The Love Boat: Difference between revisions
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*[[Fred Grandy]] - Burl "Gopher" Smith, "Your Yeoman Purser" |
*[[Fred Grandy]] - Burl "Gopher" Smith, "Your Yeoman Purser" |
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*[[Ted Lange]] - Isaac Washington, "Your Bartender" |
*[[Ted Lange]] - Isaac Washington, "Your Bartender" |
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*[[Lauren Tewes]] - Julie McCoy, "Your Cruise Director" (1977–84) |
*[[Lauren Tewes]] - Julie McCoy, "Your Cruise Director" (1977–84) she lives in hudson |
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*[[Jill Whelan]] - Vicki Stubing, the captain's daughter (1979–86) |
*[[Jill Whelan]] - Vicki Stubing, the captain's daughter (1979–86) |
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*[[Ted McGinley]] - Ashley "Ace" Covington Evans "Your Ship's Photographer" (1984–86) |
*[[Ted McGinley]] - Ashley "Ace" Covington Evans "Your Ship's Photographer" (1984–86) |
Revision as of 20:24, 3 May 2011
This article needs additional citations for verification. (May 2007) |
The Love Boat | |
---|---|
Created by | Jeraldine Saunders |
Developed by | W.L. Barnes |
Starring | Gavin MacLeod Bernie Kopell Fred Grandy Ted Lange Lauren Tewes Jill Whelan Ted McGinley |
Opening theme | "The Love Boat" performed by Jack Jones, during final season performed by Dionne Warwick |
Country of origin | United States |
No. of seasons | 9 + 4 specials |
No. of episodes | 249 |
Production | |
Executive producers | Aaron Spelling Douglas S. Cramer |
Running time | 52 minutes |
Original release | |
Network | ABC |
Release | September 24, 1977 May 24, 1986 | –
Related | |
The Love Boat: The Next Wave |
The Love Boat (Love Boat in its final season) is an American television series set on a cruise ship, which aired on the ABC Television Network from September 24, 1977 until May 24, 1986. The show starred Gavin MacLeod as the ship's captain. It was a popular part of ABC's Saturday night lineup that included Fantasy Island until the latter show ended in 1984.
The original 1976 made-for-TV movie on which the show was based, also titled The Love Boat, was itself based on the nonfiction book The Love Boats by Jeraldine Saunders, a real-life cruise director. Two more TV movies (titled The Love Boat II and The New Love Boat, respectively) would follow before the series began its run.
The executive producer for the series was Aaron Spelling who produced several successful series for ABC from the 1960s to the 1980s.
Synopsis
The sitcom was usually set aboard 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 and Sun Princess (for Caribbean cruises). In 1981 P&O Cruises' MV Sea Princess was also used for a special feature length episode called 'Julie's Wedding', set in and around Australia, and guesting Lloyd Bridges, Katherine Helmond, Harry Morgan, Patrick Duffy and Anthony Andrews, among others.
Series stars MacLeod, Bernie Kopell, and Ted Lange are the only cast members to appear in every episode of the regular series, including the last three 2 hour made-for-TV movies, and stayed throughout the entire run. MacLeod was not the captain in the first two TV movies, however. We are told in Love Boat II that Gopher, Doc, Isaac, and the captain in that movie all served together in Vietnam, but no reference to this is ever made to their shared history again. However, when McLeod's character was introduced, there was mention of him being "the new captain." Though Grandy was given an appearance in every episode and stayed throughout the entire run, he missed the last of the three two-hour made-for-TV movies.
The long-running TV series was finally canceled in 1986, because of low ratings. After the show's cancellation, the show became immensely-popular in reruns, both in syndication and on TV Land.
Cast
- Gavin MacLeod - Captain Merrill Stubing, "Your Captain" - also played Captain Stubing's father, under the name O. D. Warbux, in 2 episodes, as well as Captain Stubing's brother, under the name Sonny Wilde
- Bernie Kopell - Dr. Adam "Doc" Bricker, "Your Ship's Doctor"
- Fred Grandy - Burl "Gopher" Smith, "Your Yeoman Purser"
- Ted Lange - Isaac Washington, "Your Bartender"
- Lauren Tewes - Julie McCoy, "Your Cruise Director" (1977–84) she lives in hudson
- Jill Whelan - Vicki Stubing, the captain's daughter (1979–86)
- Ted McGinley - Ashley "Ace" Covington Evans "Your Ship's Photographer" (1984–86)
- Pat Klous - Judy McCoy, Julie's sister and her successor as cruise director (1984–86)
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. It wasn't the first series to use the all-star cast anthology format — Love, American Style used the formula seven years earlier — but The Love Boat had such success with the formula that future shows in similar style (such as Supertrain and Masquerade) were inevitably compared to The Love Boat.
Many famous stars agreed to do the early movies because they were filmed aboard actual cruise ships.[citation needed] (The series was filmed primarily on sets in California.)
Production notes
Writing format
Another unique aspect of The Love Boat was its writing format. Each episode contained several simultaneous storylines, each one written by a different set of writers. Each set of writers worked on one group of guest stars and their story of the week. As a result of this, episodes ended up with ungainly titles like "Disco Baby/Alas, Poor Dwyer/After the War/Ticket to Ride/Itsy Bitsy: Part 1." This also led to notorious continuity errors, most notably in Julie's outfits during boarding and disembarkation, which were often inconsistent between storylines.
Even though the cast of Charlie's Angels had been on separate episodes of the show, there was a crossover episode of the show in which the lady detectives had a case on the ship.
