This book captures the essence of an important chapter in television history: coverage of the origins of the Emergency!, a dramatic series significant beyond entertainment. Emergency! followed the daily lives of a pair of Los Angeles County Fire Department firefighters/paramedics, along with their colleagues at Station 51 and the emergency room staff of Rampart General Hospital.

The book offers a behind the scenes look, packed with interviews from many of the medical and fire department technical advisors, cast members, writers, and other production crew members that worked on the series.

The book would not be complete without discussing the start up of the paramedic program within the County of Los Angeles. Emergency! introduced audiences from all over the world to the concept of pre-hospital care, along with fire prevention and CPR.

When the world premiere of Emergency! was first broadcast in 1972, there were only 12 paramedic units in all of North America. Ten years later, more than half of all Americans were within ten minutes of a paramedic rescue or ambulance unit. That simply would not have happened without the influence of Emergency!