[♪ theme music playing]
[director] Going from the top.
[Chokachi] With Baywatch, I was stepping onto this thing
that was just like a rocket ship.
[Hasselhoff] It wasn't easy doing Baywatch.
It looked like a lot of fun.
You want me to wear this? What? [chuckles]
But you know what? It was tough.
-♪ I'll be ready ♪ -♪ Oh, I'll be ready ♪
♪ Never you fear… ♪
[Traci] I just thought Baywatch was just this show
about White girls with blonde hair, blue eyes,
with big boobs running up and down the beach that couldn't act.
♪ No, don't you fear ♪
[Alexandra] I didn't conform to what people thought of as Baywatch.
Breasts were not a thing.
-[♪ theme song concludes] -[♪ dramatic music playing]
Pamela just exploded that first year.
[Matthew] And then the sex tape came out,
took her to the next level and took the show to the next level.
[Tommy] It was a total invasion of our privacy. How is this happening?
-[paparazzi] Pamela to the left. -[indistinct chatter]
People were just hungry.
They were eating that stuff alive.
[Chokachi] And they just wanted to put you under a microscope
and see where your flaws are and expose them.
-[indistinct chatter] -Thousand Oak biceps.
Michael Bergin was so hot.
He appealed to my mom. He appealed to my grandmother.
He appealed to my grandfather. You never know.
[Jeremy] He with the best abs wins.
Or she with the best boobs wins.
The guys, they had to wear next to nothing.
They said, "Rolling." Everybody'd hold it in.
And then get cut, they'd let it out. [chuckles]
[Jeremy] I was getting a little chubby in the midsection.
I was a little bit embarrassed.
There was this whole thing about, "Was Baywatch racist?"
[Traci] My manager said,
"Congratulations, you just booked Baywatch."
[squeals] I was so excited.
It changed my life. It changed my career.
It changed everything.
[♪ music fades]
[♪ uplifting music playing]
L.A. Lifeguards became superstars because of Baywatch.
No one had ever done a show about lifeguards before.
It's a real gig, man. I mean, they're the firemen on the beach.
[Angelica] Greg Bonann, one of the producers
was also a lifeguard.
And he really wanted the cast to be lifeguards.
He really wanted us to completely embody that role.
[Hasselhoff] I have met a lot of kids
who became lifeguards because they watch the show.
There's one right now. He's calling.
[laughs] That's a lifeguard.
"Hello? Yeah, I was a lifeguard because of Baywatch."
[Gregory] "Some people stand in the darkness,
afraid to step into the light."
"Some people need to help somebody."
Dude, I'm on a show about rescue.
That's another reason why this show translated around the world.
People say it's the T&A. Well, you're darn right it was.
But it was also because this show was about rescue
and compassion and altruism.
It's all mixed in together, man.
[♪ music fades]
[♪ serene music playing]
[Newman] I'm a local boy.
I grew up here in the Palisades.
That beach has been very good to me down there.
It was the same place that I shot the world's most popular television show.
I've been a lifeguard since 1977.
I just fit in the water. I always have.
Both my parents were swimmers,
and I was on a competitive swim team,
so I was introduced to all these water skills.
[Ingrid] Mike Newman is what people think about
when they think about a lifeguard.
He's a tall, good-looking, strong man.
He is the image of a lifeguard.
[Matthew] So, this-- Early days of Mike lifeguarding.
This is way pre-Baywatch.
As you can see, he's lived his entire life in a Speedo.
Second nature to him.
This is early on lifeguard competitions.
You can see the guy is an absolute specimen.
This is Newman in about '94
and this is probably about the peak of Baywatch,
when Pam came on.
Mike was the Ironman Lifeguard World Champion in '94.
As you can see, the guy is a beast.
And then here's from that competition.
Pam must have come out and give him some support.
Prime Mike and prime Pamela right there.
In a Speedo, no less.
[Newman] I've made hundreds of rescues.
When you can reach out and grab someone's hand
when they knew they were gonna be dead in a few minutes
and bring them back to shore, it's a great feeling.
I mean, there's no better feeling in the world.
[Matthew] So at first, Mike Newman wasn't an actual member of the show.
He was just a consultant on the show to make sure
that things looked appropriate and professional.
Every time I would see Newman, that's what it would bring me to.
It would bring me back to, "This shit is real."
[Hasselhoff] I just knew that we were going to work
on a show about lifeguards, and we're doing the best we can
to represent them correctly.
[Alexandra] All the actors started having to go through
a swimming test before they were cast,
because actors will say they can do anything.
