16 Shockers & Revelations from New Docuseries

At the top of the 4-part series, show star Nicole Eggert claimed previous docs on the show contained “no real truth to people’s journey,” adding that she now believes it’s “time for the covers to be pulled back” on the incredibly popular ’90s series.

So, just how truthful were they? Well, the new docuseries includes talks of hookups, racism, addiction, body image, secrets around sexuality and, yes, even Pamela Anderson’s volatile relationship with Tommy Lee.

Here are the biggest shockers from the doc.

Baywatch began as a 2-hour pilot, or movie, before it was picked up to series at NBC. Initially, it starred David Hasselhoff, Erika Eleniak and Billy Warlock — and, pretty quickly, there were some sparks on set.

Billy and Erika were “platonically flirtatious” and had “great chemistry” at first, but both were in other relationships when they filmed the first season. According to Billy, “things snowballed into a lovely relationship” after those other romances came to an end.

That’s the only hookup detailed in the doc, surprisingly — though not the only one that happened.

Speaking with TooFab, Eleniak said she was “positive” other hookups happened, while Alexandra Paul said she actually had a secret relationship herself — without revealing her other half.

“You’re on the beach and you’re covered in sunscreen and your pheromones and everything is, like, firing because you’re exercising and you’re in the ocean, so sometimes things happen,” David Chokachi also told TooFab, “I’ll leave it at that.”

Anderson and David Charvet were already dating each other when they were cast, added Paul, who said they were “so professional” on set “you would not know” they were together.

Before Eleniak was cast, NBC initially didn’t want her on the show — turning her down because she had posed in Playboy. “The bottom line is, it’s a hypocrisy,” said Eleniak, who had creators and producers fight to keep her.

Eventually, she was cast, with creator Michael Berk saying Hugh Hefner was so appreciative, he started inviting them to the mansion for parties.

“A lot of girls who made it on the show started in Playboy,” said costar and fellow onetime Playmate Carmen Electra. Others who appeared in the mag included Anderson, Angelica Bridges, Gena Lee Nolin and Traci Bingham — the latter of whom also hosted the Playboy special, Babes of Baywatch.

The show was canceled at NBC after one year, before David Hasselhoff and the show’s creators worked some magic and got it revived for the first-run syndication market — where it became a massive hit. With the revival came new cast members, including Hoff’s on-screen son, Hobie.

Per Hasselhoff, Jeremy Jackson got the role because “he was real” and “he made me cry” when they read together. Hoff even got choked up talking about the casting process, saying Jackson spoke to him about being raised by his mother — and told him, “I don’t need a dad.”

Creator Douglas Schwartz said Leonardo DiCaprio — who was a bit older than Jackson — also auditioned for the role. In the end, they went with the younger actor … who was already a huge Knight Rider fan before being cast as Hoff’s son.

Surfing icon Kelly Slater joined the show in its third season … though it seems he wishes he hadn’t.

Of his 7-episode stint, he said he “felt like the writing was so nonsensical in so many ways,” pointing to one episode in which he came face to face with a giant octopus which was stealing surfboards.

“It’s pretty wild looking back I got the chance to be on the show,” he said, adding that, at the time, he hoped the show would only get bigger and bigger so people would forget he was ever on it.

It may have been a huge show, but Baywatch did not have a huge budget.

“The Baywatch budget was so much smaller than all the other shows that were filming at the time,” said Alexandra Paul, while Hoff noted, “We did everything ourselves … everything.”

Erika Eleniak and Billy Warlock both allegedly had to take paycuts when the show was saved from cancelation, while Nicole Eggert claimed they made $3,500 an episode.

“I remember freaking out seeing my first paycheck after the taxes were taken out … how am I gonna live on this money?” said Eleniak, who left after the show’s second season. Added Warlock: “There’s not one rich actor on Baywatch. Everybody was disposable and if you didn’t fit Into their brand at the price they were paying you, you were gone.”

As a way to pad the budget — and the episodes — they would also just add some of the show’s famous montages to fill time when the scripts were too short.

