Friday, June 19, 2015

Everyone was on the "Love Boat"


Indeed, everyone who was an actor or actress in the 1970's and 1980's was on ABC's Love Boat. A Saturday night fixture back when the networks actually put new programming on Saturday nights, the show became a stop on the way up to fame and also on the way down. Up and coming stars, eager to get any work worked side by side with has-beens who had seen better days. Today we concentrate on celebrities who were on their way up.



Before she was trading wisecracks with the alcoholics in Cheers or teaching Summer School with future NCIS star Mark Harmon, Kirstie Alley was gold-digging on Love Boat. This stint was from early in her career before she apparently lost her mind.



Richard Dean Anderson did his time on Love Boat enroute to a career that would eventually see him making the name "MacGuyver" a verb. (Usage: When Billy's computer broke, he MacGuyvered a replacement.)



Eager to setup an acting career that would make the jump to adulthood, self proclaimed "prairie bitch" Alison Arngrim also did a stint on this Boat of Love. It didn't really pan out for her, but she seems like a cool person, so she gets a pass from the snark.



And finally, there's Miss Kathy Bates, years away from her Academy Award winning role as the murderess Annie Wilkes in Misery. Perhaps this gentleman triggers Annie's rage when he dumps her after this honeymoon cruise, leaving her to retreat from society. Now you see why the death of Misery Chastain sent her 'round the bend?