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!

It’s love!  Welcome aboard, it’s love!

Episode 8.7 “And One to Grow On/Seems Like Old Times/I’ll Never Forget What’s Her Name”

(Dir by Jack Arnold, originally aired on October 27th, 1984)

Ruth Justin (Morgan Brittany) boards the ship with her ex-fiancée, Arthur (Richard Kline).  Arthur has been suffering from amnesia ever since Ruth ended their engagement and Ruth hopes that she can help cure his condition by taking a cruise with him.  But what if Arthur is just faking his condition because he wants to get back together with Ruth?

Private detective Johnny Bonilla (Alex Rocco) boards the ship with his client, Deborah Marshall (Joan Van Ark).  Deborah hired Johnny to help her tack down Larry Peters (Robert Reed), a man who she once had a crush on.  But what if Larry is just an overage playboy and Johnny is the one who truly loves Deborah?

Those two stories, while handled competently, were pretty much just standard Love Boat plotlines.  The story that one truly remembers from this episode belongs to Vicki and Captain Stubing.  Vicki is finally turning 18 and the Captain throws her a big surprise party on the boat.  Vicki is happy and the Captain is proud …. or, at least, he is until he catches Vicki with a bottle of champagne.  The Captain ends up yelling at Vicki.  Vicki runs off, with tears in her eyes.  Doc Bricker suggests that it’s time that the Captain tell Vicki the truth about his alcoholism.

Captain Stubing is scared to do so.   He fears that, if he tells Vicki that he was an angry drunk who once nearly hit a kid while driving while intoxicated, she’ll lose all respect for him.  But, in a wonderfully-acted scene, Stubing does tell her.  And, once the shock wears off, Vicki comes to see her father as being more of a hero than ever.  She now understands why the Captain doesn’t drink and, importantly, the Captain himself understands why he overreacted to seeing Vicki tipsy.

In the past, I’ve always wondered about whether or not Vicki had a life outside of the ship and, to be honest, I still wonder that.  Even when she celebrates her 18th birthday, there’s no one her own age around.  Instead, she celebrates with the much older crew and a bunch of elderly passengers.  That doesn’t seem quite fair to Vicki.  Because The Love Boat is …. well, the Love Boat, it’s easy to ignore the fact that Vicki pretty much gave up her childhood to work on a cruise ship.

That said, Captain Stubing and Vicki’s father-daughter relationship has always, somewhat surprisingly, been one of the strongest elements of The Love Boat and that’s almost entirely due to the performances of Gavin MacLeod and Jill Whelan.  One sees that in this episode.  Gavin MacLeod was a recovering alcoholic in real life and his performance the scene in which he talks to Vicki about his struggles has an authenticity to it that keeps it from getting mawkish or preachy.

(I cried as I watched.  I’m missing my dad today.)

This was a good cruise, even if Ace was strangely not on the boat this week.  Where were you Ace?