The Love Boat

The Love Boat is an American romantic comedy-drama television series that aired on ABC from September 24, 1977 to May 24, 1986. In addition, three TV movies aired before the regular series and four specials and a TV movie aired after it. The series was set on the luxury passenger cruise ship MS Pacific Princess, and revolved around the ship's captain Merrill Stubing (played by Gavin MacLeod) and a handful of his crew, with passengers played by guest actors for each episode, having romantic, dramatic and humorous adventures.
The series was part of ABC's popular Saturday-night lineup of the time, which also included Fantasy Island until 1984. The executive producer for the series was Aaron Spelling, who produced several television series for Four Star Television and ABC from the 1960s into the 1990s.
The series was four consecutive times nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy between 1978 and 1981, without winning any. Gavin MacLeod and Lauren Tewes also received several Golden Globe nominations for their role in the series. In 1997, the episode with segment titles "Hidden Treasure", "Picture from the Past", and "Ace's Salary" (Season 9, Episode 3) was ranked No. 82 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time list.
Episodes
Cast
Gavin MacLeod as Your Captain, Merrill Stubing
Bernie Kopell as Your Ship's Doctor, Adam "Doc" Bricker; Kopell played a different character, Dr. O'Neill, in the second pilot film, The Love Boat II.
Fred Grandy as Your Yeoman Purser, Burl "Gopher" Smith (seasons 1–6), chief purser (seasons 7–9)
Ted Lange as Your Bartender, Isaac Washington (seasons 1–9, four specials), yeoman purser (made-for-TV movie)
Lauren Tewes as Your Cruise Director, Julie McCoy (seasons 1–7, four specials, plus a guest appearance in season 9)
Jill Whelan as Vicki Stubing, the captain's daughter (guest appearance in season 2, seasons 3–9, four specials, made-for-TV movie)
Ted McGinley as Your Ship's Photographer, Ashley "Ace" Covington Evans (seasons 7–9), yeoman purser (four specials)
Patricia Klous as Judy McCoy, Julie's sister and successor as cruise director (seasons 8–9)
MacLeod, Kopell and Lange are the only cast members to appear in every episode of the TV series, the four specials as well as the last made-for-TV movie. Grandy appeared in every episode throughout the run of the series but he did not appear in the four specials nor in the last TV movie, as he was campaigning for the first of his four consecutive terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. MacLeod was not the captain of the Pacific Princess in the first two pilot TV movies and did not appear in them, although when his character was introduced, it was mentioned that he was the new captain; indeed, none of the series cast members appeared in the first pilot, which had a different captain and crew.
Among the series' attractions was the casting of well-known actors in guest-starring roles, with many famous film stars of prior decades making rare television appearances. The Love Boat was not the first comedy series to use the guest-star cast anthology format—Love, American Style had used the formula seven years earlier—but it had such success with the formula that future series in similar style (such as Supertrain and Masquerade) drew comparisons to The Love Boat. The series was followed on Saturday nights on ABC by Fantasy Island, which was also produced by Aaron Spelling and had a similar format. In all, thirty-two past and future Academy Award winners guested on The Love Boat, including the Best Actress from the first awards ceremony in 1929, Janet Gaynor.
In the final season, a troupe of dancers who performed choreographed routines, often to current hits, was introduced. The Love Boat Mermaids were made up of Tori Brenno (Maria), Debra Johnson (Patti), Deborah Bartlett (Susie), Macarena (Sheila), Beth Myatt (Mary Beth), Andrea Moen (Starlight), Teri Hatcher (Amy) and Nanci Lynn Hammond (Jane).
Production
The original 1976 made-for-TV movie (titled The Love Boat, that served as the pilot for the series, was based on the nonfiction book The Love Boats by Jeraldine Saunders, a real-life cruise director for a passenger cruise-ship line. Saunders was also partly inspired by the German cruise ship MV Aurora. The pilot was followed by other two (titled The Love Boat II and The New Love Boat, all of which aired before the series began in September 1977.
