Tag Archives: Gavin MacLeod

Retro Television Review: The Love Boat 4.22 “Sally’s Paradise/I Love You, Too, Smith/Mama and Me”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

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!

This week, Gopher finds love!

Episode 4.22 “Sally’s Paradise/I Love You, Too, Smith/Mama and Me”

(Dir by Earl Bellamy, originally aired on March 7th, 1981)

Occasionally, on The Love Boat, a member of the crew would happen to find love.

It seemed to happen most often to Julie.  Having watched three and three-quarters seasons of The Love Boat, I’ve lost track of the number of times that I’ve seen Julie tear up while saying goodbye to a passenger with whom she had fallen in love.  Isaac also seems to have had his share of shipboard romances.  Doc is almost always seen escorting someone to his cabin.  The Captain is usually busy running the ship but he’s found a few opportunities to fall in love.

And then there’s Gopher.  Poor, goofy Gopher.  He’s had a handful of cruise romances but, compared to his co-workers, they tend to be few and far apart.  This week, however, Gopher finally gets to have another romance.  (Perhaps not coincidentally, the Gopher storyline was co-written by Fred Grandy.)

Angelina Blenderman (Joanna Pettet) is the by-the-book customs agent who always takes her time checking people’s luggage when they disembark from the ship.  Blenderman and Gopher have an antagonistic relationship, with her making fun of him for wearing shorts with his uniform and Gopher complaining that Blenderman is a humorless scold.  But when Blenderman boards the ship and Gopher discovers that her boyfriend, Ray (Christopher Pennock), is a total cad who is cheating on her, Gopher and Blenderman fall in love.

And you know what?  It’s actually really sweet.  Fred Grandy and Joanna Pettet had a lot of chemistry and they made for a cute couple.  Pettet did an especially good job of capturing the insecurity lurking beneath the abrasive surface.  My heart really broke for her when she first discovered Ray cheating on her.  (Grandy himself had a nice moment where he shyly revealed to Blenderman that his little-used first name was actually “Burl.”  “Stick with Smith,” Blenderman replies.)  I was happy to see that Blenderman and Gopher were still together at the end of the cruise.

As for the other (less interesting) stories, Sally (Juliet Mills) is the manager of the ship’s gift shop.  When Julie hears that Sally’s fiancé, Donald (Gary Conway), is boarding the ship, she is excited for Sally.  Then Sally’s other fiancé, Ricardo (Pedro Armendariz, Jr.), unexpectedly boards the ship.  And then Henry (Kenneth Kimmins) boards the ship and Julie learns that Sally has gotten engaged to a third man!  None of the men know about each other.  Sally explains to Julie that she loves something different about all three of them.  When Donald, Ricardo, and Henry all stop by the gift shop at the same time, Sally’s secret is revealed.  Realizing that she has to choose and having been assured by the men that they will respect her choice, Sally decides to remain single and continue to date all three of the men.  Good for Sally!  On the one hand, her actions are very manipulative, regardless of how much she loves each man.  On the other hand, she is right when she says she has the right to explore different things and enjoy her life.  Somehow, Juliet Mills makes Sally into a likable character.  (One can only imagine how cringey this episode would have been if Hayley had played the role.)

Finally, Natalie Corson (Sylvia Sidney) boards the ship with her son, Stanley (Eddie Mekka).  Natalie wants Stanley to marry a woman that he’s not in love with.  Stanley would rather marry his childhood friend, Jill (Joan Prather).  Natalie accuses Jill of being a nudist because she wears a bikini but eventually, Natalie comes to realize that she’s not being fair and her son deserves to be happy.  The problem with this story was that Stanley was such a wimp that you couldn’t help but feel that Jill deserved better.

With the exception of the third story, this was a fun cruise.  I’m glad Gopher found love and Sally found lust.  It was an enjoyable trip on the boat that offers something for everyone.

Retro Television Review: The Love Boat 4.21 “Clothes Make The Girl/Black Sheep/Hometown Girl”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

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 time for another cruise on …. THE LOVE BOAT!

Episode 4.21 “Clothes Make The Girl/Black Sheep/Hometown Girl”

(Dir by Earl Bellamy, originally aired on February 28th, 1981)

This week’s cruise is all about money!

