Ted Lange had two goals in mind with his sex and advice column: “Condoms and Humor.”
During his appearance in the episode The Still Here Hollywood Podcast with Steve Kmetko, the 77-year-old star The boat of love reflected on his experience writing a sex and advice column with Jenna Jameson and later Beth Ostrosky.
“Ask Isaac” column, which has appeared in the fold since then FHM magazine (according to Ebony), was derived from the concept of his bartender character Isaac Washington The boat of love.
“I was a bartender from a television show, The boat of love. People would come into the bar and ask Isaac, ‘Hey, Isaac, I’ve got…’ And I’d say, ‘Hey, do this,'” Lange said.
“Now, what I did. It was primarily a men’s magazine. So it got young men reading the magazine. So my goal was, first of all, to make sure that if they had sex, it was safe sex. So I was a big proponent of condoms,” he added. “And then I tried to add humor to the advice. Whatever the question was, I was looking for a joke.”
Ted Lange claims 1 The ship of love The producer did not want to ‘write love stories for a black character’ — so his colleagues did it
Ted Lange in 1983.
African American Newspapers/Gado/Getty
As Lange recalled, he wrote the column “for several years” and was flown to New York for photo shoots. While initially paired with Jameson — an entrepreneur and former adult film star — the magazine eventually invited Ostrosky to take her place.
“I would fly to New York … I would be photographed with a sailor cap and a pipe — à la Hugh Hefner. And Beth would be in some kind of nightgown,” Lange said.
“My main goal was condoms and humor,” he added later. “If they can address those two things in the answer, then we’re doing well.”
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Although Lange’s sex advice writing was short-lived, he also spoke with podcast host Kmetko about his work on The boat of lovewhich ran from 1977 to 1986 on ABC. In particular, after recalling how one producer on the show “didn’t want to write love stories for a black character,” he said his co-stars Bernie Kopell and Fred Grandy noticed what was happening and had his back at the time.
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“Fred and Bernie wrote a story, a love story, for me. Scatman Crothers and Vernee Watson, they wrote a love story for me because this guy wouldn’t do it,” Lange said.
“And I also used to tell the guy, I say, ‘Hey, look. You have all white characters at the beginning of the series, and at the end of the series, my character is gone.’ He says: ‘Well, you’re a bartender. What would you do there?’ I said, ‘Well, you know what? Bernie is a doctor. He should be in the hospital and the captain should be on the bridge. What are they doing there?’ He says, ‘Well, we’re not going to enroll you’. He says: ‘Look. You are an equal star.’ ”
Costar Gavin MacLeod, whom he called “the greatest guy ever,” also supported him during that period, Lange revealed.
“He didn’t have to look after me. He didn’t have to do it, but he knew the shit I was going through just as a performer, as a black performer,” Lange said.. “You know, he had my back.”
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