Search - Emergency! - Season Four on DVD

Mark H. (dccradio) from LUMBERTON, NC
Reviewed on 7/24/2016...

Emergency! is one of my favorite television programs. I do like what I've seen of this season. However, the quality doesn't seem as good as other seasons of the program. The audio is weaker and there are flickers and film noise on the video that I believe could and should have been edited out before releasing on DVD.

Season 4 - A great show in a groove!

Erik Rupp | Southern California | 01/09/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"By its fourth season Emergency had really settled into a groove. The stories were exciting and action packed, and the writers and actors had the characters nailed. Sure, Gage & DeSoto's fellow firefighters were fairly one dimensional characters - but they were FUN one dimensional characters, and the focus of the show was really Gage, DeSoto, Dr. Brackett, Dr. Early, Nurse McCall, and Dr. Morton anyway.

The realism presented on the show by this point had become expected, and the technical jargon was actually fairly well known and understood by the fans. Emergency was a driving force behind the education of America on the procedures and perils of being a firefighter or paramedic, and it gave a glimpse into what doctors and nurses really did in a hospital.

The fact that Emergency was as successful as it was paved the way for later TV shows like E.R. and movies like Backdraft.

The previous DVD set (Season 3) was a hit or miss affair. Good episodes, some looking good on the DVD, some just OK, but several episodes had the wrong theme song and opening credits. It was the same opening credit sequence used for the TV Land showings, which had always been a bone of contention with some fans (the original theme song was one of the best in TV history, and to have it replaced was foolish). Hopefully for this set Universal gets it right. (Update: Well, I've watched several episodes, and they all have the wrong opening theme.)

Even with the minor quibbles about past DVD sets, Emergency is a MUST HAVE TV show on DVD, and Season 4 is no different."

Five for content, 1 for execution

Readz Alot | USA | 01/31/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I must echo the other recent reviews of this DVD set. (I've only watched the first disc so far, so the review is based on those 4 episodes.)

While I am less picky than most reviewers about DVD quality (I have a small television with a so-so picture anyway, so I don't fret about less than perfect images), the picture quality on this set is amazingly bad even on my 13 inch tv -- jittery images, blurriness -- at one point you get about 3 seconds of white scratches across the screen. The sound quality too is less than ideal; as another reviewer noted, the dialogue is often barely audible, so you turn up the sound, and are then blasted out of your chair by the sirens!

Which is so much more the pity, because the episodes themselves are wonderful. The writers have finally found just the right balance of humor and drama,("Miss...?" "October.") characterizations have settled in and become more three dimensional, the acting is improved over earlier seasons, and production values are excellent.


While it's hard to complain about the price, why oh why can't they take just a LITTLE time to clean up the master tapes before releasing them on DVD?"

The reason I'm a fireman

R Quay | Missouri | 11/28/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Emergency! was one of my favorite shows as a kid. And as far as television shows go, this was a classic. It's still good and stands up to the test of time, something a lot of shows haven't done. Rediscovering it in a motel room one night on TVLand made me decide to pursue my childhood dream of being a fireman."