I am in the midst of my annual re-listen to Tony Hillerman’s Leaphorn and Chee Navajo Tribal Police mysteries. I have yet to tire of those (I do NOT include his daughter Anne’s continuations. Because they’re terrible and I quit reading them. You should need more qualification than your last name, to continue somebody else’s terrific series).

Anywhoo…I also decided to re-watch season one of Dark Winds, which I had some issues with. But then I saw that Randy DeRoy Mantooth passed away, and I decided to write about him a bit.

Randolph Mantooth was co-lead on Emergency!, which aired 131 episodes from 1972-1979. For kids of the seventies, this and Adam-12, were the foundations of a life-long love of police and medical dramas. They even had a bit of crossover.

First with Tubi, then RokuTV, I started re-watching Emergency! earlier this year. I did the first three seasons and moved on to other shows. Though I just watched the season four kickoff and immediately recognized Hall of Fame running back Larry Csonka.

Emergency! featured Julie London, a popular torch singer from the fifties and sixties, as well as musician Bobby Troup. And man, Robert Fuller had soap opera good looks. They handled the hospital side of the medical drama. But the show was really about paramedics Mantooth and Kevin Tighe.

The show begins with the creation of the paramedics unit, by the California state legislature. Things were VERY different back then. The paramedics had to call in on their ‘box phone (no cell phones yet) and get approval from legit doctors before they could give treatment. No intubating, or radical life-saving actions. In fact, there’s one episode where a conflict develops between a new paramedic who saved lives in battle in Vietnam, wanting to do more than they’re allowed to.

From my days of watching ER and other medical dramas, it seemed like there was an intubation every other episode. In Emergency!, it was an IV of D5W TKO stat. Usually followed by ‘transport as soon as possible.’

Emergency! was – and is – a good show, and I’m enjoying the re-watch. It mixes humor in with the drama, and it’s a strong cast. I smiled at the bits of crossover with Adam-12. I watched Fire Country until I pulled the plug on Peacock. It’s heavy on the melodrama, but I quite like it. I think Emergency! is just as good, if not better.

Mantooth started appearing on shows like The Virginian, McCloud, Marcus Welby, M.D., and Adam-12. Then he landed the co-lead on Emergency! And that carried him through the 70s. He would later carve out a soap opera career for a decade. He had the lead in the John Jakes’ two-parter, The Seekers.

Mantooth’s father was Cherokee and Seminole, and they incorporated his Native American heritage into the show sometimes. Often for comic effect.

I have never come across another show in which I’ve read about so many people saying that it influenced their career choice. As social media tributes to Randolph fill up the web, I keep seeing people say that Emergency! is a reason they became paramedics/EMTs. That’s pretty cool.

I might search out his appearance on The Love Boat. And as I wrote this piece, I learned that there was an Emergency!+4 cartoon in 1973-1974. Gage and DeSoto are joined by four kids. It’s on Youtube.

Emergency! was a staple for kids (and adults) in the 70s. Between the paramedic focus, and the mix of field and hospital emergencies, it was a new kind of show. And for many of us, it will forever be linked with Adam-12. Mantooth was perfect in the role, and provided a yin-yang vibe with Kevin Tighe’s DeSoto.

Emergency! streams daily on Pluto, and Tubi (I think). I’m using a lot of RokuTV after cutting all my subscriptions, and it has the whole thing on demand. So I can work my way through in order, on my own schedule. I quite like this show, four decades later. And I will always be a Johnny Gage fan.

His brother Donald was an actor, and he appeared in a couple episodes. Donald was also in the Johnny Cash episode of Columbo. He ended up becoming influential in the area of private sector business films. I had a short post about that somewhere, but I can’t find it.

And a quick shout out to Jack Webb. He kinda gets made fun of for his deadpan “Just the facts, ma’am” character on Dragnet. But this guy helped define TV. He gave us Pete Kelly’s Blues, Dragnet, and Adam-12, and Emergency!. That is some solid television (Pete Kelly’s Blues was a movie first). He also produced some quality radio shows (Dragnet started out on radio).

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Bob Byrne’s ‘A (Black) Gat in the Hand’ made its Black Gate debut in 2018 and has returned every Summer since.

His ‘The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes’ column ran every Monday morning at Black Gate from March, 2014 through March, 2017. And he irregularly posts on Rex Stout’s gargantuan detective in ‘Nero Wolfe’s Brownstone.’ He is a member of the Praed Street Irregulars, and founded www.SolarPons.com (the only website dedicated to the ‘Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street’).

He organized Black Gate’s award-nominated ‘Discovering Robert E. Howard’ series, as well as the award-winning ‘Hither Came Conan’ series. Which is now part of THE Definitive guide to Conan. He also organized 2023’s ‘Talking Tolkien.’

He has contributed stories to The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories — Parts III, IV, V, VI, XXI, and XXXIII.

He has written introductions for Steeger Books, and appeared in several magazines, including Black Mask, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, The Strand Magazine, and Sherlock Magazine.

You can definitely ‘experience the Bobness’ at Jason Waltz’s ’24? in 42′ podcast.