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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/91qv6jbap5l_ac_sl1500.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:350:And guest starring ''every other actor around''.]]
3
4->''"Welcome aboard, it's loooooooooove!"''
5
6Jeraldine Saunders, a real-life cruise director, wrote about her experiences in a book called ''The Love Boats''. A trilogy of TV {{Pilot Movie}}s followed, and then it finally became an Creator/AaronSpelling-produced series airing on Creator/{{ABC|US}} from 1977 to 1986.
7
8The show was an hour long comedy with some drama in-between, with several intertwining plots about the guests and the crew. As the title implied, people were falling in love all over the place. And, of course, went further than that.
9
10The regular cast included Creator/GavinMacLeod as the ship's Captain Merrill Stubing, Creator/BernieKopell as the ship's doctor Adam "Doc" Bricker, Creator/FredGrandy as the ship's yeoman purser Burl "Gopher" Smith, Creator/TedLange as the ship's bartender Isaac Washington and Creator/LaurenTewes as cruise director Julie [=McCoy=].
11
12Now, even if you never watched the show, you've probably heard [[http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=m_wFEB4Oxlo the theme song]], one of the most well-known TV themes ''ever'', and a favorite for [[LoungeLizard fictional lounge acts]]. This was sung by Jack Jones (and, in later seasons, Music/DionneWarwick) and written by Music/PaulWilliams. Yes, the man who wrote [[Film/TheMuppetMovie "The Rainbow Connection"]] also wrote this. Creator/ErnieAnderson provided the voiceover.
13
14A {{revival}} series, ''Love Boat: The Next Wave'', aired on Creator/{{UPN}} for two seasons in 1998–99. This one featured an all-new cast, including Robert Urich as the captain, although the second season episode "Reunion" brought many of the original characters back for one more story.
15
16A VERY loose re-imagining of the series, ''The Real Love Boat'', debuted on Creator/{{CBS}} in 2022. Instead of a scripted anthology, this was a romantic reality show hosted by Rebecca Romijin and Jerry O’Connell. Contestants were paired up on the cruise ship and went through relationship-building exercises, with Ted Lange and Jill Whelan returning to join in on the fun. The show capsized very quickly; it was cancelled after just four episodes aired, with the remaining episodes shipping off to Creator/ParamountPlus.
17----
18!!''The Love Boat'' provides examples of:
19
20* ActorAllusion: Surprisingly defied as several times, stars would play much different roles than their more famous parts (such as loveable Dick Van Patten as an abusive husband).
21** One episode does have Bernie Koppel as a German police inspector with an accent not unlike [[Series/GetSmart Siegfried]].
22** One episode had [[Series/TheBradyBunch Florence Henderson and Robert Reed]] in separate storylines. For one brief moment, they meet at a buffet table, nod to each other and then give puzzled looks of "don't I know you?" before shrugging and moving on.
23** One of the TV movies has Creator/PeterGraves talking of having once worked for the government but "I suppose the [[Series/MissionImpossible secretary would disavow my actions..."]]
24* AllForNothing: In one episode the captain is being driven crazy by a pair of seemingly incompetent painters (who are deliberately drawing out the job to get a free cruise) only to change his mind about the color once they finally do it right, after he realizes it's far more common than he'd thought.
25* AmicableExes:
26** Doc is on generally good terms with his various ex-wives. That includes an [[SexWithTheEx annual hookup]] on the ship with one ex. They briefly considered getting married again but decided "let's not ruin a perfectly good divorce."
27** A common plotline would be two exes meeting on the ship and often rekindling the flame or at least being able to get along well as one sees the other in a new romance.
28* BallBalancingSeal: In the episode "Isaac's Teacher/Seal of Approval/The Successor", Donald O'Connor guest stars as a seal trainer. He has a seal named Shirley, who is capable of balancing a ball on its nose.
29* BusmansHoliday: In "Marooned/The Search/Isaac's Holiday" had Isaac planning a ski trip for his vacation. There's no snow on the mountain, so he takes a cruise on the Pacific Princess instead.
30* TheCaptain: Merrill Stubing, formerly of the U.S. Navy, commands the ''Pacific Princess'' in most of the episodes, and the ''Island Princess'' in the ones where the more exotic locales are visited.
31* TheCasanova: Doc picks up a different woman practically every cruise. Subverted when a fellow (married) doctor has to stay behind due to a colleague being sick and his wife sails without him. The man tells Adam to be sure she has a good time and *she* pursues *him*. Not wanting to betray his friend, he passes the duty off to Captain Stubing, who ends up hiding from her as well after she tries to seduce him, too.
