Trivia: Best remembered for his high-profile acting roles on two 1970s television sitcoms -- that of genial news writer Murray Slaughter on CBS's The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970-1977) and that of sweet-natured Captain Merrill Stubing on ABC's The Love Boat (1977-1986), stage-trained actor Gavin MacLeod in fact began his career typecast as a villain. He landed parts in Hollywood features including The Sand Pebbles (1966), Deathwatch (1966), and The Comic (1969), and enjoyed a tenure as Joseph "Happy" Haines on the sitcom McHale's Navy from 1962 through 1964. After The Love Boat permanently laid anchor in the mid-'80s, MacLeod signed on as a spokesperson and pitchman for Princess Cruises and returned to regional theatrical work. He also tackled guest spots on programs including Touched by an Angel and (in a move that surprised everyone) the HBO prison drama Oz. Off-camera, MacLeod is an outspoken born-again Christian. He hosted a popular talk show on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, along with his wife, Patti (whom he divorced in 1982 and remarried three years later), called Back on Course, and personally funded many of the Greatest Adventure Stories from the Bible animated videos for children.

Trivia: Universally recognized as Ship's Doctor Adam Bricker on the blockbuster prime-time sitcom The Love Boat (1977-1986) -- a part he held for the entire nine-season run of the series -- actor Bernie Kopell entered the doors of show business via a most unlikely route. Born in Brooklyn, Kopell attended Erasmus High and then New York University (with a dramatic art major). After a stint at sea aboard the naval vessel USS Iowa, Kopell signed on to drive a taxicab in Southern California -- and achieved his big break on the day that Oregon Trail (1959) film producer Dick Einfeld hitched a ride in the back of his cab. In a span of minutes, Kopell reportedly managed to convince Einfeld that he was not really a cab driver but an actor in serious need of work. The effort paid off, and Kopell snagged his first part -- a two-line part in Oregon as an aide to president James K. Polk. In the early '60s, Kopell joined the Actors' Ring Theatre in Los Angeles, where he developed a knack for characterizations and voices; this led, in turn, to character-type roles on a myriad of television programs including The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Steve Allen Show, and My Favorite Martian (which often, though not always, cast the wiry Kopell as a Hispanic). By the early '70s, Kopell had landed steady assignments on Get Smart, Bewitched, That Girl, and other series. The Love Boat, however, embodied his breakthrough. He followed it up with an emcee assignment on The Travel Channel (hosting its Railway Adventures Across Europe) and a surge in theatrical work, with portrayals in regional productions of such plays as Rumors, A History of Shadows, and Death of a Salesman.

Trivia: Actor Fred Grandy enjoyed two distinct careers -- an initial career as an actor and a proverbial second wind on the political stage. As a thespian, Grandy signed for guest spots on early-'70s series including Maude and Phyllis, but built his reputation via his nine-season portrayal of Yeoman-Purser Burl "Gopher" Smith, right-hand man to Captain Merrill Stubing (Gavin MacLeod), on the popular television sitcom The Love Boat (1977-1986). He proved popular with audiences, but by the mid-'80s reportedly grew tired of acting and gravitated to the political arena because he found it more challenging. Indeed, in 1986 -- the year of Boat's cancelation -- Grandy was elected as a Republican member of the House of Representatives from Iowa.

Trivia: For millions of Americans, the prime-time situation comedy The Love Boat will be forever inseparable from the image of Ted Lange, an actor cast for nine seasons as the genial Isaac the Bartender on the Pacific Princess luxury liner and trademarked by his iconic "two-finger drop" greeting. Yet Lange's portrayal of Isaac scarcely hinted at the actor's dexterity or dramatic range. In truth, this actor received classical dramatic training at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, and would go on, after the Princess took its final voyage in September 1986, to establish himself as a revered creative force in regional theater.Lange initially broke into films with many portrayals in Hollywood programmers during the early '70s, including Trick Baby (1972), Blade (1972), and Black Belt Jones (1974), and landed a regular role in the one-season ethnic sitcom That's My Mama (1974), as a streetwise philosopher opposite Clifton Davis (Amen) and Theresa Merritt. The Love Boat, of course, brought Lange his most widespread recognition; nonetheless (as indicated), he hearkened back to his theatrical roots beginning in the late '80s and divided his time between writing, directing, and stage acting roles. His resumé as a scribe sports at least 17 original plays including Lemon Meringue Facade, Behind the Mask -- An Evening with Paul Laurence Dunbar, and Evil Legacy -- The Story of Lucretia Borgia, while he has appeared dramatically in productions including Hair and Taming of the Shrew and has directed plays ranging from Othello to the rock & roll musical Born a Unicorn.

