David Hasselhoff didn’t want Pamela Anderson cast in her “Baywatch” role over the fear it would drive away fans.
In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, original producers of the famous swimsuit laden television show, Michael Berk and Douglas Schwartz, shared secrets from behind the scenes of the popular ’90s beach show. (RELATED: 17 Photos That Remind Us What A Babe Pamela Anderson Was In The ’90s)
(Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images for Stage Entertainment)
“‘I don’t want a girl that’s been in Playboy,'” Berk said Hasselhoff told them when they were looking to cast the female actress for the second season of the show.
‘”Children watch this show,'” Hasselhoff added to Berk.
Schwartz recalled the reason for Hasselhoff not wanting Anderson slightly different.
“She had these enormous breasts,” Schwartz said. “And David thought he would be upstaged by everyone looking at her breasts. Which is what happened.”
The casting of Anderson boosted the show as well as the revelation of the former Playmate’s sex tape with her then-husband drummer Tommy Lee.
“They came to us and said, ‘What are we gonna do,'” Berk said. “‘Should we leave her out of the next episode?’ We had to figure out how to deal with it.”
“So we just kept going,” Schwartz said. “The ratings doubled. That was a big thing for Baywatch.”