Trivia
The Family Plan/The Promoter/May the Best Man Win/Forever Engaged/The Judges: Part 1
The Love Boat
Guest stars Darren McGavin and Kathie Browne were real life husband and wife, but did not portray a married couple in this episode.
As the ship is leaving port there is, bizarrely, a group of people dressed as Darth Vaders having lightsaber fights on the upper, front deck. The episode features Debbie Reynolds, mother of Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) princess Carrie Fisher (whose father in Star Wars was Darth Vader).
Gavin MacLeod (Captain Merrill Stubing) and Ted Knight (Tom McMann) previously worked together on The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970) as Murray Slaughter and Ted Baxter respectively.
Erin Moran(Carrie Walker) and Don Most (Marv Prine) work together on Happy Days (1974) as Joanie Cunningham and Ralph Malph respectively.
The Pacific Princess cruise was going to go through the Panama Canal from the Atlantic side (actually the Caribbean) to the Pacific Ocean. The Panama Canal, completed in 1914, reduces transit time for ships, taking 8-10 hours to transit through the 50 mile canal, rather than sailing somewhere in the vicinity of 12,000 miles around the entire continent of South America.