The Love Boat "A Gentleman of Discrimination"

These two episodes of the almost very famous nautical series do not owe their particular character to the presence of Ricky Martin, no, nor to that of Lana Turner, no no, but rather to a drag king performance. In one of the three stories developed in 1985, "A Gentleman of Discrimination" here is Anne Lester, a computer scientist who was denied a job at a big computer company, simply due to Larry, the boss, being a misogynist. She follows him aboard the Royal Princess, where she pretends to be Andy, a very virile man, to get revenge.

As usual, the story is extremely simple, even simplistic, especially since it is a secondary story, based on the usual love-don’t love relationship, stretched over time to unnecessarily prolong a false suspense. That’s the signature of the series.

Anne drags as a man and becomes Andy, and eventually meets Larry at the bar. Larry is completely fooled.

Anne manages to demonstrate her skills as Andy, and her character is credible. But a woman who loves hairy men makes such a strong pass at Andy that he is forced to flee.

Anne’s plan is to trap Larry and file a complaint against him for discrimination. But, of course, Larry quickly falls in love with Anne, and unfortunately, she does too.

Larry finally decides to hire Anne because, in addition to loving her, he finally recognizes her skills. Feeling remorseful, she reveals her scheme to him. Larry is very angry.

Judy plays matchmaker to reconcile them over lunch. It works so well that it’s hardly believable; Larry admits his basic misogyny, she gives up the job for love, and he immediately refuses to let her leave. The lovebirds have their happy ending.

What interests me here is to show that in a series that is not of very high quality, the actress Linda Purl is perfectly made up as a drag king. This was very rare, and makes us wish there were a longer and focused story on the matter.