September 24, 1977: "The Love Boat" Premieres

Left to right: Ted Lange, Fred Grandy, Bernie Kopell,

Gavin MacLeod, Lauren Tewes, Jill Whelan.

September 24, 1977: The Love Boat premieres on ABC. It becomes a highlight of what would become known as "Trash TV." Charles Fox and Paul Williams wrote the theme song, which was sung by Jack Jones.

The show was set on the MS Pacific Princess, built in 1971 and sailing for the Princess Cruises line. Gavin MacLeod, formerly of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, played the ship's Captain, Merrill Stubing. The Captain's daughter, Vicki, was also a character on the show, played by Jill Whelan. Stubing's wife appears to have died some years prior to the show's pilot.

The real MS Pacific Princess, in 1987,

shortly after the show's cancellation

Bernie Kopell, previously known as Siegfried, the villainous head of KAOS on Get Smart, played the ship's Doctor, Adam Bricker. "Doc" had the crew's most active love-life. Ted Lange played Isaac Washington, the bartender. Fred Grandy played Burl "Gopher" Smith, the ship's Yeoman Purser, in charge of protecting everyone's valuables. And Lauren Tewes played Julie McCoy, the cruise director.

Each episode would run 3 separate stories, usually love stories, people's relationships starting, falling apart, or reborn. Current stars would appear as guest stars on the show. The Spanish guitarist-singer-actress known as Charo appeared on 10 episodes, and she and the show became indelibly identified with each other.

A 1980 crossover with Fantasy Island, starring Loni Anderson, showed that the 2 shows took place in the same universe.

The Pacific Princess remained in service as a real-life cruise ship until 2008, when Italian authorities seized it for unpaid repair bills. It was dismantled in 2013.

MacLeod died in 2021. As of September 24, 1977, Kopell, Lange, Grandy, Tewes, Whelan, Jones and Charo are still alive. (UPDATE: Jones died in 2024.)

*

September 24, 1977 was a Saturday. This was also the day that Bert Lance resigned as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. I have a separate entry for that event.

These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Montreal Expos, 1-0 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. Steve Carlton pitched a 4-hit shutout. Garry Maddox singled home Richie Hebner in the top of the 2nd inning.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Atlanta Braves, 8-7 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Pete Rose went 2-for-4 with a walk and 2 RBIs. Johnny Bench went 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-1 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Jim Palmer outpitched Dennis Eckersley. Ken Singleton and Eddie Murray hit home runs.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-2 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Carl Yastrzemski, Fred Lynn and Ted Cox hit home runs.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Chicago Cubs, 7-3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Willie Stargell did not play.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 4-3 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Rod Carew, who had been over .400 as late as July 10, went 0-for-5 to drop to .381. He got back up to .388 at the end. Robin Yount went 0-for-3, with an RBI on a sacrifice fly.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Houston Astros, 1-0 at the Astrodome in Houston. Burt Hooton pitched a 2-hit shutout. Lee Lacy drew a bases-loaded walk in the top of the 6th inning.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the California Angels, 4-3 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). George Brett did not play.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the San Diego Padres, 3-2 at San Diego Stadium (later renamed Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium).

* The Texas Rangers beat the Oakland Athletics, 3-1 at the Oakland Coliseum.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Seattle Mariners, 8-3 at the Kingdome in Seattle.

* And neither New York team played. The New York Yankees and the Toronto Blue Jays were rained out at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader the next day. The Yankees won the opener, 15-0. Ron Guidry pitched a 7-hit shutout. Cliff Johnson hit 2 home runs. Reggie Jackson, Lou Piniella, and Dave Kingman also homered. It was 1 of 4 home runs that Kingman hit in 8 games as a Yankee.

Then the Bronx Bombers won the nightcap, 2-0. Ed Figueroa went 7 2/3rds innings of 5-hit shutout ball, before Sparky Lyle got the last 4 outs without allowing a baserunner.

* The New York Mets were supposed to play the St. Louis Cardinals at Shea Stadium, but were rained out. The way the schedule worked out, the game was moved to the following Friday, and to Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis, as part of a doubleheader. The Cardinals won the 1st game, 7-2. The Mets won the 2nd game, 6-3. The next day, they had a doubleheader at Busch to make up for another rainout at Shea, and this was also split.

It was also a college football gameday. These notable games were played:

* Number 1 Michigan beat Navy, 14-7 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor. As for the other service academies: Army lost to Boston College, 49-28 at Alumni Stadium outside Boston in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts; and Air Force beat the University of the Pacific, 15-13 at Falcon Stadium in Colorado Springs, Colorado. While Navy were not a Big Ten Conference opponent, Michigan would win the Big 10 title.

* Number 2 University of Southern California beat Texas Christian University, 51-0 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. USC would not win the Pacific-Eight Conference title, though, losing that to the University of Washington, who went on to beat Michigan in the Rose Bowl. (The next season, Arizona and Arizona State moved in from the Western Athletic Conference, making the Pac-8 the Pac-10.)

* Number 3 Oklahoma beat Number 4 Ohio State, 29-28 at Ohio Stadium in Columbus. Oklahoma would win the Big Eight Conference title, but a loss to arch-rival Texas cost them a shot at the National Championship.

* Number 5 Penn State beat Maryland, 27-9 at Beaver Stadium in State College, Pennsylvania.

* Number 6 Texas A&M beat Number 7 Texas Tech, 33-17 at Jones Stadium in Lubbock, Texas.

* Number 8 Colorado beat New Mexico, 42-7 at Folsom Field in Boulder, Colorado.

* Number 9 Texas had the week off. Led by Heisman Trophy-winning running back Earl Campbell, They would win the Southwest Conference title.

* Number 10 Alabama beat Vanderbilt, 24-12 at Dudley Field (now FirstBank Stadium) in Nashville. 'Bama had lost to Nebraska the week before, and that ended up being their only loss of the season, costing them the National Championship. They still won the Southeastern Conference title, and beat Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl. It was the 1st time any Big 10 team had gone to a bowl game other than the Rose Bowl, following the league's 1975 rule change.

* Number 11 Notre Dame beat Purdue, 31-24 at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Indiana. Led by sophomore quarterback Joe Montana, Notre Dame beat Texas in the Cotton Bowl, and won the National Championship.

* Number 13 Florida had a mild upset of Number 12 Mississippi State, 24-22 at Scott Field (now Davis Wade Stadium) in Starkville, Mississippi.

* Number 15 Washington State were upset by Kansas, 14-12 at Memorial Stadium in Lawrence, Kansas.

* Number 16 Arkansas beat the University of Tulsa, 37-3 at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Like Oklahoma, Arkansas had Texas as their arch-rival, and lost to them, costing them not just a shot at the National Championship, but the SWC title. They went on to beat Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl.

* Number 17 West Virginia were upset by Kentucky, 28-13 at Commonwealth Stadium (now Kroger Field) in Lexington, Kentucky.

* Number 18 UCLA were upset by Minnesota, 27-13 at Memorial Stadium in Minneapolis.

* Rivalry: Miami beat Florida State, 23-17 at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee, Florida.

* And, rivalry: Rutgers beat Princeton, 10-6 at Palmer Stadium in Princeton, New Jersey.

In New Jersey high school football, the school I would one day attend, East Brunswick, beat Colonia of Woodbridge, 14-8 at Jay Doyle Field in East Brunswick.

And Arsenal and Liverpool, 2 of the biggest names in English soccer, played to a 0-0 draw at the Arsenal Stadium, nicknamed Highbury for hits neighborhood, in North London.