Like the end of a slow-motion musical montage on the beach, the “Baywatch” reboot has found a home: Fox has closed a script+penalty deal for a new version of Fremantle’s long-running Surf-Sand-Saviors series.
Fox and Fremantle have tapped Lara Olsen (“Spinning Out”) to serve as showrunner for the new “Baywatch” film, originally created by Michael Burke, Douglas Schwartz and Gregory J. Bonan. “Baywatch” starring David Hasselhoff originally ran from 1989 to 1999 and was remade as “Baywatch Hawaii” from 1999 to 2001.
Olsen, Burke, Bonan and Schwartz will serve as executive producers on the one-hour drama, which comes from both Fremantle and Fox Entertainment. Here’s the new tagline: “The daring ocean rescues, pristine beaches, and signature red bathing suits are back, along with a whole new generation of Baywatch lifeguards, who navigate complex, messy personal lives in this action-packed version that shows there’s your family.” “I was born into the family you find.”
This isn’t Fox’s first visit to the lifeguard shack: the network also aired the “Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding” reunion TV movie in 2003.
Besides Hasselhoff, the show’s cast over the years has included Pamela Anderson, Yasmine Bleethe, Alexandra Paul, Erika Eleniak, Nicole Eggert, Parker Stevenson and many more. Hasselhoff also starred in a spin-off series, the drama special titled “Baywatch Nights,” which aired from 1995 to 1997. “Baywatch” was a sensation, airing in over 145 countries simultaneously, over Any other TV show. The show’s PR company even ran a statistic, calling it a “no.” “The world’s first series” which was then reprinted as fact in publications.
The show was originally inspired by Bonan’s time as a lifeguard in Los Angeles County. Bonan later became an Olympics film director and after years of making a show about lifeguards, he eventually met Burke and Schwartz. They originally developed “Baywatch” for Grant Tinker’s GTG panels, which had a series commitment at CBS. When Eye Network finished, the pilot episode, “Baywatch: Panic at Malibu Pier,” was sold to NBC, which aired it as a movie — and successfully, it got a 12-episode season.
“Baywatch” was a failure at NBC, and the producers were able to buy back the rights to the show from GTG in order to produce new episodes that would premiere in syndication. The producers enlisted a variety of investors, including small distributor LBS, as well as an earlier version of Fremantle (which distributed the show internationally and saw Hasselhoff’s popularity in Germany), UK outlet ITV and television station Chris-Craft. group. All-American Television, operated by Scotti Bros. Records, agreed to invest as underwriter for the show, then took over as distributor when LBS went bankrupt. Pearson TV later purchased All-American; Pearson eventually became part of Fremantle Media, which was created through a series of mergers by German company Bertelsmann in 2001. (Fremantle Media became Fremantle in 2018).
This is the long road that has led to Baywatch becoming a prominent title in the Fremantle Library. A “Baywatch” reboot has been discussed in the past; The movie “Baywatch” starring Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron was recently released in 2017. This movie grossed $178 million worldwide.
As for Olsen, she’s very familiar with rebooting classic TV franchises, having worked on the revivals of “90210” and “Beauty and the Beast,” both on the CW. Her other credits include “Blood and Treasure,” “Reign,” “Life Unexpected,” and “Private Practice.”