I remember watching it back in the 70's. Never missed an episode. Along with the exciting rescues, there were also some amusing situations. There was the call they got for a guy who got his big toe stuck in the tub faucet. Another was for a guy who was building a ship model and accidentally super-glued his hands to the model. He wouldn't let them cut the model from his hands, so they bring him into the hospital with the ship still attached to his hands as nautical music played in the background. Another was the one where they responded to a toilet on fire. When they arrived, they went to use their fire hose, but the hose caught on fire. Meanwhile, outside, a man threw a cigarette on a lawn where a sprinkler was going. The lawn caught fire. They figured out that the gas and water lines got crossed at a work site.<br /><br />But you could always count on a huge incident to climax each show. I seem to remember one episode where they were responding to a house fire, and while they were working that fire, a house across the street also caught fire. Another was a man who climbed out to the end of the crossarm of a 100 ft tall construction tower to commit suicide. He changed his mind, but then was afraid to move. <br /><br />When I heard about the new NBC show "Trauma", I was so hoping it would be much the same, however Trauma concentrated too much on the everyday lives of the characters and not enough on exciting rescues. Also, instead of the camaraderie and humor that the station 51 crew on Emergency had, Trauma's crew seemed to be conflicted and at odds with each other. The first episode of Trauma was the most exciting, but after that, things seemed to go downhill. I hear that Trauma has been canceled. I wish it would have worked. TV needs another show with the excitement and humor of Emergency!<br /><br />I just got the Season 1 DVD set! For the most part, it's great. There was one problem with disk 2, side 2, 2nd episode "Publicity Hound". When it got to the scene near the end when they are bringing the child up the ladder, it sticks then cuts out to the menu. There are only 4 scene selection options, the last starts before that rescue. The problem continued with the beginning of the 3rd episode, "Wierd Wednesday". After a bit of the beginning, it skipped to the opening credits. I missed the first rescue, something about a parachutist stuck in a tree.<br /><br />Now that Comcast is in the process of buying NBC/Universal, I hope they add this show to their On Demand TV Shows section.