MeTV episodes - Season 3

btw, noticed a band-less cap. and a blue... jumper? It a student nurse. :-) I'm pretty sure I've read too many Student Nurse books. But if you haven't, this article will explain - somewhere below the pictures in the middle
I'd make a live link but the URL tags keep landing after the signature and I'm too lazy to jump thru hoops.
http://www.lifebridgeblogs.org/2012/05/08/the-history-of-the-nurses-cap/
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I'm typing on a tablet. If I don't make sense, I probably got screwed by Autocorrect. Again.

Another good "issues" episode, in which our guys (Randy especially) get to actually, you know, act. With emotion and everything. I think this subject was only touched on in one other episode, one of those brushfire eps in which a fellow firefighter is seriously injured while fighting the fire. That ep is Roy's turn to shine.

Back to Frequency. It's also another "pretty Johnny" episode. I swear, that close-up of him when he's talking to Drew's wife... he looked like he was made out of porcelain.

The opening scene was cute, how they were working on the squad and Boot stole one of their screwdrivers. Then they get a call, and leave the station with the toolchest in the middle of the bay. Bet the engine guys loved that when they got back.

While en route to that call (involving Drew), we hear one of the other squads responding over the radio ("Squad 59, 10-4"). We usually never hear any of the other engines' or squads' responses to LA, but since it was important to the theme of the episode, we hear it today. (We also heard Cap Stanley in that first scene say "engine 51 out 20 minutes" or something.)

At the scene... I thought Drew looked like one of the Walton boys. I know he wasn't, but he looked like he was. And after Brackett gave the OK for an IV, what did Johnny think was going to change in the 20 seconds they couldn't talk to Rampart? I know it was an emotional thing, and if he didn't know the victim he probably wouldn't have been so freaked out about the lag-time, but still.

Once they got Drew to Rampart, Morton danced w/ the IV pole. Actually, I think it slapped him,lol. Brackett mentioned that OR would be on standby and he'd have to operate, but that OR looked like it was in the same hallway as the ED. And since when does a surgeon wear a stethoscope while performing an operation??

I hate to say this, but... I think it's so funny to watch Dr. Early 'rush' down the corridor. He reminds me of those race-walkers who walk kind of funny. And the boy who was drunk... I have to say, I thought that kid actor did a good job. I always wonder how they get younger actors (under 10) to do some of the things they do, and do it so well.

When we see the engine leave the station on that final call at the construction site, we see Cap hustle into the engine as usual, and the squad & engine roll out. But is that really Cap Stanley in the roll-out footage? Sort of looks like the guy in the shotgun seat has a mustache. It could be Stanley, and maybe I'm seeing a shadow, but I wasn't sure.

Anyway, on to the thing that kind of bothers me about this episode. On one hand, John says that Drew was a "really close friend," but on the other hand, the wife says "we haven't seen you in months." Well, I guess that sort of thing happens when friends can't see each other as much as they'd like. Then, after Johnny took the phone call from Pam & was telling Roy about it, I thought Roy was going to say something like "don't get too involved in her life right now," or words to that effect. It was possible for Johnny to go overboard with spending time with her, and that would not have been good for either of them, for a variety of reasons, so it would have been wise for Roy to say something like that. Also, it bothered me when Johnny said "I tried so hard to get his death out of my mind, and then she calls." Well, isn't that nice for you, that you could put Drew's death out of your head after a couple of days. Pam doesn't have that luxury, she has to live with it-- every minute of every day. Unfortunately, it's something we all do. when we go to the funeral of an acquaintance, or a co-worker's family member, we all feel badly for them, and sympathize... and then leave there and go on with our lives. It's human nature. But the family members don't have that luxury to shrug and go on to something else. It would have been nice to hear Johnny acknowledge that it's easy for him to get back to his 'normal' life after the funeral, when it's totally impossible for her. Ah well, it's only a TV show, it can't be expected to do everything. As it was, I think it was a good ep that brought up some good points for the general public to think about regarding police officers and firefighters.

Okay, rant over.