The one-hour sitcom was set aboard Pacific Princess, at the time a real-life Princess Cruises cruise ship. The Pacific Princess twin sister vessel Island Princess was also used for the show, especially if the show's schedule conflicted with Pacific Princesss cruises or her dry dock. Based in the port of Los Angeles, the ship's regular ports of call were Puerto Vallarta, Acapulco and Mazatlán. The series was primarily filmed on sets in southern California: 20th Century Fox Studios for seasons one through five, and the Warner Hollywood Studios for the remainder of the series, and occasionally filmed aboard the actual vessels. Regardless of where the episode was filmed, the actual ship was extensively shown in the establishing shots.
Episodes set and filmed in European and East Asian locations became more frequent instead of the usual west coasts along the Pacific shore of North America as the show continued. They traditionally aired as season premieres or during the sweeps months of February, May and November. Ships used in these episodes were: for a Mediterranean Sea cruise, for a Chinese cruise, Royal Viking Sky for European cruises and Royal Princess and for Caribbean Sea cruises. In 1981, P&O Cruises' line Sea Princess was also used for the two-hour episode "Julie's Wedding", set in and around Australia.
The "star of the show", the now-world famous Pacific Princess, after being renamed MS Pacific and being sold then owned by another cruise line in Spain, was scrapped in Aliağa, Turkey in 2013 after no further buyer could be found. Her sister ship, which was later renamed , was scrapped in Alang, India in 2015 after she too failed to find a new owner. Both vessels' scrappings were controversial, but the previous owners justified it by saying that they were getting too old to continue operating.
Writing format
Every episode contained several storylines, each written by a different set of writers working on one group of guest stars. Thus, episodes have multiple titles referencing its simultaneous storylines, e.g., the first episode of season one is "Captain & the Lady / Centerfold / One If by Land".
There were typically three storylines. Storylines often focused on a member of the crew, on a crew member interacting with a passenger, and storylines focused on a single passenger or several passengers). The three storylines usually followed a similar thematic pattern: One storyline (typically a "crew" one) was straight-ahead comedy. The second would typically follow more of a romantic comedy format (with only occasional dramatic elements). The third storyline would usually be the most dramatic of the three, often offering few (if any) laughs and a far more serious tone.
On rare occasions, there were crossovers between stories. In one episode, actors Robert Reed and Florence Henderson, formerly of The Brady Bunch, guest-starred in separate segments. In one scene, the two bump into each other at a buffet table, exchange a questioning look, shrug, and continue on their separate ways.
Laugh track
The series was also distinctive as being one of the few hour-long series ever made for American television that used a laugh track.
Theme song and title sequence
The Love Boat theme song was composed by Charles Fox to the lyrics by Paul Williams. It was sung by Jack Jones in the opening sequence of the first eight seasons and, in a different arrangement, by Dionne Warwick in the last season and the four specials that followed it. Charo, who had also recorded and commercially released the song, performed it within the show in one of her guest appearances. The opening sequence of the TV movies featured an instrumental version of the song without the lyrics. Instrumental variations of the song were extensively used throughout the series as incidental music.
The opening sequence for the series underwent three major changes over the years. From seasons one to eight, the opening sequence began with a long shot of the ship in dock before the camera slowly zoomed in onto its bridge area. This was followed by posing shots of the crew members at different points on the ship or the set, revealed with a weighing anchor graphic wipe. These posing shots were updated several times throughout all seasons due to cast changes. The long shot footage of the ship was used for the credits of the celebrity guest stars. For only the first season, the guest stars were credited by having their names appear on the screen while a radar/compass style circle with four hearts wrapped around them. Beginning with season two (and originally tested in the fifteenth episode of the first season), the compass was graphically put in place and at its center, the guest stars were shown posing for the camera on different parts of the set, the ship or on-location in special episodes, while their names appeared at the bottom of the screen. For the final season, the compass was replaced by a crescent wave and the long shot of the ship was replaced by a montage of the various locations traveled to on the series. At the center of the wave graphic, the guest stars were shown posing for the camera wearing their formal outfits against different colored backgrounds.
Broadcast and syndication
The Love Boat aired in reruns on ABC Daytime from June 30, 1980 to June 12, 1981, and from September 14, 1981 to June 24, 1983 at 11:00 a.m. EST/10:00 CST. The show entered the syndication market in the United States in September 1983, with Worldvision Enterprises handling distribution. As an alternative for stations with tight scheduling commitments, Worldvision offered edited 30-minute episodes in addition to the original hour-long programs beginning in the fall of 1986 after the series completed its original run on ABC. It is currently distributed in syndication by its successor CBS Media Ventures. The series can currently be seen on MeTV Sunday afternoons at 5:00 PM ET/4:00 PM CT and on Catchy Comedy Monday through Friday afternoons at 4:00 PM ET/3:00 PM CT.
