Emergency! Best Underrated: The Exam
In The Exam, Johnny and Roy must re-certify for the Paramedic program by passing a tough exam that a lot of the other Paramedics are failing. (Ernie Brown failed! Tim Williams too?) It’s fun to watch the guys navigate trying to study, panic and take notes while all around them there are meals to be eaten, lives to be saved, and a fireman’s widow to be placated when her accident-prone daughter gets her head stuck inside a coffee table in the morning and then smashes that same head on the floor falling out of her bunkbed later in the day.
This episode includes one of my favorite Emergency! scenes between Johnny and Roy. During a brief heart-to-heart chat in the Squad in the middle of their stressful day, Johnny confesses that he really wants to pass the exam because he doesn’t want “…to go back to the Engine.” It’s an unexpected moment between two friends that is both heart breaking and real. This episode convinces me that Johnny never really accepts becoming a Captain or at least he doesn’t last as one for very long. His heart and his instincts lie elsewhere.
The final rescue is memorable for being shockingly violent. A car crashes on a movie studio set and an idiot working in the crew makes a bad situation even worse by lighting up a torch near some spilled gasoline and causing the trapped driver’s car to burst into flames. It’s a devastating scene for the show and the resulting carnage must be spectacularly gruesome because Captain Stanley will not even let Roy look at the body.
Even though the episode ends on a cliffhanger, the outcome of The Exam is never really in doubt.
Highlights include:
Virgos are not going to have a good exam day Johnny. “Forget it...”
Jeanine’s stuck head.
Johnny’s profile. Wow.
“It’s the electronics age!”
“He always eats a hotdog when he’s watching that football.”
That scene in the Squad...
"They're more than just friends, they’re...” “Crutches.”
UGH...
Don’t look Roy...
“We passed it!”
“You’ll never guess what some twit did.”
