The Gena Lee Nolin Years
Neely returned as a regular character (now played by Nolin) beginning with the sixth season premiere, "Trapped Beneath the Sea, Part I". Her return to the show was explained by Neely being rehired by a reluctant Stephanie Holden (Alexandra Paul) under orders from the county, which had opted to reinstate Neely to her lifeguard duties in exchange for her dropping the lawsuit she had earlier filed against the county, stemming from the events of "Wet and Wild".
Nolin went on to play Neely for three seasons (1995-1998). During her first full season as a regular character, Neely was the show's resident bad girl, being in constant conflict with her fellow employees and her boss, Mitch Buchannon (David Hasselhoff), about as often as she went out saving lives while on the job; in one early incident, she got into a fight with C.J., who was upset about Neely's rehiring and blamed her for Matt leaving Baywatch to move to France.
During the seventh season, however, the Baywatch writers gave her a personality makeover as she was reformed and made into a good character, a move which did not sit well with some of the show's fans, who liked the bad-girl edge that Neely originally had. Neely also appeared in only a few episodes of that season due to Nolin's real-life pregnancy, which later led writers to make the character a mother as well. Neely's absence was later explained by having her recover from a skiing accident, and when she was persuaded to return to work and get her lifeguard recertification after Mitch and Donna (Donna D'Errico) learn of her saving an elderly heart attack victim with CPR following a botched drugstore robbery in the episode "Homecoming", she begged off of doing a necessary blood test, leading to the discovery that she had become hooked on painkillers during her recovery.
During the eighth season, the third and final season of her portrayal by Nolin, Neely became romantically involved with Mitch and they got married in a season-ending three-episode arc, "Bon Voyage" and "White Thunder at Glacier Bay, Part I & II"
Read more about this topic: Neely Capshaw
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