History YMMV / Baywatch

* OnceOriginalNowOverdone: While it's now the target of derision and overused jokes (not to mention confusion from younger viewers over what the big deal is), there was nothing like it when it debuted. Certainly, there were no other shows where the main cast was in swimsuits most of the time, and no other show chronicled the occupation of lifeguards - a premise that really hasn't been explored much since. And while the fanservice and titillation has been surpassed since the early [[TheNineties '90s]], [[PoorMansPorn it was also a big draw back then.]]

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: While it's now the target of derision and overused jokes (not to mention confusion from younger viewers over what the big deal is), there was nothing like it when it debuted. Certainly, there were no other shows where the main cast was in swimsuits most of the time, and no other show chronicled the occupation of lifeguards- a premise that really hasn't been explored much since. And while the fanservice and titillation has been surpassed since the early [[TheNineties '90s]], [[PoorMansPorn it was also a big draw back then.]]

* TheScrappy: While Cort himself doesn't have a {{Hatedom}}, his actor, John Allen Nelson, has spoken of being treated as the Real Life Example of this by the cast. Cort was added to the show in Season 1 by NBC as a last-ditch effort to try to save its cratering ratings by adding a more eye-catching male lead and the show quickly refocused the majority of its plotlines to focus either directly on Cort or give Cort a major role. Apparently the cast absolutely hated him because of this and would result to a lot of pettiness to show him that. Fans seem to not really have a strong opinion, since the first season is such a prime example of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness and John Allen Nelson was a welcome injection of charisma into a main cast that was otherwise not terribly remarkable outside of the obvious main characters. In spite of this, he was still doing guest appearances as late as Season 5 and even returned for the reunion movie.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyHa6VfNPR4 That theme song]] (the piano solo is pretty awesome).

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK9-XZIu2kg "Save Me"]], the theme song of Season 1, is epic on its own right.

* BestKnownForTheFanservice: Without a doubt, the thing the show is most-remembered for is slow-motion shots of attractive lifeguards (both male and female) running across the beach on their way to rescue a civilian in need. ''Website/TheAgonyBooth'' once noted that ''Baywatch'''s decline in popularity coincided with the rise of home broadband internet, joking(?) that ''Baywatch'' was only popular because it was PoorMansPorn and accessible [[TheInternetIsForPorn internet]] making legitimate porn more accessible made ''Baywatch'' obsolete.
* CriticalDissonance: Was frequently torn apart by critics during its run but became the most watched show in the world with a massive international audience.

** Newmie, for some, given that there was an official Newmie fanclub back in the day, and even moreso now thanks to ''Creator/AllisonPregler'' and her Baywatching series.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmauMVxHSds That theme song]] (the piano solo is pretty awesome).

* GrowingTheBeard: It's generally agreed that the show improved quite a bit with the new cast in season 3- besides the obvious BreakoutCharacter C.J. (Pamela Anderson), there was Mitch's old flame in Stephanie providing some WillTheyOrWontThey, and David Charvet as Matt and Nicole Eggert as Summer were improvements over Eddie and Shauni in seasons 1 and 2.

* PeripheryDemographic: Surprisingly, at least two thirds of ''Baywatch'''s average viewing audience were not guys trying to gawk at Pamela Anderson (or the other women), but young women who liked how the cast was full of strong female characters (and also that it had hot guys besides the hot women).
** It was also popular with some families- hence why David Hasselhoff was always struggling with some of the other producers about how fanservice-y it should be. Hasselhoff's attitude was that it should be more family friendly, while other producers wanted more titillation because (paraphrased) "adult men are our audience too".

* GrowingTheBeard: It's generally agreed that the show improved quite a bit with the new cast in season 3- besides the obvious BreakoutStar Pamela Anderson as C.J., there was Mitch's old flame in Stephanie providing some WillTheyOrWontThey, and David Charvet as Matt and Nicole Eggert as Summer were improvements over Eddie and Shauni in seasons 1 and 2.

