Los guardianes de la bahía

a series like an endless holiday. hot bodies, drawing of acting, few slices of crime, brave men, attractive women, family dramas and drops of humor. lifeguards life "ad usum delphini". so, a form of entertainment. or delight. it is not easy to define Baywatch. because, season by season, it becomes more complex and the presence of David Hasselhoff as central axis of stories becomes credible. so, a nice series, first for the music, then for the running in the waves, and not the last, for the useful manner to save appearances for a beautiful longevity. Baywatch is the right mixture of soft adventure and eroticism who could define the entertainment of the "80's. and, decade by decade, this remains a virtue.

In 1989 are TV screens were graced with a show about beautiful lifeguards patrolling a California beach, so the theme of the show was reasonable and most of the actors were also acceptable. In 1989 we saw the first lifeguards (of many) to grace the Baywatch shores, Shauni McClain (Erika Eleniak), Eddie Kramer (Billy Warlock), Jill Riley (Shawn Weatherly) a few others which never lasted and of course Mitch Buchannon (David Hasselhoff). Basically the pilot episode is not to be missed it is full of action, excitment and seduction and episodes from Season 1-3 were pretty good.

However Baywatch had alreayd lost three primary characters Shauni, Eddie and Jill all left the show within the first three seasons, although Baywatch did have an epiphany and that was to hire Pamela Anderson (CJ Parker), at the start Pamela's character was brilliant and she carried the show easily along with other newly hired characters Summer Quinn (Nicole Eggert), Matt Brody (David Charvet) and Stephanie Holden (Alexandra Paul) from 92-95 all the characters stayed until Summer and Matt suddenly left Baywatch but luckily Baywatch fans were given relief when Caroline Holden (Yasmine Bleeth) joined the show (clearly the best actress). The show continued to go on well with David trailing behind in every episode along with Hobie (Jeremy Jackson) and Steph's death was brilliant as well, the show was still good in 95 when they hired bad girl Neely Capshaw (Gena Lee Nolin) who corupted everyone on Baywatch lives with her manipulation and seduction.

In 96 a big error was made Pamela and Yasmine's contracts were up and both girls wanted to do something else, I think Pamela's head did become a bit big during the end as Yasmine did guest appear in many episodes before finally being wrote out of the show unlike Pamela. The show hired 7 new actresses/lifeguards to fill the void left by both Donna Martin (Donna D'errico), Jordan (Traci Bingham), Samantha Thomas (Nancy Valen), April Giminski (Kelly Packard), Lani McKenzie (Carmen Electra), Taylor Walsh (Angelica Bridges) and Skylar Bergman (Marilece Andrada) were all hired to try and fill the void and granted most of them were reasonably good actresses however they only last a year on the show before all apart from April leaving Baywatch.

When they all did in 98, in 99 the show once again suffered a blow when Gena Lee also left and they brought it Jesse Owens (Brooke Burns) and Alex Ryker (Mitzi Kapture), Mitzi was brilliant and really helped the show but not enough as they relocated to Baywatch Hawaii and she got out while she could. Baywatch Hawaii ran for two seasons with a few good actors and actresses including Krista Allen, Brande Roderick and a few others but finally folded.

BEST ACTRESSES: YASMINE BLEETH, MITZI KAPTURE, GENA LEE NOLIN BEST ACTORS: NONE THEY WERE ALL CRAP

This was one show that was basically just on so you could watch hot girls run down the beach. The plots of the episodes were inconsequential, and for the most part who cared? If you tuned in, you wanted to see the gals running down the beach...if you watched it for the story you basically were going to be disappointed as the episodes stories for the most part were awful. Of course, it is amazing that it stayed on the air for as long as it did, but that was more thanks to the shows popularity over in Europe where David Hasslehoff is extremely popular for reasons unknown. Not that he is a terribly bad actor, but they like him more for his singing ability...which is terrible. All in all it isn't a show to take to seriously, in fact it is a show you can watch five minutes of and then flip to something else and maybe flip back to it to see if they are running down the beach in slow motion

The reason people watch Baywatch is because of the amount of human flesh on show. Red-blooded males such as myself tuned in back in 1989 to see women in bikini's and I am sure there were probably many females who adored David Hasselhoff.

However, to be fair, Baywatch did have some great stories once you got past the flesh on show. David Hasselhoff did a good job as Mitch Buchanan who was an interesting character. There were some very competent actors and actresses throughout the show.

There's not really much scope for stories about lifeguards. How many stories can you have around lifeguards saving a person from drowning? Not many. Baywatch also focused on the characters private lives and at times, Mitch Buchanan found himself in battle with the usual bad guys.

Baywatch was a decent show. There's no denying what the appeal to the show is but in the interests of fairness, it really did have good stories at times.

I know that so many people says that Baywatch was the worst TV series of all, but everybody watched that, some episode at less.

It was pure entertainment, that's all. And it was great to watch that show to have a fun time. Obviously, it could have never been nominated to a Golden Globe, I know, but think about it: it was the most seen TV series all over the world in the 90's. Why? Something was right in Baywatch, wasn't it? Not all seasons were so good, but for me the best were in the mid 90's. Two main reasons: PAMELA ANDERSON and YASMINE BLEETH. They were the stars of the show, never eclipsed by the other babes. Pam was explosive and a femme fatal (is she really retired). Yasmine was glamorous, beautiful and the best actress in the show. She was really talented (hope to see her on screen again after her coke hell).

Of course many other stars were hot: Erika Eleniak, Carmen Electra, Nicole Eggert, David Charvet or David Chokachi. But Pam and Yasmine were the reasons why millions of people all over the world watched Baywatch. In fact, when they both left the show to go on with their careers beyond the beach, many people stopped to see the show. Poor Hasselhoff...

Then, Baywatch Hawaii. I didn't like it. But Jason Brooks, Jason Momoa or Krista Allen were so hot.

Finally, an unforgettable show, whatever you like or not. Baywatch was a world-wide phenomenon. And I hope to see Pam and Yasmine making cameos in the Dreamworks' Baywatch movie on 2006.