E is for the Equalizer, Ellery Queen and Emergency! #atozchallenge

STATEMENT THAT APPEARS AT THE BEGINNING OF ALL A-Z 2016 PAGES:

Welcome to the A-Z Classic TV Shows Theme Songs and Intros! Last year I did an A-Z Musical Tour of My Life and featured tons of classic rock music. I had so much fun with it that this year I decided to present classic television shows theme songs and intros. These are shows that I remember from my youth during the 60s and 70s…with an occasional 80s show thrown in. Each show is introduced with information (gathered primarily from my favorite go-to for info, Wikipedia) or associated memories, followed by a video of the TV show’s theme song intro. At first glance, the posts may seem long because of the number of videos included but it’s really laid out in a way that will enable you to scroll through and read, watch or hear just what you want and then either move on to the next A-Zer or linger and go back in time with all the fun theme song intros you’ll find here. Please leave a comment and share your favorite classic TV shows. By all means, bookmark my blog so you can come back! I hope you enjoy my collection. Now, let’s get started with…

E is for Emergency!

Emergency! is an American television series that combines the medical drama and action-adventure genres. It was produced by Mark VII Limited and distributed by Universal Studios. It debuted as a midseason replacement on January 15, 1972, on NBC, replacing the two short-lived series The Partners and The Good Life, and ran until May 28, 1977, with six additional two-hour television films during the following two years.

Emergency! was created and produced by Jack Webb and Robert A. Cinader, both of whom were also responsible for the police dramas Adam-12 and Dragnet. Harold Jack Bloom is also credited as a creator; Webb does not receive screen credit as a creator in the show’s original TV-movie pilot, being only credited as its director.

The series starred Randolph Mantooth and Kevin Tighe as two specially-trained firefighters who formed Squad 51, part of a then-innovative field known as paramedics who were authorized to provide initial emergency medical care to victims of accidents, fire and other incidents in the field. The plot of the initial pilot film described the passing of state legislation, signed by Governor Ronald Reagan, and was called the The Wedsworth-Townsend Act. It allowed the creation of paramedic units. Squad 51 worked in concert with the (fictional) Rampart General Hospital medical staff (portrayed by Robert Fuller, Julie London, and Bobby Troup), who took over each patient’s case from the paramedics who worked in the field.

The show had a relatively ensemble cast. The series follows the early years of the paramedic program in the Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACoFD) with the focus on the personnel of Fire Station 51 A Shift, in particular of young firemen/paramedics John Gage (Randolph Mantooth) and Roy DeSoto (Kevin Tighe). The paramedics coordinate with the Emergency Room (ER) staff of Rampart General Hospital: head physician Dr. Kelly Brackett (Robert Fuller), head nurse Dixie McCall (Julie London), neurosurgeon Dr. Joe Early (played by Julie’s real-life husband Bobby Troup), and young intern Dr. Mike Morton (Ron Pinkard).

To train for their parts, the actors, Mantooth and Tighe, “…sat in on paramedic classes” (although they never took any written exams) “and rode out on extensive ride-a-longs with LACoFD”

Nearly 30 years after Emergency! debuted, the Smithsonian Institution accepted Emergency! memorabilia into its National History Museum, public-service section, including their helmets, turnouts, biophone, and defibrillator.

 

 

E is for the Equalizer:

The Equalizer was an American crime drama television series, originally airing on CBS from fall 1985 until late-spring 1989. It starred Edward Woodward as a retired espionage/intelligence officer with a mysterious past, who uses the skills from his former career to exact vigilante justice on behalf of innocent people who are hopelessly trapped in dangerous circumstances. The series combined elements of the spy film, private investigator/police procedural drama, and vigilante genres.

A film adaptation of the TV series, starring Denzel Washington, was released in the U.S. on September 26, 2014.

 

I just thought of another classic police drama, the short-lived Ellery Queen!

E is for Ellery Queen:

Ellery Queen is an American television detective mystery series based on the fictional character Ellery Queen. It aired on NBC during the 1975–76 television season and stars Jim Hutton as Ellery Queen, David Wayne as his father, Inspector Richard Queen, and Tom Reese as Sgt. Velie. Created by the writing/producing team of Richard Levinson and William Link (Mannix, Columbo, and Murder, She Wrote), the title character “breaks” the fourth wall to ask the audience to consider their solution.

A pilot for the series premiered on March 23, 1975, with the made-for-TV movie Ellery Queen (also titled “Too Many Suspects”), adapted from the 1965 Ellery Queen novel The Fourth Side of the Triangle. A total of 22 episodes followed in the show’s single season. The theme music was by Elmer Bernstein. The last episode aired on April 4, 1976.

Set in post-World War II New York City, the show closely followed the format of early Ellery Queen mystery novels where, before presenting the solution, a “Challenge To The Reader” was issued: the reader was challenged to guess the solution to the crime. In the series this tradition was followed by having Ellery Queen (Jim Hutton) “break the fourth wall,” reviewing key clues and asking the audience if they knew the solution.

The final act always used the time-honored detective cliché of calling together all the suspects, with Ellery Queen presenting the solution (except in one episode where the elder Queen took over) to the group – often disproving the solution proposed by whichever rival sleuth happened to be in that episode.

Did you usually figure out the mystery in each episode?

 

Are there any classic TV shows that start with E that I forgot? What are your favorite TV shows, past and present?