Wow, Was Baywatch Really That Bad? | Screen Rant
Warning! SPOILERS for Pam & Tommy episode 3 ahead.
The scenes in Pam & Tommy focusing on Pamela Anderson's (Lily James) work on Baywatch depicted a culture deeply rooted in ogling women and their bodies — so was Baywatch really that bad? The American action drama ran for 11 seasons, portraying the daily life on the job of Californian lifeguards, whose struggles were as often related to what happened at sea or on the beach as what happened in their personal lives. Pamela Anderson played senior lifeguard CJ Parker for five seasons, from Baywatch season 3 to 7.
The few scenes from Pam & Tommy that explored Anderson's daily life on the Baywatch set were instrumental to setting the scene for the type of environment where the show thrived, according to the Hulu show. Pam & Tommy episode 3 superbly summarized Baywatch's approach to its female characters, when make-up artists could be seen fixing Anderson's swimsuit's bottom part to show more skin. The comments of the men behind the camera cemented the scene as unequivocally creepy, asking for "a bit more wedgie" before realizing that it wouldn't work as that would have been too much, causing the scene to be flagged.
Although it cannot be known for sure whether that was exactly what happened on set, even just the Baywatch opening credits prove Pam & Tommy reflects the true story. As the easily recognizable song "I'm Always Here" played in the background, all characters' bodies were quite evidently exhibited, and although both male and female characters could be seen in swimsuits, only women were more often scantily dressed. Just like the scene in Pam & Tommy episode 3, the credits often focused on women's body parts, plainly objectifying them.
Pam & Tommy suggests that Pamela Anderson was dissatisfied with her depiction on Baywatch. In episode 3, she expresses frustration that her monologue, which would have developed her character, gets cut, and she fights to have it put back in. While Baywatch featured some monologues by CJ Parker, the double standards senior characters like hers and David Hasselhoff's Mitch were evident. They both had agency and storylines where they were involved, but Mitch, contrary to CJ, also had the freedom to do so in outfits that weren't necessarily revealing.
Pam & Tommy episodes 1 to 3 perfectly captured the dissonance one might feel rewatching a '90s TV show like Baywatch now. The lens through which Pam & Tommy is observed is quite different from that of Baywatch, being one that favors James's Pamela's side of the story, rather than seeing the character as an object, as someone like CJ was often portrayed in Baywatch. Today's sensibilities are different from those of the 1990s, with female characters shown in a much more nuanced way than before, often in the same fashion male characters are. Pam & Tommy retelling Baywatch's story through one female actor's objectification on the set succeeds not only in showing how far television has gone but also in proving how bad Baywatch truly was, treating its female characters as mere objects in men's stories.