There were a few actors who said, "Oh, yeah,
I can swim…" [chuckles] …when they couldn't.
[indistinct chatter]
[Carmen] I auditioned with Hasselhoff.
He was right there in front of me.
I was so nervous.
I got through that phase.
And then the next phase was putting on the red suit.
So, I put on the red suit, modeled it around.
Then the producer said, "Can you swim?"
I said, "Of course, I'm great. I'm an amazing swimmer."
And I remember standing on the edge of this pool,
and I said a prayer.
And I just thought, "Dive like you're a dancer,
tuck in your chin, and go for it."
And I made it. I made it on the show.
[Alexandra] On Baywatch, the priorities were the look.
They took really good care to make the show look good,
but also the rescues were important,
because Greg Bonann, the producer, was also a lifeguard.
[♪ playful music playing]
[Carmen] Our cast had to go through rookie school,
run on the hot sand,
burning sand.
Being on Baywatch, we were jumping over waves,
diving into the water.
Sometimes you would feel like you're drowning.
But you get up, and you cough a little,
and you try it again. And you do it until you get it.
[Erika] There were just some days
where it was too tough. You would be absolutely frozen
'cause it was like, 50 degrees outside.
I was doing things I never imagined I would do,
like tandem surfing.
I remember going up in the air and I just said,
"Make yourself look like a ballerina."
And then, with perfect form, I looked to the camera and waved.
And that is one of my proudest moments out there in the water.
[♪ music fades]
[♪ gentle music playing]
[Matthew] Alexandra Paul was probably hands down
the most credible actress to play a lifeguard.
[Alexandra] I was competent, because I had been a junior lifeguard.
I was a certified EMT at the time, too.
I didn't conform to what people thought of as Baywatch.
That actually worked to my advantage.
I grew up on the East Coast and breasts were not a thing.
I learned something really important that first season on the show.
No matter what I do,
I'm never going to do that sexy thing as well as the other actresses.
So, I just said, "I'm gonna be more me."
And by cutting my hair and my body became more sinewy and strong,
I realized you can-- You just being yourself…
is so empowering.
[Matthew] Alexandra was not only a trained EMT,
which most lifeguards are, she was also a triathlete.
But not only a triathlete, an Ironman triathlete.
She walked into a part basically being the part.
[indistinct chatter]
[Hasselhoff] She was tough. She made rescues.
She was the real deal in real life,
you know, and that's what was so cool about the show
is we had the gorgeous ones and we had the real ones,
but they were all real
because they all went in the water, even Pamela.
Well, I've been doing Baywatch now.
It's my fourth episode on Baywatch,
so we've been swimming in the ocean a little bit,
but I'm not used to these kind of waves, but it's so much fun. I'm hooked.
[Matthew] Pamela Anderson played a character named CJ Parker.
I think her character was pretty true to who she was.
Very light, bubbly, likable, just cute.
What, he said I was fat before? [laughs]
[casting director] No, not at all. No, you just--
There's a sparkle in your eye now that you--
Oh, God!. And I'm dying of heat exhaustion.
That's maybe that's why. [laughs]
[Berk] Pamela's character was really crafted after her,
you know, interviewing her, meeting her, saying,
"Look, what kind of things do you do?"
She said, "Well, I play the saxophone." [chuckles]
So when we first meet CJ, she's on a rock playing the saxophone.
I've got Baywatch now, where I play CJ Parker.
This is my first season last year.
Baywatch was fantastic.
Bringing my dog to work every day.
I couldn't believe that people paid me to go to work.
-[indistinct shouting] -[paparazzi] Pam, show us the front.
[Erika] They really hit the lottery with Pamela.
She really epitomized what they wanted to do
with Baywatch and where it ended up.
She was perfect.
Pamela Anderson for Baywatch just took a show
that was about here and took it there.
She had the ability to take that show to the next level.
[Pamela] Well, I'd rather be a sex symbol than not a sex symbol.
I don't know. [chuckles] I mean, that's a compliment, isn't it?
-Every girl wants to be sexy. -[indistinct chatter]
[paparazzi 1] Jennifer! Jennifer! Jennifer!
[paparazzi 2] Hey, Britney, how you doing today?
-[paparazzi 3] Justin, over here, Justin! -[paparazzi 4] Justin!
-[indistinct chatter] -[Lewittes] In the 1990s,
tabloid journalism exploded.
The paparazzi were everywhere and the tabloids were growing.
[Tobey] Get the fuck out of the way! I can't see!
There are cars there, motherfucker!
-Get out of the way! -[camera shutters clicking]
[Lewittes] It was a new era of journalism.
[paparazzi] Keanu!
