Many assume an actor's life is all glamour, luxury and leisurely days on set. But the reality behind the cameras can be anything but glamorous. Just ask the cast of Emergency!.

While the series was a hit with viewers and critics alike, its stars faced a demanding filming schedule behind the scenes. Series stars Randolph Mantooth and Kevin Tighe were candid about the grueling filming schedule during an interview with the News & Record.

"Last season we worked fifteen to eighteen hours a day until we were ill," Tighe said. "There was never a show in which so much was done in so little time."

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The frantic pace may have helped keep production moving, but it sometimes came at the expense of the show itself.

"Things were so frantic, we'd get rewrites of scenes after we'd already done them," Tighe said. "Or sometimes they'd deliver lines to us moments before we were to do them."

On one particularly exhausting night, things went from bad to worse. The cast thought they were finally headed home after wrapping up a long day, only to discover that their work wasn't quite finished.

"One night, we finished the last scene of a show at 11:30 p.m. and thought we were going home," Tighe said. "We were so tired we couldn't even think."

"Instead, they hauled us to Santa Monica harbor to do a scene they forgot from the previous show," Mantooth added. "As long as we say the dialogue and the lights don't go out, they print it."

Talk about an emergency! The demanding schedule certainly sounds less than ideal, but both actors acknowledged that the popular series gave them the exposure they needed to advance their careers and become household names.

"We think where we'd be if we weren't on the show," said Mantooth.

All those long hours may have been exhausting, but the career boost was nothing short of a lifesaver.