Trivia: Dividing his time more or less equally between big- and small-screen work, actor Ted McGinley enjoyed a considerably successful tenure as a character player, almost always appearing as beefcake heartthrob types. He began his career in the early '80s, with small roles in Garry Marshall's satirical farce Young Doctors in Love (1982) and the lurid Joan Collins telemovie Making of a Male Model (1983), but achieved his first significant break in the sitcom venue, as English teacher-cum-basketball coach Roger Phillips on the final four seasons of Happy Days (1980-1984). Fortuitously, at about the same time that Days folded, the producers of The Love Boat (on the same network, ABC) tapped McGinley to play photographer Ace Evans -- a last-ditch attempt to save the program from sagging ratings. The strategy ultimately failed when Boat ended its lengthy run in 1986, but in the meantime, McGinley landed what became a recurring role as jock Stan in the first three installments of Revenge of the Nerds. Eventually, McGinley also joined the cast of the long-running Married...With Children from 1991 through 1997, playing chauvinistic layabout Jefferson D'Arcy (second husband of the Bundys' neighbor Marcy Rhoades), and essayed roles in theatrical films including Physical Evidence (1989), Wayne's World 2 (1993), and Dick (1999). The late '90s and 2000s found McGinley evincing a heightened presence in television once again, first on Aaron Sorkin's critically worshipped yet short-lived seriocomedy Sports Night (1998-1999), then as Charley Shanowski on the sitcom Hope & Faith (2003-2006). In 2008 he competed in the reality program Dancing With the Stars, and in 2010 he appeared in the lighthearted, family-friendly Christmas with a Capital C. He would reach pop-culture immortality when the website Jumping the Shark named him as one of the signs that a TV show has run out of ideas.

Trivia: Ever since the '50s, each generation has had its definitive sitcom mom, the one woman who symbolizes the attitudes and ideals of the American household (at least according to the major networks). In the late '50s, it was Barbara Billingsley; Donna Reed ruled the '60s; Roseanne repped the '80s; and Florence Henderson was queen of the '70s. As Carol Brady, she was the polyester-clad personification of the "have a nice day" mentality on the Brady Bunch (1969-1974). Prior to becoming Mrs. Brady, Henderson had worked on television during the '50s, getting her start as the "Today Girl" on Today (1952) and as a regular on Sing Along (1958). She also made frequent appearances on the Tonight Show through the early '60s. Henderson was a successful star of Broadway musicals and in 1970, she starred in the musical feature-film biography of Scandinavian composer Edvard Grieg, Song of Norway (1970). Since the end of the Brady Bunch series, Henderson has basically made her living portraying and sometimes spoofing Carol Brady. There was a blessedly short-lived variety show sequel to the program, The Brady Bunch Hour (1977), and Brady Bunch reunion TV movies, such as The Brady Girls Get Married (1981) and A Very Brady Christmas (1988). The show that wouldn't die also spawned two more sequel series, The Brady Brides (1981) and the downbeat drama The Bradys (1990). In 1995, Henderson played a feisty grandmother, the antithesis of Carol, in the feature-film spoof The Brady Bunch Movie. She continued to appear on TV and in movies such as Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, and the documentary Get Bruce!. In 2006 she was cast in season 6 of The Surreal Life, and in 2010 she returned to the small screen yet again to compete in the eleventh season of Dancing With the Stars. Henderson died in 2016, at age 82.

Trivia: Buxom, blonde Charlene Tilton is best known for playing Lucy Ewing on the long-running nighttime soap Dallas from 1978 to 1985 and again from 1988 to 1991. Tilton made her feature film debut in Disney's Freaky Friday (1976) and then had a starring role in the low-budget sex farce Sweater Girls (1978). Since the demise of the television series, Tilton's film career has been sporadic.

Trivia: The daughter of Rick Nelson (son of Ozzie and Harriet Nelson) and Chris Harmon (daughter of football legend Tom Harmon and sister of actor Mark Harmon), Tracy Nelson made her film debut at age five as one of Henry Fonda's daughters in Yours, Mine and Ours (1968). Her movie career didn't really pick up until her teens, when she began appearing in such films as Footloose (1982) and Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986). Before that, Tracy was seen as Jennifer DeNuccio, a zoned-out valley girl on the 1982 "teen-misfit" TV sitcom Square Pegs. Seven years later she was playing Sister Stephanie, a spunky young nun with a gift for sleuthing and a predisposition for disguise on the weekly television crime drama Father Dowling Mysteries. Between 1987 and 1989, Nelson battled with Hodgkins disease. She has continued her film career through the 1990s, appearing in television series and made-for-television movies.

Trivia: Born in Alaska, blonde actress Michelle Johnson had to journey to an entirely different hemisphere to attain screen stardom. Cast as Michael Caine's topless teenaged amour in 1984's Blame it On Rio, Johnson received excellent notices, most of which forecast a long and fabulous career for the 19-year-old actress (reviewers barely paid attention to Johnson's young co-star Demi Moore). Since Rio, however, Johnson has made do with a number of forgettable potboilers, with a few scattered appearances in such A-pics as Gung Ho (1986) and Far and Away (1992). On television, Michelle Johnson was seen in the pilot for the 1987 Fox Network series Werewolf (1987), and has evinced a predilection for appearing in TV movies based on spectacular murder trials: she was cast in both films based on the Betty Broderick case, as well as the 1994 dramatization of the Mendendez Brothers imbroglio.

Trivia: Jill Whelan enjoyed an acting career as a child star, with a seven-season (1979-1986) portrayal of Vicki, Captain Merrill Stubing's young daughter, on the prime-time ABC situation comedy The Love Boat. After the series wrapped in 1986, Whelan returned for a number of Love Boat telemovies, acted in regional theater, and played a regular role on the daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless. Astute movie buffs may remember Whelan for a brief but memorable big-screen contribution that happened during her Love Boat tenure: she also portrayed Lisa Davis, the ailing child sent into convulsions when a singing nun knocks out her I.V., in the Zucker-Abrams-Zucker farce Airplane! (1980).