Hey everybody, it’s movie time! I’m re-writing the words from the start of a Styx hit song and saying today is “movie time!” For movie time today, let’s turn to the medium of television to watch “The Love Boat,” which is my all-time favorite TV series because of all the stars it features – from up-and-comers (try Tom Hanks) or established stars or those in the twilight or general darkness of their careers (take Ethel Merman or Pearl Bailey or Vincent Price).
For those who don’t remember (or those sad tee-vee watchers who remember, but want to forget), “The Love Boat” is about folks going on a cruise and presented three stories with each hour-long show each week. The thread between the stories is the ship’s crew including “Capt. Merrill Steubing” (Gavin McLeod), cruise director “Julie McCoy” (Lauren Tewes), “Dr. Adam Bricker” (Bernie Kopell), “Chief Bartender Issac Washington” (Ted Lange) and “Asst. Purser Burl ‘Gopher’ Smith” (Fred Grandy).
What I enjoyed most was that you got the stories – each with its own premise – and ended with an all’s well as the ship returned to its home port. Well, except for the episode with a terminally ill man.
“The Love Boat” is tee-vee kitsch at its best … the stories have been told over and over and aren’t told really very well. However, it is the actors who make the difference and it so wonderful seeing each in a different context than their well-know persona on either television or the big screen.
Just one example is the episode in which a young-ish Billy Crystal played the “Kissing Bandit” on the cruise and he winds up reluctantly planting one on Nancy Kulp, who was, of course, “Miss Jane” on “The Beverly Hillbillies.”
You can find years of “The Love Boat” on disk, streaming or networks featuring vintage shows. You can bing-watch “The Love Boat” and revel in every second of the episodes … I guarantee it!
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