After Baywatch: Moment in the Sun (2024) s01e01 Episode Script
Origin Story
1
♪
Action.
Baywatch is a fantasy.
Timeless.
Iconic.
Just gonna let it
all hang out now.
Everyone tuned in
to watch the show
because you knew you were
gonna see someone sexy.
They had to wear
next to nothing.
And it was hot.
♪
It was a wild time.
And I was a wild chick.
You guys are great.
That's wonderful. OK?
1.2 billion people weekly.
That was the highest volume
of viewers of any show
ever in the history
of television.
Baywatch!
I'll be there ♪
The whole country
wanted to see sex,
but the whole country
didn't want to admit
that they wanted to see it.
I would
basically try and find
a little towel or a jacket
and hide under it
and do
a little personal fluffing.
You know,
we took a lot of crap
for those bathing suits,
running in slow-motion,
but everybody watched.
Everybody on the show
had to be beautiful.
I mean, everybody was pretty.
Jason Momoa exploded
off of Baywatch.
Carmen was a bombshell
who had something to say.
Pamela Anderson was an icon.
I'm really proud
of everything I've done.
Almost.
Baywatch was a whirlwind
of epic highs and bitter lows.
I would never talk
about my personal life.
You could be fired
for being gay.
I found out
that the NAACP had
come down on Baywatch
because there weren't
any people of color.
I need to take a break. OK?
Greed, lust, fame.
Iconic.
It's crazy.
I'm a Baywatch bitch,
and I love it.
Cut. Print.
Let's go.
♪
We've all been in so many,
you know, documentaries.
It's always the same stories
over and over and over again.
Oh, you were beautiful
and, you know, running around
in a bathing suit,
and you were
on the number one show
in the world,
and your life must be great.
And there was just
a lot of that
and no real truth
to people's journeys.
I feel like
I'm, like, in a circus act,
but I don't know how to juggle.
And justit was time
for everything,
for the covers
to just be pulled back,
and really get
to know everybody
and let people shine
for who they are.
And I feel like
a lot of people on that show
were deprived of that.
This is Jeremy Jackson.
You can't get any better than
the set of Baywatch Hawaii.
For me, personally,
I feel like
I had my moment,
you know, in the sun,
so to speak.
Baywatch. Moment in the sun.
It's kind of like
a relationship, right?
Somebody that
you're in love with
and it's over.
And what do you do?
You know, do you just
keep trying to relive it
or recapture it
or get a new girlfriend
that looks just like
the old one?
You know, it's like,
I'd rather just forget
about it,
but I keep trying to get out
and they just keep
pulling me back in.
It's weird.
And I think,
like, everybody from Baywatch,
in particular, has had this
success story of this journey.
Some are still acting.
And some are not.
And some are very, you know,
successful at other careers
and so happy.
JEREMY: Baywatch didn't start
the way it ended.
It started very different
than the way it went out.
I think it had very honest
and altruistic roots,
you know?
And it definitely became
something very different.
You know, greed
and lust and fame.
And everybody wanted to get
their extra piece of the pie,
you know, so it definitely
contorted and mutated.
Baywatch was
an escape for people.
People love to get away.
When you hear
that theme song
I'll be ready ♪
Oh, I'll be ready ♪
Never you fear ♪
No, don't you fear ♪
I'll be ready ♪
Forever and always ♪
I'm always here ♪
Baywatch represented
the biggest lifeguard
in the world.
No matter what happens,
you can always
turn on Baywatch.
If it's rainy
and cold and terrible,
we're gonna see
a beautiful boat,
a beautiful day,
beautiful women,
semi-good-looking guys.
Everybody believed
what they were watching,
that this was what America was,
especially
the California dream.
The beach was the star.
Venice Beach.
Hot girls,
you know, skating around
or the ocean, the water.
BILLY: Baywatch is shutting
the mind off for a good hour
and looking
at beautiful people.
Nothing wrong with that.
People say it's the DNA.
Well, you're darn right it was.
But it was because also
because this show
was about rescue
and compassion and altruism
and because the writers were
writing about those things.
Greg Bonann was
a LA County lifeguard
in the late '80s.
And he had an idea
to do a TV show
based on lifeguards.
Greg Bonann had
a really specific idea
of what he wanted to do
with it.
He knew the life.
He knew the job.
He knew the environment.
Berk and Schwartz,
who came in to write it,
did a good job
laying that out.
So we go to the beach,
smoke a joint.
We're walking on the beach,
trying to figure out
what we're gonna do,
when we see a lifeguard
coming down the ramp,
running into the ocean,
and another lifeguard
coming up behind him.
All of a sudden, there's
trucks coming down the beach
with its lights and sirens.
There's a boat coming in.
And we're looking at each other
and we're going,
it's life and death situations.
How come no one ever
thought of this idea before?
We went in and said,
look, let us do a sizzle reel.
Let us just shoot something.
We figured we could edit
a music montage
to Don Henley's
"Boys of Summer."
I can tell you ♪
My love for you
will still be strong ♪
After the boys of ♪
Summer have gone ♪
♪
We cut together this thing
and showed it to Grant Tinker,
superstar of television,
Mary Tyler Moore's husband,
president of NBC.
Now, he was starting
his own studio.
He made a call
to Brandon Tartikoff,
who ran NBC,
and said, look, you have
to take a look at this.
And he said, I see it.
I get
what you're trying to do.
It's beautiful.
I don't think
there's a series there.
I don't think
you can tell enough stories,
but I know you guys do
successful TV movies.
Write me a movie, Baywatch.
Add the words "panic"
to the title,
add "Malibu" to the title.
So we go off and we write
a script called
Baywatch:
Panic at Malibu Pier.
No panic, no pier,
but that was the title
because Brandon wanted that.
♪
So we write this script,
bring in all these actors
to audition.
Hasselhoff was
one of the actors
that came in to audition.
David was on a soap.
He's on The Young
and the Restless.
His first singing debut was on
The Merv Griffin Show in '77.
He sang The Young
and the Restless theme song.
Bright, shiny days ♪
Gone in a young ♪
And restless haze ♪
David Hasselhoff was
in a class of his own.
You know, he was Knight Rider.
Knight Rider was huge.
Like, who didn't love
that show?
Arm your oil jets.
Ready and waiting, Michael.
Just the thing
for the slick guy.
I got a lot of flak for doing
a show about a talking car.
I found out later that
Knight Rider had great ratings
and we were,
like, canceled because
it wasn't "cool" to NBC.
David had done so much TV.
He was a TV sensation,
like, full-blown famous
Hollywood actor,
you know what I mean?
And so we met David.
He was very impressive.
6'5". He comes in.
And I remember him
kind of playing down the show
and, "I don't know,
I'm not sure."
I was living the life
of a rock star in Germany
because I had
a top ten single.
It was number one
for eight weeks
called "Looking for Freedom."
I've been looking
for freedom ♪
I've been looking so long ♪
I told Grant Tinker,
why would I want
to do Baywatch?
They showed me
the sizzle reel.
And I went, oh, man.
So I talked to my manager.
She said, "What do you think?"
And I said, "I told him no,
but don't let it get away.
It's gonna be a monster hit."
And ultimately, he became
the star of the show.
And it was the right choice,
because David really was
the centerpiece of the show.
It's either, like,
go for the money
or go for the class.
I went for the money because
I knew it would be a hit.
And I thought
that it would be such a big hit
that I could use that
to parlay into something cool,
something "cooler."
We wrote it.
We produced it.
It became NBC's highest rated
movie of the year.
So we did 22 episodes for NBC.
We got Parker Stevenson.
I did a series
called The Hardy Boys
that ran a couple years
that did well.
And Baywatch came along.
And I had done a movie called
Lifeguard with Sam Elliott.
And when I walked
into the first meeting,
the producer said,
"God, you look like you could
be a lifeguard on the beach."
And I knew
they'd seen Lifeguard, so
but I'm actually
a New York kid.
We cast Billy Warlock
as Eddie
in the first year on NBC.
I had just left
Days of Our Lives
where I'd won an Emmy.
I don't have a darn thing
planned to say.
I didn't expect this, I swear.
