As “Baywatch” reboot news heats up the waters in Los Angeles, David Chokachi reminisced about the good, the bad and the downright uncomfortable times on set of the world’s most popular television show.
Chokachi, who portrayed lifeguard Cody Madison in 65 episodes of the program, remembered one less-than-perfect day filming at the beach.
His character was in an on-screen romance with Pamela Anderson’s character, C.J. Parker, much to the dismay of her real-life lover, rock star Tommy Lee.
Anderson wrote about Lee’s jealousy in her memoir, “Love, Pamela,” and detailed more in her Netflix documentary about a dramatic incident in which Tommy trashed her “Baywatch” trailer upon finding out she had an onscreen kiss with Chokachi.
“I was there when he destroyed her trailer,” Chokachi exclusively told Fox News Digital. “I literally walked by her trailer and I heard, like, demolished … things shattering, and I didn’t know what was going on. I went down to the set and found out he had destroyed her $1 million trailer.
“It turns out he wasn’t that bad guy, and we ended up going to dinner and partying together a couple of times, but he was insanely jealous, and he did not like to see his wife or girlfriend at the time on camera kissing another dude. He just was … extremely jealous, threatened the producers’ lives. I mean, I was like, ‘It’s just TV, man.’”
7 “Baywatch” star David Chokachi said that his on-screen kiss with Pamela Anderson caused Tommy Lee to become “extremely jealous.” Pearson Television/ Courtesy: Everett Collection.
Fox News Digital reached out to Anderson and Lee’s reps for comment.
In her 2023 documentary, “Pamela, a love story,” Anderson remembered that Tommy would “sneak in” to her trailer between filming “because it was his time with his wife.”
While reading an excerpt from her diary, Anderson said she hadn’t told Tommy about the kiss, and once he found out, “he lost it.”
7 Lee destroyed Anderson’s trailer when he found out about the kiss. Getty Images
“He came and trashed my trailer on the set. Put his fist through a cabinet. I apologized for not telling him – lying, as he put it – and told him it wouldn’t happen again,” she said.
Chokachi remembered the entire situation being “very sad.”
“Unfortunately, like, for her, I saw the effect of him and his, like, his kind of power or his, like, nastiness, because she’d be really nervous,” he said. “If there was a make-out scene, she’d have to tell him we’re shooting at a different location or tell the crew to tell Tommy we’re going to be shooting somewhere else, so he doesn’t show up on set and see her making out with me because he’s going to go to through the roof.
“You could tell she was nervous about it, like just on her mind a lot – the unease that was at home. It’s definitely a bummer because she’s such an awesome human being. She is so funny and so beautiful. I was like, ‘Why would anybody treat this girl like anything but the amazing human being that she is.’ I couldn’t understand it.”
7 Chokachi said that Lee even threatened producers of “Baywatch” because of his jealousy. FilmMagic, Inc
In February 1998, two months Anderson and Lee welcomed their second child together, the Mötley Crüe drummer was arrested and charged with felony spousal abuse and later pleaded no contest.
She filed for divorce hours later. Tommy was sentenced to six months in jail and ordered to serve three years probation.
The friendly exes reconciled a few times through the years before deciding co-parenting their two boys was best for their relationship.
7 Anderson and Lee divorced in 1998. Corbis via Getty Images
7 Lee in court in Malibu on Feb. 26, 1998. REUTERS
“Baywatch” first aired in 1989 and ran for a decade before its last episode in 1999, followed by two seasons of “Baywatch: Hawaii.”
The show became the most widely viewed TV series in the world, with an estimated weekly audience of more than 1.1 billion viewers across 142 countries in 1996, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.
David Hasselhoff also starred in a spinoff series, “Baywatch Nights,” which ran from 1995-97, and the pop-cultural phenomenon earned a feature film adaptation in 2017 starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Zac Efron, Priyanka Chopra and Alexandra Daddario.
7 “Baywatch” was the most popular show in the world at one point. Courtesy Everett Collection
“Daring ocean rescues, pristine beaches and iconic red bathing suits are back, along with a whole new generation of Baywatch lifeguards who navigate complicated, messy personal lives in this action-packed reboot that demonstrates there’s the family you’re born into and the family you find,” a reboot promo said.
Michael Berk, Douglas Schwartz and Gregory J. Bonann created the original show and will return to serve as executive producers of the one-hour drama from Fremantle and FOX Entertainment alongside showrunner Lara Olsen.
It’s still unclear how the show will shape up and who will be cast, but Chokachi knows the allure of “Baywatch” is just as exciting for him as it is for fans.
7 Chokachi said that “Baywatch” provided viewers with an hour of escapism. Fox News
Watching an episode “was actually like a real slice of life of a lifeguard in LA. The biggest joke was you could watch ‘Baywatch’ with the volume off and still know what’s going on.”
Chokachi remembered better understanding the worldwide effect “Baywatch” had on viewers after having a conversation with a photographer from Siberia who learned about the Fourth of July from watching the show.
“I was like, ‘Baywatch is on in Siberia?’ And she said, ‘Yes, it’s on. You have no idea what’s going on there. They love it.’ And I think that – obviously it plays the same in Siberia – but for a lot of places, it offered an hour of escapism,” Chokachi said. “You could literally just turn your brain off and watch the show and almost be transported into this life of Southern California.”
He’s still in touch with a bunch of cast and crew members, too.
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“I see David Charvet because his kid surfs a lot with my daughter,” Chokachi said. “I see [David] Hasslehoff, Mike Newman… Alexandra Paul and Jaason Simmons I see all the time.”
Art often imitates life now for Chokachi, and he has a special relationship with Gregory Bonnan, one of the “Baywatch” creators, thanks to their shared love of the ocean, surfing and Chokachi’s daughter, Brit.
“My dream as a dad was to have my daughter be a surfer one day, or to be able to surf with her on my board,” he said. “She joined the junior lifeguard program, and during ‘Baywatch,’ we shot multiple episodes of the junior lifeguard program.
“Then you cut to her, and now she’ll be going into her fourth year of junior lifeguards, and it’s at Zuma beach, which is where we shot a lot. And I’m sitting there like, ‘This is crazy. I was literally portraying one of these guys.
“It turns out, Greg Bonnan is heavily involved in the junior lifeguard program, and he helped my daughter through some of the process. He was just awesome about it, and so every morning now for a month, I see him, and we always chat it up.
“She’s actually becoming a real lifeguard; to have her really going through the program and to have him as one of the main, tough teachers – it’s totally freaking nuts. You couldn’t even write that stuff.”