MEDINA RESIDENT IS RETIRED ORIGINAL PARAMEDIC in LOS ANGELES

MEDINA, TX (March 14, 2025) –  Today, when we call 911 or a medical emergency, we get a rapid response from trained and efficient medical staff. In Texas, there are a variety of medical qualifications, including the Texas Department of Health certified Emergency Care Attendant, Emergency Medical Technician, and the EMT Paramedic. We take the ambulances and paramedics for granted as common public servants who serve us all over the United States. Most everyone knows that a paramedic is skilled in assessing, stabilizing, and treating patients in critical situations, often in pre-hospital settings. Paramedics are equipped with the knowledge and tools to manage a variety of medical emergencies wherever it may occur, including accident and incident trauma, heart attacks or cardiac events, and respiratory issues, all while working under pressure to prevent further injury or death to our family, friends, and neighbors. One of our Bandera County neighbors spent his entire life as a firefighter paramedic during its’ infancy with the Log Angeles County Fire Department, then as a volunteer, or emergency service dispatcher. 

However, Hollywood touched his attachment and life of emergency service in his early years as a paramedic.

On January 15, 1972, many of us were sitting in our living room watching the pilot for the now-famous TV drama, “Emergency!”. Produced by “Dragnet” star Jack Webb, it was collaborated by him with the Los Angeles County Fire Department. The close connection between the production staff and emergency personnel became a hallmark of the show. Webb had portrayed Sergeant Joe Friday on Dragnet and produced Adam-12, both immensely popular police shows that strove to convey a sense of reality. Today, reality-based television is a mainstay of TV production, enjoyed by millions. Jack Webb’s reality-based series began the desire to tell docudrama true stories reenacted from real life. So, by the late 1960’s this concept was already being used by Jack Webb who insisted on reality-based drama in the television productions he was associated with. Like “Dragnet” and “Adam 12”, he used actual situations for his new TV show “Emergency!”.  

After deciding to base a reality-type show on fire departments, Webb met with LA County FD Captain James O. “Jim” Page, who was the “Father of EMS in Logs Angeles” (which had begun its own emergency fast response program in the last 1950’s) and other officers from the Los Angeles County Fire Department to discuss creating a show about firefighters and their work. Initially they planned to focus the show on physical rescues but felt that there would not be enough ideas for dramatic episodes. Page then suggested they look to the Los Angeles County Fire Department's new paramedic program for ideas.  The emergency calls portrayed in the hit program were actual medical responses and actions from the archives of the Los Angeles County Fire Department, and Jack Webb used real LA County firefighters and paramedics as technical consultants on the show and patterned the show after the real members of the LA County Fire Department. At the time of “Emergency!” production, the Los Angeles County Fire Department was one of only twelve paramedic programs across the United States.

The history of the paramedic program in the United States is storied and long. In the mid-1960’s, traffic accidents were causing more deaths in the U.S. than all those lost in the Korean War. The U.S. government was looking for a way to provide survivability for accident victims on America’s highways as traveling by car became more common after WWII. In 1966, the U.S. Department of Transportation released the "Accidental Death and Disability: The Neglected Disease of Modern Society" report, which highlighted deficiencies in pre-hospital emergency care and called for improvements in emergency medical services. Its’ major recommendation was for the uniform training of EMT’s and Paramedics nationwide, which is now the foundation of EMS training nationwide, even in Texas and Bandera County.

Prior to the 1960’s, there was no standard first aid or on-scene medical treatment. Each township, county, or municipality had their own training standard attached to local fire departments, be they volunteer or paid departments. As early as the 1930’s hearses doubled as ambulances whose operators were only taught the very basics of first aid. These response personnel operated and responded on a “scoop and run” concept of getting patients to a hospital as fast as possible, but with only basic medical intervention. 

However, by the late 1960’s, field medics during the Vietnam War pioneered many battlefield treatments of soldiers and in doing so were able to provide stabilizing treatment in a non-hospital setting, transport those soldiers to a hospital, and increase their survivability, all within a very quick period. The use of IV’s, heart massages, artificial respiration, splinting, and tourniquets expanded survival on the Vietnam battlefield. After the Vietnam War, one of the fathers of the paramedic program, Peter Safar, who pioneered CPR as a lifesaving method, started the first major paramedic program in the U.S. in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and formed the first private ambulance company. His program used newly trained volunteers and vehicles specifically designed for providing stabilizing initial emergency treatment and transport of a patient. These vehicles were (and still are are) known as “Mobile Intensive Care Units” or “Fire-Rescue.” They were known as “fast” or “first” responders, much as they are today. Fire Departments across the U.S.  began to recognize the success of this EMS “first and quick response” on-scene life-sustaining program and in the early 1970’s it made its way to Los Angeles County Fire Department in California as a major test of the EMS new system in a large metropolitan area. Basic and seasoned firefighters from LA County were advance trained in paramedic training in a 90-day course that taught the advanced techniques refined on the battlefields of Vietnam in the 1960’s. 