Back then, there was a lot
of synergy with the networks.
So if youespecially
in the daytime world.
If you were on a soap,
you always got
a movie of the week.
That was part of your deal.
It was probably
the easiest process
in getting a job
that I ever had in my career.
My agent called me and said,
"They want you to come to LA
and do this beach show,
Baywatch."
Baywatch?
With David Hasselhoff,
the Knight Rider?
I mean, I was an actor.
I wanted my entrée
into Hollywood to be something
profound and important.
Right?
So, you know
but I gotta go do
this beach show, right?
I had no idea how much fun
I was gonna have.
There was so many
amazing athletic people
that were really, really good
in the water.
Amazing people.
It wasn't just
about the sexuality.
That was just highlighted.
♪
♪
We cast Erika Eleniak
as the beautiful blonde.
Like, if you're
a teenage boy, you're like
that's why she was perfect
for this show.
I was super insecure,
I mean, as a kid.
I'd have to say, you know,
no regrets in life,
but, honestly, if I had one,
my biggest regret would be
to be so fearful all the time,
because when you live your life
in fear,
you make decisions
based on that fear.
So I'm the girl
not on the dance floor,
afraid to look stupid.
I'm the girl sitting
on a bench not playing.
I had already been acting
since I was ten years old.
And I had a foot in the door.
I got to do this part in ET.
And that was pretty cool.
And basically, I just acted
a couple jobs a year
until high school.
And that's when
I hit the ground running
and I did Baywatch.
I hang out there.
I know the beach, and I know
all the inshore holes.
My friends are expecting me.
Billy and Erika,
in that first cast,
just popped
in the first readings.
I want to do
something for you.
What?
It's a new technique
in mouth-to-mouth.
Oh, really?
We had
a really fun relationship,
platonically flirtatious,
if you will,
but just great chemistry.
And it was a really
interesting situation
because Shauni and Eddie's
characters in real life
had gotten together.
We both were in
other relationships
in the first season on NBC.
She had a boyfriend.
I had a girlfriend.
It was a long, arduous season,
a lot of work,
a lot of time together,
a lot of time on the set.
And things just
kind of snowballed
into a lovely relationship.
It just really exploded,
I suppose.
And we started going out.
The thing that was
interesting about Erika was,
Erika had
just raw, innate ability.
She just was good.
So which headquarters
did you get?
- Baywatch.
-You did?
Oh, so did I.
I was so scared
You know, some people
have to be taught.
Some people have to learn.
She just was.
It just was natural for her.
So when you look as good
as she did
and you have talent,
you're gonna do all right.
I wasn't a water baby,
more of a lay-in-the-sun baby.
So that was not
without challenge, definitely.
I'm just gonna let it
all hang out now.
I know, right?
Shark-phobic.
Not a strong swimmer.
Erika Eleniak came in.
NBC said no.
She was in Playboy.
I did not need to do Playboy.
In fact,
I knew even at that age
that it would create
obstacles for me.
But I think at that age,
you feel invincible.
If a girl did Playboy,
they weren't gonna be
in an ad for something else.
They weren't gonna be
in a commercial or a film.
You do Playboy
as a celebrity,
it's steak tartare.
When you do it
as a flavor of the month,
it's nasty raw meat.
Right?
The bottom line is,
it's a hypocrisy.
When they found out
that Erika did Playboy,
the creators and producers
fought to keep her.
Hefner was
really appreciative.
And we got invited up there.
I began going to the mansion.
In the 1990s, Playboy becomes
a key feeder for Baywatch.
♪
A lot of girls
that made it onto the show
started with Playboy.
I had been asked
to do Playboy
I think the day that I walked
on Baywatch.
I had a cover of Playboy
after I was on Baywatch.
When I booked Baywatch,
I remember
Greg Bonann and the producer
saying to me,
"Did you get a call
for Playboy?
Are you gonna pose
for Playboy?"
And I said,
"Well, actually, yeah, I did."
Traci Bingham ended up being
the host
of Playboy's Babes of Baywatch.
Baywatch and Playboy
have two things in common.
Each has achieved
international success,
and each has introduced you
to the world's
most beautiful women.
Suddenly,
everybody was shooting Playboy.
It was so cool
to get in Playboy.
And all of a sudden, it pushed
you to another level.
Because you did Playboy,
you got even more TV shows
where, in the past,
you would lose your career.
Everybody on the show
had to be beautiful.
I mean, everybody was pretty.
You had to be pretty
to be on the show,
or you weren't gonna be
on the show.
I remember
a lot of people saying,
"Oh, I watch it
with the sound off."
And to be honest
Those montage scenes
were the best
because they would
highlight you
in the sexiest way
and everyone looked amazing.
It was like shooting
this music video.
Anything that went
wrong got better right away.
You know, there was never
so much tragedy.
It was always a happy ending
and a happy story.
The show was
really an innocent show,
if you look at the storylines.
Prettypretty idealistic,
even corny, I would say.
How can you marry someone
when you're in love
with someone else?
It wasn't, like, "cool,"
but everybody watched.
Anybody who's someone
watched Baywatch.
♪
I think the boys,
they saw an avenue,
what was working.
And it had to do with
beautiful people and the beach
because that's where
the money was.
♪
But after one year,
it was canceled.
So the show was
canceled on NBC.
And they really believed in it,
and they really wanted
to bring it back.
And syndication was
something newer on the scene.
Greg went back
to lifeguarding.
Hasselhoff went back
to touring.
Got a phone call one day
from a guy
who ran a distribution company
called Freemantle,
and he was distributing
Baywatch in foreign.
Baywatch.
And it was doing really well.
The rights
still belonged to Grant Tinker
and GTG Studios.
So Michael and I went
to see Grant Tinker,
and we offered him $10
for one year
to see if we can take the show
to syndication.
And if we can,
we would pay him a royalty.
And so Grant Tinker sold us
the rights to Baywatch for $10.
I got a call from one
of the producers that said,
"We think we can do the show
with a foreign financing,
but we have to do it with you."
And I went, "Bling!"
Luck is being prepared
for opportunity
when it presents itself.
And there have been times
when I have blown it.
I have blown my opportunity.
And there have been times
when I've said,
yes, yes, yes, I'm ready.
I walked off going,
I'm gonna get this.
And I got it.
And action.
I just do
what's in front of me, man.
I throw up a bunch of balls,
and I make it work.
Make it work.
You got to make it work.
Action.
And then Baywatch came along.
And I knewI knew what to do.
I knew how to change Baywatch.
DIRECTOR: OK.
David Hasselhoff is no doubt
one of the most recognizable
names in the world.
You know, he taught me
a lot of great things.
He showed me how to be
a hustler, for sure.
I mean, that guy's a hustler.
David Hasselhoff was
a huge TV star at the time.
I didn't understand
that he was a musician
and had this whole pull
overseas.
Hasselhoff was, like,
a chart-topping artist.
The love of David Hasselhoff,
it goes deep.
In some countries,
he ishe's God.
And it's crazy.
♪
Without my performance
on the Berlin Wall,
without "Looking for Freedom,"
there'd be no Baywatch.
It was the number one
song in Germany at the time.
The Berlin Wall came down.
And that was a really big deal.
And David Hasselhoff,
he was like
the face of it, almost.
The phone rang.
And they said, "Would you like
to sing on the Berlin Wall?"
And I said,
"That'll never happen."
They called me back
and they said,
we have to get Helmut Kohl
and we have to get Honecker,
two prime ministers of East
and West Germany, to agree.
They agreed.
They called me back and said,
"How about we put you
in a crane,
"like a cherry picker,
above the people
of East and West Germany?"
And I went, oh, my God.
So I thought,
hey, I'll get the jacket.
That way,
everyone will see me.
And so I performed in 1989,
the first American to perform
on the free Berlin Wall.
I've been looking
for freedom ♪
I've been looking so long ♪
I've been looking
for freedom ♪
Still the search goes on ♪
The Hoff branded it.
I mean, that
I'm telling you, man,
he's a genius
when it comes to, "Hey, look,
what's going on over here."
In all of Europe,
it was really blowing up.
So I talked to the Germans,
the foreign distribution.
