James Drury starred as Captain Spike Ryerson of Engine Company 23 in the 30 minute series Firehouse in 1974. The 30 minute format resulted in a lack of characterization and formulaic scripts and doomed the show to early cancellation after only 13 episodes.
Published work in U.S.A. for McFarland & Co. Inc. :
A History of Television’s The Virginian 1962-1971 (2006, 2009 Softcover edition)
Pete Duel : A Biography (2007, 2009 Large Print edition; Kindle edition)
Encyclopedia of Weird Westerns (2009)
Jennifer Jones : Life and Films (2011)
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4 thoughts on “Firehouse (1974) starring James Drury”
This was kind of a comedown for Jim, from a 90 minute show with lots of time for a good story to a 30 minute where they tried to cram too many incidents into each ep. Most dramatic shows of that time were 60 minutes,only sit-coms ran for 30 minutes. With a better show and better scripts,Jim woudn’t have vanished off tv screens for so long,only returning with Doug in The Fall Guy 9 years later. Mind you, Doug didn’t do much better, but at least stayed up on the tv screen almost to the very end.
I agree Nicholas. A 30 minute drama in 1974 was doomed to failure. The pilot which didn’t feature James Drury was 90 minutes so I’m surprised the series was only 30 minutes and not the normal 60 minute show.
As far as I can recall from watching it in the mid 1970s it was a mixture of an Adam-12 type format featuring a few rescue stories within each episode. But some episodes centred on one rescue and the general banter at the fire station. It was a show that sent me to sleep a few times after a long day at work. 🙂
A major disappointment for fans of James Drury.
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This was kind of a comedown for Jim, from a 90 minute show with lots of time for a good story to a 30 minute where they tried to cram too many incidents into each ep. Most dramatic shows of that time were 60 minutes,only sit-coms ran for 30 minutes. With a better show and better scripts,Jim woudn’t have vanished off tv screens for so long,only returning with Doug in The Fall Guy 9 years later. Mind you, Doug didn’t do much better, but at least stayed up on the tv screen almost to the very end.
I agree Nicholas. A 30 minute drama in 1974 was doomed to failure. The pilot which didn’t feature James Drury was 90 minutes so I’m surprised the series was only 30 minutes and not the normal 60 minute show.
I never saw this show. Was this like an ‘Adam-12’ with firemen, i.e. several unrelated vignettes within each episode?
As far as I can recall from watching it in the mid 1970s it was a mixture of an Adam-12 type format featuring a few rescue stories within each episode. But some episodes centred on one rescue and the general banter at the fire station. It was a show that sent me to sleep a few times after a long day at work. 🙂
A major disappointment for fans of James Drury.