User Reviews

I'm pretty jaded and hardly ever laugh at "The Love Boat." But here I laughed out loud twice.

Two of the stories are pretty amusing. In the best, the actor playing Doc adopts two roles. Besides Doc he plays a Clouseau-type detective with a German accent, hired by a beautiful woman (Tricia Noble) to protect her jewels.

In the second funny story Jay Johnson ("Soap") is the ship's chef, distressed at fresh cuisine notions by a new female cook hired by the line. Why they'd hire a talented ventriloquist and not use him in that capacity (not even lifting pot lids like they're talking) is one of the curiosities of "The Love Boat." Whoever hires the actors often casts counterintuitively.

The third story is always serious. Richard Basehart is a bitter man confined to a wheelchair meeting up with an old flame (Oscar winner Joan Fontaine), who has a secret of her own.

All the stories are easy to swallow. I've been a fan of Fontaine and Basehart for a long time. And also Tricia Noble, who pingponged around 1970s and 1980s shows. Good, clean fun. If you tolerate that sort of thing.

'Why ever do people call this The Love Boat?' I can't be too clinical about The Love Boat. Little K is circling my feet, demanding that I affirm his destructive tendencies. Leslie Easterbrook is here to replace Claude, the chef of the Pacific Princess (whom we've never seen before.) We've seen snobby chefs before. I always like Easterbrook in the Police Academy movies and that one with Johnny Depp. Bernie Kopell gets into the game, already pioneered by Gavin MacLeod, of playing multiple characters. Here he's a German, a clumsy PI guarding a woman's jewels. Joan Fontaine reunites with old friend Richard Basehart. Trisha Noble is a doll. Kopell is awesome, of course. He's silly, and that's what I prefer. On Kafka's Love Boat Scale, this episode gets 3 * out of a possible 4 *.