Movie / TV review: ‘The Love Boat’

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A promotional still photograph from the television series “The Love Boat.”

I’m changing things up today with a review of a television series. I’m taking a not-so-serious look at the TV’s not-so-serious kitschy classic “The Love Boat.” It’s at the top of my pantheon of TV shows that I’ve enjoyed the most over the years and I say this peek at “The Love Boat” is superficial not because the show is shallow (it is), but because of the guilty pleasure it brings. “The Love Boat” has (then) new stars, a (then) handful of current stars and B-listers and a bushel of those (then) truly famous stars in their twilight with one more stroll into a spotlight. I have enjoyed the episodes that I don’t have on DVD (yes, I did purchase DVDs of “The Love Boat” – the first two seasons are the best and I have the first four on disk) and the series is available on several streaming services.

‘The Love Boat’
(1977-1987; with a variety of directors and starring Gavin MacLeod, Bernie Kopell, Ted Lange, Fred Grandy and Lauren Tewes)

THE ONE, THE ONLY … THE LOVE BOAT!

(NOTE: I updated this review with some additional trivia, a little more opinion and the updating of links on July 4, 2017. I did additional material, corrected some typos and further updated links on Sept. 30, 2017. I did some more editing and updating of links on May 2, 2019. I again updated it on July 16, 2020. I again expanded it on March 12, 2024. I again expanded it on Feb. 12, 2026.)

A promotional still photograph from the television series “The Love Boat.”

One of life’s guiltiest pleasures can be a light, airy television show that tries hard to have meaning but is just campy. The 1970s-’80s hit “The Love Boat” is one of those guilty pleasures in camp – unlike more modern so-called guilty TV pleasures which mainly consists of a swirling cesspool of dreck about sleazy, insipid garbage such as the Kardashians or any of another couple of dozen “reality” shows). “The Love Boat” is light, fun and you don’t have to think too much and it is far from garbage.

So, let’s get right to it!

With what other TV show can you find two-time Oscar winner Tom (“Bachelor Party”) Hanks as the college roommate of one of the main characters (season 4 episode 1)?

Or, where else can you find “The Brady Bunch’s” Robert Reed falling in love with pop music star Toni “Love Will Keep Us Together” Tennille (season 2 episode 6)?

A promotional still photograph from the television series “The Love Boat.”

Or, where else can you find a young-ish Billy Crystal as the “kissing bandit” (also season 2 episode 6) and you get to watch him reluctantly plant one on “Miss Jane” from TV’s “The Beverly Hillbillies?” PS: Crystal was 30 when the episode aired on Oct. 21, 1978.

Furthermore, where else can you find the legendary Ethel Merman as the mother of one of the main characters or the equally legendary Pearl Bailey as the mother of another?

Or, how about beach movie stars Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon (click here to read my review of their “Back to the Beach” effort) cruising but not together or “Mrs. Cleaver” and her two boys, “Wally” and the “Beaver,” also on separate cruises? Actually, she cruised twice on “The Love Boat.”

Or, how about “The Brady Bunch’s” “Marcia” looking to help one of “Welcome Back, Kotter’s” “sweathogs” (Robert Hegyes, who played “Juan Epstein”) lose his virginity (season 1 episode 6)?

Or, how about the one with Jamie Lee Curtis in an episode with her real-life mother Janet Leigh (season 2 episode 9)?

And, finally, where can you find a cross-dressing John Ritter who steals clothes from a woman who likes country-western fashion to chase a woman who doesn’t love him and winds up jumping overboard to save the one who does? Plus, he has to fend off advances from the captain (season 1 episode 2). Whew! Quite a busy boy.

A promotional still photograph from the television series “The Love Boat.”

Of course, you’ll only find them on “The Love Boat.”

None of the actors are playing their more famous TV or film roles here, but it is just fun to point out the cross-over possibilities (not to mention some of the cross-dressing incidents aboard ship). Also, I’m focusing mostly on the first two seasons of “The Love Boat” since those were the only available on DVD at the writing of the original review.

“The Love Boat” suffers as it ages and it even brought in Ted McGinley for 60 episodes – and he’s the noted “Jump the Shark” actor brought in when a show is failing and appears to need rescuing (actually, I like him, but he’s come in late on a number of series including “Happy Days,” “Dynasty” and “Married With Children” – although he had a major run with the last and is actually more a main character than a “Jump-the-Sharker” in that one).

Here’s my look at the “The Love Boat’s” main cast that comprise the captain and ship’s officers:

  • A five-time Golden Globe nominee (three times for this one), Gavin MacLeod is “Captain Merrill Steubing” and is the commanding presence on the ship. MacLeod does a solid if somewhat stoic job here, but that’s the role. He’s fortunate he didn’t get caught up in the slapstick the others contended with and he also did a role where he played his similar-looking, somewhat dubious brother (or was a cousin?). MacLeod has been in a variety of roles on TV (including his most recognized as “Murray Slaughter” on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”) and was also in “Kelly’s Heroes” with Clint Eastwood (click here to read my review). It’s interesting that MacLeod received more Globe nominations for “The Love Boat” (three) than for “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” (two). He died at 90 in 2021.
  • A promotional still photograph from the television series “The Love Boat.”

    Bernie Kopell is “Dr. Adam ‘Doc’ Bricker” and he’s the ladies’ man with a smooth line and a medical school diploma. Kopell is certainly 1970s suave here and he does a nice job of being a loyal friend. He launches good quips too (take the episode where he chaperones Georgia “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” Engall and has to keep an amorous suitor away in season 1 episode 21). Kopell has been in a string of TV roles including on “Bewitched” and “Ironside” and on one of my other TV favorites: “Monk.”

