Sierra: The Urban Rangers- by Michael Donovan- 1974.

The Urban Rangers

The following images are the best quality available from a VHS tape converted source that was a sixth generation copy from a German playback region code format.

Sierra- The Urban Rangers
(Emergency Crossover Episode)

TV Series: "Sierra"
Original Air Date: 24 October 1974 (Season 1, Episode 10)
Production # 41315

Series Creator: R. A. Cinader and Michael Donovan

Directed by: Roger Duchowny

Writer: Michael Donovan

Technical Advisor: Yosemite Chief Ranger Jack Morehead

Lyrics: John Denver

Singer: Denny Brooks

Music by Lee Holdridge

Photo Credit: Kelly. 2008.

Part One- The Urban Rangers
----------------------------------------
Roy and Johnny enter a cabin-like Ranger's Station Office.

Roy DeSoto- Excuse me. Are you the chief ranger?

Jack Moore- Uh, yeah. What can I do for ya?

Johnny Gage- Well, ah. I'm Johnny Gage. This is Roy DeSoto. We're
from the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

Jack Moore- Oh, oh. oh! Good to see ya!

Johnny Gage- (chuckling)

Jack Moore- We were expecting you. Did you have a good trip?

Johnny Gage- Yeah, we did. It was uh, kinda boring on the way up.
But uh, once we hit the park it kinda picked up.

Jack Moore- It's your first trip, eh?

Johnny Gage- Yes, it is.

Jack Moore- Well, it gets even better the longer you stay.

Roy DeSoto- Well, it's kinda hard to take in all at once. We've got
scenery back home but nothing like this.

*Phone Buzzes*

Jack Moore- Excuse me. ( picks up phone ) Yeah. Oh, uh, I'll take it
in a second. Listen, I've got a call coming in from Washington.
Could you guys possible go next door and introduces yourselves.
And I'll be along in a couple of minutes.

Roy DeSoto- Sure.

Johnny Gage- Okay.

Jack Moore- Thanks. See ya. (toggles switch) Moore speaking.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the Park Rangers' debrief common room.

Tim Cassidy- So anyway, this guy I know who's up in Alaska. He's
hunting, right? His plane goes down. Now, he's on the ground.
He's lost. He's starving. And he has one bullet left. Right? Did
I tell you this story, P.J.?

P.J. Lewis- Oh, it don't make any difference. You'll just tell us anyway.

Tim Cassidy- Anyway, this is a very serious lesson in survival. This guy, is
out there in the woods. He looks around. And he sees two
quail over there. Two little quail; kind of walking along. Okay,
now he knows if he can line em up, maybe he can get both of
them with one shot. You've got to remember that this guy, is
starving to death. He looks down there. He lines up the quail.
He sees them. Bam! Two quail in the bag.

P.J.- Well, the best part's coming, right?

Tim Cassidy- Right. Now, not only were there those two quail. There were four
more in the bush behind him. He got six quail. One shot.

Johnny Gage- Wait a minute now. Now I know this guy. I-Isn't this the same guy
that with that shot, he spooked a deer outta the woods and the
deer took off straight for the lake. And he got his leg caught in the
mud and he was so close that guy could kill that deer with his
own knife. Now is it?

Matt Harper, P.J. and Jack Moore- (laughing)

Tim Cassidy- You, uh, heard the story before.

Johnny Gage- No, no I didn't. But I'll tell ya. The- the rangers and
the firemen, all have one thing in common. We all lie
a lot, too.

Tim Cassidy- (genuine found out laughter)

All- (loud laughter storm)

Jack Moore- Ah, okay everybody. Umm. Gentlemen, uh John and
uh Roy here are the first installment in our exchange training
program with the L.A. County Fire Department. Now, they're
up here to learn something about our technique, but if you play
your cards right, I think you can pick their brains a little bit, too.
Maybe we'll all learn something.

Roy DeSoto- What did you schedule?

Jack Moore- Well, Tim you go with John and Matt you take Roy. And
incidentally, uh, would you guys wear your uniforms while
you're on patrol?

Roy and Johnny both nod their head.

Jack Moore: Okay, now for some assignments...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Outside of the Ranger's Main Headquarters Building.

Matt Harper- Hey listen. I'm going to take Roy over and show him
the rescue cache. Catch you guys later for dinner, huh?

Tim Cassidy- Don't listen to us heroes.

Johnny Gage- All right. See you later. Love your country.

Tim Cassidy- I'm hooked on it myself. Here you go.
(indicating a ranger's station wagon.)

