MeTV episodes - Season 6 (FINAL SEASON)

Yeah, not one of my favorite episodes to start the final season. In fact, this one may be in my "bottom five."

- When Roy & Johnny are up in the tree with the Jersey roof-man, it was funny to see Roy kind of "feel up" the man's thigh in order to find any possible breaks. Lucky man!! Also, I have to say, I love when one of the FFs gets behind and holds the ladder while Johnny or Roy climb up. They sort of plant their feet and pull back, and it looks cool. (Yeah, I said that: holding the ladder looks cool. Whaddaya gonna do about it?? )
Edit: When the mom drove away in the van & the rope was still tied... what are the chances that she'd pull down a whole full-grown tree? More likely her bumper would fall off.

- The status board at Rampart's base station: Station 51 wasn't at the top, as it was previously.

- When JOhnny was in the shower at the station & Roy dumped the bucket of water on him.... I assume that was in the script, but I like to think it was just a prank Kevin pulled during filming. Loved his sly smile as he walked away (toward the camera). Of course he had the t-shirt on and towel around his neck.... rawr!!!!

- At the stadium, did Johnny do the Heimlich on that guy in the tunnel? It's possible, since the Heimlich was 'invented' (is that the right word?) in 1973, so by the time this episode was on, it would have been known in the emergency medicine community.

- The fan who sat nearby asked Johnny to bring him a hot dog next time they went on a run. Don't those vendors come around selling hot dogs? He doesn't have to leave his seat.

- I guess our guys on "Team 8" would still call Rampart while at the stadium, since that's where the biophone is wired to transmit, but would Rampart really be the nearest hospital to the stadium? I have no idea where the fictional Rampart is supposed to be in relation to the Coliseum. (But obviously UCLA Harbor General shouldn't be that far away, lol.)

- We had a page for Stat Ident Doctor.

- We also have Treatment Room 7 now? Is that new this season too??

- Scenes of the game: was it my imagination or were the teams facing in opposite directions half the time, even in the same "half" of the game?? Red team facing left, then right, all before half-time. Not sure about college rules back then, but I thought they switched sides at half-time, not each quarter.

- The heart attack in the press-box. With that announcer doing the play-by-play while the guys were working on the heart victim, I thought their vitals might be mixed up with the announcer saying "That was number 34, he ran 42 yards, and now the team is at the 27." Can you imagine hearing all that when you're trying to remember BP and pulse and respiration numbers??

- The final scene at the Coliseum always bugs me. You can't tell me that during the 15-20 minute drive from Rampart to the stadium, they didn't know the game was nearly over, or had just finished, or whatever. And to have absolutely NOBODY left in the whole stadium.... strains my credibility beyond reason. Not to mention they'd have noticed heavy traffic, and no cars around when they got out of the ambulance. Speaking of... where did the ambulance go? Weren't they supposed to hang around? And how did Roy & Johnny get to the stadium before the game in the first place? That's how they get home.

Sorry to nitpick, but that scene really bugged me and pushes the whole episode from meh to bleah. Add to that the generic comments that Early & Dixie were making during the game... I'm just glad to get to the other episodes and forget this one altogether. Very few highlights in this one for me.

Yay, an "issues" episode, about the coverage of paramedic squads and the process of responding to those calls. Turned into a bit of a PSA when Roy started quoting numbers (first to Chet & then to Cap & the others). 60,000 calls per year, handled by 31 squads. That's just over 1,935 calls per squad. That's per squad, total. Divide the 1,935 of squad 51's calls by three--for A, B, and C shifts--and that's over 645 runs per year for John & Roy. If they work every third day, that's about 121 days per year, so handling 645 calls in 121 days is over 5 calls per day/shift. That might not sound like a lot, but I don't know if that includes "Station 51" calls, when the engine goes out as well... the 5 calls per day/shift might be strictly paramedic calls. And Roy also said that their paramedic runs increased by 40% each year... (probably due to a television show that made everyone aware that LA County had a a paramedic program, lol; I bet even county residents didn't know about it before the show came on.)

