Copyright Parade
The Love Boat originally looked very different. The beloved TV series aired on ABC from 1977 to 1986 and starred Ted Lange as bartender Isaac, Fred Grandy as yeoman-purser Gopher, Bernie Kopell as Dr. Adam Bricker, Lauren Tewes as cruise director Julie McCoy, and Gavin MacLeod as the ship’s captain, Merrill Stubing. But a 1976 movie, which served as one of the series’ pilots, featured a completely different cast, including a captain who was too hot to handle. On the CW’s TV We Love, it was revealed that The Love Boat was based on author Jeraldine Saunders’ 1975 book The Love Boats, about her life as a cruise hostess. Producers came up with the idea to develop a TV movie to serve as a pilot for a potential series about the romantic ship. The 1976 movie, The Love Boat, starred Teddy Wilson as bartender Issac, Sandy Helford as yeoman-purser Gopher, Dick Van Patten as Dr. Adam O’Neil, Terry O’Mara as cruise director Gerry, and handsome Australian actor Ted Hamilton as Captain Thomas Allenford III. On TV We Love, entertainment writer Jim Colucci bluntly revealed why network executives were not happy with Hamilton in the role of the captain. “The President of ABC was furious. They said, ‘Why? He’s good-looking. He’s a good actor,'” Colucci revealed. “And he said, ‘I don’t think you understand. The purpose of The Love Boat is that these passengers all want to f— each other. On this show, they’re all just gonna want to f— the captain. The captain was too f—able.” ABC didn’t pick up the show after the movie pilot with Hamilton, but producers were given two more chances. The made-for-TV movies The Love Boat II and The New Love Boat featured revamped casts, and the show was finally picked up in 1977, with MacLeod as the captain. MacLeod would go on to play Captain Stubing for all nine seasons of the TV series, as well as four subsequent TV specials and a movie, Valentine Voyage. The actor once admitted his agent wasn’t too thrilled about the role. “My agent said, ‘Aaron Spelling wants you to do this thing called The Love Boat.’ I said, ‘What do you think about it?’ He said, ‘I think it sucks. Do you want to read it?’” the actor recalled in a 2007 interview with Entertainment Weekly. “I said, ‘Yeah.’ I read it and said, ‘There hasn’t been anything like this on television. This could be interesting.’” “They had made the pilot twice before with handsome captains with hair,” MacLeod added. “[ABC boss Fred] Silverman said, ‘Let’s go in the opposite direction. Go with the dumpy little Irishman with no hair, and maybe they’ll buy it.’” Hamilton also spoke about The Love Boat role in an interview posted by the Heir Archive. “I was its first captain; unfortunately, it sailed without me,” he said. “I look so young for some strange, stupid reason, and they really didn’t know what they were doing in the first pilot because what they do in Hollywood, once something’s not deemed a success, everybody gets wiped.” “I was totally miscast in that role,” the actor admitted. “They eventually went with Gavin MacLeod. You know, avuncular, big sideburns, bald head, lovely, charming, sweet man, nice face. Avuncular looking, no threat to the passengers’ romantic interests. So, they were right.”
