From cancellation to the #1 TV show on Earth! The incredible story of The History of Baywatch: Beach Syndie Bingo.
How does a canceled network weekly drama turn into an international phenomenon seen by a combined total of one billion viewers in more than 140 countries and 195 cities throughout the U.S. every week?
Uniquely poised to answer that question were Michael Berk and Douglas Schwartz, cousins and partners since the age of thirteen, when they sold their short film entitled “The Lost Battalion” to CBS. From that point they went on to produce many successful network programs, but none of their productions ever became the global giant that “Baywatch ” is today. When they first floated their idea of a TV series about lifeguards on a California beach, the general response was, “How many times can you do CPR?” Somehow the partners succeeded in convincing GTG Prods., the Grant Tinker-Gannett company, to put up $40,000 for them to shoot a beach montage as a pitch tool. Their plan proved successful. NBC bought their idea for a TV movie called “Malibu Pier” (the original “Baywatch”) which became a ratings winner. The movie’s success led to an order for the 1990 debut series that would become “Baywatch,” starring David Hasselhoff.
The series did only modest ratings on NBC in relation to the high cost of producing it. It was canceled after the first season. But as Berk recounts, “We didn’t want to let the show go. It had just been sold in Europe and had started airing there as a hit right at the same time that NBC canceled it.” Then a chance meeting between Schwartz and producer Al Burton gave birth to the idea that “Baywatch” should move into syndication. For a program with just one season under its belt to shift gears from a high-budget network hour to first-run syndicated production was a revolutionary thought at the time. With revenues from sales of the show in Europe amounting to $450,000 per episode, Berk and Schwartz realized they could re-launch “Baywatch” using foreign revenues as their springboard. Not only could they keep the show through syndication but their independence form the network would allow them to resurrect the original concept of the series: human-interest stories with strong social themes as opposed to the traditional crime and murder stories the network had pushed for.
Berk and Schwartz then took “Baywatch” to the distributors. And, “Every company turned us down,” remembers Berk. But the New York syndication company LBS Communications, Inc. sat up and listened and finally agreed to a deal. Soon after, LBS merged with All American Television, Inc. and the syndication plans continued to forge ahead. In fact, by that time Hasselhoff had not only agreed to remain on the show as its star but had stamped his faith on the plan by becoming co-executive producer. With the success of the series “Knight Rider” and the first season of “Baywatch,” Hasselhoff had become a major star in Europe. According to Syd Vinnedge, president of All American, “If ‘Baywatch’ has a No. 1 salesman, it is Hasselhoff.”
After picking up a distributor, Berk and Schwartz needed to do one more thing before their plan could move ahead: get the rights to the series back. One man held the key: Grant Tinker, chairman GTG. The deal they offered him was hard to refuse. The 23 episodes already shot for the network would be wrapped into the syndication package. But the revenues from the 23 episodes would go to GTG. Tinker saw merit in the plan and the syndication rights to the series were eventually sold back to the partners for just $10.
From there on it was a matter of delivering what they promised to deliver — and for the right price. The producers succeeded in bringing down the production costs per episode by streamlining production methods and cutting waste to the bone. “The great advantage in working with All American is that they let us do what we do best — produce,”says Berk. The end result has been a huge international hit, airing in 140 countries.
“This property has become the jewel in the crown of All American Television,”says Vinnedge. It’s a fine example of a perfect marriage between concept and creative execution at all levels.
(Source: The Official Baywatch Website – 1997)
