Baywatch Nights 

Baywatch veteran Mitch Buchannon moonlights as a P.I. with his two friends Garner and Ryan. In season 2, Diamont replaces Garner, and Mitch's cases suddenly take a hard turn towards supernatural horror.

Creators:

David Hasselhoff, Michael Berk, Gregory J. Bonann

Stars:

David Hasselhoff, Angie Harmon, Eddie Cibrian

Cast

Complete series cast summary:
David Hasselhoff	...	Mitch Buchannon 45 episodes, 1995-1997
Angie Harmon	...	Ryan McBride 44 episodes, 1995-1997
Eddie Cibrian	...	Griff Walker 34 episodes, 1996-1997
Donna D'Errico	...	Donna Marco 34 episodes, 1996-1997
Gregory Alan Williams	...	Garner Ellerbee 24 episodes, 1995-1997
Dorian Gregory	...	Diamont Teague 22 episodes, 1996-1997
Lou Rawls	...	Lou Raymond 22 episodes, 1995-1996

Storyline

In this Baywatch spin-off, Mitch Buchannon, the always reliable Los Angeles county lifeguard, moonlights as a private detective alongside his beach cop buddy Garner and a female N.Y. private dick named Ryan McBride. They investigate and solve crimes together, often in some way related to Mitch's beloved beach. Luckily, they're usually not alone in this fight, as their frequent associates include cute psychic, Destiny Desimone, Mitch's lifeguard colleague, Donna Marco, and Lou Raymond, a legendary musician who owns the nightclub called 'Nights' where the trio's detective agency is located. However, in season 2, the show gets a serious overhaul as Mitch's cases suddenly start to exclusively involve supernatural horror and his enemies become actual demons, ghosts, monsters and other supernatural phenomena. He faces these otherworldly foes together with Ryan, as their relationship becomes more platonic in nature (mimicking that of Mulder and Scully), and Diamont Teague, Garner's ...

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Plot Keywords:

second job | beach cop | car chase | criminal | female criminal | 

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Drama | Fantasy | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 September 1995 (USA)

Also Known As:

Santa Monica Nights

Company Credits

Production Co:

All American Television,The Baywatch Company,The Baywatch Nights Production Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

60 min (44 episodes)

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The first series was in the style of a police drama. However, the ratings fell into decline and for season two, the format was changed to that of a fantasy/science fiction series to try and improve the ratings. The plan failed and the series was ultimately axed.

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Connections

Featured in WatchMojo: Top 10 Worst TV Spin-Offs (2014)

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Soundtracks

After the Sun Goes Down
(Opening Theme)
Performed by David Hasselhoff

User Reviews

It has its moments, good character chemistry, and deserves a little more merit than it receives today. Great theme song (in Season 1), but unfulfilled potential.

Writing this review is difficult for me. This is because I want to give Baywatch Nights a break, and so I may end up being a little biased. I know it wasn't great (both seasons), but I think it was a good idea:

An "adult" version of Baywatch that sees the city as it is after hours. Whether that means more action, an investigative procedural twist, or more a horror twist... the makers seem undecided. One thing it does mean though, is less sexuality. The name may imply the opposite, but that's besides the point.

Before I continue, I must state that its two seasons were of differing genres: Season 1 - Mystery, basic procedural/detective fiction; Season 2 - Mystery, supernatural horror.

The reason I believe it was a solid, worthwhile idea is that Season 1's title sequence perfectly encapsulates what I feel the spirit of the show should have been (especially the theme music). Neon and car chases and night-time sneaking around the marina. Sexy, but not in a bikini/muscle beach way, more in a Miami Vice way. But less gritty crime orientated than Miami Vice; more light-hearted.

To its merit, Season 1 was visually pretty good in my opinion. To have taken away the sand and sun of Baywatch completely would have been a mistake... enough does remain (just). Some people may say that narrowly limiting a series' setting will naturally limit the potential for plot ideas. But Bergerac was a crime drama with a somewhat similar setting, yet was able to keep putting out complex stories.

So the problem with Baywatch Nights was that the two seasons were too different *in genre* from each other - and from the mother series. What I feel would have worked better would be to have kept the action-drama of Baywatch as its base, but continue with the Private Investigator premise (an episode that gets the balance right is Bad Blades S1E2), and to have just reconciled the procedural/horror differences episode by episode. So there'd be some slightly supernatural episodes, some slightly horror episodes, some half-procedural action episodes, but all mixed up in the run rather than separated by season. And more references to the Baywatch universe, a couple more appearances by Baywatch characters.

So enough of what I think *should have* been done. What do I think of what *had been* done?

Each episode is self-contained - which I like - but despite this, too often plots are stretched out within individual episodes. However the character chemistry is great and the dialogue between the core leads (i.e. Mitch and Ryan) is amusing. The second season didn't take itself too seriously, and it had some entertaining moments; it just suffered from too much filler. Basically I feel that the show had a longer slot than it needed.

In conclusion: Baywatch Nights is to this day widely dismissed and ridiculed, but personally I believe it to be hugely underrated (especially due to expectations following the demise of the massively popular Baywatch). But I'm not saying it was high quality or anything. It had unfulfilled potential.