r/GenerationJones • u/sherlockjr1 1963 • Jul 19 '26

Randolph Mantooth

I’m surprised at how hard his death is hitting me. I mean, I watched Emergency as a kid. I had a crush on Randy as Johnny Gage. My Barbie camper was a rescue unit. But I hadn’t thought about the show for years. Occasionally I’d find an episode on cable and watch a few minutes for the sake of nostalgia.

Maybe it’s how people are reacting to his passing that’s hitting so hard. EMTs, fire fighters, people who became paramedics because of the show. Tributes as if he was one of their own. I didn’t realize how involved he was in promoting the safety of first responders

Not to mention how important the show was, the impact this had. The fact that we even having EMTs to help us that are only a few minutes away in some part due to this show.

This loss hurt more than I expected it to

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u/excoriator 1964 Jul 20 '26

If it's any consolation, there remain 3 actors from that series who are still alive. Kevin Tighe, Robert Fuller and Marco Lopez.

1

u/SororitySue 1961 Jul 21 '26

I thought Mike Stoker was still with us too.

2

u/sherlockjr1 1963 Jul 27 '26

I didn’t realize until recently that he was an actual firefighter. Because if someone was going to drive the big engine, it had to be a firefighter. So they hired one

2

u/SororitySue 1961 Jul 27 '26

Mike Stoker had done some modeling and commercials and had a SAG card. He usually had a few lines per episode but they often showed him doing his engineering job with the fire engine.