Original subtitles

[waves breaking]

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

PERSON: Everybody set?

Action!

- There was a reference to Baywatch

in almost everything that was a hit.

- Run, Yasmine! Run like the wind!

- ♪ I'll be ready ♪ - ♪ Oh, I'll be ready ♪

- Every year, we bring in new people and exit other people.

- Jason Momoa is the one that exploded off of Baywatch.

MATTHEW: That's something the creators really had--

the knack of finding stars.

- It was a wild time, and I was a wild chick.

What are you going to do about the bad writing?

[laughter]

- I'm just going to do what I'm going to do.

And I want chicks, and I want fame.

MATTHEW: We went from admiring these people

to, let's take you down. [crowd cheering]

CARMEN: When people are talking about you,

it destroyed a lot of people.

MATTHEW: And Jason says they literally hunted him

like an animal, trying to out him.

- He's one of my closest friends on the show.

So it was a secret that we kept.

- I had so much anxiety that she would have to take me

to therapy twice a week.

- This show was not designed for someone who looks like me.

Primarily, it wasn't.

- I kept asking the producers to please give me

a boyfriend who is of color.

GREGORY: I was a sidekick.

Man, the sidekick can't be sexy.

Sidekick got to be a clown.

And my beauty was not celebrated.

- We made so many mistakes back then in the '90s.

NICOLE: I wasn't ready for that show.

What happened to her, you know?

Well, life. [laughs] Life happened.

And I bet life happened to you, too.

- I'm really proud of everything I've done--

almost.

[laughs]

[mellow music]

♪ ♪

- Going through puberty on Baywatch was painful.

I was too young to hook up with the chicks

but old enough to want to.

- There was, like, a slew of bikini-clad girls.

And even though he was, you know,

13, 14 years old,

they were already trying to make eyes at him

and do things--

Like, I really tried to keep him away from all of that

the best I could.

- And they would definitely tease me,

like, give me a little booby shot or whatever.

But I was too young to, like, really

hook up with any of them.

And, you know, like I said, I just wanted to be grown-up.

And I was like, ugh! Just hang in there.

- He had to sit back and kind of watch the rest of us

for quite a bit, which is probably brutally tough,

because we just had a blast.

JEREMY: I mean, if you're a kid in life, right,

you just, like, want to be cool.

You want to hang out with the cool people.

You want to be grown-up way before you're grown-up, right?

And that's how Baywatch was for me.

There was all these hot chicks, and I would usually

sneak in their trailers after they were done

and grab their dirty bathing suits.

Let's just say I've smelled every [bleep] on Baywatch.

[laughing]

And Nicole was the big one, for sure.

We had a very intimate moment, her and I,

that she never knew about.

- Well... [chuckles]

I know Jeremy very well.

This surprises me not at all.

JEREMY: And Nicole was the one that,

I guess you could say, I looked up to.

She would come to work late and not give a fuck

and say that out loud.

Like, I don't give a fuck. I'd be like, what?

- There's nothing Jeremy could say that would freak me out.

And I'm not even mad at 14-year-old Jeremy.

I mean, puberty on a show like that.

I love grown-up Jeremy for being honest

about 14-year-old Jeremy.

- Arch your back. Come on.

MATTHEW: Being a kid around all adults,

it has to have a negative effect.

We've seen this child-star narrative

since the beginning of time.

There's always issues. There's always problems.

DAVID: Baywatch was kind of like, no matter what happened

in your personal life, and there was some heavy stuff

that happened to Jeremy.

I said, I don't care. Come here. Give me a hug.

It was awesome.

From probably 10 to 14,

I was just hoping that he would fall in love with my mom

and be my dad, you know.

And I was probably doing everything I could

to try to make that happen.

Now, looking back, I'm like, I'm 39 now.

David must have been 30 when I started, you know?

And I'm like, hey, David, we got to go surfing.

Hey, David, can you take me for a ride in your car?

Hey, David. Hey, David. Hey, David.

