STILL LOVIN’ THE LOVE BOAT AFTER ALL THESE YEARS
Updated: Sep 9
THE LOVE BOAT HAD ONLY JUST BEGUN...TO CRUISE
Most people associate The Love Boat with the Pacific Princess, and this is a fair assumption since the episodic series primarily focused on that ship. But it wasn’t as simple as all that. The Love Boat fleet consisted of three ships: Sun Princess, Island Princess, and Pacific Princess – and in that order.
The Love Boat was originally filmed, in part, aboard the Sun Princess and aired September 17, 1976; the theme song strictly instrumental. On all the pilots, the theme had no lyrics - for those who can't imagine such a thing. Each movies theme song had its own unique nuances.
The movie also starred Tom Bosley (Happy Days), Cloris Leachman (The Mary Tyler Moore Show), Don Adams (Get Smart), Florence Henderson (The Brady Bunch), Harvey Korman (The Carol Burnett Show), Gabe Kaplan (Welcome Back, Kotter), Karen Valentine (Room 222), Hal Linden (Barney Miller), and Beverly Sanders (of Sanford & Son fame: HI, I'M NORA SIMPSON) with her TV son Jimmy Baio (Soap).
The crew was played by a completely different cast. The most recognizable of them was Theodore Wilson, (from That’s My Mama with Ted Lange, and Sweet Daddy Williams On Good Times) as Your Bartender (Isaac) along with Dick Van Patten (Eight Is Enough) as Your Doctor (O’Neill).
In a critical analysis video of this pilot, Dick Van Patten is described as a creep. As a dad on Eight Is Enough, he played it well. But his performance in this movie was so bad that it was...well not funny per se, but it was laughable. There's a difference, y'know. When he told that blonde at the beginniing not to look back, that was just cheesy. At the end, he pulled that same stunt with Rita Merritt (Bev Sanders), and she was not having it; she told him he was so corny...sexy, but corny.
Not to be missed was Sandy Helberg, whose son – Simon, played Howard Wolowitz on The Big Bang Theory. And although the cruise director wasn't as perky as Julie McCoy, she did - in fact, represent the author of the book called The Love Boats whose name was Jeraldine Saunders. That Jeri actually was a real-life cruise director. The TV character was Jerri Landers, played by Terry O'Mara (female).
The captain, Ted Hamilton as Captain Thomas Allenford was an old salt from the navy; his gruffness provided comedic tension with the cruise director. He mistakenly thought that Ms. Landers authorized a model, her photographer, and her mother to enter the bridge. She did not, but the way the photographer took over and had the model get into the captain's personal space was unnerving.
This type of humor was repeated in the last pilot with an entirely different crew. The critique video thoroughly gutted his role in the show. But to be fair, he was used to the navy - not the cruise life. The guys panned him for his lack of eye contact in the opening shot. He seemed more like a man who viewed his job as captain with cool detachment. He might've even been on the spectrum, in real life no less. The guys also berated his accent. Princess Cruises was known to have British officers with Italian wait staff for the dining room. The captain should've had an accent - even if it was all over the place, or sometimes non-existent.
But do note that the captain explained that it was his first passenger cruise. And he did apologize for his outburst. At the end of the cruise they survived together, he even asked Jeri to join him and some of the officers for lunch in his quarters. But by the same token, when he approached Jeri while Dr. O'Neill did the "Exit, Stage Left" routine without so much as looking at his commanding officer.
Near the end, she talked to the couple played by Don Adams and Florence Henderson and made an utterly profound statement about The Love Boat that could serve as a the basis for a marketing campaign. What was it❓ Keep reading 😉
Meanwhile, remember the model whose photographer comandeered the bridge at the beginning❓🤔 Gabe Kaplan attempted to woo her the entire cruise, but got little more verbal reciprocity from her. The gag was that she was probably groomed not to talk much because she a high-pitched nasal-sounding voice that was far worse than Nora Simpson 🛟 The resultant ending really resembled something one could imagine seeing on Love, American Style 🤣 as the closing credits rolled‼️
A STORY ALL THEIR OWN ⛴️🛳️🚢⚓
Sun Princess was also used on other TV shows and movies - most notably on Columbo. Originally ordered by Norwegian Caribbean Line (today’s Norwegian Cruise Line, or NCL) as the Seaward, she was actually the first of the Love Boat fleet - completed in 1972 and originally named Spirit Of London for the British P&O Line. She was the twin of NCL's ms Southward (1971). Sun Princess actually began as an addition to another famous cruise line, NCL. She was to be a twin to the ms Southward named Seaward. Her build-out was delayed due to trouble at the shipyard, resulting in NCL opting out of the contract. P&O revised the funnel from NCL's side-by-side, swept-back twin stacks to the more upright arrangement that was more appropriate for P&O.