The paychecks weren’t the only thing getting smaller — so were the swimsuits!

“For me, that’s when my comfort level went [down]. The second year, I felt like necklines plunged,” said Eleniak, as Warlock noticed the show started getting more sexual and began to focus on women in bikinis even more.

Kelly Packard also said the cut of the suits got higher and higher, saying, “It was ridiculous; you couldn’t even function in it.”

When it came to the bodies wearing those swimsuits, there was apparently a clause in the stars’ contracts where they couldn’t gain or lose five pounds during filming. “You had to stay within your weight,” said Nicole Eggert.

“I was considered curvy back there. I just had a behind on me. Everyone else were these teeny-tiny skinny things,” she said, before adding, “I’m sure Baywatch had an influence on girls wanting bigger lips, bigger boobs, smaller weight. When I was 20, I modified my body, I put implants in my body.”

Angelica Bridges was seen saying, “We had to stay fit, we couldn’t get cellulite. There was a lot of pressure,” while Traci Bingham said the “whole look was huge boobs, the bigger the better.”

For star Alexandra Paul, she admitted she “didn’t conform to what people thought of as Baywatch,” with her swimmer’s body standing in contrast to the more voluptuous blondes on set.

“I learned something really important that first season on the show, no matter what I do, I’m never gonna do that sexy thing as well as the other actresses. So I said I’m gonna be more me,” she shared. “So cutting my hair, my body became more sinewy and strong, I realized just being yourself is so empowering.”

Even some of the men felt the pressure, as Jeremy Jackson recalled “getting a little chubby in the midsection” when he was entering his teen years. Saying he was “a little bit embarrassed,” Jackson claimed he got “prodded by producers and stuff about my appearance, skinny arms and chubby belly.”

His mom revealed she eventually hired him a trainer to “drag him out of bed” and get him fit.

Carmen Electra noted how the show was “ahead of its time” for how it also showed men in next to nothing, while Kelly Packard said “there was little left to the imagination.” More bluntly, Alexandra Paul said of David Chokachi in the opening credits, “You see his c–k in his suit and, you know, it was hot!”

Saying he was “totally fit,” Chokachi did reveal his pre-filming ritual to get his package looking screen-ready.

“It’s 6:30 in the morning, freezing, the shrinkage is ridiculous. I had my own technique, I would basically try and find a little towel, hide under it and do a little personal fluffing,” he said. “It created a little circulation and you’d kind of represent yourself a little better.”

The show needed to find some new blood after its second season, with Hefner introducing the creators to Pamela Anderson.

Anderson allegedly skipped most of her auditions — because she didn’t want to make the drive to Marina Del Rey — before she finally showed up to one. While there, she quipped she didn’t need to get into a swimsuit because “you guys have seen me naked in Playboy,” before stripping down to the swimsuit she was wearing under her clothes. The creators knew they had to cast her.

David Hasselhoff, however, didn’t want her on the show — allegedly saying, “I don’t think so. If I’m in a scene with her, everyone will be staring at her t–s.”

“I was dead against it, because she was on Playboy. I didn’t want another ‘Playboy girl,'” he shared.

He was overruled and the rest is history.

The show took Pamela Anderson to another level, at a time when paparazzi attention was at an all-time high amid her sometimes-volatile relationship with Tommy Lee.

According to Michael Berk, their relationship “complicated things” during a window of time they were having issues. Added Douglas Schwartz: “We always had issues with Tommy Lee being jealous of Pam’s relationship with other actors on the show.”

While David Chokachi said the two had a very “brother-sister” relationship off-camera, Lee was apparently not thrilled with their romantic scenes together on the show. Said Berk: “Pam came to me one day and said, please rewrite this scene where I have to kiss David Chokachi. Tommy’s feeling insecure rioght now. Don’t make me kiss David Chokachi.”

Chokachi recalled Tommy taking their romantic scenes “at face value,” saying he “got really upset.” He added that he felt “bad” for Anderson, “because she was under a lot of pressure from the outside trying to see what her inside is about.”

