Ted Lange Was Warned That Gene Kelly Was 'Grumpy' on Set of “The Love Boat ”—“ ”Before Discovering 'He Was Wonderful'

Ted Lange is reflecting on his memories of The Love Boat — and how guest star Gene Kelly didn't turn out to be as "grumpy" as he was led to believe.

During the latest episode of Steve Kmetko’s podcast Still Here Hollywood, the 77-year-old actor shared an anecdote about meeting the late Kelly, as they filmed a 1984 episode of the series together.

As Lange remembered, Kelly was one of his favorite guest stars on the show, which aired on ABC from 1977 to 1986 and was known for its A-list guest stars. He even asked Kelly a question during filming, even though "muckety-mucks" — or higher-ups — encouraged him not to talk to Singin' in the Rain actor-director.

"[They said], 'Don't talk to Gene. He's a grumpy guy, so just leave him alone. When you do your scenes, fine, but don't talk to Gene'," Lange, who played bartender Isaac Washington in the series, recalled. "We all said, 'OK, yeah, fine.'"

Related: Ted Lange Kissed Diahann Carroll '15 Times' on The Love Boat Set 'Before She Realized I Was Messing Up on Purpose,' He Says

In the episode, Kelly played a retired spy on a Hong Kong cruise. In between filming, Lange said he and Kelly were waiting to film a scene together, and despite the aforementioned warnings, he decided to make some small talk with the episode's guest of honor.

"He was reading a magazine," Lange said. "He wore contacts and glasses. So he's sitting there and he's reading and I said, 'Screw this, I'm gonna go talk to Gene Kelly.' So I go, he's sitting in one chair, I sit across from him, I go, 'Hi.'"

Related: Ted Lange Claims 1 Love Boat Producer Didn't Want to 'Write Love Stories for a Black Character' — So His Costars Did

After Kelly "looked up" at Lange and acknowledged him, he went right back to reading. But Lange wasn't giving up that easily.

"I said, 'Can I ask you a question?' You can see him go, 'What?' I said, 'What was it like dancing with the Nicholas brothers?' Now, for your audience that don't know who they are, they're two Black tap dancers out of the Cotton Club back [during the] Harlem Renaissance," Lange told Kmetko of Fayard and Harold Nicholas. "And Gene put them in his movies. They were incredible dancers."

"So he [went] like this," Lange said, lowering his glasses. "'You want to know about the Nicholas brothers?' And I said, 'Yeah.' So he told me this wonderful story about the Nicholas brothers. And then, they call us on the set, we go on the set, we do a scene together. Then we're done and we go back to the bus, the little bus. He says, 'Hey, you want to have a drink with me at the hotel?'"

Lange took Kelly up on the offer. "After we finished our day's work, I hooked up with him, sat down in the hotel and he was wonderful," Lange said.

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Kelly died in 1996, 12 years after filming his guest role on The Love Boat alongside Lange. The meeting with the Hollywood legend, Lange revealed, was "totally different" than he expected.

"And then on reflection, I said, I bet everybody when they get a chance to talk to him, talks about Singin' in the Rain. I had no interest in Singin' in the Rain, because I knew the Nicholas brothers."

The Love Boat is available to stream on Paramount+. New episodes of Steve Kmetko's Still Here Hollywood podcast drop on Mondays.

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