On rare occasions there would be crossovers between the stories. In one episode actors Robert Reed and Florence Henderson, formerly of The Brady Bunch, guest starred in separate segments. In one scene the two pass each other in a corridor, do a 'do I know you?' double-take, and then continue on their separate ways without talking.
In a one-time Fantasy Island crossover episode, the cruise ship makes a detour to deliver a troubled woman (played by Tina Louise) to the mysterious island, and her storyline continued on that show.
There were usually three storylines. There was a pattern to the three 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). Additionally, the three storylines usually followed a similar thematic pattern: One storyline (typically the "crew" one) was straight-ahead comedy. The second would typically follow more of a romantic comedy format (with only occasional dramatic elements). The third storyline would usually be the most dramatic of the three, often offering few (if any) laughs and a far more serious tone.
Laugh track
The series was also distinctive as being one of the few hour-long series[citation needed] 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).
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. The song has since been recorded and released commercially by Charo in 1978 and Amanda Lear in 2001.
Sequels and spin-offs
- A TV movie, The Love Boat: A Valentine Voyage, followed in 1990 on the CBS network, four years after the show was cancelled.
- A second TV series, The Love Boat: The Next Wave aired on the former UPN Network (now The CW network) from 1998 to 1999. It stars Robert Urich as Captain Jim Kennedy, a retired U.S. Navy officer. Heidi Mark was cast as the cruise director. Several members of the original show's cast guest-starred on a reunion-themed episode, where it was revealed that Julie and Doc had been in love all along.
- A 1979 episode of another Aaron Spelling series, Charlie's Angels, had that show's characters trying to recover a stolen statue while aboard the Pacific Princess on a Caribbean cruise. All of the Love Boat regulars had cameo appearances in the crossover episode.
- A two-part 1997 episode of the sitcom Martin had the main characters going on a cruise and encountering Isaac, Julie, Doc, and Vicki.
Syndication
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 30, 1980 to June 24, 1983 (with the exception of June 15, 1981 to September 11, 1981 when back-to-back reruns of Three's Company aired instead).
DVD releases
CBS DVD (distributed by Paramount) has released Seasons 1 & 2 of The Love Boat on DVD in Region 1 & 4. Each season has been released in two volume sets.
DVD Name | Ep # | Release dates | Bonus features | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Region 1 | Region 4 | |||
Season 1, Volume 1 | 12 | March 4, 2008 | April 10, 2008 |
|
Season 1, Volume 2 | 12 | August 12, 2008 | October 2, 2008 |
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Season 2, Volume 1 | 13 | January 27, 2009 | September 2, 2009 |
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Season 2, Volume 2 | 12 | August 4, 2009 | December 24, 2009 |
|
International
Country | Foreign title | Translation | Network(s) | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Australia | The Love Boat | None | Nine Network (1978-1986) Eleven (2011-present) |
|
Finland | Lemmenlaiva (Ship of love) |
Subtitled | MTV3 | |
Sweden | Kärlek ombord (Love on board) |
Subtitled | TV4 | |
France | La croisière s'amuse (the cruise is having fun) |
Dubbed | FR3 | The laugh track was omitted in the French synchronisation which made this a romantic telenovela like series rather than a sitcom. |
Germany | Love Boat |
Dubbed | Sat.1 Tele 5 9Live Premiere (pay television network) and Anixe |
The show was shown originally on Sat.1 and later on Tele 5, 9Live, Premiere (pay television network) and Anixe. Also the laugh track was omitted. |
Greece | Το Πλοίο της Αγάπης (The ship of love) |
Subtitled | ERT | |
Hungary | Szerelemhajó (Love Ship) |
Dubbed | Movies 24 | The laugh track was omitted. The series was aired in 2010. |
Italy | Love Boat | Dubbed | first run on Canale 5, it started to air in 1980; reruns on Canale 5, Rete 4, SkyVivo, FoxRetro, Raidue | In Italy, the laugh track was omitted. |
South Korea | 사랑의 유람선 (Cruise ship of Love) |
Dubbed | MBC | |
Netherlands | The Love Boat | Subtitled | VARA | |
Poland | Statek miłości (The Love Boat) |
Dubbed | TVP2 | |
Portugal | Barco do Amor (The Love Boat) |
Subtitled | RTP 1 (first run) in 1980s RTP 2 (rerun) in 1980s and early 1990s as possible choice of phone-vote selection program Agora Escolha Sic Gold (reruns) Sic Comédia (reruns) |
|
Spain | Vacaciones en el mar (Sea Holidays) |
Dubbed | Televisión Española (first run) Telecinco (reruns) |
|
Turkey | Aşk Gemisi (The Love Boat) |
Dubbed | TRT 1 (first run) Show TV (reruns) |
|
Cyprus | To ploio tis agapis (The Ship of love) |
Subtitled | CyBC | |
South Africa | Die Plesierboot (The Pleasure boat) |
Dubbed in Afrikaans | TV2 | |
Taiwan | 愛之船 (The Boat of Love) |
Subtitled | CTV | |
Israel | ספינת האהבה (The Love Boat) |
Subtitled | IBA | |
Venezuela | El Bote del Amor (The Boat of Love) |
Dubbed | Venezolana de Televisión | The show was dubbed in Mexico for Latin America and, with the exception here marked, is known as "El Crucero del Amor" (The Cruise Ship of Love). Also the laugh track was omitted. |
See also
External links
- 1977 television series debuts
- 1986 television series endings
- 1970s American television series
- 1980s American television series
- American Broadcasting Company network shows
- American television sitcoms
- Anthology television series
- English-language television series
- Fictional ships
- Princess Cruises
- Television series by CBS Paramount Television
- Television series by Spelling Television