After the exam, on the way home I started thinking about Emergency! the classic TV show about the early days of the paramedic program. Running from 1972-1977, it starred Kevin Tighe and Randolph Mantooth as paramedics/firefighters in Los Angeles. Tighe played sensible family man Roy DeSoto, while Mantooth was impulsive, nurse-chasing Johnny Gage. Both, however, were skilled and dedicated paramedics. Fun fact: the firehouse used in the series was an actual working station and the other firemen in the show were all real firefighters. The series was created by Jack Webb, and was a spin-off from his earlier police show Adam-12.
Though of course the equipment and methods the paramedics and doctors use in the show are outdated, the humour, drama, and topics addressed in Emergency! hold up remarkably well. My parents own DVDs of most of the seasons of the show and I'm never sorry if, while spending an evening with them, they put on an episode or two and we pass some time with the firemen at Station 51 and the medical staff at Rampart Hospital.