MacGyver: Noun or Verb?

August 19, 2024August 14, 2024 / thewritelife61 / 4 Comments

Before I get into our topic today, I just want to thank all of you who have been supporting my blog. Today marks the first blog of my ninth year. Not sure where the time went, but it has been so much fun and I have learned an incredible amount of television knowledge. I spent some time this summer putting together new schedules, so I’m committed to 2030 for more fun and learning.

This month we are Rebooting. Almost every month I mention some reboot or another about a show that was on in the fifties, sixties, seventies, or eighties. Many of them have been on and off the air in a blink. Some of them stuck around for a season or two. Others rivaled the original in the quality of the scripts and characters in the reboot. Those more popular shows are the shows we are zeroing in on this month.

Today is all about MacGyver. The original show was on ABC from 1985-1992. Created by Lee David Zlotoff, this show starred Richard Dean Anderson. Henry Winkler and John Rich were the executive producers.

Angus MacGyver (Anderson) was a secret agent. MacGyver works for the Phoenix Foundation in LA. He is an agent for the Department of External Services, a made-up agency. He had been a bomb team technician in the US Army Special Forces in Vietnam and was a scientist majoring in Physics at Western Tech. The show started out with moderate success and gained a loyal following. MacGyver creates things from ordinary objects to solve complex problems. These creations were vetted by scientists before being integrated into the plots.

Arsenio Hall mentioned in 1989 that he heard “MacGyver” used as a verb meaning “to do the impossible.” In 2015, the term did become part of the Oxford Dictionaries to mean “make or repair an object in an improvised or inventive way, making use of whatever items are at hand.”

MacGyver prefers not to carry any firearms due to an accident in his childhood which resulted in the death of a friend. Instead, he packs a Swiss army knife and a roll of duct tape.

MacGyver lives on a houseboat which was credited to Winkler. His favorite sport is hockey, and he often sports a Calgary Flames hat. He also enjoys racecar driving, chemistry, and baccarat. What he does not like are heights.

Joining MacGyver was Pete Thornton (Dana Elcar), his boss and best friend. When Thornton was made director of operations at the Phoenix Foundation, he brought MacGyver into the program. His other friend is Jack Dalton (Bruce McGill).

In a weird meeting of the minds, Rich was working on a sitcom called Mr. Sunshine for ABC, Winkler was finishing his run as the Fonz on Happy Days, and Zlotoff was producer for Remington Steele on NBC. The three got together to propose MacGyver, and ABC found room in its schedule for the series.

Winkler convinced Anderson to audition for the role of MacGyver after seeing him on The Love Boat.

During its second season, MacGyver became a bigger hit.

So, what are some of the fun inventions MacGyver came up with: using jumper cables, a generator, and 2 quarters, he invented a welder. With satellite parts and a plastic shield, he made a hang glider. A blood pressure pump and alarm clock became a lie detector test. A bazooka was made from a muffler, gear shift knob, seat cushion stuffing and a cigarette lighter. And sunglasses with nail polish remover and a lamp equal a spectroscope.

From 2016-2021, a reboot series debuted on CBS which owns the rights to both series after acquiring the original series from Paramount Television. In 2015, Winkler signed on to produce the reboot with James Wan and R. Scott Gemmill for CBS. The reboot was canceled in 2021. In this version, Lucas Till became MacGyver.

Anderson was asked if he had seen the reboot in 2019. His response was that “I have, and I’m not real crazy about it, I’ll be honest. They approached me early on. They’d done a test for the show and found it wasn’t as attractive as they wanted it to be, so they called and asked if I wanted anything to do with it, and I said no. It’s a business, but . . . I don’t think they’ve been fair or true to the series. They’re shooting up everybody and there’s so much going on that you don’t see the thought process that we prided ourselves on. You know, MacGyver sees the problem, he sees the solutions to the problem, you see him gathering the solution, and then solving the problem. In this new one, its boom-boom-boom, and it happens so fast.”

Perhaps this lack of letting viewers in on the process and adding more violence hurt the reboot. The series was never a huge hit. I read several reviews from fans of the original show that referred to some of the issues. One said that George Eads isn’t the same free spirit that Jack was on the original. Making MacGyver part of a team instead of a maverick agent was also mentioned. A couple reviewers said that the original not only explained the scientific processes but there was a moral embedded into most episodes about the use of technology or social behavior.

While these are all valid viewpoints, other factors that might have had more to do with the series ending was the decline in numbers and the dysfunction on the set. From season four to five, the series lost 20% of its audience which is quite a bit.

After learning about the show’s cancellation, Till wrote on his Instagram account that “the past five years have been what I will look on later as the most formative years of my life. Lots of tough, lots of love. I made lifelong friends, actually no, family. I learned to push myself to new limits, breaking through and through and through. Was nervous to take up the mantle of an icon and you guys allowed me into your homes and accepted me. I’m like the Roger Moore of MacGyvers now thanks to your support.” While he dwells on the positive things that came out of the show, the “tough” things he was referring to was probably the toxic work environment created by executive producer Peter M. Lenkov. I read many articles that discussed the difficulties he created in filming before he was fired in 2020.

Given the difficulties of the show and the differences between the original and the reboot version, it’s probably not surprising it was cancelled, but I think the fact that it went five years before being cancelled is a win for the cast.

Book ’em Danno: Hawaii Five-O or 0

August 12, 2024May 18, 2024 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

This month we are looking at some recent reboots of popular shows from the the past. We are ending our series with what I think was the best of the reboots in recent history: Hawaii Five-O.

Originally, one source said the show was developed with a house detective for a chain of Hawaiian hotels. Someone on the production team thought it would limit the plots too much, so it was expanded to crime throughout Hawaii.

From 1968 to 1980, Hawaii Five-O was on CBS. Created by Leonard Freeman and set in Hawaii, it starred Jack Lord as Captain Steve McGarrett, former Korean War veteran. McGarrett heads a special task force appointed by the governor. His team includes Danny Williams (James MacArthur), Chin Ho Kelly (Kam Fong), Kono Kalakaua (Zulu). Police officer Duke Luekla (Herman Wedemeyer) lent a hand often. The task force is run out of offices at the Iolani Palace.

Richard Boone was offered the part of McGarrett, but he turned it down. Gregory Peck was also in consideration for the role. Eventually, Jack Lord auditioned on a Wednesday, received the part, and was in Hawaii filming on Monday. Lord was the only actor to appear in all 281 episodes of the series. A couple members of the cast came on board with little-to-no acting experience. Zulu, who played Kono, was a beach boy and local DJ. Fong, who played Kelley, had been a police officer in Honolulu for sixteen years before retiring to work in real estate.