** A.J. Langer (Roxanne from ''Series/MySoCalledLife'') appears in two episodes (as different characters).

* HypeBacklash: While the show was wildly popular across the globe during the '90s, it also made the #21 spot in Magazine/TVGuide's Top 50 Worst TV Shows of All Time.

** Creator/AngieHarmon started her career playing Ryan McBride for ''Baywatch Nights.'' She was discovered on a plane by Hasselhoff.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: While it's now the target of derision and overused jokes (not to mention confusion from younger viewers over what the big deal is), there was nothing like it when it debuted. Certainly, there were no other shows where the main cast was in swimsuits most of the time, and no other show chronicled the occupation of lifeguards- a premise that really hasn't been explored much since. And while the fanservice and titillation has been surpassed since the early '90s, [[PoorMansPorn it was also a big draw back then.]]

** The show is a time capsule of mid-90s culture, including technology such as primitive e-mail and internet and bulky cell phones, 90s fashions, and more. Regarding the latter, the particular style of swimsuit used by the female lifeguards became forever associated with the show (being often called simply the "''Baywatch'' swimsuit"), but was only in vogue during the show's peak.
** The show also displays its age quite readily with some of the musical guests it featured, including Music/NewOrder (who were at the peak of commercial stardom at the time and were in the middle of promoting their album ''Music/{{Republic}}'', itself strongly influenced by 90's house music) and Music/TheBeachBoys (who had experienced a massive commercial comeback in the late 80's and early 90's, though were already on their way out again by the time they appeared on the show in 1995).

* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: The executives, producers, and story editors at Creator/{{NBC}} all thought a show about lifeguards was a dumb idea with a limited premise, leading to a lot of ExecutiveMeddling in the first season to try and salvage it. NBC cancelled the show after its first season due to disastrous ratings (it placed 73rd out of 103 shows) after its only network season, seemingly proving their point. The show seemed doomed when its high costs at the time put its small production company out of business. However, a couple of fortunate circumstances came together at once. One, the show had been very popular overseas and the European distributor, Fremantle Media, requested a second season and was willing to pay for part of it. Creator/DavidHasselhoff and the show's creators started a new, smaller production company to get ''Baywatch'' made on a fraction of its old budget and then distributed through first run syndication, at the exact moment that the first-run syndication market exploded in popularity. Most of its budget came from excessive ProductPlacement and foreign investment. Of course, to film at less than half of the budget meant proper scripts and even basic retakes were jettisoned, making the show very different past its first season. ''Baywatch'' would go on to become one of the most successful shows in the world, though [[BestKnownForTheFanservice its success clearly didn't come from good stories or interesting characters.]] Amusingly, in 1994 (during the peak of the show's syndicated popularity), NBC took out an ad in the ''Hollywood Reporter'', admitting that they made a mistake when they cancelled the show 4 years earlier.
** On a less grand scale, Fremantle Media's attempts to sell the HD remaster of the show went poorly at first. In addition to fan complaints about issues with the recent remaster, the ''Baywatch'' brand seemed utterly obsolete by the mid-2010s and the failure of the 2017 movie left them with a fully funded, ready-to-air remaster and no buyers. However, once again, a few good circumstances came together. Namely, Jason Momoa, who at the time he appeared on ''Baywatch Hawaii'' was one of their many cheap, unknown actors, headlined ''Aquaman'' in 2018 and blew up the box office, giving them a chance to finally sell the remaster. Then the pandemic happened in 2020, and suddenly a ''lot'' of people had a ''lot'' of free time and streaming services really needed content. By 2021, ''Baywatch'' was one of the most streamed shows in the world and the remaster was sold to over 120 countries.

** Out of all the "hot, young male" lifeguards used in the show's ever changing main cast, Matt Brody is probably the best known due to him being there the longest and his name being used for [[InNameOnly Zac Efron's character]] in the 2017 film.

* SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct: Creator/DavidHasselhoff actually gave a pretty powerful performance in the two-part episode "Shattered," but was unfortunately let down by the ludicrous script and the obscene ProductPlacement.

