Randolph Mantooth died last week. If you grew up in the 1970s, you may remember Mantooth as Johnny Gage, one of television’s early action heroes. John Gage and his partner Roy DeSoto (Kevin Tighe) were firefighters and paramedics on the TV show Emergency!, which ran between 1972 and 1977.
Mantooth’s goofy sex appeal often provided comic relief to offset all the high-stress rescue scenarios.
Now you may ask what Mantooth is doing in a column about music. He was not one of those performers who had careers in both acting and music. To the best of my knowledge, his impact on music is confined to a couple of miscellaneous references.
The musical pedigree of Emergency!
The Tubes name-drop him in the 1975 song “What Do You Want From Life.” After posing the title question, they supply a list of options, including….
“A Gucci shoetree,
A year’s supply of antibiotics,
A personally autographed picture of Randy Mantooth,
And Bob Dylan’s new unlisted phone number…”
Then there is a power trio from Chicago named Randy Mantooth. They released an EP back in 2017. “Not Love” is a pretty cool song – kind of like a heavier version of Gin Blossoms.
But even though Randolph Mantooth may not have any genuine musical chops, he acted on a show that was filled with musicianship, though it rarely showed itself.
Emergency! came from the mind of actor/producer Jack Webb. He had already achieved success with a couple of police procedurals, Dragnet and Adam-12. With Emergency!, he expanded a little bit while maintaining the basic structure that had worked so well in Adam-12.
Shifting between the doctors and nurses in the emergency room and the paramedics on the street, the show featured fires and heart attacks and all manner of, well, emergency. As a cultural phenomenon, Emergency! is credited with garnering public support for the relatively new paramedic programs that were beginning to appear in major cities.
Consequently, the drama had a more positive impact on the lives of regular people than virtually any other drama that U.S. TV has ever produced.
And it also had that fascinating musical pedigree.
It begins with the theme song, a propane-fueled jazzy instrumental penned by Nelson Riddle, Frank Sinatra's arranger of choice. The brassy opening is easily one of the greatest themes from any TV program produced in the States.
Then there were other minor flirtations with the music world. Acclaimed radio DJ Wolfman Jack played himself in one season five episode. Bing’s son, Gary Crosby, a recording artist in his own right, appeared in a handful of episodes.
Twice, he played a rival paramedic and media darling who had a friendly rivalry with Johnny Gage. But Emergency! also boasted several major players with music roots.
Bobby Sherman, who scored a series of easy pop hits in the ‘60s and ‘70s, was trying to shed his teen idol image when he guest starred in the episode “Fools” in early 1974. He played a brash young resident who disparages the paramedics' role until he does a ride-along and undergoes a conversion.
Sherman was so taken with this experience that he essentially stepped away from show business and devoted himself to the paramedic profession, becoming certified himself and serving as an ambassador for the profession.
When Emergency! was in the hospital (Rampart General), two of the main players were Dr. Joe Early and head nurse Dixie McCall. The actors who played them, Bobby Troup and Julie London, were married in real life but had no romantic relationship in the show.
Troup began writing songs in the early ‘40s and scored big with early rock & roll numbers like “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66” and “The Girl Can’t Help It.” The latter was performed by Little Richard for the movie of the same name. The former has been recorded by everyone from Nat King Cole to the Rolling Stones to Depeche Mode.
Troup tried his luck as a musical performer but had far more success as a songwriter. His wife, on the other hand, was a major star as both a singer and an actress.
Julie London’s only major pop hit was a sensational take on Arthur Hamilton’s “Cry Me a River” (not to be confused with the Justin Timberlake song with the same name). Her debut album Julie Is Her Name (1955) – with its provocative (for the time) cover – revealed a singer who was just a little bit ahead of her time.
Had she come along a decade later, she might have been a rock star. It wasn’t her voice, which was pleasant enough. It was her attitude - a razor-sharp, no-nonsense, and highly eroticized image that would have fit well with ‘60s rock.
Alas, London was trapped in a pre-rock torch singer world, which showed her off to a degree but never resulted in great musical success.
So she became an icon as nurse Dixie.
You know, now that I think about it, Randy Mantooth did have one great musical moment on Emergency!. In season four’s “The Firehouse Four,” the irrepressible Johnny organizes the firefighters into a barbershop quartet despite their utter lack of talent. They still manage to win a prize at the contest they enter … as best comedy act.
Maybe if they asked Joe to paly piano and had Dixie singing, they may have won the real prize. RIP Johnny Gage.
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