There used to be a slew of prime-time TV shows that routinely had “special guests.”
I’m not talking about obvious stuff like celebrity game shows, variety or talk shows where the whole purpose is to have different stars on every episode — but actual regular-run dramas, soaps and sitcoms. This was even better when those special guests were musicians who were added to the cast for a single episode to act, and not necessarily to perform. Sometimes they appeared “as themself” or sometimes as a made-up person. Having previously written about an appearance by Sonny Bono on The Love Boat, and perhaps inspired by just reading about the time Moon Unit Zappa was on CHiPs, I thought I’d investigate some other interesting examples of musicians making TV cameos.
There were two 1970s/’80s shows known for having special guests: The Love Boat and Fantasy Island. Both took place in vacation destinations — a mysterious tropical island (that looked a lot like Hawaii) or the Pacific Princess (MS Pacific) cruise ship. There were two other shows with a similar, rotating-special-guests format: Love, American Style and the short-lived Supertrain.
We’ll go through them all eventually, but for today, let’s start with The Love Boat, which aired on ABC from 1977-1986. So here we go: Musicians who sailed the sexual harassment barge:
Paul Williams
The diminutive, bespeckled songwriter seemed to be on every TV show and in every movie from the mid-’70s to the early ’80s. He was obviously on The Love Boat — in fact, he even wrote the lyrics to its legendary lounge theme song. He appeared on a 1977 episode as a young guest who needed to find love before he could collect a big inheritance. Williams made a second appearance as one of two guests hunting for treasure, in Season 5 in 1982.
Jim Stafford
One-time variety show host and three-hit wonder (Swamp Witch, Spiders & Snakes, My Girl Bill) appeared on the show in its first season, playing half of a childless couple who take in a runaway kid. He shows up again in Season 5 as a man who fakes celibacy to try to win the love of a woman who rejects men, and a final time in Season 6 as a guy who loans his actress daughter to his friend, so he can impress a woman.
Pearl Bailey
Just a year after receiving the Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award, Bailey appeared in the first season, as bartender Isaac’s mother. She’d been singing since she was a teenager in the 1940s.
Bobby Sherman
The former teen idol made one of his last TV appearances on The Love Boat during its first season, before quitting the biz to be a paramedic. He plays a man whose wife enters a ship beauty contest which prefers contestants to be unattached. He must have enjoyed the experience somewhat, because he decided to play a guest on the show five years later in 1982. In Season 5, Sherman plays a man whose lover is pleading with him to leave his wife.
Frankie Avalon
Yet another former teen idol, Avalon was amidst a career comeback attempt. One year later, he’d appear in Grease singing Beauty School Dropout. But here in 1977, he portrayed the owner of a computer dating company who manages to woo cruise director Julie McCoy.
Ricky Nelson
The singer and former child star was also attempting a comeback, appearing in 1977 as a man with amnesia who gets recognized on board by a former flame.
Sonny Bono
Three years after divorcing Cher (whose sister also appeared in Season 1), Bono appeared in Season 2 as a man faking an injury for a false insurance claim, and again — epicly — later in Season 2 as the shock rocker Deacon Dark in 1979 — complete with KISS-like makeup, singing Smash It. Bono appears a third time in Season 3 as a broke man, who finds $2K in a borrowed jacket. Bono — legend — even made a fourth appearance on Season 5 in 1982.
Toni Tenille
The Captain & Tenille vocalist appeared at the height of her popularity on Season 2 of The Love Boat as a woman trying to convince a man to come forward as a witness. She made a second appearance in the final episode of Season 4 in 1981, as a messy guest who winds up in the same cabin as her neat-freak estranged husband — played by William Christopher (aka Father Mulcahy from M*A*S*H).
Lorne Greene
The former CBC broadcaster, Bonanza and Battlestar Galactica actor actually had a U.S. Billboard No. 1 with Ringo in 1964. He appeared in the first episode of Season 3 as the grandfather of the bride on a B.C.-to-Alaska wedding cruise, and falls for the aunt of the groom. Of note, Robert Lussier — former mayor of Repentigny, Quebec ML, and one-time minister of municipal affairs — appears in this episode for some reason. Greene made a second Love Boat tour on Season 6 as the father of a woman who wants to introduce her parents to her fiancée. The problem is, she forgot to tell them he’s a paraplegic.
Donny Osmond
Make way for still another former teen idol. Osmond appeared in Season 3 as singer Danny Scofield, who is pissed at his hillbilly family members who he fears will ruin his chances of making an impression on a big-time record producer, portrayed by Ottawa’s Rich Little. Donny takes another twirl in Season 6’s Christmas episode as a guy taking a long overdue vacation with his workaholic wife.
The Hudson Brothers
Former ’60s rockers Bill, Brett and Mark Hudson transformed themselves into teen idols in the ’70s and managed to snag a gig hosting a variety show which was a summer replacement for Sonny & Cher. They appeared in Season 3 in 1980 as a group of buddies. This was just as they were about to release their final album.
David Cassidy
Keith Partridge of The Partridge Family was years into his solo and later acting career by the time he appeared on Season 4 in a 90-minute special that aired a month before John Lennon was shot. Cassidy — mustachioed — plays a bit part as the assistant to an oil magnate. This is the same dude who, five years earlier, had a fanclub with more members than that of The Beatles in their heyday.