Johnny Gage- This one?

Tim Cassidy- Hey Julie! (A woman ranger approaches) You know you missed
the briefing.

Julie Beck- I know. I was settling a camper dispute.

Tim Cassidy- Oh.

Julie Beck- Gotta go. See you later.

Johnny Gage- Uh, Oh, who was that? One of your fee collectors?

Tim Cassidy- No that's- that's Julie. One of the rangers.

Johnny Gage- She's a ranger? Are you kidding me?

Tim Cassidy-Nah. What's so unusual about that?

Johnny Gage- Well, uh. Nothing. It's uh, i- That's amazing. I mean
she's incredible.

Tim Cassidy- John, are we talking about that lady ranger that just walked
into the door?

Johnny Gage- Yeah.

Tim Cassidy- Nah. Just another lady.

------------------------------------------------------------------
Location outside by a lake near a Woman at campsite- (cooking a roast ham)

Cruncher- (brown bear on the prowl) Rrrrrh.

Woman- Here bear. (feeding him a scrap of meat)
Oh, oh! (when the bear decided to grab the whole ham roast off
the picnic table.) Oh! Ohhh!

Cruncher- (eating contentedly)

BREAK TO...

*********************************************************
TITLE THEME SEQUENCE

Denny Brooks .... singer: theme music
John Denver .... lyricist: theme music
Lee Holdridge .... composer: theme music

*********************************************************
At the ranger station's mountainside Rescue Cache building.

Roy DeSoto- That's the finest collection of rescue equipment I've
ever seen.

Matt Harper- Yeah. We've been building it up for a few years now. Ah,
it's still not enough. I'd like to get my hands on one of
those EKG transmitters you guys have?

Roy- Yeah? Well, it'd be kinda hard to use up there inside of those rocks.

Matt- Ah, maybe. You'd be surprised what we can do up there though, when we have to.

Roy- Yeah. I would. I guess that's one of the reasons why the fire department sent us
up here to take this course in the first place.

Matt- Sure.

Roy- You know, I'm curious. How'd you become a ranger?

Matt- Well, I got my degree in geology. And then uh, I worked for a while.

Radio( interrupting )- ##Any unit available, acknowledge and handle. Bear
trouble. Camp Nine.##

Ted Cassidy-(over the channel) This is 303. We're on our way.

Matt- Let's go. I don't know what kind of training this'll be, but you might
find it kinda interesting.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In Ranger Station Wagon 303, travelling to the scene.

Johnny Gage- You know, Tim. I do have a thing about bears.

Tim Cassidy- Most people do. They feed em and tease em. And
they wonder why they get a camp full of problems.

Johnny- Yeah. Well. That's not my thing at all. I- I'm just fascinated
by em, that's all. You know, when I was a kid, I used to go
to the zoo and I used to stand there and watch them for hours.
Yeah. You know, Tim, if one were to believe in reincarnation,
I'd swear bears were people at one time.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Both Ranger Wagons at Camp Nine. All get out.

Johnny Gage- Holy smoke. Looks like a twister hit this place.

Tim Cassidy- No, just a bear. I'll go talk to her, Matt.

Matt Harper- I'd better call in. Med One Five this is 302 at Camp Nine.

Radio (MED-1-5)-##Go ahead, 302.##

Matt- Seems like the bear's left the scene. I suggest you ask P.J. to
bring around the bear trap. I don't think this problem's going away
by itself.

P.J. Lewis-(over the radio) ##10-4. I'm already en route with the trap.##

Tim- Hello, ma'am.

Woman- Hello, ranger.

Tim- Looks like you had a bear problem..

Matt- Gentlemen, you feel like picking up a little trash?

Woman- I was baking a ham and.. Well, I thought he was kinda
cute and so I gave him a piece.

Tim- And then he wanted some more.

Woman- And more. And more. And all of the sudden he took the whole ham
right off the table. Now why can't you guys keep those- those bears
away from us?

Matt- Well, we try ma'am. We really do try, but unfortunately, we can't
compete with people who encourage them.

Johnny- Oh, would you look at this? That's bone dry. (about a completely flat cooler
he was putting into a black plastic garbage bag.)

Roy- Yeah, he was a hungry bear. ( also picking up trash.) He really
made a pig out of himself.

Johnny- Well, I guess he figured it was his territory.

Roy- Well, I guess even a bear has to move over for progress, unfortunately.

Johnny-Well, I think progress is what spoiled the bear.

