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Baywatch is an American television series about the Los Angeles County Lifeguards who patrol the beaches of Los Angeles County, California starring David Hasselhoff. The show ran from 1989 to 1999 (and 1999-2001 as Baywatch Hawaii). According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Baywatch is the most watched TV show in the world of all time, with over 1.1 billion viewers.[1] Baywatch premiered on NBC in 1989, but was cancelled after only one season despite high ratings because the studio, GTG, went out of business. Feeling the series still had potential, creators and Executive Producers Michael Berk, Douglas Schwartz and Greg Bonann revived it for the first-run syndication market in 1991. Hasselhoff was given the title of Executive Producer to incent him to come back to the show. The series was hugely successful, especially internationally. The show led to a spin-off: Baywatch Nights, and a reunion movie, Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding. In 1999, with production costs rising in Los Angeles, and the syndication market shrinking, the plan was to move the show to Australia and launch Baywatch Down Under. A pilot was filmed but the series was stopped when residents of Avalon put forth strong objections, including potential damage to a fragile ecosystem. Avalon council permanently barred all future filming. The pilot finally aired as a two-part episode of Baywatch. Australia's loss was Hawaii's gain. Hawaii offered the producers large financial incentives to move the show to the islands and in Season 10 Baywatch Hawaii was launched.
[edit] PlotThe show starred David Hasselhoff, of Knight Rider fame, as Mitch Buchannon, who was the only mainstay on the show, besides Michael Newman, for 10 of the 11 seasons. Baywatch was centered around the work of a team of lifeguards and their interpersonal relationships, with plots usually centering on dangers related to beach and other activities pertinent to the California (later Hawaii) beach lifestyle. Everything from earthquakes to shark attacks to serial killers, and even nuclear bombs, served as plot conflicts on the show. Saving people from drowning tended to be one of the most typical situations used in the shows. Thus a trademark of the show was slow motion shots of the lifeguards running, most notably done by Erika Eleniak, Pamela Anderson, Yasmine Bleeth, Alexandra Paul, and David Charvet along with Hasselhoff during the height of the show. [edit] CastMain article: Cast of Baywatch [edit] Baywatch 1989–1999[edit] Baywatch Hawaii 1999–2001
[edit] Theme songThe first theme song which accompanies the pilot episode and season one was "Above the Waterline" by Kim Carnes. On the DVD edition of the first season, the original main title theme is replaced by the song "Strong Enough," performed by Evan Olson (from his album Audio). The original NBC theme was "Save Me," performed by Peter Cetera, with Bonnie Raitt on guitar and Richard Sterban, bass singer for The Oak Ridge Boys, as one of the background vocalists. For the syndicated series, the new theme "I'm Always Here" (performed by Jimi Jamison of Survivor) replaced "Save Me". This song is sometimes mistakenly attributed to the show's star David Hasselhoff.[citation needed] When the NBC episodes started to air five times a week with all the other syndicated episodes, the opening theme was changed to a shorter version of "I'm Always Here," with some images of the original NBC opening retained. Daivd Hasselhoff sang "Current of Love" as the ending theme of seasons 2-4. Together with Laura Branigan he sang "I Believe" as the ending theme of season 5. An instrumental version of the song appears in the episode "Battles" of the UK television programme Spaced. The Swedish electronic musical group Sunblock remixed the song and released it as a single. A Soundalike version was used in an episode of Hey Arnold over the end credits. [edit] EpisodesMain article: List of Baywatch episodes [edit] Theatrical releaseIn 2004, DreamWorks announced they had bought the rights to create a new theatrical Baywatch movie.[2] Jessica Simpson was officially cast as C.J. Parker.[3] The movie is slated for release in 2010. The film is reported to be a comedy production being written by Jeremy Garelick who is credit with the rewrite of "The Hangover" that made that movie the highest grossing comedy of all time. [edit] Pop culture references
[edit] DVD releases Australia: Seasons 1-4 have been released in collector's edition boxsets. Finland: Seasons 1-3 have been released by Futurefilm. Germany: Seasons 1 to 11 have been released. These releases are presented exactly as they originally aired, albeit with German language credits. Italy: Seasons 1, 5 and 6 have been released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Netherlands: Seasons 3 have been released. Sweden: Seasons 1-3 have been released. USA: In June 1999 a single disc DVD was released featuring two 2-part episodes from the show's original run ("Nightmare Bay" part 1 and 2 from Season 2, and "River of No Return" part 1 & 2 from Season 3). These episodes are absent from the U.S. box sets of their respective seasons mentioned below. Three seasons have since been released on DVD by First Look Studios. Although the box sets are labeled "Season 1," "Season 2," et cetera, the sets actually feature episodes of the following season (i.e. the "Season 1" box set contains the episodes of the literal second season (1991-1992) of the show). The second and third sets were released on October 31, 2006. Each set features a disc with Season 1 episodes on it. Fans will need to purchase all U.S. box set releases (the literal seasons 2-7) to complete season 1. It will then be possible to order a box from First Look to hold the six discs. These releases also do not contain the original theme songs as they appeared when the episodes aired. They have been removed due to copyright agreements.[4] [edit] Vehicles employed
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Categories: Baywatch | 1989 television series debuts | 2001 American television series endings | 1980s American television series | 1990s American television series | 2000s American television series | American drama television series | First-run syndicated television programs in the United States | NBC network shows | Television series by FremantleMedia | Television shows set in California | Television shows set in Hawaii | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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