It’s decades after the show was on the air, and Baywatchis still a cultural icon, but according to former cast member Nicole Eggert, the extreme success of the show wasn’t always a good thing.
The actress, who played the character Summer Quinn for two seasons, revealed during a recent episode of the Still Here Hollywood podcast that the show had negative effects on both her career and dating life, even after she left the series.
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“We were being ripped apart in the press,” she said of the response to Baywatch despite its intense popularity, and because of this, “The casting doors were not opening anymore.”
Eggert went on, “And then all of a sudden it was like we were called ‘Baywatch bimbos’ and these dumb bimbos on the beach…then on the other hand, you have this No. 1 hit on your hand, and it’s like what a kerfuffle. What a mess.”
She “politely bowed out” of the show after two seasons, hoping to create some distance between herself and the image of Baywatch, saying, “I had some crazy idea in my head that if I left the show, I would be able to detach myself from the stigma that the show had given all of us as actors, which is not a thing.”
Unfortunately, this also negatively affected her dating life, with Eggert saying that many people had trouble separating her from the character she played. She said, “People have an idea of who you are, and that could be a number of things. And I think it’s harder for people to get to know you without this preconceived notion that they have going in.”
While Eggert left the show after a couple of years, Baywatch continued to be a huge success, airing until 2001. There was a reunion TV movie in 2003 called Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding, in which Eggert reprised her role as Summer.
Related: ‘Baywatch’ Actress Proves She’s Still Got It in Rare Red Carpet Photos