Lee even purportedly trashed her trailer once while waiting for her to finish filming a scene with Chokachi. “It should have been a great time in her life and instead she was cornered,” added the actor.

The doc also touched briefly on the leak of the couple’s sex tape, with Berk saying the studio wanted her written out of upcoming episodes … until the ratings for the show went up.

The beaches of Baywatch were very, very white — something eventual star Ingrid Walters said the show was “getting a bit of flack for” in its earlier seasons.

While star Gregory Allan Williams said he didn’t think the people who made the show were racist, he added that “they knew that a blonde, blue-eyed notion of Southern California was what people wanted to see.”

“I just thought Baywatch was this show about white girls with blonde hair, blue eyes, big boobs, running up the beach that couldn’t act,” said Traci Bingham, who joined the show in its seventh season as its first woman of color. “I went in there with big hair, big lashes, tons of eyeliner, my boobs pushed up to my chin, because I thought that’s what the show was really about. I wanted to show that not just white women can look hot and sexy … anybody can do it.”

Even though he was part of the show from the beginning, Williams believes he was cast as the comic relief.

“110 brothers auditioned for that role. Why did I get it? One of the reasons is because I was a little pudgy and shorter than Hasselhoff,” he said. “Someone told me one day, David Allan, don’t get too fit. You can’t be as fit as the lead guy. I forgot my place on Baywatch. My character’s place. I was a sidekick. Man, the sidekick can’t be sexy. Sidekick gotta be a clown. My beauty was not celebrated.”

He also recalled being excluded from a cast photoshoot, getting choked up as he said, “Baywatch was a show that celebrated European beauty. So at that point, I put up a wall between myself and the show and decided I would have the fun and make the money, but I wasn’t gonna let it hurt me.” He said the show “empowered me,” while, “every now and then it hurt me.”

Alexandra Paul, meanwhile, said she pushed the producers to “give me a boyfriend who was of color.” In the end, they did … but then made him a gang member. She pushed again and the compromise was to make him an ex-gang member. “We made so many mistakes back then in the 90s,” she said, noting how Williams was the only lead of color the first six seasons.

When Jaason Simmons joined the show as Logan Fowler in Season 5, he was an out gay man in his private life … but not in public. Because the show was so popular, people who knew him would allegedly sell stories about his sexuality to the press, while paparazzi would always try to catch him out with other men.

“It was very difficult for him. He’s one of my closest friends on the show, so it was a secret we kept. It was so dangerous for a man to come out,” recalled Alexandra Paul. “Especially when you’re a handsome, leading man, because producers wouldn’t hire you as a hetero guy getting girls and that was the character he was playing.”

“There’s times where I think he just felt like, what the f–k am I doing here, I don’t belong here, this isn’t who I am,” added David Chokachi.

Paul said she essentially became his “beard,” often holding hands for red carpets and even doing naked photoshoots together. “We wanted to make sure he was protected,” she said.

“I had so much anxiety, she would have to take me to therapy twice a week just to get through everything that wasn’t acting. Our relationship became very strong,” Simmons said of his bond with Paul, which has continued to this day.

“Being gay doesn’t make you less masculine,” added Simmons. “I just wanted to show straight people can play gay characters.”

“This new generation of young people don’t care and I love that and I wish that had been the case in the 1990s,” said Paul, getting choked up, “because it would have been so much less painful for Jaason.”

Jeremy Jackson grew up on the set of the show, saying it was “painful” to be too young to hook up with the women in the cast, but old enough to look.

“I just wanted to be grown up … there were all these hot chicks and I would normally sneak into their trailers after they were done and grab any dirty bathing suits,” he confessed. “Let’s just say I’ve smelled every p—y on Baywatch.”

He then specifically called out Nicole Eggert, who reacted to his pervy reveal by laughing.

“I know Jeremy very well; this surprises me not at all,” she said. “There’s nothing Jeremy could say that would freak me out and I’m not even mad at 14-year-old Jeremy. Puberty on a show like that?”

