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Information about The Love Boat

For the Taiwanese youth program informally known as "Love Boat", see .


The Love Boat
Created byAaron Spelling
StarringGavin MacLeod
Bernie Kopell
Fred Grandy
Ted Lange
Lauren Tewes
Jill Whelan
Pat Klous
Ted McGinley
Marion Ross
Opening theme"The Love Boat" by Jack Jones
Country of origin United States
No. of episodes249
Production
Running time43 minutes
Broadcast
Original channelABC
Original runSeptember 24, 1977 – May 24, 1986
External links
IMDb profile
|/summary.html TV.com summary
The Love Boat is an American television series set on a cruise ship, which aired on the ABC Television Network from 1977 until 1986. It was part of ABC's Saturday night one-two punch along with Fantasy Island until that show ended in 1984. The original made-for-TV movie on which the show was based was itself based on a book, The Love Boats by Jeraldine Saunders, a real-life cruise director.

The executive producer for the series was Aaron Spelling, who produced several successful series for ABC in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

The sitcom was usually set about a cruise liner called the Pacific Princess, whose passengers and crew had romantic and funny adventures every week. Other ships used were twin sister Island Princess, the Stella Solaris (for a Mediterranean cruise), Pearl of Scandinavia (for a Chinese cruise), the Royal Viking Sky (for European cruises) and the Royal Princess (for a Caribbean cruise).

Guest stars

The series' attraction was in the casting of well-known actors in guest-starring roles, with many famous film stars of yesteryear making rare television appearances. Although it wasn't the first series to use the all-star cast anthology format—Love, American Style used the same device a decade earlier—Love Boat perfected the genre and future shows in similar style (Supertrain and Masquerade to name two) were inevitably compared to Love Boat.

List of guest stars on The Love Boat

Laugh track

The series was also distinctive as being one of the few hour-long series ever made for American television that used a laugh track (Eight is Enough, on the same network and produced at the same time, being another example).

Writing format

Another unique aspect of The Love Boat was its writing format. Each episode contained several simultaneous storylines, and each one was written by a different set of writers. Each set of writers worked on one group of guest stars and their story of the week. So episodes ended up with ungainly titles like "Disco Baby/Alas, Poor Dwyer/After the War/Ticket to Ride/Itsy Bitsy: Part 1".

There were usually three storylines. There was a pattern to the threes storylines: One storyline focused around a member of the crew, a second storyline would often focus on a crew member interacting with a passenger, and the third storyline was more focused around a passenger (or a group of passengers).

The show was based on the same premise as the 1956-60 television hit, The Gale Storm Show (aka Oh! Susanna ).

Theme song

The Love Boat theme song was sung by Jack Jones (except for the last season, where a cover version by Dionne Warwick was used). The lyrics were written by Paul Williams with music by Charles Fox.

Cast

Sequels and spin-offs

  • A TV movie, , followed in 1990, four years after the show was cancelled.
  • A second TV series, aired on the UPN Network from 1998 to 1999. It starred Robert Urich as Captain Jim Kennedy, a retired U.S. Navy officer. Heidi Mark was cast as the cruise director. Several members of the cast of the original series guest-starred on one episode, where it was revealed that Julie and "Doc" had been in love all along.
  • In Germany, the TV series Das Traumschiff started in 1981 as a German-made version of The Love Boat. It airs as 90-minutes-specials instead of a weekly basis, traditionally with an episode airing every December 26 on the ZDF network. In 2005, the 50th episode was broadcast. Contrary to the original American series, ALL episodes of Das Traumschiff are shot entirely on location aboard the ship and in the ports of the ship's stopovers. No scene was ever shot in a television studio. Due to this lavish production style, each season consists of between 4 and 6 episodes only. The ships used for the series were MS Vistafjord (1st season: 1981/1982), MS Astor (2nd season: 1983/1984), MS Berlin (3rd to 10th season: 1986 - 1998) and MS Deutschland (11th season till present: 1999 - present).

