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!

After the past few cruises, I think we’re overdue for a good episode of The Love Boat.  Let’s see if this week’s episode can deliver!

Episode 2.23 “A Funny Valentine/The Wallflower/Home is Not a Home”

(Dir by George Tyne, originally aired on March 3rd, 1979)

Julie has decided that this week’s voyage is going to have a carnival theme and, in order to get everyone in the mood, she’s hired a fortune teller!  Mary Louise (Samantha Eggar) claims that she can read palms but she’s even more interested in the art of phrenology, the study of heads.  When she sees that Captain Stubing is bald, she can’t wait to see what the top of his shiny head says about his romantic future.  Unfortunately, Stubing is in one of his depressed moods and says that fortune telling is for the young.  He explains that he’s old and he already knows that he’s destined to spend the rest of his life alone.

Awwwww!

Luckily, Mary Louise has other ideas!  The Captain is soon won over by Mary Louise’s free-spirited ways and her joi de vivre.  But the Captain also realizes that, unless he holds a carnival every cruise, there’s really not much place for a fortune teller on the ship.  The best that he can offer Mary Louise is a job in the gift shop.  Realizing that their lives are just too different, Mary Louise leaves the boat without saying goodbye the Captain …. but then she returns to tell the Captain that maybe she will take that gift shop job.

Awwwwww!

But then the Captain tells her that she would be miserable working in a gift shop.  (Hopefully, none of the other gift shop employees overheard him.)  The Captain and Mary Louise part ways.

Again, awwwwwww!

It was a simple story but I have to say that Samantha Eggar and Gavin MacLeod had a surprising amount of chemistry and both of them gave really heartfelt performances in this episode.  I found myself caring about them as a couple and hoping that things would work out.  Of course, I knew things couldn’t work out because then the show would have to find a new captain.

While all that is going on, shy Sylvia (Patty Freedman) has finally taken the advice of her neighbor, Gopher.  She has booked a cruise on the Love Boat!  However, Sylvia is painfully shy and doesn’t even realize that there’s a passenger named Monroe (Zane Lasky) who has a crush on her.  (Of course, Monroe is pretty shy himself.)  Gopher decides that Sylvia needs a confidence boost so he sends her a rose at dinner and tells her it’s from a secret admirer.  Unfortunately, Sylvia becomes so obsessed with finding her secret admirer that she continues to fail to notice Monroe trying to talk to her.  When Sylvia returns to her cabin, she discovers hundreds of roses.  When she tells Gopher about it, Gopher is confused because he didn’t send any roses to her cabin.  For some reason, Gopher assumes that Sylvia is now delusional and that she only thought she saw all of the flowers in her cabin.  Seeking to restore her sanity, Gopher confesses that he sent Sylvia the rose.  Sylvia assumes that Gopher means that he sent all of the roses so, when Monroe confesses to sending the flowers to her cabin, she assumes that Monroe is making fun of her and….

AGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!

Yes, this is another story where all of the problems could have been easily resolved by everyone not acting like an idiot.  But you know what?  As much as stories like this usually tend to drive me crazy, I actually enjoyed this one.  Patty Freedman and Zane Lasky both gave charming performances, even if their characters did things that didn’t always make sense.  I was happy when they finally got together.  This was a rare case where two passengers really did seem perfect for each other.

Finally, the third storyline featured Arthur Godfrey and Minnie Pearl as Ned and Molly, two seniors who were eloping.  Looking to stop the marriage was Ned’s son, Francis (Warren Berlinger), and Molly’s daughter, Rowena (Elinor Donahue).  Of course, Francis and Rowena fell in love and the episode ended with everyone planning to get married in a big double wedding.  This story was pretty predictable and Berlinger and Donahue went a little bit overboard playing their characters as being uptight prudes in their first few scenes.  But, still, at least everyone got a happy ending.

I liked this episode.  The crew was likable, the passengers were charming, and everyone found love.  Yay!