50 Fun Facts About Love Boat

On which network did The Love Boat originally air?

It ran from September 1977 to May 1986 as part of a famous Saturday-night line-up.

Which other series shared that Saturday-night line-up until 1984?

Aaron Spelling was the executive producer behind both of them.

Who was the executive producer?

He had been making television for ABC and Four Star since the 1960s.

Who played Captain Merrill Stubing?

He later became Princess Cruises' global ambassador, a role he held for over thirty years.

Which real ship was the show mainly set aboard?

Her sister ship stood in whenever the schedule clashed with real cruises or a drydocking.

Which cruise line owned that ship?

Its logo appears in establishing shots, on set backgrounds and even on crew name tags.

Which port was the ship based in?

Its regular ports of call were Puerto Vallarta, Acapulco and Mazatlan.

Which book was the original pilot based on?

She had been a real cruise director, and was partly inspired by the German ship MV Aurora.

What job had that author actually done at sea?

She wrote up the experience as non-fiction, and a television movie followed in 1976.

How many TV movies aired before the regular series began?

Four specials and another TV movie followed after the series ended in 1986.

Who played the ship's doctor?

He had played a different doctor entirely in the second pilot film.

What is the bartender's name?

Ted Lange played him for all nine seasons and the four specials.

What is the purser Gopher's real first name?

Fred Grandy played him, rising from purser to chief purser in season seven.

Why did Fred Grandy miss the four post-series specials?

He went on to serve four consecutive terms in the House of Representatives.

Who played Julie McCoy, the ship's entertainment chief?

She and Gavin MacLeod both picked up Golden Globe nominations for the show.

Who is Vicki Stubing?

Jill Whelan played her from season three onwards after a guest appearance in season two.

Which character did Ted McGinley play from season seven?

Ashley 'Ace' Covington Evans later became yeoman purser in the four specials.

Which three cast members appeared in every episode, special and final movie?

Fred Grandy managed every episode of the series itself but missed the later specials.

Who composed the show's theme song?

Paul Williams wrote the lyrics that went over it.

Who wrote the lyrics to that theme?

A crooner sang it over the opening titles for the first eight seasons.

Who sang the theme for the first eight seasons?

A different arrangement, sung by someone else, took over for the final season.

Who sang the theme in the last season and the four specials?

Charo also recorded the song commercially and performed it in one of her guest appearances.

Which frequent guest star performed the theme song inside an episode?

She had released her own commercial recording of it as well.

How many Golden Globe nominations for Best Television Series did the show receive?

They came in four consecutive years from 1978 to 1981, and it never won.

What happened to the ship that starred in the show?

Its sister ship went the same way in India two years later.

Where was the sister ship scrapped in 2015?

She had been renamed MV Discovery and could not find a buyer either.

Why do the episodes carry several titles at once?

The first episode of season one is 'Captain & the Lady / Centerfold / One If by Land'.

Which earlier series had used the guest-star anthology format seven years before?

This show simply did it so successfully that the format became a genre of its own.

Which two Brady Bunch stars appeared in separate segments of one episode?

They bumped into each other at a buffet table, exchanged a look, shrugged and moved on.

What was the 1998 revival called?

It ran on UPN for two seasons and twenty-five episodes.

Which actor captained the 1998 revival?

He played Jim Kennedy, a retired US Navy officer, aboard the Sun Princess.

Which ship was the revival set aboard?

By then the original vessel had long since left the Princess fleet.

How many episodes did the revival run to?

That was across two seasons on UPN between 1998 and 1999.

Which ambassador role did the actress who played Vicki later take with Princess Cruises?

Jill Whelan was named the line's Celebrations Ambassador; Gavin MacLeod had been its global ambassador since 1986.

In which year was the captain's actor appointed the cruise line's global ambassador?

He appeared in the line's advertising for more than thirty years afterwards.

TV Guide ranked which instalment 82nd on its 100 Greatest list?

Its segment titles were 'Hidden Treasure', 'Picture from the Past' and 'Ace's Salary'.

Why was the guest casting so unusual for television?

That anthology approach became the template for a whole run of later series.

When did episodes filmed in Europe and East Asia usually air?

February, May and November were the sweeps months worth spending money on.

Which German vessel partly inspired the original book?

The author combined that inspiration with her own years working as a cruise director.

Who created the television series?

A famous producer took the executive producer credit and ABC took the Saturday-night slot.

Along with Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlán, which Mexican resort was a regular port of call?

Most episodes were actually shot on soundstages in southern California, with the real ship reserved for establishing shots and occasional location work.

The show was one of the few hour-long American series ever to use what?

Each hour braided three storylines, usually one broad comedy, one romantic comedy and one straight drama, so the canned laughter only fit part of the time.

Who played the captain in a 1994 SNL sketch mixing The Love Boat with Star Trek: TNG?

Caricatures of Deanna Troi and Geordi La Forge served as cruise director and bartender, and the show's real Doc turned up for a cameo.

Which future Desperate Housewives star danced as one of the Love Boat Mermaids in the final season?

She played a Mermaid named Amy; the troupe performed choreographed routines, often to current chart hits.

Which series opened its 1979 season with a two-hour crossover set aboard the Love Boat?

The crossover introduced Shelley Hack as new angel Tiffany Welles, with the whole Love Boat crew making cameos on a Virgin Islands cruise.

Which married actors hosted CBS's 2022 reality spin-off The Real Love Boat?

The dating competition was moved to Paramount+ after a brief network run; an Australian version premiered the same day on Network 10.

On which network did the 1998–99 revival series air?

A reunion-themed episode brought back original cast members and revealed that Julie and Doc had been in love all along.

Judy McCoy, the cruise director of the final two seasons, was what relation to Julie?

Patricia Klous took over the role for seasons eight and nine, though Julie's original actress returned for a season-nine guest spot and the later specials.

In 2014 the original cast became godparents of which newly built cruise ship?

Godparents are the cruise industry's equivalent of naval ship sponsors; the cast had also christened the Dawn Princess back in 1997.

How many past and future Academy Award winners guest-starred on the show in all?

They included Janet Gaynor, who had won Best Actress at the very first ceremony in 1929.