The BEST episodes of The Love Boat
Every episode of The Love Boat ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of The Love Boat!
Passengers find romance aboard a cruise ship.
#1 - Best Ex-Friends/All the Congressman's Women/Three Faces of Love
Season 7 - Episode 27 - Aired 5/12/1984
Isaac's budding relationship with a new crew member becomes complicated when Gopher tells him to fire her. Meanwhile, a congressman and his wife bring their daughter (Tori Spelling) aboard the Pacific Princess after receiving letters threatening her young life. Plus, a make-up artist's habit of disguising himself as other men to test his actress girlfriend's fidelity finally drives her to a breaking point.
#2 - Ace In the Hole/Uncle Joey's Song/Father in the Cradle
Season 7 - Episode 18 - Aired 1/28/1984
Captain Stubing hires a handsome new photographer who draws the attention of two sisters who were visiting Doc and Gopher. Then, a young man is shocked to meet his mother's (Lee Meriwether) new boyfriend, who is the same age as him. Finally, Isaac helps a children's performer make a little boy feel better following the death of his father.
#3 - Caribbean Cruise: Call Me Grandma/A Gentleman of Discretion/The Perfect Divorce/Letting Go (2)
Season 8 - Episode 27 - Aired 5/4/1985
A very proper and stiff British ex-military officer is put in charge of the fun-loving and energy-filled Menudo group; a young couple is confouded because Doc seems very much in love with his visiting ex-wife, a fact Doc attributes to the fact that he is divorced; Vicki falls for a young man who is continually coddled by his mother, who seems not to want to let him grow up.
#4 - Caribbean Cruise: Call Me Grandma/A Gentleman of Discretion/The Perfect Divorce/Letting Go (1)
Season 8 - Episode 26 - Aired 5/4/1985
A very proper and stiff British ex-military officer is put in charge of the fun-loving and energy-filled Menudo group; a young couple is confouded because Doc seems very much in love with his visiting ex-wife, a fact Doc attributes to the fact that he is divorced; Vicki falls for a young man who is continually coddled by his mother, who seems not to want to let him grow up.
#5 - Side By Side/Rub Me Tender/Fish Out Of Water
Season 7 - Episode 23 - Aired 3/10/1984
A boy who thinks his grandmother (Glynis Johns) is terminally ill will do anything to ensure her happiness; a man (Ed Begley Jr.) who's uncomfortable around women falls in love with a mermaid (Mary Crosby).
#6 - A Rose Is Not a Rose/ Novelties/ Too Rich and Too Thin
Season 7 - Episode 24 - Aired 3/17/1984
A man (Rich Little) impersonating a female singer gets double trouble when a passenger falls for the singer and Julie falls for him; a novelty salesman (Don Adams) has difficulty separating business from pleasure.
#7 - Rent a Romeo/Matchmaker, Matchmaker/Y' Gotta Have Heart
Season 3 - Episode 20 - Aired 1/26/1980
Doc's plans for a rendezvous are spoiled when the woman's recently dumped (and extremely depressed) sister tags along on the cruise. Doc tries to get some privacy by having a playboy romance the sister. Vicki helps a young boy's efforts to reunite his divorced parents. A woman tries to keep her husband on a short leash, as he has recently undergone heart surgery and she fears he will drop dead at any moment.
#8 - The Stimulation of Stephanie/The Next Step/ Life Begins at 40
Season 3 - Episode 14 - Aired 12/1/1979
A sex researcher doesn't realize his assistant is in love with him. A woman helps her football star husband move on after he is cut by his team. A woman tries to find a husband just before her 40th birthday.
#9 - Hidden Treasure/Picture from the Past/Ace's Salary
Season 9 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/12/1985
A passenger does all she can to stop Andy Warhol (guest starring as himself) from telling her husband she was in one of his films. Meanwhile, a married couple (Cloris Leachman and Andy Griffith) scour the boat in search of a rare stamp, and Ace leads the charge on pay raises for the crew.
