Okay, neither of those shows has been in production for a couple decades, but I think it’s true that a lot of actors were able to keep working thanks to ABC’s Saturday evening lineup.
Last weekend, my one brother and I started looking at the Love Boat on imdb.com to see which TV shows were the best represented on the program. As Gilligan’s Island and Brady Bunch fans, we focused on those two and wondered which show’s cast played on the Love Boat more
Well, thanks to Excel, I was able to put the cast list of both Love Boat and Fantasy Island into a spreadsheet and crunch the numbers. I came up with some very interesting figures.
First, though, I want to say that imdb.com only lists the actors who were on these shows at least twice. Also, I did not look up every actor who worked on the shows because there were literally hundreds, and that’s way too much work for me, so the numbers I have are not absolute but approximations.
First some other interesting figures:
- Bernie Kopell, Fred Grandy, Lauren Tewes, and Jill Whelan, all regular cast members of Love Boat, also guest starred on Fantasy Island two or three times each.
- Ricardo Montalban, Hervé Villechaize, Gavin MacLeod, and Ted Lange never worked on the other show.
- Fantasy Island was only on for 7 years but 7 people appeared on the show more than 7 times,which means they were on more than once in a year. The Love Boatwas on for 10 years, and no guest stars appeared more than 10 times.
Charo coo-chi-cooed her way through 10 episodes of Love Boat.
- Other than regular, or semi-regular, cast members, Barbi Benton was on these shows the most with a total of 14 appearances. David Hedison, Florence Henderson, and Charo come in second with 13 appearances each.
- Carol Lynley (11 times), Christopher Hewett (10 times), Stuart Whitman (7 times), and Ken Berry (7 times) appeared on Fantasy Island more than almost anyone but never appeared on Love Boat. Why?
- Tori Spelling appeared on both shows twice. Coincidence?
Okay, now down to the meat of the matter: which TV shows were best represented on Love Boat and Fantasy Island?
Well, technically, it was the Mary Tyler Moore Show with 270 total appearances, but I can’t really count that because 250 of those appearances were Gavin MacLeod, who was the star of Love Boat.
After that, it’s Happy Days (with 98 appearances), but again, Marion Ross (14) and Ted McGinley (60) were semi-regular cast members on Love Boat, so that would reduce the total down to 24, which is not bad, but hardly the top performer.
Mr. Roarke had the biggest lei on the island.
Those shows are followed by Dallas (62) and Knott’s Landing (42), which were both long-running shows with huge casts. Of course they’re going to do well in a competition like this.
But after that? The Brady Bunch with 38 total appearances. Florence Henderson (13), Robert Reed (8), Maureen McCormick (11), and Eve Plumb (6) carry the family over the finish line without the help from the other 5 cast members. Really? Ann B. Davis never did either show? Unbe-freaking-lievable!
Sadly, Gilligan’s Island comes in 11th with only 22 appearances. Interestingly, though, all but one of the castaways (Russell Johnson) worked on these two shows while only half the Bradys did.
I was impressed by Three’s Company’s showing too. This is due primarily to Audra Lindley (Mrs. Roper) and Jenilee Harrison (Cindy Snow), who clock in with 8 appearances each.
Of the 7 MASH cast members who appeared, Larry Linville was on top with 7 credits to his name. And I was surprised at how well Soap, Vega$, and Falcon Crest did. These are all shows that I completely forgot about—probably because I never watched them. Were they all ABC shows? Hmmmm.
Here’s a good chunk of the list. There were also two shows I had never heard of on the list (Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Felony Squad).
What do you think?
- Mary Tyler Moore 270
- Happy Days 98
- Dallas 62
- Knott’s Landing 42
- Brady Bunch 38
- Three’s Company 32
- MASH 31
- Soap 31
- Vega$ 30
- Falcon Crest 28
- Laugh-In 25
- Dynasty 24
- Eight Is Enough 24
- Gilligan’s Island 22
- Mission Impossible 21
- Golden Girls 20
- One Day at a Time 20
- F Troop 18
- Fall Guy 18
- Maude 18
- Alice 16
- Carol Burnett Show 16
- WKRP in Cincinnati 16
- Batman 13
- Father Knows Best 13
- Operation Petticoat 13
- St. Elsewhere 13
- Too Close for Comfort 13
- Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea 13
- Angie 12
- Charlie’s Angels 12
- Felony Squad 12
- Nanny and the Professor 12
- Trapper John, M.D. 12
- Hawaiian Eye 11
- Good Times 10
- Rhoda 10
- Welcome Back Kotter 10
Rerunning from Reality 
Ted Lange did appear on Fantasy Island. Season 2 episode 25.
OK, how about a list of which actresses appeared on both shows, ranked by number of appearances, or something to that effect!
I’ve only recently been watching them both and noticed Paul Williams on both. In the Fantasy Island episode Dennis Cole also appeared which caused me to look up how many times he was on it, I’ve counted 3 or more in the first 5 seasons thus far. I hadn’t realized how many others appeared so many times.
In the list the only shows I’ve never heard of were Felony Squad, and Nancy and the Professor.