- It was really kind of like a father-son relationship.

I was never the father that I should have been,

that I could have been.

And I regret that a little bit,

because I could have been there a little bit more.

But I was too busy, too busy being David Hasselhoff.

I had my own set of problems.

I had enough going on in my own life, being a father

and going through a marriage

that was not the best in the world.

It was just a real weird time.

I was 16 years old.

David surprised me with this cake and this huge box.

In the box was a smaller box and then a smaller box

and then a smaller box and then a smaller box.

After I opened all the boxes, in the box

was this key right here.

It says, "Happy 16th."

Then they pulled up this phenomenal, outrageous,

amazing sports car.

That is the actual car-- Volkswagen Riot.

It's a kit car. It's a $14,000 car.

But I never got the sports car.

And I haven't let it go.

And I refuse to let it go.

David, you still owe me a frickin' car, okay?

[laughter]

- Even today, 30 years later, Jeremy, obviously much,

much older,

is still in touch with David, and they still have talks.

When things go wrong in Jeremy's life

and he needs someone to talk to,

he goes and talks to David just like he did

talking to Mitch on the show.

Looking back today,

he's still kind of a mythical figure, even after working

with him for so long.

- David would just, you know, tour Germany at the same time

as shooting Baywatch.

And I think Jeremy may have gone with him one time.

I know that Jeremy wanted to be just like David.

He wanted to be a singer.

He wanted to be a rock-and-roll star.

And I think David encouraged him.

And so did we.

- And I'm going to slide on my knees,

and then I'm going to run down there and slide on my knees.

All right?

BERK: He became a heartthrob.

- Jeremy Jackson had a pop career.

He had two hits. One of them was "French Kiss."

The other was "You Can Run."

- ♪ You can run, you can hide, you can cheat, you can lie ♪

♪ But you can't run away from me ♪

♪ No matter what the mission, no matter what the time ♪

♪ That's how it's going to be ♪

- But you needed a machine behind you.

You needed the machine that gave us Britney Spears

and NSYNC and Backstreet Boys.

He didn't have a machine.

He just wanted to be a pop star

like David Hasselhoff.

JEREMY: I ended up touring all over the world with David

and performing and doing two albums.

And I wanted that so bad.

And I envisioned it. And I manifested it.

It happened.

So I was on Baywatch.

We'd go on tours. I'd be in Europe.

And I'd get to the place in the car.

And I'd think, oh, my gosh.

Like, all these screaming fans are there for other people.

And it turns out they were there for me.

I had to get 20 security guards hand in hand

over the door of the car so I could get out of the car.

And they're, like, rocking the car, weeping.

I saw girls passing out.

I saw girls being carried away by security guards.

I saw girls taking their clothes off,

screaming, weeping.

And that was, like, the coolest thing ever.

I was always...

wanting to be a troublemaker,

smoking cigarettes, drinking beer,

you know, sneaking out at night,

getting into trouble.

- I was in the way of everything

he wanted to do at that point.

So that got pretty nasty.

JEREMY: So now was my opportunity

to get whatever I wanted,

and I just took full advantage of that.

I just started wielding my power over my mom.

I'm just going to do what I'm going to do,

and I want chicks, and I want fame.

It was gnarly.

Every extreme that can take place took place.

So those were the heights that, you know,

once you hit that and they're gone,

you got to re-create them

because that's what's normal for you.

That's what's comfortable for you.

MATTHEW: So Jeremy was, you know, introduced to drugs

before most kids are introduced to drugs.

He's introduced to sex and pornography

and all these things way earlier than normal kids are.

- He ended up having a girlfriend

that was an extra on Baywatch.

- I was passionately in love with a girl when I was 17.

And I gave up everything basically for her.

I turned down movie deals and quit the show.

And I just made my every waking moment about her

and building a life with her.

And she was a drug addict,

and I jumped right down the rabbit hole with her.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- Last night was the black-tie event, the gala.

