Love Murray, Loathe Stubing

I've been watching a lot of my Mary Tyler Moore DVDs and I remember how much I loved Murray. He was cute and cuddly and so lovable. His Ted zingers were hilarious. But he really had affection for the foot-in-mouth anchorman who endlessly botched his copy.

There's a later episode when Murray thinks he was going to win a Teddy Award. He doesn't win but he gives his speech to his co-workers in Mary's apartment. He tells Ted something like how great it was to work around him because he was so joyful. Murray tells Ted that he really likes him.

In contrast, I couldn't stand his character as Captain Stubing on The Love Boat. Sometimes there were exceptions, but he often came across as cold and humorless. There was no charm in that character at all. It's probably just me, but I never warmed up to him.

Maybe it was Gavin MacLeod's conscious decision to make the Captain as completely different from Murray as possible. He was in charge of the ship and I didn't expect him to be cracking one liners or going after his officers with wisecracks like Murray did with Ted. But the character left me cold.