McGarrett and his team investigated crimes by international secret agents, organized crime syndicates, and ordinary criminals. Some of the villains were played by celebrities including Gavin MacLeod, Ross Martin, and Ricardo Montalban.

McGarrett’s ongoing battle throughout much of the series is with Wo Fat (Ihigh Dhiegh), a rogue intelligence officer from China. In the finale, “Woe to Wo Fat,” McGarrett is finally able to land him in jail. However, the series ends with Wo Fat retrieving a file from his boot, making us wonder if we might be able to escape. The name “Wo Fat” came from a restaurant in downtown Honolulu.

In the original show, little time was given to the personal lives of the team; the plots all centered around solving the crime of the week.

The show was filmed in Hawaii: the first location was in Pearl City in a hut where the roof leaked and rats gnawed at cables; then it moved to Fort Ruger and for the final four seasons, a set was built at Diamond Head. Hawaii had only been a state for nine years when the series started, so most Americans were not familiar with the islands.

Fans often talked about the beauty of the scenery for the show. They also appreciated the intelligent writing and believable plots.

Many locals were used in the show, partly because the television and movie industry was not well represented in Hawaii, so everyone learned along the way. This made the cast much more diverse than most shows in the sixties.

The show was known for its theme song written by Morton Stevens. The Ventures recorded the theme, and it reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It was popular with high school and college bands across the country; when I was a majorette in the mid-seventies, it was one of the songs our band performed.

One of the most popular catchphrases from the seventies was “Book ‘em Danno,” a phrase used sparingly in the reboot.

The original Five-O was the longest-running crime show until Law & Order surpassed it in 2002. In began on Thursdays but moved to Wednesdays later in the year. From 1971-1974 it aired on Tuesdays. In 1975 it started out on Friday nights, moving to Thursdays where it stayed till 1979. That December it moved to Tuesdays for two months before switching to Saturdays for the rest of its run. This doesn’t seem like a great strategy for keeping fans.

While the show was popular with viewers, its only two Emmy wins were for music composition. It received ten nominations, but the only person to be nominated for acting was a special guest appearance by Helen Hayes in 1976. There were no nominations for acting, writing, or best series.

A one-hour pilot for a reboot was made in 1996 but never aired on television. Written by Stephen J. Cannell, it starred Gary Busey and Russell Wong as the Five-O team along with MacArthur who returned as Danny Williams, now governor of Hawaii.

The reboot we are discussing today began in 2010, also on CBS. To distinguish it from the original show, it was Hawaii Five-0 (using a zero in place of a capital letter O). Most of the characters are similar to the original. They are still a special task force appointed by the governor who is now a woman, Pat Jameson (Jean Smart). Steve McGarrett (Alex O’Louglin), a former Navy SEAL and son of Jack Lord’s character, partners with Danny Williams (Scott Caan) in this version. Other teammates included Chin Ho Kelly (Daniel Dae Kim) and Kono Kalakaua (Grace Park). Kono’s gender switched from the a male to bring a female perspective to the team.

For the eighth season Tani Rey (Meaghan Rath) and Junior Reigns (Beulah Koale) came on board. Several other regulars during the years included Lou Grover (Chi McBride), medical examiner Max Bergman (Masi Oka), Jerry Ortega (Jorge Garcia), Chin’s classmate and a local conspiracy theorist whose vast knowledge often comes in handy, and Sgt Duke Lukela (Dennis Chun) is still around from the original show.

A season or two into the show, Steve’s girlfriend, Lt. Catherine Rollins (Michelle Borth) works with the team and Adam Noshimuri (Ian Anthony Dale) joins the group. When Dr. Bergman heads overseas, he is replaced by Noelani Cunha (Kimee Balmilero). Another member of the surrogate family is Kamekona (Taylor Wily) who owns a food stand. He often helps the team because he knows almost everyone and has great intel for Steve and Danny. In this version, Steve’s father was a cop and Steve is still hunting down Wo Fat to avenge his father’s death. Chin and Kono are cousins and eventually Kono and Adam marry.

O’Loughlin was born in Canberra, Austrialia on August 24, 1976, and Caan was born in Los Angeles on August 23, 1976, but since Australia is twenty-four hours ahead of the US time, they were essentially born on the same day. Perhaps that’s why they had such great chemistry. Their witty bantering is fun to listen to. They remind me of an older couple who have been married a long time. They know each other so well, and can afford to be critical, because you know they have each other’s backs and would die for each other if they needed to.

This new version continued to show the beauty of the Hawaiian Islands. Viewers learned more about the culture of the state.

In the reboot we also got to know the characters much better; half the show concentrated on their personal lives and how those lives sometimes had an effect on what they did as detectives, right or wrong.

Peter M. Lenkov, who was one of the creators of this reboot, was also part of the team that debuted MacGyver and Magnum PI reboots, all of which are set in Hawaii.

The show was popular with viewers when it returned to the schedule. The Honolulu Advertiser wrote that “a smart script, slick production values and maybe a splash of nostalgia got the remake of Hawaii Five-0 placed on the CBS prime-time lineup this fall.”

One fun carryover from the original series was the character of August March. Played by Ed Asner in the original show in season two, March was a jeweler who was arrested by Lord’s character. In season three of the reboot, August March is back played by Asner again.

📷inner toob.com Asner on the original . . . and

The series debuted on Monday nights. Season four found it on Fridays where it stayed for the final seven seasons.

Viewers had strong reactions to the theme song. For the early shows, the original theme song was used but updated which fans did not appreciate, so the original theme was used for most of this series as well.

The new show had a positive impact on Hawaii’s economy. Businesses that were featured on the show saw an increase in visitors. When McGarrett mentioned Kona Brewing Company beers were his choice of beverage, sales shot up 60%.

One fun fact for those car collectors is that Jack Lord drove a Mercury Marquis in several seasons of the first show. On this edition, Steve works on his father’s car. The owner, stuntman John Nordlum, allowed the show to use the car, which still has its old license plate of F6-3958.

Comparing these shows is a little tough because television culture and shows changed so much during the 42 years that the show was off the air. The original series had 281 episodes while the reboot comes in with 240. I remember watching the original as a kid, and it was just another police drama to me. Personally, I like the reboot. Continuing to portray the culture as another character adds a lot of charm to the show. I would rather see the personal lives of the characters especially because they spend a lot of time out of work together and that adds to their team chemistry. I also like the banter between Steve and Danny.