And they said to me,
quote unquote,
"Do you have
more Knight Riders?"
I said, no,
no more Knight Rider.
I said, well, I have
a new show called Baywatch.
"Is there a car?"
I said, no, there's not a car.
"But you're in it?
You're in it?"
I said, yes.
"OK, we buy it."
So we had a big chunk of money.
♪
We were out there doing a show
that entertained
1 billion people,
which is fucking amazing.
Dave is the one that really
popped up from the show.
He became the center,
the anchor for the show
the whole time.
He embodied
the American dream.
I mean, I have German friends
that literally moved
to California
because of Baywatch
and because
of David Hasselhoff.
And they will tell you that.
We were delivering
a kind of a message
that was wholesomeness,
you know, for the family,
like Hasselhoff
and his son, you know,
and their relationship.
Sometimes we get lucky.
It wasn't luck, dad.
It was you.
You know, Jeremy Jackson.
I mean, Jeremy Jackson was
he was hired
because he was real,
because he made me cry.
Jeremy Jackson played
David Hasselhoff's son
on the show.
And he starts
as a very, very young kid.
He's probably about
seven or eight years old.
And we watch him
actually grow up on screen.
When I was a kid,
I wanted to be famous.
So I became totally obsessed
with performance.
I would come out
in the living room
and I would put on
a ballet show
or dress up as a cowboy.
Elvis Presley
and Michael Jackson
were kind of like my idols.
And I would watch them.
I would study them.
Jeremy's very exuberant
and vulnerable
and has the best heart
of anyone you could ever meet.
Oh, my poor mother.
She's a single mom.
She went to community college
because she had to take
community college classes
in order to keep getting
food stamps
and low income housing.
She had to do that
as a single parent.
And there was a number
on the board, and it said,
you know, child agent.
And she was like,
"Well, he sure is a ham.
You know, I guess I'll try."
We didn't know anything about
the entertainment industry.
And we called,
and, like, "Come on down."
And here I am.
And, you know,
Mr. People Pleaser.
He loved auditioning.
If that's all he ever got
to do was do the auditions
where the people say,
"Well, you did great,
thank you very much,"
that would have been fine.
We just started and,
wow, now we're making money.
And now we're like a team.
And this is cool.
And it was intense,
but it was like
her and I against the world.
So when Jeremy first
auditioned for Baywatch,
he had been doing commercials
for, like, five years.
And his agent said
they were looking
for pretty much exactly
they just described him to a T.
The Hobie character
is really interesting to me
because Hobie
and the relationship
was based after me and my son.
I was a single father
to, like, a kid
going through puberty.
So we decided to give
Hasselhoff's character,
Mitch, a son.
I think they had
looked at every kid
from, like, starting
at 14 years old
and went younger,
younger, younger
till they got to his age.
We were supposed
to go on a trip,
and then I said,
"Well, we can go,
but Knight Rider might be
at this audition."
And he thought about it
for two seconds
and he said, "OK, let's go
in case I can meet
the Knight Rider."
David Hasselhoff was, like,
my hero watching Knight Rider
since I was a little kid.
We were in the audition room,
and Hasselhoff walked in.
And then he looked over
and then it was like
this lightning bolt
went through just like that.
You just saw it in the air.
It was immediate.
And so I said,
"From a single family, huh?"
He goes, "Yeah."
And then Jeremy said to me
hope he's not mad about this
"I don't need a dad."
And that got me.
Like a
At that moment
When he said,
"I don't need a dad,"
it was so honest
that that's the moment
that he got, for me, the part.
And I fought for him.
There was a very extensive
audition process.
I think I auditioned
four times.
You know, it was
stiff competition for sure.
One of the actors
that came in
that we liked so much
was a 12-year-old
Leonardo DiCaprio.
So we had Leonardo DiCaprio
or Jeremy Jackson,
who was eight.
I remember it was down
to me and somebody else.
And I said,
"No, no, no, take the kid.
Take him."
When I got Baywatch,
you know,
I got to have
David Hasselhoff as my dad,
which was, like, my hero
since I was a little kid.
So this is my original
Knight Rider lunch pail.
I actually really had this
and used this.
And these are, like,
some Knight Rider stickers
that I had
before I got Baywatch,
when I idolized Knight Rider.
I learned
from his experience.
And he learned from mine.
So it was really kind of like
a father-son relationship.
Here's a note David gave me
on my 14th birthday.
"Dear Jeremy,
you're the son I never had.
"I know you need a CD.
I know you need a computer.
"I know you need a few things.
"I just don't know
what to get you.
So please, use this check
for whatever you want."
I think he gave me, like,
a $1,000 check or something.
For a 14-year-old,
that's kind of a big deal.
♪
♪
MATTHEW: Baywatch wanted
to show the world
what California
surf culture was.
♪
When you're actually
on the wave riding it,
there is no past
and there is no future.
Surf culture is just
it's so important
to California.
It's what California
has been built on.
And there was this young,
really good-looking kid
coming up who was
the best surfer in the world.
Kelly Slater was the hottest
surfer in the world,
was not an actor.
I remember when Kelly came
into the show, Kelly Slater.
And that was just
really interesting
because he was so revered,
especially in all the cast
and crew
that were surfing every day.
I won my first world title
the first year I did Baywatch.
♪
I had a manager who really
wanted me to be an actor.
And he said, "I got this
casting for you to go to."
And I did a reading.
And I felt like
I did a terrible job.
And then they loved me.
You know,
I wasn't trying to go
the acting route in my life.
At that point,
I was really trying to be
world champion in surfing.
He brought a little
bit of legitimacy to Baywatch.
And I feel he hated that
because, behind his back,
the surf world was
sort of laughing at him like,
"Thisdude, you're on
this corny-ass show."
I just felt like
the writing was so nonsensical
in so many ways.
We were shooting this scene
where this cave is
known to collect surfboards.
And no one can understand
why they can never
find a surfboard in there.
When we go in, we realize that
there's an octopus
that's stealing the surfboards
and holding them
basically hostage.
Hold your breath
for 20 seconds.
One, two
It's pretty wild
looking back
that I got the chance
to be on that show.
I remember getting out
of there and thinking,
I hope the show just gets
bigger and bigger and bigger
and I'm forgotten about.
In the end,
I don't think it hurt him.
I think he didn't like it.
But the experience
on Baywatch really helped him
become the international
megastar that he is,
you know, on top of being
the best surfer
that ever lived.
We're rolling, and action.
The show,
it really wasn't good,
but we made it good.
We made it good
because we had passion.
We really tried hard.
When we went to work,
it was really fun.
It was like we were laughing
all the way to the water,
laughing
we were laughing
about everything.
Cut. Print.
Let's go.
Well, when I started the show,
it was, you know,
just coming back
from being canceled
off of a network.
And they were trying
this new syndicated,
you know, production.
The Baywatch budget
was so much smaller
than all the other shows
that were shooting at the time.
Hair, makeup, nails,
publicity, I mean promotion,
we did everything ourselves.
We did everything.
We were able to take the show,
which was 1.2 million
on the network,
and make it for 850.
We had budget restrictions.
And so we wrote short scripts.
And if the show came in
too short,
we would do a montage.
I think that's where
slow-motion came into play
because we were,
like, two minutes short.
It made everything
look so glamorous.
Nonstop tits and ass
running in slow-motion
on the beach.
And, you know,
it was hot.
Let's enjoy this moment.
This is beautiful.
And I said, run that again.
And then it became a thing.
You go to the beach
and you have your drunk friends
like, "I'm gonna do
the Baywatch run!"
You see them going
I still run
in slow-motion for people.
It's become
this worldwide thing.
Carmen Electra would
actually show people
how to do the slow-motion run
on shows like Bravo's
Watch What Happens.
You run, and you breathe,
and you kind of
make it serious.
And I'm game. I love it.
And I teach people
how to do it.
There's a technique to it.
It's fun.
We were putting
the show back together,
the cast back together.
Erika and Billy,
they were making
a lot of money on the network,
so they had to take
huge pay cuts to come back.
Back then, what they were
offering everybody
is, like, $3,500 a show.
