“The Love Boat” lived up to its name for star Ted Lange.
On a recent episode of Steve Kmetko’s “Still Here Hollywood” podcast, Lange explained that his role as bartender Isaac, who offered drinks and advice to passengers and crew, led to the inspiration for an advice column.
Called “Ask Isaac,” the idea came from the fact that Lange “was the bartender from the television show, ‘The Love Boat.’ People would come into the bar and ask Isaac, ‘Hey Isaac, I got a [problem]…’ And I would say, ‘Hey, do this.'”
“Ask Isaac” ran in the now shuttered FHM magazine, initially co-written with adult film star Jenna Jameson.
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“It was a men’s magazine, first of all. So you got young men reading the magazine. So my goal was, first off all, to make sure that if they were having sex that it was protected sex. So I was a big advocate for condoms,” he said. “And then I tried to add humor into the advice. Whatever the question was, I was looking for the joke.”
Jameson was let go not long into the column’s run and was replaced by Beth Ostrosky, Howard Stern’s then girlfriend and now wife.
Lange recalled, “I would fly into New York… they would take pictures of me with a sailor cap and a pipe — à la Hugh Hefner. And Beth would be in a nightie of some kind.”
“My main goal was condoms and humor,” he added. “If I can work those two things in the answer, then we’re doing alright.”
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Though the column was short-lived, Lange has had a prolific career as a director and writer for both television and theater.
And he still fondly remembers his time on the series, which ran from 1977 to 1986 on ABC, and co-starred Gavin MacLeod, Bernie Kopell, Fred Grandy, Lauren Tewes and Jill Wheelan.
The show was also famous for weekly appearances by celebrities, including the likes of Gene Kelly.
Lange said the cast was told not to bother Kelly outside of shooting when he came to the show.
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“[They said], ‘Don’t talk to Gene. He’s a grumpy guy, so just leave him alone. When you do your scenes, fine, but don’t talk to Gene’,” he said. “We all said, ‘OK, yeah, fine.'”
But Lange took a chance and approached Kelly, seeing him reading a magazine while waiting for a scene and remembered thinking, “‘Screw this, I’m gonna go talk to Gene Kelly.’ So I go, he’s sitting in one chair, I sit across from him, I go, ‘Hi.'”
Kelly acknowledged him but went back to reading, and Lange broke the ice.
“I said, ‘Can I ask you a question?’ You can see him go, ‘What?’ I said, ‘What was it like dancing with the Nicholas brothers?’ Now, for your audience that don’t know who they are, they’re two Black tap dancers out of the Cotton Club back [during the] Harlem Renaissance,” Lange explained. “And Gene put them in his movies. They were incredible dancers.”
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Fayard and Harold Nicholas starred in 1948’s “The Pirate,” with Kelly, as well as other classic films like “Stormy Weather.”
Lange’s question caught Kelly’s attention.
“‘You want to know about the Nicholas brothers?’ And I said, ‘Yeah.’ So he told me this wonderful story about the Nicholas brothers. And then, they call us on the set, we go on the set, we do a scene together. Then we’re done and we go back to the bus, the little bus. He says, ‘Hey, you want to have a drink with me at the hotel?'”
He continued, “After we finished our day’s work, I hooked up with him, sat down in the hotel and he was wonderful.”
Lange added, “And then on reflection, I said, I bet everybody when they get a chance to talk to him, talks about ‘Singin’ in the Rain’. I had no interest in ‘Singin’ in the Rain,’ because I knew the Nicholas brothers.”