There have been many reboots of classic shows, especially on other streaming services, and most of them do not live up to the original standards at best and can be plain awful at worst. This is one of the few that did it right and succeeded for all the right reasons. If you never saw the original, check out a season or two and compare the shows for yourself.

Magnum PI:

August 5, 2024July 18, 2024 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

This is Reboot Month, and we are comparing and contrasting several shows that got rebooted after 2000. For the next three weeks we are traveling to Hawaii. Today we get to stop at the home of Magnum, P.I.

Tom Selleck starred as Thomas Magnum, a private investigator living in Oahu. The show first aired on CBS in December of 1980 and went off the schedule in May of 1988.

The role of Magnum was offered to Kevin Dobson who turned it down. Tom Selleck had been the star of six different pilots that were unsuccessful in becoming shows, but he was offered this role after Dobson declined. After Selleck was given the role of Magnum, he was offered the role of Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark. He had to decline due to his show, so the part was given to Harrison Ford. However, an AFTRA/SAG strike in 1980 delayed the production of the television show, so if he had a crystal ball, Selleck would realize that he could have finished filming Raiders before the television show began filming.

Magnum lives in a guest house on an estate, Robin’s Nest, owned by Robin Masters, a famous author. We understand that Magnum helped Masters out and now Masters allows him to live on the estate for no charge. Masters has also provided Magnum with his car to drive, a Ferrari 308 GTS. The only person he really reports to is “Higgy.” Higgy is ex-British Army sergeant major, Johnthan Quayle Higgins III (John Hillerman).

In the first show, Magnum is not a fan of Higgins but as the series continued, a respect and fondness was built between the two men. Other cast members include T.C. Calvin (Roger E. Mosley), a friend who owns a helicopter charter service and Rick Wright (Larry Manetti) who owns a local bar. Mosley was a licensed helicopter pilot, but he was banned from doing his own stunts. Both men help Magnum out on cases quite often. They are former Marines whom Magnum served with in Vietnam. The Vietnam connection was an important part of the show. Previously most shows about Vets portrayed them as dealing with post-traumatic syndrome, but this show featured three competent, close comrades from the war, and it changed the way the Vietnam War and the veterans were regarded by popular culture and American viewers.

Rounding out the cast were Lt. Yoshi Tanaka (Kwan Hi Lim), a police lieutenant in the homicide division and Agatha Chumley (Gillian Dobb), Higgins’ friend who obviously has a crush on him.

Higgins lives in the main house on the estate with two Dobermans named Zeus and Apollo. Higgins also bargains with Magnum for favors to get use of the tennis courts, wine cellar, and other amenities of the main house. Higgins considers Magnum an inconvenience; he was living at the estate to write his military memoirs.

In reality, the Masters estate was known to Hawaiians as the Anderson Estate, Pahonu, owned by a local politician. The grounds were used by the royal family to raise green sea turtles, and the pond is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It had an 11,000-square-foot house; a boat house, which served as the guest house on the show; a gatehouse; and private tennis courts.

In January 2014, the then owner Barbara Cox Anthony sold it and in April of 2018, the estate was demolished.

For the first nine episodes, the theme music was a jazzy piece written by Ian Freebaim-Smith. However, it was replaced by a more up-tempo theme by Mike Post and Pete Carpenter, and it hit the Billboard Hot 100, ranking 25^th in 1982.

The show was very popular with viewers. Men wanted to be Magnum and women wanted to date Magnum. The show received 17 Emmy nominations, picking up a win for Selleck in 1984 for Best Actor in a Drama and for Hillerman in 1989 for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama. It ranked in the top 20 for its first five seasons.

📷onlyinyourstate.com lagoon used on Magnum PI

One of the reasons the show was set in Hawaii is because CBS had its Hawaii production offices running for Hawaii Five-O. Since that show ended in 1980, it made sense to film Magnum there and continue the production division.

Thirty years later Magnum was back in Hawaii. This time it was Jay Hernandez as Thomas Magnum, former Navy seal. While he still lived at Robin’s Nest, he worked with Juliet Higgins (Perdita Weeks), an ex-MI6 Agent who runs the estate. Kumu Tuileta (Amy Hill) also lives onsite as the estate’s cultural curator. Magnum allows Robin Masters to write about his life as a Navy seal in exchange for living on the estate, but he has no income, so he becomes a private investigator with the help of “Higgie” who becomes his partner in season two.

In this version, Magnum also has use of Robin’s Ferrari. The shows were filmed in Hawaii. Robin’s Nest was Kualoa Ranch, a set where Jurassic World was also filmed. Several beaches throughout the island were also used, and the show received a traditional Hawaiian blessing before it began.

Like the original show, Rick Wright (Zachary Knighton) and T.C. Calvin (Stephen Hill) are friends and former Marines. Rick owns a bar the friends frequently visit and T.C. does island helicopter tours. They both pitch in to help Magnum when their skills are needed on a case. Another ally is Gordon Katsumoto (Tim Kang), a Honolulu police detective.

Magnum and Higgins have a definite sexual attraction and they become close friends working together, but for the first few seasons one of them is always involved with someone else. Eventually they realize they both have feelings for each other and start a relationship.

The series was on CBS for four years. When CBS and the producers couldn’t reach an agreement for a fifth season, the show was canceled. The cancellation was bad for the cast and crew, but it also affected many of the locals. Hawaii’s film industry planned on firing 350-400 employees.

I’m not sure why they could not come to an agreement. While the show never achieved the ratings of the earlier show, it had a decent following.

NBC picked it up with a two-season, twenty-episode contract. NBC ended up going with ten episodes per season. They showed the ten episodes of season five by April 2023 and then fans realized that the sixth season would not be shown until some time in 2024. The entertainment industry was facing a writers’ strike as well. It’s interesting that writers’ strikes affected both of the Magnum series.

The network had three options: renew the show for a sixth season, extend the cast’s options, or release the actors and cancel the series. NBC decided to cancel the show. Unfortunately, after the months-long break between the fourth and fifth season, the network change and schedule change, the show never did very well. You also have to consider that the “should we, shouldn’t we” relationship between the two stars had lost some of its magic when they got together and had to discuss more practical matters. The show was canceled again in June of 2023.