In pop culture

  • The 1982 film featured a bizarre gag where, as Ted Stryker (Robert Hays) is escaping from a mental hospital, we see Jack Jones, spotlighted, singing the Love Boat theme song.
  • A 1994 episode of Saturday Night Live featured a parody entitled Love Boat: The Next Generation, featuring host Patrick Stewart playing Captain Jean-Luc Picard, who, with his crew, gets involved in Love Boat-type adventures on a starship. Bernie Kopell made a surprise appearance, reprising his role as "Doc".
  • In the South Park episode "Red Hot Catholic Love", Randy Marsh, when told of an impending Church Cruise, fears for his child's safety and has a nightmare vision of The Catholic Boat, complete with a parody of the theme song and opening titles. Also, in the episode "South Park is Gay!" at one point, when they are watching HBC, the announcer says, "You're watching Queer Eye for the Straight Guy! Coming up next is Will & Grace, followed by The Love Boat... with Men! In the second season episode "Clubhouses" Stan gets called out by Mr. Garrison for not paying attention, when Mr. Garrison asks stan what he just said Stan replies, "Um, you said that even though Charo appeared 12 times on the Love Boat, the episode with Captain and Tennille got higher ratings." To which Mr. Garrison replies, "Well, okay, I suppose you were paying attention."
  • "Love Barge", a song by comedian Denis Leary, parodies the show and its theme song. The song is found on Leary's Lock 'N Load album.
  • On the Futurama episode "A Flight to Remember", itself a Titanic parody, Bender gets served by a bartender named iZac in an obvious nod to Love Boat as well as the iMac computer.
  • During the 1991 Gulf War, U.S. Navy hospital ships gained the nickname, "Love Boats," after several female sailors became pregnant while serving aboard the ships.
  • In an episode of the 1995 revival of Get Smart, Zach is seduced by a woman who turns out to be the daughter of Siegfried, a villain on the original series who was played by Kopell. At one point, the woman rages against her father for having lied to her by saying that he was a doctor on a cruise ship.
  • An episode of the cartoon show My Gym Partner's a Monkey features several of the characters riding a cruise ship looking for love ending with the boat sinking. The end credits feature the main character being introduced in the same manner as the opening credits of The Love Boat.
  • On , Ace is greeted, at the billionaire's party, by a servant dressed in a captain's unform. When the man asks Ace if he would like to come in, Ace replies "Aye, Aye Captain Stubing, how are Gopher and Doc?"
  • Two characters from the show would make cameo appearances in a Boy Meets World episode.
  • On the track "Hate Tank" from the M.O.D. album U.S.A. for M.O.D. singer Billy Milano begins the song by saying; "The Love Boat? The Hate Tank!"
  • An episode of "Charlie's Angels," another Aaron Spelling program at the time, took place on "The Love Boat" with Garvin McLeod and Fred Grandy reprising their respective roles from "The Love Boat." However, a laugh track was not included in this "Charlie's Angels" episode. The focus on that "Charlie's Angels" episode was on the "Charlie's Angels" cast.
  • Another episode of "The Love Boat" has a direct tie-in to a story line on "Fantasy Island" starring Loni Anderson.
  • In an episode of "Fantasy Island," Tatoo mentioned that a guest would be visiting "The Love Boat." A picture of the ship is shown to the viewers when the comment was made.

Other airings

ABC also aired reruns of the show in their daytime lineup from 11:00 a.m.-noon (10 a.m.-11 a.m. Central) from June 1980 to June 1983 (with the exception of June 1981 to September 1981 when back-to-back reruns of Three's Company aired instead).

See also

International

  • In France, the show was shown on FR3 and was called "La croisière s'amuse" (Cruising Fun)
  • In Germany, the show was shown originally on Sat.1 and later on Tele 5, 9Live and Premiere (pay television network).
  • In Spain the show was shown on RTVE and was called "Vacaciones en el mar" (Vacation on the sea)
  • In Poland, the show airs on TVP2 on workdays, several minutes after 5 am, and is called "Statek miłości" = "Love boat".

