Note: Since The City has been cancelled, I didn't know how long these letters would be hanging around for people to read so I put 'em on here.
Here are a couple of letters to Randolph Mantooth and his replies.
Originally posted to TV Guide's bulletin board.
Reply from RANDOLPH MANTOOTH
Author: RANDOLPH MANTOOTH
Board: The City's Randolph Mantooth (Michael Logan - Sysop: Linda Knights)
Board: Stunt work on Emergency! over the entire series (Kristin Saho)
Date: Thu Oct 24 17:41 EST 1996
Sorry, but I've just got to ask an Emergency! question… Having seen the entire run of this program, it's clear you and Mr. Tighe did a bit of your own stuntwork, more so as the program evolved. What stunt work was required of you when you were first cast as Gage, and how did that evolve? Was any special training, etc. provided to you in this department? And - just how many of the really hair-raising stunts did you guys do? Any particular one bring to mind fond memories?
It was actually the opposite. It wasn't more so as we evolved. We almost did everything the first two or three years. Then, as the show evolved, we started doing less and less, because we became smart. We realized we really didn't have to do this. I have no paralyzing fear of heights. I have a deep respect for heights, so I'm not going to be foolhardy up there. I get nervous just like everybody else but it doesn't paralyze me with fear like it did Kevin. Kevin absolutely hated being up high. A quick anecdote would be when Kevin and I were way up high one day. We were like 16, 17 stories on a crane that was totally exposed, and the wind was blowing, but we were hooked up, we weren't going to fall. Even if we had let go with our hands, we had hooks around us, so we weren't going to fall. But when you're up there, 16 stories, and the wind is blowing in your face, it's hard to convince your brain that you're not going to fall. Well, Kevin, who hated it up there -- all I could see were his knuckles and how white they were. I then would say to Kevin, "Kevin, look at me," and he would keep his eyes down, averted from me, and he'd go, "No, no, don't mess around, don't mess around." And I'd say, "No, no, no, look at me. I just want to show you something." He would then slide his eyes toward me, and I would let go and do waving gestures with my hands like I was falling backwards. And he literally would grip the thing and try to become part of the paint of the structure that we were on, and all I could remember him saying as his eyes were averted from me was, Randy, you're an a* *hole."
And the stunt work -- we weren't trained in any way. We were just young and stupid. And we got up there and the stuntman would say, "Now do this and don't do that. Whatever you do, don't do that." And literally, we wouldn't know what we were doing half the time. As the years went by, we became very good at it, quite good at it. The only that they didn't really want us to be too involved with was the flames. They were afraid that accidents would happen. Flames are the only thing you can't really control. And they were afraid that we were going to get burned, and burned badly. So we would always get pretty close to the flames, but when it was actually running through the flames, things like that, rarely did we ever do those. We did do a couple of them. And I was burned on the leg once. And that was when they said, "No, this is too dangerous and we are going to use stuntmen." I think the rule of thumb when you're watching Emergency! is, if you can see our faces, we're doing the stunts. If you can't see our faces, we did not do the stunts.
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Reply from RANDOLPH MANTOOTH
Author: RANDOLPH MANTOOTH
Kevin Tighe - Keep in touch with him or like his work? (Gabriel Lopez)
Date: Thu Oct 24 17:50 EST 1996
As a 26-year-old male who grew up watching Emergency!, I must ask if you keep in touch or have seen any of your co-stars from that series. More specifically, do you keep in touch with DeSoto himself, Kevin Tighe? He's been keeping busy the last few years as a character actor in supporting film and television roles. Have you ever been approached about either doing an Emergency! reunion or at least reuniting with Kevin on another TV or film project? Keep up the good work on The City.
Thank you. It's funny you should ask the question about Kevin. As we speak, Kevin is in my apartment. He is visiting me for about a week and a half. He now lives in Seattle, and he's visiting here in New York for about a week and a half. I hadn't seen him for about three years now. But Kevin and I always keep in touch. We talk on the phone at least once or twice every four or five months. You're right -- he is being kept busy in Hollywood doing different films -- all around the world, actually. He just finished doing a film in Australia, I guess. I still consider Kevin my best friend. It's funny, because for seven years we shared the same motor home, and I haven't seen him for any great length of time in a long, long time. Here he is in my apartment, and we just picked up right where we left off: The Odd Couple, going, "Are you going to leave these shoes here all night, or am I going to trip over them all day long, or what's the deal, here?" We do this totally as friends. I really do adore him. He just got married to a woman he had been with for 19 years. He takes a little time to make up his mind. I guess he does the crossword puzzle in pencil.
We have been approached about doing an Emergency! reunion. Both of us agree that we're a little old for that right now and we don't want to do it. We would much prefer to have Emergency! just be Emergency! the way it was and have it remembered always as a very good show that we absolutely adored doing. We loved it. For seven years, we had a ball. We were living a child's dream by playing a fireman, with red lights and sirens going down the street. But we really want to kind of leave that intact. We have always talked about reuniting in some television project if I ever get a television series again, or he gets a television series again. We know exactly how we're going to do it. We have not been on camera together in almost 20 years. It has been 18 years. And when we do do it, it's going to be a beaut, and we've got it all worked out. Thanks for asking. I'll tell Kevin when I get home that you asked about him.
Thanks to Spider and Rozane for these articles.