In its 60-year history, the Star Trek franchise has made numerous attempts to widen its fanbase beyond devoted Trekkies. Whether through the comedic, time-travel premise of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home or J.J. Abrams’s action-packed 2009 reboot, the creative team consistently tried to appeal to casual audiences by capitalizing on pop-culture trends. In 1996, the franchise nearly landed one of America’s most treasured actors for Star Trek: First Contact — Tom Hanks.

Paramount often tried to attract A-list talent to bring additional box office muscle to Gene Roddenberry’s beloved sci-fi franchise. Longtime Trek fan Eddie Murphy was once considered for a hip San Francisco professor role in The Voyage Home, and Sean Connery was the studio’s top choice to play the villainous Sybok in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. But Hanks, who is also a self-professed Trekkie, wasn’t being eyed for just any new role. Instead, the two-time Oscar winner was shortlisted for Star Trek’s most historic figure outside the Enterprise crew: Zefram Cochrane.

Who Is Zefram Cochrane in the Star Trek Universe?

In Star Trek: The Original Series, Cochrane was introduced as the creator of the warp drive system. Played by Glenn Corbett in the Season 2 episode “Metamorphosis,” Cochrane encounters Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and the Enterprise crew on a planet where he had crash-landed years earlier, and an alien entity called “the Companion” had restored his youth. The entity goes on to attack the Enterprise crew, and Cochrane must work with them before they become stranded there permanently.

Cochrane returned in Star Trek: First Contact, whose time-travel plot involves the Borg attempting to assimilate Earth through a temporal vortex. To stop them, the Enterprise crew, led by Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), follows the Borg back to 2063, where they encounter the legendary warp drive inventor just one day before his historic first flight. However, the Cochrane they meet is far from a heroic icon. He’s an alcoholic inventor who uses his ship in get-rich-quick schemes.

At the time of First Contact’s pre-production, Hanks was at a career peak. After spending much of the ’80s playing comedic everymen in hits like Splash and Big, he transitioned into prestige drama in the ’90s with Oscar-winning performances in Philadelphia and Forrest Gump. Add to that his acclaimed 1995 performance as Jim Lovell in Apollo 13, along with voicing Woody in Toy Story, and the world was Hanks’s oyster. His addition could have conferred a new level of prestige and event status that none of the previous installments had achieved. But how close did he come to playing Cochrane?

In 2021, First Contact co-writer Ronald D. Moore addressed the subject during a retrospective interview with The Hollywood Reporter. Though Hanks’s name was floated early on, Moore revealed that talks “never got that far.” The role ultimately went to James Cromwell, who already had franchise experience from playing multiple characters on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

While Hanks’s popularity, high salary, and busy schedule — including directing and starring in That Thing You Do! — likely prevented his involvement, there remained a slim chance he might have participated. When Hanks appeared on the Happy Sad Confused podcast in 2023, he enthusiastically reflected on the opportunity and his Trek fandom.

“The guy who invented warp drive? Oh come on, I would’ve jumped on that! I would have come in, and I would have brought gift Tribbles to everybody at the first meeting. ‘Guys, here’s some Tribbles for you.’”

Is There Room for Tom Hanks in the Star Trek Universe?

Image via Apple TV+

Despite Hanks’s affection for the franchise, things ultimately worked out for both him and the film. Having already portrayed a string of inspirational and heroic figures, Cochrane might have felt redundant at that stage of his career. Cromwell instead played the iconic fallen hero as a reluctant, slightly cynical celebrity — someone largely indifferent to humanity’s future until the Enterprise crew forces him to confront it. Hanks’s participation likely would have required extensive rewrites to expand Cochrane’s arc in an already crowded narrative. That could have distracted from the ensemble balance that made the film work.

In the end, Star Trek: First Contact succeeded with critics and general audiences without Hanks’s involvement. In later years, the franchise would attract acclaimed actors such as Tom Hardy, Benedict Cumberbatch, Idris Elba, and Paul Giamatti. As Star Trek continues to expand on the small screen with Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and a new feature film in development, the door remains open for Hanks to bring his gravitas to a new but significant character in the broader Star Trek universe.

Star Trek: First Contact is streaming on Paramount+ in the U.S.

Team USA Hockey
Gold Medal Win Breaks Record
… Averaged 20.7 Million Viewers!!!

Published
February 24, 2026
2:53 PM PST

The trial for the murder of Parks and Recreation alum Jonathan Joss is officially underway.

Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez, who has been accused of killing Joss, appeared in court on February 24, 2026, after being indicted in November 2025. A reset date was set for his next court appearance.

Joss died in June 2025 at age 59 following an alleged altercation with Ceja Alvarez in San Antonio. At the time, it was reported that Joss died following an incident with a neighbor. Joss’ husband, Tristan Kern de Gonzales, confirmed the actor’s death and claimed that the incident was a hate crime after he and Joss experienced “openly homophobic” harassment.

The San Antonio Police Department initially claimed in a statement they found nothing to back Kern de Gonzales’ allegations that Joss’ death was the result of a hate crime. However, San Antonio Police Chief William P. McManus later shared during a press conference that the statement was sent prematurely.

Related: ‘Parks and Rec’ Alum Jonathan Ross’ Death: Everything to Know

Parks and Recreation alum Jonathan Joss died at age 59 in June 2025. The actor’s husband, Tristan Kern de Gonzales, confirmed his death in a Facebook post at the time. “My husband Jonathan Joss and I were involved in a shooting while checking the mail at the site of our former home in San Antonio, […]

“We issued a statement the day after Jonathan Joss’ murder that was way, way, way premature. We shouldn’t have done it,” McManus told reporters in June 2025. “It was way too soon before we had any real information. I will own that. We simply shouldn’t have done that. It was way too early in the process for any statement of that nature to be issued.”

Five months later, Ceja Alvarez was indicted by a grand jury on one count of murder. Local outlets reported that Ceja Alvarez was initially arrested back in June 2025 on a charge of first-degree murder. He posted a $200,000 bond before being released.

In Texas, a hate crime is not a separate charge. A hate crime conviction would be handled as an enhancement during sentencing.

Keep scrolling for updates on the trial for Joss’ murder:

How Did Jonathan Joss Die?

Jonathan Joss died in June 2025 after authorities were dispatched to a shooting. Law enforcement found Joss lying “near the roadway.” Joss’ husband, Tristan Kern de Gonzales, later confirmed the news.

“My husband Jonathan Joss and I were involved in a shooting while checking the mail at the site of our former home. That home was burned down after over two years of threats from people in the area who repeatedly told us they would set it on fire,” read a statement shared via Facebook at the time. “We reported these threats to law enforcement multiple times and nothing was done.”

Kern de Gonzales shared that when he and Joss returned to their former property they found “the skull” of one of their dogs and its harness, which caused them “severe emotional distress.”

“We began yelling and crying in response to the pain of what we saw,” the statement continued. “While we were doing this a man approached us. He started yelling violent homophobic slurs at us. Jonathan and I had no weapons. We were not threatening anyone. We were grieving. We were standing side by side. When the man fired Jonathan pushed me out of the way. He saved my life.”

Who Was Arrested for Jonathan Joss’ Murder?

Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez was arrested in connection to Jonathan Joss’ murder in June 2025, per a grand jury indictment in November 2025. Ceja Alvarez was charged with first-degree murder. He was released after posting a $200,000 bond.

Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez Appears in Court for Pre-Trial Hearing

Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez was stone-faced as he appeared in front of Judge Joel Perez alongside an interpreter in Bexar County’s 437th Criminal District Court in February 2026. The prosecution found no issues with the current conditions of Alvarez’s bond and had no updates to share at this time. A date was set for Alvarez’s next appearance in court.

When it comes to adaptations, it’s rare for any movie or television series to follow the source material to a tee. In fact, the more beloved a novel or comic book is, the more likely some filmmaker will put their own unique spin or reimagining of the material, much to the chagrin of those who adored it in the first place. (Believe me, as a Dracula fan, I still maintain that no adaptation has ever gotten the book right.) So when Netflix announced that its new Little House on the Prairie series wouldn’t just be an adaptation of the book but a “reimagining,” needless to say, that was a comment that made many diehards pause in wonder.

