Do you know what the Love Boat was?
Those of a certain age will surely remember the American show The Love Boat, which was translated into Spanish as Vacaciones en el mar. The series was quite successful, aimed at a family audience, and aired between 1977 and 1986.
In each chapter, several stories were told, usually of love, with a rather cheesy touch, of the passengers on board a real cruise ship, the now-defunct The Pacific Princess. In those years, traveling by cruise was not as common as it is today; it was a luxury reserved for a few, and the series was very successful: 9 seasons were produced, totaling 245 episodes.
Barcelona at The Love Boat
The ship’s crew were the main characters who appeared in all the chapters: the captain, the bartender, the cruise director, among others. In each episode, famous artists, actors, and actresses, usually Americans, appeared among the passengers. We can name a few acquaintances such as Andy Warhol, Tom Hanks, Michael J. Fox, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tim Robbins, and Janet Jackson.
Barcelona appeared almost at the end of the series, in chapter 242, along with Ibiza and Malaga. In the second part of this chapter, the cruise was traveling from Malaga to Lisbon. Lorenzo Lamas appeared in the Barcelona chapter. Let’s see if you recognize him.
This chapter shows a still-pre-Olympic Barcelona, in which the replica of the Caravel Santa María was a tourist attraction for 40 years before sinking in 1991. Places such as Park Güell, Montjuïc, the Sardana sculpture, the cable car, the Ramblas with the now-disappeared animal stalls, Plaza Cataluña, and Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia.
At the end of the chapter, there’s a flamenco show, the Spanish artist Chiquito de la Calzada appears doing palmas (flamenco hand clapping)
Chapter of The Love Boat in Barcelona
For the nostalgic ones: Enjoy now the fragment of the 8-minute chapter shot in Barcelona in 1985.