Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Baywatch:The rebooty
DAYS OF THE RED HOT LIFEGUARDS ARE BACK
IN the doorways of flats across the suburbs of South Tehran, Iranian men and women queued up shiftily.
Quickly they handed what hard-earned cash they had to bouncers who ushered them inside, looking out warily for police.
It was 1995 and a few brave owners in flats scattered across the city were defying a new ban on satellite dishes and US TV.
But it wasn’t news of the democratic outside world their customers were desperate for. It was Baywatch.
And any thoughts of the punishment the “customers” risked under their Islamic regime disappeared as the unmistakable drum beats kicked in against a backdrop of Californian beaches packed with beautiful girls.
Now the iconic show that made such a global impact has been revived as a Hollywood movie due to hit Britain next week.
But just why did Baywatch, a story about beach lifeguards, make such a splash? It ran between 1989 and 2001 and reached a record weekly audience of 1.1 billion in 148 countries.
BOOM
Translated into 44 languages, it seemed the perfect representation of the American dream – sun, sea, sand and sexiness.
It made global superstars of the likes of Pamela Anderson and David Hasselhoff and is credited with triggering a boom in breast enlargement surgery, with many women wanting aDD“Pam my ”.
And it didn’t just take countries where it was banned by storm.
Millions of Brits tuned in each Saturday to watch Mitch, CJ and their pals patrolling the coastline of Los Angeles County. Whether saving drowning children, fighting off sharks or rescuing surf dudes, the impossibly proportioned lifeguards remained immaculate in their red Lycra swimsuits.
CJ Parker and Mitch Buchannon made Anderson and The Hoff overnight stars. The show also brought worldwide fame to Carmen Electra and Yasmin Bleeth who later became objects of desire for Joey and Chandler in Friends.
Hollywood superstars Mila Kunis and Michelle Williams also appeared as child actors.
Now the red swimsuits are back with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as Mitch, Kelly Rohrbach as CJ and a buffed-up Zac Efron as lifeguard Matt Brody – while Pam, 49, and the Hoff, 64, make cameo appearances. It’s estimated the opening weekend in the US will gross £40million. Directed by Seth Gordon, the storyline sees two unlikely lifeguards attempt to land a job on a California beach while a criminal plot is uncovered which threatens the future of the area.
The reboot seems sure to intro-
duce a whole new generation to “The Bay”.
But the original show was not always hugely successful, particularly in the early days. It was canned by NBC after its first season due to poor ratings, but its popularity in the UK and Germany convinced creators to revive the show for syndication. David Hasselhoff helped by taking a pay cut, and it soon paid off when he became one of the biggest earners on TV.
Some major Hollywood A-listers tried out for the show but didn’t make the cut. Sandra Bullock, at 34-24-34 was deemed not to have the right look. Neve Campbell was too pale. Alicia Silverstone and Denise Richards were also auditioned but cast aside. Even Pammy, the most famous Baywatch babe, was almost shown the door when she tried out for CJ in season three. Insiders said Hasselhoff feared she’d upstage him.
But Anderson also pulled in new viewers. Ratings doubled after her sex tape with lover Tommy Lee went public.
The show also included characters who played themselves. The mustachioed Michael Newman was a real lifeguard and professional surfer Kelly Slater was cast as Jimmy Slade. But Slater left over the far-fetched plots. He told GQ in 1993: “I’d be like, ‘What? There’s an octopus stealing surfboards and hiding them in a secret cove and I’m going to fight him in the next show? Who writes this s**t?’”
Baywatch is in cinemas nationwide from June 2