For instance, in this episode, we learn that Doc Bricker is from a small town called Cedar Flats.  Doc was the head of a committee that raised the money necessary to send Mike Lucas (Randy Powell) to medical school so that Mike could return home and serve as the town doctor.  However, when Mike boards the cruise with his fiancée, Tracy (Cindy Morgan), it turns out that he has some bad news.  Tracy’s wealthy father has offered Mike a job working at a Park Avenue clinic in Manhattan.  Mike is planning on taking the job because of the money and the fact that Tracy doesn’t want to live in a small town.  Unfortunately, that will leave Cedar Flats without a doctor.

Doc Bricker, showing that he actually is a man of integrity despite also being a walking HR nightmare, decides that he has no choice but to return to Cedar Flats and serve as their doctor until someone can be found to replace him.  He asks Captain Stubing for a six-month leave of absence.  Stubing agrees but warns that the cruise line might hire someone to take Doc’s place.

Meanwhile, Suzy Marshall (Kyle Aletter) is excited because it appears that her daughter, Anne (Lee Meriwether), has attracted the attention of a wealthy man named Jonathan (Larry Breeding).  Little do they know that Jonathan is actually just Johnny, the ship’s valet.  Johnny is wearing another passenger’s clothes and pretending to be rich.

At one point, Johnny takes Anne back to his cabin, making this the first episode to show us what a low-level employee’s cabin looks like.  It’s small and cramped and located at the bottom the boat, which means it’ll be the first to flood if The Love Boat ever hits an iceberg.  It’s also mentioned that Johnny is not allowed to eat in the main dining room with the passengers.  I have to admit that it’s all a bit disillusioning.  Apparently, the Love Boat is a terrible place to work!

Finally, a passenger named Donald Gray (Robert Ginty) tells the Captain that he works for the Secret Service.  He is on the Love Boat because he hopes to capture a notorious counterfeiter.  But what will happen when that counterfeiter turns out to be Jesse (Demond Wilson), Issac’s ne’er-do-well uncle who claims to have turned a new leaf?  Poor Isaac!

Well, don’t worry.  Everything works out:

1) Mike realizes that he has to honor his commitment to Cedar Flats and, after talking to her father, Cindy realizes that she loves Mike enough that she can be happy in a small town.  (Cindy’s father says some very dismissive things about Cedar Flats but it turns out that he was only doing that to get Mike so outraged that he would have no choice but to return home.  He was doing it as a favor to Doc Bricker.  Can you imagine if that plan didn’t work?  What if Mike just said, “You’re right!  New York, here we come!”)

2) Anne learns the truth when she sees Johnny in his valet uniform.  Luckily, she doesn’t care.

3) It turns out that Donald is actually a criminal who is masquerading as a treasury agent and Uncle Jesse is an undercover government agent!  Isaac is happy to learn this but also agrees to keep Jesse’s secret.  “You’re my favorite nephew,” Uncle Jesse replies.  Awwwww!

This was an okay cruise.  The guest stars weren’t particularly interesting but Bernie Kopell and Ted Lange both got an opportunity to show what they could do when given a real storyline to deal with.  Kopell especially deserves a lot of credit for showing that humanity that lurked underneath Doc’s carefree surface.  This episode kept me entertained and I enjoyed the scenery.  Really, what else can you ask for from The Love Boat?

Retro Television Review: The Love Boat 4.20 “Quiet, My Wife’s Listening/Eye of the Beholder/The Nudist from Sunshine Gardens”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

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!

This week, The Love Boat makes history.

Episode 4.20 “Quiet, My Wife’s Listening/Eye of the Beholder/The Nudist from Sunshine Gardens”

(Dir by Harry Mastrogeorge, originally aired on February 21st, 1981)

This episode contains a historical first.  It features the first interracial romance to ever be featured on The Love Boat.  It took them three and a half seasons to feature one but, at the same time, in 1981, it still probably took some courage for a primetime television show to feature white David Hedison falling in love with black Leslie Uggams.  Today, of course, we tend to take it for granted that every movie, TV show, and advertisement is going to feature at least one interracial couple.  It’s easy to forget that this is actually a rather recent development.  Consider this:  I’ve reviewed over a hundred episodes of Fantasy Island and The Love Boat and this is the first episode to feature an interracial romance.