[Rick] It was a free-for-all of celebrities,
of stories, of sensationalism. People were just hungry.
They were eating that stuff alive.
So we were giving you the taste, the feel,
the rawness of Hollywood
and you're consuming it because it was just addicting.
[paparazzi] Jessica, are you dating anybody?
Jessica, do you miss Tony Romo?
[Carmen] When you're famous,
everybody wants to know your personal business.
Everyone wants to know what you're doing, how you live your life.
[Chokachi] It's like no one lives this perfect life.
And back then, they just wanted to put you under a microscope
and see where your flaws are and expose them.
I'm just like you. I'm just like you.
[Chokachi] We're all human beings, you know? It's like, come on.
We're-- Nobody's perfect.
Because there were so many cast members on Baywatch,
they were fodder for the tabloids.
-[paparazzi 1] Pam! -[paparazzi 2] Pamela! Pamela!
[Chris] Part of it was the fact that there were more television shows
that had a tabloid interest than there had been in the past.
In particular, it happened to Pamela Anderson
because she lived a very exciting life.
[♪ upbeat music playing]
[Tommy] I was out, it was New Year's Eve,
bring in the new year. Whoo! Right?
And, it was a big booth and she was with all of her girlfriends.
I licked her, she licked her girlfriend, her girlfriend licked her girlfriend,
and she just kind of passed that energy
all the way around the table, and I was like,
"That's cool. That's really cool."
[reporter] First, she was Pamela Anderson.
Then, after a four-day romance and a white bikini wedding,
-she was Pamela Lee. -[paparazzi] Pamela!
[indistinct chatter]
[Chris] These two were meant to be together,
Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee.
And that was just the beginning of a tumultuous
and headline-filled relationship filled with ups and downs.
[♪ somber music playing]
[Berk] The relationship between Pam and Tommy Lee
complicated things. They complicated her life.
You know, they complicated our lives.
I like Tommy Lee. I liked them together.
Pam loved Tommy. I mean, he was terrific.
But there was this window of time that perhaps they were having problems
in their marriage or issues or whatever it was.
[Pamela] My marriage was hard on everybody…
[laughs] …on Baywatch.
And that was kind of difficult on the set
with the Testarossa spinning out in the driveways
and punching out cabinets in the makeup trailer.
And I think it was just hard on everybody.
[indistinct chatter]
[Pamela] Tommy was crazy. Tommy was pushing down photographers.
We were getting sued all the time.
-[indistinct shouting] -[Pamela] So it was a little bit
of a scary time with the paparazzi.
There's some very famous paparazzi footage
of Pam and Tommy coming out of the Viper Room,
which was a very popular nightclub and music club,
on the Sunset Strip that was owned by Johnny Depp.
This was a time where people were obsessed with Pam and Tommy.
Tommy's this tall rocker guy. Pam's this sex bomb.
[fans] Tommy Lee's right there.
[Matthew] You got people following you.
They're in your shit.
And, you know, you're having a good time and you come out and, you know,
paparazzi bulbs in your face. You're pissed off.
So, Tommy ended up grabbing a paparazzi and threw him to the ground.
-[paparazzi] Hey! Tommy-- -You just fuck off, man.
[Tommy's friend] Tommy, come on, get in, get in, get in.
Paparazzi at the time would, on purpose, try to provoke talent to get the shot.
[paparazzi] Where's your child this time of the morning?
-Where's your baby? -He's with my mother. My mother.
-Where is your baby? -[Matthew] So they're, like,
starting to ridicule their parenting,
and, you know, it's like going after a lion, you know?
It's like the cubs. You just--
You don't fuck with people's kids.
And it was a very heated exchange.
You're a fucking asshole. You're a fucking asshole.
-[paparazzi] You're a drug fiend. -[indistinct chatter]
Don't you dare speak about my kid.
[Matthew] Looking back in hindsight,
you can't really blame them. They've been provoked.
And when you are being provoked,
you're going to react. And they did.
[paparazzi] Watch it, don't get hit!
[♪ intense music playing]
We had several big-ass speed bumps in our relationship.
You know, things that weren't really,
you know, nurturing to the relationship.
They were, you know, they were just, wedges driving us apart.
[Douglas] We always had issues with Tommy Lee being jealous
of Pam's relationship with other actors on the show.
[Chokachi] Pam and I had a great relationship on the series.
It was almost like brother and sister, in a way.
We never took ourselves too seriously.
We knew we were doing a certain type of entertainment.
[Berk] Pam came to me one day and said,
"Please rewrite this scene where I have to kiss David Chokachi."
