The Love Boat

The Love Boat is an American television series set on a cruise ship which aired on the ABC Television Network from May 5, 1977, until February 12, 1990. The show revolves around the ship's captain (played by Gavin MacLeod) and a handful of its crew, with several passengers – played by different guest actors for each episode – having romantic and humorous adventures. It was part of ABC's popular Saturday night lineup that included Fantasy Island until that show ended in 1984.

The original 1976 made-for-TV movie on which the show was based (also titled The Love Boat) was itself based on the nonfiction book Love Boats by Jeraldine Saunders, a real-life cruise director. Two more TV movies (titled The Love Boat II and The New Love Boat) would follow before the series began its run.

The executive producer for the series was Aaron Spelling, who produced several successful series for ABC from the 1960s into the 1980s.

In 1997, the episode with segment titles "Hidden Treasure," "Picture from the Past," and "Ace's Salary" (season 9, episode 3) was ranked No. 82 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.The Love Boat ran for ten seasons, including specials.

Love Boat (song)

"Love Boat" is a single by Jack Jones released in 1979 by MGM Records.

Song information

The song was written by Charles Fox (music) and Paul Williams (lyrics). It became the theme music of the popular American television series The Love Boat, broadcast between 1977 and 1986. Jones's version was used as the opening tune for most of the seasons, only to be replaced by Dionne Warwick's cover in the last one.

Jack Jones released the track on a single in 1979 as "Love Boat Theme", with "Ready to Take a Chance Again" as the B-side (the latter was earlier recorded by Barry Manilow and released as the single in 1978). Later that year the song appeared as the opening track on Jones's album Nobody Does It Better, this time billed as "The Love Boat".

Track listing

Amanda Lear version

French singer Amanda Lear recorded the song for her 2001 comeback album Heart. It was released as the first single from the album and has since become a standard in Lear's concert performances. In 2004 "Love Boat" was released in limited picture disc format, with only 500 copies available.

Love Boat (study tour)

The Overseas Compatriot Youth Formosa Study Tour to Taiwan, informally known as the Love Boat, is a four-week summer program for about 400–600 college-aged Overseas Taiwanese. In Chinese, it is also colloquially referred to as mei-jia-ying (美加營) - America and Canada Camp, a reference to where most of the participants originate. The program has two main campuses, one stationed at Jiantan (劍潭) campus in Taipei (台北) and one campus in Taichung (台中).

History of program

The program was first started in 1967 by the Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission in a joint project with the China Youth Corps. The primary goal of the program was to acquaint, or re-acquaint, young people of Chinese descent living in other parts of the world with Chinese culture and language. Thus, participants take brief courses in language and arts, attend lectures, and take scenic tours of Taiwan. This however, is the popular perception of the program. The alternate and original purpose for the Taiwan Government's subsidizing of the program was to shore up overseas support for its cross-strait political policies, particularly those of the Kuomintang (KMT) party in regards to its tense relations with China. Accordingly, participants were to attend lectures on cross-strait relations which others might perceive as propaganda. Beyond this, the study tour is most famous, even infamous, for what goes on at night, after the classes and sightseeing take place.