Netflix Plans To “Re-imagine” ‘Little House on the Prairie’ Into Something New — and We’re Concerned

Naturally, when Netflix revealed that it was doing Little House on the Prairie, with the books serving as the basis for Rebecca Sonnenshine‘s take on the Laura Ingalls Wilder story, many (including myself) were a bit skeptical. After all, as fun as Netflix’s Anne with an E was, it’s a seriously vast departure from the original Lucy Maud Montgomery books. However, we remained hopeful because of Sonnenshine’s initial comments. “I fell deeply in love with these books when I was 5 years old,” she told Tudum. “They inspired me to become a writer and a filmmaker, and I am honored and thrilled to be adapting these stories for a new audience.” It was with those comments in mind that I felt cautiously optimistic about the made-for-streaming series. After all, although the original Little House TV show was a classic, it deviated considerably from the Wilder novels (with the 2005 miniseries being a bit more faithful). With this Netflix series, longtime lovers of the books might finally be able to watch Wilder’s words come to life on the screen. Right? Well, maybe not.

In the same breath as Sonnenshine’s comments about loving the novels and hoping to adapt them well, Netflix billed this series as a “reimagining” of Little House on the Prairie. If other franchise reimaginings — like Battlestar Galactica, Walker, and Hawaii Five-0, for example — are any indication, this will not be your grandmother’s Little House. There’s a stark difference between a reimagining and a reboot, though there are often similarities between them. A reimagining is typically more than just a simple updated take on the material. Oftentimes, reimaginings shift genres. Battlestar Galactica, for instance, was originally a campy sci-fi adventure series but was quickly turned into a dark, gritty one under Ronald D. Moore‘s guidance. Likewise, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was a family sitcom that, sure, could deal with real-world issues, but always in a lighthearted way. Peacock’s Bel-Air, however, was reworked into an intense contemporary drama.

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The Ingalls family returns to the frontier later this year.

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Likewise, reimaginings often update the original or more popular material to feel more culturally relevant to modern-day. So, for Netflix’s Little House, expect contemporary issues to be stuffed into a 19th-century setting — not unlike how the 2002 Twilight Zone revival remade episodes initially about the Cold War into meditations on the fears of post-9/11 terrorism. Lastly, reimaginings typically include overall tonal changes that shift not just the look, but the feel of the program. A recent example of this was The CW’s Walker, a reimagining of the Chuck Norris series Walker, Texas Ranger that got Norris’ permission to go from a family-friendly (and heavily moralistic) action series to an overly soapy neo-Western procedural, changing the entire personality of Cordell Walker in the process. So, when Netflix says that it plans to reimagine Little House on the Prairie into something new, this comes across as a bit worrisome for those just hoping to see some of their favorite historical novels brought to life on the screen.

The New ‘Little House’ Could Still (and Hopefully Will) Surprise Us

Now, just because something reimagines the material doesn’t mean that it’s automatically bad; it only means that it’s not a direct adaptation. From the get-go, Netflix was clear that its Little House wouldn’t just be populated solely by the Ingalls family and good old Mr. Edwards (Warren Christie), but also by brand-new characters who were not part of Wilder’s books. So, perhaps this doesn’t come as a surprise. So long as the new Little House can capture the spirit of the books (as the NBC series did), maybe that’s all we can ask for.

The series has been described as “part family drama, part epic survival tale, and part origin story of the American West,” which is about everything we could expect from anything labeled “Little House on the Prairie.” As series star Luke Bracey noted in his sentiments to Collider:

“I, for one, know that everyone who was a part of making Little House on the Prairie had their heart in the exact right place, and all we want is for people to love it and to fall in love with it again, and to know that we understand the responsibility and the privilege that comes with playing these timeless characters that are a part of so many people’s lives, and a part of so many of their hearts.”

Here’s hoping that their hearts being in the right place is enough to competently bring Wilder’s story to life.

The original Little House on the Prairie series is available for streaming on Peacock and Prime Video.

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Little House on the Prairie

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Release Date

1974 – 1983

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Directors

Victor French, William F. Claxton, Leo Penn, Alf Kjellin, Joseph Pevney, Lewis Allen, Maury Dexter, Michael Ray Rhodes

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‘Heated Rivalry’ Love Nest
Airbnb & Chill?! Puck Yeah!!!🏒

Published
February 24, 2026
2:01 PM PST

Savannah Guthrie said her family is now offering a $1 million reward for information leading to the recovery of her mother, Nancy Guthrie. The 84-year-old has been missing from her Arizona home for more than three weeks. 24 days to be exact, the ‘Today’ show host said Tuesday in a video update. Meanwhile, law enforcement is asking search volunteers to allow space to investigate the missing persons case.

