Retro Television Review: Baywatch 3.4 “Rookie of the Year”

Posted on October 31, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Saturdays, I will be reviewing Baywatch, which ran on NBC and then in syndication from 1989 to 2001. The entire show can be viewed on Tubi.

This week, Brody and Summer go through rookie school!

Episode 3.4 “Rookie of the Year”

(Dir by Gus Trikonis, originally aired on October 5th, 1992)

This week’s episode follows Matt Brody and Summer Quinn through rookie school as they compete for Rookie of the Year. The winner gets to choose a beach assignment. Eddie Kramer won the honor in his class. Brody has a shot this year, but only if he can beat arrogant Clint Chandler (Race Nelson) in the Gauntlet, a grueling race across the beach and through the ocean.

The episode gives us a few questions to ponder.

Will Brody overcome his rebellious attitude and the disapproval of his wealthy father (Dirk Benedict)?
Will Summer find the courage to make the pier jump?
When C.J. and Stephanie discover that they share an ex-boyfriend, and that he rented his old apartment to both of them, will they be able to live together?

The answer to all three questions is yes. If you didn’t instinctively know that, you have obviously never watched Baywatch.

Brody comes close to dropping out of rookie school, until Mitch tells him he reminds him of a young hothead who had a problem with his dad. “Eddie Kramer?” Brody says. Mitch shakes his head. “About a foot taller.” (Mitch means himself. Brody still deserves some credit for clocking that he is basically Eddie Kramer with a rich dad.)

C.J. may be into crystals and Stephanie may be down-to-earth and practical, but they still make their odd-couple dynamic work.

And Summer may be scared of jumping off the pier, but she does it after encouragement from C.J. and Brody. Brody wins Rookie of the Year not just because he beat Clint in the Gauntlet, but because he helped Summer make the jump.

Meanwhile, it is announced that Guido Torzini (Buzz Belmondo), a guy with a pencil-thin mustache who has been hanging around headquarters whether anyone asked him to or not, will be Baywatch’s official maintenance engineer. Congratulations, Guido, whoever you may be.

This was an episode built out of montages. The rookies run into the water. The rookies run out of the water. Sometimes they do it in slow motion. It was thoroughly predictable, but the beach was lovely and the ocean was inviting.

There was nothing at all challenging about this episode.

And sometimes that’s just fine.

Retro Television Review: Baywatch 2.14 “War of Nerves”

Posted on August 8, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, some people stand in the darkness, afraid to move into the light.

Episode 2.14 “War of Nerves”

(Dir by Douglas Schwartz, originally aired on February 3rd, 1992)

Drug lord Mason Sato (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) has just gotten out of prison and he wants revenge of Mitch. For reasons that aren’t really explained beyond a shot of a newspaper headline that reads, “Hero Lifeguard Helps Police Take Down Drug Lord,” Mason blames Mitch for his arrest, Do lifeguards make arrests?

Mason stalks Mitch, Hobie, and Mitch’s girlfriend, Kaye (Pamela Bach). At first, Mitch doesn’t tell either Hobie or Kaye what’s going on. But when Mason asks Hobie to teach him how to use a boogie board, Mitch loses it and punches Mason out. Mason later kidnaps both Hobie and Kaye. This leads to a fight in an abandoned warehouse. Once the fight moves into the ocean, Mason nearly drowns but Mitch saves his life so he can go back to prison.

Meanwhile, Shauni asks Ben to teacher her how to surf. We never actually see Ben teaching her anything but we do get a lengthy montage as Ben remembers his days as a surfing lifeguard. Myself, I’m wondering how Ben, who we’ve been told can no longer swim because of a leg injury, suddenly stops limping in this episode.

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa was a magnetic villain but otherwise, this was Baywatch at its cheapest. The plot was by-the-book and it mostly seemed to exist so that Hasselhoff could play the action hero. This episode felt like a dry run for the first, non-supernatural season of Baywatch Nights. How many lifelong enemies has Mitch managed to make?

The life of the lifeguard is a dangerous one.

Retro Television Review: Baywatch 2.5 “The Fabulous Buchanan Boys”

Posted on May 23, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, we meet Mitch’s brother.

Episode 2.5 “The Fabulous Buchanan Boys”

(Dir by Gus Trikonis, originally aired on October 14th, 1991)

Mitch’s brother, Buzz (Tim Thomerson), shows up with his 12 year-old son, Kyle (Chance Michael Corbitt)! Mitch is reunited with Buzz and they both realize that they’re two old beach bums who are not getting any younger. That’s especially true in the case of Buzz. The show makes it clear that Buzz is Mitch’s older brother but we’re still left wondering just how much older. With his gray hair and his weathered features, Tim Thomerson looks like he’s nearly 70 while Hasselhoff appears to be in his late 30s.

And that’s pretty much it.

Okay, in all fairness to the show, there is a bit more of a plot than just Buzz showing up but none of it adds up to much. Mitch’s girlfriend, reporter Kaye Morgan (Pamela Bach), is pressured by her father to kill a story about a dangerous pier. Kyle has a bad attitude and has an accident while surfing at that pier. Luckily, the lifeguards are able to save him. Eduardo (Buzz Belmondo) sells bikinis on the beach but — ha ha — the bikinis dissolve when soaked in salt water. Eddie and Shauni have to help a lot of suddenly naked people get out of the water. “We’re in syndication!” the show loudly announces. Meanwhile, I’m left to wonder why you would buy a bikini from a stranger with a pencil-thin mustache.

For the most part, though, this was a montage episode. The plot was secondary to the music playing behind slickly edited montages of Buzz and Mitch bonding. Buzz and Kyle leave town at the end of the episode but, given how close Buzz and Mitch are, I’m sure that Buzz will return frequently in the future.

(Buzz will never be seen again.)