美国的救生员剧《生死海滩》由大卫·哈塞尔霍夫和帕米拉·安德逊主演，是世界上收视率最高的电视连续剧。故事情节围绕海滩护卫队员营救故事展开，最大看点是海边的旖旎风景，以及无数的泳装帅哥美女。据估计在142个国家和地区内每周收看该剧的人数超过11亿。
《Baywatch》从1989年播映到2001年共播出了11个季。国内曾引进过前2季，相信不少人看过，讲述一大堆俊男美女的海岸救生员的故事。其中男主角David Hasselhoff 曾出演过《霹雳游侠》。Baywatch比较类似于《ER》，主题曲歌词翻译过来几乎就是美国版的《接过雷锋的抢》，每集不管大事小事都要救几个落水的，就单单一个沙滩的救生员就能拍出那么多集来，每集一个故事，几乎涉及到了生活的方方面面。
Lifeguards (and beautiful ones at that) patrol the beaches in sunny California.
Television series about a cadre of attractive lifeguards who patrol a crowded recreational beach.
This long-running series follows the adventures of a team of lifeguards on a crowded resort beach. Veteran lifeguard Mitch Buchannon watches over the younger lifeguards that come and go with each passing season as they keep the beaches safe for vacationers. Frequently he must take action to save them from the raging seas and from the raging tempers that sometimes flare up between the young guards in this stressful job.
While rowing out in the ocean, Mitch rescues an underwater photographer, named Linda, floating on some wreckage. Linda's somewhat disjointed, frantic story about something attacking her in an underwater cave which killed her partner and destroyed her boat is misconstructed by Kay Morgan, an ambitious, publicity seeking newspaper reporter, who creates a media frenzy by starting rumors about a "creature in the bay." Harvey Miller, the new lifeguard and prankster, benefits from the events by selling undersea creature T-shirts. Meanwhile, Shauni rescues a young girl from drowning and soon becomes compelled to rescue the girl, her brother and their mother from the life they live in the slums of South-Central L.A., much to Eddie's chagrin. While Shauni deals with her possessive father who disapproves of her lifeguard job, Mitch also pressures Captain Thorp to ask for funding for new advanced motorboats, called Scarabs, for the team.
Mitch Buchannon, Hobie, Eddie and Shauni travel to northern California's rugged gold country, with C.J. as their guide, to investigate the death of Mitch's prospector uncle where they find an old treasure map leading to a valuable gold nugget along a rough river. Back at Baywatch, two new recruits show up for rookie training season who are the wealthy and spoiled teen Matt Brody, and lower class swim champion Summer Quinn who moves to California with her divorced single mother looking to escape from an abusive past.
A plumber and his germaphobic son are forced to get their hands dirty to save the residents of an apartment building, when a genetically engineered blood-thirsty creature escapes into the plumbing system.
