The Love Boat is an American romantic comedy-drama television series created by Wilford Lloyd Baumes that originally aired on ABC from September 24, 1977, to May 24, 1986. In addition, three TV movies aired before the regular series premiered, and four specials and a TV movie aired after the series ended. The series was set on the cruise ship , 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 nominated four consecutive times 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 roles 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 Guides 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time list.
Episodes
Cast
Gavin MacLeod as Captain Merrill Stubing Bernie Kopell as the ship doctor, Adam "Doc" Bricker; Kopell played a different character, Dr. O'Neill, in the second pilot film, The Love Boat II. Fred Grandy as purser Burl "Gopher" Smith (seasons 1–6), chief purser (seasons 7–9) Ted Lange as bartender Isaac Washington (seasons 1–9, four specials), yeoman purser (made-for-TV movie) Lauren Tewes as 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 the ship 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).
CharacterPortrayed byPositionPilotsSeasonsSpecials1234567891–4 Merrill Stubing Gavin MacLeod Your Captain colspan="12" Dr. O'Neill Bernie Kopell Your Ship's Doctor colspan="12" Adam "Doc" Bricker colspan="2" colspan="12" Burl "Gopher" Smith Fred Grandy Your Yeoman Purser colspan="11" colspan="2" Isaac Washington Ted Lange Your Bartender colspan="12" Your Yeoman Purser colspan="13" colspan="1" Julie McCoy Lauren Tewes Your Cruise Director colspan="8" Judy McCoy Patricia Klous colspan="10" colspan="2" colspan="2" Vicki Stubing Jill Whelan — colspan="4" colspan="9" Ashley "Ace"Covington Evans Ted McGinley Your Ship's Photographer colspan="9" colspan="3" colspan="2" Your Yeoman Purser colspan="12" Emily Stubing Marion Ross — colspan="11"
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 two others (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 , at the time a real-life Princess Cruises cruise ship. The Pacific Princess twin sister vessel was also used for the show, especially if the show's schedule conflicted with Pacific Princesss cruises or her annual drydocking. 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.
Along with use of the real-life Pacific Princess and Island Princess, the series was permitted to use some iconography owned by Princess Cruises. For example, Princess' logo is frequently visible in the establishing shots of the vessels, in the backgrounds of sets and even on props, such as name tags for the ship's crew. However, the ownership of this fictional representation of the Pacific Princess is never explicitly stated as being Princess Cruises; instead, characters would use terms such as "the line" or "the company" in reference to the entity that owned and operated Pacific Princess.
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 an Aegean Sea cruise and an Italian cruise, for a Chinese cruise, Royal Viking Sky for a Scandinavian cruise, for an Iberian cruise, and and for Caribbean Sea cruises. In 1981, P&O Cruises' line was also used for the two-hour episode "Julie's Wedding", set in and around Australia.
The "star of the show", the 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, Island Princess, which was later renamed MV Discovery, 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".
Each episode typically featured three storylines. Storylines focused on members of the crew, the interactions between passengers and crew members, a single passenger, or interactions between 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. A common plotline focused on a romance that had gone sour, with the parties reconciling at the end of the episode.
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 with 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