Baywatch
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Baywatch was an American television series about the Los Angeles County Lifeguards who patrol the crowded beaches of Los Angeles County, California starring David Hasselhoff. The show ran from 1989 to 1999 (and 1999-2001 as Baywatch Hawaii). According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Baywatch is the most watched TV show in the world of all time, with over 1.1 billion viewers.[1]
Gregory J. Bonann worked as a Los Angeles County Lifeguard, and started up a motion picture project about lifeguards that eventually became Baywatch. Baywatch premiered on NBC in 1989, but was cancelled after only one season because of the high production costs and low ratings. Feeling the series still had potential, David Hasselhoff revived it for the first-run syndication market in 1991, investing his own money and additionally functioning as executive producer. The show was hugely successful, especially internationally. The show led to a spin-off: Baywatch Nights, and a reunion movie, Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding.
In 1999, an Australian version was planned and cast members travelled to Sydney for filming. The idea was to have the established stars appear in the pilot, interacting with a local life saving organisation, and thus help launch Baywatch Downunder. A pilot was filmed but the series was stopped when residents of Avalon put forth strong objections, including potential damage to a fragile ecosystem. Avalon council permanently barred all future filming, and the pilot remained unbroadcast for over a year, only to be panned by critics and viewers.
In Season 10, the location of the show was changed to Hawaii and the show's name was changed to Baywatch Hawaii.
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[edit] Plot
The show starred David Hasselhoff, of Knight Rider fame, as Mitch Buchannon, who was the only mainstay on the show, besides Michael Newman, for 10 of the 11 seasons. Baywatch was centered around the work of a team of lifeguards and their interpersonal relationships, with plots usually centering on dangers related to beach and other activities pertinent to the California (later Hawaii) beach lifestyle. Everything from earthquakes to shark attacks to serial killers, and even nuclear bombs, served as plot conflicts on the show. Saving people from drowning tended to be one of the most typical situations used in the shows. Thus a trademark of the show was slow motion shots of the lifeguards running, most notably done by Erika Eleniak, Pamela Anderson, Yasmine Bleeth, Alexandra Paul, and David Charvet along with Hasselhoff during the height of the show.
After the 1998-1999 season, many cast members decided to leave as the writing staff for Baywatch began to recycle storylines used in earlier seasons.
[edit] Cast
[edit] Baywatch 1989–1999
[edit] Baywatch Hawaii 1999–2001
| Actor | Character | Years |
|---|---|---|
| David Hasselhoff | Mitch Buchannon | 1999-2000 |
| Michael Bergin | J.D. Darius | 1997-2001 |
| Brooke Burns | Jessie Owens | 1998-2001 |
| Jason Brooks | Sean Monroe | 1999-2001 |
| Brandy Ledford | Dawn Masterton | 1999-2000 |
| Simmone Jade Mackinnon | Allie Reese | 1999-2000 |
| Jason Momoa | Jason Ioane | 1999-2001 |
| Stacy Kamano | Kekoa Tanaka | 1999-2001 |
| Krista Allen | Jenna Avid | 2000-2001 |
| Charlie Brumbly | Zach McEwan | 2000-2001 |
| Brande Roderick | Leigh Dyer | 2000-2001 |
| Alicia Rickter | Carrie Sharp | 2000-2001 |
[edit] Theme song
The first theme song which accompanies the pilot episode and season one was "Above the Waterline" by Kim Carnes. On the DVD edition of the first season, the original main title theme is replaced by the song "Strong Enough", performed by Evan Olson (from his album Audio).
The original NBC theme was "Save Me," performed by Peter Cetera, with Bonnie Raitt on guitar and Richard Sterban, bass singer for The Oak Ridge Boys, as one of the background vocalists.
For the syndicated series, a new theme, "I'm Always Here" performed by Jimi Jamison (of Survivor) replaced "Save Me", although it is mistakenly attributed to the show's star David Hasselhoff.
When the NBC episodes started to air five times a week with all the other syndicated episodes, the opening theme was changed to a shorter version of "I'm Always Here," with some images of the original NBC opening retained.
