Code Red

About a group of firefighters.

Bonanza meets The Towering Inferno in Irwin Allen's last ever TV series.

Irwin Allen loved the look of FIRE on film. Just look at The Towering Inferno action scenes (which Allen directed) and his love of fire is obvious. I think Allen once said that "fire is beautiful"? And yes, it is when Allen films it.

Code Red is Bonanza meets The Towering Inferno but made without the gusto, showmanship and fun of past Irwin Allen Productions.

In fact, I remember reading an article suggesting that Irwin was less involved with this show than one would expect.

This series really only features two Irwin trademarks, fires and a Will Robinson type kid - Adam Rich as Danny Blake - who orders around adults all day. Bill Mumy in Lost In Space could get away with being a painful kid but Adam Rich is a really serious pain.

I would not call this series bad but I would not call it good...somewhere in the middle...however the mighty opening theme tune gets ten out of ten!

I always loved Emergency as a kid and this show reminded me of it so much. Lorne Greene was great as the wish fire chief and everyone else on the show was great as well. I believe viewers want realism and this show certainly tried to give it to them, they even showed films of actual famous fires. It was cancelled way too soon. What I also liked about it was the way they would have public service messages at the end of every episode and would say be safe its a nicer world with you in it.

I enjoyed watching the T.V. Show, I wish they still run episodes like they do for the Dukes of Hazard. I would like to see of anyone has a copy of any of Code Red Series that I can buy. If anyone does, Please send me an e-mail to Wade222@excite.com. This show inspired me to get into the Fire Service. After watching Code Red, I checked around to see if there really any Fire Explorer Posts, and I found a couple where I live, but none of them offered any Ride Along programs. Then I found an Explorer Post in Florida, and found some of the Fire Department allowed their Explorers ride along. Then when I turned 18, I became a Volunteer Firefighter for two years and enjoyed it.

As a child growing up around a fire house I couldn't wait to see everything that was based on fire fighting, but this series just didn't cut it. Yeah it was cool to watch as a kid, but it really wasn't very accurate. Its predecessor, Emergency, was a far superior show ran 6 full seasons and even today the techniques shown and used in the show are still relevant and pretty accurate even if the apparatus and some of the equipment used is now dated.

Emergency is a definite watch, but you can avoid Code Red if it ever comes out on some kind of media format in the future. All seasons of Emergency are available on DVD today.