Baywatch

David Hasselhoff as the character Mitch Buchannon.

Pamela Anderson as C. J. Parker.

Baywatch is an American action drama series about the Los Angeles County Lifeguards who patrol the beaches of Los Angeles County, California, starring David Hasselhoff. The show was canceled after its first season on NBC, but survived and later became one of the most watched television shows in the world.^[3] The show ran in its original title and format from 1989 to 1999, except for the 1990–1991 season, during which it was not in production. From 1999 to 2001, with a setting change and large cast overhaul, it was known as Baywatch Hawaii.

History

Baywatch premiered on NBC in 1989, but was canceled after only one season^[4] when it placed 73rd out of 103 shows in the seasonal ratings and also because the studio, GTG, went out of business.^[3] Feeling the series still had potential, Hasselhoff along with creators and executive producers Michael Berk, Douglas Schwartz and Greg Bonann revived it for the first-run syndication market in 1991. Hasselhoff was given the title of executive producer for his work on bringing the show back. The series was hugely successful, especially internationally.^[5][6] Around the same time, LWT stepped in to help finance the series^[7][8]

The show led to a spin-off: Baywatch Nights, and a reunion movie, Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding.

In 1999, with production costs rising in Los Angeles, and the syndication market shrinking, the plan was to move the show to Australia and launch Baywatch Down Under. A pilot was filmed but the series was stopped when residents of Avalon put forth strong objections, including potential damage to a fragile ecosystem. Pittwater Council permanently barred all future filming.^[9][10] This pilot finally aired as a two-part episode of Baywatch.

As an alternative to Australia, Hawaii offered the producers large financial incentives to move the show to the islands instead, and in Season 10, Baywatch Hawaii was launched.

Baywatch filmed for two seasons in Hawaii, from 1999 until 2001.^[11] The proposal to relocate Baywatch to Hawaii rather than Australia was initiated by April Masini in a telephone call to executive producer Greg Bonann. The deal to provide the incentives necessary to secure the series was presented to Governor Ben Cayetano by Al Masini and April Masini; Tony Vericella, president of the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau; and Cayetano's executive assistant, Joe Blanco. The agreement required the production to change its name from Baywatch to Baywatch Hawaii, hire local leads, and film in the state for at least two years, guaranteeing 44 episodes, each at a cost of about $870,000, 60% of which was to be spent in Hawaii.^[12]

Plot

Baywatch revolved 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 and 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.

Cast

Baywatch (1989–1999)

Baywatch Hawaii (1999–2001)

Simmone Jade Mackinnon (L), Brooke Burns (C), and Stacy Kamano (R).

Theme songs

• 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. The song is from Cetera's 1988 album One More Story.
• On some DVD releases of the first series "Save Me" was replaced with "Above the Waterline" by Kim Carnes.
• For the syndicated series, the new theme "I'm Always Here" (written by Jimi Jamison, Cory Lerios, John D'Andrea and Joe Henry, performed by Jimi Jamison of Survivor) replaced "Save Me". An instrumental version of "I'm Always Here" was used as the ending theme of seasons 6 to 9. A different instrumental version was used as the theme for season 10 (the first season of Baywatch Hawaii).
• When the NBC episodes were added to the Baywatch syndication package, the opening theme was changed to a shorter version of "I'm Always Here", with some images of the original NBC opening retained.
• David Hasselhoff sang the Kevin Savigar-Todd Cerney tune "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.
• 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 theme for season 11 (the second season of Baywatch Hawaii) was called "Let Me Be the One" written and performed by Carlos Villalobos, Glenn Medeiros and sung by Fiji.
• The spin-off series, Baywatch Nights theme song was performed by saxophonist Alfonzo Blackwell. "The Nights Will Never Be the Same" (Baywatch Nights Theme) was also featured on his 1996 sophomore CD release. Alfonzo Blackwell was featured with David Hasselhoff each week in the ending credits of the TV series.