Okay, enough math, my head is starting to hurt.

- William Boyette was in this episode, as Captain of 39s. I don't think we ever saw his face clearly, but boy, you can't mistake the voice. From a sergeant at LAPD to a captain at LACoFD, and later a chief...not a bad career progression.

- A while back we discussed using landlines rather than biophone, and it turns out that the paramedics can use something called "foam patches" to put over the landline receiver and somehow hook it up to the biophone to patch the patient in & send EKG. At least, that's how it looked to me like it worked.

- Another scene of Johnny talking w/ food in his mouth. This time it looked like Randy was eating his actual lunch, as he seemed to be pretty thorough with that sandwich, and apparently enjoyed it as well. "Tuna? Really?"

- We also saw Johnny use the mapbook while driving to a couple of their calls. It kind of looked like he was using his pen to trace the route, altho maybe the pen was closed and he wasn't actually writing in the book.

- Usually I don't care much for a lot of Rampart scenes, especially ones which don't begin with Squad 51 bringing in a patient, but the old lady & her daughter was kind of interesting. Love how Brackett shook his head when the old lady said "who's gonna drive me home? It's almost time for supper." Note: behind her, the clock said 11:00, so by supper I assume she meant lunch...?? Anyway, it would have been interesting to see a little bit of follow-up. Why is it the cases that are boring always get the full treatment, when things that are halfway interesting don't???

- Once again Roy makes an Executive Decision and calls Rampart to suggest something outside the box. Thankfully it worked out fine. I wonder if the fainting woman finished her potato chips before she got to Rampart?

- I like the outside-the-jailhouse rescue. I wonder if there's a reason Roy did it instead of Johnny? As far as I could tell, that really was Kevin, or if it wasn't the camera angle was vague enough so that it could have been. (I choose to believe it was.) Anyway, this whole episode did seem to have a Roy-edge to it. I wonder if that was deliberate or just how it naturally turned out.

- On the roof of the jail building, they didn't even look twice at the ladder the convict used to get over the side. I suppose it's policy to use their own equipment unless absolutely necessary; after all, the last time they used a 'civilian' ladder, Roy got electrocuted. But man, that ladder they used was narrow. I think I mentioned before how narrow it was, but I also know they have more than one ladder on the engine, so the 'skinny' one happened to be the one they used here.

- So, in addition to spaghetti, Stoker makes good tuna salad. In fact, Johnny used his favorite word and said it was 'incredible.' Good to know!

So the guys finally get some serious coin, eh? $20,000 left to them by the mysterious "bum," and headquarters says they can keep it as long as they "don't spend it on themselves." Okay, I can see that. Maybe the first thing they can do is run down to Service Merchandise and buy a nice big COFFEE URN for the station. That way someone isn't always saying "I just poured the last cup." (With "and I was too lazy to make a new pot" being implied, lol.) But it's nice they can give some money to charity, and buying something for the station doesn't qualify as being "for themselves," since 12 other guys are going to be able to take advantage of it.

- Anyway, the first rescue, the refinery or whatever it was where this mattress-man was, sure looked familiar. I'm sure the filming location is a place we've seen before, more than once.

- I've often thought that Cap must have good eyes. He can tell which engine or truck is coming from half-mile away, even if the vehicle is heading straight for him in the sun; he's still able to handy-talkie them and tell them to cover the south exposure, etc. (Yeah, I know, he's aware which trucks and/or engines have been called out, and can recognize a truck from an engine a mile off. But still.)

- Brackett got a haircut.

- "Season Six, Time for a Wedding" ... this is the episode I always have to laugh at, with the Case of the Swooning Bride. Ah well, I'll give it a rest. But I will say that, if it was me, and my honeymoon plans were already ruined, I wouldn't want a rinky-dink wedding ceremony in the hospital. I bought my gown and veil, doggone it, and I'd darn well want to wear them in a church. Especially since I don't want my 'wedding night' to be in a hospital bed.

- Speaking of the church... looks like the studio had a small budget as far as extras were concerned. That wasn't a big church and it wasn't even close to half-way filled.

