Geraldine Loretta Saunders (September 3, 1923 – February 26, 2019)[1] known under pen nameJeraldine Saunders was an American writer, TV creator/screenwriter and lecturer.
Biography
Saunders was best known as the creator[2] of TV series The Love Boat, an ABC Television series and its associated made-for-TV films portraying the humorous and romantic adventures of various itinerant passengers. Saunders had worked as a model, an astrologer, an numerologist and palm reader.[3]
The program was based on her 1974 book, The Love Boats,[4][5] her anecdotal account of her time employed as the first full-time female cruise director. From 2003 until her death Saunders was the author of Omarr's Astrological Forecast.[6] The nationally syndicated horoscope column, read by hundreds of thousands worldwide, was originally created by Sydney Omarr, to whom she had been briefly married in 1966.[3]
In 1968 Saunders discovered her fiancé, the actor Albert Dekker, dead in his Hollywood home. The death was ruled to be accidental.[7]
^ ab
Neil Genzlinger (February 26, 2019). "Jeraldine Saunders, Whose Book Begat 'The Love Boat,' Dies at 95". The New York Times. p. A23. Retrieved September 13, 2020. But her biggest claim to fame was her book "The Love Boats," which inspired three television movies: "The Love Boat" in 1976 and "The Love Boat II" and "The New Love Boat," both in early 1977. That fall, the concept was turned into an Aaron Spelling series, which ran for 250 episodes, making it one of the most successful shows of the period.