Other versions of "I'm Always Here" include:

• 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.
• Swedish group Konditorns recorded the theme with Swedish lyrics for their album K2 (2012), titled "Jag är alltid här" which is a direct translation of the phrase "I'm always here"

Episodes

Film adaptation

The film adaptation is reported to be a comedy, written and directed by Jeremy Garelick. Garelick's previous successes include the rewrite of The Hangover.^[13]

In September 2012, it was announced that Reno 911! co-creator and star Robert Ben Garant will direct the film version of Baywatch for Paramount Pictures.^[14]

In October 2014, it was announced that Paramount is moving forward with its big-screen adaptation of Baywatch and has loosely attached Dwayne Johnson to the project. The studio has also hired Justin Malen to rewrite and has attached the comedy writing team of Sean Anders and John Morris to direct.^[15][16]

In July 2015, it was announced Seth Gordon would direct with Damian Shannon and Mark Swift having written the latest script with Dwayne Johnson still attached to star.^[17]

On August 10, 2015, it was announced that Zac Efron had been cast in the film. Johnson also announced that the film will be R-Rated. The report stated, “The story centers on a by-the-book and very serious lifeguard (Johnson) who is forced to team up with a young rule-flouting hothead (Efron) in order to save their beach from environmental destruction at the hands of an oil tycoon.”^[18][19][20] That same month, reports were saying that Kelly Brook was in contention to star in the film as C.J. Parker, with Kate Upton and Charlotte McKinney also on the shortlist, but Brook denied the rumor the following day on Instagram.^{[21][22][23][24]} Brook later confirmed that she had read the script but was still uncertain if she would appear.^[25]

On November 9, 2015, it was reported that several actresses, including Alexandra Daddario, Nina Dobrev, Ashley Benson, Alexandra Shipp, Shelley Hennig, Bianca Santos and Denyse Tontz, were in the running for the female lead, with the possibility that some of them could join the film in different roles and other unnamed actresses could be in the running as well.^[26] On November 18, 2015, Johnson confirmed Daddario (who previously worked with Johnson on San Andreas) for the role of Summer, originally played by Eggert in the TV series, and revealed the casting of C.J. and other roles would soon be announced.^[27] On January 4, 2016, Johnson announced that actress and model Kelly Rohrbach was cast as C.J. for the film.^{[28][29][30][31]} On January 11, 2016, The Hollywood Reporter has reported that Priyanka Chopra is in talks to appear in the film in a villainous role.^[32] On January 20, 2016, Ilfenesh Hadera joined the cast as Stef, the love interest of Dwayne Johnson's character^[33] and a release date of May 19, 2017 was announced.^[34] On January 27, 2016, Variety reports that Jon Bass is cast as Ronnie, who’s described as funny, awkward and a skilled disco dancer who falls in love with C.J. at the beach.^[35]

DVD releases

Baywatch "Nightmare Bay"/"River of No Return" DVD

Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding, the reunion movie on DVD

• Australia: On May 1, 2013, Shock Entertainment released seasons 1–9 on DVD.^[36] They also released a complete series set on November 6, 2013 which features all 9 seasons of Baywatch, both seasons of Baywatch Hawaii and both seasons of Baywatch Nights.^[37]
• France: The reunion movie Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding was translated to French language as Alerte à Malibu: Mariage à Hawaï and has been released.
• Finland: Seasons 1–3 have been released by Future Film.
• Germany: Seasons 1 to 11 have been released. These releases are presented exactly as they originally aired, albeit with German language credits (These are also available in the U.K. from amazon as imports). The reunion movie Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding was translated to German language as Baywatch: Hochzeit auf Hawaii and have been released.
• Italy: Seasons 1 and 2 have been released by Koch Media, season 5 and 6 have been released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
• Netherlands: Season 3 has been released.
• Sweden: Seasons 1–3 have been released.
• UK: Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 have been released by Network.
• 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.

First Look Studios released the first three seasons on DVD in 2006/2007. 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. These releases also do not contain any of the original music as it appeared when the episodes aired. They have been removed due to copyright agreements.^[38] However, these releases have been discontinued and are now out of print.

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, which has been used by Mad Magazine, commentators,^[39] 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.
• Beach Heat: Miami (Softcore version)
• Lifeguard, 1976 lifeguard film starring original Baywatch star Parker Stevenson

References

External links

• BaywatchTV.org - Official Website
• Baywatch at the Internet Movie Database
• Baywatch at the Internet Movie Database (film adaptation)
• Baywatch at TV.com