“Baywatch”: no sonnets, but great bodies

David Chokachi summed up his duties with admirable accuracy.
“We weren’t … doing Shakespeare.” he said. “We were doing ‘Baywatch.’”
Yes, there’s a difference, “Baywatch” (shown here) had no sonnets or soliloquies, but lots of running, rescuing and red swimwear.
Sometimes, that’s enough. “It succeeded beyond everybody’s expectation,” Chokachi told the Television Critics Association. “A billion viewers – we’re in the Guinness Book of World Records.”
It also influenced people’s decisions – geographic, vocational and more. Just ask Matthew Felker, who directed “After Baywatch,” a documentary arriving Aug. 27 on Hulu.
Felker was “inspired to be an actual lifeguard because of the show” and was “inspired to move to California at some point in my early 20s because of it.”
He produced a few minor films, then happened to chat with Nicole Eggert, who had been pushing for a show involving some of her fellow “Baywatch” actresses. “It just kept ending up being a reality” show, she recalls. “It just wasn’t a good fit. He said, ‘What if it’s a documentary?’ I loved the idea.”
With Eggert as producer, Felker interviewed 37 actors or producers. He also watched their home movies and (while exercising) saw all 242 episodes. He decided the show was ideal … for its time.
In the late ‘80s “we didn’t expect as much from TV,” Felker said. We weren’t looking for a “Sopranos” or “Succession”; TV sometimes had what we now get from “the visual feed of beautiful people on Instagram and TikTok.”
It delivered blue skies, bright beaches, beautiful bodies. “It was escapism and it was fantasy,” Felker said. “I think that’s why it translated in Europe.”
And beyond. Chokachi was in a small town in Chile when a customs officer glanced at his name and said “Baywatch.” He even met a woman who described watching the show “in this really remote town in Siberia.”
And alongside its surface beauty, “Baywatch” had at least a smidgen of substance. This was a show about saving lifeguards, supervised by some people who knew how to save lives.
Gregory Bonann overcame a sickly childhood to become a star swimmer and a Los Angeles lifeguard. After he rescued some children from a riptide, he mentioned his idea for a TV series to their dad – a Hollywood producer who took it to his boss, producer Grant Tinker, who hired DavidHasselhoff to star.
Even after co-creating “Baywatch,” Bonann continued his day job. Now 72, he’s he’s been a lifeguard for 54 years; at Zuma Beach, he trains junior lifeguards … including Chokachi’s daughter.
But what about the actors? Would they really be helpful in the water?
Some of them. Alexandra Paul ran the Boston Marathon, did the Hawaii Ironman, did organized swims of 11 miles in Fiji, 12.5 in Key West, 14 in Acapulco. Some of her “Baywatch” colleagues included Bill Warlock (a former All-City swimmer in Los Angeles), Chokachi and Jeremy Jackson, who said he grew up “surfing, boogie-boarding, body-surfing, a kid from Newport Beach.”
At the opposite extreme was Erika Eleniak: “I was a terrible swimmer …. I was not very confident in the water and completely shark-phobic.”
But she also was one of the show’s stars, fresh from a Playboy pictorial and a “Charles in Charge” role. Eventually, she said, it was “in my contract that I was only going to go in up to my knees.”
Carmen Electra managed to go a little deeper. “She didn’t like to be in water over her head,” Chokachi said. “She would have three water-safety guys surrounding her.”
But she brought star power – an album (produced by Prince), a Playboy pictorial and a job hosting MTV’s “Singled Out” – plus enthusiasm.
“We had a make-out scene and I didn’t realize you don’t have to kiss,” Electra said. “And I went in. I just tongued him down.”
Chokachi was the surprised recipient. “I didn’t complain,” he said. “I was like, ‘I think we need 10 more takes.’”
Such stories might make it sound like “Baywatch” wasn’t into gender equality. But the stars insist this was the rare show with strong heroines.
“Alexandra and I used to fight over who had more rescues,” Chokachi said. “The females on the show were dominating as much as the men, in terms of performances and rescues.”
And gradually, the show nudged slightly toward diversity.
“It was considered an all-white show – beautiful women running up and down the beach,” Traci Bingham recalled. Slowly, producers realized “everyone goes to the beach.” She became the show’s first Black co-star; Jose Solano became the first Latino.
But they didn’t arrive until the seventh season. “Baywatch” almost vanished after its first one.
Tinker had had two huge successes – with his MTM company (ranging from the Mary Tyler Moore and Bob Newhart comedies to “Hill Street Blues”) and as head of NBC (taking the network from last to first).
But when he started his new company, everything sputtered except “Baywatch” … and that required deficit financing, in hopes of making a profit later via reruns. Tinker’s company folded.
“We were the highest-rated show in seven seasons that (NBC) had at Friday night at 8,” Warlock said. “We just didn’t have the money.”
Others, however, spotted the show’s quick popularity overseas. They hooked up with another company to skip the networks; instead, “Baywatch” was sold to individual stations in the U.S. and to other countries, where it thrived.
“Overseas, no one tried to distance themselves or be embarrassed about watching the show,” Paul said.
Reruns continue on Amazon Prime, Peacock and various ad-supported streamers – Roku, Tubi, Sling, Plex, CW Seed. And the show’s stars?
Some stayed in the spotlight. Electra had a nine-day marriage to basketball star Dennis Rodman and a three-year one to rock star Dave Navarro. “I’m going to always be a wild child,” she said.
Some were more honespun When her daughter wanted a summer job, Eggert got a 40-foot food truck, suitable for parties and festivals. “She had the summer of her life.”
But the “Baywatch” image persists, Eggert said. People saw “me at 19 in my red swimsuit and then me at 52 in the market. It’s like, ‘What happened?’
“And so it’s like, ‘Let’s talk about what happened’” during and after “Baywatch.”