Media flood A tidal wave of media attention rolls into Oahu's North Shore next week when entertainment reporters descend on the much talked about, often delayed "Baywatch" reunion movie production -- "Baywatch Hawaiian Wedding: The Cast Reunion Movie."
North Shore
for ‘Baywatch’
reunion
The cast of the film
includes Pamela Anderson
and David HasselhoffBy Tim Ryan
tryan@starbulletin.com"It's been phenomenal, but we pretty much expected it," said Doug Schwartz, co-executive producer and director of the Fox Television movie of the week. "We think this will be the highest rated program in the show's (12-year) history. We have all the original icons from the NBC, syndicated and Hawaii years."
Reporting teams from Entertainment Tonight, E, Access Hollywood, and Extra will be here to cover the filming and interview the stars, Schwartz said. Fox Television also is sending a publicity team to coordinate the media event.
The production, based at the Turtle Bay Resort, will feature the return of "Baywatch" patriarch David Hasselhoff, Pamela Anderson, Yasmine Bleeth, Alexandra Paul, Carmen Electra, Nicole Eggert, Michael Bergin, Donna D'Errico, Jeremy Jackson, Gena Lee Nolan, Angelica Bridges, Kelly Packard, and from "Baywatch Hawaii," Jason Mamoa, Stacy Kamano and Brande Roderick, last year's Playboy's Playmate of the Year.
Guest stars include Kauai resident Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa who reprises his 1991-92 "Baywatch" role as ex-con and martial arts master Mason Sato, who terrorized Mitch (Hasselhoff) and son, Hobie.
The "Baywatch" crew come to Hawaii because Pamela Anderson's character C.J. is opening CJ's Bar & Grill at the Turtle Bay Resort and she's invited them all. Coincidentally, Yasmine Bleeth's character, Caroline, already is in Hawaii filming a soap opera.
Mitch decides it's a perfect place to get married. His fiance resembles a past love, played by Alexandra Paul, whose orginal character died of an illness in the series. But this woman is not who she appears to be, arranging to bring Mitch and his friends to the fictional island of Haiku for a reunion with Tagawa's character.
The actors arrive this weekend, and filming of the $5-million-plus production will start Monday with a Hawaiian blessing. Artist Wyland will host a kick-off party at his home for cast and crew.
Production will continue through Sept. 27, on virtually every Oahu shoreline. The show is expected to air on Fox Television during February sweeps, Schwartz said.
About 250 "physically fit" extras -- mostly women to wear bikinis -- will be hired, and five local male actors are needed in small speaking parts as a psychiatrist, young boy, soap opera director, actor and a "henchman."
A Kahala home will be a film set where Yasmine Bleeth's character is working as an actor. Filming at the Waianae Small Boat Harbor will show a yacht's leaving for the fictional island of "Haiku," which will be shot at Waimea Falls Park.
The North Shore's Log Cabins beach will double as the Los Angeles "Baywatch" headquarters. One reason for selecting this beach is waves break close to shore here as in Santa Monica where the original series was filmed, Schwartz said.
"We're building blue lifeguard towers to match our L.A. stock shots, and will have yellow trucks (instead of 'Baywatch Hawaii's' red ones) and yellow bathing suits for the lifeguards," Schwartz said. "We'll integrate these scenes into our old stock and you'll never know you're in Hawaii."
If the movie is as successful as Schwartz believes it will be, the producer-director hopes to resuscitate the show as a series or a franchise of TV movies.
Why would "Baywatch" be viable after being canceled in 2001?
"'Baywatch Hawaii' was on when syndication was ending its glory run and put in late-night time slots," Schwartz said. "There used to be 15 one-hour adventure shows in syndication and this year there are only four. You just can't build enough viewers between 11 p.m. to 2 a.m."
Schwartz said he would want "Baywatch" on a network which would promote it in a single time slot nationwide.
Regardless of the reunion show's success, Schwartz for some time has wanted to produce a television series here, called "Hawaiian Undercover."
"It's all written and ready to go," he said.
THE REUNION show has been postponed three times in the last year for various reasons. Though no one connected with the show will publicly comment, sources say one glitch was Anderson's high salary, reportedly $500,000.
But Fox executives and Schwartz understood that the reunion couldn't be made without her, the most famous female cast member. Several of the show's major stars, including Anderson, had to be signed before Fox would give the project the green light, sources said.
Dollars had to be slashed from secondary cast and production staffers' salaries to come up with enough cash to pay Anderson. The show originally was going to film a week in Los Angeles but those shots will now be done here.
"Baywatch Hawaiian Wedding" is a Fox Television Studios Production for the Fox Television Network written by Michael Berk, from a story by Berk and Schwartz. Berk, Schwartz and "Baywatch Hawaii" executive producer Greg Bonann created the original "Baywatch." Bonann is not connected to the reunion film.
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