And there's just, like, this abundance

of, like, amazing-looking guys in this country.

I don't know if it's because of the race

or it's always like this, but they're hot.

[chuckles] So, of course,

we had our room full of them last night

and...

it made for an interesting, interesting evening.

But my room is wrecked.

I woke up in my dress and the door open.

Look.

Candy bars that I, like, stole.

[chuckles]

Heineken over there under the curtain--I see it.

We'll try to catch up with some of those guys later.

Make for some interesting video.

[laughs]

I was born in Los Angeles, so I spent a lot of my childhood

on the beach.

And Baywatch really, really captured,

like, my childhood, too.

I was, like, the little girl who dressed up as a princess

but never brushed her hair and climbed trees.

That's who I was as a kid.

And my mother entered me in this local beauty pageant

and I won.

And casting director and an agent called.

And I immediately started getting auditions.

I was an actress since I was four years old.

I was the Coppertone kid,

Johnson's & Johnson's Baby Shampoo.

My first acting gig was an ABC Movie of the Week

called When She Was Bad.

It was about child abuse.

And from that, I booked Charles in Charge

as a series regular.

- You know, you have a major ego problem.

You think Alex is helping me because she's in love with you?

You're the one who's obsessed.

God, you just won't be happy until you destroy my life!

That's not true, Jamie.

NICOLE: And then I got to Baywatch.

BERK: That season we cast Pam and David Charvet,

we also cast Nicole Eggert as Summer.

- Look, CJ, for the last time, I do not have

an eating disorder, okay?

- Well, Nicole Eggert coming on to Baywatch is a huge star.

She's from Charles in Charge.

She's on every young adolescent's wall.

CHRIS: She takes that unbelievably sexy photograph

for the Sugar Ray record, you know,

that's one of those pictures that people

remember from the 1990s.

Everybody knew who it was in that picture.

So whatever she was on Baywatch,

she was like an icon of a certain type of sexuality

already in the mid '90s.

NICOLE: I was 19, 20 years old.

I was much younger than the rest of the cast.

When you're 19, 20 years old, like, I didn't have to try.

I didn't work out.

You know, it just was, like, natural.

And I show up on set,

and they've got this red bathing suit.

And I've never worked out a day in my life.

I, like, smoked cigarettes. You know, I was a mess.

And I panicked.

I couldn't believe that that's what I was going to be doing,

you know.

I didn't realize that I was, like, considered

any kind of sex-symbol thing.

That hadn't occurred to me at all.

I just focused on what I was doing

and what I was looking at.

And I had blinders on to the rest of the world

because I hated the attention.

Like, I hated it.

Stop it.

It made me so insecure and just so uncomfortable.

It felt like such an invasion of privacy.

And I didn't deal with it well at all.

So I made the decision, you know, to chop my hair off.

I think almost every producer went into cardiac arrest

when I showed up on set with with the short hair.

And I was like, no, trust me, guys.

It's cool.

When I look back at it now, it's like, wow.

You know, that's so cool.

But my instinct was flight.

And I said, I need to get away from this.

So I quit after the first season.

I wasn't ready for that show.

- And I think that women have always been objectified.

So, you know-- especially modeling.

- People are always going to be drawn to beauty.

That's not going to change.

MATTHEW: Everything was about the body

in the '90s, everything.

KELLEY: And that was definitely the decade

of supermodels.

♪ ♪

- You really started seeing the evolution of the supermodel,

I think, in the '90s.

"Freedom! '90" is one of George Michael's

most iconic music videos,

primarily because he had all of the hottest supermodels

of the '90s in it.

- When you make a living on camera,

visually, there's expectations.

- It really starts with women having this impossible

social contract in which our main value somehow

appears to be being pretty.

NICOLE: I was considered curvy back then,

and there wasn't anything I could do about it.

I just had a behind on me.

And everybody else was these, like, teeny, tiny,

skinny things.

There was a clause of, you couldn't gain,

couldn't lose five pounds.

You had to stay within your weight.

