Love Boat: The Next Wave

Jim 1990s

Aired: 1997 (UPN)Love Boat The Next Wave

DAD: Captain Jim Kennedy (Robert Urich) / Divorced / Your Ship’s Captain

KID: Danny Kennedy (Kyle Howard) (16?)

WHERE’S MOM?: Had enough raising Danny. Dumped him dockside at show’s opening.

STAND-IN “MOM”: Suzanne Zimmerman (Stacey Travis) / Your Ship’s Cruise Director

Ah, love, exciting and re-hashed…

No, wasn’t bad at all. If you didn’t get enough with Captain Stubing and Co. in the 70’s, come back for another tour. More of the same, with Kennedy being Stubing and Danny being Vicki and … you get the picture. Only was TONS better than the 70’s show, at least in terms of plotlines and SUBTLETY. Like THAT’S difficult.

Best feature of this show? Giving Phil Morris the role of Your Yeoman Purser. I’ve liked Phil ever since his performance on the 1987 Mission Impossible TV series. God bless his dad, Greg Morris (THE man who got me interested in connecting blue wires to red wires) for having the sheer GUTS to name his son after a tobacco company.

By the way – with this show, Robert Urich becomes the record holder of Most Times a TV Single Dad. This includes Love Boat: The Next WaveIt Had To Be YouCrossroads, and American Dreamer. Until, of course, Tony Danza returns to prime-time television.

Hey, while you’re on the internet, go do a Google search on “Kyle Howard” — some of the most ardent, wacky fan pages on the planet. Most of the web pages about him have some kind of “ASK NO QUESTIONS ABOUT KYLE!” dire warning.