A few short years after "The Love Boat" sailed off our TV screens as part of our lives for nearly a decade, it floated back up for a reunion cruise of a Valentine nature.
Unfortunately, several key elements were jettisoned.
First off, most of the beloved cast were back. Lauren Tewes, whose firing for undependability may have contributed to the shows sinking ratings, has still not returned. Inviting her back for a reunion show, to demonstrate all was forgiven on both sides after she got her life back together, would have been a magnanimous gesture, but alas. And Fred Grandy, an intregal part of the long-time ensemble--just in case we forget--was in Congress, doing his bit. Yes, in Congress. For real. We don't know if he was asked back, but I can readily imagine a full-fledged elected Congressman not wanting to play a goofball being yelled at all the time. Isaac the former bartender is now asst. Purser (note: is this possible? Isaac did once save the ship from a hurricane acting captain Dick Martin chose to ignore).
More vitally, the format changed.
"The Love Boat" is usually written off with the vile term "escapist." Idiots who toss that term around blithely need to write five thousand times, "Entertainment is entertainment" and entertainment has no other basic purpose than to entertain. Period. If it entertains, it's good entertainment. If it has trace elements that edify, fine.
But one important element of "The Love Boat" was that it went no further than the dock. Oh, they might venture inland during the rare episodes. This happened not only presenting Japan or Alaska, as in the film strips I saw in school; but it also happened when several characters were held Prisoner once by a nutso hermit who threatened to shoot them if they didn't throw him a surprise birthday party, and when Gopher and Isaac were trying to swap a parrot they taught to say "Captain Stubing is a jerk."
This Valentine cruise starts disturbingly far from any sight of a Love Boat, with a fairly violent robbery of a jewelry store and a framed, suspended cop out to catch them.
If "escapist" means there's next to no violence, God grant me escapism! Isn't there enough violence in the world without TV writers making up more? For a long spell while this movie unreels one isn't sure one has tuned into the right channel. It's so off-putting, no wonder this reunion movie was a ratings dog.
And by 1990 guest stars weren't what they used to be. Julia Duffy from "Newhart" is always welcome. And Tom Bosley. Ted Shackleford was still a name to be reckoned with. But "old Hollywood" stars must have been few on the ground. One of the great draws of "The Love Boat" in its original airing was seeing older and usually cubbier versions of 1930s and '40s stars before they vanished from the Earth.
In the good old days, when Americans loved cruising with the stars and the cuddly crew every Saturday night the crooks would have already committed their robbery and the swag carried on board in the first scene, probably by an old cast member from F-Troop.
One reason a show that has stopped can't be recaptured is that producers and directors and writers don't care what people once loved, even if it was only a short four years earlier. They change parameters or "reboot." And in the process they often lose what viewers loved. To that I say "phooey." You might not be able to cane-hook a sitting Congressman back on-set but you don't have to alter the format just to add needless violence or a realistic daylight robbery, so when these added elements fall flat on their kiesters you may fraudulently claim, "See, no one loves it any more."
The Love Boat's Valentine voyage didn't sink. It was sabotaged.
Unfortunately, several key elements were jettisoned.
First off, most of the beloved cast were back. Lauren Tewes, whose firing for undependability may have contributed to the shows sinking ratings, has still not returned. Inviting her back for a reunion show, to demonstrate all was forgiven on both sides after she got her life back together, would have been a magnanimous gesture, but alas. And Fred Grandy, an intregal part of the long-time ensemble--just in case we forget--was in Congress, doing his bit. Yes, in Congress. For real. We don't know if he was asked back, but I can readily imagine a full-fledged elected Congressman not wanting to play a goofball being yelled at all the time. Isaac the former bartender is now asst. Purser (note: is this possible? Isaac did once save the ship from a hurricane acting captain Dick Martin chose to ignore).
More vitally, the format changed.
"The Love Boat" is usually written off with the vile term "escapist." Idiots who toss that term around blithely need to write five thousand times, "Entertainment is entertainment" and entertainment has no other basic purpose than to entertain. Period. If it entertains, it's good entertainment. If it has trace elements that edify, fine.
But one important element of "The Love Boat" was that it went no further than the dock. Oh, they might venture inland during the rare episodes. This happened not only presenting Japan or Alaska, as in the film strips I saw in school; but it also happened when several characters were held Prisoner once by a nutso hermit who threatened to shoot them if they didn't throw him a surprise birthday party, and when Gopher and Isaac were trying to swap a parrot they taught to say "Captain Stubing is a jerk."
This Valentine cruise starts disturbingly far from any sight of a Love Boat, with a fairly violent robbery of a jewelry store and a framed, suspended cop out to catch them.
If "escapist" means there's next to no violence, God grant me escapism! Isn't there enough violence in the world without TV writers making up more? For a long spell while this movie unreels one isn't sure one has tuned into the right channel. It's so off-putting, no wonder this reunion movie was a ratings dog.
And by 1990 guest stars weren't what they used to be. Julia Duffy from "Newhart" is always welcome. And Tom Bosley. Ted Shackleford was still a name to be reckoned with. But "old Hollywood" stars must have been few on the ground. One of the great draws of "The Love Boat" in its original airing was seeing older and usually cubbier versions of 1930s and '40s stars before they vanished from the Earth.
In the good old days, when Americans loved cruising with the stars and the cuddly crew every Saturday night the crooks would have already committed their robbery and the swag carried on board in the first scene, probably by an old cast member from F-Troop.
One reason a show that has stopped can't be recaptured is that producers and directors and writers don't care what people once loved, even if it was only a short four years earlier. They change parameters or "reboot." And in the process they often lose what viewers loved. To that I say "phooey." You might not be able to cane-hook a sitting Congressman back on-set but you don't have to alter the format just to add needless violence or a realistic daylight robbery, so when these added elements fall flat on their kiesters you may fraudulently claim, "See, no one loves it any more."
The Love Boat's Valentine voyage didn't sink. It was sabotaged.
