Baywatch

Baywatch, television's most-famous "jiggle series" and by some counts the most-watched show around the world, did more for slow-motion beach joggers than anything since Chariots of Fire--just replace the British Olympic athletes with young women in high-cut red swimsuits who look like Playboy models. The premise of Baywatch is straightforward: a Los Angeles-based team of lifeguards saves swimmers and occasionally fights crime, led by beefcake Mitch Buchannon (David Hasselhoff). And those Playboy models? Erika Eleniak turned a 1989 magazine spread into a role as lifeguard Shauni McClain for two-plus seasons alongside Billy Warlock's Eddie Kramer character (the actors themselves had a brief engagement), and most of the season's action revolved around the lives and loves of Mitch, Shauni, and Eddie. (The most famous Baywatch babe, Pamela Anderson, would arrive the following season.) When they weren't saving people on the beach, they were involved in movie shoots ("Money, Honey"), gang wars ("Point of Attack"), homeless girls ("Sandcastles") and stray pets ("Thin or Die"), a serious charge against Eddie ("The Trophy"), a Gilligan's Island hallucination ("Now, Sit Right Back and You'll Hear a Tale"), and chemical dumping ("The Big Spill"). Hasselhoff's real-life wife, Pamela Bach, appears in a recurring role as reporter Kaye Morgan, Wendie Malick (Just Shoot Me, Dream On) has a small role as Mitch's ex-wife, Gayle, and Tom McTigue plays lifeguard Harvey Miller.

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.

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

For starters,I liked the first "Baywatch" series when it premiered on NBC-TV from 1989-1991,and from there when straight into syndication for the next 10 years(1991-2001)and this where the show ended up on one of TV Guide's 10 worst TV shows of all time,and here's why..........

1. You have superstud David Hasselhoff(whom I liked as Michael on "Knight Rider"),and others plastic silicons which killed the series which spun off two installments("Baywatch Nights" and "Baywatch Hawaii") under the production standards of Mr. Hasselhoff himself(whom serves as executive producer of the both spin offs as well as this series).

2. ONLY on Baywatch could oceans filled with inept swimmers be watched over by lifeguards who ran in slow motion(and swam out to save them on the same formational shot).

3. Not only it was an action packed show,but this sea-foam saga of a part soap opera of one-dimensional personalities with multidimensional bodies was,for a while,the world's most popular show(not in my book it ain't)which says more about the world than most of us care to know.

4. The show made Hasselhoff an international status(which he rocketed "Baywatch" to the number #1 most watched show in several countries due to huge ratings overseas---but did you know its biggest audience was in Germany and Sweden?)and made stars of Yasmine Bleeth, Gena Lee Nolin,Erika Elenak,Alexandria Paul,Anna Smith(yes,Anna Nicole Smith)and the Queen of Junk TV,Pamela Anderson-Lee who acted as a human floation device during some of the episodes.

For one,producers are trying their best to bring this back too...WHY? The most recent was bringing it to the big screen as well and also a made for TV-Movie. LETS HOPE THEY DON'T!

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.