I mean, Friends,
at that point,
I think they were each making
$1 million an episode.
I actually remember
freaking out
seeing my first paycheck
after the taxes were taken out.
It was like, what?
What just happened?
You know, like,
how am I honestly
gonna live on this money?
Erika and I
were the only two
along with David, of course
we were the only two
that made the transition
from NBC to syndication.
In order for the show to go,
they wanted
they needed to have us.
I was like, all right, great.
I'm in, of course, thinking
that we're going back to do
the original type of Baywatch.
And I'm watching the camera
kind of going up the backside
of a girl's thong.
I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
What are we doing here?
And they were like,
"Uh, it's all good, man.
"We don't have
Big Brother anymore.
"We don't have
standards and practices.
We can do what we want."
For me, that's when
my comfort level went, shoo,
because I was
super focused the first year
on the seriousness of it.
And then the second year,
I feel like necklines plunged.
At the end of the season,
they were both talking
about leaving,
but we weren't getting
any more money.
The show still was on
a shoestring budget,
and we just couldn't afford
to pay them.
There's not one rich actor
on Baywatch, not one.
And that's kind of strange
because the wealth
is always shared
when you're on a hit TV show.
Baywatch made a lot of money,
just not for the actors.
They treated being on Baywatch
like you were
a college athlete.
"Oh, you'll make your money
down the road."
You'll make your money because
you became famous on Baywatch.
BILLY:
Everybody was disposable.
And if you didn't fit
into their brand
at the price they were
paying you, you were gone.
I was more surprised
that they didn't fight for her.
I mean, me, I'm a dude.
You can get 100 more
hard bodies,
especially harder than this.
But
So I left after season two.
Eddie and Shauni got married.
And they went off
to Australia.
And that was it.
And so the distributors
were freaked out.
Our hot young couple is gone.
We said, no, no, no.
We'll find somebody else.
Yeah, what was your big break?
My big break?
Um
We met a woman
through Playboy
Hugh Hefner introduced us to
named Pamela Anderson.
Well, I don't think
you really choose
to be famous.
I mean, I didn't choose it,
so it was just kind of
happening as it unfolded.
I wasn't trying to be
anything, to be famous.
Pamela!
to the left. To the left.
Pamela, to the left.
♪
Everyday reality
has hardships.
Everyday reality
has challenges.
This reality
♪
We definitely
exported the American dream
all across the world.
California is a character.
It's special.
It's like Baywatch
really amplified California
when it was airing
because we showed
the glamour of the beaches.
We showed what the life
would be like here.
We probably caused,
you know, a million people
to move from their small towns
to come to the beach
and have
Pamela Anderson's life
of running down the beach
in slow-motion.
The whole country
wanted to see sex,
but the whole country
didn't want to admit
that they wanted to see it.
And the creators
of Baywatch understood
how powerful it was.
And of course,
Pamela Anderson just
completely glamorized
being on the beach
and being a lifeguard.
Pamela just exploded
at the end of that first year.
I was a huge
Pamela Anderson fan.
Like, I would try to do
my hair like hers.
I tried to do
my makeup like hers.
Like, she was someone
that, like, I was like,
oh, she's so pretty.
I was discovered
in kind of a strange way.
I was in Vancouver.
And I went to a British
Columbia Lions football game
with some friends next door.
They had free tickets.
So they said, Pamela,
do you want to come?
And I said, sure, OK, I'll go.
And I was wearing
a Labatt's Beer T-shirt,
which is a popular beer
in Canada.
And the cameraman
zoomed in on me
and put me up
on where the scoreboard is
in front of, like,
60,000 people.
And there I was.
I had never seen myself
on anything.
And I looked up and I was like,
oh, my God, that's me.
They ended up pulling me down
to the 50-yard line
at halftime, interviewing me.
And they're like,
"What's your name, young lady?"
And I said, Pamela Anderson.
And they said,
"This is Pamela Anderson,
the blue zone girl,"
because I had blue zone
on my shirt too.
I was always inspired
by Pamela.
And I looked up to her.
I think she's awesome.
Like, one of the most
iconic blondes
next to Marilyn Monroe.
When I was growing up,
I think I
I had a great imagination.
My grandparents were very much
into fairy tales, mythology,
and so
I just kind of had this
fantasy kind of little life.
And I knew that I had to move
off the island
to kind of put myself
in a place of opportunity.
Pamela Anderson
had the light.
We saw the light
shining from her eyes,
shining from the smile.
No one has broken
her record of being
on the cover of Playboy
magazine as many times
as she's been on the cover.
I mean, look what
Playboy did for Pam Anderson.
Look what it did.
Those shots are iconic.
I remember standing next
to a bus ad on a bus stop
and someone coming up
to me saying,
"Would you like to pose
for Playboy?"
And I said, absolutely not.
And they asked me
a few more times.
And I finally asked my mother,
and my mother said,
"I would do it."
So she told me to go
and to never come back.
I sent her a picture.
She was like, you have arrived.
You're exactly
where you need to be.
Hefner used to tell me,
"You are the DNA of Playboy.
"You're the reason I made
a magazine like this.
This is about a girl like you."
She was stunning.
You know,
she didn't need anything.
She was a knockout
right then and there.
But most of all,
she had this energy.
It's something
that you can't really define.
It's a vibe.
It's a sense.
It's an aura.
Some people have it.
Pam happened to have it.
And I was just, like,
knocked out by her.
I was supposed
to go to Baywatch auditions
many, many times.
But I thought Marina del Rey
was really far away.
I'm not a very good driver.
And so I never went.
And so I was famous
before I got there
because I never showed up.
And so since she came in,
literally the last person
we had scheduled or anything,
I think it became
a special thing.
And I think that made them
look at her more carefully.
Especially when
we came in and said,
"oh, my God,
you need to hire this girl.
"We can't even believe
she showed up.
You have to hire her
right this second."
So she finally comes in,
and she was just wonderful.
She was bubbly
and she was beautiful
and charismatic and sexy.
And we said, look,
we've got bathing suits.
Do you mind
if you try on a bathing suit?
She said, "Oh, no,
I don't need a bathing suit.
"Look, you guys have seen me
naked in Playboy.
It doesn't matter."
And she starts
getting undressed.
And she's getting undressed
right in front of us.
She has a bathing suit on
under her clothes.
And everybody loves her.
And she leaves.
And we go, this is it.
And Hasselhoff says,
"I don't think so.
"If I'm in a scene with her,
"everybody's gonna be
staring at her tits
"and nobody's gonna watch
my performance.
They'll just be looking
at her."
I was dead against it
because she was on Playboy.
I didn't want
another Playboy girl.
We were already number one.
What do we need another girl
on the show for?
We're number one.
Doug, Greg, and I
said to David,
"David, at this point in time,
"you don't have
creative control.
"You have consultation.
"We'll listen to you
or whatever,
but no, we're gonna cast her."
We caught
more attention because of Pam.
Our ratings went
from 2.33 rating
all the way up to a 10 rating.
So we tripled our ratings.
And we realized that we had
something going here.
People watched her.
We all watched her.
This was a time
where people were obsessed
with Pam and Tommy.
We had several
big-ass speed bumps,
things that weren't really,
you know,
nurturing to the relationship.
I was never really
an ambitious person.
And I didn't strive to be
an actress or to be famous.
This all just seemed
so surreal.
It just seemed like
one thing after another.
No matter where I went,
it just seemed like
that's what I was meant to do.
♪
Some people stand
in the darkness ♪
Afraid to step
into the light ♪
Some people need
to help somebody ♪
The edge of surrender's
in sight ♪
Don't you worry ♪
It's gonna be all right ♪
♪
'Cause I'm always ready ♪
I won't let you
out of my sight ♪
♪
I'll be ready ♪
Oh, I'll be ready ♪
Never you fear ♪
No, don't you fear ♪
I'll be ready ♪
Oh, I'll be ready ♪
Never you fear ♪
Ooh, don't you fear ♪
I'll be ready ♪
Oh, I'll be ready ♪
Never you fear ♪
Oh, don't you fear ♪
I'll be ready ♪
Forever and always ♪
Oh, forever and always ♪
Forever and always ♪
I'm always here ♪
♪
Action.