** "A Little Help" has CJ training for a dancing competition, which doesn't end too well for her. (See WardrobeMalfunction on the main page.) 17 years later, Creator/PamelaAnderson competed in the Fall 2012 season of ''Series/DancingWithTheStars''...and was the first one eliminated.

* HypeBacklash: While the show was wildly popular across the globe during the '90s, it also made the #21 spot in TV Guide's Top 50 Worst TV Shows of All Time.

** Almost any attempt at serious drama was ruined by corny writing, cheesy subplots, hammy or amateurish acting, and unsubtle product placement. A good example of this would be the episode where it's revealed Stephanie has skin cancer, which was used as the b-plot of the WCW tie in episode where Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage need to win a wrestling match on the beach in order to save the local youth center from being demolished by Ric Flair.

** Creator/JasonMomoa as rookie lifeguard [[TheDanza Jason]] Ioane during the final two seasons as ''Baywatch Hawaii''.

* TheScrappy: While Cort himself doesn't have a {{Hatedom}}, his actor, John Allen Nelson, has spoken of being treated as the Real Life Example of this by the cast. Cort was added to the show as a last-ditch effort to try to save its cratering ratings on NBC by adding a more eye-catching male lead and the show quickly refocused the majority of its plotlines to focus either directly on Cort or give Cort a major role. Apparently the cast absolutely hated him because of this and would result to a lot of pettiness to show him that. Fans seem to not really have a strong opinion, since the first season is such a prime example of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness and John Allen Nelson was a welcome injection of charisma into a main cast that was otherwise not terribly remarkable outside of the obvious main characters. In spite of this, he was still doing guest appearances as late as Season 5 and even returned for the reunion movie.

** On a less grand scale, FremantleMedia's attempts to sell the HD remaster of the show went poorly at first. In addition to fan complaints about issues with the recent remaster, the ''Baywatch'' brand seemed utterly obsolete by the mid-2010s and the failure of the 2017 movie left them with a fully funded, ready-to-air remaster and no buyers. However, once again, a few good circumstances came together. Namely, Jason Momoa, who at the time he appeared on ''Baywatch Hawaii'' was one of their many cheap, unknown actors, headlined ''Aquaman'' in 2018 and blew up the box office, giving them a chance to finally sell the remaster. Then the pandemic happened in 2020, and suddenly a ''lot'' of people had a ''lot'' of free time and streaming services really needed content. By 2021, ''Baywatch'' was one of the most streamed shows in the world and the remaster was sold to over 120 countries.

* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: The executives, producers, and story editors at Creator/{{NBC}} all thought a show about lifeguards was a dumb idea with a limited premise. NBC cancelled the show after its first season, but Creator/DavidHasselhoff and the show's creators were able to continue ''Baywatch'' through syndication and with a budget that came from excessive ProductPlacement, all at the cost of proper scripts and not being able to do retakes. Although ''Baywatch'' would go on to become one of the most successful shows in the world, NBC can't exactly be called wrong for their lack of faith in the show since [[BestKnownForTheFanservice its success clearly didn't come from good stories or interesting characters.]] [[note]] Although in 1994 (during the peak of the show's syndicated popularity), NBC took out an ad in the ''Hollywood Reporter'', admitting that they made a mistake when they cancelled the show 4 years earlier.[[/note]]

** Garner Ellerbee, who was only featured on the first and third through fifth seasons. He and Mitch had a good comedic chemistry and he brought a unique element to the series due to not being a lifeguard. Sadly, he left the series after season 5.
* FanNickname: Babewatch, for the show itself.

* WheelchairWoobie: Jason in "Shattered".

** The show is a time capsule of mid-90s culture, including technology such as primitive e-mail and internet and bulky cell phones, 90s fashions, and more. Regarding the latter, the particular style of swimsuit used by the female lifeguards in particular became forever associated with the show (being often called simply the "''Baywatch'' swimsuit"), but was only in vogue during the show's peak.

* PeripheryDemographic: Surprisingly, at least 65 percent of ''Baywatch'''s average viewing audience were not guys trying to gawk at Pamela Anderson but young women who liked how the cast was full of strong female characters.