THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 1, 1995 TAG: 9509290077
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY BONKO, TELEVISION COLUMNIST
LENGTH: Long : 112 lines
ON ``BAYWATCH,'' they don't summon stunt doubles when the script calls for the actors to dash into the surf or tumble out of a speeding boat to save people from drowning.
No wimps in this cast.
``You have to be a swimmer to work on `Baywatch,' '' Alexandra Paul was saying from Venice Beach in Southern California not long ago. The cast and crew was about to wrap up show No. 18 of a 23-show season that begins at 6 tonight on UPN affiliate WGNT.
She put the emphasis on ``swimmer.''
Paul plays Lt. Stephanie Holden in the Los Angeles County lifeguards, whose rescues inspired Gregory J. Bonnan, a lifeguard for 26 years, to create this series seen in 144 countries.
Paul was a junior lifeguard at 16, growing up in Connecticut. She qualified as an emergency medical technician even before joining ``Baywatch.''
``I have the credentials,'' she said.
It's been estimated that more than 1 billion people on God's green earth, including couch potatoes in Outer Mongolia, watch the show that critics have called ``Babewatch,'' ``Buttwatch'' and ``Bunwatch.'' The criticism rolls off the back of Paul not unlike the surf in which she films.
``A lot of people who rag on the show have never seen it or watched for more than five or six minutes. We don't pretend to be anything but light entertainment, filling a niche for people who want to escape to white beaches and blue sky. Maybe that is why we are so successful.''
Paul joined the cast a year after Bonnan, Douglas Schwartz, Michael Berk and star David Hasselhoff decided to put the series into syndication when NBC dropped it in 1990. The ``Baywatch'' audience has grown with each new round of shows, and come tonight at 7 on WGNT, the spinoff called ``Baywatch Nights'' premieres.
``Bay-mania!''
Only Hasselhoff and GregAlan Williams from the original ``Baywatch'' are scheduled to appear in ``Baywatch Nights.'' It's about Hasselhoff's adventures as a lifeguard by day, private eye by night. In tonight's premiere, he's hired to guard a famous body (model Carol Alt).
Bods by day, bods by night.
If asked, Paul said she'd be happy to appear in ``Baywatch Nights.'' She's Hasselhoff's boss on ``Baywatch'' - he plays Lt. Mitch Buchannon.
Their characters were lovers once. And in the future, perhaps? Not likely, said Paul.
The storylines in the 1995-96 season call for her to contract skin cancer, see her former husband enter her life again, and later fall in love with one of the hunks in trunks on the show. In episode No. 1, four of the lifeguards find themselves in deep trouble after a floating mine collides with an offshore oil rig.
Gone from the cast is David Charvet who played lifeguard Matt Brody and got involved in that messy sexual harassment thing with Neely Capshaw, played by Gena Lee Nolin. She'll be a regular this season, as will David Chokachi, who plays Cody Madison.
Also returning, I'm sorry to say, is that annoying Aussie dude, Logan Fowler (Jaason Simmons).
There was a rumor floating about that after her recent marriage, Pamela Anderson Lee would not be back as lifeguard C.J. Parker. Not to worry. She will return this season to be admired in 144 countries for her mind.
Stop with the babes and butt jokes, Paul asks.
The producers may slip in a bikini shot or two in the background but this is not a bikini show, said Paul. ``We are a show that reflects the morals of middle-class America. It isn't about greed or money. It isn't about adultery - OK, a little bit of that goes on - and it isn't about people killing one another.''
Paul considers ``Baywatch'' to be what she calls a poor stepchild to the television industry. It doesn't win Emmys. It doesn't win Peabodys. It gets no respect.
``I'll never understand why the lawyer and cop shows are considered so high-class and prestigious. I guess on television it's cooler to kill people than to rescue them.''
Paul speaks her mind, so much so that she's been arrested a dozen times or so in demonstrations to advance the causes of AIDS prevention, population control and nuclear control.
You will get her all stirred up by calling ``Baywatch'' the Barbie Doll show. ``Am I a Barbie?'' she asks. Paul points out that she is tall, thin, brunette and has small breasts.
But she can swim like crazy.
Paul recently competed in a triathlon at Malibu that included a half-mile swim. She auditioned only once - by swimming laps in a pool - to get the role on ``Baywatch'' after Erika Eleniak left the show.
It is a happy set, a happy cast, said Paul. And pay no mind to the stories that Charvet left because he fought with Hasselhoff or that the arrival of Nolin and Chokachi is creating tense moments.
``Tension? Not at all. While I miss David, and very much enjoyed working with him, the new members of the cast are wonderful actors. We're lucky to have them.'' (You can still see Charvet in ``Baywatch'' reruns appearing weeknights at 7 on WPEN).
How does Paul in her TV lifeguard role measure up to lifeguards we have around here? How does ``Baywatch'' measure up as a show about lifeguards in general?
``It's Hollywood,'' said Bruce Edwards of the Virginia Beach Emergency Medical Services, which oversees the city's lifeguards at the Oceanfront.
The crises are often exaggerated, said Edwards. ``But it's reasonably factual,'' he said. There is an exception. The women on ``Baywatch'' wear one-piece red swimsuits. The style locally is two-piece in red. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
Color photos
NEW SEASON
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
Photo
Alexandra Paul plays Stephanie Holden in ``Baywatch.''
by CNB