The Babes of Baywatch

Since it Debuted in 1989, Baywatch has become the most-watched television show on earth, broadcast to 1 billion viewers each week in 141 countries and in 32 languages. In France it's dubbed Alerte à Malibu, and in China, Soul of the Sea. It's shown in Yemen, Sri Lanka and the Amazon basin, where locals crank up gas generators to watch it on portable TVs. Click on the Baywatch Web site (www.baywatchtv.com) and you'll see that Baywatch has inspired clothing merchandise, a line of women's footwear and a campus search for new talent. ("We are looking for people who embody a healthy mind and body with a love of the environment, a dedication to giving back to the community and the determination to succeed in all things.") In a section titled Baywatch(text concluded on page 144)Baywatch Babes (continued from page 123) Fun Facts, you'll learn that the stars of Baywatch go through a boatload of supplies each year, including 306 pounds of body makeup, a 50-gallon drum of sunscreen, 1500 cases of bottled water, 900 sets of earplugs and nose plugs, 575 swimsuits, 39 pairs of goggles and 129 surfboards. It has taken more than trademark montage sequences, dramatic rescue scenes and David Hasselhoff to bring Baywatch to its current status. With those kinds of statistics, who cares about the plot?--which helps explain episodes that feature huge electric eels, a drug smuggler's ring, women giving birth on the beach, troubled boyfriends who hold their lifeguard girlfriends captive on boats and plenty of life-threatening underwater explosions. It's no news bulletin that Baywatch is popular because of its babes. The CPR-doin', lifesavin', spandex-wearin', perfect genes--havin' gals have assured the red swimsuit a place in history. The show is also successful because of the women who have shed those suits for Playboy.

The Playboy-Baywatch connection began with the show's first episode. When we introduced Erika Eleniak as Miss July 1989, she had finished taping a two-hour NBC pilot about Malibu lifeguards in which she starred as Shauni McLain. Who knew that the far-fetched show would become a hit? ("It's just another job," Erika said then.) Yeah, just another job filled with half-naked hard bodies in compromising positions. The world was willing to suspend disbelief. Soon millions of viewers were glued to their television sets each Friday night, watching Erika give mouth-to-mouth and run down the beach. Forget the sun, sand and surf. We couldn't get enough of Baywatch's breasts, buttocks and slow-motion jiggling.

As ratings rose an inevitable deconstruction set in. Rolling Stone dubbed the show "Babe Watch." Howard Stern regularly goofed on the actresses. ("Look at our bathing suits. We could have gotten really radical, but those are regulation suits," Erika countered.) But the easy target chugged on, gaining viewers in some high-powered living rooms. Paul and Linda McCartney said, "We watch Baywatch on the telly all the time." Princess Diana once stated, "Baywatch is our family's favorite television show." And President Clinton asked Hasselhoff, "Did you ever expect Baywatch to be so successful?"

When Erika decided to leave Baywatch to pursue a film career, the producers scrambled to replace her. What they found was that it takes a Playmate to replace a Playmate. The new recruit was Miss February 1990, a Canadian model and former volleyball star named Pamela Anderson. As lifeguard C.J. Parker, Pam stretched the spandex like no other. "I think Baywatch gives people a great escape, no matter where in the world they live," she said. With Playboy and Baywatch as her launching pads, Pamela became the hottest name on the planet.

Baywatch continued to enlist its talent from the pages of Playboy. Playmates Julie McCullough (Miss February 1986), Jenny McCarthy (Miss October 1993), Heidi Mark (Miss July 1995) and Kelly Monaco (Miss April 1997) jumped on the sandwagon, all guest-starring on Baywatch. Playmate Donna D'Errico (Miss September 1995) had guest roles in both Baywatch and its short-lived spin-off, Baywatch Nights, before concentrating on her television day job as lifeguard Donna Marco. The show's newest Playmate recruit, Marliece Andrada, found out she was chosen to be a Centerfold and cast for Baywatch in the same week.

Who else has heated up both page and screen? There's Yasmine Bleeth (former Baywatch lifeguard Caroline Holden) and Gena Lee Nolin (lifeguard Neely Capshaw). And don't forget the rest of the women who qualify for the Playboy-Baywatch double, including Carmen Electra (who co-hosted MTV's Singled Out), Tai Collins (who made a real-life splash in 1991 when she admitted to having had a love affair with Senator Charles Robb), Rhonda Rydell (who played a rapper on Baywatch) and beach beauty Nancy Valen (Captain Samantha Thomas during Baywatch's 1996--1997 season). (Both Rydell and Valen appear on our pages for the first time.) And then there's Traci Bingham, the knockout who plays lifeguard Jordan Tate.

And so it remains a Baywatch world, and for good reason. In a land where the water's always blue, where the sun always shines and where the girls are always tan, healthy and happy, we'll continue to tune in every week.

This unique breed of bathing beauties is what makes the world's most-watched show worth watching.

Soon millions of viewers were glued to their TV sets each Friday night, watching Erika run down the beach.