#10 - My Stepmother, Myself/ Almost Roommates/ Cornerback Sneak
Season 9 - Episode 24 - Aired 5/17/1986
Vicki becomes jealous of Captain Stubbing's bride-to-be (the sequel to this episode is "Happily Ever After..."); the new Assistant Cruise Director-Entertainer finds out that he has to share his cabin with a gruff cook instead of with the girlfriend that he brought along; a pro football has-been tries to romance the team's new owner, a woman, with a mind to get her to keep him on the next season's roster.
#11 - Spain Cruise: The Matadors/Mrs. Jameson Comes Out/Love's Labors Found/Marry Me, Marry Me (2)
Season 9 - Episode 23 - Aired 5/3/1986
In this episode set aboard the Vista Fjord, a woman reporter who thinks bullfighting is immoral falls in love with a young man destined to be a matador because of his obligation to the family patriarch, Portugal's greatest matador; Isaac meets and falls in love with a wacky woman who is conning everyone, including him, but her real problem is that she has run away from her boyfriend and is pregnant; a young womanizer cleverly pursues both Vicki and Judy and, as it turns out, many other women on the ship; an older woman, just out of prison for murdering her husband, reunites with her daughter, incognito at first.
#12 - Your Money or Your Wife/Joint Custody/The Temptations
Season 9 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/5/1985
Vicki is thrilled when The Temptations board the ship and tries to convince their manager to let them perform for the passengers. Also, a custody battle on board becomes a matter of kidnapping, and a loan shark tells an overdue customer he'll forgive the debt in exchange for a date with the man's wife.
#13 - Charmed, I'm Sure/Ashes to Ashes/No Dad of Mine
Season 8 - Episode 25 - Aired 3/30/1985
Ace has a bittersweet reunion with a free-spirited young woman in a wheelchair. Meanwhile, a married couple tries their hardest to quit smoking. Plus, a father and daughter disguise their real relationship in an attempt to get another woman's attention.
#14 - Country Blues/A Matter of Taste/Frat Brothers Forever
Season 8 - Episode 14 - Aired 12/8/1984
A cute country girl who aspires to be a singer falls for a young country music star, but his manager knows that his star can only write songs when sad; two interior designers, former lovers, compete to redecorate the ship and eventually end up together again; one of Doc's womanizing fraternity brothers from his college days arrives on board, but with his male lover secretly in tow.
#15 - Hong Kong Cruise: Polly's Poker Palace/Shop Ahoy/Double Date/The Hong Kong Affair/Two Tales of a City (2)
Season 7 - Episode 20 - Aired 2/4/1984
A U.S. Presidential-hopeful Senator falls for a businesswoman who intends on opening a large casino in Hong Kong, as his aide tries to derail the affair for P.R. reasons; a woman who simply can't stop shopping bets her husband $25,000 that she can go the entire cruise without buying anything; Julie and Vicki double date, though Vicki secretly falls for Julie's date; an retired spy finds love in the form of a woman secretly hired to keep him safe from revenge-seeking former adversaries; Gopher and Isaac, trenchcoats and all, tail the former spy through Hong Kong and see all sorts of potentially evil stalkers.
#16 - The Zinging Valentine/The Very Temporary Secretary/Final Score
Season 6 - Episode 20 - Aired 2/12/1983
A girl delivers a singing valentine to a rude man whom she falls for; a secretarial agency owner plays assistant, and then lover, to a writer; a womanizing former pro football star finds love with a straight-laced English professor.
#17 - Gopher's Bride/Love With a Married Man/Not Tonight, Jack!
Season 4 - Episode 16 - Aired 1/24/1981
Isaac and Doc's joke backfires when the girl they have been writing love letters to under Gopher's name shows up; A couple drift apart over work habits; A woman refuses to share quarters with her boyfriend.
