Get your buns on the beach, babe.
Get your buns on the beach, babe.
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The impact of Baywatch on popular culture is enormous. (Lifeguard) Towering. Humongous. Hoff-mungous. (Ugh, I know. I promise the podcast is funnier than this.)
Being a mere bébé when Baywatch premiered in the year 1989, it was not initially on my radar. Then, when I became a sentient, pop-culture consuming tween in the mid-90s, it entered my awareness, but mostly through an IRL relationship with a guest star (more on that in the first episode). I decided early on, it wasn’t for me.
I WAS WRONG.
This show. Has. Everything: drama, comedy, so many now-famous people who cut their teeth on TV in beach shorts and flip flops. Wait- is Baywatch to West Coast actors what Law & Order was/is to East Coast actors?! (Spoiler alert: a young Mariska Hargitay is even featured in an episode, which has just scrambled my brain in some TV guest-star inception.)
Baywatch is (and will forever be) the most watched show in television history, at one point reaching over 1B weekly viewers world wide. That’s IMPOSSIBLE to do now. Mostly because of streaming services and an abundance of content, but also because current television doesn’t feature slo-mo bouncing t*tties (at least not the television I’m watching, but I guess that’d be totes innapro on the Great British Bake Off, food safety being the main consideration).
However, it’s reductive to say that all Baywatch has to offer is sexy young people. It’s sexy old people, too. Well, mostly middle-aged, but a few olds. It’s also got a lot of heart, good jokes and an ABUNDANCE of b-roll of the Pacific Ocean and the beautiful California coastline.
Maybe you watched Baywatch back when it originally aired. Maybe you didn’t. Maybe you’re watching now, or maybe you don’t want to watch it at all. Either way, I think you’ll really enjoy Baywatchers. And once you’ve had a chance to check it out, let me know what you think below!
AWS (always wear sunscreen)!
Nicole