In the Men of a Certain Age episode “How To Be a Superstar” an Advanced can be seen not 5 minutes in to the episode at a school. It’s mounted on a Wiremold® backbox.
Another G1 Transformers alarm - In “Prime Target” at 07:53 a big game hunter uses a dual-action station (break glass cover, pull handle, similar concept to Simplex’s 4251-30, 2099-9103/-9104/-9105/-9108 and 4099-9002 ) to trigger 8" bells in Continuous, to lure Inferno so he can be captured.
Nice! Speaking of classic 1980s Marvel Productions/Hasbro cartoons, here’s a G.I. Joe PSA from the 1985 series where Barbecue explains why you should not make a false fire alarm (it’s in higher quality)…
Also note that even though it’s a push-button station (I guess the Japanese animators at the time didn’t know what an outdoor fire alarm pull box looked like), one of the kids says “You’re gonna PULL that alarm?!” Maybe it should’ve taken place in a school or something…
In tonight’s Simpsons episode, Bart causes a distraction to retrieve a bad-news letter by slingshotting an eraser toward a fire alarm break-glass station, setting off the school bells in Continuous (once again, they usually just use the school bells for the fire alarm).
That’s funny, I’m watching that right now!
Emergency!
Station 51 has a Motorola Quik Call system and a Vibratone 350 that sounds when the station gets dispatched.
Rampart General Hospital has a BG-6 that frequently sneaks it’s way into shots.
Squad 51 has an electronic siren while the later Engine 51 has a Model Q siren.
For some reason the “Mayfair” ambulances have Q sirens as well, although they could be electronic.
Firehouse USA: Boston (several episodes)
A movie theater has a Fire-Lite slow whoop voice evacuation system with BG-12 pulls.
A building has 7002T signals and unknown pulls.
Another building has AS’s or MT’s and System Sensor smoke detectors that some painters covered up with tape, then got in trouble when Lt. Kelley ordered them to take the tape off.
The tones heard on Emergency! are Motorola Quick Call 1 and were real LA county tones, even the dispatcher used on the show was a real LA county dispatcher. The buzzer sounded more like a 4050 to me, but in the pilot, they show a surface mount Fire Horn under a speaker at a different firehouse (the same tones were used).
One of the BG-6s you frequently see in the background in Rampart General was actually pulled in one episode when a fire broke out in a patent’s room. The pull did not stay down when pulled, and a generic buzzer sound doing some sort of code, the same sound used for the phones in the hospital, as DeSoto and Gage run into the room with a fire extinguisher and quickly put the fire out.
Squad-51 had an old 70’s era Federal lightbar on the roof (you can even see the lable on the lightbar in the opening for a split second), and that that overused 70’s-mid 80’s electronic siren effect is used, as well as a clip of the fimilar British Martin horns (hi-lo air horns) used at intersections. Engine-51 for a while showed no siren on the front, but a Q could clearly be heard, often with the brake used when pulling on scene (a very ugly sound when heard in person). In later episodes, you can clearlly see the Q dead center on hte front of the rig.
The Ambulances, which varies from the “ghostbusters Ecto-1” style to the “mayfair” used some sort of generic sounding mechanical siren not sure which, possibily a B&M sense LA has and still does use them.
The police cars, also used in Emergency’s sister show Adam-12, were oftem Plymouth Fury’s and used the 70’s era Federal lightbars.
Also a little fun tidbit, Station 51 was a real active fire station. It was Universal Studio’s station 53, but has sense been re-named station 51 and is still in use. They did tape inside the firehouse, and from what Ive read occationally while taping the station would get hit out for a call, and the QC1 would sound in the station (different than heard on the show) and they’d have to stop tape until the dispatch was done.
Two Danny Phantom episodes featured fire alarms. “My Brother’s Keeper” and “Memory Blank”
Here is “My Brother’s Keeper”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOPkn5grHIM . It features some old pull station with no real-world counterpart. The sprinklers are somehow activated. Alarm is pulled at 9:15
Here is “Memory Blank”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wd2DeXpO6xo&feature=related . It has a pull station based off the National Time T-bar. Alarm is pulled at 7:06
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Not only that, the fire alarm is just the school bell ringing continuously! Why do many TV shows tie the school bells into the fire alarm system? That almost NEVER happens in real life.
