User Reviews

EMERGENCY! was a Jack Webb series that set the pattern for later medical dramas like ST. ELSEWHERE, ER, and CHICAGO HOPE, with this episode, "Daisy's Pick Blind Date," from early in the fourth season. We begin with the rescue of an unconscious man partially frozen to the floor of an ice house, while dealing with an ammonia leak. The third subplot features a 3 year old boy whose father believes is a victim of tyzacks disease, which strikes primarily people of the Jewish faith. After insisting that his son die at home, a battery of tests reveal only complications from diabetes, much to both parents' relief. The final rescue takes place at the scene of a theater fire, where an electrician is injured trying to escape. A running gag throughout involves a new nurse named Daisy (Britt Lind), and how all the paramedics have a bet to see who she chooses to go out with first (either everybody loses, or nobody wins, as she never made a repeat appearance). The main highlight is story two, featuring a bearded John Carradine, the legendary scene stealer playing very much to type, as retired ship's captain Jonas Larson, attempting to mend his beautiful model ship while accidentally gluing his hands to the bottom of its hull (he uses his big toe to phone the fire department). The problem is, he remains adamant that his ship, recently purchased at a junk yard, remain undamaged, as it is a replica of the Northern Star, upon which he had sailed as a young cadet. By carefully taping everything down, the boys manage to safely transport Jonas to the hospital, where Julie announces to the presiding doctor, "your ship has come in!" (this segment lasts for six minutes). It wouldn't be far fetched to believe that the seafaring Carradine would use this episode's paycheck to purchase a new boat, a regular traveler to Catalina since the days of some 40 years earlier, with the likes of John Barrymore, Errol Flynn, or W. C. Fields. Incidentally, in 1959 Carradine appeared in an episode of RESCUE 8 ("Flash Flood"), which was clearly a precursor to this better remembered series.