The Love Boat

Both of those characters were added in the later seasons, when they were getting desperate.

MeTV is running TLB every morning at 10AM.

Julie always got extra excited when the boat docked in Columbia.

Or Colombia.

Worst theme song, ever!

DL lore

Just call me the tv show killer.

He's handsome

Who was that ugly troll they hired to play Stuebing's daughter when Lauren Tewes left?

I couldn't stand her.

Vicki came before Lauren was fired.

Ask Carol Burnett. Her show was opposite TLB and got canceled because TLB beat it in the ratings.

If The Love Boat were on today, who would be the guest stars? I assume it would be the type of celebrities who would do Dancing with the Stars and other reality shows?

See, that's why I always call "bullshit" when whiners whine about how "back in the day" we only had "real stars." The same level of "celebrities" who go on reality shows today went on Match Game and The Love Boat back in the day.

R10 wasn't she planning on retiring the show by that point anyway?

They did a reimagining of the Love Boat about 15 years ago with Robert Ulrick. It did not do well.

Eve Plumb plays an overly protective mother to Kristen Stewart, who comes out as lesbian after mom tries to set her up.

David Schwimmer and Brian Krause play two jewel thieves.

Brooke Shields and Tom Cruise play a bickering couple.

Vicki came on during season season 3. Julie left at the end of season 7.

It was more like Murder, She Wrote, in that some stars who were very big in their prime did that show in their latter years. Olivia de Havilland did a Love Boat, I was shocked to see.

The list of guest stars is pretty intriguing, actually.

How bad was Lauren's coke habit?

Wasn't Gloria Vanderbikt a guest?

R16 yeah there were some of those but you also had plenty of the Elaine Joyces and Debra Lee Scotts. And then you had the second tier TV teen stars like Melissa Sue Anderson and Erin Moran. And then the before they were big stars types like Heather Locklear and Tom Hanks.

But I really can't think of any A list TV stars (at the time) who guested on the show. They didn't get Henry Winkler or Ron Howard. They got Donny Most.

Funny this thread popped up because I just saw a couple of episodes on the TV Guide channel yesterday. Im not gonna lie, i enjoyed them! One of the eps that was on I remember watching in reruns one Sunday with my grandmother 30 years ago - both Janet Leigh and Jamie Lee Curtis (circa Halloween) guested. Conrad Bain was on it too -he played Leigh's ex-husband and they got locked in a room together. And - this is the part I remembered from way back when - Leigh is going thru her handbag and says I'm starving, to which Bain responds: "what are you gonna do, eat your lipstick?" it's funny the things from long ago that you remember and yet if you ask me what I had for lunch yesterday I would have to take a moment.

Ted McGinley was DREAMY.

Janet as "Delia"...

R19 there was a fashion episode that I know Halston was on. So maybe that?

R18, Here is Lauren to tell you about it right now...

Gloria Vanderbilt, Bob Mackie, Halston, and Geoffrey Beene all did a show (cruise) together, as they all competed in a fashion show contest. In fact, Julie (Lauren Tewes) was one of their models, after one of the scheduled models was dismissed from the fashion show. It was a great, but, definitely one of the gayest episodes of The Love Boat made. Say what you will, but, to this day, The Love Boat is, was, and always will be my favorite TV show of all time. My favorite episodes are the two two-hour eps where the crew went to Australia for Julie to get married. Ironically enough, about six months later, I found myself living in Sydney and standing in almost the very spot you see Lauren Tewes, with the Sydney Harbor Bridge over her shoulder, in the opening credits.

[quote]What was so special about it that it was "must see TV"?

Nothing. At most it was light-weight camp.

If that's your "must-see", then great.

R24 she has a point - do we really think she was doing any more cocaine then half of Hollywood - especially around that time?

I wonder why some celebrities (be they major or minor) addictions become public while others never do. Things that make you go hmmm....

The show featured "guests" who once were Hollywood stars, their appearance proved they were not dead. Few times I watched, I always thought "I thought he/she died long ago." Same routine with "Murder, She Wrote" lot of old time movie stars. Gad, he/she looks so old, or poor plastic job.

R25 if I recall they were trying to get Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein to guest but they turned the gig down.

And here I have now made I think 10 posts here. Ummmm.

"Say what you will, but, to this day, The Love Boat is, was, and always will be my favorite TV show of all time."

Jesus. I never in a million years thought I'd read that sentence.