It should be noted, of course, that Leslie Uggams plays a blind woman.  At first, I thought the episode was trying to hedge its bets, by assuring any racists in the audience that Uggams didn’t know she was falling in love with a white guy.  But then, David Hedison asked Leslie Uggams to marry him and come live with him on his ranch.

“I am a blind, black woman,” Uggams replies, before asking Hedison how he’s going to handle the reactions of the “people in that small town” to him marrying her.

This, of course, would have been a great chance for Hedison to declare that he didn’t care what anyone else had to say and that love is love.  Unfortunately, he doesn’t say that.

Instead, Hedison jokes, “We’ll just tell people that you’re the new housekeeper.”

AGCK!  Oh, Love Boat, you were so close!  That truly unfortunately joke aside, it was a good story and David Hedison and Leslie Uggams had a likable chemistry together.  It was nice to see them leave the ship together.

(Incidentally, Leslie Uggams herself married a white man in 1965, at a time when interracial marriage still illegal in many States.  They’re still married today.)

As for the other two stories, they were pleasantly bland.  Barbie Benton played a nudist who was determined to sunbathe on the ship.  Though Doc Bricker volunteered to deal with the problem personally, Gopher instead declared that it was his duty — as purser — to convince her to cover up.  Peter Haskell played the ACLU lawyer who threatened to sue Gopher for violating Benton’s first amendment rights.  Haskell and Benton fell in love, despite the fact that Benton was 20-something while Haskell appeared to be close to 70.

Meanwhile, Dick Martin boarded the ship with his mistress (Judith Chapman) but he was so paranoid about the possibility of his wife bugging his cabin that his mistress got frustrated and left him.  Martin then fell in love with Mary Ann Mobley, an electronic expert who offered to de-bug his cabin.  Of course, Mobley was actually a detective sent to catch Martin with his mistress but she fell in love with Martin so I guess it just sucks for Martin’s wife.

The Barbie Benton storyline had some funny moments.  The Dick Martin storyline reminded me how hard it is to have sympathy for someone who would cheat on his wife with two different women on one cruise.  Overall, this was a pleasant — and historically significant — cruise.

Retro Television Review: The Love Boat 4.19 “The Return of the Ninny/Touchdown Twins/Split Personality”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

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!

This week, a familiar face sets sail for adventure.

Episode 4.19 “The Return of the Ninny/Touchdown Twins/Split Personality”

(Dir by Roger Duchowny, originally aired on February 14th, 1981)

Oh hey, it’s Charo!

It seems like just yesterday that I was watching her on Fantasy Island.  Oh wait, it was!

Charo returns to The Love Boat in her regular role as April Lopez.  The former stowaway-turned-singer-turned nanny boards the ship so that she and her two charges — Gayle (Rachel Jacobs) and Jerry (Alex Woodard) — can say goodbye to their father and April’s employer, Ty Younger (Larry Linville).  Ty is taking a vacation with his materialistic girlfriend (Arlene Martel), whom April dislikes.  Ty is looking forward to getting away from the kids for a while but — whoops! — April and the kids don’t get off the boat in time and soon, they’re intruding on Ty’s vacation.  It turns out to be a good thing because, after April learns that Ty’s girlfriend wants to send the kids away to a private school, she’s able to break up Ty’s relationship and keep the entire family together.  Yay!

Frank (Vincent Van Patten) boards the boat with college football teammate, Billy (Phillip Burns).  Billy can’t wait to hit on all the women who are his own age but Frank has decided that he’s in love with Billy’s mom, Meg (Samantha Eggar).  Captain Stubing likes Meg to but Frank shoves him out of the way on the dance floor and says that Meg is officially his MILF.  Billy gets upset and blames Frank …. no, actually, that would make too much sense.  Instead, Billy accuses his mother of leading on his best friend!  (Nobody mentions that Frank himself has spent the entire cruise acting like an unhinged stalker.)  It all works out in the end, of course.  Frank realizes that Meg doesn’t share his feelings and he decides to start dating women his own age.  Billy realizes that his mom is not a tramp.  Meg says she’s proud of the man that Billy has become.  (A man who accuses his own mom of being a tramp?  That kind of man?)  Stubing, once again, fails to get anywhere in his romantic pursuits and Vicki misses out on another potential stepmother.  Yay, I guess?  This story was actually kind of depressing.