TV is for entertainment Wiley
No one in tv land cares to get those details accurate, especially when its a comedy.
The station from the show is and always was station 127 (2049 E 223RD ST CARSON, 90810) They had E127 and L127 stationed there however never had a medic. During the show there was actually no active station 51. The tones used for Station 51 were actually that of station 20 and station 32. Station 60 however was changed to station 51 which is located at Universal Studio. Filming for the most part took place in studio not on location.
For those interested here are some tones and information on the Quick-Call Police Interceptor.Com
“Squad 51” http://www.policeinterceptor.com/sounds/sta050.wav
What episode was that?
In some episodes you can see it’s a Federal Interceptor PA-20A.
It looked like the ambulances had “Super Chief” sirens.
Sesame Street segment from the 1980s where the Twiddlebugs have a smoke detector installed. Looks like they used a 9-volt First Alert smoke detector as a prop, and added some irritating beep noise as a dubbed effect.
Irritating beep noise? haven’t you ever heard an electromechanical (a.k.a. Brass Squealer) alarm? Anyways the alarm is a First Alert SA120.
I remember another ep where an Emhart 035 is installed in one of the stores. Can’t remember the exact one. I think it was the Fix-It shop. Anyways they use this sound when they test it, and Oscar is there, he loves the sound and gets an airhorn which he torments everyone on the street with throughout the rest of the episode.
LOL! Only Oscar would truly love the sound of a smoke alarm. But then again, he’d pretty much love ALL unpleasant or alarming noises (I bet he’d love to listen to air-raid siren tests too!) I bet that episode may have been from when they had a fire-safety week around 1989-1990. (The Friday episode was about a small fire in the basement of the 123 apartment, that only destroys Big Bird’s original nest from when he was a baby bird.)
Also remembered that in the Sesame Street Goes to the Firehouse video, Oscar gets a Lifesaver 0805 (which, surprisingly, has a 2400 5/6 alarm) for his can (he had burnt some food, the firefighter gave it to him. He presses the button and says “Oh, it’s piercing! Oh I could listen to this all day!” while retreating into his can. Then at the end, the alarm goes off again, this time Oscar is conducting a fire drill) Then the Elmo goes to the Firehouse video has a slow 4/6 alarm go off.
Anyways, I just saw what looks like an Integrity on a Verizon commercial. and a red routed sign that says “FIRE ALARM PULL BOX” below it.
Here’s one with a couple of FACPs
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In “Absolute Power”, Clint Eastwood disarms a security system that is actually a Fire-Lite MS-5024UD with the can painted gray. The display shows an entry delay countdown.
In “Toy Story 3,” at the Sunnyshore Daycare Center, you can often see pull stations in the background that are knock-offs of Edwards 270-SPOs.
Found the ep on YouTube:
Go to 6:43.
In “Driven To Kill” (2009), in the Hospital shootout at the end of the movie, Ruslan (Steven Seagal) pulls a loosely mounted Edwards 270, triggering 8" bells (no surprise there) in Continuous. But, thankfully, 8" bells can be seen a few minutes later, so the sound would actually go with the devices depicted. Then the terrorists, who are disguised as police, use the elevator to get up to the upper floors.
On last Monday’s American Pickers, the guys picked a Gamewell fire alarm telegraph unit.
On the A&E show “Manhunters - Fugitive Task Force”, the episode “Relentless” has something for almost everyone:
Fire alarm enthusiasts: Notifier BNG-1R station with DABC second-action cover, 10" bells on strobe plates
[Info on DABC: http://www.notifier.com/products/datasheets/DN_0065.pdf ]
For the Siren crowd:
A STL-7! It’s evidently in Trenton, NJ. When I saw it, I actually yelled out “STL-7!” It wasn’t sounding, just part of a quick montage of shots between scenes.