Gavin MacLeod Reviews Dark Days Before The Love Boat

Veteran TV actor Gavin MacLeod tells INSIDE EDITION his star-studded days on The Love Boat came after some very dark days in real life.

Who can forget Captain Merrill Stubing from The Love Boat?

In his sixth decade as a TV star, Actor Gavin MacLeod shared with INSIDE EDITION, “It’s The Love Boat for me, I tell you. I've been living it!”

MacLeod recently released a new memoir entitled This Is Your Captain Speaking: My Fantastic Voyage Through Hollywood, Faith and Life.

MacLeod shared his experience of writing the memoir with INSIDE EDITION, “Some of it was painful, to tell you the truth.”

It also covers his years playing his other famous character – Murray Slaughter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. He said, “I liked Murray, even though he was the third guy and he was supporting. I didn't care, I liked him.”

MacLeod had a recurring role on McHale's Navy in the early 1960's. He reveals in his book that he tried to commit suicide by driving off a cliff, after being called a "glorified extra.” He described his suicide attempt by saying, “The car was going over and something made me go ‘pow’ like that on the break. I was ready to go over.”

Today, MacLeod is 82 and still brings smiles to everyone who remembers The Love Boat.

He said, “Every critic said, ‘Man, you're going to sink like the Titanic. It's just dribble. It's mindless television.' ”

The critics were obviously wrong about that!