Urich To Captain UPN's New Boat
By Jenny Hontz
HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - UPN has signed actor Robert Urich to star as the
captain in its upcoming revival of "The Love Boat," set to debut Monday,
April 13, at 8 p.m.
Now that Urich has joined the cast of the Aaron Spelling drama series, the
syndicated talk show he'd been developing at Disney is officially dead,
sources said. Urich shot a pilot, but stations didn't buy the project.
Urich has previously starred in "Spenser: For Hire" and "Vega$." His most
recent series, the syndicated "Lazarus Man," was canceled after Urich was
diagnosed with cancer.
Urich, currently cancer-free, will play divorced, retired Navy commander and
cruise ship captain Jim Kennedy in "The Love Boat: The Next Wave." The new
version will have more realism and will contain some topical issues. The
captain's troubled son, for instance, will be caught smoking marijuana.
Actor Kyle Howard will play the captain's 15-year-old son, while Joan
Severance (L.A. Law) will play the ship's chief of security, Corey Parker
(Eddie Dodd) the ship's physician, Stacey Travis the cruise director, Phil
Morris (Mission: Impossible, Seinfeld) the chief purser and Randy Vasquez
(Acapulco H.E.A.T.) the bar manager.
UPN has ordered six episodes of the show, which will air through the May
sweeps. Production begins next Monday in Los Angeles and aboard Princess
Cruises' Sun Princess.
Gavin MacLeod played the original captain, Merrill Stubing, when "The Love
Boat" aired on ABC from 1977 to 1986.
Reuters/Variety