The Point Radio: Gavin MacLeod’s TV Love Affair

From classic character roles to MARY TYLER MOORE to the bridge of THE LOVE BOAT, Gavin MacLeod has entertained TV audiences for decades and his stint as Captain Stubbing is one he is especially proud of. Gavin talks about his favorite moments on the show and why it is so beloved even today. Plus we wind up our look at THE LEAGUE by talking with the brainy couple who started it all, Jeff and Jackie Schaffer.

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Transcript

The Point Radio. Hey it's Mike Raub. Maybe it was his Murray on the very time of the Rorschau or Captain Stooping on the Love Boat. Chances are, Gavin McLeod has entertained you on your TV and he's along to talk about the highlights of those years. Plus we wrap up our look at the league with the folks that created it all and you might be a little surprised as to how it all got started.

Let's get to The Point. This is The Point. The Point Radio. Get The Point Radio. There's no doubt that Gavin McLeod has a secure place in television history with so many great roles. Including that of Captain Merle Stooping from The Love Boat. One of the highest rated and longest-running series on television in the 70s and the 80s. With

so many iconic roles before this, I asked Gavin how he managed to fall into this job. Well I just finished seven years on the Murray, Child and War show and after that my wife and I had a nightclub act. I said let's do that. That's enough television. Let's go back and do a nightclub act and get out in front of the people. And I got a call from Aaron Spelling's office and they said they wanted me to do this new pilot

called The Love Boat. And they sent me the script and I asked my agent about it. I said did you read it? He said yeah. I said what do you think about it? He says I swear this is a quote. He says I think it sucks. You want to read it? I said yeah I want to read it. So we had to play some Palm Springs. We took it down there. I read it. I said I think this has never been done on television before. A show on

a cruise ship with three different kinds of stories. So I had my wife read it. She read the first ten pages. She said I want to tell you if they cast this right put it on at the right time. This is going to be a hit. I said wow. So I met Aaron and he said you know we want you to do this. And I said well I really like it too. So we made a deal. We made the pilot and right after the pilot I was I went away

to do Andy Get Your Gun with Debbie Reynolds and up in San Francisco. Brought it back to L.A. and the pilot sold. I said wow. And so up to that time I didn't even know there was an elevator on a cruise ship. And it turned out to be the critics really called it mindless television. But the audience is the people just loved it. They love seeing these big guest stars they hadn't seen

for years. They love seeing the new regular people on it. They love seeing three different kinds of stories. They love seeing the traveling. And so instead of being a mindless television show after a while we became good will ambassadors for the United States. It's hard to believe. And we were in 90 countries and we're still in 90 countries and reruns. And so that's the

history of what's happened. And it consequently. We shot the show on when we were on the water outside. We were in the studio for in theory is outside. We had two small ships then. And now we have 18 megaships. And the last one is the one we're going to be on next Wednesday in Florida naming. So it's been a terrific ride. And the love really has been lived up to its name. The love boat for us over

the run of the series. What were some of his favorite moments. One of my favorite ones I have to tell you is no big name. But Julie McCoy was getting married. Lauren Threes. And so we went to the wedding. My wife and I Patty. So we sat in back of Aaron's spelling and his wife Candy. So we're sitting back there. Aaron turns around and this is Patty. I've got a great part for you next week.

So my wife who was a singer entertainer did a lot of musicals. She went on the next week and played this wonderful character. And then she did six other shows during all the years. So that was a big kick for me. But one of my big thrills was really being a big fan of the musical theater. We did a show called I love both Follies and we had Ethel Merman Carol Channing Delores and

Miller Van Johnson and Cab Callaway star in that thing. And we were there for two weeks with them. And I got to tell you it was one of the highlights of my life. You know and now everybody's gone. No Carol still. I still see Carol here. Carol's 93 years old and she's still very active down here in the in the Palm Springs area. And Delores is still here but the rest are all gone. And

that was a thrill. That was a great thrill just to be in their presence. And that's what we had week after week for me personally as an actor to be in the presence of these people that were huge stars and I wanted to be like when I was a little boy. And now they were doing my show. So it was a you can't buy that for all the tea in China. Fans still love the show and I ask Gavin why

he thinks it's so revered right up to today. Well I think number one it's all entertainment. I don't think you're seeing anybody getting killed or stabbed or really on major drugs or anything. We've had we did one story with drugs once you know but but I think one reason is because we have three different kinds of stories. Aaron always said we want to have a sophisticated comedy

story. That's going to be kind of a little difficult but we're going to have that every week. We're going to have a broad comedy story and we're going to have a poignant story with the hearts of Doug. And if you can do that week after week I remember the New York News. I forget what her name is. She said what they what they're trying to accomplish with that show cannot be done. But it

was done and it started an industry. Before we went on the air only the affluent rich people cruised. Nobody cruised and then it became a part of everybody's vernacular. They started talking about it on other shows and we became good world ambassadors for the United States in 90 countries all over the place. I mean it was just awesome. I think it gives people like I always

wondered why were people doing it. So we always have an apartment in New York. So I went back to New York after the show was canceled. Then I went to the cleaners and this young girl said she said aren't you the captain. I said I used to be. She said you have to put that show back on. I said why is that. Because that show used to give me something to dream about and there's

nothing on television that gives me anything to dream about. And that was one of the reasons I think it was successful. You know Mike because it did it did give them something people to dream about. They realized those dreams and then I mean I was just on one of our ships the other day in the in LA Harbor and I saw the people coming on and going to Mexico on that particular cruise and you know

it looked like they didn't have two nickels to rub together. You know what they're taking cruises. People love to take a cruise and get away from the problems. Have wonderful food. See you nice things nice shows the price is right. So it's part of our culture now. We never thought doing a television show that we would have that kind of impact. Kevin and the cast of the Love Boat are

working with the folks at Princess Cruises for some pretty exciting things that will be happening early in the year. Get more information at princess.com and if you want to catch the Love Boat relive some old memories episodes are available right now on Netflix. Here it is the latest in pop culture. TNT is given a green light to a new action drama to be added to their lineup. It is

