‘The Love Boat’ Ended 40 Years Ago, But Fans Are Still Coming Aboard

Every Saturday night for 10 years, Americans set sail on new adventures aboard the Pacific Princess, and these new adventures invariably involved romance. ABC’s The Love Boat brought cruise ship fantasies to life on the small screen as your favorite celebrities came aboard for some food, sun, and fun, and often left with a mate.

‘The Love Boat’s’ Captain Falls in Love

For the entirety of the show’s run, The Pacific Princess was helmed by Gavin MacLeod‘s Captain Merrill Stubing, with Lauren Tewes as cruise director Julie McCoy, Bernie Kopel as the ship’s doctor Adam Bricker, Fred Grandy as Gopher, the ship’s purser and Ted Lange as Isaac the bartender. By the end of the show’s run, Jill Whelan was on board as the captain’s daughter, Vicki and Julie had been replaced by Pat Klous as Judy McCoy. Ted McKinley had also joined the crew as Ace, the ship’s photographer, per IMDb.

On the series finale that aired on May 24, 1986, Captain Stubing, played by Gavin MacLeod, prepared to marry his new love, Emily, played by Happy Days‘ Marion Ross, but had jitters. Eventually, the marriage went off without a hitch as other members of the crew also prepared for new lives and adventures.

Fans Still Want to Set Sail

The Love Boat later returned for a handful of TV movies in 1987, but fans will never forget the tropical ocean escape that the show offered every Saturday night. It was a Saturday night when you felt like you could get away from it all, as Ricardo Montalban‘s Fantasy Island aired next. Kid watched with their parents and still remember the fun all these years later.

“Millennials can’t imagine, but people traveled way less for vacations back then, esp if you don’t count road trips,” one fan said on Reddit. “So it was like a borderline exotic getaway escape for an hour. Now people are like cruise ship, that is one step above a Ramada getaway.”

Another fan saw it as must-see-TV, saying, “It was definitely part of the TV lineup on the living room console TV. It was fun to watch our favorite TV celebs in different roles, and if the episode happened to feature a current teen idol, we were glued to the screen.”

Today, it’s not hard to catch an episode of The Love Boat whenever the mood catches you. Thanks to the magic of streaming, you can find the show on Pluto TV, the Roku Channel, and Paramount Plus.