Finally, Nick (Michael Lembeck) is an old college friend of Gopher’s.  Nick wants to be executive vice president of a company that it owned by the conservative and stodgy Arnold Hamilton (Ralph Bellamy).  When he’s with Arnold, Nick dresses like Arnold and he claims to agree with everything that Arnold says.  Nick also wants to marry a passenger that he just met, Linda (Laurette Spang).  Linda is almost a parody of a limousine liberal so when Nick is with her, he agrees with everything she says about oppression and the evils of money and he talks about his time as a labor organizer.  Nick is lying to both of them but it’s not like they’ll ever meet …. except, LINDA IS ARNOLD’S DAUGHTER!  Fear not, it all works out in the end.  Nick tells Arnold that he needs to change with the times and he tells Linda that she knows nothing about the working man.  Nick gets his promotion and a girlfriend.  Yay!

This was a pretty forgettable episode, even with Charo running around the ship in a panic over the children.  The storyline that worked best was the one with Michael Lembeck, Ralph Bellamy, and Laurette Sprang, though Bellamy was perhaps a bit too naturally likable to be totally convincing as a ruthless businessman.  (Even in old age, Bellamy had the simple, nice guy aura that always led to him losing the girl to Cary Grant.)  For the most part, this was a serviceable but not particularly memorable cruise.

Retro Television Review: The Love Boat 4.18 “Aquaphobiac/Humpty Dumpty/The Starmaker”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

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!

This week …. it’s one of the best episodes of The Love Boat ever!

Episode 4.18 “Aquaphobiac/Humpty Dumpty/The Starmaker”

(Dir by Roger Duchowny, originally aired on February 7th, 1981)

David Hasselhoff boards The Love Boat, for the second time!

This time around, the Hoff is playing Brian Kiley.  Brian and Julie went to college together.  Brian was the star quarterback and, as he explains it, he and Julie were a pretty serious couple at the time.  But, in the end, Brian ended up marrying Julie’s roommate and his own playing days came to a premature end when he broke his arm.  Now, he’s on the Love Boat and he wants to not only get back together with Julie but he also wants to make a comeback in the NFL!

Julie is tempted.  How couldn’t she be tempted by the Hoff?  But watching Brian talk about his glory days on the football field, she realizes that he’s living in the past and, to an extent, so is she.  Brian is, at first, upset by Julie’s feelings but then he realizes that she’s right.  He makes peace with his years as a famous quarterback and he leaves the boat not as Julie’s lover but as her good friend….

MY GOD, JULIE — IT’S THE HOFF IN HIS GLORY DAYS!  WHO CARES IF HE TALKS ABOUT FOOTBALL!?  CHASE AFTER HIM!

The Pointer Sisters also board the ship, this time as employees of the cruise.  Isaac want to impress a talent agent (Jeff Cooper) so he recruits the sisters to serve as his backing vocalists.  After seeing them perform, the talent agent is impressed but only by the sisters.  They get a recording contract while Isaac …. well, Isaac goes back to pouring drinks.  POOR ISAAC!  But give credit to Ted Lange, who brought a lot of sincere feeling to what could have been a throwaway storyline.

Finally, Glenn Dobson (Louis Nye) and his fiancée, Vanessa (Audra Lindley), board the boat so that they can get to know each other before the wedding.  Glenn has severe aquaphobia and cannot bring himself to take off his inflatable life jacket.  Vanessa tries to help him conquer his fear but nothing helps.  Glenn fears all the other passengers are laughing at him.  So, the crew and the passengers all put on their own life jackets to show Glenn that he has nothing to be ashamed of.

“Tonight,” Stubing announces, “we are truly a boat of love.”

Awwwwww!  Seriously, who would have guessed that The Love Boat would make me cry?  This was such a sweet story and both Louis Nye and Audra Lindley really seemed to be invested in their characters.  When Glenn finally removed his life vest and took a few stumbling steps into the pool, I wanted to cheer.

What a great cruise this turned out to be!

Retro Television Review: The Love Boat 4.17 “Lose One, Win One/The $10,000 Lover/Mind My Wife”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

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!

This week’s cruise proves that you never knew who you would see on The Love Boat as both Jill St. John and Ron “Horshack” Pallilo set sail for adventure.