I’m not sure why the reboot of Hawaii Five-0 did so well (which we will talk about next week), but the reboot of Magnum did not. The original Hawaii Five-0 was definitely about the investigations while the reboot included the officers’ personal lives as well. I think people liked Jack Lord, but the show was about solving crimes. Magnum P.I. says it in the name, the show was about Magnum and, more specifically, it was about Tom Selleck as Magnum. It was hard for Hernandez to follow in those footsteps no matter how good of an actor he was. I’m guessing a lot of the fans who turned on the show the first time for nostalgic reasons did not bond with the show in the same way they did the original.

I will admit I watched some Hawaii Five-0 and Magnum episodes from the originals, but I was busy during those years, and I didn’t see many and they weren’t shows on my “must-watch” list, although I liked the episodes I did see.

I thought the rebooted Magnum was a decent show on its own. It probably would not be one I would have continued to watch, however, while Hawaii Five-0 definitely made me a fan of the new series.

Jo Anne Worley: What a Character

July 29, 2024March 14, 2024 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

We are winding up a blog series about Supportive Women. One of the women I wanted to include was Jo Anne Worley. I didn’t know much about her apart from her appearances on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In and being in my favorite made-for-television movie, The Feminist and the Fuzz.

Jo Anne was born in 1937 in Lowell, Indiana. Her loud voice was not an acting tool. She always felt she was loud. She said, “I have a big mouth, and I’m sorry to say I’ve always had one. When I was young, in church, I never sang with everybody else. I only mouthed the hymns, so I wouldn’t drown anyone else out. I have my quiet moments. But I don’t have many.” She was named school comedienne at her high school.

In one interview with a Lowell reporter, she said “I’ll never forget the place I’d work every summer while in high school. It was called Robert’s Hotel, Gas and Café, and it was at the intersection of US 41 and Highway 2. They had an old juke box in the café where I worked, and I’d sing and joke around whenever the business was slow, which seemed like most of the time.”

After graduation, Worley moved to Blauvelt, New York to work with the Pickwick Players. She was later offered a scholarship to Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas. After two years at the school, she moved to Los Angeles City College and enrolled at the Pasadena Playhouse. Her first musical role was in “Wonderful Town.”

In 1961 she was in the off-Broadway musical show “Billy Barnes Revue” with Charles Nelson Reilly and Larry Hovis (who was Carter on Hogan’s Heroes). The original show in 1959 featured Bert Convy, Joyce Jameson, Patti Regan, Ken Berry, Ann Guilbert, Jackie Joseph, and Len Weinrib.

Jo Anne was in two episodes of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis in 1961-2. During the rest of the sixties, she was offered several big-screen roles.

In 1964 she was given a role in “Hello, Dolly.” A year later she developed her own comedy and singing act in Greenwich Village where she was discovered there by Merv Griffin.

Griffin encouraged her to appear on his show which she did forty times. Like Marcia Wallace, who we learned about last week, her appearance on Merv Griffin was seen by someone who recommended her for a new show. In this case, George Schlatter cast her in Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In.

Worley left the show in 1970. She made guest appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. She also appeared on several game shows, including Super Password, Hollywood Squares, and many versions of Pyramid.

In 1971 she made the television movie I discussed above, The Feminist and the Fuzz. It starred David Hartman, Barbara Eden, Farrah Fawcett, Worley, Julie Newmar, and Henry Morgan. I would love to see it again.

For most of her career, Worley would be providing voices for animation. However, she appeared in a handful of shows during the seventies and eighties, including Adam 12, Love American Style, Hawaii Five-0, CHiPs, Murder She Wrote, The Love Boat, Mad About You, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and The Middle.

In 1975, Worley married Roger Perry. They would stay together for 25 years, divorcing in 2000. Perry has 95 acting credits and appeared in many popular shows in the seventies, eighties, and nineties. He was also in The Feminist and The Fuzz. After divorcing Worley, he would marry actress Joyce Bulifant.

During the seventies and eighties, Worley did a lot of regional theater in Milwaukee and several cities in California.

In the 1990s she got involved with Disney and provided her voice for Beauty and the Beast and A Goofy Movie. She also was on several Disney series including Kim Possible and the Wizards of Waverly Place.

She was in a limited run of a musical production of “The Wizard of Oz,” playing the wicked witch of the west in 1999. In 2007, she appeared on Broadway as Mrs. Tottendale in “The Drowsy Chaperone,” and she reprised the role in 2015 at The Cape Playhouse. She was also cast in “Wicked” as Madame Morrible in 2008.

Jo Anne Worley once said, “my goal in life is to be the kind of person my dog thinks I am.” That seems to be good advice for all of us. It was fun getting to know a little more about this funny woman. We love her as much as her dog did.

Marcia Wallace: What a Character

July 22, 2024March 14, 2024 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

When trying to decide who to include in our Supportive Women blog series this month, Marcia Wallace was a no-brainer. Carol was one of my favorite characters on television on The Bob Newhart Show, and I love the fact that her role carried over into an episode of Murphy Brown.

Marcia Wallace was born in 1942 in Iowa. Her father owned a general store where she and her siblings often worked. After performing in a school play, one of her teachers encouraged her to pursue an acting career. After graduation, Marcia enrolled in Parsons College in Fairfield, Iowa where she received a full scholarship. She majored in English and Theater.

Upon her college graduation, Marcia decided to move to New York. The country gal had $148 in her savings. When she arrived in the Big Apple, she took on a variety of part-time jobs including typing scripts and substitute teaching. She joined a summer stock company and did a few commercials. She worked in a Greenwich Village nightclub for a year before creating an improv group, The Fourth Wall, with several friends. While she kept the friends, she lost 100 pounds.

Eventually, Wallace was offered a job with The Merv Griffin Show. When Merv decided to move to LA, he asked Wallace to move with them. She was able to obtain a few roles in series after moving to California. During the sixties and early seventies, she was on Bewitched, The Brady Bunch, Columbo, and Love American Style.

After Bill Paley had seen her on Merv Griffin, Grant Tinker (producer) called her to offer her a role on a new sitcom, The Bob Newhart Show. The role of Carol was written specifically for her.

Marcia loved her time on the sitcom. She said Bob was the Fred Astaire of comedy, making it look so easy. She also praised Bob for being a treasure. Because of the way the scripts were written, the show doesn’t date itself. It was about human relationships and people struggling to make them work and make life better.

When The Bob Newhart Show went off the air six years later, Marcia jumped on the game show circuit. Shecould be seen on Password Plus; Super Password; Hollywood Squares; Crosswits; Hot Potato; The $25,000 Pyramid; Win, Lose, or Draw; Tattletales; To Tell the Truth; Family Feud; Card Sharks; and my favorite, Match Game.

