Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
Beat the crowd
10 questions No timer
49 free Love Boat trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
40 free Love Boat trivia questions with answers. The Love Boat sailed for nine seasons on ABC, and almost everything about it was real except the plots. The ship was a working Princess Cruises vessel, the company's logo appears on the crew's name tags, and the whole thing began with a memoir by a woman who had actually been a cruise director. This quiz covers the crew and the ship, then goes further: why one cast member missed the final specials while running for Congress, who sang the theme in each era, which guest star performed it inside an episode, why every episode carries three titles at once, and what happened to both ships when the cruise line was finished with them. Every answer is written against a sourced account with the sentence that establishes it attached, and difficulty runs from easy character questions to detail that will surprise anyone who watched it weekly.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01On which network did The Love Boat originally air?
ABC
ABC aired The Love Boat from September 1977 to May 1986, nine seasons in a Saturday-night slot.
Q 02Which other series shared that Saturday-night line-up until 1984?
Fantasy Island
Fantasy Island followed The Love Boat on ABC's Saturday schedule from 1978 until it ended in 1984.
Q 03Who was the executive producer?
Aaron Spelling
Aaron Spelling, the producer behind Starsky & Hutch and Dynasty, was the show's executive producer.
Q 04Who played Captain Merrill Stubing?
Gavin MacLeod
Gavin MacLeod, earlier Murray Slaughter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, played Captain Stubing for all nine seasons.
Q 05Which real ship was the show mainly set aboard?
Pacific Princess
The Pacific Princess, built in 1971 as Sea Venture, was the main setting; her sister ship Island Princess stood in when schedules clashed.
Q 06Who played Vicki Stubing?
Jill Whelan
Jill Whelan played Vicki Stubing from her 1979 debut through the series finale in 1986.
Q 07Which port was the ship based in?
Los Angeles
The Pacific Princess sailed from Los Angeles on Mexican Riviera cruises, the itinerary the series used on screen.
Q 08Which book was the original pilot based on?
The Love Boats, a memoir
Jeraldine Saunders's 1974 memoir The Love Boats supplied the premise for the first Love Boat TV movie in 1976.
Q 09What job had that author actually done at sea?
Cruise director
Jeraldine Saunders worked as a cruise director, and her 1974 memoir The Love Boats drew on that job.
Q 10How many TV movies aired before the regular series began?
Three
Three TV movies — The Love Boat (1976), The Love Boat II and The New Love Boat (both 1977) — preceded the weekly series.
Q 11Who played the ship's doctor?
Bernie Kopell
Bernie Kopell played Dr. Adam Bricker, the ship's physician, for all nine seasons.
Q 12What is the bartender's name?
Isaac Washington
Isaac Washington, played by Ted Lange, was the ship's bartender for the whole run of the series.
Q 13What is the purser Gopher's real first name?
Burl
Gopher's real name is Burl Smith; Fred Grandy played the purser for all nine seasons.
Q 14Why did Fred Grandy miss the four post-series specials?
Q 21Who sang the theme for the first eight seasons?
Jack Jones
Jack Jones, the Grammy-winning crooner, sang the Love Boat theme over the titles for seasons one to eight.
Q 22Who sang the theme in the last season and the four specials?
Dionne Warwick
Dionne Warwick recorded a new version of the theme for the ninth season (1985–86) and the four later specials.
Q 23Which frequent guest star performed the theme song inside an episode?
Charo
Charo, a recurring guest as the singer April Lopez, performed the theme on screen and also released her own recording of it.
He was campaigning for Congress
Grandy was campaigning for Congress in Iowa while the specials were made; he won in November 1986 and served four terms in the House.
Q 15Who played Julie McCoy, the ship's entertainment chief?
Lauren Tewes
Lauren Tewes played cruise director Julie McCoy from the 1977 premiere, the role that brought her a Golden Globe nomination.
Q 16Who is Vicki Stubing?
The captain's daughter
Vicki Stubing is the captain's daughter, played by Jill Whelan, who came aboard to live with her father.
Q 17Which character did Ted McGinley play from season seven?
The ship's photographer
Ted McGinley joined in season seven as Ashley 'Ace' Covington Evans, the ship's photographer.
Q 18Which three cast members appeared in every episode, special and final movie?
MacLeod, Kopell and Lange
Gavin MacLeod, Bernie Kopell and Ted Lange appeared in every episode, all four specials and the 1990 TV movie; Grandy missed the specials.
Q 19Who composed the show's theme song?
Charles Fox
Charles Fox, who also wrote the Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley themes, composed the Love Boat music.
Q 20Who wrote the lyrics to that theme?
Paul Williams
Paul Williams, lyricist of Rainbow Connection and We've Only Just Begun, wrote the words to the Love Boat theme.
Q 24How many Golden Globe nominations for Best Television Series did the show receive?
Four
They came in four consecutive years from 1978 to 1981, and it never won.
Q 25What happened to the ship that starred in the show?
It was scrapped in Turkey in 2013
The Pacific Princess left the Princess fleet in 2002, lay idle at Genoa for years and was scrapped at Aliağa, Turkey, in 2013.
Q 26Where was the sister ship scrapped in 2015?
Alang, India
The Island Princess, by then sailing as MV Discovery, was beached at Alang, India, for scrapping in 2015.
Q 27Why do the episodes carry several titles at once?
Each storyline had its own writers
The first episode of season one is 'Captain & the Lady / Centerfold / One If by Land'.
Q 28Which earlier ABC series had already used the guest-star romantic-anthology format?
Love, American Style
Love, American Style (ABC, 1969–74) presented guest stars in short romantic vignettes, the format The Love Boat revived.
Q 29Which two Brady Bunch stars appeared in separate segments of one episode?
Robert Reed and Florence Henderson
Robert Reed and Florence Henderson, the Brady parents, appeared in separate storylines of one episode and shared only a wordless glance at a buffet table.
Q 30What was the 1998 revival called?
Love Boat: The Next Wave
Love Boat: The Next Wave revived the series in 1998 aboard a new ship with a new captain and crew, running two seasons.