and Desoto. She's also responsible for looking after patients the paramedics, Gage and DeSoto, both bring to the hospital, all the while delivering cases to each ER doctor, Dr. Joe Early, a neurosurgeon and assistant of Dr. Brackett's and Nurse McCall's, who's calm and has the more tactful experience, who's also dedicated to children, and Dr. Mike Norton, a young black intern, who's calm like Dr. Early, but can be inadvertent to think or to overreact, on occasion. Unlike McCall, Norton spent his time in the U.S. Navy.—Gary Richard Collins II ([email protected])

John Gage and Roy DeSoto are Los Angeles paramedics, operating out of LA Fire Department Station 51. Together they get called out to many and diverse emergency situations - fires, shootings, domestic incidents, to name but a few. Between these we see their lives at the station and their private side.—grantss

This series features the adventures of the paramedics of Los Angeles County Fire Dept. Station 51, John Gage and Roy Desoto. Together, they respond to emergencies ranging from false alarms to major disasters. As at this time, the Paramedic program, which is designed to keep emergency patients alive long enough to get to medical facilities, is still a recent service, the paramedics must be guided by licensed medical personnel through radio contact on site. This is where the staff of Rampart Hospital come in with Doctors Brackett and Early as well as Head Nurse McCall providing the necessary instructions for the paramedics to do their jobs. In addition to that, we see the work of the medical staff on their own as deal with the medical problems they encounter.—Kenneth Chisholm ([email protected])