Like so many actresses and actors who perform their role so well, Marcia was typecast after the show ended. In an interview, she said that “I have heard ‘You’re too recognizable for this part.’ I remember once, I desperately wanted to be on the series Nine to Five and they just weren’t going to see me because of that. Every once in a while, something would break my heart.”

Wallace also made appearances on The Love Boat and Fantasy Island in the seventies. During the eighties she would show up on CHiPs, Magnum PI, Taxi, Murder She Wrote, Night Court, and ALF, among other shows.

One of my favorite appearances of Wallace’s occurred in the mid-nineties on Murphy Brown. If you were a fan of that show, you know Murphy could not keep a secretary. There was even a support group that started of her former secretaries. However, when Carol Kester came to work for her, she was overjoyed. Carol was the role Wallace played on The Bob Newhart Show. Unfortunately for Murphy, at one point during the show, Bob Newhart shows up and convinces Carol to return to work for him and Jerry and Murphy lost her perfect assistant.

Most of Wallace’s work after 2000 was for voice work with one exception. In 2009, she had a recurring role on The Young and the Restless as Annie Wilkes for 14 episodes.

In 1985 Marcia was diagnosed with breast cancer. She survived it and became an activist and lecturer on the topic. In 2007, she won the Gilda Radner Courage Award for her work in this area.

In 1986 Marcia married Dennis Hawley in a Buddhist ceremony. Dennis renovated and managed hotels. The couple adopted a little boy, but Dennis passed away three years later.

In 1989, a new type of show debuted called The Simpsons. Marcia was asked to provide the voice of Edna Krabappel, school teacher. She probably did not realize she would be associated with that role for another 24 years. Her role as Edna did not end until her passing.

In addition to her television work, Wallace performed on stage. She produced and starred in “An Almost Perfect Person,” a female version of “The Odd Couple,” “Same Time, Next Year” and many others.

In 2004, Wallace published an autobiography, Don’t Look Back, We’re Not Going That Way. She honestly discussed her breast cancer, the loss of her husband, her nervous breakdown, being a single mother, and the ups and downs of her career.

Marcia died from pneumonia and sepsis in 2013. Her coworkers commented on her passing. Yeardley Smith, who voices Lisa on The Simpsons, said “Heaven is now a much funnier place because of you, Marcia.” Bob Newhart said that “Marcia’s death came as quite a shock, she left us too early. She was a talented actress and dear friend.”

I’m so sad that Marcia was typecast and unable to get the roles that she wanted. The networks were very shortsighted during those decades. They didn’t give television fans enough credit for being resilient enough to love the character of Carol while being able to love another character played by Wallace. You saw the same things happen to Adam West, Alan Alda, and Henry Winkler. If that perspective had continued, we never would have had Mary Richards on The Mary Tyler Moore Show or Jay Pritchett from Modern Family. If someone could be a hit as Al Bundy and then go on to star in another show, anyone can get beyond being stereotyped. Marcia Wallace proved that anyone could survive life’s disappointments with determination and a sense of humor, and perhaps that was her greatest role for us.

Virginia Sale: What a Character

July 15, 2024July 1, 2024 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

We are learning about some of our favorite female character actresses. Today we are learning more about the life of Virginia Sale.

Virginia was born in 1899 in Illinois. Her father Frank was a dentist, and her mother Lillie Belle was a poet and truant officer for the Urbana Illinois School District. After graduation, she attended the University of Illinois for two years and then transferred to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York where she graduated in the early twenties. Her brother Charles was a vaudeville comic, and he persuaded her to go to Hollywood to pursue a film career.

She began her career in Hollywood as an extra. In 1931, she did an interview for the Kansas City Star where she said “I had known an assistant director [named Ned] when I lived in New York. He introduced me to King Vidor, then casting for The Crowd. He gave me quite a good bit in the picture, although it lasted only five days. When asked how much salary I wanted, Ned told me to say $350 a week. ‘Well, I think you ought to work for us for $25 a day’ the casting director said. ‘That’s an awful comedown I protested,’ trembling in my boots. ‘All right then, let’s compromise on $35 a day,’ he said. I was awfully glad to get it.” That would be almost $600 a day currently.

During her first two years in Hollywood, Virginia lived at the Hollywood Studio Club. She appeared in 54 films between 1930 and 1935.

The Hollywood Studio Club was created as a safe place for starlets to live. Mary Pickford, along with several other women, was trying to raise money to construct a new building to house actresses. Will Hays gave $20,000 and soon after the studios contributed. Julia Morgan was hired as the architect. She designed an Italian Renaissance Revival style building that opened in 1926. The first floor had a spacious lobby, a library, writing rooms, a dining room, and a stage. The upper stories were single, double, and triple rooms. Men were only allowed to be on the first floor. You had to be between 18-35 years old, be seeking work as an actress, and could stay a maximum of three years. A hundred women lived there, paying $10-15 a week for room and board.

Barbara Hale, Donna Reed, Dorothy Malone, Ann B. Davis, Barbara Eden, Sharon Tate, and Sally Struthers were just a few of the women who lived there. The most famous resident was Marilyn Monroe. After the culture shift in the sixties and seventies, the residents decreased until the Club could no longer financially exist. In 1975 the doors were closed, and the contents were auctioned off.

In Hollywood Sale was often cast as an older woman, even though she was still in her twenties. She entered the movie entertainment business just as silent films were ending. Her first role was in Legionnaires in Paris in 1927. During her film work, she met actor and studio executive Sam Wren, and they married in 1935. In 1936 they had twins named Virginia and Christopher.

In the thirties, Virginia developed a one-woman show based on her life growing up in Illinois which she called “American Sketches.” She performed the piece more than 6000 times throughout the thirties, forties, and fifties, even touring Europe during WWII. This sounds like it would have been a fun show to see. Some of the different pieces of the performance included: “Traveling on the Illinois Central” where she portrays a mother trying to keep her son under control after a visit with relatives; “Life of the Party” where she is a giggling, talkative woman who annoys a young man she is trying to impress;
“Mealtime in Indiana” where she impersonates a housewife trying to get ready for the Ladies Guild while preparing supper for her family; “Three O’Clock in the Morning” as a weary hostess trying to get her guests to go home, and “I Remember Abraham Lincoln” where she is Grandma Willoughby reminiscing about her encounters with Lincoln.

She also received some radio work, including a serial, For Those We Love, playing Martha the maid every Sunday for eight years.

Her film career continued to develop during those decades and she appeared in Topper, When Tomorrow Comes, They Died with Their Boots On, and Night and Day.