- Yikes, it was the return of Evil Eddie, the one-boy hellion. Except now he calls himself Andy and he steps on rusty nails. I did think it was funny, though, that he pinches Dixie to show her how much the shot hurt.

- Also, this episode had Simba, the ventriloquist cat. We see the cat, we hear the meow, but Simba's feline mouth never moved. Who knew that E!-magic extends to our four-legged friends??

- When the station got called out on that last call, anyone else think it was strange that Cap said to put the money in the squad? Yes, the squad will be where the firefighters are, but it's also likely to be unattended for an extended amount of time; not exactly the best place for safekeeping. I'd have re-wrapped it and put it in the freezer. Or, if it had to be taken on the call, at least it could've been locked in the drug-box.

- And when Johnny got in the squad on that call, I assume he was supposedly 'doing something' with that money, because it looked like they made a point of showing him sit in the squad. If I didn't know better, I'd think he was putting on his seat belt, but most likely he was supposed to be rewrapping the money or something.

The title refers to vacation time, when every employee looks forward to getting away from it all. For all our sakes I'm going to skim over the fact that Roy seemed to be "deciding" the vacation destination on his own, even though he did "run it past" his wife... once he'd decided. Also, what were Johnny & Cap thinking, suggesting Hawaii and the Swiss Alps?? They know how much money Roy makes; did they really believe he could afford to take four people to either place?? Also, once Roy heard about the farm, he got all excited. "The kids have always wanted to see a farm." Really, Roy? Where are you raising them, some blighted, inner-city part of LA?? You live in LA County, for god's sake, and it's very obvious that parts of the county are (were, at the time) quite rural. You've never driven the kids past a farm before? And btw, when he says "farm" in this context, I wonder if what he really meant was more like a ranch. I've heard of people taking vacations at ranches of various types, but I don't think I've ever heard them referred to as farms.

Anyway, back to our regularly-scheduled review....

- So the "swinging singles" club is already swinging at 1:00 in the afternoon? This was obviously before SueEllen became Miss Texas and met J.R. Ewing.

- Did they ever explain what happened to Roy in the club? I think I remember something about his air tank malfunctioning or something... or did I just make that up??

- Speaking of that fire, I thought it was funny to see the place full of firefighters, shouting, lugging hose, etc., and Johnny's looking under dang tables for the missing man. Also, he opened a door, yelled "anyone in here?" and closed the door again. I'm sorry, but if that's how LACoFD searches a building, I'd think they'd have a higher death toll.

- Who saw the ill-fated AMC Pacer, when the girl drove to the Emergency entrance at Rampart? It was our friend Ronnie Schell again. He went from being a weed-smoking computer nerd to a hilarious drunk guy who shouldn't drive and is now a gourmet who doesn't know when to quit eating pie.

- At the scene of the martial arts incident, did anyone notice when Johnny had to get Roy's attention said "Roy? Get out of the way." lol Not sure if his being in the way was scripted or not, but it was funny. Speaking of cute/funny, when Johnny & Roy were in the locker room & Roy said he'd been getting vacation suggestions for three days, he said "I don't want any more suggestions!" And he did a little shakey/dancey thing for emphasis. Too funny!!

- Speaking of that martial arts thing, the old woman was referred to pretty consistently as Mrs. Pastone, except for one time when the instructor called her Mrs. Preston.

- We see Johnny buckling his imaginary seatbelt again. Either that or he's doing something that really shouldn't be seen on primetime TV.

- I like the final rescue w/ the hang-gliders. It's a complicated one, and Roy & Johnny each have their own victim to treat. We hear Roy keep up a continuous chat with his victim, asking questions, asking him to move this or do that, and also instructing Marco on how to help as well. Poor Johnny gets a victim who's unconscious, but Chet helps him out. At one point we see the "unconscious" victim move his legs and help Johnny & Chet position him for the portable stretcher. (ANd they really had him bundled into that thing like a cocoon.)