R17 yeah, it is a pretty all encompassing list. Though the only ones that really stood out to me (as surprises) were: Jane Curtin, Sandy Dennis, Jean Stapleton (sort of, she always took herself very seriously as an actress who started in the the-a-tre) and...yeah I guess that's it. Well Michael J. fox and Shelley Long I suppose they got very early in their respective shows runs. That said, I cannot envision either of those actors fitting into the Love Boat milieu (or Curtin or Dennis, for that matter).

What were the best seasons?

They wanted Lucy to play Captain Stubing but Gary talked her out of it. He didn't think America would accept her with a shaved head.

I remember it mostly for the old and aged former movie stars who, as another poster stated, made guest appearances and showed that they were still alive. Van Johnson, Ann Miller, Jane Powell and many of the old MGM stable guest-starred and even did some song and dance numbers. It was really the ONLY place for those old stars to do what they were famous for other than Vegas or cheesy nightclubs. It was interesting but kind of sad to see them so old. And the show was CHEESE personified, even back then. It was always a punchline.

It was one of the shittiest things ever shown on TV. That shit was on for ten years. The shit Diagnosis Murder was on for like ten years too. Matlock too. Sure was a shitty stretch of TV.

A girl who went to my high school was on TLB when she was one of the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders. She played Bill Daily's love interest even though he was over 30 years older than she was.

Patty Duke playing Ruth Gordon's granddaughter, was great.

How many girl in wheelchair episodes did they have?

R34 is right. The Love Boat was more of a joke than any sort of "must see TV." It was fluff and easy to watch. People settled for it because there were very few channels to choose from back then.

As a teen queen it thrilled me more than it saddened me to see aging stars like Ray Bolger, Ethel Merman, Donald O'Connor, Carol Channing and the like. Some of the oldsters had stellar resumes. Even old Van Johnson had been a huge star in his day. I always wondered if Van adopted his gravel voice to conceal a prissier one.

[quote]must see TV"?

It was never that.

"The Love Boat" aired on Saturday nights as I recall. There are far fewer HUTs (Nielsen-speak for Houses Using Television) on Saturday nights, as anyone old enough to go out and drink goes out, and doesn't stay home to watch tv. Old people and kids are stuck at home. The tv shows that do well have to be palatable to them and be pretty moronic. A big hit on a Saturday night draws a fraction of the viewers of a hit show on a Sunday night, the highest HUT of the week.

A lot of crap does well on Saturday nights. Crap like "The Love Boat".

Yes, here on the East Coast TLB came on at 9, followed by "Fantasy Island", which I could never get into. But without cable (and cable was slow to get around many parts of the country), and even with it, most people watched the big three (ABC, NBC or CBS), with the occasional glance at PBS. On Saturday nights, before I could drive and was stuck at home in the suburbs, TLB was one of the better choices around. But it was never ever taken seriously, not even by the young and gullible (we didn't know who the old stars were, obviously) and would never be called must-watch television.

I used to watch it as a kid. Nowadays I sometimes watch the opening on YT. Had a crush to Lauren Tewes. I wrote in another thread this, newspapers told LT had died soon after she left the show. I don't live in US. I still remember the headline: A little town's girl couldn't cope with stardom. Love Boat's Julie has passed away. Then years later the LB New Wave began and there she was, well and alive. Quelle surprise!

I was just a little boy when I watched the show and I remember liking Julie the most. She was always smiling and seemed very nice. Gopher was funny, too. I suppose I didn't even watch the later seasons because I don't remember seeing Ted McGinley at all.

Coke, exciting and new

Cum Aboard. We're snorting you.

And Coke, life's kinkiest reward.

Let it flow, it floats up your nose.

Coke Boat soon will be making another drug run

The Coke Boat promises something for everyone

Set a course for adventure,

Your brain on a new high.

And Coke won't burn anymore

It's an open smile on a friendly score.

Yes COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOKE!

Welcome Aboard. It's COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOKE!

R18 Very bad. But she got out of it rather quickly.

My best work was in "Airplane!"

I like the one were the French lady says "Go-FAIR, Go-FAIR."

Watching Lauren's striking metamorphosis from a fresh-faced, all-American girl to a heavily made-up, bloated manatee was sad.

I was a teenager when this was first run. It was "taboo" because it showed characters having multiple sex partners.

True, r49 - Doc was a whore! He was always trying to get into the female passengers' pants.

Doc was only taking the overflow from Isaac's room. The women really wanted the black bartender, but there are only so many minutes in an hour and those women had to get back to their husbands.

I wish someone would put together a montage of the opening shot of every guest star the show ever had.