The '90s was about beauty.

And beauty doesn't need a résumé.

Baywatch actors talked about strict diet rules

on "E! True Hollywood Story."

We're not allowed to get fat.

That's what says in my contract.

So, of course, they have fat-free Fig Newtons.

[laughs]

That's what we eat.

That's how we keep the Baywatch figures.

Yeah, as vegetarians.

Sucking on a baloney.

You know, we had to stay fit.

We couldn't really get cellulite because that's

going to show on camera.

So it's a lot of pressure. It was a lot of pressure.

- You're going up for a leading role,

there are certain expectations about the way you have to look,

and that is it, and that goes today.

PAULINA: Like, the responsibility of beauty

is to stay that forever.

But unless you die at 25, that's not going to happen.

NICOLE: To put me next to 20-year-old me,

not only do I not want to be that person or look like that,

it just is just ignorant.

What happened to her, you know?

Well, life. [chuckles]

Life happened.

And I bet life happened to you, too, you know.

I'm sure that Baywatch definitely had

an influence in girls wanting bigger lips,

bigger boobs, smaller waist.

When I was 20, I modified my body,

and I put implants in my body.

- Plastic surgery was just coming in.

I remember once when I went back to my high-school reunion,

and one of my classmates asked me,

is Pamela Anderson's--are those breasts real?

- The whole look was huge boobs.

Like, the bigger, the better.

I mean, everyone was getting, like,

all kinds of things done to their bodies

to look like Pamela.

That was the key to succeed on a show such as Baywatch.

MATTHEW: I mean, Greg, Michael, and Doug

figured out...

that people like to see fake boobs on TV

before the rest of the world-- it's really that simple.

This is the suits being sneaky and throwing in,

you know, very, you know, low-key sexualization

into these family programs.

[upbeat music]

[people shouting]

It was pandemonium.

[crowd cheering, shouting]

We did signings. We did every morning show.

And I was like, oh, my God. This is insane.

- Those men and women who produced that show

did their job.

It was an international hit.

DOUGLAS: By 1993,

we had 158 countries that were airing Baywatch

in 42 different languages on every continent,

except Antarctica.

- There were villages that would fire up a generator just

to watch the show.

REPORTER: Here at the edge of the Brazilian jungle,

yes, folks, it's Baywatch.

[upbeat music plays]

- They ended up being the most watched

television show in the world, with over a billion viewers.

- It communicated globally because you can dub it.

You can put it in other languages,

and it's still beautiful.

It's still entertaining. It's the California Dream.

♪ ♪

That's cute.

You girls in front, you look great.

♪ ♪

TRACI: Everyone tuned in to watch the show

because you knew you were going to see someone sexy.

It wasn't just a sexy female. It was a sexy male.

And it was fun to watch.

Everyone likes to watch sexy things.

DOUGLAS: Every year we'd bring in new people

and exit other people.

It was definitely something

that I dreamed and aspired to do.

Once I saw the show, I was like,

how can I get on that beach?

- Baywatch was a show that was not character driven.

We were as interchangeable as socks.

PERSON: And then there were three--

24-year-old Stacy Kamano, 19-year-old Jason Momoa,

and 26-year-old Kala'i Miller are officially

cast members of Baywatch: Hawaii.

- I went to Hawaii to do an open call.

And there were thousands.

It was lines out the door.

And the minute Jason walked in...

it was like, okay, we've got our guy.

He just was a perfect Baywatch lifeguard.

And we hired him right away.

- He was 6'5" and great physique,

was a terrific natural actor.

JEREMY: Jason Momoa was--

God, what was he, 21 probably back then.

Everybody loved him.

He was like a total maniac but smiling and kind

the whole time but just running around carefree.

Gosh, he was so young back then.

So no beard but still an anomaly, like a rare specimen,

even back then, you know.

- And that's something that creators really had.

They had a knack of finding stars.

GENA: Jason Momoa, he is the--

the one that exploded off of Baywatch.