Daivd Hasselhoff sang "Current of Love" as the ending theme of seasons 2-4. Together with Laura Branigan he sang "I Believe" as the ending theme of season 5.
An instrumental version of the song appears in the episode "Battles" of the UK television programme Spaced.
The Swedish electronic musical group Sunblock remixed the song and released it as a single.
A Soundalike version was used in an episode of Hey Arnold over the end credits.
[edit] Episodes
[edit] Theatrical release
In 2004, DreamWorks announced they had bought the rights to create a new theatrical Baywatch movie.[2] Jessica Simpson was officially cast as C.J. Parker.[3] The movie was slated for release in 2006 but it never materialized and there is no word on the future of the movie. However, Keeley Hazell has said numerous times in FHM Australia that she is contracted to appear in a new Baywatch movie.[4]
The film is reported to be a comedy production unlike its drama counterpart. It will also be in the vein of Land of the Lost and Starsky and Hutch, both comedy films different than their original material.
[edit] Movie cameos and pop culture references
- Pamela Anderson[5]
- In the 1996 animated movie, Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, Butt-Head asks Bruce Willis's character, Muddy Grimes if they missed Baywatch. Muddy then pulls out his gun and shoots his TV screen. His reply is, "no".
- In the movie Gigli, the character of Brian, played by Justin Bartha, is an avid fan of Baywatch and thinks that the beach in the show is a real place where the girls from the show live.
[edit] DVD releases
Australia: Seasons 1-4 have been released in collector's edition boxsets.
Finland: Seasons 1-3 have been released by Futurefilm.
Germany: Seasons 1 to 11 have been released. These releases are presented exactly as they originally aired, albeit with German language credits.
Italy: Seasons 1, 5 and 6 have been released by Sony pictures HE.
Netherlands: Seasons 3 have been released.
Sweden: Seasons 1-3 have been released.
USA: In June 1999 a single disc DVD was released featuring two 2-part episodes from the show's original run ("Nightmare Bay" part 1 and 2 from Season 2, and "River of No Return" part 1 & 2 from Season 3). These episodes are absent from the U.S. box sets of their respective seasons mentioned below.
Three seasons have since been released on DVD by First Look Studios. Although the box sets are labeled "Season 1," "Season 2," et cetera, the sets actually feature episodes of the following season (i.e. the "Season 1" box set contains the episodes of the literal second season (1991-1992) of the show). The second and third sets were released on October 31, 2006. Each set features a disc with Season 1 episodes on it. Fans will need to purchase all U.S. box set releases (the literal seasons 2-7) to complete season 1. It will then be possible to order a box from First Look to hold the six discs. These releases also do not contain the original theme songs as they appeared when the episodes aired. They have been removed due to copyright agreements.[6]
On February 11, 2007, Ashleigh Evan was named The Official Baywatch DVD Babe by voters at BaywatchOnDVD.com.
[edit] See also
- Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding
- Baywatch: Forbidden Paradise
- Baywatch Nights (Baywatch spin-off)
- Son of the Beach (Baywatch parody).
- Babewatch is a satirical term sometimes used in connection with the series is which has been used by Mad Magazine, commentators [7], as well as used as the title for a series of adult films with crossover characters which ran up between 1994-1999 to become a tridecology.
[edit] References
- ^ "Largest Audience For A TV Series"
- ^ "Baywatch" Swims Into Theaters
- ^ Simpson Lands Anderson ‘Baywatch’ Movie Role
- ^ FHM Magazine Online - Mens Magazine
- ^ Anderson to Make Cameo in ‘Baywatch’ Movie
- ^ News for Baywatch
- ^ "Article: Surf's Up For 'Baywatch'" (in English). KFOX-TV. 1999-11-16. http://www.kfoxtv.com/entertainment/139728/detail.html Article:.
[edit] External links
- Baywatch Official Site
- Baywatch at the Internet Movie Database
- Baywatch at TV.com
- The Los Angeles County Lifeguards
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