"Tommy's just feeling really insecure right now,
and it's just not a good time."
"And don't make me kiss David Chokachi."
Tommy Lee took our scenes when we were, like,
boyfriend and girlfriend at face value and got really upset. I felt bad for her
because she was under a lot of pressure
from just, like, the outside, trying to get on--
See what her inside is about.
[Berk] There was one incident
where Tommy Lee came into her trailer,
and she was out doing a scene with Chokachi,
and he was just getting more and more upset
that she wasn't coming, and he kind of trashed her trailer.
I just felt bad for her. It's--
You know, it should've been a really great time in her life,
and instead she was kind of cornered.
[indistinct chatter]
[Matthew] Pamela Anderson had a lot of turmoil
around her relationship with Tommy Lee,
so she was probably the number one target at the time.
She had a lot of interest in her.
And then the sex tape came out.
[J.D.] Pam and Tommy created this sex tape on their boat,
and somehow that sex tape got leaked.
I think that's probably the first time celebrities
were ever seen having sex naturally. [chuckles]
It was a total invasion of our privacy
and this is like sacred, you know? [chuckles hesitantly]
This is not meant to be on the shelves
of Tower Video right now.
You know, how is this happening?
How did this happen? And just--
you just start losing your mind and--
It was stolen property.
That it was two crazily naked people in love.
I mean, we were naked all the time and filming each other and being silly,
but those tapes were not meant for anybody else to see.
And I've not seen it to this day.
It was very hurtful.
[Matthew] For us to be able to get inside that world
for the first time, it was fascinating.
I think sex tapes would probably be the precursor to reality TV.
It's our obsession with real life.
We're taking people's personal lives and commercializing it,
and commercializing their sexual acts.
Prior to Pam and Tommy, if you had a sex tape,
your career, your life, your reputation was over.
Just look at Rob Lowe.
He had to go into hiding for years.
And then, of course, after that,
people like Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian parlayed
those sex tapes to added fame and celebrityhood.
-[paparazzi 1] Pamela. -[paparazzi 2] Pamela in the middle.
[Berk] When Pam's sex tape came out,
the studio said, "Look, write her out of a couple of episodes."
"Just write her out. We gotta figure out
what we're gonna do with this. This is disaster."
Next episode aired, like, got twice the ratings.
Just shot up in the ratings. [chuckles]
When Pam did the sex tape,
the most important thing that happened is
she crossed over from this untouchable star
to somebody that many people wanted.
She became a commodity.
That tape made Pam a commodity, even larger than Baywatch.
[indistinct chatter]
[Pamela] When we went to London to promote Baywatch,
photographers were falling over backwards and down the stairs,
and I just looked behind me like, "Who are they shooting?"
And it slowly dawns on you that it's you.
[indistinct chatter]
[screams]
[Gregory] Baywatch wasn't Shakespeare. It was T&A.
It was boats, jet skis.
It was the great American adventure show.
[Chris] This was a kind of bland soap opera
with a gorgeous landscape. The stories were horrible,
but they created a show that was successful worldwide,
that could be dubbed into any language.
[in German] Schlagt sie ein! Ist mir egal!
[in French] La vitre, je m'en fous!
[speaks in foreign language]
[in English] We were the butt of jokes
on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno all the time.
Okay, Tina, "Everybody out of the water." Take one.
Everybody out of the water!
-[yells] -[crowd laughing]
[director] Baywatch audition, take two. Action!
Look out! There's a shark on the way!
[crowd laughing]
And every time he said a joke, our ratings went up.
Every time SNL did a sketch, our ratings would go up.
I can't swim!
So, we were thrilled.
It's cool that we got to put a smile on people's faces, you know?
And this show was the ultimate escapism for anybody who was looking
to just be entertained for an hour.
[♪ gentle music playing]
[Berk] The great good fortune of Baywatch
was that the beach was such a natural environment
for people to be in bathing suits.
[Alexandra] When I first got on the show, the bathing suit
was sort of one size fits all for the women.
Over the years, they went higher and higher and higher.
And it was ridiculous.
You couldn't even function in it.
I remember looking at it going,
"You want me to wear this? What?"
[photographer] That's it, right there. Okay, beautiful. Nice job.
[Carmen] I think Baywatch was ahead of its time,
because men were featured and men looked hot.
[Chris] The guys have the same incredible bodies
as the women do.
The guys take their shirts off all the time.
You could do the laundry on their washboard stomachs.
[♪ calming music playing]
[Chokachi] The '90s were full of these dudes
who were super ripped, you know, and just had, like,
eight-packs and just, like, wearing underwear.
