Rozane's September 9th, 1997 phone interview with Mike Stoker

On September 9th I finally managed to track down Mike Stoker and he didn't even report me as a stalker! I was pretty nervous calling him, since you never know when you are going to get a phone slammed down in your ear, but he and his wife were extremely kind about talking with me.

Mike was born on June 25, 1941 in San Francisco, California. He grew up in southern California and graduated from Glendale Hoover High School in Glendale.   On July 1, 1966 he joined the fire department. He spent 30 years as a firefighter and just retired last year. The last 18 years of that he was a Captain. I am totally impressed here!

Prior to Emergency! he did some commercials and print work (modeling). As a real firefighter ,and then playing one on television, he spent a lot of time in uniforms. It was a constant juggle between his station and the set, where it would take 6 days to shoot a 1 hour episode. A lot of the filming was done during the height of the fire season and a lot of times he would give up doing a scene so he could go back to his own station and work there. That is why you don't see him in more scenes! I always wondered and now I know!

The first 4 years of the show were the most enjoyable for him. A fun part for him was all the explosions and dramatic rescues since it gave an opportunity for him to practice and develop his skills as a real firefighter. He did say, when he was doing his lines, at times there were a lot of the cast and crew there trying to mess him up on purpose for the fun of it. Did sound like a great group of people to work with though!

Mike has three children:  A 22 year old son that is a Senior in college, a 21 year old son that is in his second year of college and a 17 year old daughter who is a senior in high school. His daughter was also recently named Miss Teenage Montana 1997.

He is a big fan of soccer (and was a soccer coach for his kids when they were younger) and recently drove to Portland, Oregon to see the U.S. National Soccer Team play against Costa Rica (U.S. won). Since he has homes in both places I ask him who he was rooting for and he said "U.S."

Thank you Mike Stoker for being so sweet and talking with me! I thoroughly enjoyed it and hearing the stories!!

copyright 1997 by Rozane

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