As the years progressed, Mitch increasingly served as a mentor and father figure to many of the younger lifeguards at Baywatch headquarters, helping them in work-related matters, and also issues in their personal lives.

In 1995, Mitch threw a charity concert with the Surf-Rider Foundation to build a pipeline to divert a storm drain that was polluting the coast.

Ten years later, her husband, a man named Wily Brown, came to the United States to get revenge on the lifeguard who failed to save her.

Mitch was involved in a series of accidents (such as failing brakes on his rescue truck and a poisonous snake left in his locker), and was suspicious that Wily perpetrated them.

His work led to the arrest and conviction of drug lord Mason Sato, who was released from prison five years later, in the 1991 episode "War of Nerves."

[18] However, due to inconsistent plotlines that would later appear, the nature of this relationship would occasionally go from platonic to flirtatious to unrequited on either side, depending upon how it fit the story of each episode.

Quite often, he would find himself on the defensive from criticisms by characters with misconceptions about his work, who would assume he was just on the beach to meet girls or to sun tan.

A typical solution to this plot element would be for the criticizing person to end up in need of a rescue, or to witness Mitch saving a life, thus having their opinion of the lifeguard profession changed.

In the season 2 episode "Money, Honey," he took on a job as a private lifeguard at a gala event thrown at the home of a movie producer named Dita (played by Leslie Easterbrook).

Finding that working as an actor was more difficult than he realized, Mitch quit and gave his $20,000 earnings to a charity designed to protect injured sea animals.

By season 3 he admitted to his longtime friend, Police Officer Garner Ellerbee that he was tired of meeting women on the beach and being caught up in purely physical relationships.

[24] Many episodes featured Mitch suffering from a broken heart, usually due to betrayals, misunderstandings, or even the death of his love interest.

[26] Mitch was also involved in an on-again, off-again relationship with Kaye, a newspaper reporter, who was played by David Hasselhoff's then wife, Pamela Bach.

From season 2 onward, Mitch's office uniform consisted of a white polo shirt with sweats and a red jacket.

Mitch often carried a badge and acted in a quasi-law enforcement capacity, occasionally doing mundane tasks such as checking boardwalk merchants for permits.

[28] Mitch also worked alongside The FBI in one episode, helping them stake out the home of a local woman believed to be involved in crime.

Mitch immediately perceived that foul play was involved, as young healthy women do not ordinarily suffer heart attacks.

Many scenes featured a roaring fireplace in his living room, where he would often play checkers or chess with Hobie or Garner, or be shown sipping wine with his love interests.

[36] When Mitch allowed Lifeguard Neely Capshaw and her daughter Ashley to stay in his home, it brought back memories of raising Hobie.

[37] However, Mitch became a father once again that season when he adopted Tanner Sloan, a runaway with derelict parents, from the junior lifeguard program.

In a 1995 interview with Conan O'Brien, David Hasselhoff (who was also co-creator of Baywatch Nights) stated that he was trying to do "A Lethal Weapon type thing.

"[39] The series also introduced Angie Harmon as Ryan McBride, a Texas-born detective who had relocated to New York City and then California.

After fighting and defeating the creature (which Mitch and Griff could not identify), they continued through the ship, finding another air pocket that contained sleeping children, who had miraculously survived the shipwreck.

Throughout the second and final season, Mitch often served as a doubtful skeptic to his friends during their adventures, refusing to believe the fantastical events that had occurred, often rationalizing them in spite of the evidence to the contrary.

In perhaps the most bizarre episode of the series, Mitch encountered two Vikings (involved in a blood feud with each other), from the year 790 AD, who had been thawed out after centuries in a deep freeze.

Disillusioned by his failed relationships, his mother's losing battle with Alzheimer's disease, and the fact that his son Hobie had left home and gone off to college, Mitch decided to pack his bags and escape to Hawaii.

The opening scenes of the first episode seemed to show Mitch as a bit of a reclusive loner, staying on a secluded beach and trying to escape his life as an L.A. County Lifeguard.

In spite of the fact that he pulled all four family members out of the water, Mitch still felt a step too slow, and confessed to his friend, local lifeguard Leon 'Rock' Keaweamahi (played by Vincent Klyn) that he wished to establish a training center where lifeguards from diverse geographic locations could meet and discuss life-saving techniques.

Mitch then put together a group of 6 elite lifeguards from California, Australia, and the Hawaiian Islands, establishing them as his new team who worked at the training center.

Serving as both a reunion episode and bookend to the Baywatch saga, Mitch, alive and well after being presumed dead in 2000, was ready to marry a woman who resembled his late friend and lover, Stephanie Holden, before being forced to face his old enemy, Mason Sato, originally seen in Season 2.