- Once they got him up to the top, at first I assumed it was Johnny who knelt next to the vic and set up the oxygen, but when someone else with dark hair knelt beside the guy, I realized the first guy was Stoker. He just went right to work with the O2.

- I'm guessing that Kevin's issues w/ heights didn't apply to situations like this. I get the impression he didn't have a problem with rappelling, maybe having a mountain or a cliff literally under his feet was enough for him not to feel so exposed and vulnerable, like one might when sitting at the top of a 250-foot crane. But I don't know, that's just conjecture on my part.

Directed by Kevin, which is always interesting. There were some things to like about this ep, and some not as interesting to me. Basically, it was sort of a meh-sandwich: I liked the opening action, and the final rescue. The in-between stuff.... not so much. (I was going to call it a crap-sandwich, but I guess it wasn't all that bad to deserve that description.)

- Loved the opening scene, of the overhead view of the squad & engine backing into the station. Have we seen that before? If not, I wonder if it was Kevin's doing. Probably not, but what the heck. And if they're just getting back, who wet down the driveway?

- Nice shot of Johnny getting out of the squad, framed by the 'window' of the engine, w/ Chet in foreground. And I had to laugh: they come in & talk about "cleaning up oil slicks".... and they're not in the least bit dirty. No dripping turnout coats, no messy shoes or pant cuffs. LA County must have the neatest oil slicks in the country.

- First view of Henry, (un)official Station 51 dog. Actually, he's the Station 51 Couch's dog. As many hijinks this group gets into w/ Henry, it seems odd that he's only just now making his first appearance.

- At the first alarm, with the fire in the industrial park, Johnny uses the heavy equipment to open the "secret room" door, and as he goes in he slips & falls. Not sure if he was supposed to do that, I'm betting that was an accident, and they just went with it. Roy says "Johnny, you all right," but with the air mask on and the muffled sound, you can almost imagine he said "Randy." (But I'm pretty sure it was 'Johnny.')

- More stock footage being used, kind of noticeable as the squad zips down the road, but that's nothing new. Funny to see the 'old' white numbers on their helmets though.

- The part of this episode I don't like is the "fair fight" couple. I don't like confrontation to begin with, and also, I think it's rude and just plain bad manners to argue and fight in front of strangers. (I know, that's a prissy and simplistic attitude, but it's all I got, lol.)

- Funny that Captain Hookrader was mentioned. Now that he did not retire, they still have to deal with him, lol. When we first met him, I thought he worked out of another station, but in this ep he was referred to as Captain of B or C shift, I believe.

- That last call at the cave-in, was off Little Seco Road (sp?). I know we've heard that road before, but have no idea what episode.

- Funny... Johnny tells Roy that the victim has 'possible broken ribs' and difficulty breathing on the right side. Roy translates that to Rampart as "large discoloration on the chest." (I realize it's possible that broken ribs can lead to discoloration of the chest area, but that wasn't what Johnny diagnosed.)

- Have to say I loved hearing the "on-air" transmissions from Johnny on the HT, and Roy on the bio-phone. I don't know why I think that's so cool, but I do. It does lend a good authenticity to scenes, imho.

- And I have to wonder.... I hope Stoker had a copy War & Peace stashed under his seat in the engine. On this last rescue he had time to get through the "war" part. (Seriously, what does he do in situations like that?? )

Or, "Johnny's Worst Nightmare Comes True: Brice is in Charge." Okay, so that's not quite how it goes, but close enough.

Firstly, hats off to Bob Belliveau for his first (and only?) appearance on TV. (And I think he did better than some others I could mention.) Of course, not only was he a real-life LACoFD paramedic, but he was THE paramedic, the very first one trained and certified. He then served as a script consultant and technical advisor for the show, so obviously Kevin & Randy knew him pretty well by the time this ep was filmed. (Altho, to be honest, I'm not sure I can imagine him doing all the rappelling, climbing, and diving that "our" paramedics have done. But I've been wrong before, so maybe he did. lol)

Also, this episode was written by James G. Richardson, the actor who plays Brice.

