Sunset Beach, California
 

Sunset Beach.-- No, it's not the famed Sunset Beach of Hawaii surfing fame, though it does bare the same name. This is the mainland Sunset Beach, Hollywood's fictional location for a soap opera that tourists occasionally visit, seeking to find The Sunset Beach the TV show was based on.

The US soap opera Sunset Beach aired on NBC from January 6, 1997 to December 31, 1999. It was coproduced by NBC and Aaron Spelling Productions. It aired in over 70 countries around the world, and was especially popular in the UK, Finland, Australia, Sweden, New Zealand, Israel, Germany, Poland, Croatia, Russia, Romania, Slovenia, Venezuela and Bulgaria.
 

Sunset Beach starred Lesley-Anne Down, Laura Harring, Kelly Hu, Barbara Mandrell, Kathleen Noone, Susan Ward, Tracy Melchior, Shawn Batten and Christina Chambers. Cast members who were nominated for various soap opera awards included Hank Cheyne, Margarita Cordova, Priscilla Garita, Jason Winston George, Sherri Saum, Clive Robertson, Eddie Cibrian, Sam Behrens, Dominique Jennings and Sarah Buxton.
 

The soap opera was named after the small beach community located at the northwest corner of Huntington Beach, California just south of Seal Beach, California and the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station.

Sunset Beach remains highly popular in many countries years after its cancellation. It frequently referenced other television shows: many episodes featured characters fantasizing about their lives and dreams in sequences that show the cast dressed as Charlie's Angels or performing the opening from "Friends". Fantasies involving the character Annie Douglas included take offs of the Leeza Gibbons Show and the Jerry Springer Show, guest starring the talk show hosts. What made Sunset Beach truly innovative was its satirizing of itself and the soap opera genre. Advice was sometimes given to characters by the show's dog and on one occasion, by God himself.