Sam served in WWII as part of the Air Corps. When he returned home, he had a six-year position as executive secretary for the Actor’s Equity. He was an executive at both Warner Brothers and Columbia studios.

In 1949 as television was developing, she and Sam created a sitcom, Wren’s Nest which featured the life of the Wrens starring Virginia, Sam, and the twins. The show aired three times a week. Virginia took over writing duties on the show. Many of her scripts were based on real events that happened to the family. The series contained 47 episodes.

During the fifties, Sale took a break from the big screen, focusing on television shows and commercials. She appeared in several series in the fifties, but she hit her stride during the sixties. If you watch a lot of television from that decade, you can catch her in a variety of shows including The Many Lives of Dobie Gillis, Ben Casey, The Beverly Hillbillies, Wild Wild West, The Andy Griffith Show, Green Acres, and I Spy. She had a recurring role on Petticoat Junction where she played several characters. Her final television role was in Police Woman in 1975.

Sam passed away in 1962, and Virginia lived another thirty years, dying in 1992 from heart failure. Both Sam and Virginia are buried in Arlington National Cemetery. She spent her final years at the Motion Picture and Television Country Hospital in Woodland Hills, California.

Sale could thank Mary Pickford for her home once again. Pickford was part of the Motion Picture Relief Fund which she founded with Joseph Schenck and Reverend Neal Dodd. When several former Hollywood stars died destitute in the thirties, 48 acres were purchased in the San Fernando Valley to build a Motion Picture Country House. In 1948, the Motion Picture Hospital was dedicated on the grounds. Later television actors were invited to live there as well. By that time, the site included a retirement community with individual cottages, administrative offices, and a hospital. Fees are based on the ability to pay. Actors, artists, backlot men, cameramen, directors, extras, producers and security guards are all eligible to live there. To live there, residents must be at least 70 and have worked in the entertainment industry for at least 20 years.

It was fun to learn not only about Virginia Sales but also the places she lived at the beginning and the end of her career.

Vera Miles: What a Character

July 8, 2024July 1, 2024 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

During this month of Supportive Women, I am excited to learn more about Vera Miles. For four decades, Miles appeared in our homes as well as on the big screen. With 162 credits, she may have visited your living room more than most of your family members.

Vera Ralston was born in Boise City, Oklahoma in 1929. She grew up in Pratt, Kansas, and later she moved to Wichita where she graduated from high school and worked nights as a Western Union operator-typist. In 1948 she won the Miss Kansas pageant and was third runner-up in the Miss America contest that year. Miss Minnesota won the crown.

A year later she moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in television and movies. Not long after arriving in Hollywood, Vera married photographer and stuntman Bob Miles. One source said that she enrolled at UCLA, hoping to become a teacher.

Bob Miles has 13 acting credits and 14 stuntman credits. The cast of Bonanza must have liked him because he appeared as a stuntman 99 times and as an actor on the show 76 times.

After the birth of her children, she began doing some modeling and taking on a few roles to help provide income. Vera used her husband’s last name because there was already a Vera Ralston in the industry.

She appeared as a contestant in a 1951 episode of You Bet Your Life with Groucho Marx. Along with her partner, she won $8 in the quiz portion of the show but gave the wrong response to the De Soto-Plymouth question which was “Who was the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court?” When Groucho asked her what titles she had held as a beauty contestant, in addition to Miss Kansas, she mentioned that she was Miss Chamber of Commerce, Miss Wichita, Miss Texas Grapefruit, and Miss New Maid Margarine.

She received her first movie role in 1950 and her first credit in 1952. In The Rose Bowl Story, a romantic comedy, she played a Tournament of Roses Queen. She would appear in about 40 additional movies during her career and quite a few made-for-television movies as well. She often worked with Alfred Hitchcock and was cast in Psycho.

In 1951 she appeared on Fireside Theater, her first television role. While she had more than 100 credits performing on television, surprisingly she never starred in a series. The only recurring character she had was Ernestine Coulter on My Three Sons.

In 1956 she married Gordon Scott after divorcing Miles in 1954. They also divorced in 1960. Scott appeared to only work in Hollywood for a five-year period according to imdb.com. From 1960-1971 she tried marriage again with Keith Larsen, but their marriage also ended in divorce. Since the third time was not the charm, for two years in the mid-seventies, she wed Robert Jones but that ended in divorce as well.

During the fifties, she fit roles around her movie appearances, and you can see her in episodes of dramatic theater shows. In the sixties, she had no trouble finding work and she showed up on The Twilight Zone, Route 66, Wagon Train, I Spy, The Man from UNCLE, The FBI, and Mannix. Work did not slow down in the seventies, and you can spot her in a variety of shows including Gunsmoke, Hawaii 5-O, Bonanza, Cannon, Columbo, and Barnaby Jones. She might have taken thing a bit easier in the eighties, but she still worked on four or five shows a year, including Magnum, PI; Little House on the Prairie; The Love Boat; Hotel; and Murder She Wrote. Her last credit was for a movie titled Separate Lives in 1995.

Miles was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and visited Salt Lake City quite often.

Early in her career, Miles appeared to be almost a clone of Grace Kelly but that never materialized into a movie star career. Hitchcock hired her for Vertigo with Jimmy Stewart, but her pregnancy caused her to back out of the movie, and Kim Novak received the starring role. Perhaps, that movie would have changed the trajectory of her film career. I’m surprised that she was never given an opportunity to star in a television show. With 162 credits, she had a prolific and busy career. I will definitely try to spot her when I watch some of my favorite classic shows.

Joan Tompkins: What a Character

July 1, 2024July 1, 2024 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

We are starting a blog about Supportive Women, great actresses who made classic television so much better. I’m beginning with Joan Tompkins.

Tompkins was born in 1915 in Mount Vernon, NY. She began her career in stock theater companies in New York in the thirties before appearing on Broadway in several shows including “My Sister Eileen,” “Pride and Prejudice,” and “Fly Away Home.” Henry Fonda was in several the plays with Joan.

In 1936 she married actor Stephen Ker Appleby in New York, but five years later they divorced. Appleby was born in Wales and known best for his 1960s movies. He lived to be 100. From 1942-1951 she was married to Bruce MacFarlane before they divorced. McFarlane died in 1967 and had 28 acting credits in television and film. Joan would then marry a third actor in 1951, Karl Swenson, “the man of a thousand voices.” The two worked together on the radio. Many fans of Little House on the Prairie would recognize Karl as Lars Hanson. Swenson obtained an amazing 175 credits, primarily on television during the two decades before his death.

