‘After Baywatch: Moment in the Sun’ Director Matthew Felker Dishes on Cultural Impact of OG Series

Matthew Felker, director of the new Hulu documentary After Baywatch: Moment in the Sun, may not have been a part of the original series, but after five years working with the stars, he spills all the behind-the-scenes secrets of making the series. 

After Baywatch has been five years in the making. Talk to us about how the idea came about for this docuseries and what it took to bring this project to the big screen. 

MF: Well, I'll give you the actual transparent [story] of how it came about, which is kind of funny. I was sort of looking for something to direct, and I knew nobody was gonna let me direct anything unless I paid for it myself. A friend of mine who was a director on a different series – I think it ended up at Hulu as well called "Public Figure" – was of the age of being a big fan of Nicole Eggert. He saw me interact with Nicole on Instagram and he's like "Dude, how do you know Nicole Eggert?" I was like "I've known her for like 20 years. I don't know her super well, but I know her." And he goes "Dude, you should do a Baywatch documentary. You were a lifeguard – that's what you should do, that's totally your jam, you're a beach guy, you used to do that." And so, I called Nicole, and I just said, "Hey, what do you think of this?" Nicole, I think, on her own had been swirling around with reality ideas. I think they wanted to put them in a house like a former Baywatch "Big Brother" type thing – just kind of stuff they didn't really want to do. I just said, "What do you think about that?" And she was like "Well, let me see who would be willing to do it." So, we got about 10 of the actors, including David Hasselhoff, out of the gates and I just thought okay, this is pretty safe, let's try to do this. That's really how it started – off an Instagram post.

What was it like working with Nicole? 

MF: It was fun to work with her. It was such a long time period. Everyone sort of came in and came out. We had a pandemic. We filmed about 10-15 people and then we got hit with the pandemic. We were like what do we do? So, there were a lot of phone calls with Nicole in kind of a panic. Do we just not do this? Do we just take the loss and move on? But it was fun. Unfortunately, she got hit with cancer in the end. What was really sad is that I think with a lot of the actors this kind of gave them an opportunity to really take care of themselves. They had another opportunity, so they all were working out, feeling good about themselves, and Nicole was just in an awesome place and then around Thanksgiving she called me and was like I think I have cancer. I didn't think that it was true. I thought she was kind of like maybe being a hypochondriac or whatever. I'm like, "No, no, no, it'll be okay like, don't worry about it, people get lumps in the breast all the time, it doesn't mean it's cancer." But it was and that was a real kind of gut punch to her and then requiring her to do press and do follow up interviews in the middle of that my hat goes off to her because we have asked a lot from her and from everyone. When you're sick, you don't want to be doing that, but she showed up, which was big props to her. It was fun and we had a really good time doing it. 

Why do you think Baywatch has become such a cultural phenomenon? 

MF: I think it was – and this is sort of an off tangent [point], but I think it's relevant – a pre-Internet porn sort of era where sexualization wasn't as free. Yes, it was in HBO. Yeah, it was in movies. It was in advertising and marketing and stuff like that, but on network or syndicated TV, there wasn't really any sexual content. So, for little kids like me at the time, you're seeing girls in bikinis, women are seeing guys in speedos, and it was like this weird sort of sexualized content, but it was family programming at the same time. It was this really interesting moment to execute on the sex sells era. I think that's why it became a cultural phenomenon. I think it really translated overseas because it was this export of hyper reality America – like what Europe and all these countries think America is but it really isn't. Like everyone's good looking, everyone's ripped, everyone's tan, everyone somehow has money, there's no financial stresses. It was this export of the idealistic American culture, and I think that's really why it became a cultural phenomenon because I feel America always had a push pull, like an eye roll with it. But overseas, it was everything. I mean, I think I even said it in the documentary. I have actual very good German friends that would say 90 percent of the reason they moved to America was because of the imagery of Baywatch. It was selling something. It wasn't really about the writing, or the lack of story or whatever you want to criticize, it was really the imagery, which is a direct parallel to this fantasy world we live in on social media. 

How has it continued to impact American society? 