Roy- You got some kind of a thing for bears? I mean, look what
he did to this woman's camp.

Johnny- Yeah, well. She encouraged him.

Roy- Who's side are you on, anyway?

Johnny- The bear's.

Woman- Well my husband's gonna be furious when he comes back
from fishing.

Matt- Yes, ma'am. Uh, could you help me a little bit with the color of
the bear now please?

Woman- Does that really make a difference?

Matt- Yeah, yeah, it sure does. Because we don't like to blame the wrong
bear for this kind of problem.

Woman- What?

Tim- Ma'am. See? We've got a lot of different bears in this park, ma'am and only
a few of them are pests. So if we go after the wrong one, we just waste
a lot of time and effort.

Woman- But that's ridiculous!

Tim- No, ma'am. Just practical.

Matt- All right, ma'am. Could you help me with this
description now? Like how big the bear was, his
coloration? Did he have any identifying marks?

Johnny Gage picking up trash, finds the ham bone and picks
it up in the woods a short distance off.

Cruncher- Grrrrw.. (smelling the meat and Johnny.)

Johnny- Ah, whoa whoa whoa whoa, bear! Whoa. heh. Ah, I'm your friend here.
Heh. We're-- Do you want this? You want this? There, you can have it.
(tosses meat bone at the bear ) You can have it. I don't want it.

*Runs away quickly and meets up with P.J. and Tim setting up the bear trap door*

Johnny- Oh, hey! I saw the bear!

Tim- Bear?

Johnny- Yeah.

Tim-What's he doing?

Johnny- Well, I don't know I didn't stick around to find out. He was
kind of aggressive, you know.

Tim-Yeah, you must have had something he wanted.

Johnny- Yeah, I did.

Tim- And you gave it to him?

Johnny- Yeah, I did.

Tim- And then he took off, right?

Johnny- Yeah, he did. Yeah.

Tim- Problem's solved.

Johnny- Well, uh, aren't you gonna go catch him?

Julie Beck (appears around the other side of the trap)- It's easier to let
him come to us. Hi, I'm Julie Beck.

Johnny- Hi, I'm Johnny Gage.

Julie- Have you met P.J. yet?

Johnny- Oh, yeah. I- I met P.J. back at the station. How are ya
doing there, P.J.?

P.J.- Uh, fine, I'm just fine.

Tim-Uh, John, did you get close enough to the bear to get a description of him?

Johnny- Oh, yeah I did, uh. Ah, he's umm, well, he's--

Tim- Big?

Johnny- He's big. Yeah, he's big and the color was kind of a-

Tim- ..cinnamon color.

Johnny- Yeah, cinnamon and and, you know, he had an almost human-

Tim- ..expression.

Johnny--..hum--... uh. That's him.

Tim- You just met our friend, Cruncher.

P.J.- That's right. This campsite's his favorite restaurant.

Johnny- Huh, well w-what are you going to do with him once you get him inside here?

Julie- Take him back to the high country. By the way. My turn to go.

Tim- Be my guest.

Johnny- W-wait a minute. Let me get this straight, I mean. I mean if you catch this
bear, you're gonna take him up to the high country by yourself?

Julie- Sure. It's no problem. In fact, I enjoy it.

Tim- Well, I guess that does it. We all ought to be getting back.

Johnny- Ah, listen, uh, if you do catch this bear, I was... wondering, uh,
can I go along with ya?

Julie- Sure. In fact, we'll come back and check the trap tomorrow okay?

Johnny- Okay.

Julie- Okay.

Johnny- See you later.

Julie- Bye bye.

Tim- I thought your thing was bears.

Johnny- It is. It is. I'm.. also I've uh, a thing about girls, too.

Tim- Girls? She's just one of the guys.

Johnny- Agh, Tim. You don't believe that. I- eh, I just know you don't
believe that.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night fall on the road. A ranger's wagon travels to sounds of random
dispatch calls from the radio. *Jarbled*

Back at the main ranger station.

Tim- What's on the agenda this morning?

Matt- Well, we're going down by the village to check out
the cascade. How about you guys?

Tim- We're going up to see the bear trap at Camp Nine.
John here's a little worried that maybe Julie went off
without him.

P.J.- Aww.

(Roy, Matt and Tim chuckle.)

Johnny- You guys are a laugh a minute.

Julie- (Pulling up in a ranger wagon) Hey, Johnny! I'm going to
go check the bear trap. You sure you still want to come?

Johnny- Oh, yeah. Sure. (pretending like he had forgotten about it)

(The rest of the guys laugh, except P.J.)