32* ChekhovsGunman: In the cruise line inspector episode, the man who shows up now and then speaking Russian is in fact trying to find the cruise inspector, who never made it onboard.
33* ChristmasEpisode:
34** Season 1's "Lonely at the Top/Silent Night/Divorce Me, Please" has Stubing dressing up as Santa for a group of orphan boys on a cruise.
35** In Season 4's "That's My Dad/The Captain's Bird/Captive Audience," Stubing buys a parrot for Vicky, and Gopher and Isaac try to teach it to say something other than "Captain Stubing is a jerk." Meanwhile, a singer played by Jack Jones sings "Winter Wonderland."
36** There were several others, most notably the Season 10 movie "The Christmas Cruise".
37* TheCobblersChildrenHaveNoShoes: Dear Beverly an advice columnist takes a whole episode and a lot of hints to realize that her own marriage is in danger of failing.
38* CollectiveIdentity: One episode has twin sisters pretending to be one woman to share a ticket and get a cruise at half price. The only difference between them appearance-wise was that one was BlindWithoutEm and always had a pair of glasses on hand. They're never found out, despite both falling for Doc (who is confused by some of the contradictory behavior, but never really dwells on it).
39* ContrivedCoincidence: A first-season episode has a bank manager impulsively stealing some money and using the boat for a getaway. On board, he quickly falls in love with a fellow passenger and admits what he did. She then reveals she happens to be a cop. He lampshades how unlikely this is and wonders if she was following him, but she insists she was on vacation and never expected this. She admits she's in love with him even as she has to arrest him. When they discover the bank is closed for a holiday, they're briefly tempted to [[KarmaHoudini just return the money and move on]], but he decides instead to confess to the robbery rather than get her in trouble with a cover-up.
40* CoolBoat: Nearly all the action took place aboard the ''Pacific Princess''.
41** ''The Next Wave'' was set on another boat, the ''Sun Princess'', while ''The Real Love Boat'' was filmed aboard the ''Regal Princess''.
42* {{Crossover}}:
43** A couple with ''Series/FantasyIsland'', another Aaron Spelling show which immediately followed ''The Love Boat'' on ABC Saturday nights.
44** Yet another Spelling show, ''Series/CharliesAngels'', had an episode where the title characters pursue art thieves on a ''Pacific Princess'' cruise and encounter Capt. Stubing and his crew.
45** There was one with ''Series/GetSmart'', where [[spoiler:Max was afraid of the Doc since he looked a lot like Siegfried (being played by the same actor and all)]].
46** Years after the show ended, some of the cast members appeared in character in a two-part episode of ''Series/{{Martin}}''.
47* CryptidEpisode: One storyline involved a group of anthropologists on board the boat who were searching for a Malayan Bigfoot "Missing Link", although it eventually turned out to be a complicated con involving an actor in a bad wig and stage make-up.
48* DiegeticSoundtrackUsage: "April's Return" has the titular immigrant sing the theme song in the lounge.
49* DisguisedInDrag: Happened at least twice.
50* DoesntKnowTheirOwnChild: In "Aunt Hilly," Vicki's titular rich aunt insists that she loves her son and sent him to boarding school for his own good, not to get rid of him. But when asked when he was born, she can't come up with anything more specific than "April or May," which she only remembers because [[IRememberBecause his birth interrupted a social function]].
51* DudeWheresMyRespect: Dwyer the teacher from Julie's school whose present during a reunion aboard the ship feels this way, but only because he keeps overhearing conversations about him which start off unflattering, and then walking off right before someone compliments everything he's done for them.
52* FakeGuestStar:
53** The first few episodes featuring Ace had Ted [=McGinley=] listed with the opening guest stars, indicating the character was only going to be around for a short time. It wasn't until the 8th season premiere that [=McGinley=] was put in the cast credits.
54** The final episodes of Season 9 had Michael Winslow likewise in the guest star opening although his assistant cruise director character was intended to become a regular for season 10. That never happened with ABC canceling the series and Winslow not appearing in the later TV movies.
55* {{Fanservice}}: The poolside scenes in pretty much every episode, allowing Hollywood's most beautiful to dress down into swimsuits.
56* ForgottenFirstMeeting: In the pilot, Julie doesn't know who Stubing is, but another episode says that she was an instructor in a cruise director course she took.
57* FramedFaceOpening: Utilized for the guest passengers on each episode, from season 2 onward. The standard credit sequence had the port window motif over the Princess backdrop while the final season (1985/86) used a wave motif over a panoramic montage of sights from around the world.