After WWII Joan became a foster parent for a crippled Polish boy, Tomasz Machcinski. He later became a photographer. In 1994, their story was made into a documentary, “Child from a Catalog.” Machcinski’s life story was very interesting. He was born in the Kampinos Forest in Gorki, Poland. He spent his childhood living in hospitals and orphanages. After developing a relationship with Joan, he graduated as a precision mechanic in 1963. In 1966, he took up photography and created thousands of self-portraits. Some were as historic characters. He chose the stories, make up, and costumes. He once said that he didn’t “use wigs, tricks, but I use everything that happens to my body, such as hair regrowth, tooth loss, diseases, aging, etc.” He has had exhibits in Copenhagen, Beverly Hills, Warsaw, New York, and Paris. Machcinski passed away in 2022.

Tompkins had a long radio career. She was the voice of Nora Drake on “This is Nora Drake” which was on CBS radio until 1959.

She began her television career in 1954 on an episode of Ponds Theater. Almost all of her 93 acting credits were for television shows. She had a recurring role on a soap, Valiant Woman, appearing in 176 of the 1027 episodes of the show as Marion Walker. Throughout the fifties, she showed up in several dramas as well as The Donna Reed Show, Bachelor Father, and Father Knows Best.

During the sixties, she had two recurring roles. She played Mrs. Brahms on Occasional Wife in 1966-67. I remember her on My Three Sons; between 1967-1970, she appeared as Lorraine Miller, Katie’s mom, nine times.

You can catch glimpses of her on many of your favorite shows from the sixties and seventies, including Hazel; The Danny Thomas Show; Perry Mason; Gomer Pyle: USMC; Dr. Kildare; The Man From UNCLE; Bewitched; Bonanza; The Brady Bunch; Marcus Welby, MD; The Mary Tyler Moore Show; The Mod Squad; and The Bob Newhart Show.

Her last television appearances were in 1980. She played Grandma Gertie in an episode of Eight is Enough and a physician in a made-for-tv film, The Night the City Screamed.

Karl and Joan moved to Beverly Hills where they founded an acting company. Karl directed the plays Joan appeared in. After Karl’s death in 1978, Joan joined a writing group and wrote several books. She died at home in 89.

Joan Tompkins is another one of those actresses that made television better during the fifties, sixties, and seventies. I’m glad we could learn a bit more about her and her career.

Supertrain: The Show That Derailed Before It Got Going

June 24, 2024May 20, 2024 / thewritelife61 / 4 Comments

We are winding up our series, Casting Celebrities. This month we have looked at several shows that relied on stars for their characters every week. We’ve checked out Love American Style, Fantasy Island, and The Love Boat. If you don’t remember today’s show, don’t beat yourself up about it. It was on the air for less than three months. That said, they still had a lot of stars show up. While Love American Style had 109 episodes, Fantasy Island claims 154, and The Love Boat includes 250, this show had 9!

Supertrain debuted on NBC in February of 1979. Here is part of the problem: it was described as a science fiction-adventure-drama. Sounds like a show that isn’t sure what it is.

Instead of an exotic island or a cruise ship, this show takes place aboard a nuclear-powered high-speed super train. However, it might as well have been a cruise ship. You could swim in the pool, go to the gym, or the library. There was plenty of shopping and nightlife including a discotheque. It ran between New York City and Los Angeles, with stops in Chicago, Denver, and for some strange reason, a fictional town of Desert Junction in Texas.

Problem number two for the show: it was the most expensive series to be produced at that time. NBC paid $10 million for three trains. There was a full-size train with passenger cars and two model trains for exterior shots.

Ned Parsons was brought on as art director to build the train. Parsons moved from his home in Newport Beach to the MGM studio lot for three months. He was on call 24 hours a day, supervising 200 construction workers who covered three shifts. The costs to do this averaged $60,000 a day for building materials. The lumber used for the set could have built 22 homes.

Before the show even aired, it was reported that the network had spent $12 million dollars. And despite the high cost of the train, there were a lot of complaints about it being unattractive and unrealistic. It was described as dark and dingy; one article said it was more of a superbus than a supertrain. Although they publicized this train as a high-speed one, viewers asked if it goes 200 mph, why does it take so long to go from New York to Los Angeles?

Problem number three: it was heavily advertised but received poor reviews and low ratings. More people tuned in to watch a 2-hour episode of Charlie’s Angels than the 2-hour debut of this show.

Problem number four: to help the quality and ratings, the producer was replaced, the cast was cut in half and some of them switched jobs, and it became more of a sitcom , and it was moved from Wednesdays to Saturdays. What? Remember this show only lasted nine episodes.

Once the cast shake up took place, five remaining characters were left. Dr. Dan Lewis (Robert Alda), nurse Rose Casey (Nita Talbot), conductor Harry Flood (Edward Andrews), relations officer Dave Noonan (Patrick Collins), and chief porter George Boone (Harrison Page). Seems like an experienced and quality cast, so I don’t think any of the blame falls on them.

The BBC bought the show for $25,000 an episode before it was shown on American television. Their plan was to begin airing the show in the fall of 1979, but remember by May of 1979 the show was off the network so BBC never aired any of the episodes.

One bright spot coming through the tunnel for the show was the music, with the exception of the second theme song which was listed as blah. Bob Cobert provided the primarily disco music. Cobert won an Emmy for his music in War and Remembrance.

Supertrain has been called one of the greatest television flops ever and that’s not an exaggeration. Here are a few of the reactions critics had to the show in 1979. A Variety review said “it’s a Love Boat on wheels which has yet to get on track.”

TV Guide reviewer Robert MacKenzie said that “in the long two-hour premiere, Steve Lawrence was a talent agent and gambling addict in debt to a gangster named Big Ed. Aboard the Supertrain, someone kept trying to put Lawrence away by planting a suitcase bomb in his room, dumping him into a pool when he was unconscious, and locking him in a steam room with friend Don Meredith. Our attention was called to several suspects . . . sometime in the second hour I wanted to get off and catch a bus home.”

Telefilm Review shared that “NBC’s highly promoted show Supertrain features a slick new train of tomorrow, with a script from yesterday . . . it seeks to overwhelm but underwhelms instead.”

Nothing I read gives me any reason to contradict any of these reviews. One fun story I could take away from this debacle was building the train and then what happened to such a behemoth and the model trains? We know one of the model trains crashed and was ruined during the show’s production. Were the others scrapped to recoup at least a small cost? Nope.