I like the one where Captain Stupid said "Gee Julie you always return from those Mexican cruises with such nice white face powder."

I had a friend who did the Julie job on a cruise ship. She said there was never time for sex. She had to be at the disco late night offering to dance with people and then up early to greet people at breakfast. She always wished that when the ship pulled into a port that everyone would get off the boat for the guided tours so she could have some quiet time. But there were always cheapos who stayed on the boat and wanted to be entertained.

I have friends that have a great friend who is a cruise employee. When I met him at a recent party,, he said you have to be "on" all the time, which can be exhausting. But the most interesting thing he told me is that he doesn't have a home since he's on the ship the majority of the time. When he's off the ship, he crashes at friends' places.

That would suck, IMO.

Well, what I want to know is, how realistic was it that there were only 5 crew members (Captain Stubing, Doc, Gopher, Issac, and Julie) running a ship with over 650 passengers? Really?!?

R56, ***AHEM***

I'm so sorry, Vicki, but, as Julie's assistant, as stated by your father, Captain Stubing in one of your earlier eps., if you were such a key staff member, why didn't he make you the Cruise Director when Julie left, instead of her sister Judy, that didn't even work for the cruise line?

R58 My duties were too heavy and difficult for her.

More about Lauren Tewes and her addiction.

[quote]If The Love Boat were on today, who would be the guest stars? I assume it would be the type of celebrities who would do Dancing with the Stars and other reality shows?

The TV show "Las Vegas" (the one w/Josh Duhamel & James Caan) reminded me in many ways of a Love Boat for the new millenium. They had a steady stream of random guest stars & cameos ranging from your typical Vegas types like Paul Anka, Charo, Robert Goulet, etc. to Don Knotts, Snoop Dogg, Paris Hilton, etc.

I think there is a place for these kind of brainless shows...easy to watch with simple story arcs, and they provide gigs for the no longer relevant. I guess the crime shows like SVU, CSI, etc. offer that too, but not everyone is chomping at the bit to play a pedophile or murderer.

If it was done today? Captain Stubing's daughter:

R60 - Thanks. I had thought Lauren was doing coke for weight control.

Jeraldine Saunders, a onetime cruise director who wrote the book that the show was based on, appeared on that TLC reality show [italic]Extreme Cougar Wives.[/italic]

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R65, what was I, chopped liver?

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R66 - Just the curse of death.

I never got that Ted McGinley curse thing. Happy Days lasted 4 years with him, The Love Boat lasted 2 seasons with him and Married...With Children went on another 8 years with him in the cast.

In the early couple seasons of Love Boat and Fantasy Island, they weren't campy jokes, they started as two hour specials, got huge ratings, and then became instant hit shows - exotic locations, etc. But after a few years they were recycling themes and guest starring roles morphed into stunt-casting and C-list celebs and the shows became punchlines by the time they went off the air. See link for a good representative sample of the level of "stars' they were getting -

R69 it wasn't so much the shows were cancelled right after he joined the casts. Maybe with the exception of Married With Children the other shows had jumped the shark before he joined them. Certainly true with Dynasty, Happy Days and Love Boat.

[quote]I never got that Ted McGinley curse thing.

It wasn't that his arrival meant a show was soon to be canceled. It simply heralded the moment a good show had jumped the shark (except of course for Happy Days, which jumped the shark when Fonzie jumped the shark.) The blandly handsome Ted McGinley always replaced actors who were less attractive but who had played more interesting characters. Shows always lost their edge when that perennial California Guy stand-in stood in.

[quote]Why did she get so much shit for it, and not everyone else?

She lost the ability to function altogether which happens to only a portion of hard-core cocaine abusers. She later bared her soul and told the sad story of her decline in various media outlets. That is why she is synonymous with the ravages of cocaine in show-biz - because she put it all out there herself.

McGinley was in 60 episodes during '83-87 so it wasn't like the show was cancelled the minute he walked in.

...and Lauren Tewes as Julie, Your Ship's Dealer

Why was it so great? CHARO!

Fred Grandy (Gopher, "Your Yeoman Purser") was later elected to Congress as a Republican from Iowa.

I watched it more than I'd care to admit, but I was just a stupid little kid. I'd like to see the episode with Martin Short.

Aaron Spelling spent a ton of dough trying to lure Broadway actors to guest on the show, so he could add a touch of class to the weekly storylines.

In addition to luring aging stars from the golden era.

Even Helen Reddy appeared in an episode. Wearing a swimsuit no less!