Island Princess (originally Island Venture for Flagship Cruises) was the second Love Boat vessel purchased for Princess around 1974. She spent time sailing the Caribbean, along with providing extra coverage for the New York to Bermuda run. Sea Venture completed the trio circa 1975. Prior to arriving on the west coast, she sailed itineraries such as the Galveston to Tampa Caribbean Grand Circle voyage. These little nuggets of cruise history were revealed in Peter Knego’s video, Pacific Princess Decked! Part One (video posted on this page) where we are privy to the itinerary through a glimpse of the ship’s daily newsletter.
Had Princess followed the naming convention, she would've been named Sea Princess. That name was later given to another P&O ship, the Victoria (originally Swedish American Line's Kungsholm); she was also part of Flagship Cruises at one time. It would've established a more cohesive theme highlighting the twins' original mission of sailing to Bermuda and the Caribbean. Curiously, though, she was renamed Pacific Princess - an apt moniker, given her newfound role of sailing from San Pedro to Mexico and the ports of San Francisco and Vancouver to Alaska. She and her sisters also offered Panama Canal sailings.
Princess Cruises brochures from the 1970s and 1980s revealed that Sun Princess sailed a larger number of the short cruises to Ensenada with a run down the Baja Peninsula to circle Guadelupe Island before making her singular port call. She went on to sail the southern Caribbean out of San Juan. Of the three ships, Sun Princess was more utilitarian than the twins with a more basic design that eschewed the twins' atrium lobby and the two deck Carib/Pacific lounge overlooking the aft pool deck with a two-deck wall of windows.
Island and Pacific drew inspiration from Home Line's vaunted, revolutionary, and epic ss Oceanic by incorporating a sliding glass dome amidships over the famous Lido Deck - another feature missing from the Sun. Perhaps in a marketing move, P&O purchased Princess Cruises in 1974, which supplanted P&O for cruises from the US - in particular, cruises from the west coast to the Mexican Riviera, Alaska, and Hawaii. At the time, P&O sailed out of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver, and other ports around the world.
EVEN THE LOVE BOAT WAS SUBJECT TO CREW AND SHIP CHANGES 🫡🫡
The Love Boat II introduced us to the Pacific Princess with many fantastic interior shots - including THE REAL lobby, shots of both pool decks, the Pacific Lounge/Bar, and the teeny, tiny casino. Was that Celeste Holm playing a slot machine?🎰 Her character was a woman obsessed with her weight traveling with her daughter. She wasn't concerned enough to stop eating so much. But cruise calories don't count 🚫❌ Her fears really get the best of her when she bumps into a man she knew many years prior at the elevator who seems not to recognize her. After having quite enough of her mother's neuroses, the daughter finds a way to get the two together. Let's just say they gave love at second sight a run for its money 🫶
For a great shot of the lobby, Kristy McNichols descended the staircase from the mezzanine having just left the beauty salon. She falls head-over-heels for Gopher while the older sister she's traveling with enjoys the flirtation of Bert Convy's character, Ralph Manning. Meanwhile Ralph has more serious intentions with Sandy Summers, Your Cruise Director.
It seems fitting that Robert Reed appeared in this second pilot, since his Brady Bunch co-star was in the first one. Rather than playing the role of loving husband and father, his character was a philanderer whose wife, played by Hope Lange (no relation to Ted Lange, LoLz), found out about his dalliance and did something about it by booking the cruise with another man. In a dramatic Love Will Find A Way moment, Mrs. Palmer stands at the ship's rail watching a small boat speed off speed off with one of the men while the other joins her on deck.
Gopher, Isaac, and Doc were the familiar faces of the crew. Diane Stillwell played the Cruise Director with Quinn Redeker as Your Captain. Whereas Captain Allenford was saltier than an anchiovy, Captain Madison was very chummy with his crew - engaging in friendly conversation and even playing cards with them. What a contrast that was!
THE THIRD TIME REALLY IS THE CHARM ⛴️🛳️🚢⚓
The final pilot movie gave us Julie McCoy (Lauren Tewes) and Captain Stubing (Gavin MacLeod) which completed the "crew" that millions know and love - minus Vicki, of course.
This final installment is currently unavailable to embed as it is only available to view from a foreign source. Such a pity as parts of it are pure funniness 🤪 However, a short clip from that show is posted here; it features Pat Harrington and Phil Silvers.
Do you remember Audra Lindley? She portrayed Helen Roper on s and its spin-off, The Ropers opposite Norman Fell as her husband Stanley. Actually, she made several appearances on the show. Here, she played Mae Allen - vibrant, a young-at-heart, single woman.
She was part of the storyline that involved Phil Silvers' character, Morris Beekman. He was an elderly man who boarded the Princess in seemingly high spirit. The truth was that he felt his time on earth drawing to a close; he wanted to die at sea. And he got his wish fulfilled, just as the couple he and Mae Allen ate lunch with found out that they were going to have a baby. Mr. Beekman considered it completing the circle of life.
This storyline is part of what drew Gavin MacLeod to the show.