MF: I think every generation has something or someone that influences the look of an era. You can say Kim Kardashian would probably be that of this generation, maybe, Farrah Fawcett of the 80s, Christie Brinkley 80s-70s, that kind of thing. I think Pamela Anderson and the other girls as well were really synonymous with the barometer of beauty for the 90s generation. If you were going to be beautiful, you had to have bleach blonde hair, you had to have big breasts and be rail thin and tan. That was the 90s look until we got into the end of the era, which was heroin chic and was a whole different thing. But I feel that Baywatch really bled into advertising. It bled into everything. It was the ideal look of what you were supposed to look like in that generation. 

Baywatch made actresses like Pamela Anderson and Carmen Electra household names. What do you think was the biggest challenge for the actors at the time? The highs and lows of fame? Body issues?

MF: Well, I mean, I think the 90s were full of eating disorders across the board. But when you are actually a part of the show that's probably perpetuating the disorder it's even harder. Anyone that's been on TV – I have friends that would be considered overweight by Hollywood standards but by normal standards totally not and then they get on TV and they look at themselves and they read comments, before you're reading critics and tabloids and that kind of thing, of people poking at your appearance so it gives you a massive amount of pressure to look a certain way because you just don't want the audience to reject you. I don't think any of the actors at the time really batted an eye at it. Like in today's day in age, you would do a full pushback like "I can't believe the producer called me fat" or this or that and the other but it was of that era where it's like, "Hey guys, we are selling this ideal. This is the job. This is what you have to look like." I equate it to a Marvel movie. Chris Hemsworth can't show up to play Thor being fat and out of shape. He's got to be juiced to the gills and jacked and ready to go because if you don't look that way, you are not the part. I think it was very similar with the actors for Baywatch. They knew what they were playing, they knew what they had to do, and it was an incredible amount of pressure.

With over 35 people interviewed, what are some new discoveries you made about the making of the show?

MF: There were a couple things that came after the fact that weren't added in that I thought were really interesting. I thought the creators were just incredible business guys because they were dealing with a syndicated show, they were dealing with a really cut budget, and just their creativity on marketing and branding – branding became a term in the early 2000s with Paris Hilton and all that kind of thing. Everyone had a "brand" and it got played out – but these guys were doing it 20 years before where they were grabbing advertising dollars to put into their budget by just allowing product placement to syndication. If you remember in the 90s when you would see an actor do an interview and he had a Nike hat, they would always blur out the slogan because it wasn't paid for. But with syndicated, they figured out we can do all that. If we have a billion viewers, it makes a lot more sense for Coca Cola to give us some advertising dollars and throw their product in the back. And then 20 years later, beer companies like Heineken were sponsoring movies. People caught on but what these guys were doing was sort of so ahead of the game. What I thought was really interesting but didn't make it in the series was they did a deal with all the prison systems to put Baywatch on the tablets for prisoners. That's how crafty these guys are. I have a refrigerator that has a TV in it, a Samsung that has a Baywatch channel loaded in it, so my refrigerator plays Baywatch 24/7. I mean, these guys have really figured out how to milk the cow seven different ways. 

What are some behind the scenes fun facts you can share? What are some things about the making of the show that would surprise fans?

MF: I thought Hasselhoff and Jeremy's [Jackson] personal relationship was very interesting. That was sort of a beat I wanted to hit hard because I thought it was such a universal theme. Everyone has a dad or doesn't have a dad, and they can really identify with that relationship either having it or yearning for it. So, I really thought it was interesting that those two had remained in contact as long as they have. Jeremy really still reaches out to David for advice, and I thought that was sort of a universal message. I thought it was really interesting that Ingrid Walters, who was the second L.A. County black lifeguard ever, who was also a cast member, was totally overlooked and I had to search her down and find her. I thought it was very interesting that her real-life story was used for Traci Bingham's storyline. Then after Traci left the show, Ingrid was actually brought in to play a different character so that kind of stuff was interesting. Greg Alan Williams I thought was super interesting because we had sort of a time capsule with the 90s and he had involvement in the L.A. riots and saving a man from getting beaten to death and his sort of full circle moment in that. I follow a lot of these people personally so that's why I think episode three and four is more character development and less Baywatch. I thought their personal lives were really interesting. I didn't really harp on Hasselhoff or Pam a lot because I felt their stories had been told so much. I mean, Pamela has a book, she's got a documentary, it's like how many times do we need to reinvent that? I thought it was a really great opportunity for actors that were sort of overlooked and never had a voice to finally tell their stories. I just found them very interesting. 

