Remembering when Andy Warhol appeared on ‘The Love Boat’
Artist Andy Warhol had a defining impact on popular culture, from his iconic banana on the front cover of The Velvet Underground & Nico to his experimental films and bohemian lifestyle. Often deemed as a true artiste, many were surprised in 1985 when he appeared on the hit ABC romantic comedy-drama, The Love Boat, a title which appeared antithetical to everything the Pittsburgh native represented. This was something he would confirm after shooting wrapped.
Per Open Culture, his appearance had been in the works long before it materialised, with Warhol writing in his diary on August 31st, 1979, that he took a taxi to Elaine’s, the famous New York haunt of prominent creatives, to “meet the guy who might get me a guest appearance on The Love Boat.”
Nearly five years after this entry, Warhol recorded that the showrunners were working on an episode featuring him. “I started to get scared, I don’t know if I can go through with it,” he wrote, until detailing the plot a couple of months later, “There’s a girl on the boat named Mary with her husband, and she used to be a superstar of mine, and she doesn’t want her husband to know that she used to be ‘Marina Del Rey.’ And I just have a few lines, things like ‘Hello, Mary.’ But one of the lines I have to say is something like ‘Art is crass commercialism,’ which I don’t want to say.”
Warhol starred in episode three of The Love Boat’s season eight, ‘Hidden Treasure / Picture from the Past / Ace’s Salary’, aired in October 1985. The synopsis from the Paley Center reads: “An all-star cast, including Andy Warhol, Andy Griffith, and Milton Berle, helps the crew celebrate the ship’s two-hundredth voyage. In ‘Picture from the Past,’ Warhol, as himself, offers to select a passenger as the subject of his next portrait. Marion Ross plays a former Warhol superstar who fears the artist will recognise her and reveal her secret past to her disapproving, conservative husband, played by Tom Bosley.”
“My Stephen Sprouse jackets were there on the wardrobe rack,” Warhol wrote in his diary during the shoot. “When I wear them, I think I finally look like people want Andy Warhol to look again.” As reported by Dangerous Minds, Victor Bockris’ biography Warhol states that the influential artist was enjoying a new health regimen at the time of production, which included raw garlic, crystals, shiatsu, chiropractors and a dermatologist.
Looking back on Warhol’s look in The Love Boat, Bockris writes: “He wore black Levi 501s or Verri Uomo, a black Brooks Brothers turtleneck sweater, an L. L. Bean red down vest, a black leather car coat by Stephen Sprouse, white or black Reeboks, a big crystal around his neck and big black-framed glasses, and his hair was huge, jutting out wildly. He was like a cross between Stephen Sprouse and Tina Turner. Andy’s look always made a statement, and it was usually about not looking perfect. His last look was as chic as ever, although the overall effect had a lot to do with his general aura: it was as though he’d accomplished everything imaginable in his lifetime.”
Despite looking well on the hit series, Warhol wasn’t a fan of show business; Bockris continues: “After The Love Boat episode was aired, he complained to a friend that people in Hollywood were ‘idiots.’ They didn’t buy art, he said. They stank.”
Watch the clip of Andy Warhol on The Love Boat below.