Home media
CBS DVD (distributed by Paramount) has released seasons 1–4 of The Love Boat on DVD in Region 1. Each season has been released in two-volume sets.
Reception
For its first seven years, The Love Boat was very successful in the ratings. During that time, it usually ranked among the top 20, and sometimes even the top 10. However, the show fell out of the Top 30 during the 1984–85 season, and after falling out of the Top 50 during the 1985–86 season, The Love Boat was canceled after nine years on ABC, although four three-hour specials aired during the 1986–87 season.
U.S. television ratings
Accolades
In 1997, the episode with segment titles "Hidden Treasure", "Picture from the Past", and "Ace's Salary" (Season 9, Episode 3) was ranked No. 82 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time list.
In 2014, Fred Grandy, Bernie Kopell, Ted Lange, Gavin McLeod, Cynthia Lauren Tewes, and Jill Whelan became godparents (the passenger ship industry's equivalent of naval ship sponsors) of the Princess Cruises ship Regal Princess.
On May 23, 2017, the original cast (MacLeod, Kopell, Grandy, Lange, Tewes and Whelan) reunited on Today, where it was announced they would be receiving a joint star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for their contributions to television, sponsored by Princess Cruises.
Golden Globe Awards
Primetime Emmy Awards
People's Choice Awards
Sequels, spin-offs and crossovers
The 1979 two-hour season premiere of Charlie's Angels —another Aaron Spelling series— that introduced Shelley Hack as new angel Tiffany Welles was titled "Love Boat Angels" and its characters attempted to recover stolen museum artifacts while aboard the Pacific Princess on a cruise to the Virgin Islands with all of The Love Boat regulars having cameo appearances.
A 1994 Saturday Night Live sketch featuring guest host Patrick Stewart merged The Love Boat with Star Trek: The Next Generation. Stewart played the captain while caricatures of Deanna Troi and Geordi La Forge played the cruise director and bartender, with Kopell having a cameo appearance as Doc.
A two-part 1997 Martin episode, "Goin' Overboard", had the main characters going on a cruise and encountering Isaac, Julie, Doc, and Vicki.
Revival
A revival of the series, titled Love Boat: The Next Wave, aired on UPN from 1998 to 1999 for two seasons and twenty-five episodes. Set aboard the cruise ship Sun Princess, the series starred Robert Urich as Captain Jim Kennedy, a retired United States Navy officer, Phil Morris as chief purser Will Sanders, and Heidi Mark as cruise director Nicole Jordan. Several members of the original show's cast guest-starred on a reunion-themed episode in which it was revealed that Julie and Doc had been in love all along.
The Real Love Boat
In March 2022, both CBS and Australia's Network 10 (both Paramount-owned networks) commissioned The Real Love Boat, a reality dating competition series to be produced by Eureka Productions. The series features single contestants on a luxury Mediterranean cruise as they participate in challenges and dates to stay on the boat in the hopes of finding love, with those unsuccessful being progressively dumped from the cruise. As contestants are dumped, new contestants come aboard the cruise. In the end, the last couple remaining wins the series and is awarded a large cash prize as well as a cruise from Princess Cruises.
The American version is hosted by married actors Jerry O'Connell and Rebecca Romijn. This version briefly aired on Wednesday nights at 9/8C on CBS starting on October 5, 2022, before being moved to Paramount+. The Australian version is presented by Darren McMullen. This version also premiered on 5 October 2022 and aired on Wednesdays and Thursday nights on 10.
Notes
References
External links
1970s American anthology television series
1970s American comedy-drama television series
1970s American sitcoms
1970s romantic comedy television series
1970s romantic drama television series
1977 American television series debuts
1980s American anthology television series
1980s American comedy-drama television series
1980s American romantic comedy television series
1980s American sitcoms
1980s romantic drama television series
1987 American television series endings
American Broadcasting Company original programming
American romantic drama television series
English-language television shows
Fictional ships
Princess Cruises
Television series by CBS Studios
Television series by Spelling Television
Television shows based on books
Television shows set in Florida
Television shows set in Los Angeles
Television series set on cruise ships