Baywatch is a fantasy.
Timeless.
Iconic.
Just gonna let it
all hang out now.
Everyone tuned in
to watch the show
because you knew you were
gonna see someone sexy.
They had to wear
next to nothing.
And it was hot.
♪
It was a wild time.
And I was a wild chick.
You guys are great.
That's wonderful. OK?
1.2 billion people weekly.
That was the highest volume
of viewers of any show
ever in the history
of television.
Baywatch!
I'll be there ♪
The whole country
wanted to see sex,
but the whole country
didn't want to admit
that they wanted to see it.
I would
basically try and find
a little towel or a jacket
and hide under it
and do
a little personal fluffing.
You know,
we took a lot of crap
for those bathing suits,
running in slow-motion,
but everybody watched.
Everybody on the show
had to be beautiful.
I mean, everybody was pretty.
Jason Momoa exploded
off of Baywatch.
Carmen was a bombshell
who had something to say.
Pamela Anderson was an icon.
I'm really proud
of everything I've done.
Almost.
Baywatch was a whirlwind
of epic highs and bitter lows.
I would never talk
about my personal life.
You could be fired
for being gay.
I found out
that the NAACP had
come down on Baywatch
because there weren't
any people of color.
I need to take a break. OK?
Greed, lust, fame.
Iconic.
It's crazy.
I'm a Baywatch bitch,
and I love it.
Cut. Print.
Let's go.
♪
We've all been in so many,
you know, documentaries.
It's always the same stories
over and over and over again.
Oh, you were beautiful
and, you know, running around
in a bathing suit,
and you were
on the number one show
in the world,
and your life must be great.
And there was just
a lot of that
and no real truth
to people's journeys.
I feel like
I'm, like, in a circus act,
but I don't know how to juggle.
And justit was time
for everything,
for the covers
to just be pulled back,
and really get
to know everybody
and let people shine
for who they are.
And I feel like
a lot of people on that show
were deprived of that.
This is Jeremy Jackson.
You can't get any better than
the set of Baywatch Hawaii.
For me, personally,
I feel like
I had my moment,
you know, in the sun,
so to speak.
Baywatch. Moment in the sun.
It's kind of like
a relationship, right?
Somebody that
you're in love with
and it's over.
And what do you do?
You know, do you just
keep trying to relive it
or recapture it
or get a new girlfriend
that looks just like
the old one?
You know, it's like,
I'd rather just forget
about it,
but I keep trying to get out
and they just keep
pulling me back in.
It's weird.
And I think,
like, everybody from Baywatch,
in particular, has had this
success story of this journey.
Some are still acting.
And some are not.
And some are very, you know,
successful at other careers
and so happy.
JEREMY: Baywatch didn't start
the way it ended.
It started very different
than the way it went out.
I think it had very honest
and altruistic roots,
you know?
And it definitely became
something very different.
You know, greed
and lust and fame.
And everybody wanted to get
their extra piece of the pie,
you know, so it definitely
contorted and mutated.
Baywatch was
an escape for people.
People love to get away.
When you hear
that theme song
I'll be ready ♪
Oh, I'll be ready ♪
Never you fear ♪
No, don't you fear ♪
I'll be ready ♪
Forever and always ♪
I'm always here ♪
Baywatch represented
the biggest lifeguard
in the world.
No matter what happens,
you can always
turn on Baywatch.
If it's rainy
and cold and terrible,
we're gonna see
a beautiful boat,
a beautiful day,
beautiful women,
semi-good-looking guys.
Everybody believed
what they were watching,
that this was what America was,
especially
the California dream.
The beach was the star.
Venice Beach.
Hot girls,
you know, skating around
or the ocean, the water.
BILLY: Baywatch is shutting
the mind off for a good hour
and looking
at beautiful people.
Nothing wrong with that.
People say it's the DNA.
Well, you're darn right it was.
But it was because also
because this show
was about rescue
and compassion and altruism
and because the writers were
writing about those things.
Greg Bonann was
a LA County lifeguard
in the late '80s.
And he had an idea
to do a TV show
based on lifeguards.
Greg Bonann had
a really specific idea
of what he wanted to do
with it.
He knew the life.
He knew the job.
He knew the environment.
Berk and Schwartz,
who came in to write it,
did a good job
laying that out.
So we go to the beach,
smoke a joint.
We're walking on the beach,
trying to figure out
what we're gonna do,
when we see a lifeguard
coming down the ramp,
running into the ocean,
and another lifeguard
coming up behind him.
All of a sudden, there's
trucks coming down the beach
with its lights and sirens.
There's a boat coming in.
And we're looking at each other
and we're going,
it's life and death situations.
How come no one ever
thought of this idea before?
We went in and said,
look, let us do a sizzle reel.
Let us just shoot something.
We figured we could edit
a music montage
to Don Henley's
"Boys of Summer."
I can tell you ♪
My love for you
will still be strong ♪
After the boys of ♪
Summer have gone ♪
♪
We cut together this thing
and showed it to Grant Tinker,
superstar of television,
Mary Tyler Moore's husband,
president of NBC.
Now, he was starting
his own studio.
He made a call
to Brandon Tartikoff,
who ran NBC,
and said, look, you have
to take a look at this.
And he said, I see it.
I get
what you're trying to do.
It's beautiful.
I don't think
there's a series there.
I don't think
you can tell enough stories,
but I know you guys do
successful TV movies.
Write me a movie, Baywatch.
Add the words "panic"
to the title,
add "Malibu" to the title.
So we go off and we write
a script called
Baywatch:
Panic at Malibu Pier.
No panic, no pier,
but that was the title
because Brandon wanted that.
♪
So we write this script,
bring in all these actors
to audition.
Hasselhoff was
one of the actors
that came in to audition.
David was on a soap.
He's on The Young
and the Restless.
His first singing debut was on
The Merv Griffin Show in '77.
He sang The Young
and the Restless theme song.
Bright, shiny days ♪
Gone in a young ♪
And restless haze ♪
David Hasselhoff was
in a class of his own.
You know, he was Knight Rider.
Knight Rider was huge.
Like, who didn't love
that show?
Arm your oil jets.
Ready and waiting, Michael.
Just the thing
for the slick guy.
I got a lot of flak for doing
a show about a talking car.
I found out later that
Knight Rider had great ratings
and we were,
like, canceled because
it wasn't "cool" to NBC.
David had done so much TV.
He was a TV sensation,
like, full-blown famous
Hollywood actor,
you know what I mean?
And so we met David.
He was very impressive.
6'5". He comes in.
And I remember him
kind of playing down the show
and, "I don't know,
I'm not sure."
I was living the life
of a rock star in Germany
because I had
a top ten single.
It was number one
for eight weeks
called "Looking for Freedom."
I've been looking
for freedom ♪
I've been looking so long ♪
I told Grant Tinker,
why would I want
to do Baywatch?
They showed me
the sizzle reel.
And I went, oh, man.
So I talked to my manager.
She said, "What do you think?"
And I said, "I told him no,
but don't let it get away.
It's gonna be a monster hit."
And ultimately, he became
the star of the show.
And it was the right choice,
because David really was
the centerpiece of the show.
It's either, like,
go for the money
or go for the class.
I went for the money because
I knew it would be a hit.
And I thought
that it would be such a big hit
that I could use that
to parlay into something cool,
something "cooler."
We wrote it.
We produced it.
It became NBC's highest rated
movie of the year.
So we did 22 episodes for NBC.
We got Parker Stevenson.
I did a series
called The Hardy Boys
that ran a couple years
that did well.
And Baywatch came along.
And I had done a movie called
Lifeguard with Sam Elliott.
And when I walked
into the first meeting,
the producer said,
"God, you look like you could
be a lifeguard on the beach."
And I knew
they'd seen Lifeguard, so
but I'm actually
a New York kid.
We cast Billy Warlock
as Eddie
in the first year on NBC.
I had just left
Days of Our Lives
where I'd won an Emmy.
I don't have a darn thing
planned to say.
I didn't expect this, I swear.
Back then, there was a lot
of synergy with the networks.
