The Love Boat “best product placement ever”

[sunviking90]

Interesting article.

https://www.cnn.com/travel/how-the-love-boat-transformed-cruising/index.html

 

 

[Host CJSKIDS]

Great article, thanks for sharing.  It's great to see Carolyn Spencer Brown again!

[Myrtle Ave. Mayhem]

That's a fantastic article! The great thing about The Love Boat is how wonderfully it made cruising appear accessible to the regular person. Years before The Love Boat aired, my grandparents & great aunt & uncle were frequent cruisers aboard Princess, Sitmar, & Royal Caribbean. Cruising was very expensive up into the 80's. Even before Sovereign of The Seas, there was a whole early 1970's first generation purpose built cruise ships, which included the ultra lux Royal Viking Line. 

 

The Love Boat & Fantasy Island were delightful Saturday night double feature escapism! Yet, as mentioned in the article, The Love Boat wasn't like the real life Princess Cruises. My aunt & uncle always brought that up when I mentioned my love for the show. When they first started sailing with Princess it was a mostly Norwegian & Italian crew, then after P&0 bought Princess, the crews were British, Italian, & Indian. 

 

Thank goodness my grandparents & aunt & uncle created the template for my future cruise passion. Once I started cruising in my college years, Princess was my favorite line for many years. Pacific/Island Princess being my absolute favorite of any ships I've sailed aboard. What was so enjoyable about those ships was the intimate atmosphere with the focus being about the service, food, crew, & fellow passengers. Back then we didn't need huge ships with all the bells & whistles. 

 

Also worthy of mention is an episode of The Partridge Family titled The Last of Howard, season 4, filmed aboard Sitmar, Fairsea!

[SCX22]

Princess may have put cruising on the map, but they've failed to maintain their lead.  It's still old blood cruisers that are keeping Princess and this "Love Boat" concept afloat .  They really should move on from this "Love Boat" theming.  The efforts to revive "The Love Boat" have proven futile.  There was a release of "The Love Boat" in the 1990s with a new cast that was a flop and recently "The Real Love Boat" which was also a flop (to give credit to Princess, it was a cheesy matchmaking reality show).

 

Oldies find "The Love Boat" theming nostalgic, but newer generations don't really have a connection.  I hope that the new marketing guy finds a way to make "The Love Boat" concept more contemporary and relevant.  But, TBH and only IMO, Princess should nix it from their brand.

[rodndonna]

7 hours ago, Myrtle Ave. Mayhem said:

Also worthy of mention is an episode of The Partridge Family titled The Last of Howard, season 4, filmed aboard Sitmar, Fairsea!

 

OMG - somehow I missed or do not remember that episode ... hard to believe as I grew up on Partridge Family and Love Boat ... have to go find it on Youtube.

[Myrtle Ave. Mayhem]

1 hour ago, rodndonna said:

 

OMG - somehow I missed or do not remember that episode ... hard to believe as I grew up on Partridge Family and Love Boat ... have to go find it on Youtube.

The full length episode was recently available on Tubi. 

[rodndonna]

1 minute ago, Myrtle Ave. Mayhem said:

The full length episode was recently available on Tubi. 

 

Thanks!

 

I checked YouTube and I got a 3.5 minute video someone taped on their TV (pretty poor audio)

 

In the short video it does seem "vaguely" familiar....

 

Will definitely be looking for the whole episode on Tubi (which alas I did not know existed until now). We also get "retro" which plays Partridge family as well ... will have to keep on eye there as well.

 

[sunviking90]

18 minutes ago, rodndonna said:

 

Thanks!

 

I checked YouTube and I got a 3.5 minute video someone taped on their TV (pretty poor audio)

 

In the short video it does seem "vaguely" familiar....

 

Will definitely be looking for the whole episode on Tubi (which alas I did not know existed until now). We also get "retro" which plays Partridge family as well ... will have to keep on eye there as well.

 

CTV app has a “flashback” section with the Partridge Family episodes. I haven’t checked yet if they have that episode on it, but will today. 
There’s also a great Columbo Episode filmed on the original Sun Princess “Troubled Waters”. I don’t think Columbo is available in Canada right now tho.

Edited February 14 by sunviking90

[rodndonna]

33 minutes ago, sunviking90 said:

CTV app has a “flashback” section with the Partridge Family episodes. I haven’t checked yet if they have that episode on it, but will today. 
There’s also a great Columbo Episode filmed on the original Sun Princess “Troubled Waters”. I don’t think Columbo is available in Canada right now tho.

 

Found it on CTV app (throwback section).... 😃

 

Gonna watch it now (I love being retired!)

[rodndonna]

Just watched the cruise Partridge family episode - it almost felt like a prequel to Love Boat except with just 1 love interest story (Laurie). As it was before Love Boat, I can't help but wonder if the idea for Love Boat came about in part as a result of that episode.

[mahasamatman]

10 hours ago, Myrtle Ave. Mayhem said:

The Love Boat wasn't like the real life Princess Cruises.

 

Thankfully true. I'd hate to be on a ship where an entirely unprofessional crew spends all their time hitting on passengers.

[Rick&Jeannie]

1 hour ago, mahasamatman said:

 

Thankfully true. I'd hate to be on a ship where an entirely unprofessional crew spends all their time hitting on passengers.

Or....the crew trying to fend off passengers!