What Are 'The Love Boat' Cast Members Doing Now?
With so many new TV shows premiering each season, it’s impressive when a series somehow stands out. In that case, The Love Boat‘s nine-season run feels like a television miracle. But what are The Love Boat cast members doing now in 2022? Let’s set sail and find out.
The ABC hit aired for nearly a decade
Set on the luxury cruiseliner the Pacific Princess, The Love Boat followed the ship’s crew and guests as they navigated romantic and comedic misadventures. Given the nature of the show’s premise, The Love Boat often welcomed various guest stars as passengers on the titular cruise ship, including numerous future Hollywood A-listers.
The Love Boat premiered on ABC in 1977. And until 1984, it aired in primetime before the equally adventurous but darker Fantasy Island. Even after the network canceled The Love Boat in 1986, the show spawned three TV specials during its first season off the air. In 1990, a reunion TV movie followed. And a short-lived reboot, Love Boat: The Next Wave, aired in 1998.
What is the ‘The Love Boat’ cast doing now?
Following the show’s conclusion, Gavin MacLeod — who played Captain Merrill Stubing — continued to appear on TV, including reprising his role on Love Boat: The Next Wave. He died in 2021 at the age of 90.
Meanwhile, the now-89-year-old Bernie Kopell followed his role as Adam “Doc” Bricker with various movie and TV roles. He even played a charter boat captain in 2018’s The Last Sharknado: It’s About Time and made a 2022 appearance on The Lincoln Lawyer.
Fred Grandy — now 74 — played Burl “Gopher” Smith on The Love Boat. He went on to host a conservative radio talk show in the 2000s and began acting more in the mid-2010s. He appeared in multiple episodes of The Mindy Project, General Hospital, and Knight Squad.
Lauren Tewes portrayed Julie McCoy for seven seasons but was replaced in season 8 by Patricia Klous as her character’s sister Judy. Now 74, the latter retired from acting in 2002. Tewes, now 69, most recently appeared in an episode of the revived Twin Peaks in 2017 and the dark comedy Potato Dreams of America in 2021.
Ted Lange and Jill Whelan appear on ‘The Real Love Boat’
“The Love Boat” is heading back to screens, but with a twist.
Ahead of the new show’s maiden voyage, original stars Ted Lange and Jill Whelan reflect on the TV classic’s guest stars, working in Hollywood during the ‘70s and more. @RealLoveBoatCBS https://t.co/g3OssCdpcS
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) October 4, 2022With the 2022 debut of The Real Love Boat, the original series is back in the pop culture conversation. And the reality series even marks the return of two stars from the classic show.
Both 74-year-old Ted Lange and 56-year-old Jill Whelan — who played bartender Isaac Washington and Captain Stubing’s daughter Vicki Stubing — make guest appearances in The Real Love Boat.
“That’s the beauty of our show — all of us are still friends,” Lange recently told the Los Angeles Times. “Usually when a show ends, it’s all over and you say goodbye. But The Love Boat crew loves and protects each other. I just directed Fred in Give ’Em Hell, Harry in Warsaw, Indiana, and I’m going to New York to stay with Bernie and his wife. He’s doing a play off-Broadway — Two Jews, Talking. Bernie is more like my brother, and Fred is like my best friend.”
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