[Matthew] David Chokachi was a young kid from New England.
Had just got out of college. He was a jock.
He was a lacrosse player. Buff. He was handsome.
He should've played Ken in the Barbie movie.
He comes to California to be rich and famous.
And he sees Baywatch, and he's like,
"I wanna get on that show."
I was with a small talent agency at the time,
and they were like, "Hey, we got you this audition."
"I don't know if it's any good, but you might wanna go."
And then I looked at it, and I was like,
"Holy shit. It's to replace David Charvet on the show."
As soon as I stepped through the door,
they were like, "You're Cody Madison."
"You are the guy we've been searching for, for months."
[Matthew] David Chokachi was down for everything.
He loved doing the stunts, riding jet skis.
David Chokachi is the American dream.
[indistinct chatter]
[Chokachi] I figured out early on in the show, like,
"Wow, the more fit you are,
the more episodes they're gonna write for you,
the more fans you have, the more money you're gonna make."
It was like a self-fulfilling thing.
So, I just embraced it.
I wanted to be super, super fit. I made sure I was.
[♪ music fades]
[♪ upbeat music playing]
[Alexandra] Men can be sexualized just as much as women,
and Chokachi is a perfect example
of that in the opening credits.
He's coming out of the water, his muscles are popping out.
I think he puts his head back like this,
and it's slow motion. You see his cock in his suit.
And… you know, it was hot.
[Chokachi] I got voted in as one of People's 50 Most Beautiful People,
which was a big thing back then.
And, like, Tom Cruise is on the cover.
The physicality and that aspect of the show fed right into my strengths.
-[crowd cheering, shouting] -[announcer 1] David Chokachi
from Baywatch!
[announcer 2] I'm glad he had clean underwear on, so…
[♪ upbeat music playing]
[Kelly] On the show,
the men all had to wear next to nothing.
And there was little left to the imagination.
[Matthew] The producers threw those guys in Speedos.
You know how horrible Speedos are?
And you also are aware
that the camera's going to be really, really tight on it.
You can't hide anything. There's nothing to hide.
They're almost treated as, like, what I would call a himbo.
Like, "Oh, you're just a hot guy."
[Chokachi] I was like, "Can I just wear the red trunks?"
And they're like, "No, because the lifeguards did,
back then, wear them."
"They're just more effective in the water."
"But you can't be eating any Twinkies."
"You gotta be just totally fit."
Which luckily I was.
The bummer was, though, a lot of times, you know,
it's 6:30 in the morning, it's freezing,
and it's like, "All right, get in the water."
You know, the shrinkage is ridiculous. [chuckles softly]
I had my own technique. I would basically try and find
a little towel or a jacket, hide under it,
and do a little personal fluffing.
And then, you know, it created a little circulation,
and you kind of could represent yourself a little bit better.
[chuckles]
[Hasselhoff] David Chokachi looked great wearing his bathing suit.
He was, like, ridiculous.
You know, Michael Bergin was ridiculous, too.
They were just good-looking guys.
Chokachi looked damn good in his Speedo.
But I think I looked a little bit better.
I guess you could call me Captain Underpants.
[director] Roll camera…
[assistant director] Going for rolling, and speed…
-[director] And, action! -[assistant director] Action.
[Hasselhoff] When we were filming on the beach,
we had a thing called the rolling six-pack.
They said, "Rolling." Everybody'd hold it in.
And then we do the scene,
and they get cut, and they let it out. [chuckles]
-[indistinct chatter] -Thousand Oak biceps.
-[woman 1 giggles] Shut up. -[woman 2 laughs]
-[indistinct chatter] -Okay, next. Next.
[Chris] Did you have a six-pack?
If you looked like you had incredible definition,
come on over, you could be a star.
[Wayne] You couldn't just have a dad bod.
You couldn't just have the body that you were born with.
You actually were taught that you could have a better body.
You could be better.
You know, being in shape became part of my psychic makeup
and my physical makeup, my emotional makeup.
I think it'd be impossible
for it not to be pretty much branded,
seared into your soul. [chuckles]
[♪ tranquil music playing]
[Jeremy] Whatever the cost was, I was willing to pay it
to try to hold it together because I'm on a show
that is all about that.
I was getting a little chubby in the midsection,
so I was a little bit embarrassed.
I was getting prodded by producers and stuff
about my appearance.
Skinny arms and chubby belly.
[Jolana] I hired a trainer to come drag him out of bed
when he was getting older, so that for him
that he-- When he was on camera, he was gonna be…
you know, like, really fit.
[Jeremy] He with the best abs wins.
Or she with the best boobs wins.
