The Love Boat (1976)

Originally telecast September 17, 1976, Love Boat was the first of two pilot films for the long-running TV series of the same name. On this maiden voyage of the Pacific Princess (from California to Mexico), we zero in on four separate sets of passengers. Gabe Kaplan plays a goofy salesman who falls for sexy model Jette Speer. Tom Bosley and Cloris Leachman are the haughtily rich folks who disapprove of their daughter's "common" boy friend. Suave businessman Hal Linden finds himself attracted by Karen Valentine. And Don Adams, about to undergo an expensive divorce, plots and plans to do away with wife Florence Henderson. The luxury-cruise setting and multistoried format of the subsequent Love Boat series are already in place, but the series' cast of regulars is not. In this first Love Boat film, Ted Hamilton is the Captain, Teri O'Mara is the cruise director, bartender Isaac is Theodore Wilson, the ship's doctor is Dick Van Patten, and Sandy Helberg is Gopher, the purser. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi