On the long-running outdoor series "*M*A*S*H*," Father Francis John Patrick Mulcahy was arguably the most courageous and adventurous character in the whole show. As played by actor William Christopher, Father Mulcahy was the Army Chaplain for the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, providing spiritual guidance to the patients, doctors and support staff. That didn't mean, however, that he couldn't kick butt when he needed to.

Because he was amateur boxer in his civilian life, the pressures of working with broken bodies and young, dying soldiers sometimes made Father Mulcahy want to take a swing at someone. In fact, during one episode, after a wounded soldier hits him squarely on the jaw, the Chaplain reacts instinctively, flattening his attacker with one punch.

At other times, Father Mulcahy is called upon to perform an emergency tracheotomy in an area where no doctors are available. When supplies run low, he often negotiates with black market traders, attempting to get boxes of penicillin in exchange for booze, chocolate and other hard-to-get items. Father Mulcahy even lends a hand in the operating room, but he does have to perform the Last Rites after a soldier dies on the table.

Father Mulcahy's greatest act of bravery occurs in the episode entitled "An Eye for a Tooth." While his friends at the 4077th play practical jokes on each other, the Chaplain fights off the frustration of being passed over for promotion yet again. Despite his anger, when a helicopter pilot has to go retrieve a wounded soldier, Father Mulcahy volunteers to act as a human counterweight on the trip. This means he has to lie on a stretcher on the struts of the helicopter to keep the ship balanced in the air. Mulcahy survives the flight, but his lunch ends up in the latrine.

Originally portrayed as a gentle character, this two-fisted priest shows time and again that he has the right stuff. Father Mulcahy never has a shortage of kind words or bravery during his years in Korea, and that easily makes him the toughest character on "M*A*S*H."

Resources:
http://aftermash.blogspot.com/2009/09/episode-157-eye-for-tooth.html

Between the times that "Marcus Welby, M.D." first put up his shingle and the doctors over at County General Hospital started working in the "ER," the brave paramedics of "Emergency!" helped save lives on television each week. Although these professionals have become an established and necessary part of the medical community, when this show debuted in 1972, the use of paramedics was still in the experimental stage in most parts of the country. Thanks to a bit of legislation called "The Wedsworth-Townsend Act," however, Los Angeles made the paramedic program permanent; other states and counties soon followed suit.

"Emergency!" focused on Johnny Gage (*Randolph Mantooth*) and Roy DeSoto (*Kevin Tighe*), two paramedics who worked for the Los Angeles County Fire Department as part of Squad 51. Just like medical corpsmen on the battlefield, Gage and DeSoto went to accident sites, helping keep victims alive until they could be brought to Rampart Hospital. In some cases, Gage and DeSoto found themselves in awkward situations, such as helping a girl who got her toe stuck in a bathtub faucet. Other episodes covered some pretty grim emergencies, including a light airplane crash and a young boy overdosing on pills. At one point, Gage and DeSoto even made an appearance in an episode of the police drama "Adam-12," which was produced by the same company as their show.

"Emergency!" also made the crucial distinction between doctors and paramedics. At each accident site, Gage and DeSoto made sure to call Rampart Hospital for medical guidance from the doctor on duty. In one episode, an overeager, rookie paramedic gets the team in trouble because he started treating an injury victim without speaking to a doctor first.

This show, which lasted about seven seasons on NBC, took the paramedics all over Los Angeles County. At times, Gage and DeSoto were treating victims in the middle of a forest or near the top of a skyscraper. "Emergency!" is classic medical television and, if you are injured in the outdoors without a medical kit, hope that Johnny Gage and Roy DeSoto are the first ones on the scene.

Resources:
http://www.emergencyfans.com/episodes/insanity_epidemic.htm