Although John Gage and Roy DeSoto seemed capable while viewers watched Emergency!, their actor counterparts appeared to lack the same grace and agility.

In an interview with The Wichita Eagle, Kevin Tighe, best known for playing DeSoto, confessed that he and his co-star, Randolph Mantooth, were often prone to accidents on set. When the Emergency! actors become the emergency themselves … somebody call the paramedics!

Tighe was candid about their clumsiness: "Off-camera, Randy and I are two of the clumsiest people on television," Tighe said. 

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In fact, one such injury had lasting effects on Tighe’s body.

"Last season, I had my back in a brace," Tighe said. "During one show I had to drag two boys up through a manhole and wrenched my back."

That wasn’t the only issue that plagued the actor during filming.

"Then I burnt out my nerve endings and tasted metal for a week after an underwater scene when one of the arc lights was grounded to the tank," Tighe said.

As painful as these incidents sounded, Tighe took them in stride. He wasn’t the only one suffering on set.

"But those things happen," Tighe said. "Randy just got over a case of poison oak."

Tighe viewed these minor injuries as occupational hazards he was willing to endure, given how much promise Emergency! showed as a television series. Sometimes, the real emergency happened behind the scenes.

"It’s a documentary show," Tighe said. "It’s progressively getting a better style. Of course, we have more money to work with now that it’s a success."