Though dismissed by its critics with such disparagements as "Body watch" and "Babe watch," David Hasselhoff's Baywatch became the most popular television show in the world during the mid-1990s. Notorious for its risque bathing suits, the show depicted the Los Angeles County Beach Patrol as it braved dangerous surf and emotional riptides to save lives and loves. The show ran briefly on NBC during 1989-1990 before being canceled but became, in its new incarnation, one of the few shows in TV history not only to exonerate itself in a post-network afterlife but to actually become a mega-hit.

Baywatch began with David Hasselhoff as Mitch Buchannon, a veteran career lifeguard recently promoted to lieutenant; Parker Stevenson as Craig Pomeroy, a successful lawyer who continued to moonlight as a lifeguard; and a supporting cast of sun-bronzed characters who adopted life at the beach for reasons of their own. In...