Sailing with The Love Boat

Remember this series? It’s nice to know there are opening-title nerds on YouTube who collect these, and we can also examine how the graphic design has changed over the years for The Love Boat.

   This was from the TV series (post-TV movies) in 1977. Note the Futura Black for the guest stars was computer-generated, while the titles for the cast was probably properly typeset. Then, someone had the idea to put the guest stars’ faces into the centre of the screen for the second season, and the guests’ typeface now matches the rest of the cast’s:

A little longer, though this length was not standard, but to accommodate the large guest cast, which must have been a fashion special.
   Thirdly, by 1981, the cast had grown by one, but the German version of this two-parter has been butchered. The titles are different from what was seen in the original American prints. They have taken footage that is new for Gavin MacLeod and Lauren Tewes, hastily cut in Jill Whelan (as Vicki), and used the 1977 shots for the rest of the cast (Ted Lange’s afro is the giveaway):
   Here is the 1982 version, for the Anglophone market, and after the Sydney two-parter from the 1981 season, Lauren Tewes stands in front of the Harbour Bridge:    Finally, there are three reasons you know a show is nearing an end. First, the song gets rejigged (Jack Jones is replaced by Dionne Warwick). Second, the titles get rejigged, this time with News Gothic replacing a very retro 1970s Futura Black, more in keeping with current typographic trends. Anything that seemed naff ’70s is replaced by things that were au courant, and naff ’80s now: the more advanced graphics marking it in its era. Third, Ted McGinley is in the cast (but then, so is Teri Hatcher as a Love Boat Mermaid). The problem here is that this is the German version again, and while Anglo prints had a matching News Gothic for the main cast, it’s replaced here with a very unsuitable Antique Olive Bold. Why the change is this severe is anyone’s guess, and there is no credit for the cruise director, probably again due to odd editing.    That was not the end, for The Love Boat came back for The Next Wave: one episode even saw Vicki Stubing finally getting married. And Gavin MacLeod looked exactly the same. These titles are from the first season of the revival series, starring Robert Urich, with Joan Severance as the Sun Princess’s head of security and a potential romantic interest for the captain: Typographically, it is on a par with Melrose Place in terms of resolution: a light serif, in this case Goudy Oldstyle, mixed with Times. But gone are the fussy graphics of the 1970s and 1980s, replaced with something simpler—and the sex appeal of female bodies in swimsuits. This is the Baywatch era, after all.
   Robert Urich, sadly, passed away, and there were no more Love Boats. Then, these shows can always come back … Set it in the Nordic countries and we might want to see Scandily clad ladies.