External links

Aaron Spelling (April 221923 – June 232006) was an American film and television producer. Spelling currently holds the world record as the world's most prolific television producer, with 218 producer and executive producer credits.
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Gavin MacLeod

Birth name Allan George See
Born January 28 1930 (1930--) (age 77)
Mount Kisco, New York, U.S.
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Bernie Kopell (born June 21, 1933 in New York City) is a television actor who portrayed Siegfried in Get Smart, Alan-a-Dale in When Things Were Rotten, Jerry Bauman in That Girl, Louie Pallucci in "The Doris Day Show", and Dr.
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Fred Lawrence Grandy (born June 29, 1948) is a former actor who became a member in 1986 of the United States House of Representatives from the state of Iowa.

Grandy was born in Sioux City, Iowa.
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Ted Lange

Birth name Theodore William Lange
Born January 5 1948 (1948--) (age 59)
Oakland, California,
 United States


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Lauren Tewes (born in Braddock, Pennsylvania on October 26, 1954) is an American actress best known for playing Cruise Director Julie McCoy on the sitcom The Love Boat.

Ms. Tewes attended Rio Hondo College in Whittier, California.
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Jill Whelan

Born September 29 1966 (1966--) (age 41)
Oakland, California

Jill Whelan
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Ted McGinley

Born May 30 1958 (1958--) (age 49)
Newport Beach, California, U.S.
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Marion Ross

Marion Ross at the 1992 Emmy Awards
Birth name Marian Ross
Born September 25 1928 (1928--) (age 79)
Albert Lea, Minnesota, U.S.
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Jack Jones (born January 14, 1938) is an American jazz and pop singer. He was one of the most popular vocalists of the 1960s.

Biography

Career

He was rated highly by Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland called him the best jazz singer in the world, although Jones was
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Motto
"In God We Trust"   (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum"   ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
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American Broadcasting Company (ABC)

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September 24 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

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  • 622 - Prophet Muhammad completes his hegira from Mecca to Medina.

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May 24 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

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  • 1218 - The Fifth Crusade leaves Acre for Egypt.

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Motto
"In God We Trust"   (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum"   ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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A cruise ship or a cruise liner is a passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are considered an essential part of the experience.
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American Broadcasting Company (ABC)

Type Broadcast radio network and
television network
Country United States
Availability   
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-1977- 1978 1979 1980  1981 .  1982 .  1983 .  1984  . 1985  . 1986  . 1987 
In home video: 1974 1975 1976 -1977- 1978 1979 1980     
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Please help [ improve the article] or discuss these issues on the talk page.
This article is about the television series.

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Aaron Spelling (April 221923 – June 232006) was an American film and television producer. Spelling currently holds the world record as the world's most prolific television producer, with 218 producer and executive producer credits.
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worldwide view.
A situation comedy, usually referred to as a sitcom, is a genre of comedy programs which originated in radio. Today, sitcoms are found almost exclusively on television, as one of its dominant narrative forms.
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Pacific (formerly Sea Venture and Pacific Princess) is a cruise ship.

History

The ship began operation in 1972 with Flagship Cruises, under the name Sea Venture.
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Discovery (formerly Island Venture, Island Princess, Hyundai Pungak and Platinum) is a cruise ship, currently in operation with Discovery Cruises

History

The ship began operation in 1972 with Flagship Cruises, under the name
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Mediterranean is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by Asia. It covers an approximate area of 2.
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M/S Artemis is a cruise ship owned and operated by P&O Cruises. She was built in 1984 by Wärtsilä at the Helsinki New Shipyard in Helsinki, Finland for Princess Cruises as M/S Royal Princess.

History

The ship was constructed for Princess Cruises.
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Caribbean (Dutch: Cariben or Caraïben, or more commonly Antillen; French: Caraïbe or more commonly Antilles; Spanish: Caribe
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Love, American Style
Starring An ensemble cast, changing from week to week.
Theme music composer Charles Fox, Arnold Margolin
Country of origin  United States
No.
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