Episode 4.17 “Lose One, Win One/The $10,000 Lover/Mind My Wife”

(Dir by Jack Arnold, originally aired on January 31st, 1981)

I have often said that the least believable thing about The Love Boat has been its portrayal of Doc Bricker (played, in likable but mild-mannered fashion, by Bernie Kopell) as being a legendary seducer.  This week’s episode, however, features something that is even less believable.  Ron Pallilo (yes, Horshack from Welcome Back, Kotter) plays Casper Martin, the world’s most successful lover.

Yes, seriously.

Now, in the show’s defense, everyone points out that Casper is a bit on the …. nerdy side.  Gopher even calls him a nerd and if there’s anything that Gopher knows about, it’s being a nerd.  But apparently, women are supposed to find Casper to be irresistible.  (Speaking for myself …. uhmm, no.)  Though Casper himself doesn’t know it, he boards the ship just five sexual encounters away from setting the world record.  On the first day of the cruise, he takes it down to just being two encounters away.  (SERIOUSLY — WHO TAKES A CRUISE AND HAS SEX WITH HORSHACK!?)  Casper’s friend, Tony Streeter (James Darren), works for The Encyclopedia of World Records and is keeping track.

But then Casper meets the equally quirky Norma Kittredge (Gina Hecht) and falls in love and decides that he’s ready to settle down.  Will the record never be broken!?

Meanwhile, another passenger — Nick Rondo (Steve Marachuk) — is convinced that rich Priscilla Hensley (Dorian Lopinto) is actually Penny, a girl that he went to high school with.  It turns out that he’s right but Priscilla is lying about her background so that she can marry a rich snob named Buckstone Cooper (Sam Chew, Jr.).  Who will Penny pick?  Blue collar Nick or snobbish Buckstone?  Do you really have to ask?

Finally, Doc is excited because his old friend, Dr. Charlie Wilson (James MacKrell) has booked a cruise with his wife, Sandy (Jill St. John).  Unfortunately, Dr. Wilson has to back out of the cruise to perform surgery so Sandy sails alone.  Charlie asks Doc to look after his wife and Doc agrees.  However, Doc soon comes to fear that Sandy is interested in more than just friendship.  (Yes, this is the cruise where Horshack gets laid while Doc — for the first time ever — tries to resist temptation.)  No worries, Doc!  Sandy is more interested in Captain Stubing than her husband’s best friend.

This episode was a bit on the dull side.  Perhaps if Barbarino or even Epstein has taken the cruise instead of Horshack, things would have been a bit more entertaining but, as it was, this cruise didn’t make much of an impression.  Even the usually reliable Jill St. John seemed to be a bit bored by the whole thing.  Hopefully, next week’s episode will have something for everyone.

Retro Television Review: The Love Boat 4.16 “Gopher’s Bride/Love with a Married Man/Not Tonight, Jack!”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

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!

This week’s cruise did not make me want to set course for adventure.

Episode 4.16 “Gopher’s Bride/Love with a Married Man/Not Tonight, Jack!”

(Dir by Richard Kinon, originally aired on January 24th, 1981)

This week’s episode is all about cabins.

For instance, Jack Clayton (Patrick Wayne) invited his girlfriend of four weeks, Helen Mann (Trish Stewart), to join him on the cruise without telling her that they would be sharing a cabin.  Sorry, Jack — Helen doesn’t go for that sort of thing!  Jack is kicked out and spends most of the cruise trying to find some place else to sleep.  (He also ends up awkwardly lugging his suitcase around with him.)  Eventually, Helen gets some romantic advice from Julie (always a mistake) and decides that it’s not fair to kick Jack out of the cabin that he paid for.  She tells him that he can stay in the cabin.  Jack’s like, “Finally, let’s get it on!”  No, Jack, Helen doesn’t go for that.  Instead, she plans on sleeping outdoors for the rest of the cruise!

The two of them work it out eventually.  When Jack objects to Helen sleeping outside, even if it means Jack would again have to find someplace else to go, Helen realizes that he actually does care about her and he’s not just interested in sex.  They leave the boat together, with Helen promising that she and Jack will always sleep in the same bed from now on.  I give their relationship another two weeks or so.

Meanwhile, Kay Tindal (Susan Oliver) wants Ned Beacham (Paul Burke) to come visit her cabin and Ned is sorely tempted because his wife, Margo (Dana Wynter), is such a workaholic.  Fortunately, Ned and Margo’s 24th anniversary falls right in the middle of the cruise and it causes Ned to realize that he still loves Margo and it causes Margo to realize that she spends too much time worrying about her career.  Ned and Margo leave the ship together while Kay can only watch from the staircase.  Ha!  Take that, homewrecker!