58* GenreAnthology: This show and ''Series/FantasyIsland'' were hybrids of the anthology and ongoing series format. Most episodes would have two stories about characters who had never appeared before and would never appear again (though they would occasionally interact with the regular cast), and one story that the series regulars could participate in directly.
59* GlamorousSingleMother: A few, all the way back to the second episode, where the main character of one plot line (who's trying to get her exterminator boyfriend to propose) shares a cabin with a partier played by Suzanne Somers who provides her some relationship advice. When the exterminator's girlfriend says that she wants children, her roommate offers to let her borrow hers. The way she says it may feel like a joke at first, but at the end of the episode we find out that she does have two kids waiting for her at the pier who were staying with their grandmother.
60* HalloweenEpisode: "Ship of Ghouls," featuring an illusionist who can induce hallucinations in other people and a costume party that all the characters attend.
61* HappyHolidaysDress: In "The Christmas Cruise", a child (played by Creator/JudithBarsi) is dressed as an angel.
62* HerCodeNameWasMarySue: In one episode Isaac tries his hand at writing, but can't decide on the genre (his opening paragraphs, as read by other crew members, are all examples of StylisticSuck). He finally turns to a book about the staff of a cruise ship, blatantly describing the Love Boat crew; Gopher's name is changed to "Muskrat," etc. His fellow crew members are not amused.
63* HorribleHoneymoon: One young couple on their honeymoon suffers mishap after mishap, including the bride falling asleep while sunbathing and getting a severe sunburn and the groom throwing his back out just from bending over to pick up something and ending up in a wheelchair for almost the rest of the cruise.
64* HospitalHottie: Dawn Delaney, a friend of Dr. Bricker's, fills this role in "The Nubile Nurse".
65* InappropriatelyCloseComrades: Many episodes show some member of the main cast having a romance of the week with a passenger, including the captain. In real life, this would be strictly forbidden by most cruise lines' policies.
66* InLoveWithTheMark: A variation in the third episode, when a widowed private detective falls in love with the woman he’s following for her unfaithful husband.
67* InsatiableNewlyweds: A series RunningGag, starting from the pilot.
68* InsecureLoveInterest: Ahead of his own wedding to Emily, Stubing is a bundle of nerves and actively avoiding her. The anxiety of the big change has gotten him nervous about how she'd react to parts of his past that he's not proud of, such as how he never married Vicki's mother, is a recovering alcoholic, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking snores]]. While reassuring him, Emily says Vicki told her about the first one and that she figured out the others herself.
69* InspirationalInsult: The second variation was in play during an episode of the show. Jimmy Osmond played a novice actor shooting a scene, who just couldn't get it right. The director wasn't satisfied with his believability. He wasn't conveying enough anger and hurt. After repeated tries, the director called a break, during which the captain's daughter Vicki ripped into him about how he might as well give it up. He was a horrible failure of an actor, and he wasn't ever going to succeed. On the next take, he nailed it. [[EnforcedMethodActing Vicki had insulted him deliberately to make him angry and produce that result]].
70* IntimateLotionApplication: In "The Identical Problem", two twin sisters get into the boat pretending they're one person so they can only pay for one ticket. One of them flirts with Doc while she's sunbathing on the deck by asking him to rub lotion on her legs and back. He gladly accepts, but first goes to the bar to get them both drinks, but by the time he's back, [[TwinSwitch the twins have switched]], so when he suddenly starts rubbing lotion on her back, she thinks he's being a creep and slaps him, leaving him confused.
71* TheJinx: The eponymous title of one such story, where a married couple boards the ship and a different crew member invariably suffers some kind of injury while interacting with them. Stubing chastises this belief, saying they're blaming their own carelessness on a rather sweet and harmless couple. Then he accidentally falls off a dock after being distracted by the couple.
72* LaserGuidedKarma: A smarmy author advocating open marriage despite how much he can see it hurts his wife's feelings is the first cheater in the show whose marriage does break up (all the previous ones made amends) and on top of that the other woman jilts him to.
73* LaughTrack: Was used in the audio. According to IMDB, it was one of the very last sitcoms to use one.
74* MarryThemAll: In "Sally's Paradise," a woman impulsively accepts proposals from three different men, all of whom end up on the same cruise ship. When they find out about her, they agree that she'll pick one, and the other two will stay out of her life. She likes having three men pay attention to her so much that she tells each of them that he's the one, and the episode ends with her still engaged to all three, plus a fourth guy she just met.
75* TheMovie: Besides the three {{Pilot Movie}}s, there were a number of special two-hour movie episodes throughout the show's run, including three which aired in 1986/87 in lieu of a tenth season.
