The Love Boat (1977)

“Doctor, in my presence, don’t ever call this ship a Love Boat.” – Captain Merrill Stubing

Number of Times Seen – 1 (1 Aug 2019)

Brief Synopsis – On the inaugural voyage of the new captain of a cruise ship, the crew try to deal with their new leader while also trying to keep the passengers happy.

My Take on it – Having just returned two weeks ago from a cruise to Greece with my family, I wanted to watch films that deal with the experience of being on a cruise ship.

I got some great suggestions, but ultimately, I came to the conclusion that the best way to be reminded of that cruise experience would be from the masters; the team that brought us more than ten years of cruises on the Pacific Princess.

I recall watching this show both in syndication and while it was on in Prime Time during its later years and just the thought of rewatching an episode of the show made me feel quite nostalgic.

After trying quite hard to find the right cast and create the right core characters for the show, they finally got things right with this pilot.

They manage to introduce us really well to the various characters especially the Captain who joins the crew in this movie.

In addition to dealing with the main cast, they are able to give us three distinct sub stories dealing with groups of passengers on this particular voyage.

The 5 members of the main cast have great chemistry together and its great that they found a way for most of them to stick together over the course of the over ten decades  that this show lasted on Network TV.

The use of a laugh track in this kind of show takes a bit of getting used to but it allows for the show to maintain a light and fun feeling along the way.

Bottom Line – Very nostalgic watching this show. They do a great job introducing us to the main characters while also giving us three nice sub stories about the various passengers on board. They finally got the cast right with this version of the pilot and most of them were able to stick together over the course of their decade stint on Network TV.  The laugh track needs a bit of time to get used to, but it helps keep things light and funny along the way.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – The first of the three pilot movies before The Love Boat was picked up as a series, the movie was set and partially filmed aboard the Sun Princess, one of the three ships in the Princess Cruises fleet in 1976. (From IMDB)

Rating – Globe Worthy (7/10)

_______________________________________

Check out my *updated* movie stats here

To see my reviews of Oscar Winning Performances check out this link

To see my reviews of all Oscar Best Picture Winners click here (now complete)

Here is a link to my movie index A-Z