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She looks like Ellen Burstyn in a Stockard Channing wig!

It had a good variety of stars from various age groups.

Never seen it but it sounds like the corniest load of old crap.

It was a staple of late 70s American TV.

It was either a Love Boat episode or another Tampon commercial. Look, I was close to losing the house.

Linda Blair And Connie Needham (from Eight is Enough)

OMG, R86!

Pazuzu, Jason's Mom and Shirley Hemphill...all on the same cruise!!!

Which Love Boat episodes featured men in drag -- and which men?

There's one with John Ritter in drag. A real early episode.

I liked watching the poolside scenes for a little bit of man candy. Usually there was an extra or two in short shorts walking around. Maybe a speedo.

R80 I caught that one with Kathy Bates a while back ... she must have been famous for something at the time, or else they wouldn't have had her as a guest star. Does anyone remember?

"In addition to luring aging stars from the golden era."

I saw a cartoon back in the early 80s that had the casting director of The Love Boat at a home for retired actors holding a clipboard and the bubble above him said "Has anyone not appeared on The Love Boat at least twice?"

Love Boat goes to the dogs... Catherine Bach, Isabel Sanford, Dirk Benedict, and lots of dogs.

Lauren Teees and Linda Blair together.. Bet there was a lot of powdering of their noses. There was coke in the EiE set, but I don't know if Connie was into it.

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Did not know that about Meredith. I did know that Michael Landon was perpetually drunk on Little House.

I think one of the most boozy sets was probably the Match Game LOL

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Wheel of Fortune was boozy.

[quote]Landon drank hard liquor all day on the Little House set, this has been confirmed by several sources. His tolerance was so high that he never appeared to be hammered, in spite of the amount he drank.

Jewish people shouldn't drink.

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Half Pint said the same in her autobiography.

And on that note, Melissa Sue Anderson in Love Boat's version of Cinderalla.

It's not that they CAN'T, r100, it's just that typically, culturally, Jewish people and their families don't tend to drink as much. Although that has become less and less true with each generation.

Perhaps you were joking, but you do realize that it's the cigs and not the booze that caused the cancer, no?

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I'm not kidding r103 -- every Jewish person I've known who drinks more than a little has ended badly.

And without cigarettes.

Also, Jewish gals -- don't get fertility treatments. Just being in the same room with those hormones seems to do you all in.

R105 fertility treatments are bad news for ALL women.

But Jesus drank wine, a nice Chardonnay I think it was.

I think Fantasy Island used to come on right after Love Boat. Now THAT was 70's TV at its finest.

Fantasy Island was darker.

Ricardo Montalban was oh so sexy

Zsa Zsa Gabor

I was in the travel business then Princess Cruises was hot then - they show did them enormous business for them. People loved the ports they visited, the scenes on the ship, the uniforms - everything. I sold lots of groups on Princess - they were fun ships and a quality cruise product.

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I think Michelle Lee did more guest spots on that show than anyone else! At least several a year LOL!!

How many former "Mary Tyler Moore Show" alumni appeared on it? That's the mark of a true hit.

Georgia Engel, Betty White, Valerie Harper, Ted Knight, Cloris Leachman and obviously Gavin Macleod. No Ed Asner or MTM.

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And no Helen Hunt, R116

exciting!

I just watched an episode on Thursday on the TVGuide channel with Joan Rivers of all people. She played a rich San Fran matron who was dumped by her husband after she had a mastectomy (which she keeps a secret) and this is afraid to find love again...until she does with Alex Rocco. It was a real tour de France performance!

They need to remake this show.

Is Gavin a homo?

His wife was the original Plymouth Valiant face, long before Beverley Mitchell

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R122 I don't know about that but he's a bit of a religious nut now.

But no doubt, had Murray been a character today, he would have been gay.

Julie would be bi.

But wasn't it Whelan who originally got Tewes hooked on the nose candy?

No R127

Lani O'Grady and Adam Rich

I LOVED the show when I was about 6 years old. It was my favourite show, period. I think this tells you all you need to know.

Enjoy it while you can; Friday is the last day it will be on MeTV.

You can find nearly all of the episodes on line.

TV Guide also reruns it as part of #throwback #thursday

DL favorite Bonnie Franklin as Capt. Steubing's ex-wife, the beautiful and bitchy Stacy Skogstad.

R10, Carol voluntarily ended her show. It was not cancelled.

OP, must see TV was a slogan for NBC with it's horrible shows from the 80s. Not ABC, which ran Love Boat (also a horrible show.)

