Sealed with a kitsch,The Love Boatcruised into its second season as one of television's top 20 shows and guiltiest of pleasures. Leaving uncharted waters to edgier shows of the day,The Love Boatwas pure escapist entertainment. Each of these 13 episodes steers a tried and true course through three stories; one involving the crew members, another played for laughs, and the other more dramatic, but with a reassuring finish that allowed everyone to disembark with hope of a happy-ever-after. Each episode, too, is a minor miracle of casting with a star-studded roster ranging from seasoned Hollywood veterans to fresh faces just finding their sea legs. Vincent Price is featured in a Halloween episode as the Amazing Alonzo, who almost makes his fiancée (Joan Blondell) disappear for real when he keeps their engagement a secret from admiring female passengers. June Allyson stars as a woman losing her eyesight, with Van Johnson as her  over-protective husband. Robert Reed is a man who witnessed a shooting but is afraid to testify, with Toni Tennille as a woman with a personal stake in the case. And Jill Whelan is introduced as Vicki, the young daughter of Capt. Stubing's lost love. On the lighter side, we have Billy Crystal as a shy young man by day, masked kissing bandit by night, Soupy Sales and Jo Anne Worley, as a buttoned-up boss and his adoring secretary who awaken after a drunken party in the honeymoon suite, and John Astin as a hermit who maroons Captain Stubing (Gavin McLeod) and company on his deserted island.The Love Boatisn't Shakespeare, but the writers must have brushed up on classic films to pay homage to the Marx Brothers'A Night at the Operastateroom scene (ship's engineer Larry Storch's large Italian family is smuggled aboard so he can celebrate Thanksgiving with him) andNinotchka(Loretta Switt stars as a humorless Russian who gets an  extreme makeover). In these tumultuous times,The Love Boatremains the quintessential "Stop the World" series that allows viewers too forget their troubles. So when goofball Gopher (Fred Grandy) dons women's clothing to protect cruise director Julie (Lauren Tewes) from an overeager passenger (Red Buttons), your blissful smile isThe Love Boat's "sweetest reward."--Donald Liebenson