"The Love Boat" (1977) TV series 1977-1986

Directors:

Ray Austin
Earl Bellamy

Writers:

Buddy Akinson (writer)
Lee Aronsohn (writer)

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

Release Date:

24 September 1977 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Plot:

The romantic and comic tales of the passengers and crew of the cruise ship, Pacific Princess.

Plot Keywords:

Ship | Captain | Cruise Ship | Sea | Pacific Ocean

Awards:

Nominated for 8 Golden Globes. Another 4 wins & 13 nominations

Cast

 (Series Cast Summary - 5 of 550)

Gavin MacLeod	...	Captain Merrill Stubing / ... (249 episodes, 1977-1987)
Ted Lange	...	Bartender Isaac Washington / ... (234 episodes, 1977-1987)
Fred Grandy	...	Yeoman-Purser Burl 'Gopher' Smith / ... (200 episodes, 1977-1986)
Bernie Kopell	...	Doctor Adam Bricker / ... (199 episodes, 1977-1987)
Lauren Tewes	...	Cruise Director Julie McCoy / ... (179 episodes, 1977-1987)

Runtime:

60 min | USA:60 min (249 episodes)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:TV-G | Australia:PG | Argentina:Atp

Filming Locations:

20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Aaron Spelling Productions

Trivia:

Other ships used (especially for the 2-hr-episodes) were Stella Solaris (scrapped in 2003), Pearl of Scandinavia (now used for Casino cruises out of Hong Kong and called Golden Princess and not to be confused with DFDS's Pearl of Scandinavia), Royal Viking Sky (now Fred.Olsen's Boudicca) and Royal Princess (now M.S. Artemis for P&O Cruises).

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Veronica Mars: Ruskie Business (#1.15)" (2005)

Soundtrack:

The Love Boat

The Perfect Reason For IMDB.com!

Pick any episode of "THE LOVE BOAT", and have IMDB.com launched on your computer. Be prepared to spend several hours looking up each actor who appears in that episode. You'll be amazed at the actors who became big in the late part of the 1970's and early 1980's who turn up. I was surprised to see actors who worked together in ONE show, turn up together on "THE LOVE BOAT" There's a classic episode where Florence Henderson, and Robert Reed, of "Brady Bunch" fame, appear together, but NOT in the same story line. They pass each other in a buffet line, and do "the classic double-take". Clever writing, on someone's part.

Plus, many stars from the past got a shot at some screen time, courtesy of "THE LOVE BOAT".

Were the stories predictable? Yes.

++POSSIBLE SPOLIERS!++ The format for each show was painfully similar. In the first few moments we meet the passengers. Usually, there were three stories that we followed thru the cruise. By the second commercial break, some sort of problem or trouble appears in each tale, and we see the folks involved work thru their issues, and after the last commercial, everybody disembarks with a smile, and the happy Pacific Princess crew have a clever line to close the show. Some episodes were a bit different, but not by much.

This, and "Fantasy Island" were classic escapist fare, and did the ABC television network well in getting folks to stay home on Saturday nights, when these shows aired, back-to-back.