The Village People
The disco collective, with their star fading fast, appear as themselves in another 90-minute Season 4 episode as owners of a horse in a steeplechase event in Mexico.
Helen Reddy
Five years after her last major hit, Reddy appears as a guest on Season 4 — suspected of being an alien by Yeoman Purser Gopher and a passenger portrayed by Tommy Smothers.
The Pointer Sisters
Years after they sang the pinball number count song on Sesame Street, but just before their careers exploded, Ruth, Jean and Anita Pointer appeared in 1981 as a trio of ship maids who Isaac recruits as backup singers to impress a vacationing record producer. David Hasselhoff makes his second Love Boat appearance in this episode.
Michelle Phillips
The stunning vocalist of The Mamas & The Papas appeared in the first episode of Season 5 as the girlfriend of the ship’s doctor who joins him onboard — along with his nephew, who tries to put the moves on her.
Tanya Tucker
The Delta Dawn singer appeared in Season 5 as singer C.G. Thomas, who was getting songs written for her by one of the ship’s guests. The problem is, the songwriter also writes songs for his wife — who thinks she’s the only one for whom he writes songs.
Jimmy Osmond
The second of three Osmonds to appear on the show. “Little” Jimmy played a man who was meeting up onboard with an old flame from high school, who is afraid to tell him she now wears a back brace. Jimmy came back for Season 8, to play a man who is convinced the surprise present for his father’s birthday is a sex worker.
Fabian
It would seem weird if he didn’t appear on the show, given all the former teen idols who logged an episode of The Love Boat. Fabian turned up in 1982 as one of three divorced pals who started an alimony club, dedicated to keeping each other from shacking up with a lady ever again.
Cab Calloway
Two years after The Blues Brothers, Calloway appeared in a special Season 5 musical episode of The Love Boat. Also in this episode were Della Reese, Carol Channing and Ethel Merman in her final acting role.
Marie Osmond
Fresh from turning down the role of Sandy in Grease, the country singer and variety show co-host appeared in the first episode of Season 6 as a woman who finds love with an aristocrat on a cruise to Rome.
Dottie West
The country singer made an appearance on Season 6 as herself , trying to enjoy a vacation incognito.
Englebert Humperdinck
The crooner plays an actor whose wife chooses to pose as his manager — prompting fan and cruise director Julie to try putting the moves on him. Ol’ Englebert made a second appearance for the first episode of Season 9 — this time as himself. Every female guest is vying for a date with him.
Vanessa Williams
The reigning Miss America at the time, Williams appeared in 1984 as herself before launching her Grammy-nominated singing career. But she also came back to play Pearl during the final season, on the penultimate episode.
Janet Jackson
On the Groundhog Day ’85 episode, the pop singer portrayed an aspiring actress Delia Parks who helps Telly Savalas’s character create a robot duplicate of ship bartender Isaac — who she’s sweet on.
Menudo
Ricky Martin and the rest of the Puerto Rican boy band are escorted by a British ex-military man onboard, towards the end of Season 8 in 1985.
The Temptations
The legendary singing group appeared on the second episode of the show’s final season in the fall of 1985. The five-piece portrayed themselves and performed during the cruise.
Andy Warhol
OK, he’s not a musician, but it still counts. Besides, what the actual fuck was he doing on The Love Boat? He plays himself, but the drama comes from another guest who tries to avoid him during the cruise because she’d prefer to forget the time she appeared in one of his experimental films.
Larry Gatlin
The member of country trio The Gatlin Brothers (siblings Steve and Rudy also appeared) was featured as himself in Season 9 in 1986, trying to help a runaway.
Other singers and musicians appearing as guests on The Love Boat (many of them, multiple times) included Diahann Carroll, Jim Nabors, Steve Allen, Ray Bolger, Will Greer, Desi Arnaz Jr., Scatman Crothers, Tom Brumley, Annette Funicello, Lola Falana, Marilyn McCoo, Robert Goulet, Florence Henderson, Telma Hopkins, Corey Feldman, Ethel Merman, Donny Most, Jaye P. Morgan, Ginger Rogers, Melba Moore, Ja’net Dubois, Phil Harris, Connie Stevens, Alice Faye, Britt Ekland, Clifton Davis, Allan Jones, Jack Jones, Judith Chapman, Thelma Carpenter, Bobby Short, Robert Guillaume, Irlene Mandrell, Alan Fletcher, James MacArthur, Ben Vereen, Charo, Christian Jacobs, Ruth Warrick, Louanne, Marilyn Michaels, Shirley Jones, Jimmy McNichol, Lulu Roman, James Shigata, Crystal Bernard, Danielle Brisebois, Alan Thicke, Dean Paul Martin Jr., Gene Kelly, Shari Belafonte, John Bennett Perry, Peter Duchin, Adrian Zmed and Chiquito de la Calzada.
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Area Resident is an Ottawa-based journalist, recording artist, music collector and re-seller. Hear (and buy) his music on Bandcamp, email him HERE, follow him on Instagram and check him out on Discogs.