Was it difficult to get the cast members on board? I read Greg Alan Williams made you write him an essay and you had to show up to a house Michael Bergin was selling to reach him. 

MF: Yeah, nothing was easy. I mean, people think that a bunch of actors are just going to show up to film for you for free. I need to emphasize that these actors are not paid. There's not this margin that you're paying. I think Netflix maybe pays subjects a small amount, but they have different standards. The studio I worked with, HBO and a few other places, they will actually ask you if you paid the talent because if you paid the talent they won't buy it because it's not objective journalism and it basically becomes like a reality show where you can create drama because you're paying someone for their time type thing. But with Greg Alan Williams, he originally said no. Carmen Electra originally said no. Michael Bergin said no. I just didn't really want to take no for an answer. I thought Greg Alan Williams was very important because there weren't a lot of people of color in the show and just based on the landscape we're in right now, you can't just forget those people like, oh, they don't want to do it, okay, we'll just move on. I called him and he was receptive, he was really polite, and he's like, "You know, I've just never done a thing on Baywatch. I just never wanted to. I just kind of wanted to forget about it and go upon my career, and my career has been really good to me but why? Why are you doing this?" So, I kind of gave him the cliff notes on the phone. He goes, "Why don't you write me an essay type thing of how you're gonna position me and this and that." I had done a lot of research on him and what he had done and what he'd accomplished, and I just kind of told him how we were going to position him, which is what we did, and he was like, I'm in. He did an interview for us in Atlanta and the first interview was during Covid, and it was remote, so I was never actually able to meet him in person. So, we sent a local crew, and I did the interview through a live feed type thing. I think I said maybe 10 words and just let him go. I mean, I could have done a whole series on Greg Williams, that's how good it was. He was mind blown. Then we did a pickup shoot with him a couple months ago where I actually got to fly out to Atlanta and finally meet him in person because I thought it was very timely that I actually met him in person. So, I'm really grateful for him and his interview and I think we could have probably given him a whole episode or a whole series, that's how good he was. 

Bergin actually became a really good friend, which is funny. My wife ended up working with him for a while and we're friends with his family. I think Nicole had seen him at a Fourth of July event or something and she's like, “Yeah, Mike, we're doing this Baywatch documentary, do you want to get in on it?" And he just said, "Nah, not really feeling Baywatch these days." Like that was just his thing. So, Nicole gave me his email and I think I emailed him once or twice and gave him dates and availabilities and he responded like once and then he just totally never responded again. This was during covid, and we were living in the city, and we just wanted to get out of the city because it was sort of chaotic. We put our house up for sale and my wife started looking at homes and it was in the beginning stages of covid, so we didn't know what was going on. I was like I'm not moving houses during covid too, let's just sit tight and see what's going on. She was out going to open houses and stuff. I'm like, you go do whatever you want, I'm staying home. And she came back from this home, and she goes, "There's this guy at the showing and I think he's an actor or model or something. I think he's one of the Baywatch guys. Do you know Michael Bergin?" I was so mad. I go, "How's the house?" She's like, “It's pretty good. I think you should actually look at. I think you'd like it." I just showed up at his open house the following weekend and I got right into his face like hey! He's like, "Hey, do I know you?" "Yeah, I'm Matt Felker, the guy that's been emailing you, and you don't respond." He goes, "Oh shit, I'm so sorry." And I just told him, "How about if we buy this house and I let you sell my house, you do an interview?" And he goes, "Done." Bergin got paid indirectly more than any of us. He got the best deal out of everybody. So that was how it was. And then my wife started working with him in real estate as well and him and his whole family are really good friends now so it's kind of funny how it went. But he was very standoffish. He just didn't want to be on camera anymore. He didn't want to be the Calvin Klein guy or the Baywatch guy anymore. "It's just kind of done, I don't really want to reopen that." He was hesitant. He wrote me a really nice text message after he watched it. I'll just read it to you, it's really funny. He's like, "Dude, what you made is incredible. You're a god in my eyes." 

What was it like getting Carmen Electra on board?