[Wayne] Baywatch created a situation,
which maybe was good or wasn't good,
that everybody's body was so ideal
that it actually pushed the fitness craze
because you wanted to be like these people,
or you didn't fit anymore.
[photographer] Good!
[Scott] ♪ Some people stand in the darkness ♪
[♪ keyboard synthesizer playing]
[music producer laughs] There's the elevator version.
[Matthew] So we were lucky enough to get Debbie Gibson
and Scott Grimes to work on their own rendition
-of the Baywatch theme song. -[indistinct chatter]
That song was a character.
Like, when you heard the song start, you knew exactly what you were watching.
♪ Some people stand in the darkness ♪
♪ Afraid to step into the light ♪
♪ Some people need to help somebody ♪
♪ When the edge of surrender's in sight ♪
♪ Don't you worry ♪
To be doing the theme song for such an iconic show
that I watched, right?
And is an honor and a privilege to be able to do that.
-♪ Forever and always ♪ -♪ Forever and always ♪
♪ Forever and always ♪
Right around the time that Baywatch was fever pitch,
I was like, "Oh, my God, this is so cool
that this show is incorporating this pop-rock song."
It was like the best two and a half minutes
of my life singing this-- [laughs]
-♪ I'll be ready ♪ -♪ Oh, I'll be ready ♪
[Traci] Oh, yes, the Baywatch song,
"I'll be ready, whenever you need."
"Forever and always, I'm always here."
It's the perfect theme song for Baywatch.
The lyrics were perfect, the song was perfect.
I love that theme.
♪ I'm always ready ♪
♪ I won't let you out of my sight ♪
Beautiful, man.
[Alexandra] The '90s were just such a great time.
Even the fashion, the hairstyles, the makeup.
There was a reference to Baywatch in almost everything
that was a hit.
Simpsons.
I heard it on Baywatch.
[Nicole] American Dad.
Why were you keeping the exciting world of lifeguards from me?
[Nicole] Friends.
Hey, they're running.
See, this is the brilliance of the show.
I say always keep them running.
[crowd laughing]
[Alexandra] Chandler on Friends, I think, had a crush on Yasmine.
Run, Yasmine! Run like the wind!
[crowd laughing]
And that's the kind of thing that helped Baywatch
become even more iconic.
The funny thing about the '90s was, on one hand, you have Debbie Gibson,
-all bubbly, and she's famous. -[indistinct chatter]
And at the same time,
you've got Lisa Bonet getting ready to do Angel Heart.
She's in The Cosby Show and then all of a sudden,
she gets sexy and starts taking her clothes off.
This was a time when wholesomeness
was, like, kinda going out the door,
but nobody was putting the brakes on.
So, everybody was sliding to dirty.
Everybody was sliding to sexy.
You have Abercrombie & Fitch show up,
all naked young boys running with naked young girls.
You have all the Calvin Klein Obsession ads
and the Calvin Klein underwear ads.
[director] Can you unbutton the top button of those jeans?
Now, why don't you push them down a little bit?
No. I don't think so.
Fashion, for whatever reason, always got away with doing more.
The more they got away with, the more stuff they sold.
And to be a Calvin Klein model in the '90s was a really big deal.
Does sex sell? Absolutely it sells. [chuckles]
We still like sex.
Michael Bergin came in and he was very raw,
but you know, just great-looking.
[Matthew] Michael Bergin was a supermodel in a time
that male and female models were stars in their own right.
He would be the closest thing
to the model version of JFK Junior.
He also was ironically in a relationship with Carolyn Bessette.
So at the time, I was up for the Calvin Klein underwear campaign
and other names that were up for it
were Brad Pitt, Anthony Kiedis, and Woody Harrelson.
And then in March of 1995 I went from a nobody to, like,
everyone calling me a supermodel.
There was nothing better as a teenage girl or a gay man
walking down the street and seeing
a four-story Michael Bergin in a pair of underwear.
What was better than that?
Michael Bergin was so hot, East Coast vibes, ripped abs.
Those are my memories of him.
[Wayne] Baywatch knew how to cast what was happening
in the advertising moments in the world.
To take Michael Bergin off a wall and to put him on your TV set
so that I could watch it every week, it's a win-win situation.
He was clean cut, he was handsome, he was sexy.
He appealed to my mom, he appealed to my grandmother,
he appealed to my grandfather, you never know.
[Berk] Every woman in the office came to us and said,
"You have got to cast him. He's the guy."
Susie saw Michael Bergin in an ad.
I think it was a Calvin Klein underwear ad,
-right? -[Susan] Yeah, I think so.