He was just drop-dead gorgeous.

And he was just a kid.

And he was so nervous, very raw,

very quiet, very shy,

and just sweet, really, really sweet.

He's the biggest star today,

- I think Baywatch, they gave us a lot of gifts.

They gave us a lot of beauty, a lot of sex.

- It was a wild time, and I was a wild chick.

Yes, I was the girl dancing on tables, having a good time.

I was the number-one bad girl,

and Courtney Love was number two.

And I thought, holy shit, that's insane.

- Carmen Electra was perfect on so many levels

for the '90s and for Baywatch.

I mean, she was a musician.

She was a dancer but also super sexy on top of it.

CARMEN: I grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio,

in the Midwest.

I started dancing at five years old, and I went

to the School for Creative and Performing Arts at nine.

Studied classical ballet.

I'm at heart a performer.

That's who I am.

I love to entertain.

- Carmen! [people shouting]

- I auditioned for a band that Prince was putting together.

- Prince was obviously the most respected creator sort

of in the world of music imaginable,

and he would create these entire worlds.

And he could sort of pluck you out of nowhere

and kind of turn you into a star.

It was insane.

I couldn't even believe it. I had to pinch myself.

Like, he really guided me and taught me a lot.

I was born Tara Leigh Patrick.

And I remember him saying to me,

you do not look like a Tara.

And once he gave me that name, Carmen Electra,

it was like I had this different persona.

- So on videos produced by his Paisley Park record label,

Prince promoted Carmen Electra.

- ♪ Is it art, or is it just a display of flesh? ♪

♪ Contained, slangin', and bangin' to a bass drum ♪

♪ Silhouetted by lights, caught up in the hype ♪

♪ I'm doing my own thing night after night ♪

SINGER: ♪ Go, go, dancer ♪

- And it gave me the confidence to push myself to get

out there and try new things.

I remember having this thought

that I wanted to be my own boss.

That's when I decided to take a chance

in LA and be on my own.

It was really hard. I ended up being homeless.

I was sleeping on couches.

But I know that struggling in LA

and going through those hard times

is what gave me the drive.

- I can't hold them in much longer,

so you better bring out that man!

CHRIS: She eventually replaced Jenny McCarthy

on Singled Out on MTV

and became a real sort of personality

in that mold from there.

- Hi, I'm Carmen Electra, and I'm standing here

with a hundred sea serpents,

and they're slithering around just to find a date.

[crowd cheering]

MATTHEW: MTV was the barometer that you would check in

of all things cool.

If it was on MTV, it was cool.

What are they wearing? Who's the hot person?

That's who you're going to be attracted to

because that's the prototype, because MTV says so.

- And because, clearly, the producers of Baywatch

are watching all things MTV,

they are like, we got to get Carmen Electra on our show.

PERSON: Carmen, that's good.

If you scoot a little bit that way or just--

MATTHEW: Baywatch was stealing other audiences

to bring to their audience.

She looks the part. She's fun, she's cool.

We like her.

Let's bring her and her MTV audience.

- My agents called and said, Baywatch wants you

to come in and audition.

I auditioned with Hasselhoff.

He was right there in front of me.

I was so nervous.

- Get out of there, Mike. I'll kill you.

CARMEN: I knew Baywatch was the number-one show

in the world,

and that was going to take me to a different level

in the career I already had.

I remember getting that call in my car.

"You got the job."

And I just turned the music up so loud,

and I was driving in Hollywood.

And I just felt like I was on top of the world.

[upbeat rock music]

♪ ♪

So many girls wanted to be a Baywatch babe,

and there's just a little handful of us,

and that is so fucking dope.

I love it. I'm proud. I'm proud of that.

Fuck, yeah, I'm a Baywatch bitch, and I love it.

[upbeat music]

♪ ♪

JAASON: That's headquarters.

That's where we shot right there.

Hello.

Good to see you.

I was at the beach most days.