We used to say that you knew you're having a shitty Saturday night when you are watching reruns of Love Boat and Fantasy Island... and you've already seen the episodes.

Thank god we had lots of weed.

Watching the posted bits of those episodes, geez, that laugh track really really rubs me the wrong way now. I can't believe that we even put up with that then.

R134 - Hold me Gopher I'm scared.

Wasn't there some formula, like every episode had a humerous story and set of characters, a romantic one, and a "serious" issue?

Duh.

Choochi-Choochi, Capitan Steubing!

I was the one everyone wanted to fuck.

I even had to tell Julie (can't remember the name of actress), that I was not into the hole girl/girl thing.

R140 Lauren Tewes

That story that R60 links loses all credibility when it states that Tewes was considered "one of the most attractive women in Hollywood"

It's called flattery R142

MeTV is really going downhill. Nothing but cop/war/western shows after next week.

Sad end...

Linda Evans and Jan Smithers

Lorne Greene and Richard Hatch from the original Battlestar.

Tori Spelling was on one episode.

I love the theme song.

It appealed to the people who thought the "Lawrence Welk Show" was too exciting.

Lust...

SEX-citing and nude!

Climb in bed...

You'll be expecting soon!

The LUST BOAT...

R150 Kudos! That the most hilarious answer I've seen here on DL. Thanks for the laugh

It was basically an excuse to look at famous and not so famous stars.

And didn't it all seem glamourous then? Cruise ships, all that. There was no internet... people's knowledge of things outside every day life was pretty limited... you couldn't Google cruise ships, you couldn't join the cruise ship forum, nobody Instagrammed from the Lido deck. So they were telling stories in a setting that seemed quite exotic.

My great aunt used to love it, it was her favorite show. But she wouldn't let me or my siblings watch it when she babysat because there was too much sex in it. So I grew up thinking it was a filthy show with boobs and butts.

Boy, was I in for a disappointment.

The best episode was the one with Ethel Merman, Della Reese, and Ann Miller. They were supposed to be relatives of some regular crew members and were going to put on a show. There was a big argument over who would be the star and Della Reese looks at Ann Miller and says, "One more crack out of you and I'll break your hair!"

I was a kid when this show was on and I hated it. Fantasy Island was so-so, but The Love Boat was terrible.

Was Isaac the only bartender? How is that possible? Cruise ships have multiple bars and multiple bartenders. Was Isaac the head bartender or something?

Isaac was the head bartender.

R155 hilarous, too much sex, I would say your great aunt's imagination wondered after some characters closed the door to the cabin while kissing...

Isaac gave great head.

R155 - All it really had was the occasional bikini. It was very PG.

R156, you forgot that Carol Channing was on that episode, too, and Julie McCoy's aunt.

This was the kind of TV that people lamented when Reality shows took over in the ratings – the supposed end of "quality" script-based TV.

A skinny Delta Burke and Julie Duffy on a LB episode!

Issac hitting on young Janet Jackson

R164 - Please

The Love Boat was NEVER considered "quality" TV.

My brother and I used to call it The SEX Boat because all they ever did was have or try to have sex or hook up on each cruise.

It was guilty pleasure TV.

r168 did you and your brother both clutch your pearls when you said that?

No pearls for us R170.

We would sing the theme song as "The Sex Boat" instead of "The Love Boat".

I liked the episode when Kristi McNichol and Scott Baio had crushes on each other'..

Remember when the French lady referred to Fred Grandy as gopher, except she pronounced it "go-fair"

It wasn' speciAl, it sucked.

The episode where I FINALLY saw Kevin Tighe shirtless.

Shirtless shots of "Ace," Ted McGinley in his prime, were about the only reason to ever watch. Unless there was some hunky guest star. I seem to remember Patrick Wayne shirtless in a hot tub.

The Loave Boat always made me feel safe and cozy. Ive never been on a cruise and when i do i will be devastated if they are mot as nice ans Catain Stuning and Julie.

what many of you dont realize was it was all filmed on an actual ship and each person got a real three day cruise min.

I always watched for those shirtless Vicki Stubing scenes.

R177 needs spelling lessons.

We kept hoping for gay episodes, but they never did one, did they?

Ted McGinley is hot. A fantasy guy for sure.

The Love Boat" theme song is about what now?

Gavin MacLeod, the actor who popularized the character Capt. Merrill Stubing on ABC's "The Love Boat," says the tune for the iconic maritime sitcom can be interpreted as a song praising Jesus Christ.

