| V.I.P. | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | |
| Created by | J. F. Lawton |
| Starring | |
| Theme music composer | Frankie Blue |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 4 |
| No. of episodes | 88(list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producers |
|
| Running time | 45–48 minutes |
| Production companies |
|
| Original release | |
| Network | Syndication |
| Release | September 26, 1998 (1998-09-26) – May 18, 2002 (2002-05-18) |
V.I.P. is an Americanaction/comedy-drama television series starringPamela Anderson,Molly Culver,Shaun Baker. Created byJ. F. Lawton,[1] the series aired insyndication for four seasons from 1998 to 2002.
Anderson stars as Vallery Irons, a woman who accidentally saves a celebrity and then is hired by a realbodyguard agency (V.I.P. a.k.a. Vallery Irons Protection) as a famous figurehead while the rest of the agency's professionals work to solve cases. Her lack of investigation skills ends up defeating the antagonists in every episode.[2]
The other team members are an assortment of people of different backgrounds: a former member of theKGB,CIA,FBI, a computer expert, a former law officer, a former street boxer/martial artist and, later, a karate master/stuntman joined.[3]
The series uses a mixture ofaction,comedy, andcamp, with Anderson often poking fun at hertabloid image.[4] In November 2001, a video game version ofV.I.P. was released on thePlayStation console.
Many first season episodes opened with cameos of famous celebrities being protected by Vallery. Among them wereStone Cold Steve Austin,Jay Leno,Charles Barkley,Jerry Springer andAlfonso Ribeiro.[4]Loni Anderson, of no relation to Pamela Anderson, guest-starred in one episode as Vallery's mother. In season 2,Lisa Marie Varon had an uncredited appearance as a bodyguard. Kathleen Kinmont-See was a guest star in the season 4 episode "South by Southwest".
On March 14, 2006,Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the first season ofV.I.P. on DVD in Region 1.[5]
V.I.P. received video game adaptations fromUbi Soft, for thePC,PlayStation,PlayStation 2,Game Boy Color andGame Boy Advance in 2001 and 2002. An adaptation for Xbox was announced but cancelled.[6]
In 2000, Johnny Lightning released two sets ofV.I.P. themed diecast cars in 1/64 scale. There were 8 different vehicles issued in total.
TV Comics! published a comic based on the series in 2000.
The seriesV.I.P. was co-produced with TelewizjaPolsat from Poland. This is the first foreign series co-created by Telewizja Polsat, which exclusively aired the show in Poland.[7]
In 1999, the series was nominated for aPrimetime Emmy Award forOutstanding Main Title Theme Music. In2002,V.I.P. was nominated for threeDaytime Emmy Awards, winning one for Outstanding Single Camera Editing.
The show premiered in syndication on September 26, 1998.[citation needed] Among the stations that carried it wasthe ensemble of Fox's 22 owned-and-operated stations, who signed when the show was in pre-production in December 1997.[8] As of 2025, the series is currently airing onMeTV+ and is available onTubi, but formerly onCrackle. Episodes in Spanish debuted on CineSony on February 14, 2014.[citation needed]