One of my favorite episodes, The Old Engine. Not only the debut of the Ward LaFrance, but I like any episode where we see how much Johnny and Roy love and honor their jobs and the importance of Fire Department work, past and present. The end of the episode when they discuss how valuable that old engine was back in its day is some of the best writing of the series.

This ep isn't too remarkable in most respects, but there are a few things of note. (One thing being, it features a cat having kittens, and as you can see from my avatar, I love cats. And the whole internet agrees with me that kittens are too, too cute.)

- The airplane crash. It was good to see Roy & John being sensitive and considerate to the girl, and it's one of the handful of times they come upon a victim who's already gone by the time they get there. (Our of curiosity, what do they do in that case? Have the sheriff's deputy call the coroner?) But the girl, Angie, bothered me. When she told Dixie the story of waking her dad and her dad making noises like a roaring lion or elephant... then she gave a roar like he did. She just sounded like she was acting way too young for her age. Then she said "I'm not gonna see my daddy again, am i?" She was supposed to be about 8 or 9... kids that age have a grasp of the concept of death, don't they? And then later she asked her mother about that "funny hat" she was wearing. WTF?? She was acting more like she was 6 rather than 9. At least, I thought so.

- The boat rescue. I thought it was funny that the squad parked in the middle of the boat access ramp. I bet any boaters who arrived while they were out on the water didn't appreciate that, they wouldn't be able to get their boats out of the water, or newcomers couldn't get their boats into the water, lol. * During the rescue itself, I noticed a glare or something in the scenes of Roy working on the victim, with the Harbor Patrol boat in the background. The glare was on the bottom right of the screen. * Johnny wasn't using his green pen. * When the Harbor Patrol boat took the victim away, they left 2 firefighters on the pleasure boat. This is a great example of the kind of rescue I like, because it's complicated and awkward and it obviously wasn't (couldn't be) rehearsed to death because there were a lot of variables and moving parts. It's also a good example of Johnny "directing traffic" while getting the patient extricated and onto the HP boat. We hear Roy a little, but Johnny talks non-stop in cases like this.

Hellloooooo {tap-tap-tap} Is this thing on??? I seem to have the place mostly to myself these days. I took a shower, I promise!! (It was last week, but still....)

Okay, so about An English Visitor. First, during the first alarm, did everyone see Cap step from the rec room through some small doors, directly to the little radio alcove to give his response? That was odd, I thought.

Also, it was funny during that call to the Wild West Show couple, to see Johnny waving the gun around. You'd think he'd know better than to do that. Also, I wonder why they even bothered calling in to Rampart for that? It was more of a legal/civil matter than a medical one.

Funny to hear the Brit say to Johnny (in relation to the nurse in Orthopedics), "As you Americans say, Have you made out yet?" Now, I'm pretty sure that even back in the early '70s, a question about whether someone has "made out" (in reference to a girl) would mean something very different from what he was asking. Of course, he was asking in the sense of a general "made out," like when you ask someone how they "made out" on a test at school, or at the batting cage or grocery store. It means something a leeetle bit different when referring to a member of the opposite sex.

About the pot-truck that crashed.... you'd think the, um, aroma would have been immediately identifiable to a bunch of healthy, normal guys in their 20s and 30s. I mean really, it's a pretty distinctive smell. Of course we can make all sorts of jokes about how they'd purposely drag their feet in cleaning up the accident so they could inhale as much as possible, or try to sneak a souvenir into the pocket of their turnout coat, or even the fact that one of them should've said "Suddenly I'm craving tacos" (or brownies, or something). But it was interesting that when Roy joined Johnny & Channing where they were with the victim, he seemed totally unaffected by the fumes. Maybe he was used to it, perhaps? After all, we know he'd partaken of some of that there wacky weed when he was in the "Narcotics Pit of Despair" back in the late 60s, LOLOL.

Lastly, in the final rescue, I wasn't sure exactly what happened that caused the Stokes to fall, thereby causing Johnny to lunge after it and almost become a victim himself. (Which is ironic because when Channing was allowed to go up with them, Johnny admonished him to be careful because "we don't want to have to rescue you, too." Irony, thy name is Emergency! )

First off, I know John Gage (i.e., Randy Mantooth) was goodlooking (and still is handsome), but I have to say, I do feel he wasn't exactly built like a typical stud, so while he wasn't really "soft" (he didn't have enough "meat" on him for that), he'd never be mistaken for a gym-rat, either. Just wanted to get that out of the way.

