Like the end of a slow-motion music video on the beach, the new “Baywatch” has found a home: Fox has signed a script+penalty deal with Fremantle for a new version of the long-running surf-sand-and-saviors show.
The new “Baywatch,” which was created by Michael Berk, Douglas Schwartz, and Gregory J. Bonann, will be run by Lara Olsen (“Spinning Out”). It was called “Baywatch” and starred David Hasselhoff. It ran from 1989 to 1999 and then as “Baywatch: Hawaii” from 1999 to 2001.
Executive producers on the hour-long thriller will be Olsen, Berk, Bonann, and Schwartz. The show comes from both Fremantle and Fox Entertainment. It’s back with daring ocean rescues, clean beaches, and iconic red bathing suits. There’s also a whole new generation of Baywatch lifeguards who have to deal with their own complicated, messy personal lives in this action-packed reboot that shows there are two kinds of families: the ones you are born into and the ones you find.
There was another TV reunion movie called “Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding” on Fox in 2003. This is their second trip to the lifeguard hut.
Along with Hasselhoff, Pamela Anderson, Yasmine Bleeth, Alexandra Paul, Erika Eleniak, Nicole Eggert, Parker Stevenson, and many more have been on the show over the years. Hasselhoff was also in a spinoff show called “Baywatch Nights,” which ran from 1995 to 1997 and was a private eye story. At one point, “Baywatch” was shown in more than 145 countries, which was more than any other TV show. The show’s PR firm even made up a fact about it being the “No. 1 series in the world,” which was then used as proof in other articles.
The idea for the show came from Bonann’s time as a lifeguard in Los Angeles County. Later, Bonann became a director for the Olympics. He met Berk and Schwartz after pitching a show about lifeguards for years. They first worked on “Baywatch” for Grant Tinker’s GTG production company, which already had a deal with CBS to make a show. The pilot for “Baywatch: Panic at Malibu Pier” was sold to NBC after the Eye network turned it down. It was shown as a movie on NBC, which then picked it up for a 12-episode season.
“Baywatch” didn’t do well on NBC, but the makers were able to get the rights back from GTG so they could make new first-run episodes for syndication. The producers got a lot of different backers, such as a small distributor called LBS, an earlier version of Fremantle (which had sold the show around the world and seen how popular Hasselhoff was in Germany), UK outlet ITV, and the Chris-Craft TV station group. When LBS went bankrupt, All-American TV, which is owned by Scotti Bros. Records, decided to invest and guarantee the show. They also took over as the show’s distributor. Later, Pearson TV bought All-American. Pearson later became a part of FremantleMedia, which was made in 2001 by a group of deals led by Germany’s Bertelsmann. In 2018, FremantleMedia changed its name to Fremantle.
That’s the long story of how “Baywatch” became a big hit in the Fremantle library. A remake of “Baywatch” has been talked about before; the most recent “Baywatch” movie, with Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron, came out in 2017. That movie made $178 million around the world.
Olsen has worked on the revivals of “90210” and “Beauty and the Beast,” both at The CW, so she knows a lot about bringing old TV shows back to life. “Blood and Treasure,” “Reign,” “Life Unexpected,” and “Private Practice” are some of her other roles. Independent Artist Group and lawyer Melissa Rogal work with Olsen.
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