You would drive up to set in the morning,

and there would be, like, 50 or 60 people outside

with cameras already outside the parking lot.

- Okay, folks, we got to move some equipment.

So I got to ask everybody to move this way.

- Back up, please. Back up.

I'm Jaason Simmons.

I played Logan Fowler on Baywatch.

- Are you as empowered a woman as you are a lifeguard?

- Empowered enough to boot your little butt back Down Under.

- I'd wager you're not. - Not what?

- Not as tough to get along with...

out of uniform.

[smooches]

♪ ♪

JAASON: Growing up in Tasmania,

it's one of the most beautiful places on the planet.

I arrived in LA when I was 20.

Came here, one-way ticket, no money to call anybody,

didn't know anybody.

BERK: We always wanted this bad-boy Australian character.

So there was a guy named Jacko who

was doing battery commercials.

- In one of these and in one of these.

BERK: You know, it was right around when Crocodile Dundee

was coming out.

So Jaason Simmons came in. He was terrific.

He had that accent.

He was great-looking. He had the hair.

And we kind of were developing the character around him.

MITCH: This year our Rookie of the Year Award

goes to our exchange lifeguard from Australia,

Logan Fowler.

[cheers and applause]

- He played the bad boy. He was always seducing.

His character was always seducing women.

And he did it so well.

Are you his GF?

- What? - His girlfriend?

- [scoffs] Matt and I are just friends.

- I've only been here three days from Tasmania.

Just trying to figure out how all the pieces fit together.

MATTHEW: So Jaason Simmons was brought onto the show

to be this sort of, like, womanizing lifeguard.

But the irony of Jaason was he was pretty much

an openly gay man in his, you know, private life.

So, because of the stigma,

it was a huge thing to try to out actors

or musicians that were gay.

It was like a sport for paparazzi.

- When people are talking about you, it can take you down,

and it destroyed a lot of people inside.

So it does take a very strong person to make it through.

- The obsession with celebrity had changed.

We went from admiring these people

to, let's take you down.

[person chuckles]

MATTHEW: People that knew Jaason would try

to sell stories to the press that he was really a gay man.

He's not this womanizing hunk on Baywatch.

And Jaason even says they literally hunted him

like an animal, trying to out him.

PERSON: Kiss, kiss.

MATTHEW: It was anything to show him in a relationship

kissing his boyfriend.

You sell one of those pictures, and you can make

hundreds of thousands of dollars with one photo.

- It was very difficult for him.

[dramatic music]

[clears throat]

He's one of my closest friends on the show, and...

So it was a secret that we kept.

It was so dangerous for a man to come out,

especially when you're a handsome leading man,

because producers wouldn't hire you

as a hetero guy, getting girls,

and that was the character he was playing.

DAVID: If they found out that he was gay at the time,

you know, it could have blown up the show.

PERSON: Can we have a word?

Just a simple little outfit, this thing here.

Yes, it is.

PERSON: Alexandra Paul knew,

and they pretended to be boyfriend and girlfriend.

ALEXANDRA: There are pictures in the National Enquirer

of him and I holding hands and kissing

because he needed a beard.

We did a photo shoot of both of us naked

that appeared on the cover of a British newspaper.

We wanted to make sure he was protected.

That's what he had to do then.

- I had so much anxiety that she would have to take me

to therapy twice a week when I was on the first season,

just to get through everything that wasn't acting.

So our relationship became very strong.

PERSON: Jaason Simmons. Aah!

DAVID: At moments, he really enjoyed the fame

because the show was just exploding at the time.

PERSON: I'm selling this to Hard Copy.

Quick, smooch.

DAVID: And Jaason, you know, he's awkward a little bit,

especially around a bunch of strangers.

And there's times where I think he just felt like,

what the fuck am I doing here?

I don't belong here. This isn't who I am.

- So you've got all these straight people

doing dirty things in ads with Calvin Klein.

You've got all these straight people posing for Playboy.

But if you're gay, you can't be on television

without getting sneaky.