Finally, Gopher risks his job so that Nicole (Marie Laurin) can stay in his cabin.  Nicole is Gopher’s pen pal from Quebec.  (Actually, she was writing to Doc and Isaac who, for reasons that are never made clear, signed Gopher’s name to all of the letters.)  When Nicole shows up on the boat, Gopher takes one look at her and says that she can stay with him.  Of course, it’s against ship regulations for passengers to stay with crewmembers so, in order to keep Captain Stubing from finding out, Gopher tells him that Nicole is a new maid.  Gopher ends up doing all of Nicole’s work and Nicole ends up meeting and getting engaged to a passenger named Frank (Paul Gale).  Sorry, Gopher!

This was a pretty forgettable episode and it was a bit hard to sympathize with any of the passengers.  Jack was a cad.  Helen was a prude.  Kay was a homewrecker.  Ned was a wimp.  Margo was cold.  Nicole was so self-centered that she didn’t even notice that Gopher was killing himself with extra work to keep her from getting kicked off the boat.  I wouldn’t want to be on a cruise with any of these people.

On a slightly positive note, Captain Stubing did ask Vicki if she had done her homework so I now definitely know that Vicki has a tutor and is getting an education while living on the boat.  At least I don’t have to worry about that anymore!

Retro Television Review: The Love Boat 4.15 “The Trigamist/Jealousy/From Here To Maternity”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

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!

This week, both Doc and Captain Stubing try to get out of doing their jobs.

Episode 4.15 “The Trigamist/Jealousy/From Here To Maternity”

(Dir by Howard Morris, originally aired on January 17th, 1981)

Finally, Captain Stubing has found love!

He is totally smitten with passenger Linda Bradley (Pat Crowley) and Linda seems to like him as well.  (Why wouldn’t she?  He’s the Captain.  No one wants to date the people who are in the bottom of the boat and shoveling coal in the furnace.  The Captain is the one who has his own special table.)  Stubing is soon spending all of his time with Linda.  Vicki gets jealous.  Myself, I’m wondering who is steering the boat.

Vicki gets so jealous that Linda eventually picks up on it and breaks things off with the Captain.  The Captain is heart-broken but, when a contrite Vicki explains that Linda was just trying to protect her feelings, the Captain cheers up, Vicki agrees to accept Linda as a possible stepmother, and Linda promises to return for another cruise as soon as possible.  Will we ever see Linda again?  I doubt it.  Charo seems to be the only performer who regularly returns to the Love Boat as the same character.  We might see Pat Crowley again but she probably won’t be playing Linda.

This storyline, I could relate to.  I’m a child of divorce and I’ll just say that I was Hell on anyone who I thought was trying to be either a new father or a new mother to me.  So far, at least, the stories about the Captain and Vicki have always been handled well.  Gavin MacLeod is always at his best when he’s playing the fatherly side of Stubing.

Captain Stubing is not the only person trying to get laid on this cruise.  Doc Bricker — of course! — is eager to spend time with his latest girlfriend, Mona (Rebecca Holden), but he keeps getting summoned by the Talmadges.  Betty Talmadge (Murphy Cross) is pregnant and her husband, Arthur (Michael Young), is worried that she’s going to give birth on the cruise event though she’s not due for another 9 weeks.  “I was born on airplane!” Arthur yells at one point.  Eventually, Doc tells Arthur that he should take up jogging to deal with his nervousness.  Arthur ends up breaking his leg as a result.  That, at the very least, confines him to his cabin but Doc is now so worried about him that he still can’t find time for Mona.  Finally, as the ship docks in Los Angeles, Betty goes into labor.

Finally, Judge Joanne Atkinson (Nancy Walker) boards the ship and is surprised to see that Harrison Harper (George Gobel, who is an even less convincing womanizer than Doc Bricker) is also taking a cruise.  The judge previously sentenced Harrison to probation for being a bigamist.  The Judge and Harrison fall in love and get engaged.  Of course, Harrison is also engaged to five other women.  I’m sure it’ll all work out.

