"The Love Boat"... won't be making another run.
The 40-year-old cruise ship known as The Pacific Princess has been idle for two years in port in Genoa, Italy, but has now been sold for $3.3 million to a Turkish firm specializing in demolition of ships, Italian media sources report. Owners tried to auction the ship off repeatedly before the sale, with no takers.
If it is in fact destroyed, it will be an inglorious end to the ship that made millions of Americans in the 1970s want to take a cruise.
"The Love Boat," produced by Aaron Spelling, was a hit for ABC, regularly ranking among television's top 10 programs in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
While more than one ship was shown on the ABC comedy, The Pacific Princess was the main ship shown, and it was her name that was given to the fictional boat whose crew included Gavin McLeod, Bernie Kopell, Fred Grandy, Lauren Tewes and Ted Lange. The show ran from 1977 to 1986.
In 1998, the ship was briefly impounded after it was found to have been used multiple times for heroin smuggling.
The ship made its final cruise with Princess in 2002, then sailed for other cruise lines.
"The Love Boat" was based on the book "The Love Boats" by Jeraldine Saunders, one of the nation's earliest female cruise directors.
The ship was built in 1971 and named Sea Venture, which was later changed to The Pacific Princess when Princess cruiselines bought the ship in 1975.
"The Love Boat" was filmed on sets in Los Angeles, although shots of The Pacific Princess appear in each episode. You can see the interior of the real ship in the video below.
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