It was this story that garnered the attention of Jack Webb, who produced “Emergency!” which aired from 1972 to 1977, encompassing 122 episodes and two subsequent 2-hour films. The show, popular even today received a Golden Globe nomination for actress Julie London. 

However, it never won any award. It did reap rewards however, as the show introduced the new paramedic program to a nationwide television audience. In fact, in the University of Baltimore Law Review in 2007, Paul Bergman argued that “Emergency!” encouraged the growth of EMS nationwide. This conclusion was shared by many as “Emergency!” watchers were motivated to public service by wanting to become paramedics or an EMT. In 1971, there were only twelve paramedic services operating in the United States with a total of about 117 newly trained paramedics. In the first three years that Emergency! aired, 46 out of 50 states enacted laws that allowed paramedics to practice and standardized their training to match the lessons taught by Vietnam, and paramedic ranks swelled nationwide to over 2,000 certified medical personnel. The Los Angeles County Fire Department was one of the first to incorporate paramedics to be attached to their fire companies. This method is still used today, even in our local Bandera County volunteer fire companies. Today, over 142,000 paramedics are certified in the U.S. and over 400,000 have similar certifications worldwide.

Outside Medina, Texas, one of the original paramedics from the Los Angeles County Fire Department, of which the TV show was based quietly reflects on his lengthy career as a LA County firefighter and later, one of the first paramedics trained in Los Angeles. Robert “Bob” McCullough can be best described as an unassuming and quiet man with a gentle demeanor.

Himself a veteran of the Vietnam War, Bob served the U.S. Navy aboard the USS Ashtabula – AO-51 whose mission was to be that of a fleet oiler, serving aboard ship during the Vietnam War from 1964-1967. It was when his military service was winding down that he pondered what was next for him. His father was a Captain in the Santa Monica (California) Fire Department and while discussing his potential future career, his father asked, “what about becoming a firefighter?” Bob thought about it, and since the USS Ashtabula was in port “dry dock” undergoing a repair and renovation, his father, Captain McCullough filed his fire candidate application for him. Bob then followed in his father’s footsteps and completed the Fire Department Civil Service examination while he was still actually on Navy active duty. 

While still on active duty he learned that out of 2,000 applicants that he was selected as 10th to begin training at the Los Angeles County fire academy. Since he had less than two months remaining in his active military service, he petitioned the Captain of the Ashtabula to get an early discharge so he could attend the fire academy training. USN Captain Ralph Graham honorably discharged Bob early from the United States Navy stating, “I’m happy to support any public service.” Ten days later, Bob began his Los Angeles County fire academy training. 

Upon graduation as a basic firefighter with the Los Angeles County Fire Department, Bob served with Captain James Page at LA County FD Station #69 in Topanga. Captain Page had already begun pioneering the EMS system in Los Angeles, but still served as a fire Captain. He served there with Captain Page for 4 years from 1967 to 1969. When Bob saw how the medical personnel worked and with a push by Captain Page, he saw the great image that the paramedics had within the department, and how they were always “calm with a clean image wearing white smocks and always sharp” and wanted to pursue that field of emergency work after assisting with the 1971 Sylmar earthquake in which the Los Angeles VA Hospital. The hospital collapsed during the quake and killed 49 veteran patients and staff and injured many more. Bob was proud of his association as a firefighter on scene but noted the “calmness and professionalism” of other new paramedics in the recovery process and the patients, and especially how gentle they were with a veteran who had survived the collapse after being trapped for two days. 

It was then that he decided he wanted to be involved in the paramedic field. Later that same year, he attended the “Paramedic Class” and graduated in November 1971 to become a full-fledged paramedic. Bob was Graduate #38 from the Los Angeles County Paramedic Class and since then nearly 900 paramedics have worked with the Los Angeles County Fire Department. 

With no pun intended, Bob McCullough was about to learn his new role in a true “trial by fire.”