MF: Also very, very difficult. A lot of the people, even the ones that went on right away, were very hesitant about even being on camera because they've been sort of massacred by the media or by comments by people. Normally, it has nothing to do with their substance, it has to do with their appearance because they don't look like what they did when they were 20 years old. Now, they're in their mid 50s type thing. I think that was a hesitation on a lot of them because the standards that the media and the fans hold them up to are just totally unrealistic. But aside from that, speaking of Carmen, I think I got her phone number from Nicole. I called her, I texted her, and no response. Then I think I got a hold of her publicist at Slate PR, and he was like, "No she doesn't really want to do anything on Baywatch right now" so I kind of let it sit for about six months and about six months later I revisited it when we had a lot more actors. It's kind of a snowball effect. It's like they kind of have to wait to see who else comes on. They can't really just trust the project. They have to wait to see who else is doing it. So, I think we had enough people on board, and we had interviewed Hasselhoff already at that point, so I think she felt it was safer. But I had to push because I knew one of the heads at Slate PR, and I'm like, you gotta vouch for me, this is like a legitimate project, and I think he did and that made the publicist sort of open the gates and be really open to it. But, Carmen, I mean, granted, we didn't pay these people to be on camera but to show our gratitude to being on camera, we rolled out the red carpet. I paid for her makeup artist, which is not cheap. It's the same makeup artist that does Janet Jackson. I paid for her styling. We brought in the super expensive director of photography with all the lights. I mean, her interview looks amazing. I mean, she looks amazing because we spent a lot of money on the product. The thing that was really cool with the actors was because they knew they weren't getting paid, we would take money and put it into them to make sure they looked great, sounded great, and really protected the actors. I think that's why we got what we got because after doing it for so long, a couple years in, these actors knew I had their best interests, and I wasn't going to spin anything and make them look bad. I think once the trust was there, the story and narrative changed because they started talking more. That's another reason why it took so long because the initial interviews were very just bland, kind of the same shit we've heard 100 times before, and I was like, this is not really what I'm going for, I want something a little different. And then in private, like hanging out, or on the phone or whatever, they would just throw something at me, and I'd be like, "Why didn't you guys tell me about that in interview?" They were like, "Oh, well, we didn't really know what the project was" and so then we had to reshoot them. That's why everybody looks different.  

Was there anyone who didn’t agree to be a part of it that surprised you?

MF: Yasmine Bleeth, which is important because she's a fan favorite. I had talked to her and her husband, Paul, for years. I adore them. I think they're great people. I got them inches away from going on camera numerous times, and ultimately, they declined because they said, "You know, we aren't in the entertainment industry anymore. We're not trying to be in the entertainment industry anymore" and because Yasmine has just been eviscerated in the media every time she appears, she just didn't want to open herself up to that again. That I thought was kind of sad that she didn't want to go on camera because she just didn't want to open herself up to ridicule again. That was the one person that we really wished would go on camera. David Charvet, I talked to years ago. He politely declined saying it would interfere with his career now and he didn't really want to be known for Baywatch because he's in construction and building houses and stuff like that. But other than that, that was it. I mean, most people that we reached out to, they came.

Are there any moments or stories in the documentary you're specifically proud of?

MF: I had a whole episode of Mike Newman. Mike Newman became like a second father to me. I really sort of had a heartfelt moment with him when I met him because Mike was the only real lifeguard on the show. He was on it all 11 years and he had Parkinson's, which I knew from Nicole, but the public didn't know that at all. I think a lot of people that would interact with him thought he had cancer, or they didn't really know. They knew he was sick, but they didn't actually know what it was. When I met him for the first interview, which is probably about four years ago, my recollection of him was this giant 6-foot-5 jacked mustache firefighter guy. When I saw him walk out, he was already pretty bad with Parkinson's at the time. He has trouble walking, he kind of shuffles his feet and stuff, so it hit me in the gut visually. Mike didn't want to talk about Parkinson's at all. He's like, "I don't want to be known as the guy with Parkinsons. This is about Baywatch. I don't want to talk about that." And so, I was sitting with him at lunch about two or three weeks later because I knew I wanted to do a couple more interviews with him and he kind of looked at me, and he goes, "What do you want?" Like, "What do you mean, what do I want? I just want to hang out. I just want to be your friend." And it kind of took him back because he's used to all these people wanting shit from him. And I go, "Mike, I really think your story with Parkinson's is important because it raises awareness, and you're sort of a hopeful case where you're still very active and you do all the things you love. I think instead of being a doom and gloom story, I think it's an inspirational story. I think that's what we want this whole series to be with everyone." So, he really kind of dug in and I spent a lot of time with him. I'd take him to the beach probably once a week and go paddling with him, which is in the documentary. He has trouble getting in and out of the water, so he needs help. He can't do it on his own anymore, but it's all the things he likes so we had a really bonding relationship. I mean, I spent birthdays with him. I was at his house in Hawaii numerous times. This is totally outside the documentary all together and I really think for Mike it kind of gave him a breath of life because I think a lot of these actors were at that age where they're known for this brand, the brand is sort of to society at this point kind of a chuckle brand, like, "Haha you're on that dumb show," and it was even kind of thrown away in the 90s where people would try to downplay it even though it was very popular. I think all these people kind of looked at their legacy and were like what is this? This doesn't mean anything anymore. So, for him, to have someone sort of take an interest in him and his life, I really think it gained a lot of miles for him with the illness and it gave him, like a lot of these actors, a purpose again. Mike was a big thing for me. Every time this thing got super f--king difficult and I just wanted to be like f--k this whole thing, I'm just gonna throw it away, I knew how much it meant to Mike because it really meant a lot to him, so I didn't want to let him down.