RELATED: Say, WHAT?! Missing Louisiana Teenager Reportedly Found In Basement Box After Meeting Man On Snapchat (VIDEO)

Savannah Guthrie Hopes Mom Will Be Found Alive

Speaking in a social media video, Savannah Guthrie said her family is still holding out for a miracle, hoping Nancy Guthrie will be found alive. However, the ‘TODAY’ host also acknowledged that they realize it might be too late. Since the first days of her disappearance, authorities have expressed concern about Nancy’s health. The 84-year-old needs vital daily medicine.

“She may already be gone,” Savannah Guthrie said in an Instagram post. “She may already have gone home to the Lord that she loves and is dancing in heaven with her mom, with her dad, with her beloved brother…with our dad. If this is what is to be, we will accept it.”

Savannah Guthrie said her family needs to know where her mother is, no matter what happened. “We need her to come home…Someone out there knows something that can bring her home,” she said. Additionally, she included the FBI number in her caption, 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324) and more details about the $1 million reward and the acceptance of anonymous tips. Her family also plans to donate $500,000 to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

“We are hoping that the attention that has been given to our mom and our family will extend to all the families like ours,” she said.

What Happened To Nancy Guthrie? 

Nancy Guthrie was last seen at her home just outside Tucson, Arizona, on Jan. 31. She was reported missing the next day. Authorities believe she was kidnapped, and the FBI released surveillance videos of a masked man who was outside Guthrie’s front door on the night she vanished. Drops of her blood were found on the front porch. However, authorities haven’t publicly revealed much evidence.

What Is Police Doing To Find The Savannah’s Mother?

Several hundred people are working the Guthrie investigation, and more than 20,000 tips have been received, the Pima County Sheriff’s Office has said. The FBI and other agencies are assisting.
The porch camera footage released two weeks ago, which showed a man wearing a backpack and gloves outside Nancy Guthrie’s house, gave investigators their first major break. But it also has fueled intense speculation.

The sheriff’s department said Monday that it’s aware of differences in the masked person’s clothing depicted in various images that were released, namely with and without a backpack.
“There is no date or time stamp associated with these images,” the department said. “Therefore, any suggestion that the photographs were taken on different days is purely speculative.”
Sheriff Chris Nanos said a week ago that members of Guthrie’s family, including siblings and spouses, are not suspects.

RELATED: Prayers Up! Lil Jon Breaks Silence After Son Nathan Smith’s Body Found In Pond Following Missing Person’s Report

Associated Press writer John Seewer contributed to this report via AP Newsroom. 

Young and the Restless may see some huge couple swaps coming that will shake things up on Y&R. Seriously, we’ve got Adam Newman (Mark Grossman) struggling. Sally Spectra (Courtney Hope) is abruptly single. Phyllis Summers (Michelle Stafford) may have more than one guy on the hook. And Billy Abbott (Jason Thompson) has been dumped.

I want to talk about some of the couple shakeups and repairing’s that Y&R might deliver soon based on the current storylines.

Audra Charles and Noah Newman: A Genoa City Reunion on Young and the Restless?

All right, one couple I see happening—I think they’re laying the groundwork at this moment—is Audra Charles (Zuleyka Silver) and Noah Newman (Lucas Adams). Yes, Sienna Bacall (Tamara Braun) is back in Genoa City this week, but I suspect she’s going to be dead or gone back to Los Angeles soon.

Matt Clark (Roger Howarth) is out. He’s free. No pending criminal charges, and he’s got scores to settle. So, Noah is really worried because Matt already tried once to kill Sienna, and Matt Clark may come back to finish that job.

And even if Matt doesn’t kill her, I think Sienna might take off back to LA after the Matt storyline finally ends, which is coming soon in March. She already told Noah it’s not a good idea for them to be together, and Sharon Newman (Sharon Case) and Nick Newman (Joshua Morrow) agree.

So, I think that could set the stage for Noah and Audra to reunite. Sparks flew from the moment Noah first came back to Genoa City. They ran into each other at the GCAC, and there was a whole vibe. And then this past week, we got Audra and Noah at the GCAC, and they were flattering each other.

They were friendly, maybe a little flirty, until he got salty when he found out Audra was working at Abbottcom, which has taken over Newman Media. But it’s not like Audra stole the company. That’s 100 percent on Phyllis, Cane Ashby (Billy Flynn), and Billy.

Plus, I think for Audra, hunky Noah is the one that got away. Audra really wanted him back when he first came back to Genoa City. That’s when Rory Gibson was in the role, who’s over on General Hospital now, of course.

