Set in the early days of Reality TV and unregulated e-commerce, the infamous ‘VHS Tape’ of Pamela Denise Anderson and Thomas Lee Bass, Pam & Tommy could have easily descended into a tawdry TV series about the a contractor’s revenge on a celebrity who didn’t pay him for services rendered.

Robert Siegel (The Founder, The Wrestler) and D.V. DeVincentis (American Crime Story, High Fidelity) began their Pam & Tommy TV series at their world wind romance culminating in their marriage only 96 hours later.

“Sadly, this story set in 1997 is still relevant today,” lamented Siegel. “What happened to Pam and Tommy set up a pattern of behavior in today’s media culture that has only become more invasive and pervasive. It’s difficult to imagine it getting any worse,” added D.V.

Pam and Tommy made a playful videotape for their eyes only, not for public viewing. But getting the widespread circulation stopped was bordering on impossible because they were public figures with a perceived diminished right to privacy. At the time, they were even considered culpable for its release.

Pam & Tommy? Was It Love?

Tommy Lee’s volcanic rockstar behavior has been well-documented. Pamela was the demure, even-tempered, blond bombshell dipping her acting toes as a lifesaver into the dangerous waters of the Pacific Ocean.

D.V. DeVincentis

“When we first started examining the relationship, it really had the charm of an arranged marriage,” opined D.V. “These two people didn’t really know each other. They were filled with projection about their ideal relationship. They got to know each other after they got married.” DeVincentis believed in love at firs sight and that their marriage may have survived if the couple had been left alone. “It was a very deep physical and spiritual connection,” said D.V. “They were actually pretty compatible.”

Rob Siegel added that Tommy paralleled his own parents’ marriage which allegedly had an even shorter courtship. “His father David was an Army Sargeant stationed in Greece and his mother Voula, was a contestant in the 1957 Miss Greece beauty contest.” David took one look at the Greek beauty and there was “a romantic combustion. They got married without even speaking the same language.”

D.V. and Robert had plenty of source material to develop Pam & Tommy. There were several pieces published in Rolling Stone magazine during the following years. Lee even wrote a book Tommyland which chronicled his life.

Siegel and DeVincentis settled on the 2014 Rolling Stone article by Amanda Chicago Lewis titled Pam and Tommy: The Untold Story of the World’s Most Infamous Sex Tape, to frame their limited series over eight episodes. “We stayed faithful to it. We embellished certain elements for dramatic  purposes,” continued Robert. However, they had to do extensive research on the actual lives of Pam and Tommy pre-scandal. “There was more source material for Tommy than Pam,” said D.V.

DeVincentis curiously defines the genre of Pam and Tommy as “sunny noir. It’s like a noir comedy with many moving pieces in the form of these players that come in to either fix the problem or make it worse. It’s picaresque and funny, but also lands as a tragedy.” The goofball comedy is used to draw and disarm the audience and prepare them for an earnest story about violation. “We wanted to show what they went through at the hands of popular culture and how gracefully they survived it.”

Robert Siegel used a comparative approach to describe the TV series. “Social Network meets Fargo meets Wild At Heart.”

A Not So Private Videotape

Disgruntled contractor Rand Gautier (Seth Rogen) inadvertently stole the tape and saw a business opportunity. “It was a violation and a crime, but simultaneously a wedge that exacerbated and accelerated the fissures in Pam and Tommy’s relationship,” explained Siegel. It ironically also bonded them in a way because they were the only celebrities who had to suffer the embarrassment of having a private tape made public until then. “No-one else could relate to that. There was also a Bonnie & Clyde ‘us against the world’ mentality to them.”

Rand Gauthier (Seth Rogen) Photo by Erin Simkin/Hulu

Apart from the titillating tapes, Pam & Tommy examines some serious social issues – the nature of celebrity, privacy and revenge. “Rand was out for revenge, but he didn’t really think about what he was doing,” said D.V. He only wanted to steal a safe from the Lees as payment in kind because he was fed up with Tommy not paying him for his construction work and constantly changing his mind about the work to his house.

Releasing intimate images has become a more common form of revenge in recent years; fortunately punishable by law.

D.V. pointed out that the fifty-two minute tape actually depicted very little sex. “Most of it is two people in love, spending time together, frolicking, and having fun.” It stimulated the birth of Reality TV where you entered a celebrity’s home as an invited guest and watch them cook breakfast. They cited The Osbournes as a prime example; watching a famous family in a domestic setting doing something mundane. “That was part of the fascination of the tape, pulling back the curtain.” The audience felt, they somehow, were also invited.

A curious legal ruling resulted in the Lees not being able to remove the tape from circulation. It’s a complex issue revolving around public figures. “There’s also the issue of how much Pam & Tommy chose to put out there themselves. (they did not authorise the release of the tape.) Since the dawn of media, willing and unwilling participation rib off one another. Each side has a moving definition of what’s appropriate and what isn’t,” mused D.V.

Additionally, Pam & Tommy folds thematic elements of the changing fortunes of celebrities. Pam was at the peak of her television career on Baywatch despite her desire for more serious character-based roles, while Tommy Lee’s career was on the decline as younger, more energetic rock bands demanded their place in the musical spotlight.

Robert Siegel. Photo by Frank Micelotta

“The tape increased their fame as much as their infamy,” added Robert. It became a tool to inject adrenaline into one’s sagging career. This was certainly true for Tommy, but not for Pamela. “This also speaks to our double standards of morality with gender,” said Robert.

There are always challenges in writing biopics of celebrities where most audience members are self-proclaimed experts on the subject. “We put ourselves in our characters’ shoes in a situation they don’t fully understand,” said Robert “It’s like watching Christopher Columbus sail through unchartered waters. They didn’t know where this will go or how it would end. It’s a horror movie, and the internet is the monster lurking in the background.”

D.V. added that there is so much more to the Pam and Tommy Lee that evaded the public eye. “The world before this show assumes that this was another sex tape released by two people trying to make money. People don’t understand the issues of theft and invasion of privacy.”

The writers also wanted to dissect the multiple complex layers that constituted Pam’s personality. “She was by no means a blonde bimbo. Tommy’s probably more of what you see is what you get,” asserted Robert. “Pam is our central heroine. In the end, it’s her story, and by the end, Rand and Tommy are players in it.”

“Pam’s a savvy, smart, patient and courageous woman,” said D.V. “She was still willing to go on television and do interviews knowing that she was going to get questions about the tape.” Once she addressed it, she was able to use her fame to discuss serious issues important to her like animal rights. “That is a graceful bargain made by her knowing that the media would never let the video  go.” Pam is one classy lady.

One of the main concerns of creating Pam & Tommy was “making a lot of people who weren’t the best people in the world complex enough for the audience to understand what they were doing,” said D.V. “Always do right by your characters without soft-peddling it.” So long as the writers reminded themselves they were always on Pam & Tommy’s side they knew they were onto a hit.