Now, on to the show....

First alarm goes off at 12:46am, and we get a gratuitous (albeit totally welcome) glimpse of the guys in their boxers as they pull on their bunker gear. Woohoo, great way to start off an episode!! Oddly enough, though, when we see them from a long-shot getting into the engine & squad, they're magically wearing their regular blue uniforms. Must be magic, LOL!

So we have the girl about to give birth under a black cloud of bad luck as she supposedly is being punished for her 'sins.' Well, boo-friggin'-hoo! Suck it up,chick, and get on with your life. And naturally they were careful to mention that she and "Rab" (nice name, dude) were married, and we even saw her wedding ring a time or two to remind us that these are 'good kids' and, more importantly, this is a family show. BTW, they were apparently all in a band in that building, so I wonder if there was some of that "peculiar smell" involved, the kind we heard about in the other episode when the English chap was visiting.

Anyway, was it just me or was there a sudden and strange heat spell around the time that Roy got to the hospital with Mrs. Doomed? Boy, did he look hot in his bunker pants and blue jacket. Johnny too, of course, but Roy coming around the corner kind of took me by surprise... not to mention kind of took my breath away. Add a little soot from the fire and man, we're talking about a whole different kind of smokin'.

Speaking of the hospital, what the heck was a 10-12 year-old kid doing fixing a TV at 1:00 in the morning?? Of course the mother was so drugged out she had no idea what was going on. But Dixie prescribed her universal cure (coffee) and all was right with the world. (Except in this case, coffee probably was the best thing for that chick.)

And more hospital drama with the young woman not wanting her baby. Not only was there a lot of Rampart in this episode, but we had to endure waaaay too much of that insipid muted 'soap opera' music during those scenes. Very annoying, not to mention overused, imho.

We got a glimpse of the boys leaving Rampart, with Johnny getting in the driver's seat. (Yay!) I was hoping for an in-squad scene next, to be sure they kept the continuity, but no such luck; next time we saw them they were walking into the rec room.

BTW, I know the engine got called to the apartment fire in the first scene, but we didn't really see much of the guys while there--no individual shots of any of them, I don't think. So basically, there was almost no engine 51 action in this episode. The squad got called out with some other engine (85) for the hang-glider, even though that engine didn't get paged at the same time as our guys. Maybe engine 85 called for the squad once they got there; that's kind of what it sounded like.

Speaking of Glider-man, he said his right leg was hurt. The way he was positioned in that tree, when Johnny asked him "Where do you hurt?" I half-expected the guy to say "Where do you think? My b*lls are being crushed to bits." It certainly was an awkward way to have the victim stuck in a tree. (LOL, I paused the scene right after he tells Johnny that his leg is hurt, and the closed-captioning on the paused scene has Johnny asking "Which one?" Man stuck with a tree branch between his legs + Johnny asking "which one is hurt" = My kind of scene. lolol)

Snake Bite, a good eppy for those of us who love to see our hero, John in action and peril. Back in the day we always knew our hero would be OK at the end of the day, unlike some of today's shows, where you never know when they will kill a main character off just for shock value

I always enjoy the opening rescue, it's great to see our guys, and even Chet, in civvies and still doing their job like the pros they are. And whew, that long-legged Johnny in those jeans! Roy and John looked great, but I had to chuckle over Chet in that cliched fishing vest, lol. Great overall rescue for our guys!!

Chet saying "you jerk" when the car wouldn't stop for him was also funny, I'd have probably said a lot worse, haha. The woman actually acted in pain, and pretty realistically I thought, since so many victims with broken bones seem to bear their pain in silence, lol. Johnny was so good and soothing with the woman, these guys are definitely the ones I would want attending me in any situation!! Roy didn't get to do much at first, but sit in the car with the boy, but his emotion was plain to see on his face. I also really liked Dr. Frick, his hair gives Johnny's a run for it's money, but I could do without the cute little swirls on the end of the mustache. I'd still let him treat me though

This is an eppy where both Randy and Kevin get to spread their acting wings more than usual, and that's one of the main reasons I never get tired watching it. Johnny was only a tad over the top on a couple of scenes, once while describing their vacation rescue, and the second with the nurse in his room, but he quickly went serious again once those couple of lines were over. Roy got a chance to shine with silently getting to show his concern for his partner.