And I said, we have to get this guy in.
-Right. -And--
So, then it was calling New York.
-We had to find him. -Yeah.
So, I auditioned for Baywatch.
I don't think they were expecting much from me.
And they were like, "Oh, my God."
They were like, "He's the one."
Baywatch is something that absolutely changed my life.
[indistinct chatter]
[♪ joyful music playing]
[Berk] Thank goodness we came up with the name Baywatch,
because it lent itself to such an iconic logo.
Baywatch was very hard to market and promote.
We were on different nights, different stations.
So, we needed different elements to promote the show.
And these were them.
We got Baywatch: The Game.
I've never played it. Who made this game?
Baywatch stickers.
Hot Wheels.
This is Barbie.
Or as Pam Anderson would say, "It's CJ." [chuckles]
♪ Baywatch Barbie looks out to sea ♪
♪ A dolphin's in trouble ♪
-♪ Outside and free! ♪ -[child] Hurry!
[Matthew] The creators and producers of Baywatch,
these guys were just amazing business guys.
[Berk] We made a deal with Coke for one year
and then Pepsi for the next year
and then Dr. Pepper to put their machines in our lifeguard headquarters.
[Matthew] They had a billion viewers.
What product wouldn't wanna be in the show?
It's cheaper for them to give us a little bit of money
than actually run an ad or buy a billboard.
So, the bang for the buck on advertising was pretty genius.
Even the actors were figuring it out.
Oh, I got aggressive, man. I got aggressive.
I personally reached out to Adidas.
I would just pick up the phone. Dee-dee-dee-dee.
Corporate office. "Who's in charge over there?"
"Yeah, you know, what's up? My name's Jeremy Jackson."
"I'm on this show called Baywatch, and they let me wear whatever I want
and I really want to wear your clothes."
David Hasselhoff was actually making fun of me,
'cause I was always wearing that stuff.
"What is up with you and all this Adidas?"
And, you know, I was trying to plug this company
that was giving me free stuff. And he called me out on it.
And he wrote this little hook that said,
"With the beat and the sound of my stripes hitting ground,
I've got all I need."
♪ With the beat and the sound of my stripes hitting ground ♪
♪ I've got all I need ♪
[Jeremy] That song was called "You Can Run."
It was about the three stripes of Adidas hitting the ground.
♪ You can run Owi-oh-wi-oh ♪
It debuted on the European Billboard charts at number three.
I broke some kind of a record for youngest person
to debut at number three,
and I was inducted into the World Music Hall of Fame.
I really just think it was me… capitalizing on an opportunity,
coming from not being able to get whatever clothes I could,
not being able to rock whatever shoes I wanted.
The other kids had the Jordans and I didn't have the Jordans,
and I just took full advantage of that.
[indistinct chatter]
[Carmen] It was about using Baywatch in a different way.
So the next thing you know, I'm getting paid appearances
to show up at clubs all over the world because of all these things.
And it was easy money.
-[fan] Carmen! -[indistinct chatter]
[Matthew] It was sort of the beginning of what we're doing with social media.
And anything was an opportunity to cash in on.
And the sky was the limit.
[♪ soft music playing]
[Ingrid] My name is Ingrid Walters,
and I'm from Orange County, California.
Even at a young age, I was a competitive swimmer.
Then I was a lifeguard later on in life.
When I would work at the beach,
people used to come up to my lifeguard tower
and just sort of stare.
Some people would actually ask me if I could swim.
And a lot of people would just say,
"I've never seen a Black lifeguard before."
[chuckles]
I didn't take offense to it because they hadn't.
[director] Roll, roll, please…
[Matthew] Greg Bonann was one of the creators of Baywatch.
And when he saw Ingrid,
a woman of color that was a lifeguard
and a top swimmer and a beautiful woman,
he said, "Come on in. Come on my show."
I think they were kind of getting a little bit of flack
for not having any brown people.
It was all White people on the show.
And then he asked if I wanted to come and audition.
There was this whole thing about, "Was Baywatch racist?"
'Cause there were no Black lifeguards.
[Kelley] I don't think that Baywatch was designed
for Black representation.
When you think about life on the beach,
you probably aren't thinking about Black folks on the beach.
That show was not designed for us to look and say,
"Oh, look, this is something that, you know, we can aspire to."
[Gregory] I don't think that the people who produced
Baywatch were racist, but they knew
that a blonde, blue-eyed notion of Southern California
was what people wanted to see.
[Traci] At that time, there was not any diversity.
It was just, you know, so hard to get a job in Hollywood.
In the 1990s,
we had a number of people who burst onto the scene,
whether it was Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake.