#18 - Not So Fast, Gopher/Haven't We Met Before?/Seoul Mates
Season 3 - Episode 22 - Aired 2/9/1980
Gopher invites his widowed mother onto the ship in the hopes of cheering her up, but is hurt by her seemingly cheerful attitude, which he interprets as an insult to his father. A group of buddies takes a cruise. One of the men meets a woman who is a regular customer at the restaurant where he works. He lies about his identity because he thinks she would be put off by the fact that he is a waiter. A comic's romance with the reporter who is writing a feature about him appears doomed after she takes offense to his act.
#19 - The Spider Serenade/Next Door Wife/The Harder They Fall
Season 3 - Episode 15 - Aired 12/8/1979
Gopher finds romance with a recently separated passenger--until her estranged husband suddenly shows up and announces his intention of winning her back. A woman tries to pry her soon-to-be-ex-husband away from his girlfriend by coming on the cruise and rooming in the cabin next to theirs. Two distinguished passengers, who squared off in a boxing match decades earlier, renew their rivalry. They schedule a fight on the ship to settle the score once and for all.
#20 - A Good and Faithful Servant/Secret Life of Burl Smith/Tug of War/Designated Lover
Season 2 - Episode 21 - Aired 2/17/1979
A vacationing chauffeur and his wealthy employer fall in love; Gopher fantasizes that he is various flamboyant heroes; a separated couple vies for their son's affection; Reggie Jackson can't convince anyone that he really is the famous slugger.
#21 - My Mother, My Chaperone/The Present/The Death and Life of Sir Alfred Demerest (2)
Season 8 - Episode 12 - Aired 11/24/1984
In "My Mother, My Chaperone" written by Hai Ackerman, a famous writer (Ms.Palmer) voices displeasure over her daughter (Ms. Alicia) having an affair with a married man (Stevens). In "The Death and Life of Sir Albert Demerest," written by Lan O'Kun, a son (Barton) suddenly learns from his mother (Ms.Dewhurst) that his father (Howard) is a famous actor who drinks too much. In "The Present", written by Howard Albrecnt and Soi Weinstein, a married couple (Ms. Swit and Holahan) learns more about their love when a sexy blonde (Ms. Oxenberg) is on hand for the husband's birthday. In "Welcome Aboard", written by Art Baer and Sol Veinstein, the cruise director (Ms. Klous) discovers that her vindictive ex-husband (Singer) is aboard.
#22 - Oldies but Goodies/The Grass Is Always Greener/Three Stages of Love
Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/22/1979
An older couple finds its attempts at romance complicated by the presence of her obnoxious, golddigging daughter and his overprotective manservant. Julie's roommate from cruise director training takes a cruise with her young son. Julie and Tina each envy the life the other has chosen for herself. When Tina offers some ideas for an upcoming party, Julie resents her friend for moving in on her territory. A young couple's romance begins to fall apart because the man is obsessed with analyzing the relationship and comparing even the most minor developments to the "stages" he went through with past girlfriends.
#23 - Alaska Wedding Cruise: Carol & Doug/Peter & Alicia/Julie/Buddy & Portia (2)
Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/15/1979
The engaged couple gets married despite numerous obstacles, and Julie encounters heartbreak upon surprising an ex-lover.
#24 - Dumb Luck/Tres Amigos/Hey, Jealous Lover
Season 3 - Episode 24 - Aired 3/15/1980
Julie worries that her brilliant nuclear physicist friend will never find a man because her intelligence intimidates suitors. She encourages her to act dumb to attract a man's attention. Vicki befriends a wealthy young passenger. While exploring the ship, they discover a stowaway, a young boy who wants to visit his mother in Mexico. A jealous husband terrifies the crew as he constantly threatens the guys, who he suspects are coming on to his wife.
#25 - His Girls Friday/A Wife for Wilfred/The Girl Who Stood Still
Season 5 - Episode 18 - Aired 2/13/1982
Crew members become matchmakers when a man offers a handsome reward to anyone who can find him a good woman. Plus, a teen girl traveling with her mother faces potential humiliation when she runs into a former boyfriend. Finally, a man who's traveling with his dowdy secretary becomes romantically involved with a voluptuous blonde.