Baywatch

Infobox Television
show_name = Baywatch


caption = "Baywatch" title logo
show_name_2 = Baywatch Hawaii
genre = Drama Action series
creator = Gregory J. Bonann
director =
creative_director =
developer =
starring = David Hasselhoff
Pamela Anderson
Yasmine Bleeth
Alexandra Paul
Parker Stevenson
Michael Newman
Jeremy Jackson
David Chokachi
Gena Lee Nolin
Traci Bingham
Erika Eleniak
Billy Warlock
Carmen Electra
Donna D'Errico
David Charvet
Nicole Eggert
Brande Nicole Roderick
Michael Bergin
José Solano
Mitzi Kapture
et al.
theme_music_composer =
opentheme =
endtheme =
composer =
country = USA
language = English
num_seasons = 11
num_episodes = 243
list_episodes = List of Baywatch episodes
executive_producer = Michael Berk
Douglas Schwartz
Gregory J. Bonann
David Hasselhoff
co_exec =
company = GTG Entertainment
Pearson All-American Television The Baywatch Company Tower 12 Productions Tower 18 Production Company (1996-2001)
distributor = LBS Communications (1991-1992)
All-American Television (1992-1997)
Pearson All-American Television (1997-2001)
supervising_producer =
asst_producer =
co-producer =
editor =
story_editor =
location = California (1989-1999) Hawaii (1999-2001)
cinematography =
camera =
runtime = 60 minutes (with commercials)
network = NBC (1989-1990) first-run syndication (1991-2001)
picture_format = 4:3
audio_format = Mono Stereo
first_aired = September 22 1989
last_aired = May 14 2001
related = Baywatch Nights
website = http://www.baywatch.com
production_website =
imdb_id = 0096542
tv_com_id = 115

"Baywatch" was an American television series about the Los Angeles County Lifeguards who patrol the crowded beaches of Los Angeles County, California. 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. [ [http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2008/02/080228.aspx "Largest Audience For A TV Series"] ]

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 cost of producing it 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, "".

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".

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 attractive 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.

Casting

Many different actors and actresses were featured on the show over its long run with most appearing for only a few seasons. Some of the other stars who became famous were Pamela Anderson, Yasmine Bleeth, Carmen Electra, Erika Eleniak, Donna D'Errico, Nicole Eggert, David Chokachi, Gena Lee Nolin, Sebastian Siegel, Jaason Simmons, and Kelly Slater, a pro surfer, among many others. Erin Gray, former star of Silver Spoons and Buck Rogers, was among the cast.

"Baywatch" was most notable—some might say 'notorious'—for most of its female cast members dropping their lifeguard swimsuits for "Playboy". Most of the female stars appeared in "Playboy" at the height of their fame on Baywatch, while Erika Eleniak, Pamela Anderson and Carmen Electra had already appeared before joining the show. Yasmine Bleeth, who played lifeguard Caroline Holden, was at least one "Baywatch" actress who was offered $750,000.00 in 1998 to pose nude, but refused, vowing that she never would.

Main Cast and characters

Baywatch 1989 - 1999

Baywatch Hawaii 1999–2001

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'll Be Ready" 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.

In 2006, remixes of the official "Baywatch" theme, "I'll Be Ready," were released as singles by Naughty Boy and Sunblock. The Naughty Boy version "Phat Beach (I'll Be Ready)" reached #36 on the UK Charts, while Sunblock's version "I'll Be Ready" entered the UK charts at #4 a week later.

Also a highly popular version of "I'm Always Here," by Andrew Spencer feat. Pit Bailay was released in 2005/2006.

An instrumental version of the song appears in the episode "Battles" of the UK television programme "Spaced".

Episodes

Theatrical release

In 2004, DreamWorks announced they had bought the rights to create a new theatrical "Baywatch" movie. [ [http://movies.about.com/od/moviesinproduction/a/baywatch111004.htm "Baywatch" Swims Into Theaters] ] Jessica Simpson was officially cast as C.J. Parker. [ [http://www.hollywood.com/news/detail/id/3488962 Simpson Lands Anderson ‘Baywatch’ Movie Role] ] 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. [ [http://www.fhm.com.au FHM Magazine Online - Mens Magazine ] ]

Movie cameos

* Pamela Anderson [ [http://www.hollywood.com/news/detail/id/3479342 Anderson to Make Cameo in ‘Baywatch’ Movie] ]

DVD releases

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 & 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.

The first three seasons have since been released on DVD by First Look Studios. Seasons 2 and 3 were released on October 31 2006. Each set features a Disc with Season 1 episodes on it. Fans will need to purchase Seasons 2-7 to complete Season 1, then they will be able to send away to First Look for a box to hold the 6 discs. These releases do not contain the original theme song they have been removed due to copyright agreements. [ [http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/shownews.cfm?ShowID=857 News for Baywatch] ] On February 11 2007 Ashleigh Evan was named The Official Baywatch DVD Babe by voters at [http://www.baywatchondvd.com www.BaywatchOnDVD.com] .

Australia: Seasons 1-4 have been released in collector's edition boxsets.

Germany: Seasons 1 to 11 have been released. These releases are presented exactly as they originally aired, albeit with German language credits.

Sweden: Seasons 1-3 have been released.

Italy: Seasons 1, 5 and 6 have been released by Sony pictures HE.

ee also

* (Baywatch movie)
* (Baywatch movie)
*Baywatch Nights (Baywatch spin-off)
*Son of the Beach (Baywatch parody). A satirical term sometimes used in connection with the series is "Babewatch", taken up by Mad Magazine, commentators [ ] , as well as a series of adult films with crossover characters which ran up between 1994-1999 to become a tridecology.

References

External links

* [http://www.baywatch.com Baywatch Official Site]
* [http://buzz-star.com/baywatch/ Baywatch TV | The Ultimate source]
*imdb title|id=0096542|title=Baywatch
*Tv.com show|id=115|title=Baywatch
* [http://lacitylifeguards.pyroinnovations.com The Official Los Angeles City Lifeguard Website]