And then there was Georgia Engel. Nobody played ditz like her; not Suzanne Sommers as Chrissy Snow on Three's Company; not Beth Howland as Vera on Alice; not Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe on Friends; nor Betty White as Rose Nylund on The Golden Girls; not even Kim Coles as Synclaire on Living Single. She was plenty funny as Georgette on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, but she really added comedic flavor fawning over Gopher at the gangway; wandering around the ship, and flirting with Captain Stubing from below the bridge. But her dining room introduction to to the captain was over-the-top funny.
Gavin McLeod was critical of the Ted Hamilton portrayal the first time around. However, he deployed many of the same mannerisms to comedic effect. He was masterful in this capacity from the time Doc, Isaac, and Julie spotted him being driven to the gangway in a golf cart. He was saltier than the Allenford character, and even inadvertently gave Julie McCoy "The Finger" when pointing to his nametag.
But one must confess that Gavin MacLeod did it best‼️ He was a master at it, and not just from his time on The Love Boat or The Mary Tyler Moore Show. He gave massive attitude as a German officer on the World War II spoof, Hogan's Heroes. He gave Colonel Klink and Sergeant Schulz THE BLUES. But he could never get one step ahead of Colonel Hogan 🤔
Once he finished with Julie, the captain moved in on Doc for his transgression of daring to call the Princess a Love Boat. And Gopher, poor Gopher, he just couldn't seem to escape the ire of his commanding officer over a navy incident where Purser Smith accidentally sank the Stubing yacht due to, perhaps, the arrogance of Merrill for having his boat someplace it had no business being.
In the meantime, it's worth noting that some of the exterior shots don't seem to match. And it's not just the hodge-podge of Princess ship appearances. It's supposed to be the Pacific Priness, but in one scene, one can clearly see Isla... behind Gopher for Island Princess. Scenes of the gangways being moved as well as night shots at seaoftentimes show the Sun Princess. This happened with regularity throught the how's run.
It was the boarding scene that really signaled something was awry. One minute Julie, Isaac, and Doc were standing on the Promenade Deck of wither Island or Pacific. Then, next thing you know, it looked as though the entire production moved from Berth 93A in San Pedro over to Long Beach to use the permanently moored Queen Mary 😐
And forget about onboard interior scenes, like The Love Boat II, as this movie seemingly relied fully on studio sets. It doesn't seem as though they showed that crude lobby reproduction at all though (thankfully 😏).
AND NOW, THE CONCLUSION OF THE LOVE BOAT PILOT MOVIES 🎥🎬📺🖥️
After the third pilot, the executive producers felt they had achieved the chemistry necessary to sustain a weekly series, and the first season was greenlit. From September 24, 1977, The Love Boat set sail to Mexico and - eventually, other places around the globe. There were new guest stars as well as those who were "repeat passengers" in new roles. The crew also sailed aboard other ships as well, such as the groundbreaking 1984 Royal Princess that still sails today - albeit with more balconies than she started with at launch.
It's highly unlikely that a crew from one cruise line would staff a competitor's ship, but there was a weekly episode where Gopher and the Gang sailed onboard the very popular Stella Solaris, owned by Sun Line.
NOT TO BE REMISS 💯🤜🤛🤌
In making references to Princess Cruise Lines history, Love Boat lore, and other cruise lines, it's important to note that we who love such maritime trivia owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Peter Knego, who's spent many years documenting the evolution of the worldwide cruise market. He was one of the great cruise influencers, along with many others, who paved the way for the multitude of modern-day vloggers who post daily via the internet. He has preserved a great many artifacts from the oceanliner and popular cruise eras, having visited ships in their final resting places along the beaches of Alang and Aliaga. His collection could fill a museum.
Stay tuned to the Let's Go On Vacation blog as we continue to Take A Stern View Of Cruising 🌅🛟
As Terry O'Mara stated in her role as cruise director in the first pilot to a couple played by Don Adams and Florence Henderson at the end of the cruise, "Ah, You're Under The Magic Spell Of The Love Boat; once It's Touched You, You'll Never Be The Same ❣️" TAKE THAT, JULIE MCCOY 😅😜
ATTENTION ALL PASSENGERS, THIS IS YOUR CAPTAIN SPEAKING
Great story of how Gavin MacLeod stood at the helm of one of TV's most popular shows.
EVERYBODY'S AN EXPERT 🙄
This video critiques the 1976 pilot movie...
PHOTO CREDI
The Love Boat Hits Acapulco Gold (Cover): Princess Cruises Brochure - 1981
The Sleek Sun Princess: Princess Cruises Brochure - 1981
The Elegant Island Princess: Princess Cruises Brochure - 1981
The Luxurious Pacific Princess: Pacific Princess, aka "The Love Boat," off the US West Coast in 1987 Author Paul Dashwood
Pacific Princess Circled The Globe: From the pages of Cruise Travel - Sept./Oct. 1995, page 59
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