|
 Love Boat - Oceanliner that
cruised the oceans of the world on the sea-going comedy THE
LOVE BOAT/ABC/1977-86. The real-life cruise ships Pacific Princess and
Island
Princess (a.k.a. "The Love Boats") were the backdrop for
numerous onboard romances while visiting such exotic and distant
ports as Mexico, Alaska, Europe, the Orient and Australia. The Love Boat
was registered in London with the British P & O Lines. Other nicknames given to this sea-going
singles club were the "Lust Bucket," the "Leer Boat" and "Floating
Foreplay."
The crew of the Pacific Princess were Captain Merrill Stubing (Gavin MacLeod); ship's physician Adam Bricker (Bernie
Kopell); Yeoman-Purser Burl "Gopher" Smith (Fred Grandy);
bartender Isaac Washington (Ted Lange) who roomed in cabin C-130;
Cruise Director Julie McCoy who roomed in Cabin C-125 (Lauren
Tewes); and later cruise photographer Ashley "Ace" Covington Evans
(Ted McGinley).
In May, 1985 the series began using the Royal
Princess of the English Princess Cruise Lines as the regular ship
on the series. The 45,000 ton ship (said to be the same class as
the QE II) had a crew numbering 500 (including The Love Boat
Mermaids, a group of eight beautiful singer/dancers) and featured
2 acres of open deck, four pools, fully equipped gymnasiums, a
library, a casino, theaters, a bridge lounge, and spacious
nightclubs.
The ship also had twin rudders capable of independent
control, two controllable pitch propellers, two bow thrusters and
two fin stabilizers. At the head of the ship was circular gallery
with 19 gray-green bronze seagulls called "Spindrift" (each 11
feet high) created by David Norris.
Crew of "The Love Boat"
On May of 1985 the series
celebrated its 200th episode with Lana Turner as the 1000th actor
to appear on the program since its premiere on September 24, 1977.
The series was based on the book "The Love Boats" written by
former cruise hostess, Jeraldine Saunders, The TV series debuted on the
made-for-TV movies The Love Boat (1976), The Love Boat II (1977).
The ship set sail once again on the made-for-TV-movie reunion
The
Love Boat: A Valentine Voyage which aired on the CBS network on
Saturday, July 20, 1991. The original crew of THE LOVE BOAT
reunited on cable channel VH1 on August 19, 1997 to christen a new
ship and host videos.
A new and updated version of the series
resurfaced on THE LOVE BOAT: THE NEW WAVE/UPN/1998-99 starring
Robert Urich as the Captain of the 77,000-ton Sun Princess holding
1,950 passengers in 1,050 cabins - more than double the number of
rooms in the UK's largest hotel, The Grosvenor.
The Sun Princess featured more private balconies than any other ship afloat, with
70 per cent of all outside cabins offering that feature. Materials
used in the construction of Sun Princess include: 2.8 million
meters of cabling enough to reach from London to Moscow; 26 miles
of carpet - enough to carpet the London Marathon; 720,000 liters
of paint - enough to paint the outside of 13,000 average sized
terraced houses; and 320 tons of Italian marble in the four-story
atrium alone.
TRIVIA NOTE: In the fall of 1998, the original
Love Boat was impounded in Greece when authorities found illegal drugs onboard
(reportedly 56 pounds of heroin).
External Links
Back to Top |