- Sometimes I have to wonder if Randy got all his daily nourishment in front of the camera, as in the past ten or so episodes we've seen him eat quite often. Not just nibbling or "pretend" eating for the sake of the take, but actually eating. Good thing he had a pretty high metabolism.

- I liked the power pole rescue, that was interesting. And for some reason I was put in mind of Mr. McBeevy from an episode of The Andy Griffith Show. But it was good, just complicated enough to be interesting. And mentioning the creosote irritating the skin and stuff was a nice touch of realism later at the hospital.

- Has Johnny ever worked with Brice? I don't think so, and even Roy commented that he had to work w/ Brice for two weeks. (But he said it was while Johnny was "sick," when in reality it was while his leg was broken; either poor continuity by the writers, or Kevin just misspoke.)

- Did you see the hair on one of the other so-called paramedics? It was as long as, if not longer than, Johnny's, and bushier to boot. Good thing Chief Houts didn't see Gage and him standing together. And speaking of hair, I wonder if Chet's wild 'do would have set off the Chief's radar? Of course, Chet's hair wasn't so much long as it was... wide.

- Still talking about the 'other' paramedics... Larry Minetti's character name was Charlie, and later Roy mentioned "Dwyer." Apparently that was in reference to Manetti's character, and if so, then he's the third actor to play Paramedic Dwyer. Altho in the other instances Dwyer's first name was Tom, not Charlie. Even more confusingly, the show's credits list the Manetti character's first name as Bert. Which makes me go because more than once he's called Charlie.

- The rescue of the climbers on the side of the building: Take note of the building, folks, as we'll see it again next week. (I bet the producers/directors had a certain number of days when that building was available for filming, and they took advantage of it.) Now, I'm not a climber, and I don't play one on TV, but I wonder if there was a reason why they didn't just use the woman's rope to pull her up from the get-go? Maybe they only trust their own ropes, or maybe she didn't leave enough rope at the top for three or four men to pull? Ah well, I like the rescue anyway.

So the paramedics have to do a recertification exam. I can understand why that might be necessary, and yet... nurses don't have to be recertified? Doctors don't? Fire captains and engineers don't? Hmmm.

Also, small detail, but the timing of the exam was off. When the show begins, they mention they're taking the exam "tomorrow." And Johnny says at one point it's a heck of a way to spend a "day off." If they get off shift at 8am, it's not really a day off, now is it?? Then, when they return for next shift, Cap asks how the exam went "yesterday." Even if John & Roy really did have a full day off and took the exam, that's still just one day off between shifts, when the usual shift schedule was one day on, two days off. So they messed that all up. (Even worse, when they learn the exam is rescheduled for Tuesday, I assume that meant Tuesday would be when "A"shift paramedics would take it. Because there's no way all the paramedics in LACoFD could take the exam on the same day. Who would be available to run the squads??? )

- What about Molly.... First off, I'm not crazy about Molly. I don't care for the actress who plays her. (Fun fact: the actress starred in a show with another E! guest star, Bobby Sherman. The show was Here Come the Brides.) Anyway, I just couldn't muster any liking or sympathy for her and she seemed like a helpless wimp. Also, I hated her very dated hair style. (And I know whereof I speak, as I wore my hair the exact same way at the time. So yeah, I don't want to see the style on me anymore than I did on her.) Also, Roy tells Johnny that her husband Dick did "everything" for her, he would "even go shopping." I dunno, call me crazy, but something about that just seems off. I understand that Dick must have done all the usual "guy stuff" around the house, and would troubleshoot any problems encountered, and I'm all for men helping out with the "women's work" chores, and taking their turn at cleaning, groceries, etc., but why would the husband do the shopping? I'm going to believe he was just a super nice guy who helped his wife out too much, and thereby inadvertently turned her into a helpless woman who didn't know how to do squat around the house.

- And by the way, apparently Molly later began hanging out with Dr. Varner, as both are characters who were supposedly well known to our "core" characters, yet we never heard of them before, and haven't seen or heard from them since.

- Leaving Molly's house, Johnny gets in the squad and then we see him reach for his helmet... just before the radio beeps them a tone. He must be psychic!

