47 Fun Facts About Love Boat

On which network did The Love Boat originally air?

ABC aired The Love Boat for nine seasons, and the show is credited with sparking a boom in cruise bookings.

Which series aired right after The Love Boat on Saturday nights until 1984?

Fantasy Island aired right after The Love Boat, and together the two shows made Saturday one of TV's most popular nights.

Who was an executive producer of The Love Boat?

Aaron Spelling wanted Gavin MacLeod as the captain, and MacLeod took the part even though his agent thought the script was bad.

Which future Hollywood star played Gopher's college friend on The Love Boat in 1980?

Tom Hanks played the friend, and Julie agreed to pose as Gopher's girlfriend to impress him.

Which Love Boat regular also directed episodes of the series?

Ted Lange directed several episodes, then went on to direct sitcoms such as Moesha and Dharma & Greg.

Who played Vicki on The Love Boat?

Jill Whelan played Vicki, and working alongside the show's famous guest stars, she got to dance with Ginger Rogers.

Which city was The Love Boat's home port?

Los Angeles was the home port, but most scenes were shot on studio replicas of the ship rather than at sea.

Which pop artist appeared as himself on The Love Boat in 1985?

Andy Warhol appeared in a storyline about a passenger who tries to avoid him because she once starred in one of his films.

What job did Jeraldine Saunders, whose memoir inspired The Love Boat, do at sea?

Cruise director was her job, after she first won a hostess post by claiming to speak foreign languages she didn't.

What preceded The Love Boat's weekly series?

TV movies came first, and the first two cast different captains before Gavin MacLeod took over in the third.

Who played the ship's doctor on The Love Boat?

Bernie Kopell played Dr. Adam Bricker, though Dick Van Patten had played the ship's doctor before the weekly series began.

What is the name of The Love Boat's bartender?

Isaac Washington was the bartender, a part Theodore Wilson played in the first TV movie before the regular cast took over.

What is Gopher's real first name on The Love Boat?

Burl was Gopher's real first name, and Fred Grandy, who played him, was badly burned in 1982 when balloons exploded during a location shoot.

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

Grandy was campaigning for Congress in Iowa while the specials were made; he won in November 1986 and served four terms in the House.

Who played Julie McCoy on The Love Boat?

Lauren Tewes played Julie McCoy, winning the part over 100 other actresses after a producer saw her on Starsky & Hutch.

Who is Vicki on The Love Boat?

The captain's daughter Vicki was played by an actress who, while filming in Egypt, was held up at gunpoint with guest star Debbie Allen.

What was Ace's job when Ted McGinley joined The Love Boat in season seven?

Photographer was Ace's first job, and in the later specials he took over Gopher's old post as yeoman purser.

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

MacLeod, Kopell and Lange never missed an episode, special or TV movie, and 27 years after the series ended the cast reunited on The Talk.

Which country did The Love Boat cast travel to in 1983 to film special episodes?

China was the destination, and the cast shot special episodes on location in Shanghai and Beijing.

Who wrote the lyrics to The Love Boat theme song?

Paul Williams wrote the words, and he later admitted he didn't expect a series about a cruise ship to last six weeks.

Who sang The Love Boat theme for its first eight seasons?

Jack Jones sang it, and he later poked fun at the song by performing it as a lounge singer in Airplane II.

In which film does Sandra Bullock's character play The Love Boat theme to set a romantic mood?

Demolition Man was the film, and Bullock's character played the song as mood music before a virtual date with Sylvester Stallone's hero.

Which frequent guest star played the recurring role April on The Love Boat?

Charo played April Lopez, and away from the ship she recorded the show's theme song for her album Olé Olé.

In which Golden Globe category was The Love Boat nominated four years running?

Comedy series was the category, and although critics scorned the show, it was nominated four straight years without winning.

What became of the cruise ship that starred in The Love Boat?

Scrapped in Turkey was the ship's fate in 2013, and two workers died after inhaling toxic fumes while taking it apart.

Which Broadway legend played Gopher's mother on The Love Boat?

Ethel Merman played Gopher's mother, and off camera the Broadway star became pen pals with the young actress who played Vicki.

Why do The Love Boat's episodes carry several titles at once?

Each storyline had its own writers, since every episode was built to a formula of three separate stories: one romance, one comedy and one drama.

Which earlier series had already used The Love Boat's guest-star romantic-anthology format?

Love, American Style used it first, and one of its segments, a recycled unsold pilot, later grew into Happy Days.

Which two Brady Bunch stars appeared in separate stories of one Love Boat episode?

Robert Reed and Florence Henderson got unrelated stories, but their characters crossed paths once and traded a knowing double take.

What joint honor did The Love Boat's original cast receive in 2018?

A Walk of Fame star honored the cast jointly, and they first heard about it as a surprise, live on air, during a reunion on the Today show.

Which actor played the captain in the 1998 Love Boat revival?

Robert Urich played Captain Jim Kennedy, a comeback role after a cancer battle he had spent a year telling audiences was survivable.

Which company operated The Love Boat's real-life ship?

Princess Cruises ran the real ship, and the tie lasted: in 1997 the original cast reunited to christen one of its new liners, the Dawn Princess.

Which actress, the first-ever Best Actress Oscar winner, guest-starred on The Love Boat in 1981?

Janet Gaynor was that first winner, and on the show she reunited with Lew Ayres, her co-star in the 1933 film State Fair.

The Love Boat's captain, Gavin MacLeod, played Murray Slaughter on which sitcom?

The Mary Tyler Moore Show was the sitcom, and MacLeod first tried out for the gruff boss, Lou Grant, before landing Murray instead.

Before The Love Boat, Bernie Kopell played the villain Siegfried on which sitcom?

Get Smart was the show, and Kopell, first cast mostly as Latino characters, won Siegfried after branching out into other accents.

When did The Love Boat's big overseas episodes usually air?

As premieres or in sweeps months they aired, and the show swapped ships for them, filming its Mediterranean cruises aboard the Stella Solaris.

After leaving Congress, Fred Grandy became president of which charity?

Fred Grandy served as president and CEO of Goodwill Industries International from 1995 to 2000, after four terms in the House.

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

Acapulco was the third regular stop, and one 1981 cruise there staged a fashion festival where Halston and Bob Mackie played themselves.

The Love Boat was one of the few hour-long American series to use what?

A laugh track was added, though producers chose a newer, subtler one than the loud canned laughter of most sitcoms.

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

Patrick Stewart, hosting SNL in February 1994, captained the 'Love Boat: The Next Generation' sketch with the cast as his Enterprise crew.

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

Teri Hatcher danced as Mermaid Amy, and less than a decade later she was playing Lois Lane opposite TV's new Superman.

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

Charlie's Angels came aboard on a case: Charlie sent the Angels on the cruise to catch an art thief.

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

Jerry O'Connell and Rebecca Romijn hosted, and the married pair also sang the famous theme song over the opening credits.

On which network did the 1998 Love Boat revival air?

UPN aired the revival, and one episode brought back the original crew and revealed that Julie and Doc had loved each other all along.

What relation was Judy McCoy, who joined The Love Boat in its final seasons, to Julie McCoy?

Her sister Judy, played by Pat Klous, took over after the actress playing Julie was let go in 1984.

Which disco group played themselves on a 1980 Love Boat cruise?

Village People played themselves in a 90-minute special about a steeplechase in Mexico, where two of the crew sneaked a horse aboard to enter the race.

Before The Love Boat, Gavin MacLeod played which sailor on McHale's Navy?

Happy Haines was the sailor, though that stretch was an unhappy period in MacLeod's life, marked by a bout with alcoholism.