Ted Lange recently got candid and revealed that the creators of The love boat.
For those who don’t know, the 77-year-old American actor and director played the role of Isaac Washington in The love boat and was the only black man in the 1976 comedy.
While talking with PEOPLE magazine after setting sail on Princess Cruises’ love boat Celebration at Sea, Lange recalled her time on the set of the romantic comedy-drama television series created by Wilford Lloyd Baumes.
He opened up to the outlet about facing “racism” while playing bartender Washington for being “the only black guy on a white show” and admitted that his co-stars supported him during the difficult time.
He Friday Foster The star recalled: “Sometimes they would ignore you, and by that I mean they would focus on the white characters and give you the scraps. And then my whole job was to make it equitable, just make it equitable.”
Lange noted that white characters did the opening “welcome aboard” sequence and final farewell in the first season of The love boat.
“So I went to the producers and said, ‘How come I’m not in this?’ They said, ‘What are you worried about? You’re doing this and you’re doing that.’ I said, ‘No, no, no, it’s not equitable,’” he shared, remembering.
It seemed that the producers ignored his concerns, but “deep down, it was racism” that caused them to ignore his questions, according to the Blade alum.
“They said, ‘Well, what would you be doing there?’ I told him: ‘What is the captain doing there? The captain should be on the bridge. What is the doctor doing there? I should be in the infirmary. If you have enough creative imagination to include those guys, you can do it for me,'” Ted Lange evoked.