Speaking more of his teen years on the show, Jackson said he always hoped Hoff would “fall in love with my mom and be my dad,” while admitting he was probably pretty annoying to be around on set.

“I was never the father I could have been and I regret that,” Hoff said. “I could have been there a little more. I had my own set of problems … it was a real weird time.”

A good chunk of time was devoted to Jeremy Jackson’s substance abuse issues, which started soon after he got himself a girlfriend around the age of 17.

“I gave up everything for her. Gave up movie deals, quit the show … she was a drug addict and I jumped right down the rabbit hole with her,” he said, admitting that meth eventually “had a hold on me” and he was “stuck” there for a long time.

“I remember David saying, are you smoking pot? I could never tell them the truth … I had been up for 5 days and I showed up to the set and I couldn’t really speak. My tongue wouldn’t work right, kept forgetting, kept forgetting. I was so embarrassed I had fallen from my ability to perform,” he said of how his drug use affected his work.

“I just said, you know what, I’m out of here. I literally put my middle finger in the air and told everybody to f–k off. I just walked away, with my middle finger in the air. I just took off, that’s when I turned my phone off, that’s when I said screw it, and that’s when I went dark,” he recalled.

He said gang members, thieves, prostitutes and drug dealers then became “my whole world,” though he got sober enough for a stretch to film the show’s reunion special in Hawaii. He then relapsed, went to rehab and wound up in jail for a stabbing.

According to the doc, David Chokachi, Alexandra Paul and Nicole Eggert all visited him in jail, with Jackson saying, “They really were there for me when I needed them the most.” Hasselhoff has also remained in his orbit, as he was seen attending Jackson’s 40th birthday party.

Recent years have been hard on two of the show’s stars: Nicole Eggert and Michael Newman.

After opening up about her claims of sexual assault against Scott Baio — claims he adamantly denies — Eggert shared her breast cancer diagnosis with fans who may not have been following her public story so far.

“Well, things are great, until they weren’t. I have been diagnosed with breast cancer and there’s really only one way to deal with it and that’s to face it, fight it and enjoy whatever time you have left,” Eggert, who shaved off her hair before chemo, says in the doc. “Because, if this is it, I don’t want my last days to be sad. I don’t want my kids to remember me sad.”

For Newman, he now lives in Oahu, close to where they filmed Baywatch: Hawaii. In 2006, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s.

“It’s been tough being diagnosed with something like that. In a moment, when a doctor tells you you have Parkinson’s, your whole life changes. You have to reorder your life,” said Newman, getting choked up. “All those things you had planned for your family and yourself, adventures you wanted to go on, you’re not going.”

While he has a hard time walking, he still swims — something he loves to do. Video in the doc even showed him doing weights underwater, on the floor of the pool. The director, who costars told TooFab was really there for Newman, said he’s noticed his decline in the years they worked on the doc — but added, “he’s not just going to sit in the corner.”

Fun fact: His son is now a lifeguard at Will Rogers beach, where they filmed Baywatch.

For some of the show’s stars, being on one of the most well-known TV series ever came with a downside. Both Erika Eleniak and Kelly Packard opened up about how they struggled to be taken seriously when they began looking for other jobs.

“I grappled with taking it off my resume,” Packard said in the doc. “It really stinks now, because I’m this woman who’s trying to act still, but I can’t be taken seriously because I was a ‘Baywatch’ baby.”

Eleniak, meanwhile, said she felt a lot of self-doubt after being on the show, which she feels affected what happened next.

“When I left Baywatch, I left because I really wanted a film career. Some of the most incredible opportunities I had, I blew; self-sabotage because I was so scared,” she said, claiming she had an opportunity to read for Sharon Stone’s role in Casino, but turned it down. “What I did was I burned so many bridges, major bridges, because nobody understood why I wasn’t going. I was terrified. I didn’t feel good enough.”

The doc also gave fans a couple updates, with Billy Warlock finding “peace” in the mountains as a ski school supervisor and Michael Bergin killing it in real estate.

After Baywatch: Moment in the Sun is streaming now on Hulu.