- You can't judge an actor on their sexuality.

They can be leading men.

Being gay doesn't make you less masculine.

I just wanted to show that gay people

can play straight characters.

Love is love, and acting is acting.

- This new generation of young people don't care,

and I love that.

And I wish that that had been the case in the 1990s

because it would have... [clears throat]

Been so much less painful...

[clears throat] For Jaason.

[upbeat music]

♪ ♪

- Hollywood since the beginning of time

is portrayed as this magical place,

that anything can happen.

ANGELICA: California's a character--it's special.

It's like Baywatch really amplified California

when it was airing because we showed

the glamour of the beaches.

We showed what the life would be like here.

- To people who are not from California,

this is the big dream--

sunsets and sunrises and beautiful people.

MATTHEW: The thing that's interesting about California,

specifically in the '90s, is that on television,

we saw one thing.

On CNN, we saw a different thing.

[helicopter blades thrumming]

- In the real world, you had this racial dynamic

that was playing out.

MATTHEW: Before George Floyd, we had Rodney King.

And this is when video cameras were starting.

And now someone had videoed complete and total

horrific police brutality on a Black motorist.

And this just sparked outrage.

[crowd shouting]

REPORTER: Very tense situation here.

Demonstrators now toe to toe with the police officers.

- Hey, you two. Come on.

- I'm an innocent victim. - Let's go.

- We're burning down our gas stations.

We're burning down our supermarkets.

You know, it don't make no sense.

- All of it was coming. It was just a matter of time.

[siren wailing]

JAASON: It was crazy.

There were fires on every corner.

That's the first time that I heard the word "curfew."

[indistinct shouting]

INGRID: Everyone was on lockdown.

You couldn't leave where you were.

- I was just like, this is insane.

Like, where am I?

CHRIS: And yet the one Black star on Baywatch

turns out to have a kind of amazing real-life connection

to the riots in the wake of the Rodney King verdict.

GREGORY: I was there, and a man came

through the intersection in a Bronco 2,

and several bricks hit his window simultaneously.

His front window shattered.

REPORTER: That's Williams in the red shorts.

GREGORY: You know, people broke the windows

on the Bronco and began beating him--you know, pipes,

rods, bricks, fists, bottles.

And I watched him slump forward onto the steering wheel.

I'm saying to myself, man, if you stand here

and let these people kill this man in front of you,

you can't look yourself in the eye ever again.

CHRIS: It's a very tumultuous time,

particularly all the conversation going on

about race.

None of that is touching Baywatch.

ALEXANDRA: I kept asking the producers

to please give me a boyfriend who was of color.

And so they said, Alexandra, we've written

in a couple of episodes where you have a boyfriend.

And guess what. He's Latin.

And I said, oh, that's great.

And then I read the script, and he's a gang member.

And I went back to the producers, and I said,

you cannot make him a gang member.

So they made him an ex-gang member.

You were in a gang?

- Let's just say it's kind of hard to be a saint

growing up in the city.

- We made so many mistakes back then in the '90s.

Greg Alan Williams was the only person of color

who was a regular for the first, what,

six years of the show?

[poignant music]

GREGORY: I'm Greg Alan Williams.

I played Sergeant Garner Ellerbee

on Baywatch for about six, seven seasons.

I was born and raised in Des Moines, Iowa,

child of a single mother from Mississippi.

My mother was my acting coach.

She wasn't a stage mom, but she did teach me

the magic of the written and spoken word.

CHILD: What did you do in the circus?

PERSON: Fancy shooting, mostly.

Then I started my tricks--

flat spins, all kinds of spins,

little tricks that catch the eye.

GREGORY: Sammy Davis Jr. was the first person of color

I'd seen playing a cowboy on television.

He was in an episode of The Rifleman

when I was eight or nine years old, playing a gunslinger

and doing all these tricks with guns.

[laughs]

I auditioned for Baywatch in May of '89.

My agent called me and said, they want you to come to LA

and do this beach show.

