A '70s NBC Medical Drama Had A Saturday Morning Cartoon Spin-Off With Animal Sidekicks

You've heard of popular NBC medical dramas like "St. Elsewhere" and "Chicago Med," but the blueprint for the genre can be traced back to "Emergency!" which ran for 122 episodes between 1972 and 1977. Although initially meant as a midseason replacement for two comedy shows, "Emergency!" cemented its legacy by directly influencing the expansion of paramedic services in the United States. This surprising impact was thanks to a grounded plotline following paramedic-firefighters John Gage (Randolph Mantooth) and Roy DeSoto (Kevin Tighe), who are a part of the medical rescue unit Squad 51.

Apart from being influential, "Emergency!" also found a place among 1977's primetime top 30, and it led to an animated Saturday morning spin-off, "Emergency +4." Featuring Gage and DeSoto (who are voiced by Mantooth and Tighe, respectively), the spin-off also focuses on a group of four young trainees: Carol (Sarah Kennedy), Matt (David Jolliffe), Randy (Peter Haas), and Jason (Donald Fullilove). The titular "+4" is a reference to this quartet, along with their pets, Flash (a dog), Charlemagne (a hawk or myna bird), and Bananas (a monkey).

"Emergency +4" typically followed a case-of-the-week format, with the four child protagonists aiding Gage and DeSoto. For instance, in the series pilot, "Desert Storm," a father-daughter duo is cornered by a wild animal during an archeological expedition in the desert. The adult firefighters and the kids are able to rescue them promptly after they receive a makeshift signal, allowing the episode's "moral" to revolve around rescue aid and safety measures.

Although this premise sounds somewhat simplistic, these episodes mix humor and practical advice to deliver entertaining 30-minute-long adventures. "Emergency +4" ran for two seasons between 1973 and 1974, with Fred Calvert Productions being in charge of animation.

It's worth noting that Law & Order and One Chicago aren't the only NBC shared procedural universes — "Emergency!" is also part of one. The 1972 show is a third-generation spin-off that spawned from Jack Webb's "Adam-12," which itself is an off-shoot of Webb's game-changing cop drama "Dragnet." These three shows take place in a shared universe, with "Emergency!" and "Adam-12" having shared two crossover episodes.