The Love Boat

From TeeVeePedia, the Internet TV Encyclopedia.

Running from 1976 to 1986, The Love Boat was one of the most popular nautical-themed TV programs to ever hit the airwaves. Set on a cruise ship sailing to the scenic ports of the Mexican Riveria, The Love Boat set a weekly course for adventure, delivering equal doses "love, exciting and new" and "painful rejection, familiar and unwelcome." Audiences thrilled to the tales of romance penned by a crack writing staff that included Joyce Carol Oates, Joan Didion, Leon Uris, Tom Wolfe, and Dave Barry, and executives at ABC gave each other high-fives over the profits turned by a show that remains a mainstay of syndication today.

The Cast

The Love Boat featured five regular cast members when the show debuted.

• Capt. Merrill Stubing (portrayed by Gavin McLeod): The stern shiny-headed seaman, whose hard heart could easily be melted by a pretty passenger.
• Dr. Adam Bricker (portrayed by Bernie Kopell): The ship's doctor and resident lothario, who caused an outbreak of chlamydia onboard the Pacific Princess in a very special episode from season three.
• Yeoman-Purser Gopher Smith (portrayed by Fred Grandy): This lovably bumbling crew member provided much of the ship's comic relief... until an ill-advised season five story arc that found Gopher experiencing a mid-life crisis punctuated by episodes of drink and outburts of violence.
• Bartender Isaac Washington (portrayed by Ted Lange): The black guy.
• Cruise Director Julie McCoy (portrayed by Lauren Tewes): Perky, pretty cruise director who kept the boys jumping and hearts a-racing whenever it was time for a game of shuffleboard up on the Lido deck.

As time wore on, The Love Boat introudced other characters: Vicki, the captain's daughter; Oliver, the ship's jinx; Scraps, a loveable mutt Doc Bricker found on the streets of Mazatlan; Cookie, a foul-mouthed chef whose cooking matched his volatile temper; LoveTron 2000, a robot built by Gopher to help with matchmaking; and ship's photographer Ace, a grim reminder that death comes to all things.

Love Boat Fun Facts

• It's widely believed that The Love Boat featured weekly appearances by a galaxy of guest stars. However, in a cost-cutting measure, the same 10 actors were brought back week after week under a variety of pseudonyms and in an array of disguises. The lone exception: Charo, who was a computer-generated animation.

• Much of the exterior filming for The Love Boat took place in Chula Vista, California -- especially the Mexico scenes, as outstanding warrants against four-fifths of the cast prevented many of them from ever setting foot in Mexico.

• Fred Grandy used to bore other cast members to tears by espousing his soon-to-be-discredited political philosophies during breaks on the set.

• Ted Lange invented his character's trademark double-pointing hand gesture during an aborted attempt to shoot Gavin McLeod the bird while his back was turned.