David Hasselhoff: From “Young and the Restless” to “Knight Rider” to “Baywatch”

David Hasselhoff in "Knight Rider".

Source: https://variety.com/2020/film/news/knight-rider-movie-james-wan-1234727825/

(May be subject to copyright)

It was quite the decade for David Hasselhoff. He started the ‘80s as a doctor on daytime television, then became one man making a difference going after people who thought they were above the law, and ended the decade as a lifeguard saving lives and mentoring the next generation.

“Young and the Restless”, “Knight Rider”, “Baywatch”. Depending on what place you were in your life David Hasselhoff may just come to mind when you see these shows.

It is his birthday today, offering a great chance to look back at Snapper, Michael, Mitch and more.

Snap your fingers
Periodically when I was young I would stay over night at my cousins Nina and Carl’s place in Lethbridge. Their mom, my Aunt Johanna, is my Mom’s younger sister. She worked nights so she was home days and ended up watching a lot of soap operas such as – “The Young and the Restless”.

One day, it must have been either summer or a school holiday, I was staying at their place and found myself alone upstairs. The adults were away, my uncle at work and my aunt likely running errands. The TV was on and I saw this guy beginning to choke. This woman with home was trying to help and called the equivalent of 911. They told her to form a fist and punch him in the back. She tried. Nothing happened. Then they talked her through an emergency tracheotomy. With blood everywhere and the tube inserted, another woman walked in, saw what happened, and screamed murder. I went downstairs and my cousin Carl was also watching a TV. He started punching the a pillow and said, “That’s how hard you had to punch him.”

That was my introduction to “The Young and the Restless”.

In that same episode, I saw a young doctor named “Snapper” Foster. He was played by David Hasselhoff, and that was my introduction to him as well. He would play “Snapper” for seven years, from 1975 to 1982.

Wikipedia reveals when “The Young and the Restless” started writing out many of the old characters, Hasselhoff left the show, just in time for a new opportunity.

Seeing him as “Snapper” Foster also prepared me for that next role I would see David Hasselhoff in.

One man can make a difference
In 1982, a new show debuted on Channel 7 of the peasant vision dial. It featured a man and a computerized car battling the forces of evil and taking down those people who thought they were above the law. The mantra of the main character was one man can make a difference.

If memory serves, the commercials I saw really didn’t focus too much on the star of the show. It seemed to be kind of a mystery almost.

So, in the pilot for “Knight Rider”, the first part of the show focuses on police officer Michael Long who is shot in the face and ultimately left for dead.

He is rescued and nursed back to health. He undergoes plastic surgery and emerges as – David Hasselhoff.

Sure enough, my first thought was that I had seen him before. My sister pointed out that was the guy from “The Young and the Restless”.

Maybe that’s why there was kind of a flourish when Michael Knight’s face was unbandaged – like we were supposed to recognize him.

When it started, I anxiously waited each week to watch the next episode of “Knight Rider”, as it migrated from Channel 7 after its first season to Channel 13 for its final three seasons. As time went on, and I got older, I watched it less and less. I was getting into other things too, such as video games and computers, and science fiction and writing, and more.

Hasselhoff played Michael Knight from 1982 to 1986 for four seasons and 90 episodes. I own all four seasons on DVD as well.

It was not that long until David Hasselhoff resurfaced in series television, playing a role that would go on for decades.

To the beach
The reputation “Baywatch” has is that it is “babes on the beach”, more about looks than substance. I never got that impression when I watched the pilot.

I was home from university for a week in the summer of 1989. My parents were still living on the farm, so we still had access to just the three channels on the rural cable network.

One night, it must have been in May or June, before the end of the TV season, this TV movie was on called “Baywatch”.

I was surprised at how many recognizable stars they had, such as David Hasselhoff, Parker Stevenson, Richard Jaeckel, Billy Warlock, Monte Markham and more.

It was a great show, I thought. Hasselhoff played lifeguard Mitch Buchannon a leader and mentor. There were a number of story lines. The one I recall is this woman developing an unhealthy crush on Parker Stevenson’s character, eventually stalking him, and trying to kill him and his wife.

The show ended with Richard Jaeckel’s character, who was a legendary lifeguard, going to save someone and actually dying. The last scene of the show is his funeral at sea. It is followed by a montage of clips of lifeguards at work on the beach.

What was cool was that montage was set to a song by Bruce Horsnsby and the Range. In fact, the producers used more than one of Hornsby’s songs in the show. The music was all from the album “Scenes from the Southside”, which I had worn out playing over the previous year or so.

Interestingly, when I bought season one of “Baywatch” on DVD, there was only generic music, and not Hornsby’s songs.

That weekend, my sister came home for Sunday dinner. When I told her about “Baywatch”, she said when she was going to university in Victoria that year, she saw them filming “Baywatch” there.

I did not realize “Baywatch” was more than a movie. It was a pilot for a TV series.

That September, during the first week or so of university, I was part of student government. One of our tasks during that first week was to visit every floor in res and introduce ourselves. When we visited Second Kelsey, they were watching the “Baywatch” movie. When I mentioned I had seen it already, they said it was being re-run because it was kicking off its first season as a series.

“Baywatch” only ran one season on NBC, for 21 episodes, from 1989 to 1990.

As the decade ended, seemingly so did the dream of “Baywatch”, but that was not the case.

In fact, the show did not die, but was just catching its breath.

David Hasselhoff would play a major part in that, and so much more to this day.

The years after
Hasselhoff figured “Baywatch” had potential so, a year after it was cancelled, resurrected it for first-run syndication. “Baywatch” ended up running a total of 11 seasons, until its series finale in 2001, for a total of 241 episodes, spinoff series and movies.

Hasselhoff would go on to branch off into singing; as well as movies; the stage; as a judge on shows such as “America’s Got Talent” and “Britain’s Got Talent”; reality TV including his own show and “Dancing With the Stars”; and much more to this day.

In 1996, he was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Parting thoughts
David Hasselhoff set a Guinness World Record as the most watched man on television. That is really not surprising to me since he may have been the most watched man on television in the ‘80s between “Young and the Restless”, “Knight Rider”; and “Baywatch”.