According to a Herald-Mail article from July of 2018, Ben Thoburn went to Hagerstown to pick up a jukebox he purchased and saw an old train in the guy’s barn. It was much bigger than a typical model railroad set. Plexiglass served as windows and it had a futuristic design.

Thoburn bought the train and then set about researching it. Jack Morrissey was a LA film producer who bought the train from Thoburn. According to Thoburn, NBC sold the model train to a manufacturer in Philadelphia. When the company went bankrupt (maybe the train is cursed), the train was left in its headquarters. A cabinet maker eventually bought the building and sold the train to the man Thorburn bought it from. Because some other items were stacked on some of the cars, there was a little bit of damage. Morissey didn’t have specific plans for the train; he just wanted a piece of television history. At least something good was salvaged from this otherwise not-good show.

While we are finished with our exploration of the four shows that featured stars in their casts, I did promise to provide one more fun fact. There are a lot of stars who were on Fantasy Island and The Love Boat. When you add in Love American Style, that number is still quite high. However, remember Supertrain was only one the air for nine episodes. So what stars appeared on all four of these series? Let’s find out.

That roster includes eleven stars. None of the crew or staff appeared on all four shows. Regular cast members Edward Andrews and Nita Talbot both appeared on all four shows. Henry Jones shows up on all of them, but I do have a disclaimer that he was on The New Love American Style, a reboot that happened in 1985. We are left with Billy Barty, Hans Conried, Steve Franken, Elaine Joyce, Bernie Kopell, Roddy McDowell, Abe Vigoda, and Keenan Wynn as the remaining stars who can be found on all four shows. Equally as fascinating was the fact that Ron Delaney, Al Hansen, Disco Flo, Michael Minor, Chris Moriana, Bob Shaw, and Annie Starr only appeared on Supertrain and they have no other acting credits at all. Was their affiliation with the show so bad they quit acting? Who knows without a lot more research.

I hope you enjoyed learning more about these celebrity shows and learning which stars managed to get jobs on all four of these shows.

The Love Boat: Overflowing with Celebrities

June 17, 2024May 20, 2024 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

This month in Casting for Celebrities, we are looking at some of the shows that used television and movie stars in their casts every week. The Love Boat was on the water from 1977 until 1986. An extension of the show, The Love Boat: The Next Wave, was on from 1998-1999 with many of the original characters. There were also four three-hour specials aired in 1986, 1987, and 1990.

If you are one of the five people in America that have never seen the show, it aired on ABC on Saturday nights. It was another Aaron Spelling production like Fantasy Island which we discussed last week.

A book, The Love Boats, by Jeraldine Saunders who was a cruise director for a passenger cruise line was used as the basis for the original made-for-tv movie in 1976.

The stars on this show played guests (and occasionally themselves) on the MS Pacific Princess run by Captain Merrill Stubing (Gavin MacLeod). His crew included Dr. Adam Bricker (Bernie Kopell), Purser Gopher Smith (Fred Grandy), bartender Isaac Washington (Ted Lange), and cruise director Julie McCoy (Lauren Tewes). In season three, Stubing’s daughter Vickie (Jill Whelan) came aboard. During the last three seasons, photographer Ace Covington Evans (Ted McGinley) joined the group and Judy McCoy (Patricia Klous) who was Julie’s sister took her place for the final two seasons.

Lucky crew, this series was sometimes set on board the Pacific Princess or the Island Princess, depending on their schedules. A handful of other boats were used in several episodes and movies as well. Many of the shows were filmed in California. Unfortunately, both the Pacific Princess and the Island Princess were sold for scrap in 2013 and 2015 respectively.

Each episode contained several stories and all three titles are combined in one series title; for example “Captain & the Lady/Centerfold/One If by Land.”

Jack Jones sang The Love Boat theme. (Note: Dionne Warwick recorded the song for the final season, but I never learned why.) The lyrics were written by Paul Williams and the music was composed by Charles Fox. The words were:

Love, exciting and new
Come aboard, we’re expecting you
Love, life’s sweetest reward
Let it flow, it floats back to you

Love Boat soon will be making another run
The Love Boat promises something for everyone
Set a course for adventure
Your mind on a new romance

Love won’t hurt anymore
It’s an open smile on a friendly shore
Yes, love
It’s love

Love Boat soon will be making another run
The Love Boat promises something for everyone
Set a course for adventure
Your mind on a new romance

Love won’t hurt anymore
It’s an open smile on a friendly shore
It’s love, it’s love, it’s love
It’s the Love Boat, it’s the Love Boat

For its first seven seasons, the show was very successful. It usually ranked in the top twenty. However, after falling out of the top thirty and then the top fifty the next year, the show was canceled after nine years.

Spelling offered McLeod the role of Captain Stubing. Ted Lange did not have to audition. He was offered the role after being seen on a previous show, That’s My Mama. Spelling’s first choice for Dr. Bricker was Dick Van Patten but because he was involved with Eight is Enough, Kopell got the role. Lauren Tewes was chosen from a group of more than a hundred actresses auditioning for the role.

More than 550 guest stars appeared on the show during its run. There were movie stars like Gene Kelly, Ginger Rogers, and Joan Fontaine. There were Broadway stars including Ethel Merman and Robert Goulet. TV stars abounded like Don Adams, Lorne Greene, Florence Henderson, and Eve Arden. Music was represented by The Pointer Sisters, Cab Calloway, and Janet Jackson. Sports stars were on board including Dick Butkus and Joe Namath. And then there were the celebrities like Bob Mackie and Andy Warhol. Marion Ross holds the record with 14 appearances.

For some reason, The Love Boat does not have the same “time warp” problems as Fantasy Island. It’s been translated into more than 29 different languages and appeared in more than 93 countries. It’s very popular in syndication.

Before the Hallmark Channel debuted, this is where you went to watch people fall in love every week. It’s hard to remember how many people just happened to run into an ex on the ship or meet the perfect soul mate after being mistreated.

Apparently, the cast is still close. In a recent interview, Lange said his experience on The Love Boat was life changing. He also said that the beauty of the show was that they are all still friends. “I just directed Fred in ‘Give ‘em Hell Harry’ in Indiana and I’m going to New York to stay with Bernie and his wife. . . . Bernie is more like my brother, and Fred is like my best friend.”

Whelan described McLeod as an “incredible, protective man. He was just like a dad.”

If you need a reminder that love is still alive and well, you can check out the show on DVD or on ME TV on Sundays.

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