Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Wednesdays, I will be reviewing the original Love Boat, which aired on ABC from 1977 to 1986!  The series can be streamed on Paramount Plus!

And love won’t hurt anymore….

Episode 7.13 “The Misunderstanding/Love Below Decks/The End Is Near”

(Dir by Robert Scheerer, originally aired on December 10, 1983)

There’s all sorts of misunderstandings on this week’s cruise.

Karen Stevens (Morgan Brittany) is convinced that her mother, film star Nancy Fairchild (Clair Trevor), didn’t want her or love her.  Nancy appeals to Karen’s husband (James Houghton) to help bring about a reconciliation.  Karen apparently did her research because there’s something about the Pacific Princess that always helps retired film stars to either find love or fix their familial relationships.

“Dutch” Boden (Vic Tayback) is the rough and plain-spoken ship’s engineer.  He thinks that Ellen Kirkwood (Arlene Dahl) is the Captain’s girlfriend.  Instead, Ellen is the widow of one of Stubing’s old friends.  Stubing worries that Dutch is bothering Ellen.  Instead, Dutch and Ellen are falling in love.  This is one of the rare episodes where we get to see how the crew lives on the below decks.  Their cabins are really small!

Finally, newlywed Felix (Lou Richards) and Andrea (Delta Burke) are worried that the world is going to end.  When the world doesn’t end at the appointed time, Felix fears that maybe he based his calculations on Eastern Time.  Since the Love Boat was on the Pacific Coast, that would have meant the world would have ended three hours before Felix expected.  Maybe Felix’s problem is that he doesn’t understand time zones.  I’m the same way.  They confuse the heck out of me.

This week’s cruise was a little bland.  The guest cast was charming but two of the stories felt very familiar.  But I did like the storyline with the paranoid newlyweds.  Lou Richards and Delta Burke really threw themselves into their somewhat ludicrous characters.  I laugh more than I thought I would.

This was a pleasant if not extremely memorable cruise.