- The football fan: was he watching the USC-Stanford game that Roy & Johnny worked at? Kinda looked like it. Also, I didn't know the guys on the engine could "patch in" a victim before the paramedics get there. What equipment do they have that they can do that??

- Did we all notice the odd way the ambulance pulled in to Rampart when they brought the little girl in? Instead of coming through the tunnel, they used the tunnel to do turn & back in to the emergency entrance.

- The return of the soapy music!! I know I heard it when Roy & Johnny were leaving Rampart & they were thinking about the girl. Johnny said "I get a knot in my gut when our victims are kids," and yet he doesn't acknowledge how much worse that feeling must be for Roy. Then he says "I don't want to go back to riding on the engine. That's why I joined the paramedics in the first place." That made me go because he went from feeling sick about little kids being hurt to saying he doesn't want to be a firefighter and that's why he became a paramedic. That's at least three different and distinct thoughts in about two or three sentences... and some of them seem to contradict each other. (or contradict what we know about Johnny)

- Did anyone notice what looked like a newspaper clipping with pictures of a number of nurses in the Rampart break room? I wonder what that was IRL.

- Last rescue: Angie got burned up!! Poor guy, lol. I know why Cap stopped Roy from going to the car (he knew the 2 guys were dead), but it almost looked as if he was trying to protect him or shield him from seeing two bodies ("crispy critters"). No reason for him to try to protect Roy, of course, but that's what it looked like.

- Also, after the car exploded Cap called for an ambulance, another engine, and a "mobile aid unit." And the call went out from LA for Mobile Aid 9 and Medic One. What's a mobile aid unit, and what's Medic One? At first I thought Medic One might be an ambulance, but Sam also said "ambulance is responding." A minute later we did see vehicle (not a squad) arrive, and we also saw another paramedic at the scene (stiff and goofy looking), so maybe some paramedics drive mobile aid units instead of squads?? (And Medic One is/was the name of the paramedic/ambulance service in Seattle, which we heard and saw in the E! movie Most Deadly Passage. I assume that's just a coincidence.....)

- So as far as I know, Captain Hookrader (or Hochrader, depending on where you look) was first mentioned in the episode that introduced Henry. (Cap said Hookrader didn't know where Henry had come from, either.) So that's actually a tiny bit of continuity--a character being mentioned, and then actually being seen.

- At the rescue of the girl w/ heatstroke (polar bear costume), I think Vince messed up his lines. When Roy & Johnny very first arrive, one of them says "Hi" to Vince, and Vince replies "I don't know, I just got here myself," which doesn't make any sense. Then a minute later as they reach the victim Roy says "what's the problem?" and Vince says (again) "I don't know; people say he just dropped in his tracks." So I get the feeling Vince was supposed to say something else the first time.

- I got the impression that Bobby Troup was reading from a TelePrompter as he was giving 51 instructions for the girl.

- I've noticed a number of instances, in the past few episodes, in which the scene doesn't break (for commercial) naturally, but ends with a freeze-frame. I believe it happened in this episode, too, when Johnny discovered the bear was a young woman.

- BTW, does it mean anything that nobody mentioned that she was an attractive, well-put-together girl with a cute body? Obviously our guys are professionals and victims are victims first and all attention is given to that end, but later on, we didn't hear any comments about her (or suggestions about collecting a phone number). I'm going to take that as a good thing.

- Ah, we got to see Mama's Family. What a bunch of weirdos.

- I like the final rescue of the helicopter pilot. Another one that likely couldn't really be rehearsed, and which also presented actual danger to those involved. Because, after all, those were real rocks out there.

- Scenes from another episode (On Camera, I think, with the camera crew) were used in this one when Mike was using the engine to bring up the first chopper guy. But not when they brought up Johnny, Roy, & the other victim. (By the way, Cap was already starting to collect the ropes... did he forget Chet & Marco were still down there?? )

- Speaking of Stoker using the engine to haul them up, I find it kind of hard to believe the engine doesn't have some sort of winch on it, even a manual one.