Television Treasures

EIGHTEEN
The Love Boat
(Syndicated; check local listings)
Since Love, American Style (1969-74) isn't widely available in daily syndication, we'll settle for this inspired bit of video foolishness, which ran from 1977 to '86. The Love Boat is an old-fashioned anthology series that tied together three disparate shipboard romances each week. Can you believe there's an entire generation out there that thinks of Gavin MacLeod as Captain Stubing, not Murray in The Mary Tyler Moore Show?

Although you were supposed to think of the show as a floating showcase for glamour, Love Boat operated as an irregular paycheck for fading stars as various as Forrest Tucker and Lyle Waggoner. Invariably, the once-prominent, now-struggling actors were able to transfer their thwarted ambitions to the thwarted romances they had to enact; almost always, their stories concluded with the happy endings that real life so often precludes: Love prevails, devotion is triumphant, and cruise director Julie (Lauren Tewes) guffaws appreciatively at the Captain's ritualistic episode-ending joke.

Face to watch for: Fred Grandy as Gopher, the ship purser. Grandy is now a Republican Congressman from Iowa and was recently named one of the most underrated members of the House. Of course he's underrated — he was Gopher on The Love Boat, for pete's sake!
Original ratings: Debuted at No. 14 on ABC and stayed in the top 25 all but its last two seasons, peaking at No. 5 in 1980-81.

NINETEEN
Batman
The Family Channel, Mon.-Fri., 5-6 p.m., Mon.-Thurs., 11-11:30 p.m.
Seen today in the glare of Tim Burton's Batman movie, this 1966-68 show is so unpretentiously silly and fun that it loses the oppressive aura of high camp that surrounded it during the '60s. The constant barrage of puns maintained by Batman (Adam West) and Robin (Burt Ward) is enthralling to kids of certain ages, and the cheesy special effects are charming.

Faces to watch for: All the famous villains, of course. Everyone remembers Frank Gorshin's Riddler and Burgess Meredith's Penguin, but keep your eyes peeled for Roddy McDowall as the Bookworm. He keeps a nightlight attached to his hat, and carries around great works of literature while committing crimes. An ambivalent role model for these ambivalent times.
Original ratings: Debuted on ABC with two episodes a week, both of which ended the season in the top 10. Then fell out of the top 25.

TWENTY
Bonanza
The Family Channel, Sat. and Sun., 5-6 p.m.
The Cartwright boys — papa Ben (Lorne Greene), balding son Adam (Pernell Roberts), big son Hoss (Dan Blocker), and hotheaded-young-punk son Little Joe (Michael Landon) — were, give or take a few cast changes, America's favorite Western family for a remarkable stretch: 1959 to 1973 on NBC. This despite the fact that the Ponderosa, the family's supposedly massive spread, looked like a stage set with two or three backdrops. No matter; it's the familial warmth combined with shoot-'em-up action — as well as the late Blocker's immense charm — that makes this show a pleasure to watch.

In the late '60s and early '70s, the writers sought to humanize the Cartwrights, which meant, above all, women. Mature women, young women, harridans, and babes. It seems to me that, at one time or another, each of the Cartwright men fell in love with a woman, only to have her die by the episode's end. I vividly recall Hoss' romance with a sensitive widow and his subsequent grief as she died in his arms. Sure it was manipulative, but Dan Blocker pulled it off.

Face to watch for: In the show's final season, a new character was added: a young cowpoke named Griff King, played by distinguished National Lampoon chairman Tim Matheson.
Original ratings: The show was 12 times in the top 25, 10 times in the top 10, and three times No. 1.