On TV, the cast of Friends, the cast of Seinfeld.
It's this kind of aspirational television.
When you're talking about a scripted series
like a Baywatch or like a Dallas,
it's this fictionalized version of what you imagine
the good life is, and the good life looks like.
The one underlying common denominator
was that they were all very, very White.
[♪ dynamic music playing]
[Wayne] John Singleton said, "We lost the war on racism,
but we won the war on pop culture."
And while you people were watching all these White people running up
and down the beach,
Black was exploding. It was everywhere.
Spike Lee was shooting Do The Right Thing.
Rap was coming in.
Arsenio Hall becomes
one of the most famous talk show hosts on television.
Wouldn't that be funny to see Black people riding around in helmets in their cars?
[crowd laughing]
Hi, officer.
[Wayne] Suddenly, soul food restaurants were opening,
White people were moving to Harlem,
the world was shifting.
[Kelley] You had The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
You had Martin, you had Living Single.
You had In Living Color.
You had a number of shows
that were doing very well at major networks
that were representing different aspects of Black life.
[Matthew] These were windows into stories that we had never seen.
We didn't know this culture.
We just knew this little, tiny, rarefied version of society
that isn't accurate unless you stay in that bubble.
And it was eye-opening.
[♪ chill rhythmic music playing]
[Traci] I'm Traci Bingham,
and my character on Baywatch is Jordan Tate.
[Matthew] Traci hadn't really done much.
It was sort of her first real acting role.
She had done a guest starring spot on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
She was in the Marky Mark "Good Vibrations" music video.
A lot of people don't know that I'm the girl.
"The video hoe," as they call it, in the video. [laughs]
I'm the girl making out with Mark Wahlberg.
[fans] Traci!
[Matthew] Traci was the host
of the Playboy: Babes of Baywatch special.
That show was a really big show.
Traci introduced all the actresses
that had come from Baywatch and done Playboy,
or come from Playboy and done Baywatch.
Traci was just a very unique, exotic sort of beauty.
And they needed someone like her.
[Carmen] Traci's so much fun. She's a ball of energy.
She's amazing. [laughs]
I just thought Baywatch was just this show
about White girls with blonde hair, blue eyes,
with big boobs running up and down the beach that couldn't act.
[Matthew] So, according to Traci,
the NAACP was kinda up the ass of Baywatch for being very not diverse.
Power concedes nothing without struggle.
Boom. There you go. Hey, Traci.
I went in there with big hair, fake lashes, tons of eyeliner,
my boobs pushed up to my chin.
I actually had, like, three pairs of socks
on each side just to make my boobs look huge,
'cause I thought that's what the show was really about.
[indistinct chatter]
[Kelley] I look at Traci Bingham and I think
she looks like a Black version of Pamela Anderson.
I don't think I'm alone in that thought.
Both women are beautiful, and I'm not taking away
from how gorgeous I think Traci Bingham is,
but I think that in order for that show to have
a Black female lifeguard, they felt like she needed
to mirror what the White women look like.
And that's exactly what they did.
[Traci] I just knew I wanted to show
that not just White women can look hot and sexy
and, you know, over the top with the hair and the makeup.
Anyone can do it.
And so that's what I tried to do,
and I believe to this day it worked.
-[Susan] Oh, well, gotta have Traci. -Traci, yeah, Traci.
Another one, thousands of girls came in,
and I think she came in like three different times,
three times for that role.
[Susan] She was beautiful,
-and she could act. -[Fern] Just really terrific.
-[Susan] Yeah. -Knew right away she was our gal.
I get a phone call from my manager, "Are you sitting down?"
He said, "Well, congratulations,
you just booked Baywatch." [squeals] I was so excited.
Like, I could just cry, just thinking about it right now,
because it just changed my life. It changed my career.
It changed everything. It changed my perspective.
I felt like I made it. I came to California.
I wasn't in California that long, and I booked it.
I booked that show.
The first woman of color on that show.
[♪ theme music playing]
♪ Some people stand in the darkness ♪
♪ Afraid to step into the light ♪
♪ Some people need to help somebody ♪
♪ When 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 ♪ -♪ Oh, don't you fear ♪
-♪ I'll be ready ♪ -♪ Oh, I'll be ready ♪
-♪ Never you fear ♪ -♪ Oh, don't you fear ♪
-♪ Oh, I'll be ready ♪ -[vocalizing]
-♪ Forever and always -♪ Forever and always
-♪ Forever and always ♪ -♪ Forever and always ♪
♪ Forever and always I'm always here ♪
[♪ theme music concludes]