"If you listen to the lyrics ["The Love Boat's" theme song is] all about Jesus," MacLeod told the hosts of the conservative American Family Association's radio show '"Today's Issues," according to a clip of the show posted online Monday. "It's a whole new approach to that song. I do that whenever I get to a group of believers... It's really about, 'Come aboard, Jesus will take care of you. There's a new love waiting for you. A love that will never let you down.'"

The lyrics of "The Love Boat," as written by Charles Fox and Paul Williams, are pretty generic, with their talk of "Love, life's sweetest reward," and assurances that "Love won't hurt anymore/ It's an open smile on a friendly shore." However, add a bit of Jesus à la MacLeod, and they take on a whole new meaning.

The born-again MacLeod, 82, is currently promoting his new memoir, This Is Your Captain Speaking. The tell-all book includes several discussions about the actor's faith, including the moment he decided to recommit himself to Christianity in 1984.

Anyone here ever do it with Ted McGinley?

R180, they did one with someone who had a sex change operation. I think she was an old friend of Gopher's or something. I was confused as a kid. I just thought it was a sickness that you woke up with one day. My Mom explained it to me.

I just looked it up! It was DL darling, Mackenzie Phillips who played Gopher's former roommate, Ray, who had sex change and became Rachel.

I also attached an editorial from 1982 where this frau thing got her panties in a wad because of the episode. Yikes, lady.

Season 9 shows had a different version of the theme.

The day Hervé Villechaize died...also known as the day God took a little breather.

R122 - He always seemed a little "skippy" to me on the MTM show and the fact that he's now an Evangelical Christian would seal the deal for me. My vote is definitely yes.

R183 CLOSET CASE ALERT.

Jill Whelan at about age 44

Sexy

Pic quality isn't that great, but here's a young and skinny Kathy Bates on the Love Boat.

R193 - Kathy is in an episode of China Beach (as a stateside friend of McMurphy). She is skinny there too.

Must see TV was an NBC slogan of its' crapfest of Cheers, Cosby, Family Ties and other 80s crap.

Love Boat was 70s shlock from crapmeister Aaron Spelling and was on ABC. It was not must see.

r195 I'll give you Cosby and Family Ties, but Cheers was not crap at all. It was a very good comedy.

It was never "Must See TV" because that was a trademarked slogan used by another network, some 20 years later.

People Magazine on Lauren Tewes and her marriage.

The original theme song was sung by Jack Jones, but wasn't the newer version by DL's own Miss Warwick?

R196 so was Family Ties. Probably had the best acting for any family sitcom - and the writing could be very good too.

FT and Cheers were the two shows Tartikoff "saved" because even if they didn't get good ratings early on, the shows were critics darlings and he believed in them.

And with NBC in third, he had nothing else to replace them.

But both Tartikoff and Grant Tinker were known for nurturing good shows. Wish we had that today.

Exactly why was Lauren fired?

She was a major cokehead, r201.

Was she fired because she was disruptive? could not remember lines? out too much?

The Love Boat gave a hint of 1970s sex. I'm surprised they didn't do an episode about a key party.

r203 from what I've heard she was calling out sick quite often, and on the days when she was on the set she was spaced-out and couldn't focus. It really disrupted the filming schedule. They had to fire her after a while because it was just too disruptive to the show's production. Very sad story.

It made me want to go on a cruise, it looked so 70s glamorous.

*The Day My Mother Knew I Was Gay*

Before Oprah, The Love Boat was on every day after school at 4:00. I would run home from elementary school, make my traditional after-school snack (five Town House crackers with peanut butter and a glob of strawberry jelly with a cold glass of milk) and sit on the Lay-Z-Boy in the den to watch the ship set sail.

This was probably her first clue.

Her confirmation?

The day they aired an episode starring Desi Arnaz, Jr. and Stephanie Zimbalist. They had both been blind and met at blind school. He had an operation to regain his sight. She was still blind. He couldn't tell her he could see, so he spends most of the show letting her think he was still blind. When she found out, she was pissed, but they worked it out and got engaged.

For some reason or another, the drama had me in tears. I just thought it was the most romantic thing I had ever seen. Ever. And Desi's hairy chest made me feel funny in my bathing suit area.

I'm nearly in tears thinking about it.

Still no idea why it moved me so much.

Thanks R205 - She did look off in her last season.

Barry Van Dyke in a short-shorts bathing suit and no shirt! Swoon!

Yowza!

Guy on the left looks like Mr. Scott Bakula