Was It All Just Bouncing On The Beach-“After Baywatch: Moment in the Sun”

Breast-y beauties bouncing on the beach, hunky seemingly hetero lifeguards, trope-filled plot lines; there is no denying that the world watched, and loved, “Baywatch.” The question is, will we watch the new 4-part “After Baywatch: Moment in the Sun” docuseries currently streaming on Hulu?

Across this extensive article, we learn maybe more than we’d ever want (as one might watching “After Baywatch: Moment in the Sun”) about the infamous 90s-era show. But pretty much as you’d suspect, there was some on-set canoodling, a fair share off-screen celebrity controversies, a connection to Playboy, and a seemingly revolving door of cast members coming and going for various reasons across the show’s eleven seasons.

Liking this kind of fare or not, there is no denying that "Baywatch" had its day in the bright sun of popularity and made a mark on broadcast viewership.

Syndication Juggernaut

What very few know, given how popular it became, is that "Baywatch" was actually canceled after its first season run on the American NBC network. Star David “The Hoff” Hasselhoff and the show's creators revived it through the first-run syndication market, and this is where the show found an audience and became such a massive hit.

“Baywatch” became the most-watched television series worldwide and at one time boasted a weekly audience viewership of over a billion.

Behind-the-scenes sex

In the article above, Erika Eleniak says she is "positive" hookups happened on the show, and Alexandra Paul has admitted to a secret relationship. So, yes, the show's actors surely 'enjoyed' each other’s company, in more ways than one.

"You're on the beach and you're covered in sunscreen and your pheromones, and everything is, like, firing because you're exercising and you're in the ocean, so sometimes things happen," David Chokachi, who played Cody Madison on the show, mentions.

But generally, it seems whatever ‘dating’ happened between cast members, personal connecting was managed as discreetly as possible.

The Playboy talent pool

Although NBC initially turned down Eleniak for casting consideration because she had posed in Playboy Magazine, eventually she won out with producers to get on the show. And by all accounts, Hugh Hefner was very happy to see this opening to such a popular show. And once this door was open for the Playboy casting connection viewers saw Playmates Carmen Electra, Pamela Anderson, Angelica Bridges, Gena Lee Nolin in the cast.

Traci Bingham, also cast, would go on to host the Playboy special, "Babes of Baywatch."

Small Paychecks and smaller swimsuits

Claiming to have suffered from a small budget, the stars of the show make it clear in the doc how little they were being paid, as much as how monetary setbacks caused restrictions on the final product broadcast. For instance, the show's famous multiple montages were used to fill time when the scripts came up short.

What also came up short were the swimsuits.

Eleniak claims that by the second year, “I felt like necklines plunged," and Kelly Packard, playing April Giminski, claimed the suit was cut so high she could barely function in it.

The men were also told to keep to a specified weight, just like the women, with the cut of their suits getting tighter as well as the show went on.  

Pamela Anderson

Furthering from the Playboy connection, in the show’s second season Pamela Anderson was added to the cast, via a Hefner introduction. Quipping in her audition that the producers of the show had seen her naked in Playboy already, she felt she didn’t need to show herself in a swimsuit.

The blonde actress did strip out of her clothes though to reveal herself in a batingh suit that first time meeting the producers.

And history was made.

Hasselhoff expressed initial concern that a.) people would be looking at Pamela much more than they ever did him and that he b.) didn’t want another Playboy girl on the show. But Anderson became a star of the show, her presence attracting rabid viewership. Even when she suffered through Hollywood gossip controversy in her volatile relationship with Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee, as the couple surely suffered during the leak of their infamous sex tape, the show kept Anderson front and center.

Onward down the beach

Cast member, Nicole Eggert has claimed sexual assault from another famous TV star (not a "Baywatch" cast member) and has shared her breast cancer diagnosis with the world. Michael Newman has been diagnosed with Parkinson's. Erika Eleniak and Kelly Packard have both spoken over their struggle to find acting jobs post "Baywatch." And the doc finds Billy Warlock living in the mountains as a ski school supervisor and Michael Bergin a real estate mogul.

Besides living the embodiment of “being big in Germany,” releasing fifteen studio albums, garnering multiple gold and platinum awards, and achieving a number-one single in that country, David Hasselhoff has acted in a slew of movies since and is regarded by many as a singing and acting icon.