'You can imagine how I felt when I realized that he really was Reggie Jackson.' I remember that episode! It's a Mother's Day Cruise. This episode skews to the older side of things. Ethel Merman is Gopher's mom. (Good casting actually.) His dad is played by Robert Cummings. He's serious, but his wife and son are the life of the party. 'Son, I hardly know you.' You do get Barry Nelson, the original James Bond and soon to appear in The Shining. He's married to Nanette Fabray. She's not feeling well. Uh oh. Doc will sort this mystery out. Can she explain all this to her husband? James Bond can handle anything. 'It's a joke, right?' Ken Berry is here with his his kids and their new step-mom. They're not happy with her. Teenagers are kind of jerks, ya know. Can they all learn to get along? You know, Ken Berry's wife died, and it's a good thing she's not haunting him like that one time when Jimmie Walker haunted Vernee Watson. Julie plays the flute. On Kafka's Love Boat Scale, this episode gets 2 1/2 * out of a possible 4 *.
The Love Boat (TV Series)
Third Wheel/Grandmother's Day/Second String Mom (1979)
User Reviews
Review this title2 Reviews
Not a lot of laughs this time out
aramis-112-80488026 March 2023
Funny man Ken Berry is not persuasively serious in his story, trying to get his ice-cold high school daughters to accept his second wife. He might've wanted to stretch himself but this talented "F-Troop" alumnus was always best when he let himself go comedically.
Nanette Fabray is a middle-aged woman hiding a secret from her husband.
Gopher's parents are sailing: Ethel Merman playing a character an awful lot like . . . Ethel Merman. The woman who trained her voice to reach the gods and galleries of Broadway theatres is still unable to dial it back and by this time in her career no one expects her to. Audiences want the Ethel Merman they know. Then there's his pop: quasi-leading man of the movies and TV star Robert Cummings, looking like Death only half-warmed. In his opening credits picture Cummings looks like Dracula at noon. It's hard to believe, watching this episode, Cummings is going to outlive Merman. She looks full of life and he acts full of death. Fare-well to them both.
An uninteresting episode with three mostly-serious yarns to unravel.
Nanette Fabray is a middle-aged woman hiding a secret from her husband.
Gopher's parents are sailing: Ethel Merman playing a character an awful lot like . . . Ethel Merman. The woman who trained her voice to reach the gods and galleries of Broadway theatres is still unable to dial it back and by this time in her career no one expects her to. Audiences want the Ethel Merman they know. Then there's his pop: quasi-leading man of the movies and TV star Robert Cummings, looking like Death only half-warmed. In his opening credits picture Cummings looks like Dracula at noon. It's hard to believe, watching this episode, Cummings is going to outlive Merman. She looks full of life and he acts full of death. Fare-well to them both.
An uninteresting episode with three mostly-serious yarns to unravel.
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