The Love Boat

The Love Boat was a lightly comic romantic anthology series (with laugh track) which ran on ABC from 1977 until 1986. The hour long series, set on a cruise ship, was generally divided into three individually titled stories per episode. As the title implied, the majority of the plots involved shipboard romance. The passenger manifest was filled by an array of, usually a mixture of older film and TV legends and current names, many of whom returned time and again. The regular ship's crew (led by Captain Steubing) bridged the storylines and were occasionally allowed a one-shot romance of their own.

The series was spoofed in a Sesame Street insert, with Ernie as Captain Ernest. The good captain expresses his love for the boat itself, and a female lounger, a grouchy gentleman, and eventually everyone on the entire ship join in the chorus.

Connections
The Love Boat often drew from the same celebrity pool as The Muppet Show and other Henson productions, and also shared a few crew members. Many of the guests made return voyages.


 * Pearl Bailey played Millie Washington in a first season episode
 * Milton Berle (five episodes)
 * Red Buttons (three episodes)
 * Ruth Buzzi played Patti in the second season episode "The Ventriloquists"
 * Dabney Coleman played Van Milner in a second season episode
 * Billy Crystal wrote for the series and played the title character ina second season episode "The Kissing Bandit"
 * Jane Curtin played Regina Parker in a first season episode
 * Phyllis Diller (two episodes)
 * Lola Falana played Isaac's love interest in the season 2 premiere "Marooned"
 * Jamie Farr (four episodes)
 * Conchata Ferrell played Bitsy in a second season episode
 * Arthur Godfrey played Ned in a second season episode
 * Harold Gould played Mr. Crowler in a first season episode
 * Lorne Greene (three appearances)
 * Buddy Hackett played Mickey in a season 3 episode
 * David Hasselhoff (two appearances)
 * Teri Hatcher played Amy, a "Love Boat Mermaid" (1985-1986)
 * Sherman Hemsley (three episodes)
 * Florence Henderson (nine episodes)
 * Arte Johnson (six episodes)
 * Don Knotts played Herb Groecker in a third season episode
 * Harvey Korman (three episodes)
 * Rich Little played Steve in a third season episode
 * Ethel Merman appeared in several episodes as Aunt Roz Smith
 * Belinda Montgomery (two appearances)
 * Richard Mulligan (two appearances)
 * Jim Nabors (three episodes)
 * Leslie Nielsen (three episodes)
 * Vincent Price played the Amazing Alonzo in a second season Halloween episode
 * Alan Rafkin directed several episodes of the series
 * John Ritter (three episodes)
 * Avery Schreiber (three episodes)
 * Olan Soule played Harvey Groh in a first season episode
 * Jerry Stiller (three episodes)
 * Loretta Swit (four appearances)
 * Jeffrey Tambor (two appearances)
 * Nancy Walker (three appearances)
 * Jessica Walter (eight episodes)
 * Frank Welker voiced a dummy in the second season episode "The Ventriloquists"
 * Fred Willard played Richard Henderson in a season 4 episode.
 * Paul Williams composed the famous Love Boat theme song