Get in the swim with ‘Baywatch’ doc

PASADENA, Calif. — The sun hasn’t set on “Baywatch,” at least not yet. There’s a new wave coming to Hulu on Wednesday when the docuseries, “After Baywatch: Moment in the Sun,” arrives.

Some members of the supple cast from the hugely popular series about a team of lifeguards at California’s Malibu Beach (and later Hawaii) are there to tell all after 30 years.

The show, which ran for 11 seasons, became a pop culture phenomenon with more than 1.1 billion viewers in 142 countries. But it also garnered smug criticism and ridicule.

“I’ve definitely had a love-hate relationship with the show over the years,” says Nicole Eggert at a press conference here.

“But it’s been an evolution, and I definitely love it and appreciate it and am proud of it. And I just wanted everybody to see the people for who we all REALLY are,” says Eggert, who played Summer Quinn on the show.

“I see a lot of articles where there’s like — I’ll use myself for example — of me at 19 in my red swimsuit and then me at 52 at the market. And it’s like, ‘What happened to her?’ ”

Part of the purpose of Matthew Felker’s docuseries is to reveal what happened to her and other cast members who saved lives while looking gorgeous in their red Speedos.

The reason the show was such a hit, says Felker, was that it promoted illusion. “It was selling the California dream,” he says.

“It was selling a lifestyle. Was it an accurate lifestyle? Not really. Because when you come to California, you realize the beaches aren’t really that nice, and the people don’t look like this. But it was escapism, and it was fantasy. And I think that’s why it translated in Europe so well because it was this — this is what America is. It’s this caricature of what America is.”

Star David Hasselhoff, who played the lifeguard head honcho, invested his own money when the series went into syndication. In a separate interview he says he thinks there are two reasons the series was so popular around the world.

“In Europe it’s the weather,” he says. “They have horrific winters and it’s a beautiful representation of America. They think all of America’s beaches are like ‘Baywatch.’ Around the world the Beach Boys sang about sand and surf and sun, and Frankie Avalon did too. And we all loved the beach, and so does the world.”

Hasselhoff says that after his NBC fantasy show “Knight Rider” went off the air, he joined the unemployed. “ ‘Baywatch’ brought me respect,” he confides. “I was not just an actor who got washed off after a very successful show about a talking car. ‘Baywatch’ kept my world notoriety even more in evidence.

“After ‘Knight Rider’ my agent said, ‘We’ll get you another series!’ They were quite mistaken. So I went off and pursued my music. And after that seemed to get going in the right direction, along came ‘Baywatch.’ And when they offered me the chance to be an executive producer and have more input into it, I jumped. And it’s given me respect in the community that I never got as Michael Knight on ‘Knight Rider.’ ”

While all the lifeguards looked the part, not all of them were seafaring creatures.

Erika Eleniak, who played Shauni McLaine, remembers, “I was a terrible swimmer. I did have to audition swimming, and they needed to see my level, my advancement, and how much they were going to need to stunt-double me or not.

“So I was not very confident in the water and completely shark phobic. … I remember one year I did have it in my contract that I was only going to go in up to my knees and come out from my knees.”

By contrast Jeremy Jackson, who portrayed Hobie Bucannon, recalls, “I personally got on the show because I was great in the water already — already surfing, boogie boarding, body surfing, a kid from Newport Beach. So they threw me in the pool after they thought they liked me and a few auditions, and asked if I could swim. And I said, ‘Well, what do you want? Backstroke? Breaststroke? Freestyle? What do you want?’ ”

Alexandra Paul, who played Lt. Stephanie Holden, was a competitive swimmer, and David Chokachi, who co-starred as Cody Madison, was a beach boy from way back.

“I was lucky enough to grow up on the East Coast, grew up sailing and teaching sailing and swam on a swim team,” he says.

“And my character was an Olympic swimming hopeful. So auditioning for that — you can’t fake looking like an Olympic swimmer.”

“ ‘Baywatch’ kind of created a mold that shaped an era,” says Jackson. “And I believe this documentary breaks that mold. I think it tells the story behind the story. It’s very relatable to right here, right now — and actually shatters a lot of perceptions and gets into the connectivity and the relatability of the humanitarian aspect of people. And connects us all.”

Dennis Quaid elected president

It seems like perfect casting: Dennis Quaid as President Ronald Reagan in the movie “Reagan,” opening in theaters Friday. This is the second time Quaid has occupied the Oval Office in film. He portrayed Bill Clinton in HBO’s “The Special Relationship.”

The actor, who starred in films like “The Alamo,” “Traffic” and “American Dreamz,” tells me he wasn’t sure he wanted to be an actor. “When I was a kid, I would go to the movies and I would come out and feel like I was the character in the movie, especially guys like Steve McQueen,” he says.

“My first week in college there was a great acting teacher at the University of Houston. His name was Cecil Pickett, and I really didn’t know at that point what I wanted to do — whether it would be music or acting or be a forest ranger. And then the first week in his class, that’s what I wanted to do. It’s very lucky to be 18 and know what you want to do, it’s a real gift,” says Quaid.

“I was, and still am, interested in human nature, what makes people tick. What makes other people besides me tick, who have different lives? That’s what acting is at the heart of it, the study of human nature.”

Goblins materialize early on Peacock

Peacock subscribers don’t have to wait till October to be scared out of their Nikes. Starting Sunday the streamer will be hitting viewers with 150 Halloween-themed specials — both oldies and new originals.

The collection will include five “Amityville” features, seven “Mummy”-themed films and seven of the fearful “Saw” series, two of the “Hollow Man,” two of the “Hotel Transylvanias,” and two of the “Invisible Man” thrillers; the original “Frankenstein” and the odd BFF’s “Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman.”

Among its originals is “Hysteria!” starring Julie Bowen (“Modern Family”) and guest starring Bruce Campbell from the memorable “Evil Dead” compilation. A series of murders and strange happenings release a relentless witch hunt in “Hysteria!” But viewers will have to wait for Oct. 18 to clue in on that one.

Bowen, who majored in — of all things — the Italian Renaissance at college, says she always had a hankering to perform. “I’d always aspired to act, but I think I was too afraid to say anything about it during high school and college. I acted in plays and whatnot and my senior year in college I did this tiny independent film called ‘Five Spot Jewel,’ which was in festivals. But more importantly, it gave me a piece of tape on me that was quite pretty, and I came to L.A. and took a chance.

“I was supposed to work at Conde Nast, at Vogue as a junior editor in the interiors department because I wanted to get in the magazine world. And at the last minute I said, ‘You know what? If I don’t try now and throw caution to the wind, I’ll never, never take the chance.’ So I did. I got on a plane and went out to L.A. and called the one person I knew — my father’s roommate from college who introduced me to a woman who happened to be an agent, and she’s been my agent and manager.”

Chuck Norris still gets his ‘kicks’

At 84 martial-arts legend Chuck Norris is still in there punching. You’ll find him streaming on Hulu in the sci-fi action thriller “Agent Recon.” Cable viewers can also catch reruns of his “Walker, Texas Ranger,” and it’s streaming free on Roku, Sling and Pluto.

“Agent Recon” is about a military trio charged with saving the world from an evil horde of warriors.

For years Norris was famous for his martial-arts expertise. While that proved an admirable endeavor, it was nothing compared to movie making, he says.

“Performing gives you the chance to be creative, to see something written on the page and materialize in human form on screen is quite impressive. That’s why I get so excited about every project I get involved in because you bring out a whole new thing on that screen,” he says.