Baywatch is nothing without two very important ingredients—the music and the women. Of course the hit syndicated series was originally supposed to be an extension of David Hassellhoff's (aka The Hoff) "career", but he barely has any presence and acts like he's amazed he's been handed a script. So long as the music and the women exist on the DVD releases, fans should have no problems.
In saying that, what the hell happened to the music and the theme song from the syndicated years?
Apparently the love for this show is so strong that the companies that made these two packages figure the fans won't care one bit. Considering the franchise has such a big following, I would think a fan especially would care about the exclusion of the music—especially the theme song. But that's probably not the biggest crime.
The California based lifeguard drama originally aired in 1989 for a season on NBC. There were many changes made from that season onward (including the jump to syndication after NBC canned it), but the season is still a valuable part of the show's history. Sadly, these are included as bonus episodes and will not be sold as a complete set. I've discovered meanwhile that in the UK, the show will get the music as well a set of the entire NBC season.
So what is Baywatch?
I couldn't really tell you. It's kinda like watching a behind-the-scenes show of Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit Edition—except it's on every week. You throw in a few beefy guys, set it up on a California beach and make everyone lifeguards—that's Baywatch. They save lives, fall in and out of love and get killed sometimes. Apparently the show also had the CSI extension where they not only saved lives on the beach, but off the beach as well.
Unlike CSI, they never could completely spin-off the brand since it was all about babes and the beach. The Hoff did one spin-off known as Baywatch Nights where he moonlighted as a detective. The series hovered around, but seemed not to fit into, the overall universe and was canned after two seasons.
Baywatch had a few of the old players from the NBC season, and a few new ones in the mix for the syndicated first season. Perhaps the only two characters of the bunch worth paying attention to are Eddie Kramer (Billy Warlock) and Shauni McClain (Erika Eleniak), who play co-workers in love. Sadly, they both left the series after a season—not that I think they would last.
Personally I think they should have written Eddie having a love triangle with Pamela Anderson, who joined the cast as C.J. Parker in the second season. It's kind of a tough call here—Shauni McClain or C.J. Parker? Innocent and sweet Shauni, or Pam's body?
Sorry Erika, you'd lose that battle—and I don't even like Anderson.
The Hoff displays a surfer-dude style playing Mitch, who is something of the leader of the lifeguards on Baywatch Beach. He's a divorced dad trying to save hot babes while parenting Hobie (Jeremy Jackson), who is the least annoying child character I've seen yet. He has a good episode in the first syndicated season set in which he befriends a young homeless girl (played by Nikki Cox of Unhappily Ever After) who is trying to find her mother. Funny that the adults act childish and the kid came off as the most mature.
Article comments