And back then he was with Allie Nguyen (Kelsey Wang), and then Noah got written out and nothing came of it. But I don’t know if Audra ever got over Noah. She was pregnant with his child, if you remember, but then she had a miscarriage.

Nate Hastings and Victoria Newman Rekindle Their Romance on Y&R

I can see this happening next. Nate Hastings (Sean Dominic) and Victoria Newman (Amelia Heinle)—they finally spark this week. They have a nice talk and then a steamy kiss.

So, they’re headed towards coupling up again, although I imagine they’re going to take things slow like they have been because Victoria is still grieving the loss of Cole Howard (J. Eddie Peck).

And of course, Nate had his heart ripped out and his trust violated by Audra. And even though they hadn’t said “I love you,” it was very clear that Nate had fallen in love with her.

So, I’m pretty sure Victoria Newman and Nate Hastings aren’t going to rush into anything too serious too fast, but they are moving forward and they do have history. If you remember, they were together before.

They had great chemistry, but it started out messy because Nate was seeing Elena Dawson (Brytni Sarpy) and then he and Victoria were cheating behind her back.

And then Victor Newman (Eric Braeden) was really nasty to Nate back when Victor was pretending to be incompetent and Nate wanted to get him help. Victor thought it was a violation and basically broke them up.

Will Phyllis Summers and Billy Abbott Find Love Again on Young and the Restless?

All right, let’s talk about Genoa City’s biggest black sheep, Phyllis and Billy. I feel like they might rekindle first. Phyllis and Billy might hook up just to be petty and make Cane and Sally jealous on Young and the Restless.

But I think that Cane is going to start chasing Lily Winters (Christel Khalil) again once she’s back in a few weeks. I don’t think Cane’s going to let her go. So, while he’s been warming Phyllis’ sheets and trying to get Phyllis to take him back this week, I think she’d be a fool to trust Cane.

So, Billy and Phyllis may start off casual and then evolve into something more serious. You know, Billy and Phyllis pretty much only have each other at this point because they’ve lost everybody else because of their scheming and their need for revenge.

And they have a tangled romantic past. They were in love more than once in their history, engaged, and just smitten. So, they could end up rekindling that old flame.

And we saw this a while back, if you remember—Phyllis had a dream about reuniting with Billy right before she got kidnapped with Sharon. So, we thought we were going to get Phyllis and Billy back then, but nothing came of it. But now, it might.

Adam Newman and Sally Spectra: An Epic Love Story Returns

All right. Next, I can see Adam winding up again with Sally. And yes, I know he’s with Chelsea Lawson (Melissa Claire Egan), but Adam might cook up a scheme.

So, there’s a 2026 spoiler that says both Chelsea and Adam Newman tap into their dark sides when the Newmans lose everything. So, I could see Sally targeted by Adam because she’s got Newman Media.

He might woo Sally to try and get back the company. And here’s why: Adam is so desperate for Victor’s approval. And if it came down to betraying Chelsea or getting a pat on the head from Victor, I’m pretty sure I know where Adam’s going to land on that.

He might not go into it intending to cheat, just to flirt and try to soften Sally up, and then things get away from him because Adam and Sally, honestly, they had an epic love story. I like them together a lot, her and Adam.

Plus, if memory serves, Sally never tried to frame Adam Newman for the attempted murder of a policeman. If you remember, that was conwoman Chelsea. So, you know, I actually think Sally’s a better choice for him.

And if you remember, Adam dumped Sally Spectra when they were running Newman Media, but Adam did it hoping that if he was out of the way, Victoria would let Sally keep running the company. So, Adam ruined his great love with Sally over Newman family politics. So, yes, I think Adam Newman could and would do it again.

And I’m sure Sally has residual feelings for Adam very deep down. I think he’s got feelings for her. You know, Sally’s the one who called it off; Adam Newman didn’t want to break up. And a whole pile of fans would love Sally and Adam to reunite. So, I could see a path to them rekindling.

Sharon Newman’s Future on Young and the Restless: A New Romance with Detective Burrow?

Last, I want to talk about Sharon and the possibility of her sparking with hunky new GCPD detective James Burrow (Matt Cohen). Remember, they’ve been teasing Nick and Sharon forever. It’s literally been about 18 months ago that they started teasing, “Oh, there’s going to be this big Nick and Sharon reunion.”