So if youespecially
in the daytime world.
If you were on a soap,
you always got
a movie of the week.
That was part of your deal.
It was probably
the easiest process
in getting a job
that I ever had in my career.
My agent called me and said,
"They want you to come to LA
and do this beach show,
Baywatch."
Baywatch?
With David Hasselhoff,
the Knight Rider?
I mean, I was an actor.
I wanted my entrée
into Hollywood to be something
profound and important.
Right?
So, you know
but I gotta go do
this beach show, right?
I had no idea how much fun
I was gonna have.
There was so many
amazing athletic people
that were really, really good
in the water.
Amazing people.
It wasn't just
about the sexuality.
That was just highlighted.
♪
♪
We cast Erika Eleniak
as the beautiful blonde.
Like, if you're
a teenage boy, you're like
that's why she was perfect
for this show.
I was super insecure,
I mean, as a kid.
I'd have to say, you know,
no regrets in life,
but, honestly, if I had one,
my biggest regret would be
to be so fearful all the time,
because when you live your life
in fear,
you make decisions
based on that fear.
So I'm the girl
not on the dance floor,
afraid to look stupid.
I'm the girl sitting
on a bench not playing.
I had already been acting
since I was ten years old.
And I had a foot in the door.
I got to do this part in ET.
And that was pretty cool.
And basically, I just acted
a couple jobs a year
until high school.
And that's when
I hit the ground running
and I did Baywatch.
I hang out there.
I know the beach, and I know
all the inshore holes.
My friends are expecting me.
Billy and Erika,
in that first cast,
just popped
in the first readings.
I want to do
something for you.
What?
It's a new technique
in mouth-to-mouth.
Oh, really?
We had
a really fun relationship,
platonically flirtatious,
if you will,
but just great chemistry.
And it was a really
interesting situation
because Shauni and Eddie's
characters in real life
had gotten together.
We both were in
other relationships
in the first season on NBC.
She had a boyfriend.
I had a girlfriend.
It was a long, arduous season,
a lot of work,
a lot of time together,
a lot of time on the set.
And things just
kind of snowballed
into a lovely relationship.
It just really exploded,
I suppose.
And we started going out.
The thing that was
interesting about Erika was,
Erika had
just raw, innate ability.
She just was good.
So which headquarters
did you get?
- Baywatch.
-You did?
Oh, so did I.
I was so scared
You know, some people
have to be taught.
Some people have to learn.
She just was.
It just was natural for her.
So when you look as good
as she did
and you have talent,
you're gonna do all right.
I wasn't a water baby,
more of a lay-in-the-sun baby.
So that was not
without challenge, definitely.
I'm just gonna let it
all hang out now.
I know, right?
Shark-phobic.
Not a strong swimmer.
Erika Eleniak came in.
NBC said no.
She was in Playboy.
I did not need to do Playboy.
In fact,
I knew even at that age
that it would create
obstacles for me.
But I think at that age,
you feel invincible.
If a girl did Playboy,
they weren't gonna be
in an ad for something else.
They weren't gonna be
in a commercial or a film.
You do Playboy
as a celebrity,
it's steak tartare.
When you do it
as a flavor of the month,
it's nasty raw meat.
Right?
The bottom line is,
it's a hypocrisy.
When they found out
that Erika did Playboy,
the creators and producers
fought to keep her.
Hefner was
really appreciative.
And we got invited up there.
I began going to the mansion.
In the 1990s, Playboy becomes
a key feeder for Baywatch.
♪
A lot of girls
that made it onto the show
started with Playboy.
I had been asked
to do Playboy
I think the day that I walked
on Baywatch.
I had a cover of Playboy
after I was on Baywatch.
When I booked Baywatch,
I remember
Greg Bonann and the producer
saying to me,
"Did you get a call
for Playboy?
Are you gonna pose
for Playboy?"
And I said,
"Well, actually, yeah, I did."
Traci Bingham ended up being
the host
of Playboy's Babes of Baywatch.
Baywatch and Playboy
have two things in common.
Each has achieved
international success,
and each has introduced you
to the world's
most beautiful women.
Suddenly,
everybody was shooting Playboy.
It was so cool
to get in Playboy.
And all of a sudden, it pushed
you to another level.
Because you did Playboy,
you got even more TV shows
where, in the past,
you would lose your career.
Everybody on the show
had to be beautiful.
I mean, everybody was pretty.
You had to be pretty
to be on the show,
or you weren't gonna be
on the show.
I remember
a lot of people saying,
"Oh, I watch it
with the sound off."
And to be honest
Those montage scenes
were the best
because they would
highlight you
in the sexiest way
and everyone looked amazing.
It was like shooting
this music video.
Anything that went
wrong got better right away.
You know, there was never
so much tragedy.
It was always a happy ending
and a happy story.
The show was
really an innocent show,
if you look at the storylines.
Prettypretty idealistic,
even corny, I would say.
How can you marry someone
when you're in love
with someone else?
It wasn't, like, "cool,"
but everybody watched.
Anybody who's someone
watched Baywatch.
♪
I think the boys,
they saw an avenue,
what was working.
And it had to do with
beautiful people and the beach
because that's where
the money was.
♪
But after one year,
it was canceled.
So the show was
canceled on NBC.
And they really believed in it,
and they really wanted
to bring it back.
And syndication was
something newer on the scene.
Greg went back
to lifeguarding.
Hasselhoff went back
to touring.
Got a phone call one day
from a guy
who ran a distribution company
called Freemantle,
and he was distributing
Baywatch in foreign.
Baywatch.
And it was doing really well.
The rights
still belonged to Grant Tinker
and GTG Studios.
So Michael and I went
to see Grant Tinker,
and we offered him $10
for one year
to see if we can take the show
to syndication.
And if we can,
we would pay him a royalty.
And so Grant Tinker sold us
the rights to Baywatch for $10.
I got a call from one
of the producers that said,
"We think we can do the show
with a foreign financing,
but we have to do it with you."
And I went, "Bling!"
Luck is being prepared
for opportunity
when it presents itself.
And there have been times
when I have blown it.
I have blown my opportunity.
And there have been times
when I've said,
yes, yes, yes, I'm ready.
I walked off going,
I'm gonna get this.
And I got it.
And action.
I just do
what's in front of me, man.
I throw up a bunch of balls,
and I make it work.
Make it work.
You got to make it work.
Action.
And then Baywatch came along.
And I knewI knew what to do.
I knew how to change Baywatch.
DIRECTOR: OK.
David Hasselhoff is no doubt
one of the most recognizable
names in the world.
You know, he taught me
a lot of great things.
He showed me how to be
a hustler, for sure.
I mean, that guy's a hustler.
David Hasselhoff was
a huge TV star at the time.
I didn't understand
that he was a musician
and had this whole pull
overseas.
Hasselhoff was, like,
a chart-topping artist.
The love of David Hasselhoff,
it goes deep.
In some countries,
he ishe's God.
And it's crazy.
♪
Without my performance
on the Berlin Wall,
without "Looking for Freedom,"
there'd be no Baywatch.
It was the number one
song in Germany at the time.
The Berlin Wall came down.
And that was a really big deal.
And David Hasselhoff,
he was like
the face of it, almost.
The phone rang.
And they said, "Would you like
to sing on the Berlin Wall?"
And I said,
"That'll never happen."
They called me back
and they said,
we have to get Helmut Kohl
and we have to get Honecker,
two prime ministers of East
and West Germany, to agree.
They agreed.
They called me back and said,
"How about we put you
in a crane,
"like a cherry picker,
above the people
of East and West Germany?"
And I went, oh, my God.
So I thought,
hey, I'll get the jacket.
That way,
everyone will see me.
And so I performed in 1989,
the first American to perform
on the free Berlin Wall.
I've been looking
for freedom ♪
I've been looking so long ♪
I've been looking
for freedom ♪
Still the search goes on ♪
The Hoff branded it.
I mean, that
I'm telling you, man,
he's a genius
when it comes to, "Hey, look,
what's going on over here."
In all of Europe,
it was really blowing up.
So I talked to the Germans,
the foreign distribution.
