A couple weeks ago, Mav was watching a football game and he saw a commercial for a new TV show, Rescue: HI-Surf. It appeared to be an action procedural about lifeguards. As he watched it, he was entranced, but couldn’t help thinking to himself “isn’t this just Baywatch?” But alas, the show seemed to want to present itself as an entirely new program that wasn’t Baywatch… even though it obviously just was! Apparently he wasn’t the only one who thought this, because on this episode, Mav and Wayne are joined by friend of the show, Joe Darowski to talk about the phenomenon of secret reboot and rip-off shows. We’ve done a show before about parallel media development of an idea. This isn’t that. Instead we want to talk about the concept of seeing an IP and then just… blindly violating copyright but smudging it a little bit and seeing if anyone notices. Listen as we discuss this with Rescue: HI-Surf and other shows and then let us know if you have any other examples in the comments.
Citations and Links:
- The trailer for Rescue: HI-Surf
- The trailer for Son of the Beach
- Baywatch (remastered) trailer
- “Arielle Kebbel and More ‘Rescue: HI-Surf’ Stars Break Down What to Expect From Their Characters (Exclusive)” by Johnni Macke
- “‘Rescue HI-Surf’ Review: Fox’s Hawaii-Set Lifeguard Drama Struggles to Make a Splash” by Angie Han
- “Fox’s ‘Rescue: HI-Surf’ Is an Average Workplace Drama, but With an Exceptional Tropical Location: TV Review” by Alison Herman
- “‘Baywatch’ Reboot Lands At Fox With Sizable Commitment” by Nellie Andreeva
- Skip Intro on Youtube
- Apply to next year’s PCA/ACA National Conference in New Orleans, LA.
- Thank you to Maximilian’s thoughtForm Music for our theme
- Listen to Joe on The Protagonist Podcast and follow him on Twitter: @jdarowski
- Follow Mav on Twitter: @chrismaverick
- Follow Wayne on Instagram: @tetroc2017
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Did no network exec realize this was just Baywatch? And if they did, were they unaware of the reality that what ultimately doomed Baywatch was the limitations of the stories that can be told in such a narrow setting? Slow motion boob bouncing will only get you by for so long after the 40th near drowning storyline.
Did no network exec realize this was just Baywatch? And if they did, were they unaware of the reality that what ultimately doomed Baywatch was the limitations of the stories that can be told in such a narrow setting? Slow motion boob bouncing will only get you by for so long after the 40th near drowning storyline.