Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

The Bonann line
on Baywatch

Winners and Sinners list

---

By Tim Ryan
Star-Bulletin

COMPROMISE is a little like slicing a cake. If you do it right, everyone thinks they got the biggest piece. And so it is in the entertainment industry. Producers, writers, network execs, distributors and a TV show's creator have to feel they've contributed more than the other guy. It's a tightrope that rarely holds all the players. Someone has to fall, or get pushed.

Say you're a lifeguard with a concept for a show about your profession: true stories about real-life heroes. Then someone in the "industry" who's never been in saltwater above his knees says you need to have T&A, gang fights on the beach, drug deals on the sand, murder offshore, and more T&A. This, he insists, makes for better television than silly rescues in large waves, deadly undertows and real human interest.

New Millennium Press

Baywatch: Rescued from Prime Time: By Greg Bonann with Brad Lewis; foreword by Grant Tinker (New Millennium Press); 208 pages; 279 photos, 148 in color; $26.95.

It's up to you to decide: Is getting your story on the air at any cost better than not having the real one told, and potentially losing millions of dollars?

Los Angeles County beach lifeguard Greg Bonann -- creator and executive producer of "Baywatch" -- passed many days sitting in his Santa Monica Bay tower dreaming of telling the story of the guardians of sand and waves. In the short version of this story, Bonann, Doug Schwartz and Michael Berk, did just that, creating "Baywatch," now in its 11th season.

The long version of how a guy with wet sand between his toes got "Baywatch" on television is detailed in Bonann's 208-page book, "Baywatch: Rescued from Prime Time," a step by step detail of the kind of dealmaking that got "Baywatch" into production and led to its survival through 200 episodes.

It should be required reading for aspiring television producers and writers.

The lesson: If you're not willing to sacrifice just about EVERYTHING -- relationships, private time, friendships, even some values -- do not enter this arena.

A third of this engrossing book is autobiographical. Bonann opens up his life to scrutiny. He was a below average athlete as a kid, one other kids picked on. Through hard work and good coaching, he went from floundering novice swimmer to a city champion at upscale Pacific Palisades High School in Southern California, then became a lifeguard, award-winning documentary filmmaker and a successful Hollywood producer.

Star-Bulletin file photo
Greg Bonann on the set of "Baywatch Hawaii."

The middle portion takes the reader step by step through "Baywatch's" development, early presentations, 10 years of pitching the story and rejections, selling the pilot to NBC, the network's subsequent cancellation and the series' rebirth in syndication.

Bonann never gave up believing that lifeguarding is a noble profession with stories that would capture the public's imagination.

In his book, Bonann names names and dates. He shares notes from meetings with network executives, network-assigned writers and distributors, each trying to leave their mark on what had begun as a far purer story.

But the bottom line is the bottom line. Television, Bonann explains, is about making money, more than art. And the show, he admits, isn't "Hamlet." Television executives -- "like me" -- and actors make way too much money, and ego can destroy the best of shows, he writes.

To Bonann's credit, "Baywatch: Rescued from Prime Time" is not a kiss-and-tell book. The accounting he gives of events surrounding the show focuses on the professional, not the personal. He spends less than a chapter detailing problems with actors and others. Criticism is straightforward without sensationalism or below-the-belt nastiness. (See winner, sinners and implants lists, above)

Although star David Hasselhoff is praised, only a few pictures of the actor, who left the show last year, appear. The book's cover has a photo of current "Baywatch" actor Michael Bergin, a spot where one would expect to see Hasselhoff. And the four ensemble pictures on the back cover with 11 "Baywatch" regulars -- Pamela Anderson appears in three -- also exclude Hasselhoff.

"Baywatch: Rescued from Prime Time" can be read a few ways: A story about selling out to get what you want at any cost and how to do it; a story of survival and persistence; or the ultimate "Rocky" fable.

It's curious that nowhere in the book does Bonann mention the 1976 cult film and definitive piece on his profession, "Lifeguard" starring Sam Elliot. It's a simple story about saving people, lonely days in the tower, enjoying nature, spending an entire career guarding one stretch of sand. (Parker Stevenson, who appeared in the "Baywatch" pilot and has directed several episodes, acted in "Lifeguard.")

Bonann doesn't say it, but this film may tell the story he wanted his TV show to tell.

---

Bonann’s ‘Baywatch’
winners and sinners

---

By Tim Ryan
Star-Bulletin

Following is is a sampling of Greg Bonnan's take on the "Baywatch" cast of characters, excerpted from his book, "Baywatch: Rescued from Prime Time."

The winners

David Hasselhoff: "He challenged me ... to do my best ... A sharp, talented man with an almost photographic memory for learning dialogue."

Pamela Anderson: Some "issues interfered with her success, but at her core she is an extremely focused, goal-oriented, hard-working actor ... fun to be around." On her film "Barbed Wire": "It was in focus."

Mike Newman: "A real lifeguard who's been on 'Baywatch' since the beginning. It's always good to know that he's there when things get hairy ... such as working in the surf line."

Gena Lee Nolin: She had an almost debilitating fear of being in front of a camera. "Her distress was simply too much, an unwieldy tension ... When everything's right, a very good actress."

Alexandra Paul: "Could have been a real lifeguard ... exceptional person ... great attitude ... always ready to plunge into the chilly Pacific."

Brooke Burns: "Elegant, statuesque with a confident manner ... disciplined ... a strong sense of teamwork."

The sinners

David Charvet: "A modest challenge for whoever was directing his episodes. We had to write, shoot and edit especially for him. He would memorize other actor's lines (then) silently mouth the words while they were being spoken to him. It bugged the other actors ... tremendous athlete."

Tracy Bingham: "She simply could not act ... so bad it was embarrassing. Fake breasts and lousy acting aside, the most disappointing aspect of ... Tracy was her failure as a role model. She never participated in ... charity opportunities unless a camera was in the vicinity."

Donna D'Errico: Behaved "disrespectfully to ('Baywatch') wardrobe, hair and makeup people ... (She was) encouraged to take acting classes but refused."

Carmen Electra: "Fired after appearing in 12 episodes ... her presence on the show was a mistake from the beginning ... (though) she was a pleasure to work with -- nice, energetic, relatively capable actor. She looked as though she was from Manhattan not Malibu. In ankle-deep water she ... was in over her head."

The implants

Number of operations:

Gena Lee Nolin, 2

Pamela Anderson, 2

Tracy Bingham, 1

"If I had a daughter and she wanted breast enhancements, I would spend the $5,000 on professional counseling for her."

Click for online
calendars and events.