Bob was assigned to the new Fire Station #9 in the Watts section of Los Angeles in 1971 when the Paramedic program was still in it infancy. At the time, the Watts area of Los Angeles was known for a high crime rate and Watts residents had a mistrust of anyone in authority, including paramedics, even though they had been called to assist. Bob was stationed there with Watts resident Ed McFall, a Black paramedic following the tradition of the Freedom Ambulance company with a common core of experience with Watts area residents. 

Los Angeles County Fire Station #9 paramedics were overwhelmingly busy. The average LA County paramedic was handing 10-15 medical cases in a 24-hour shift, but the Station #9 paramedics where Bob was stationed was managing 40-50 calls per shift. This was Bob’s introduction to EMS work. He stated “you just never knew what kind of call you would get. I managed accidents, shootings, knifings, assaults, and all sorts of “street trauma.” Watts residents were still accustomed to the “scoop and run” medical system and Bob stated “I had many a gun or knife pulled on me because the family didn’t think that we were moving fast enough to help or we shouldn’t be touching their female family members  – they were so used to someone grabbing a patient and rushing out the door immediately. Many times, I started an IV right then to show them that I was working on their loved one. They simply didn’t understand that we WERE doing something right in their home that was previously done immediately upon arrival to the hospital! I had to be calm and kept repeating over and over again that I was there to help. This usually allowed me to continue what I was doing.” 

Bob served as a Los Angeles County Fire Department Paramedic for 17 years, including a specialty in fighting brush fires in Malibu. Bob retired from the Los Angeles County Fire Department in 1986. He then continued as a paid dispatcher as well as working as a volunteer paramedic with various volunteer fire companies.

It was because he was one of the original Los Angeles County Fire Department paramedics that he became associated with the TV drama series “Emergency!” Producer Jack Webb based all the vehicles, uniforms, and actors on what he saw when he was exposed with tours to the Los Angeles County Fire Department facilities and saw the dispatches he would use to immerse the show in reality. Jack Webb wanted the show to be so real, that in addition to using actual paramedic cases for the basis of the show, he was able to get the Los Angeles County Fire Department to issue real badges to the stars of the show! This included Randolph “Randy” Mantooth, who played “Johnny Gage,” and Kevin Tighe who played his partner “Roy DeSoto.” He even used Los Angeles County Fire Department Captain Richard Hammer as himself for first season in Episodes 1-9. 

Since Bob was one of the original paramedics, and Captain James Page was a technical advisor on the show and a Bob served as a Paramedic at one of the Los Angeles County’s busiest stations, he participated in the background of the series. Bob also served as a technical advisor for some shows including Episode 11 “Crash”, which showed Emergency Paramedics Roy and John rescue the occupants of a light plane that had crashed in a tree.

Because Bob was closely affiliated with the television series, he became friendly with “Randy” Mantooth, the star of the show. Before Bob became a paramedic, he was also a firefighter and familiar with the fire regulations and ordinances for Los Angeles County where Randolph Mantooth maintained a ranch. As was the case with many even today in Los Angeles County, vegetation overgrowth could cause a potential for wildfire and “Randy” often solicited Bob’s help in assuring he followed local fire ordinances. Bob said, “Often was the time I would hear from Randy about how to come into compliance with his property and I would go with him and assist him in clearing brush from his ranch’s property.” He tells of when his son met Randolph Mantooth; “my son Tad was enamored with Johnny Gage on the “Emergency!” show. Of course, with my association with the show and my friendship with Randy I was able to introduce my four-year-old son Tad to Randy. My son froze and was truly “star-struck” and panic-stricken and wouldn’t talk!”After the “Emergency!” show ended Randolph Mantooth spent still a lot of time still volunteering and working with the Los Angeles County Fire Department. In fact, he was associated with and supports the Los Angeles Fire Department museum which now hosts “Squad 51”, a rescue vehicle used in filming the series, as well as “Engine 51” which was also used in “Emergency!” and bear his autographs.

Bandera County is a place where many people enjoy retirement including this author. Bob McCullough is one of those who found his way from the hustle and bustle of city life as a Los Angeles County Firefighter and Paramedic to the peace and tranquility that is what we treasure here in our Hill Country home. He has been retired here for a few years in the country near Medina and has no plans to leave. 

If you are interested in this article and the Los Angeles County Fire Museum, you can visit it and take a virtual tour at www.lacountyfiremuseum.com. The website has a special section about the TV Show “Emergency!”