Zuma Beach is a 1978 TV movie written by John Carpenter and William Schwartz, directed by Lee H. Katzin and starring Suzanne Somers.^[1][2]

A fading rock singer goes to the beach to get away from it all and winds up getting involved in the lives of the teenage beachgoers.

• Suzanne Somers as Bonnie Katt
• Steven Keats as Jerry McCabe
• Mark Wheeler as David Hunter
• Kimberly Beck as Cathy
• Perry Lang as Billy
• Michael Biehn as J.D.
• Biff Warren as Norman
• Les Lannom as Stan
• Rosanna Arquette as Beverly
• Gary Imhoff as Frank
• Leonard Stone as Johnson
• Steve Franken as Rick
• Richard Molinare as Frank
• Tanya Roberts as Denise
• P.J. Soles as Nancy
• Timothy Hutton as Art
• Janus Blythe as Jennifer

Suzanne Somers' fame was rising due to the success of the sitcom Three's Company, and she wanted to star in movies. Although a lightweight TV movie, Zuma Beach provided Somers with her first starring movie role.^[3][4]

John Carpenter wrote the script for a producer "who just said he wanted a beach movie." He sold it to Warner Bros., and it became a TV movie to star Suzanne Somers. Carpenter said he "was going to direct it, for about 10 seconds, but one of my mentors, Richard Kobritz...helped me see I didn’t want to do it. It was vastly rewritten, so I really shouldn’t have taken credit for it, but I was a little asshole in those days."^[5]

Tim Hutton had one of his first roles in the film.^[6]

The Los Angeles Times praised the naturalness of Somers' performance.^[7]