This was a weird cruise.  The main theme seemed to be that both Doc and the Captain will do anything to avoid actually doing their jobs.  Meanwhile, the Judge and Harrison’s relationship appears to be doomed from the start.  Getting arrested and being sentenced to probation has done nothing to dissuade Harrison from getting engaged to everyone he meets.  Julie looks worried as Harrison and the Judge leave the ship together and I don’t blame her!

As always, the ocean scenery was pleasant and I appreciated the sincerity of the scenes that Gavin MacLeod and Jill Whelan performed together.  Still, I was kind of happy when the boat docked this week.

Retro Television Review: The Love Boat 4.14 “First Voyage, Last Voyage/April, the Ninny/The Loan Arranger”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

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!

Oh, hey, Charo’s back.

Episode 4.15 “First Voyage, Last Voyage/April, the Ninny/The Loan Arranger”

(Dir by Roger Duchowny, originally aired on January 17th, 1981)

April’s back!

Played by Charo, April Lopez was one of the few recurring characters on The Love Boat.  Whereas other actors appeared frequently but always as different characters, Charo was always April whenever she boarded The Love Boat.  The first time she boarded the ship, she did so as a stowaway.  The next two times, she boarded as the cruise’s entertainment.  This season, however, April boards as someone who has grown tired of show business.  When last we saw her, April was in love with a guy named Tex and planning on playing Las Vegas.  However, when April boards this time, she quickly informs both Julie and Isaac that she and Tex are no longer a couple and Vegas didn’t work out because she was expected to play her guitar while naked.

(“They could have at least gotten you a cello,” Isaac replies.)

April wants a new career, which she gets when she meets Ty Younger (Larry Linville), who is wealthy but who also has two bratty kids who are always chasing off their nannies.  They can’t chase off April, who understands that the best way to calm a bratty child is to grab your guitar and sing to them at night.  April gives up show business to become a nanny but I don’t think it’ll last.  April is too impulsive to settle down, and Ty’s kids really are the worst.  (As well, Charo and Larry Linville didn’t exactly generate a lot of heat in their scenes together.)  April may leave the boat with a new family but hopefully, she’ll return alone in the fifth season.

Speaking of the worst, Cindy Simmons (Maureen McCormick) is dying but her parents (Ty Hardin and Kathleen Nolan) haven’t gotten around to telling her yet.  Cindy thinks that she’s made a full recovery from her recent illness.  Her parents don’t want to upset Cindy but when Cindy meets and falls in love with Paul Harris (Jay Thomas), they realize that they’re going to have to tell Cindy the truth.  Poor Cindy!  Fortunately, this is The Love Boat and Paul isn’t going to let a little thing like impending death get in the way of romance.  I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve seen Maureen McCormick on both The Love Boat and Fantasy Island.  For this episode, McCormick does a pretty good job with her role and she and Jay Thomas make for an attractive couple.

“I guess I’m still getting my sea legs,” Cindy says to Paul.

“Your legs look mighty fine to me,” Paul replies.

That’s about as witty as things get on this cruise.

Finally, Joey (Richard Kline) is a mob enforcer who has been sent to collect a debt owed by Tony Patacchio, a gambling addict.  However, Joey gets distracted when he meets a woman named Antoinette (Lisa Hartman) who enjoys gambling.  Joey falls for Antoinette and, unable to find Tony, he even spends the night in her cabin.  Hmmm …. Tony …. Antoinette …. Toni….

Yes, Joey has fallen in love with the person he was supposed to rough up.  Fortunately, Joey is willing to fix a poker game so that Toni can win enough of his money to pay off her debt.  When Toni realizes that Joey lost his money to her on purpose, she declares that she can’t take his money.  “If we were married,” Joey says, “It would be our money.”

Richard Kline is not a particularly believable debt collector.  (Tony Soprano would have tossed him in a dumpster.)  It’s also strange that his boss would send him to collect a debt without bothering to give him a physical description of the person he was supposed to intimidate.  The whole storyline was full of holes but I’m surprised to say that I did end up rooting Kline and Hartman to get together.  The two of them had enough chemistry to overcome the fact that their story made very little sense.

Previously, whenever Charo was a guest star, she dominated the entire episode, for better or worse.  With this episode, she seems kind of bored with the whole thing, as if Charo was just as fed up with show business as April.  Instead, it was Maureen McCormick and Jay Thomas who dominated the episode with Richard Kline and Lisa Hartman also getting their share of good scenes.  It makes for a bit of an uneven episode but I defy anyone not to feel something when Paul declares that he wants to spend the rest of Cindy’s life with her.  Mixing romantic melodrama and goofy comedy is what made The Love Boat a treasure of American pop culture.