P.J.- Where you going, John? (teasing)

Tim- Hey, Johnny..

P.J.- *very bad cat call whistle*

(Gage ignores them all and gets into the car with Julie.)

Tim- Hey Matt, have you given ever given any thought to Julie?

Matt- What's to think about?

Tim- Well, Gage is really kinda flipped over her.

Matt- Well, I guess she has kind of uh, pretty face.

Roy- He really gets turned on by girls.

P.J. - My wife's always wondering why you guys have never dated her.

Tim- Well, why didn't you say that?

P.J.- Well, what's to say? I'm a happily married man.

Tim- Yeah. I just can't think of her as a uh, ...a girl girl. Girl.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
At Camp Nine's bear trap.

Julie- Looks like we've finally got Ol' Cruncher.

Johnny- Oh, yeah?

Julie- It was a long, hard fight.

Johnny-(chuckling)

Julie-(opening peep door) Of all the rotten luck.

Johnny- What's the matter?

Julie- It's the wrong bear. Cruncher did it to us again.

Johnny- Now what happens?

Julie- See that yellow tag on his ear?

Johnny- Oh, yeah.

Julie- That means we've trapped him before. And he's a pest also.

Johnny- Well does that mean our trip to the high country is still on?

Julie- Sure is. I'll go get the car.

Johnny- Okay.

-------------------------------------------------------
Roy and Matt at the Cascades Waterfall.

Roy- Sure is nice country. How's the fishing?

Matt- Oh, it's not too good in the valley. You get
up into the high country...You wouldn't believe it.

Roy- Why is it that you don't stock the waters?

Matt- Well, we used to. We've got a policy now where we
try to leave nature just the way it is. If you start messing
with the ecology, even putting a few fish into a pond
or a stream and it starts a chain reaction. No telling where
it will end.

Roy- Yeah, yeah. I was reading something about Yellowstone. They
were killing off all the wolves. I don't know. That there were too
many of them living off the land.

Matt- Yeah, same thing. Like I said, no telling where it'll stop.

Roy- Is that why you became a park ranger?

Matt- Yeah. I guess that's one of the reasons. The others' are
probably about the same. What made you become a fireman?
I mean, uh, the pay is not too fantastic. But, uh, helping
people is not exactly the worst way to spend your life.

Roy- Yeah, is it tough to get into the park service?

Matt- Yeah, now it's pretty hard. There's really more people looking
to get in than we really need. Why? Are you thinking of changing
jobs?

Roy- Yeah. Maybe. Heh. It sure would be a nice place to raise a kid.

Matt- Yeah, it would be that. I imagine your job's a little more exciting than mine.
You've got to admit, we've got a nicer neighborhood to work in. Speaking of
work, I guess we gotta get going.

A passing motorcycle with a loud muffler spoils the quiet waterfall meadow.

Part Three- The Urban Rangers
-----------------------------------------

It spooks a horse who dumps his rider and starts running with the rider hung by the foot on
a stirrup strap.

Matt- I'm going to see if I can help out down there! See if you can follow in the wagon!

Roy-(on radio) This is Roy DeSoto. Harper's chasing a horse in the meadow near Cascade
Ridge. The rider may have possible serious injuries.

Radio-##10-4. Any available units, respond to that area.##

Matt manages to stop the horse by the reins and he frees the rider's foot.
Roy rushes in with their first aid gear box as sirens of approaching ranger wagons draw nearer.

P.J. Lewis and Jack Moore respond and rush to their side with a canvas stretcher.

P.J.- Is he bad?

Roy- Well, he's got a head injury. Respirations slow. Pulse about sixty.

P.J.- I'll get a cervical collar.

Roy- All right.

Matt- Yeah, he's been kinda drifting in and out right now.

Roy- You guys got any I.V. equipment with ya?

Matt- No, we sure don't. Only on a rescue. We've got nothing
with us that requires doctor's approval.

Moore- Nervous. Let's go in on a backboard.

Roy- Okay, his respirations're going down. Better have dispatch
call the hospital. Have them stand by for possible intubation.

Matt- Take it easy now.

Tim- Got him in?

Matt- Yeah.

Roy- Okay. Let's make it fast. He's running the edge of
respiratory arrest.

Matt- All right.

(The ranger wagon takes off with the other rangers and the injured rider.)

Matt- It's times like this that we could use some of the equipment you got down there.

Click Cruncher the bear
to go to Page Two

The Urban Rangers