THE LOVE BOAT

'''The Love Boat''' is an American television series set on a cruise ship, which aired on the ABC Television Network from 1977 until 1986. It was part of ABC's Saturday night one-two punch along with ''Fantasy Island'' until that show ended in 1984. The original made-for-TV movie on which the show was based was itself based on a book, ''The Love Boats'' by Jeraldine Saunders, a real-life cruise director.
The executive producer for the series was Aaron Spelling, who produced several successful series for ABC in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.
The sitcom was usually set about a cruise liner called the ''Pacific Princess,'' whose passengers and crew had romantic and funny adventures every week. Other ships used were twin sister ''Island Princess'', the ''Stella Solaris'' (for a Mediterranean cruise), ''Pearl of Scandinavia'' (for a Chinese cruise), the ''Royal Viking Sky'' (for European cruises) and the ''Royal Princess'' (for a Caribbean cruise).

Contents

Guest stars

Laugh track

Writing format

Theme song

Cast

Sequels and spin-offs

In pop culture

Other airings

See also

International

External links

Guest stars

The series' attraction was in the casting of well-known actors in guest-starring roles, with many famous film stars of yesteryear making rare television appearances. Although it wasn't the first series to use the all-star cast anthology format—''Love, American Style'' used the same device a decade earlier—''Love Boat'' perfected the genre and future shows in similar style (''Supertrain'' and ''Masquerade'' to name two) were inevitably compared to ''Love Boat''.

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 (''Eight is Enough'', on the same network and produced at the same time, being another example).

Writing format

Another unique aspect of ''The Love Boat'' was its writing format. Each episode contained several simultaneous storylines, and each one was written by a different set of writers. Each set of writers worked on one group of guest stars and their story of the week. So episodes ended up with ungainly titles like "Disco Baby/Alas, Poor Dwyer/After the War/Ticket to Ride/Itsy Bitsy: Part 1".
The show was based on the same premise as the 1956-60 television hit, ''The Gale Storm Show'' (aka ''Oh! Susanna'' ).

Theme song

'''The Love Boat''' theme song was sung by Jack Jones (except for the last season, where a cover version by Dionne Warwick was used). The lyrics were written by Paul Williams with music by Charles Fox.

Cast

★ Gavin MacLeod - Captain Merrill Stubing

★ Bernie Kopell - Dr. Adam "Doc" Bricker

★ Fred Grandy - Burl "Gopher" Smith, "Your Yeoman Purser"

★ Ted Lange - Bartender Isaac Washington

★ Lauren Tewes - Cruise Director Julie McCoy (1977–84)

★ Jill Whelan - Vicki Stubing, the captain's daughter (1979–86)

★ Pat Klous - Cruise Director Judy McCoy (1984–86)

★ Ted McGinley - Ashley "Ace" Covington Evans (1984–86)

★ Marion Ross - Emily Hayward Stubing (1986)

Sequels and spin-offs

★ A TV movie, '', followed in 1990, four years after the show was cancelled.

★ A second TV series, '' aired on the UPN Network from 1998 to 1999. It starred Robert Urich as Captain Jim Kennedy, a retired U.S. Navy officer. Heidi Mark was cast as the cruise director. Several members of the cast of the original series guest-starred on one episode, where it was revealed that Julie and "Doc" had been in love all along.

★ In Germany, the TV series ''Das Traumschiff'' started in 1981 as a German-made version of ''The Love Boat''. It airs as 90-minutes-specials instead of a weekly basis, traditionally with an episode airing every December 26 on the ZDF network. In 2005, the 50th episode was broadcast. Contrary to the original American series, ALL episodes of ''Das Traumschiff'' are shot entirely on location aboard the ship and in the ports of the ship's stopovers. No scene was ever shot in a television studio. Due to this lavish production style, each season consists of between 4 and 6 episodes only. The ships used for the series were MS ''Vistafjord'' (1st season: 1981/1982), MS ''Astor'' (2nd season: 1983/1984), MS ''Berlin'' (3rd to 10th season: 1986 - 1998) and MS ''Deutschland'' (11th season till present: 1999 - present).

In pop culture

★ The 1982 film '' featured a bizarre gag where, as Ted Stryker (Robert Hays) is escaping from a mental hospital, we see Jack Jones, spotlighted, singing the ''Love Boat'' theme song.

★ A 1994 episode of ''Saturday Night Live'' featured a parody entitled ''Love Boat: The Next Generation'', featuring host Patrick Stewart playing Captain Jean-Luc Picard, who, with his crew, gets involved in ''Love Boat''-type adventures on a starship. Bernie Kopell made a surprise appearance, reprising his role as "Doc".

★ In the ''South Park'' episode "Red Hot Catholic Love", Randy Marsh, when told of an impending Church Cruise, fears for his child's safety and has a nightmare vision of ''The Catholic Boat'', complete with a parody of the theme song and opening titles. Also, in the episode "South Park is Gay!" at one point, when they are watching HBC, the announcer says, "You're watching ''Queer Eye for the Straight Guy''! Coming up next is ''Will & Grace'', followed by ''The Love Boat... with Men!'' In the second season episode "Clubhouses" Stan gets called out by Mr. Garrison for not paying attention, when Mr. Garrison asks stan what he just said Stan replies, "Um, you said that even though Charo appeared 12 times on the Love Boat, the episode with Captain and Tennille got higher ratings." To which Mr. Garrison replies, "Well, okay, I suppose you were paying attention."

★ "Love Barge", a song by comedian Denis Leary, parodies the show and its theme song. The song is found on Leary's Lock 'N Load album.

★ On the ''Futurama'' episode ''A Flight to Remember'', itself a Titanic parody, Bender gets served by a bartender named iZac in an obvious nod to Love Boat as well as the ''iMac'' computer.

★ During the 1991 Gulf War, U.S. Navy hospital ships gained the nickname, "Love Boats," after several female sailors became pregnant while serving aboard the ships.

★ In an episode of the 1995 revival of ''Get Smart'', Zach is seduced by a woman who turns out to be the daughter of Siegfried, a villain on the original series who was played by Kopell. At one point, the woman rages against her father for having lied to her by saying that he was a doctor on a cruise ship.

★ An episode of the cartoon show ''My Gym Partner's a Monkey'' features several of the characters riding a cruise ship looking for love ending with the boat sinking. The end credits feature the main character being introduced in the same manner as the opening credits of The Love Boat.

★ On , Ace is greeted, at the billionaire's party, by a servant dressed in a captain's unform. When the man asks Ace if he would like to come in, Ace replies "Aye, Aye Captain Stubing, how are Gopher and Doc?"

Other airings

ABC also aired reruns of the show in their daytime lineup from 11:00 a.m.-noon (10 a.m.-11 a.m. Central) from June 1980 to June 1983 (with the exception of June 1981 to September 1981 when back-to-back reruns of ''Three's Company'' aired instead).

See also

★ List of guest stars on The Love Boat

★ Pacific Princess

International

★ In France, the show was shown on FR3 and was called "La croisière s'amuse" (the cruise is having fun)

★ In Germany, the show was shown originally on Sat.1 and later on Tele 5, 9Live and Premiere (pay television network).

★ In Spain the show was shown on RTVE and was called ''"Vacaciones en el mar"'' (Vacation on the sea)

★ In Poland, the show airs on TVP2 on workdays, several minutes after 5 am, and is called "Statek miłości" = "Love boat".

External links

★

★

★ Love Boat Theme Songfacts