Just to get back to some of the fun facts of the making of Baywatch, how much were actors paid per episode back then?

MF: From my understanding, the NBC actors from season one had a totally different pay scale because it was network, and it was ad supported. So, they were probably like $20,000, maybe $30,000 per episode but when it went to syndication the budget slashed and there was no advertising to support the salaries. That's sort of the disconnect. People are like, "Well, it was the number one show in the world." Friends' actors got paid a million dollars. The disconnect was Friends was paying those actors a million dollars because it was a popular show and the advertising that supported that show was top advertising. So, they could pay those salaries type thing, where Baywatch, on the other hand, never had that. So, their opening salaries, I think, were about $3,500 per episode and I think if they lasted like three to four seasons, it was about $5,000. That was sort of where they tapped out. But in defense to the creators, I think there were comments about Pamela Anderson feeling like she got gypped because she made the show and she got this and that, well, the fact of the matter is, everyone was offered the same amount. There was no favoritism. It was what it was and if you want to use it as a vehicle to take it to the next level, you can, and if you don't, you didn't have to stay. It seems like they were ripped off and the public would say that, but the fact of the matter is it just was what it was because it was a syndicated show. Michael Bergin was like, "I was having the time of my life. I was getting paid from Liz Claiborne to be a model. I didn't care. I never wanted the show to end." David Chokachi was like, "This is the best thing in the world." He goes, "We loved the show because it's like, yeah, it's fluff, and it's not like we're doing Shakespeare but look at what we get to do every day, this is awesome." So, I feel like, as time went on, I think people felt like they got gypped but I think they felt like they got gypped because the public told them they got gypped. It was sort of like when they were in the moment, they were okay with it, but then reflecting upon it years later, they're like, "Well, we should have got paid this, this and this." But the actors that really understand the business, they know what it was. 

How did everyone describe the atmosphere on set of the actual show at the time? 

MF: I think everyone had the time of their lives. I think they loved it. I went through probably 10 years of home videos from Nicole and Jeremy and Chokachi and Gina Lee Nolan. I saw 10 years of their life and every single person I would text them when I was going through it in the middle of the night, and I'd be like, "You guys had the best lives. I am so jealous of what you guys got to live and do and see." Every single one of them had the time of their lives. Now, I can't speak for Pamela Anderson personally, but I mean, I think all the drama with her relationship, which kind of intertwined with her time on the show, I think it probably ruined her time. But I don't think there's one person that can say they had a bad time. Sure, are there tiffs? Are there dramas? Did someone speak with someone? Probably. But that's on any TV show. But as a whole, I would say they had an incredible experience. 

What impact do you hope the documentary will have on both fans of the show and new audiences?

MF: I really try to do a throughline in the series of sort of overcoming adversity whereas all the actors overcome some sort of adversity, the show overcame adversity of being canceled. I would like them to take away lessons on judgment of people and judgment of a brand. I think anything that's very popular at one point, you see it with actors, you see it with people like Britney Spears, they get to a point and then it's like okay, let's take them down. Baywatch became a huge show so let's take it down. Pamela Anderson, David Hasselhoff, people like to take them down. But I would just like people to be open minded and not judgmental and to see universal stories. You may not necessarily be a Baywatch fan, you may not have necessarily ever watched Baywatch or seen an episode, but there are universal stories and themes in this series that everyone can identify with.