So, Nick and Sharon kissed last summer. It was like July of 2025. Eight months since that smooch. That is a glacial pace. Narcoleptic snails move faster than Josh Griffith’s writing.

So, we’ve got Nick and Sharon with no romantic vibes at all. They’re friends. They’re co-parents at this point. That’s it. And with Nick’s addiction storyline, I feel like that will drive him further away from Sharon, although I’m sure she’ll be sympathetic and be supportive.

But Josh Griffith, in the end, seems to have no interest in having Sharon with Nick. So, Sharon moving on with James Burrow would be great. It’d be new. It’d be new to some extent because if you remember her romantic history, Sharon likes cops.

She married Rey Rosales (Jordi Vilasuso), who was a cop. She was briefly involved with detective Chance Chancellor (Conner Floyd), and she was also married to Dylan McAvoy (Steve Burton), a detective. So one-third of her husbands have been cops and two-thirds have been Newmans.

If you remember, she married all the Newmans—Adam Newman, Nick Newman, and their dad, Victor Newman. A trifecta. So, yes, handsome Detective James Burrow is a much better choice and a healthier one for Sharon. And her happiest marriages have been with the cops.

She and Dylan broke up because he went into witness protection because the actor, Steve Burton, was leaving to go back to General Hospital, and Rey Rosales was killed off and that devastated her. So, Sharon Newman never willingly gave up either of her past cops that she loved.

It just worked out that circumstances went against her. The Newmans she dumped, but we’ll see how it goes. I expect couple shakeups starting very soon.

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Back in the 90s, Baywatch was the most popular series on the planet, and as a result, Pamela Anderson was the most popular woman on the fledgling internet. Throughout the decade, she would be either one of the top-searched women or the number one search term, depending on which web browser was surveyed.

Remember Lycos?  Also lost to the sands of time is her other ’90s series, the action-comedy V.I.P. Airing for four seasons and 88 episodes starting in 1998, the syndicated series gave millions of fans exactly what they wanted week after week: goofy self-deprecating humor. 

V.I.P. Is All About Faking It Til You Make It

In 2026, Pamela Anderson is enjoying a career resurgence thanks to The Naked Gun and its press tour, during which she showed off her sharp wit. Anyone who’s seen V.I.P. knew that the blonde bombshell was well aware of her image as a well, blonde bombshell, and frequently made fun of it through her character, Vallery Irons. Accidentally finding herself thrust into the world of high-end bodyguards, Vallery has no idea what she’s doing but always manages to save the day in the end. 

It’s an interesting dynamic where the new figurehead boss is forced into the spotlight while the competent, veteran team does all the real work behind the scenes. If you were to guess that everyone else on the cast looks like they came right from a Victoria’s Secret runway, you’d be correct. Even the men on V.I.P.’s staff, Quick and Johnny, were played by martial artists, Shaun Baker and Dustin Nguyen, respectively. 

There’s no overarching mythology arc to V.I.P., and every episode follows the same formula of a celebrity/rich person hiring the team to protect them. Val and the rest of the team, Natasha (Molly Culver), Nikki (Natalie Raitano), Maxine (Angella Brooks), and Kay (Leah Lail), will somehow have to put on skimpy outfits in order to go undercover, distract the mafia, act as a body double, or any other countless number of reasons the writers were able to come up with during the 88 episode run. 

The Queen Of Syndication

Pamela Anderson served as an executive producer on V.I.P., working alongside series creator J.F. Lawton (a name you don’t recognize, but he wrote Pretty Woman and Under Siege), who had a similar sense of humor. Together, they gave the studio what they wanted: hot people looking hot, but surrounded it with the campiest storylines since Batman ‘66 and constant references poking fun at the premise itself. 

V.I.P. was a hit for all the obvious reasons and even launched a line of toys, comics, and, inexplicably, video games. A series built entirely on sex appeal is the logical choice for a Game Boy Color adaptation. After the series went off the air, there was a significantly less successful attempt to replicate Pamela Anderson’s success with Species star Natasha Henstridge’s She-Spies. Turns out there’s only one Pamela Anderson. 

Anderson’s movie career may have fizzled out after Baywatch, and V.I.P. wasn’t her first choice after ditching the red swimsuit, but it worked with her second hit syndicated series in a row. Who knew the secret to syndication success was to put attractive people in the skimpiest clothing legally allowed?