And they said to me,
quote unquote,
"Do you have
more Knight Riders?"
I said, no,
no more Knight Rider.
I said, well, I have
a new show called Baywatch.
"Is there a car?"
I said, no, there's not a car.
"But you're in it?
You're in it?"
I said, yes.
"OK, we buy it."
So we had a big chunk of money.
♪
We were out there doing a show
that entertained
1 billion people,
which is fucking amazing.
Dave is the one that really
popped up from the show.
He became the center,
the anchor for the show
the whole time.
He embodied
the American dream.
I mean, I have German friends
that literally moved
to California
because of Baywatch
and because
of David Hasselhoff.
And they will tell you that.
We were delivering
a kind of a message
that was wholesomeness,
you know, for the family,
like Hasselhoff
and his son, you know,
and their relationship.
Sometimes we get lucky.
It wasn't luck, dad.
It was you.
You know, Jeremy Jackson.
I mean, Jeremy Jackson was
he was hired
because he was real,
because he made me cry.
Jeremy Jackson played
David Hasselhoff's son
on the show.
And he starts
as a very, very young kid.
He's probably about
seven or eight years old.
And we watch him
actually grow up on screen.
When I was a kid,
I wanted to be famous.
So I became totally obsessed
with performance.
I would come out
in the living room
and I would put on
a ballet show
or dress up as a cowboy.
Elvis Presley
and Michael Jackson
were kind of like my idols.
And I would watch them.
I would study them.
Jeremy's very exuberant
and vulnerable
and has the best heart
of anyone you could ever meet.
Oh, my poor mother.
She's a single mom.
She went to community college
because she had to take
community college classes
in order to keep getting
food stamps
and low income housing.
She had to do that
as a single parent.
And there was a number
on the board, and it said,
you know, child agent.
And she was like,
"Well, he sure is a ham.
You know, I guess I'll try."
We didn't know anything about
the entertainment industry.
And we called,
and, like, "Come on down."
And here I am.
And, you know,
Mr. People Pleaser.
He loved auditioning.
If that's all he ever got
to do was do the auditions
where the people say,
"Well, you did great,
thank you very much,"
that would have been fine.
We just started and,
wow, now we're making money.
And now we're like a team.
And this is cool.
And it was intense,
but it was like
her and I against the world.
So when Jeremy first
auditioned for Baywatch,
he had been doing commercials
for, like, five years.
And his agent said
they were looking
for pretty much exactly
they just described him to a T.
The Hobie character
is really interesting to me
because Hobie
and the relationship
was based after me and my son.
I was a single father
to, like, a kid
going through puberty.
So we decided to give
Hasselhoff's character,
Mitch, a son.
I think they had
looked at every kid
from, like, starting
at 14 years old
and went younger,
younger, younger
till they got to his age.
We were supposed
to go on a trip,
and then I said,
"Well, we can go,
but Knight Rider might be
at this audition."
And he thought about it
for two seconds
and he said, "OK, let's go
in case I can meet
the Knight Rider."
David Hasselhoff was, like,
my hero watching Knight Rider
since I was a little kid.
We were in the audition room,
and Hasselhoff walked in.
And then he looked over
and then it was like
this lightning bolt
went through just like that.
You just saw it in the air.
It was immediate.
And so I said,
"From a single family, huh?"
He goes, "Yeah."
And then Jeremy said to me
hope he's not mad about this
"I don't need a dad."
And that got me.
Like a
At that moment
When he said,
"I don't need a dad,"
it was so honest
that that's the moment
that he got, for me, the part.
And I fought for him.
There was a very extensive
audition process.
I think I auditioned
four times.
You know, it was
stiff competition for sure.
One of the actors
that came in
that we liked so much
was a 12-year-old
Leonardo DiCaprio.
So we had Leonardo DiCaprio
or Jeremy Jackson,
who was eight.
I remember it was down
to me and somebody else.
And I said,
"No, no, no, take the kid.
Take him."
When I got Baywatch,
you know,
I got to have
David Hasselhoff as my dad,
which was, like, my hero
since I was a little kid.
So this is my original
Knight Rider lunch pail.
I actually really had this
and used this.
And these are, like,
some Knight Rider stickers
that I had
before I got Baywatch,
when I idolized Knight Rider.
I learned
from his experience.
And he learned from mine.
So it was really kind of like
a father-son relationship.
Here's a note David gave me
on my 14th birthday.
"Dear Jeremy,
you're the son I never had.
"I know you need a CD.
I know you need a computer.
"I know you need a few things.
"I just don't know
what to get you.
So please, use this check
for whatever you want."
I think he gave me, like,
a $1,000 check or something.
For a 14-year-old,
that's kind of a big deal.
♪
♪
MATTHEW: Baywatch wanted
to show the world
what California
surf culture was.
♪
When you're actually
on the wave riding it,
there is no past
and there is no future.
Surf culture is just
it's so important
to California.
It's what California
has been built on.
And there was this young,
really good-looking kid
coming up who was
the best surfer in the world.
Kelly Slater was the hottest
surfer in the world,
was not an actor.
I remember when Kelly came
into the show, Kelly Slater.
And that was just
really interesting
because he was so revered,
especially in all the cast
and crew
that were surfing every day.
I won my first world title
the first year I did Baywatch.
♪
I had a manager who really
wanted me to be an actor.
And he said, "I got this
casting for you to go to."
And I did a reading.
And I felt like
I did a terrible job.
And then they loved me.
You know,
I wasn't trying to go
the acting route in my life.
At that point,
I was really trying to be
world champion in surfing.
He brought a little
bit of legitimacy to Baywatch.
And I feel he hated that
because, behind his back,
the surf world was
sort of laughing at him like,
"Thisdude, you're on
this corny-ass show."
I just felt like
the writing was so nonsensical
in so many ways.
We were shooting this scene
where this cave is
known to collect surfboards.
And no one can understand
why they can never
find a surfboard in there.
When we go in, we realize that
there's an octopus
that's stealing the surfboards
and holding them
basically hostage.
Hold your breath
for 20 seconds.
One, two
It's pretty wild
looking back
that I got the chance
to be on that show.
I remember getting out
of there and thinking,
I hope the show just gets
bigger and bigger and bigger
and I'm forgotten about.
In the end,
I don't think it hurt him.
I think he didn't like it.
But the experience
on Baywatch really helped him
become the international
megastar that he is,
you know, on top of being
the best surfer
that ever lived.
We're rolling, and action.
The show,
it really wasn't good,
but we made it good.
We made it good
because we had passion.
We really tried hard.
When we went to work,
it was really fun.
It was like we were laughing
all the way to the water,
laughing
we were laughing
about everything.
Cut. Print.
Let's go.
Well, when I started the show,
it was, you know,
just coming back
from being canceled
off of a network.
And they were trying
this new syndicated,
you know, production.
The Baywatch budget
was so much smaller
than all the other shows
that were shooting at the time.
Hair, makeup, nails,
publicity, I mean promotion,
we did everything ourselves.
We did everything.
We were able to take the show,
which was 1.2 million
on the network,
and make it for 850.
We had budget restrictions.
And so we wrote short scripts.
And if the show came in
too short,
we would do a montage.
I think that's where
slow-motion came into play
because we were,
like, two minutes short.
It made everything
look so glamorous.
Nonstop tits and ass
running in slow-motion
on the beach.
And, you know,
it was hot.
Let's enjoy this moment.
This is beautiful.
And I said, run that again.
And then it became a thing.
You go to the beach
and you have your drunk friends
like, "I'm gonna do
the Baywatch run!"
You see them going
I still run
in slow-motion for people.
It's become
this worldwide thing.
Carmen Electra would
actually show people
how to do the slow-motion run
on shows like Bravo's
Watch What Happens.
You run, and you breathe,
and you kind of
make it serious.
And I'm game. I love it.
And I teach people
how to do it.
There's a technique to it.
It's fun.
We were putting
the show back together,
the cast back together.
Erika and Billy,
they were making
a lot of money on the network,
so they had to take
huge pay cuts to come back.
Back then, what they were
offering everybody
is, like, $3,500 a show.
I mean, Friends,
at that point,
I think they were each making
$1 million an episode.