Retro Television Review: The Love Boat 4.13 “Isaac’s Teacher/Seal of Approval/The Curse of Dumbrowskis”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

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!

Get ready for a very odd cruise!

Episode 4.13 “Isaac’s Teacher/Seal of Approval/The Curse of the Dumbrowskis”

(Dir by Bob Sweeney, originally aired on January 10th, 1981)

This is a weird episode.

Harriet (Florence Henderson) boards the ship with her husband, Harold Rogers (Jeffrey Tambor).  Now, the idea of Florence Henderson and Jeffrey Tambor as a married couple may sound strange but it’s even stranger when you actually see it.  Henderson and Tambor have absolutely zero chemistry together.  Tambor looks more like Henderson’s no-good stepson than her husband.

Harriet is convinced that she is destined to die at an early age so she continually pressures Harold to find a woman that he can marry after she’s gone.  In fact, Harriet thinks that maybe Harold could marry another passenger on the boat, Cindy (Christina Hart).  Harold is getting frustrated with the pressure that Harriet is putting on him to find a new lover.  Doc Bricker suggests that maybe Harold should make Harriet jealous by cheating on her with Cindy.  What?  I mean, I’m not surprised that Doc would make that suggestion but it is a bit odd that the show itself seems to think that this is a good idea.  Harold goes along with the idea because, even if Harriet doesn’t get jealous, he’ll still get to sleep with Cindy.  Wait.  What?

Harriet is okay with Harold cheating on her until Harold says that he wants to give her favorite necklace to Cindy.  Harriet realizes that she’s not okay with Harold giving her jewelry to his adulterous lover and she decides that she’ll no longer pressure Harold to find a new wife.  They leave the ship with their marriage stronger than ever.  Doc saves the day!

Meanwhile, Karen (Georgia Engel) boards the boat and immediately falls for Oscar Tilton (Donald O’Connor).  Now, as mismatched as Florence Henderson and Jeffrey Tambor are, they seem like soulmates compared to Georgia Engel and Donald O’Connor.  For one thing, O’Connor appears to be about 20 years older than Georgia Engel.  Secondly, Donald O’Connor’s ebullient style clashes wildly with Georgia Engel’s inability to speak above a whisper.

Oscar is an entertainer who is traveling with his seal, Shirley.  When Shirley sees that Oscar and Karen are falling in love, Shirley gets jealous and throws herself overboard.  She leaves behind her rubber ball, apparently as a way to taunt Oscar.  Oscar is depressed.  How can he do his act without Shirley?  Karen encourages him by telling him that he doesn’t need the seal to be entertaining.  Gopher even helps out by playing the horns that Shirley would have played had she not jumped into the ocean….

I am not making this up.

Anyway, good news all around.  Shirley survives jumping into the ocean and swims back to Oscar’s beach house.  Shirley shows up when the boat docks in Los Angeles.  Oscar tells Shirley that Karen is going to be a part of his life from now on.  Shirley claps her fins, indicating that she approves.

NO, I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP!

All I can say is thank goodness for Lillian Gish.  Gish plays Mrs. Williams, who boards the boat with her hulking nephew (Reb Brown).  Mrs. Williams is also Isaac’s former teacher.  Isaac is insecure about just being a bartender and pretends, with Gopher’s help, to be the ship’s first officer.  Captain Stubing is not amused.  Isaac tells Mrs. Williams the truth and Mrs. Williams replies that she is proud of Isaac, no matter what he does for a living.

Awwwwwwww!

This was a really simple story but it was sweet.  Lillian Gish’s natural class provided a balance to Jeffrey Tambor cheating on Florence Henderson and Donald O’Connor’s seal trying to scare off Georgia Engel.  And Ted Lange — seriously, episodes like this remind the viewer of how lucky The Love Boat was to have him.  Yes, everyone knows that pointing thing that he does.  But Lange also played Isaac as being a genuinely nice guy.  I don’t drink but if I did, I would want Isaac to be my bartender.

Again, this episode was weird but at least it gave Lillian Gish and Ted Lange a chance to shine.