1980s television series Baywatch is getting the reboot treatment at Fox, and here are the details of the new show.
Baywatch is perennialy parodied in mainstream media. Whether it’s the melodramatic scripts or the iconic slow motion running, with the show became a byword for televisual cheese. Perhaps most memorably, it featured as a major plot point in 2006 film Borat, as the title character becomes infatuated with Pamela Anderson. It also formed part of 2019 Disney+ drama Pam And Tommy, which saw Lily James play Anderson as she deals with sexism on the Baywatch set
Nevertheless, the show was and remains hugely popular, launching the global careers of Pamela Anderson and David Hasselhoff. It followed a group of lifeguards as they patrol the beaches of LA County, and was sold right around the globe.
It ran in its initial form for 241 episodes over eleven seasons from 1989 to 2001, with a spin-off, Baywatch Nights, running from 1995 to 1997.
In 2017, the show was adapted into a feature film directed by Seth Gordon, written by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, and starring Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron, Alexandra Daddario, Priyanka Chopra and Kelly Rohrbach, with cameos from Anderson and Hasselhoff. The film, while successful at the box office, was savaged by critics and a mooted sequel was never produced.
A reboot TV series is instead now in the works at Fox, with Lara Olsen serving as showrunner and lead writer. According to the official description, the new version of Baywatch will include “daring ocean rescues, pristine beaches, and iconic red bathing suits, along with a whole new generation of Baywatch lifeguards, who navigate complicated, messy personal lives”.
No cast details have been confirmed, but the show has been picked up for a full series. Due to delays arising from last year’s strike, Baywatch is expected to premiere towards the end of 2024, we’ll keep you updated as we hear more.