Agent X and it stars Jeff Hefner along with Sharon Stone and Gerald McCranian. It tells the story of John Case who's a smooth athletic tough and quick-witted agent who can be brutally effective when his duties require it. The new show TNT says fits in perfectly with their expanding line of action dramas like legends and it'll premiere on the network in the second half of 2015. Mark

Wade's web portal thrill bed is now coming to the print world with a new deal he struck with IDW. It'll include a lot of material that's already on the website and a revival of Empire the project he did with Barry Kitson a few years back. They got a lot of fan and critic acclaim as well. Sources at IDW say to look for some big announcements about some of the material coming in to

print as early as the beginning of the new year. When you pick up your Marvel comics this week look carefully at the title page and you'll see a very familiar name has been added. Jack Kirby's name is appearing as a co-creator on a number of titles including Fantastic Four in Human, Wolverine of the X-Men and others as well. Apparently it's part of the settlement deal that

brought the litigation to an end between the Kirby heirs and Marvel comics. The WWE Network has now dropped their requirement to have a commitment of six months to subscribe to their programming. Now you can go month by month for the regular price of just $9.99 and of those who sign up right now do it quickly the entire month of November is also free. You get details on that at www.wwe.com.

The cast of HBO's Game of Thrones is looking ahead. They've renegotiated their contracts for an option for a season seven with the fourth season finale bringing in some seven million viewers and a fifth season said to begin on the network in the spring. More than likely HBO will also give a green light to a season six and a season seven for the series sometime probably during

2015. On the FXX series the news behind the put downs, the slams and all the improv there are the minds that conceived it all. Jeff and Jackie Schaeffer are the creators of the series who told me that at the beginning they lured in their talented cast in kind of an unusual way. There was no ad. Very interesting. There was no ad. There was no casting call.

The process was Jeff and Jackie are going to do a show. It's going to be somewhat scripted with the ability to do improvisation along the lines between Curb and Seinfeld, what Jeff has done before and that there is a concept for it but we're not going to tell you what the concept is. We're not going to show you a pilot. You have to commit to the show without seeing anything. So deals were made with the cast. They didn't read a word. All they did was sit down with us and we explained to them the kind of character that we thought they would be playing. We had it all. We had FX, we had the document, we had the document, all of that.

It was just a series of sort of meals. We had tacos and cupcakes with Mark and Katie. Tequila. I was leaving that out. It's a nice peppermint tea with Nick Kroll who to this day still thinks that we were totally cheap and didn't buy him breakfast. It's that thing where everyone is like, no, I'm not going to eat. Are you going to eat? I'm not going to eat.

Jean-Migot drinks and wasabi peas with Jean-Migot. Yeah, it was a series of like, that was our casting, a series of pages sitting down and talking to the person about here's what we're sort of thinking of, here's what you're like. And just sort of, because we already knew they were funny. So we just wanted to, we literally just wanted to have coffee or drink. Sure, every episode has a lot of improv, but the Shavers told me that they plan out the overall season with a lot of care. You know, sometimes it really just, all the time, it really is about the arcs of the stories.

It's not only the arc of the story of what we're doing in the current season, but what we also see for the season to come. And who do you want to feel like is being on top? Like season one, I feel like in the pilot, we introduced Andre as the punching bag. So specifically that it was so great that in that sixth episode, Art brought him back around as the champion. And then this season, I think you're exactly right, this season, it was fun. We wanted Katie, we wanted Jenny to win one, but also it was about this season of having the loser and the winner be in the house. So that became the idea for last season of why she had to win and he had to lose for those two trophies to be on that bookcase all the time.

There's a plan. I know it doesn't seem like it, but there is. The fantasy football element bleeds over to the cast behind the scenes too. But it's funny because off screen, they really do love to all compete for who's going to win. They do take it very personally when you write them in as the winner or the loser. Even so when we do the draft episode, like can they see the draft board?

I wouldn't look at it going, I win. Like last year, Katie called her. She looked at her draft and in the season five premiere and she goes, I bet I win. And she and we're like, absolutely not. And like, she's like, no, this is a good team. I bet I win. Like I said, the cast also plays fantasy football in real life in their own league.

But the scenarios are a little different as Steve Renazese explains. I think people get disappointed when they're like, oh, you guys don't talk shit to each other in real fantasy. It's like, no, we don't because we work for 14 hours a day with each other. We do. We spend that whole time abusing each other verbally. I don't give a shit when I get home that Mark's going to beat me this week.

It's like I can't I'm not going to go take my time out and go, hey, you're an asshole. You should zipper. I'll see you in three hours. You know, like I can't do it. I know I don't. None of us can do it. So we have fun with football. We enjoy the backdrop.

But the insanity is we're not nearly at that level. There's a little more of season six of the league coming up. You can see those episodes every Wednesday on FXX. Catch up on the season with the FFX now, or you can also see seasons one through five on Netflix. The point. That's it for now.

But when we're back again in a few days, who knows how many of the new series from this year's television season will have gotten the axe. But there are some success stories and one of those is ABC's Chris Tella. And we talked to the lady to put that all together. Chris Tella Alonzo. All that and more to be found on websites like ComicMix dot com.

Michael Davis World dot com. Get the point radio dot com and the iTunes podcast directory. Follow us on social media under the point radio on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. See you back here in just a few days. Get the point radio dot com.