I actually remember
freaking out
seeing my first paycheck
after the taxes were taken out.
It was like, what?
What just happened?
You know, like,
how am I honestly
gonna live on this money?
Erika and I
were the only two
along with David, of course
we were the only two
that made the transition
from NBC to syndication.
In order for the show to go,
they wanted
they needed to have us.
I was like, all right, great.
I'm in, of course, thinking
that we're going back to do
the original type of Baywatch.
And I'm watching the camera
kind of going up the backside
of a girl's thong.
I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
What are we doing here?
And they were like,
"Uh, it's all good, man.
"We don't have
Big Brother anymore.
"We don't have
standards and practices.
We can do what we want."
For me, that's when
my comfort level went, shoo,
because I was
super focused the first year
on the seriousness of it.
And then the second year,
I feel like necklines plunged.
At the end of the season,
they were both talking
about leaving,
but we weren't getting
any more money.
The show still was on
a shoestring budget,
and we just couldn't afford
to pay them.
There's not one rich actor
on Baywatch, not one.
And that's kind of strange
because the wealth
is always shared
when you're on a hit TV show.
Baywatch made a lot of money,
just not for the actors.
They treated being on Baywatch
like you were
a college athlete.
"Oh, you'll make your money
down the road."
You'll make your money because
you became famous on Baywatch.
BILLY:
Everybody was disposable.
And if you didn't fit
into their brand
at the price they were
paying you, you were gone.
I was more surprised
that they didn't fight for her.
I mean, me, I'm a dude.
You can get 100 more
hard bodies,
especially harder than this.
But
So I left after season two.
Eddie and Shauni got married.
And they went off
to Australia.
And that was it.
And so the distributors
were freaked out.
Our hot young couple is gone.
We said, no, no, no.
We'll find somebody else.
Yeah, what was your big break?
My big break?
Um
We met a woman
through Playboy
Hugh Hefner introduced us to
named Pamela Anderson.
Well, I don't think
you really choose
to be famous.
I mean, I didn't choose it,
so it was just kind of
happening as it unfolded.
I wasn't trying to be
anything, to be famous.
Pamela!
to the left. To the left.
Pamela, to the left.
♪
Everyday reality
has hardships.
Everyday reality
has challenges.
This reality
♪
We definitely
exported the American dream
all across the world.
California is a character.
It's special.
It's like Baywatch
really amplified California
when it was airing
because we showed
the glamour of the beaches.
We showed what the life
would be like here.
We probably caused,
you know, a million people
to move from their small towns
to come to the beach
and have
Pamela Anderson's life
of running down the beach
in slow-motion.
The whole country
wanted to see sex,
but the whole country
didn't want to admit
that they wanted to see it.
And the creators
of Baywatch understood
how powerful it was.
And of course,
Pamela Anderson just
completely glamorized
being on the beach
and being a lifeguard.
Pamela just exploded
at the end of that first year.
I was a huge
Pamela Anderson fan.
Like, I would try to do
my hair like hers.
I tried to do
my makeup like hers.
Like, she was someone
that, like, I was like,
oh, she's so pretty.
I was discovered
in kind of a strange way.
I was in Vancouver.
And I went to a British
Columbia Lions football game
with some friends next door.
They had free tickets.
So they said, Pamela,
do you want to come?
And I said, sure, OK, I'll go.
And I was wearing
a Labatt's Beer T-shirt,
which is a popular beer
in Canada.
And the cameraman
zoomed in on me
and put me up
on where the scoreboard is
in front of, like,
60,000 people.
And there I was.
I had never seen myself
on anything.
And I looked up and I was like,
oh, my God, that's me.
They ended up pulling me down
to the 50-yard line
at halftime, interviewing me.
And they're like,
"What's your name, young lady?"
And I said, Pamela Anderson.
And they said,
"This is Pamela Anderson,
the blue zone girl,"
because I had blue zone
on my shirt too.
I was always inspired
by Pamela.
And I looked up to her.
I think she's awesome.
Like, one of the most
iconic blondes
next to Marilyn Monroe.
When I was growing up,
I think I
I had a great imagination.
My grandparents were very much
into fairy tales, mythology,
and so
I just kind of had this
fantasy kind of little life.
And I knew that I had to move
off the island
to kind of put myself
in a place of opportunity.
Pamela Anderson
had the light.
We saw the light
shining from her eyes,
shining from the smile.
No one has broken
her record of being
on the cover of Playboy
magazine as many times
as she's been on the cover.
I mean, look what
Playboy did for Pam Anderson.
Look what it did.
Those shots are iconic.
I remember standing next
to a bus ad on a bus stop
and someone coming up
to me saying,
"Would you like to pose
for Playboy?"
And I said, absolutely not.
And they asked me
a few more times.
And I finally asked my mother,
and my mother said,
"I would do it."
So she told me to go
and to never come back.
I sent her a picture.
She was like, you have arrived.
You're exactly
where you need to be.
Hefner used to tell me,
"You are the DNA of Playboy.
"You're the reason I made
a magazine like this.
This is about a girl like you."
She was stunning.
You know,
she didn't need anything.
She was a knockout
right then and there.
But most of all,
she had this energy.
It's something
that you can't really define.
It's a vibe.
It's a sense.
It's an aura.
Some people have it.
Pam happened to have it.
And I was just, like,
knocked out by her.
I was supposed
to go to Baywatch auditions
many, many times.
But I thought Marina del Rey
was really far away.
I'm not a very good driver.
And so I never went.
And so I was famous
before I got there
because I never showed up.
And so since she came in,
literally the last person
we had scheduled or anything,
I think it became
a special thing.
And I think that made them
look at her more carefully.
Especially when
we came in and said,
"oh, my God,
you need to hire this girl.
"We can't even believe
she showed up.
You have to hire her
right this second."
So she finally comes in,
and she was just wonderful.
She was bubbly
and she was beautiful
and charismatic and sexy.
And we said, look,
we've got bathing suits.
Do you mind
if you try on a bathing suit?
She said, "Oh, no,
I don't need a bathing suit.
"Look, you guys have seen me
naked in Playboy.
It doesn't matter."
And she starts
getting undressed.
And she's getting undressed
right in front of us.
She has a bathing suit on
under her clothes.
And everybody loves her.
And she leaves.
And we go, this is it.
And Hasselhoff says,
"I don't think so.
"If I'm in a scene with her,
"everybody's gonna be
staring at her tits
"and nobody's gonna watch
my performance.
They'll just be looking
at her."
I was dead against it
because she was on Playboy.
I didn't want
another Playboy girl.
We were already number one.
What do we need another girl
on the show for?
We're number one.
Doug, Greg, and I
said to David,
"David, at this point in time,
"you don't have
creative control.
"You have consultation.
"We'll listen to you
or whatever,
but no, we're gonna cast her."
We caught
more attention because of Pam.
Our ratings went
from 2.33 rating
all the way up to a 10 rating.
So we tripled our ratings.
And we realized that we had
something going here.
People watched her.
We all watched her.
This was a time
where people were obsessed
with Pam and Tommy.
We had several
big-ass speed bumps,
things that weren't really,
you know,
nurturing to the relationship.
I was never really
an ambitious person.
And I didn't strive to be
an actress or to be famous.
This all just seemed
so surreal.
It just seemed like
one thing after another.
No matter where I went,
it just seemed like
that's what I was meant to do.
♪
Some people stand
in the darkness ♪
Afraid to step
into the light ♪
Some people need
to help somebody ♪
The edge of surrender's
in sight ♪
Don't you worry ♪
It's gonna be all right ♪
♪
'Cause I'm always ready ♪
I won't let you
out of my sight ♪
♪
I'll be ready ♪
Oh, I'll be ready ♪
Never you fear ♪
No, don't you fear ♪
I'll be ready ♪
Oh, I'll be ready ♪
Never you fear ♪
Ooh, don't you fear ♪
I'll be ready ♪
Oh, I'll be ready ♪
Never you fear ♪
Oh, don't you fear ♪
I'll be ready ♪
Forever and always ♪
Oh, forever and always ♪
Forever and always ♪
I'm always here ♪