And Cap, with the infamous backward mic scenes. I counted 'em, and 3, yes 3 times, he spoke into a backward mic Either nobody caught it, or the scenes were deemed too good to re-shoot, so they got left in. In any case, gotta love the Captain!! Even Johnny turned his HT around when he started to use it and saw that it was backward, and then turned it around forward. That was one of the first things I noticed today, when I don't believe I caught that before, since I've always been a little busy snickering at the Cap. Good on ya John!!

I saw that we've gotten to use Engine 85 two episodes in a row, although The Book shows they were filmed in reverse order of the way they were aired.

And as those of us who watched Randy's video interview on Emmy Legends know, the rattlesnake was real, just defanged, even though it hooked into Randy's pant leg and he couldn't get it off In a further tidbit from The Book, apparently Cinader wanted to use a rubber snake, and Ed Self went over his head to authorize use of a real snake. And Chet was supposed to be the one bit, before they changed it to Johnny. I agree, it wouldn't have had the same impact on the viewer if it were Chet, it's our hero we love!

And Johnny used the word 'damnit' although it's not like he shouted it. Seems like every time someone is allowed a tiny cuss word, it's always Johnny, lol. The two that come to mind are this one, and in the pilot where he says 'to hell with the orders'. Have to keep an ear out if there are any others

Agreed, that was the hokiest depiction of an accident this show has ever done. (And I give the show credit that usually all traffic accidents look much more realistic than this.) Even before they get to the pile-up, as they're leaving the station, there's some sort of bad "fog filter" over what is probably just a stock shot of the engine & squad pulling out.

At that accident scene, Roy tells the brother to "close the hood" of his car to snuff out the fire, then he discovers the other brother is dead. Then, when Marco & Chet arrive, they automatically open the hood to put out the flames with an extinguisher. Is that an automatic procedure at accidents? I've seen Chet do it once or twice in other eps (including Snake Bite), but in this case I didn't see them do it to any other vehicles as they passed. Also, there weren't any flames showing on this car before they opened it, and Roy didn't tell them to check it, either.

Again we have a child actor--in this case, a very young one--who did a very good job. She looked positively lifeless when being carried out of the vehicle, and stayed immobile as Chet did CPR (and "mouth-to-mouth" with her cheek, lol). I wonder how they got the child at that young age to be so still for so long?

Funny, though, when Roy was dealing with the mother (possible spine injury), she told him she couldn't move, and he said "stay right there." LOL, no problem, since I can't move anyway! But I love it when I hear the paramedics say "don't do anything, let us do all the work." For some reason that sounds so... efficient, and professional. And realistic, too.

Anyway, wrapped around the chain-reaction accident, and a second pool-dunking for Roy, this was another of the Big Issues episodes. And of course I liked it, I like the soul-searching and heart-felt conversations. I really like that Roy asks Brackett (and Early) their opinions, as it shows how much he respects them.

Also, I liked the final rescue, with Johnny having a hurt leg and Roy literally being blown out a window onto the ladder. Lots of opportunities to see our guys in turnout coats, air-packs, masks, helmets, etc. And them coming down the ladder.... whoo, ultimate action and coolness. I've heard from those who've trained in firefighting, that that little "flip" Roy did off the ladder is something they actually practice for when they have to go out a window head-first. (BTW, did anyone notice that at least twice after they landed, Roy put his hand on Johnny's leg? lol ) I'm sure those might have been stunt-guys on the ladder (especially as stand-in for Roy, going head-first like that) but I still love that scene!!!

Have any of you ever watched E! music videos on YouTube? Of course there are tons of them, including a lot that are specifically homages for John Gage, but I like the ones about BOTH our guys, and even the whole station 51 group. There are some good ones I can recommend if anyone wants to check them out.