  • Ted Lange plays “Isaac Washington” who starts out as a bartender and then becomes part of management as the “chief bartender.” You knew you Lange was going to be a love interest each time a guest star of color made an appearance on “The Love Boat.” Lange is cool, reliable and expresses his character well. Lange has been on TV’s “Scrubs” and is active in Hollywood today.
  • A promotional still photograph from the television series “The Love Boat.”

    Fred Grandy plays “Asst. Purser Burl ‘Gopher’ Smith” and is the cast member they go to for cross-dressing (season 2 episode 5) and a lot of poorly-executed slapstick. Grandy rolls with the punches on this one and became one of those actors who could not escape his most famous character although he basically made the most of both the bad material and his marginal acting talent. Actually, Grandy has much more intelligence than his character (he is multilingual, speaking French and Arabic); went to the top-tier Phillips Exeter Academy and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard; and he went on to be elected to Congress from Iowa then became the CEO of Goodwill Industries and has been a commentator on National Public Radio. He also was best man at his prep school friend David Eisenhower’s wedding in the marriage to Julie Nixon (daughter of the former president). Other acting roles? Sorry, but don’t ask, I won’t tell and he’ll never speak them out loud.

  • A Golden Globe nominee for “The Love Boat,” Lauren Tewes won the role of “Cruise Director Julie McCoy” over 100 other actors, according to IMDb.com. Tewes conveys her character’s perkiness, some naiveté, some strength and always looking to be a friend. I believe she gave the best and most underrated performance of the crew throughout her tenure (she left the show because of personal issues). Like Grandy, Tewes has been pretty much typecast but she did do a TV movie (“Locally Grown”) in 2013 after more than a decade’s absence from the entertainment world.

Some of the other great early moments include:

  • A promotional still photograph from the television series “The Love Boat.”

    A cruise with a pre-Oscar Kathy Bates, as she plays a honeymooner who finds circumstances that keep her from consummating her marriage (season 1 episode 13). She won for “Misery” and has been nominated three times — for “Primary Colors,” “About Schmidt” and Clint Eastwood’s “Richard Jewell.” Bates was over-the-top good in HBO’s “The Late Shift” (click here to read my review) and I enjoyed her work in “Midnight in Paris” (click here to read my review).

  • A two-time Golden Globe nominee (not for this one), Will Geer of TV’s “The Waltons” fame does a nice turn (season 1 episode 12) as an elderly passenger who takes a teenage stowaway under his wing (back then it was nice; today it would be classified creepy). He earned his nominations for “The Waltons.” Geer died at 76 of a respiratory illness the year after his appearance on “The Love Boat.”
  • A Primetime Emmy winner and 10-time nominee (not for this one), Harry Morgan, who was most famously TV’s “Col. Sherman Potter” on “M*A*S*H,” plays a man who cheats the crew at cards in order to pay for his and his wife’s cruise (season 1 episode 21). He does a good job, but it still comes off a bit cheesy and with his trademark stiffness. Of course, Morgan was also Jack Webb’s equally stiff sidekick on TV’s classic “Dragnet” and had appearances on a total of four “Love Boat” cruises (one a two-parter). Morgan won his Emmy and earned his nominations for “M*A*S*H.” He died at 96 in 2011 of pneumonia.

Just for the record, “The Love Boat” episodes were usually split into three distinct segments and each had their own title and director and the ship’s crew was the only thread among them. There were some theme cruises with two parts and even one with only one title: “Musical Cabins,” in which “Gopher” hooks up with Bob Newhart’s receptionist Marcia Wallace (season 1 episode 23). A TV movie of the same name and the series were based on a book by Jeraldine Saunders called “The Love Boats” (and she was the real-life cruise director) and brought to TV by the venerable Aaron Spelling. Saunders, whose given name was Geraldine Loretta Glynn, died Feb. 28, 2019, at 95. RIP and thank you, Jeraldine!

Oh, there was also a TV movie “The Love Boat” in 1976, the year before the series made its debut. The TV movie had an interesting cast that includes Ted Hamilton as “Capt. Thomas Ford;” Dick Van Patten as “Dr. ONeil;” Teddy Wilson as bartender “Isaac;” and Sandy Helberg as “Yeoman Purser ‘Gopher.’” BTW … Helberg is the father of Simon Helberg – you’ll know him best as “Howard Wolowitz” on TV’s “The Big Bang Theory.” Sandy was also in “The Hollywood Knights” (click here to read my review) as well as the grand stinkbomb called “Up the Creek” (click here to read my review). Other stars in the movie were Don Adams, Tom Bosley, Florence Henderson, Gabe Kaplan, Harvey Korman, Cloris Leachman, Hal Linden and Karen Valentine.

Also, remember that no true fan of “The Love Boat” will have ever watched the remake series called “Love Boat: The Next Wave.” It’s too bad that the five main cast members and the captain’s daughter “Vicki” made an appearance (I’m not giving you a link to that one, as I do have some pride). I’d describe the making of the “Next Wave” as simply “deplorable,” but that’s another story, but I’ll never review it.

Finally, the best thing about “The Love Boat,” is that each episode turns out great for everyone (although the one with a terminally ill passenger might not qualify) and you watch the credits with a smile on your face.

I don’t believe there will be a film as a remake of “The Love Boat” as there has been for other iconic TV series such as “CHIPS” (click here to read my review of that horrid film), “Baywatch” (click here to read my review) or “The Dukes of Hazzard” (click here to read my review). It’s difficult to re-invent perfection!

The No. 1 film for 1977 was – naturally, of course and without a doubt – “Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope” with $195.6 million and trailed a sad second-place was “The Deep” with Nick Nolte and Jacqueline Bissett with $47.3 million, according to Box Office Mojo. Here are the films from 1977 that I’ve reviewed for my blog:

Assorted cast and series notes (via IMDb.com):

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