76* TheNoodleIncident: On leave, the gang complains over having to see Isaac's aunt in a horrible play. When Gopher calls it the worst experience ever on shore leave, Doc states he had a worse one with his second wife, but "as per our divorce agreement, I'm legally forbidden from talking about it."
77* NotBloodSiblings: One episode has a woman looking for her biological mother find out it’s the mom of the passenger whose been helping her, and who she has a crush on. Fortunately, it turns out she’s just his stepmother.
78* ObfuscatingStupidity: Robert Tanner the jewel thief played by Creator/JimNabors does a very good job of acting like a clueless hick.
79* OffToBoardingSchool: In "Return of the Ninny," a woman plans to have her fiancé's kids sent to boarding school and the nanny fired so she won't have to deal with them. Her plans fall apart when the father hears the nanny discussing the future with the kids, causing him to call off the engagement.
80* OOCIsSeriousBusiness:
81** A recurring bit would be a passenger being an old friend of a crewmember, who's soon able to tell something is off about their behavior.
82** When the usually fun, happy-go-lucky Gopher is short-tempered and snapping at people, his friends know something is wrong.
83** Doc knows Stubing has undergone a serious heartbreak when he finds the captain, a recovering alcoholic of ten years, tempted by a bottle of scotch.
84* OpenRelationshipFailure: In the "The 'Now' Marriage" segment of Season 2, Episode 15, Dr. Todd Gardiner has written a best-selling book by that title which encourages married people to engage in open relationships. Upon boarding, he tells the crew he and his wife Eleanor intend to pursue other partners during the cruise. He meets a swinging single lady and spends all his time dancing, dining, and sleeping with her. Meanwhile, Eleanor remains unattached and becomes more and more miserable by the day. When she finally opens up and reveals her true feelings of jealousy and neglect, the two reconcile and decide to remain monogamous after all.
85* OrphanedPunchline: In "Mind My Wife," Doc tells a joke that ends with, "And the planet says, 'If I could do that, I'd be a star!'"
86* PictorialLetterSubstitution: The original logo for ''The Love Boat'' had the second "O" replaced by a ring buoy (made more obvious by the [[https://fontmeme.com/the-love-boat-font/ stencil font]] used for the rest of the letters).
87* PieInTheFace:
88** In "America's Sweetheart," Vicki acts as a double on a TV show. Her job is to do anything that's too messy or unpleasant for the bratty teen star, which includes having a pie thrown in her face.
89** Stubbing and Ace are covered in pies when a frat party gets out of hand.
90* PopculturalOsmosis: The theme song.
91* PottyDance: Isaac does this when forced to share a cabin (and a bathroom) with the other male crew.
92* PrenupBlowup: In one episode, this was part of a subplot: a man getting over a very economically taxing divorce tries to court several women on the boat who immediately shun him when he asks for them to sign a pre-nup (while ''dating''). Eventually he decides not to do it for the woman he ends up falling in love with... who at the end of the episode asks ''him'' to sign one, having also been through a similar divorce.
93* PutOnABus: Julie [=McCoy=], after [[RealLifeWritesThePlot Lauren Tewes' cocaine addiction made her unable to do her job]]. TheBusCameBack, however. She made a guest appearance (as a passenger) in a season 9 episode, then returned as cruise director for the three season 10 movies.
94* RearrangeTheSong: The theme song was sung by Jack Jones in Seasons 1-8, and by Dionne Warwick in Season 9.
95* ReunionShow: ''Love Boat: A Valentine Voyage'', a two-hour movie with most of the original cast, aired on Creator/{{CBS}} in 1990.
96* {{Revival}}: ''Love Boat: The Next Wave'', which ran on Creator/{{UPN}} in 1998/99 and involved an entirely different ship and crew (although several members of the original show's cast did appear in one episode, where they got together for the wedding of the now-grown Vicki Stubing).
97* RoadTripPlot: The job of the regular cast was to facilitate these for the guest stars.
98* RuleOfPool: Practically every episode has at least one person falling or being shoved into the pool.
99* SecurityBlanket: "Aquaphobiac" has a man who's so scared of water, he wears a life vest everywhere. [[spoiler:In the end, he overcomes his fears and tosses the vest into the ocean. To the crew's surprise, the vest sinks.]]
100* SexyDiscretionShot: Often a story ended with a guest's room closing the door with a happy couple inside...
101* SheepInSheepsClothing: The eventual winner in the beauty pageant held aboard the ship in season 2. She seems nice at first but then engages in cultural appropriation during a talent show and entices the emcee into a compromising position, but it turns out she only did the later action so he'd let her friend and competitor who was unfairly disqualified back into the contest.
