Movies & Television: Police, Fire & EMS Vehicles
- Thread starter LRGJr72
- Start date
My favorite show growing up in the 70's was "Police Story" & the short lived "Chase" Only pic I could find for "Police Story" is a Chev with the can lights mounted on a bar. Always thought that was weird setup after seeing the LAPD squads that were just mounted to the roof.
Couldn't find a pic of the jacked up Satellite from "Chase"
Couldn't find a pic of the jacked up Satellite from "Chase"
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I found these cars from Police Story
1967 Ford Galaxie 500
1969 Ford Custom
1973 Ford Torino
1976 Pontiac LeMans
Beverly Hills Cop: the chase scene in the opening. Combination of lights: Federals, Whelens, something flashing really fast, something stuck, and whatever was on the roof of the fist car seen, which didn't look like anything seen throughout the chase. Oh yea, one red and blue Model 11 Visabar!
Seeing is believing!
Disclaimer - There is some profanity at the start and end of the clip, but it is a good chase scene with lots of emergency lights to look at!
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Ecto 1 - Often imitated but never duplicated (Can you spot the impostors?)
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At the very end (2:55) I count four Federal Signal VisaBars and even one Federal Signal JetSonic (all red/blue). Living in the north suburbs at that time I can say that the cars in the city actually had this much variety of lighting at the same time (from 1975 - 1990). On the same day you could see Smith & Wesson bars, VisaBars, Whelen speaker-beacons, JetSonics, AeroDynics, Unity RV-26 Beacons with the elevating base. And you'd see some of these setups in all-blue, all-red, red/blue. But the Unity RV26s were always blue with clear Spitfire rings. It was always cool to see the Michigan State Police (red Unity Spitfires) make a scene with Detroit Police (blue Unity Spitfires).
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One of my favorite chases, "We're goin' this way".
*Edit* No blinkies, but that's supposed to be a Treasury Department Chevy.
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If it's not a 1959 Miller-Meteor combination coach with blue Code 3 XL light bars, it's not an Ecto-1 replica.
"White Lightening" w/Burt Reynolds. TwinSonics and Visabars:
And then there was "Dirty Mary and Crazy Larry" about 1974.
"Ace Ventura, Pet Detective." (1994)
A roof rack housing a speaker and a pair of Unity RV45 UniBeacons and some sloppy wiring. This was all mounted on a Dodge Diplomat with "South Dade Police" markings.
A roof rack housing a speaker and a pair of Unity RV45 UniBeacons and some sloppy wiring. This was all mounted on a Dodge Diplomat with "South Dade Police" markings.
"Good HHRs"Re: the Ghostbusters vehicles.
Waste of good HHRs.
If that were a bit later I'd say it was an 800 MHz antenna.
Early on someone was looking for some pictures from the TV Series Walker, Texas Ranger. Her are a few I found.
1982 Ford LTD
1983 Ford Crown Victoria
1985 Mercury Grand Marquis
1987 Chevrolet Caprice
1987 Dodge Mini Ram Van
1987 Ford Mustang
1992 Chevrolet Caprice
Kawasaki KZ1000
1982 Ford LTD
1983 Ford Crown Victoria
1985 Mercury Grand Marquis
1987 Chevrolet Caprice
1987 Dodge Mini Ram Van
1987 Ford Mustang
1992 Chevrolet Caprice
Kawasaki KZ1000
The '83 CV is a bit out of place, since blue/blue is not allowed in TX. I like the little Apollo minivan ambulance. I had one of them pass me on the highway a few years ago and found out that they operate in Dallas and that an old school friend ran the company at one time.Early on someone was looking for some pictures from the TV Series Walker, Texas Ranger. Her are a few I found.
1982 Ford LTD
82 Ford LTD.jpg
1983 Ford Crown Victoria
83 Ford LTD Crown Vic.jpg
1985 Mercury Grand Marquis
85 Mercury Grand Marquis.jpg
1987 Chevrolet Caprice
87 ChevroletCaprice.jpg
1987 Dodge Mini Ram Van
87 Dodge Mini Ram Van.jpg
1987 Ford Mustang
87 FordMustang.jpg
1992 Chevrolet Caprice
92 Chevrolet Caprice.jpg
Kawasaki KZ1000
Kawasaki KZ.jpg
KZ 1000.jpg
I always loved Cagney and Lacy. Sharon has recently been on a weekend TV show as the now old, fat and chain-smoking mom of the show's star.
Tyne Daly sure plumped up nicely.....
Here they are in an unmarked 1981 Dodge Diplomat.
The Rockford Files TV Series (1974-1980)
1967 Chevrolet C Series
1968 Plymouth Belvedere
1969 Plymouth Blevedere
1971 Dodge Polara
1974 Chevrolet Bel Air
1974 Dodge Coronet
1978 Pontiac Firebird
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Classic Navy training movie. Model 17 and a Powercall siren towards the end. Note: Not for the squeamish.
From Dragnet, season 4, episode 4 (first aired 10/9/1969); watched this yesterday.
That was a real unit for a company in Texas. They had a few of these.
Canada saw some too...
Canada saw some too...
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The Dallas Police replica cars in Walker Texas Ranger marked the first time DPD allowed anything close to in service cars used in a TV show. The Edge bars are wrong though. The X Files movie was the first movie (not counting The Thin Blue Line, as it was a documentary).
Speaking of The Thin Blue Line, here are some photos from that movie.
1975 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu
Black Sheep: Caprice all decked out in goodies (as per movie lines, 426 Hemi, 3/4 cam, nitro boosters) Always loved this car, dual Rectangular Unity spotlights FTW! Code3 LP6000, 6 rotator R/B filters with center rotators having amber filters to the rear only, neat setup
Spies Like Us: 1979 GAZ 24 Volga, Blue Code3 XL with red center cutouts, also with beacon and spotlights mounted on top
Spies Like Us: 1979 GAZ 24 Volga, Blue Code3 XL with red center cutouts, also with beacon and spotlights mounted on top
I loved those Caravan mini-ambulances. As I said above, an old school friend owned Apollo at one time. A small ambulance co. in Odessa had an '83 Dodge minivan ambulance, but it wasn't built by Collins or Summers. They called it "Li'l Bit" because their granddaughter gave it that name. They've been out of business since the mid-90s and the van still sits behind the owners' house.That was a real unit for a company in Texas. They had a few of these.
post-22008-0-42117300-1418964629.jpg
minivans.jpg
Canada saw some too...
1988-minivan.jpg
There was one flashing light in the video clip. The Santa Fe CF7 locomotive had a beacon on the roof.
Thanks for the info Skip, I knew Apollo had a decent number of these. I believe (maybe you told me this Skip) they let them be used in films in exchange for leaving the name on the side.
Their use in movies is somewhat new news to me, John, so that didn't come from me; but if nothing else, it was great advertising for them. As far as I know, Apollo is still in business. I live just off of I20, so I see my share of various ambulances travelling the interstate here and there. I saw a Type III ambulance of Apollo's not too long ago. I would assume that Apollo "grandfathered" their Caravan ambulances many years ago since Texas did away with smaller ambulances back in the '80s, as it was in the mid 90s when I saw one of the little ambulances on the interstate.
