Gavin Macleod Happy on Board Suite Life
One-time “Love Boat” captain Gavin MacLeod says he “had a blast” being on TV shipboard again — in the Friday (3/27)-airing episode of the Disney Channel’s “Suite Life on Deck.” He’s playing a curmudgeonly codger who finds the fun of life again when he gets together with Zack (Dylan Sprouse) and starts playing pranks on fellow passengers aboard the show’s S.S. Tipton cruise ship.
According to MacLeod, the 16-year-old Dylan and his twin, Cole, “are really wonderful young actors. Some people have it instinctively, and some have to go to school. You can’t just put anyone in front of a camera and say, ‘Go!’ but these two, well, there’s a reason for the success of that program. I felt more love on their soundstage than I have anywhere since ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show.’”
MacLeod, who has been a mainstay of Christian TV along with his wife, Patti, for years, admits he’s taken aback by much of the content of today’s television. “Patti and I will be watching and say, ‘I can’t believe what we just saw.’ The non-morality going on in our country is unbelievable. I think kids are seeing some of the wrong things — this is a right thing.”
MacLeod, who just turned 78, recently completed the big-screen “Jonathan Sperry” with Robert Guillaume, for release this September. He’s also very active as the honorary mayor of Pacific Palisades, Calif. And then there’s the fact, as he proudly notes, “I have seven kids and nine grandkids.” The MacLeod clan will be gathering to watch “Suite Life” on Friday.
By Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith
Mar 23, 2009
Source: The National Ledger