Gales, Flooding & Annoyed Passengers: “The Love Boat”’s Fred Grandy Recalls All the Disasters Aboard the Sitcom’s Floating Set
- - Gales, Flooding & Annoyed Passengers: “The Love Boat”’s Fred Grandy Recalls All the Disasters Aboard the Sitcom’s Floating Set
Angela AndaloroOctober 28, 2025 at 2:00 AM
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Gavin Macleod, Lauren Tewes and Fred Grandy on "The Love Boat" -
The Love Boat went through three pilots before ABC picked up the now-beloved classic
Throughout the show's 10-year run, they experimented with filming on live cruise ships
The cast recalls some of the struggles of filming alongside a cruise full of people as they look back on the series in the CW's docuseries, TV We Love
The Love Boat's cruises weren't always smooth sailing.
In the show's second of three pilot episodes, cast and crew filmed aboard actual cruise ships, as Ted Lange recalls in CW's docuseries, TV We Love.
"They decide to do a cruise on the Pacific Princess, on a real cruise ship, on a real cruise," he laughs.
They returned to that model in the hopes of reviving a struggling cruise industry later in the show's run. The Love Boat aired from 1979 to 1986.
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ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty
Ted Lange, Fred Grandy, Bernie Kopell, Gavin Macleod, Lauren Tewes and Jill Whelan
"As far as shooting on a ship, there were always conditions that we had to deal with," Fred Grandy recalls.
"We ran into some problems that we could not have anticipated. The real passengers on the ship were not particularly delighted to have large camera cables and lights and people disrupting their vacations. The ceilings of these ships were very low. The lights were so close to the ceiling that they set off the sprinkler system," he laughed, adding, "The flaming baked Alaska parade was drowned out.
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"The Love Boat" cast in 1982
On another incident, when they were cruising from San Francisco to Alaska, "We hit a tremendous gale," he shared.
"The ship was listing like this," he demonstrated with his hands. "They were putting out barf bags in the lobby because everybody was sick."
The Love Boat initially aired for 10 seasons on ABC from September 1977 to May 1986, but began with three TV movies (which aired prior to the regular series premiere). The show also included four specials and a TV movie aired after the series ended.
TV We Love is airing on Mondays on the CW at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT.
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Source: “AOL Entertainment”
