The Love Boat is far more fun than I remembered or had ever given it credit for.
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"The Love Boat" began its ten-year voyage on TV back in 1977, and thirty years later it´s finally available on DVD. All the corny jokes, forgotten guest stars, and canned laughter are fully intact and ready to set sail! But does Paramount sink this possible cash cow on its maiden voyage by only offering half a season at full price with no real special features? Only through a thorough maritime inspection by the crew of the U.S.S. DVDTOWN will we know for sure.
"The Love Boat" was an hour-long comedy that spun out of a made-for-TV movie based on the Jeraldine Saunders book "The Love Boats." The series aired on ABC from 1977 until 1987 and is one of the shining gems in executive producer Aaron Spelling´s television legacy. Multiple TV movies and remakes occurred in the years after the show made its final docking, but none of them managed to recreate the fun and silly magic originated by Captain Stubing and his lovable crew.
The basic plot lines for the majority of "Love Boat" episodes are fairly interchangeable and rarely reach for any sort of dramatic or comedic depth. Most revolve around two or three separate story lines with love as the main theme. Some sort of miscommunication or misunderstanding preventing a horizontal union occurs, and it´s up to the crew to solve the problem within the episode´s forty-three-minute running time. More often than not, one or more of the ship´s guest stars is in need of amorous assistance, and the guests were well known at the time of each episode´s original airing. Meredith Baxter Bernie, Suzanne Somers, and Jimmy Walker show up in the first episode alone. Tons more guest stars are heavily distributed throughout the included 12 episodes, and, yes, one of Charo´s eight beloved appearances is in here, too. Coochie-coochie! Aye-yi-yi-yi!
"The Love Boat" is far more fun than I remembered or had ever given it credit for. I had always written it off as a dumb show, a program better known for its iconic Paul Williams-penned theme song than for its actual content. But I really enjoyed every episode in the set, and having one of my all-time favorite actresses, Ruth Gordon, show up to play Patty Duke´s meddling grandmother was a treat in itself. Usually, I can´t stand a show that utilizes a laugh track, but "The Love Show" uses it sparingly, and it never overpowers the actors pun-filled delivery.
My only problem with this set is that Paramount seems to think it´s okay to split the twenty-five-episode first season into two sets. This may have been a passable mistake if the studio had charged half the price for half a season and maybe bulked up the set with some special features. Instead, Paramount slapped a thirty-seven-dollar price tag on a this featureless set, which breaks down to paying a little over three bucks an episode. This would incline most fans to expect to shell out almost eight-hundred dollars for the show´s full ten seasons. This is simply an unacceptable expectation for "Love Boat" fans and has already risen quite fervor on-line. Paramount needs to address these concerns immediately and start putting out full-season sets for an affordable price with some sort of real special features. There is no excuse for them not putting the original "Love Boat" movie on this three-disc collection, especially at the price point they set.
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