102* SmallParentHugeChild: "The Little People" concerns a dwarf couple, played by Creator/BillyBarty and Creator/PattyMaloney, whose adult son is of normal stature.
103* SoapWithinAShow: In "Marooned/The Search/Isaac's Holiday," the star of ''All My Loves'' takes a cruise. Julie is thrilled to see him, saying, "You're the man who murdered his wife! Ooh, I hate your guts!" Later, an old lady hits him with an umbrella because "I just know you're plotting to kill Dr. Jarrat!"
104* SpecialGuest: This was part of the show's premise. Every episode included a new set of passengers, and a new set of celebrities playing those people. A [[https://youtu.be/bPwxmrNVKKE comprehensive montage]] of their credits in the opening takes up to over ''45 minutes''. It probably would be easier to count living people in early [[TheEighties 1980s]] Hollywood who did ''not'' appear in the show.
105* StalkerWithATestTube: In "The Perfect Match," a woman who feels ready for motherhood but not marriage searches an insurance companies computers for the perfect man, stalks him to learn about all his interests, and follows him aboard to conceive the perfect baby.
106* TheStarscream: One episode has Julie assigned an assistant/trainee who's blatantly trying to discredit her and steal her job. The others have something to say about that and discredit her, tricking her into coming onto a married director of the cruise line. The woman learns humility when Julie steps in to tell Stubing she’d been tricked before he can throw the book at her, and Stubing says that, trickery or not, her behavior was inappropriate and the idea of her replacing Julie is absurd.
107* SuddenlyShouting: Stubing can play on this a few times when the crew's antics upset him.
108** Played dramatically when Stubing finds Vicki, on her 18th birthday, getting drunk. He tells her to put the bottle down before finally erupting "''put it down NOW!''" to shock her. Given Stubing is a recovering alcoholic, his reaction is understandable.
109* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Judy [=McCoy=], for her sister Julie [=McCoy=].
110* ThanksgivingEpisode:
111** In "Tony's Family," the titular engineer's vacation gets cancelled at the last minute, so the crew helps him smuggle his large family onto the ship for a Thanksgiving cruise.
112** A Season 6 episode had a Thanksgiving cruise and all the drama to go along with it. "Too Many Dads" puts a child in-between his birth father and stepfather. "Love Will Find a Way" has a man disapproving of his daughter's paraplegic fiancé. "The Best of Friends" sees various crew members feuding for trivial reasons, much to Stubing's continued irritation. The guests sorting out their issues during the big dinner prompt the crew to take stock of their own behavior and apologize.
113* TheTeetotaler: Captain Stubing.
114* ThatRussianSquatDance: "Alaska Wedding Cruise" has the boat stopping in Sitka, where a group of Russian folk dancers do the dance.
115* ThematicThemeTune:
116-->''"Love, exciting and new\
117Come aboard, we're expecting you!"''
118* ThirdLineSomeWaiting: Every episode featured three interwoven plot lines (or four, in a few of the two-part episodes). Usually they were independent of each other, but on occasion they would intersect.
119* TitleDrop: In the third pilot movie (the first with Capt. Stubing), Doc makes the mistake of calling the ''Pacific Princess'' a Love Boat. He is told in no uncertain terms by Stubing to not use that phrase in his presence again.
120* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: Phil Silvers' character in the pilot, although not as sinful of an earth as in a lot of versions.
121* TransatlanticEquivalent: ''The Real Love Boat'' had an Australian version that debuted on October 5, 2022, the exact same day as the American one. That one aired on Network 10, and was hosted by ''The Voice Australia'' co-host Darren [=McMullen=]. Paolo Arrigo portrayed the ship captain on both versions. While it was also met with poor ratings, Network 10 stuck with it throughout and aired all the episodes.
122* UmbrellaDrink: Featured in almost every episode. Exaggerated in "Gopher's Bride," when Doc and Gopher both order fancy drinks for a woman they're competing over; the surface of Gopher's drink is completely covered in fruit and umbrellas, while Doc's contains a small pineapple with two sparklers stuck in it.
123* UnderstandingBoyfriend: Brad, the centerfolds politician fiancé from the second episode.
124* ValentinesDayEpisode: "A Valentine Voyage," the last original episode (actually a special) from 1990.
125* VisionsOfAnotherSelf: A Season 9 episode, "Forties Fantasy", has Gopher imagining the ship serving as a troop carrier during World War II.
126* WoobieOfTheWeek: Some of the guest roles included a character with a sad story, but likely to get a happy ending.

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