• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, June 20, 2023

A fire and rescue docuseries coming to NBC this week plays like a Dick Wolf scripted drama.

That’s because the show, “LA Fire & Rescue,” comes from the Dick Wolf shop that currently has six scripted series on NBC.

They are "Chicago Fire," "Chicago Med," "Chicago P.D.," "Law & Order," "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" and "Law & Order: Organized Crime." His company also has three "FBI" shows on CBS.

If you’re keeping score, the NBC shows amount to three Chicago dramas and three New York ones. With that in mind, can L.A. be far behind for the Dick Wolf prime-time production factory?

Whether or not he has any plans to develop scripted series such as "LA Med" or "LA Fire," "LA Fire & Rescue" will more than suffice.

The show’s setting is Los Angeles County, which the show says is the nation’s largest by virtue of the huge land mass it encompasses, from the deserts east of the city all the way to the Pacific beaches.

As a result, the show ranges widely from location to location. In Episode One, which the TV Blog previewed on Monday, the fire-and-rescue stations profiled on the show come from Hollywood, Watts, South Central, Palmdale and others.

In Watts, the firefighters and EMTs are seen rushing to a gas pump on fire at a local gas station -- and then, almost simultaneously, they are called to the scene of a shooting not far away in which a man was seriously wounded.

By contrast, the fire-and-rescue teams in the more sparsely populated desert region of Palmdale specialize in California’s famous brush fires -- which, as everyone knows, can blow up into huge conflagrations if not contained quickly.

The show very effectively pays appropriate homage to the brave members of L.A. County’s sprawling fire and rescue system.

As is customary in shows such as this one, we meet many of them, and then we go along with them as they slide down poles and run to their trucks when the clarions call.

“LA Fire & Rescue” is a great show. I could be wrong, but I’m guessing this docuseries was produced with more money behind it than other shows of its kind that have come and gone on basic cable over the years.

Firefighters, EMTs and cops have been fodder for TV shows probably since the 1960s, if not before. 

For example, Jack Webb made L.A.-based scripted series that played like docuseries -- “Emergency!” (firefighters and EMTs), “Adam-12” (uniformed cops) and “Dragnet,” in which Webb himself played a detective, Joe Friday, whose mantra was “Just the facts.”

“LA Fire & Rescue” seems to provide the best of both worlds -- a just-the-facts, documentary approach and the excitement of a Dick Wolf scripted drama.

“LA Fire & Rescue” premieres on Wednesday (June 21) at 8 p.m. Eastern on NBC.