I had the absolute time of my life.

I never imagined that I'd be part of that mix,

running and jumping and driving ATVs.

You know, 110 brothers auditioned for that role,

my understanding is.

Why did I get it?

One of the reasons-- because I was kind of pudgy

and because I'm shorter than Hasselhoff.

First season I came into Baywatch,

I was a little heavy.

I do remember getting a trainer.

And, I mean, I got fit.

I was looking good.

Somebody told me one day, now, Greg Alan, don't get too fit.

Because I got wrapped up in,

right, this show is about pretty people.

I need to get myself together...

because I'm part of these people.

No, you ain't.

That was another reminder.

You can't be as fit as the lead guy.

I forgot my place on Baywatch, my character's place.

My job wasn't to be sexy.

I was a sidekick, sidekick.

Man, the sidekick can't be sexy.

Sidekick got to be a clown.

[growling]

- Okay. I got 'em, Jaws. I got 'em! I got 'em!

- It's all about the aesthetics, baby.

And my beauty was not celebrated.

MATTHEW: So Baywatch did these promotional tours.

The show was constantly being promoted

and reminded to the consumer, this is the show.

These are the cast.

These are the pretty people.

- In 1989, Greg Bonann called me up one day, said,

they're going to do Christmas promos for Baywatch.

Greg Alan, we want you out there.

I went out to the beach...

was walking across that sand.

A woman began walking toward me.

As I got halfway there, she said,

Greg Alan, we don't need you in these shots.

That walk back across that sand was the longest walk

I've ever taken in my life.

I realized that I was not what they were selling.

Baywatch was a show that celebrated...

European beauty.

So, at that point, I put up a wall

between myself and the show

and decided I would have the fun...

And make the money...

But I wasn't going to let it hurt me.

Those were Baywatch lessons.

Baywatch was of great value to me.

It taught me.

It empowered me.

Every now and then, it hurt me.

♪ ♪

But so do the people and the things we love.

I need to take a break, okay?

[sniffles] Ah, Jesus.

Man, I really appreciate this, you know.

[crying] I really needed a chance

to work through this shit, man.

♪ ♪

[Jimi Jamison's "I'm Always Here"]

♪ ♪

SINGER 1: ♪ Some people stand in the darkness ♪

♪ Afraid to step into the light ♪

♪ Some people need to help somebody ♪

♪ When the edge of surrender's in sight ♪

♪ Don't you worry ♪

♪ It's gonna be all right ♪

♪ ♪

♪ 'Cause I'm always ready ♪

♪ I won't let you out of my sight ♪

♪ ♪

SINGERS: ♪ I'll be ready ♪

SINGER 1: ♪ Oh, I'll be ready ♪

SINGERS: ♪ Never you fear ♪

SINGER 2: ♪ Oh, don't you fear ♪

SINGERS: ♪ I'll be ready ♪

SINGER 2: ♪ I'll be ready ♪

SINGER 1: ♪ Forever and always ♪

SINGERS 1 AND 2: ♪ I'm always here ♪

♪ ♪

SINGER 1: ♪ I'm always here by your side ♪

[singers vocalizing]

♪ I'm always here by your ♪

♪ By your side ♪

SINGERS 1 AND 2: ♪ 'Cause I'm always ready ♪

♪ I won't let you out of my sight ♪

SINGER 1: ♪ Whoa, whoa ♪

SINGERS: ♪ I'll be ready ♪

SINGER 1: ♪ Oh, I'll be ready ♪

SINGERS: ♪ Never you fear ♪

SINGER 2: ♪ Don't you fear ♪

SINGERS: ♪ I'll be ready ♪

SINGER 1: ♪ Forever and always ♪

SINGER 2: ♪ Forever and always ♪

SINGER 1: ♪ Forever and always ♪

SINGER 2: ♪ Forever and always ♪

SINGER 1: ♪ Forever ♪ SINGERS 1 AND 2: ♪ And always ♪

♪ I'm always here ♪