After viewing all the episodes (plus pilots and specials) of the original "Love Boat" and all episodes of "The Next Wave" I found the Next Wave be so much better. The new show was filmed onboard a real cruiseliner and not on a studio set in which the old shows mostly was made. The stories are wittier and more fun. Robert Urich captain Kennedy is much more a captain than the sometimes boring captain Stubbing was and who did very little being a captain and spent most of his time relaxing with the passengers or spend days on excursions and sightseeing in foreign ports in stead of doing his job. The new show has nothing of the dreadful sentimentality that sank the old show. Ok, Isaac, Gopher and the Doctor was funny from time to time but they spent most time harassing all female passengers and trying to get them into bed than doing their job and since they never got a girl they turned out to be real losers. Captain Kennedy´s son is also much more refreshing and fun than the boring Vicki in the original show. Too bad only two seasons were made on "The Next Wave". It was a terrific show, much more colorful and just not almost the same story over and over (and the same ports) as the original show with the same backprojections at the flag pole at the aft of the ship, the same deck view over the ocean and the same pool where all passengers hang around. It seamed that the original writers had a hard time coming up with new ideas and for the last 4-5 seasons the original show was stamping on the same spot without being able to develop itself (Fun however with all famous guest stars but I guess that was to make up for lousy scripts). Most of the non-studio cruises on the original show also seamed to be pure tourist propaganda for different cities around the world. The worst of them all was the Nile Cruise (why should an american captain take command over a Nile cruiseship ?). And why did Captain Stubbing always take a bartender, a purser, a doctor and a cruise director with him to different ships ? And for the crew to have dinners with the passengers was also totally incorrect - and not allowed.
