Meet the Town’s New ‘Captain’

Gavin MacLeod might be known as the Captain, but in June he’ll have a new hat to wear: Honorary Mayor of Pacific Palisades. He follows Steve Guttenberg, who will have served for four years. “Steve’s going to give me some pointers,” said MacLeod, who’s famous for his roles as Captain Merrill Stubing on “The Love Boat” and news writer Murray Slaughter on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” Both shows were Saturday-night hits from 1970 to 1986. In an interview with the Palisadian-Post at Mogan’s Caf’ on Monday, he joked about the shoes he has to fill. “I’m going to follow this young kid with all this hair.” MacLeod, who turns 75 next week, said he agreed to be mayor after he was assured that his frequent business trips would not be a conflict. He’s been a spokesman for Princess Cruises since 1986, and often travels on various cruise ships to participate in naming ceremonies and other events. He plans to keep in touch with the community by letter-writing to the Post when he’s out of town, a tradition started by former Honorary Mayor Jerry Lewis (1953) and continued today with Guttenberg’s “Gute News.” When Arnie Wishnick, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce, told MacLeod last year to think about being mayor, MacLeod consulted his wife, Patti. “She said, ‘I think it would be great.’ It is a great honor. How could I turn something like that down?” He’s already given Patti the title “Mayoress” since “people are probably going to see as much of her as they are of me because we’re always together.” The couple was divorced for three years in the early 1980s before remarrying, and celebrated their 34th anniversary this week. They have a combined seven children and nine grandchildren, and MacLeod has already warned Wishnick that they’re going to have “a big clan” for the Palisades Fourth of July festivities. He rode in the July 2004 parade as a special guest with Patti and their grandson, Peter. “I know Steve used to walk in front [of the car], but he’s a little younger than I am,” said MacLeod, who grew up in Pleasantville, New York, and has retained his strong New York accent. His desire to serve as honorary mayor was actually inspired by longtime friend Ted Knight, who died in 1986. Knight was mayor of the Palisades from 1981 to 1983. The two met in 1957 when they both came to Los Angeles, where MacLeod said they “bought $25,000 houses at the same time’he was in Woodland Hills and I was in Granada Hills.” They shared the same agent, became close friends and were co-stars on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” They both ended up Palisades residents in later years. “He was like my older brother,” MacLeod said. “He was one of the best dramatic actors I’ve ever seen in my life. Every Saturday night, he’d call me after the show and we’d talk about it.” When Knight became sick with cancer, MacLeod visited him in his Palisades home before heading to Cape Cod to work on a production of “Never Too Late.” It was during that last visit that he and Patti, who had become born-again Christians, recited a prayer with Ted and his wife, Dorothy. Even now, tears swell in MacLeod’s eyes when he recalls his friend’s death. “Dorothy contacted me and asked me to do the eulogy,” MacLeod said. “It was like I was writing a telegram or a last letter to him. I reviewed many of the experiences we had had together when we were younger and growing up.” He remembers that years later, “Dottie said, ‘Gavin, you know, you’ve got the right personality to be the mayor.’ I said, ‘The mayor of what?’ She said, ‘Pacific Palisades.’ I said, ‘Oh, come on, I don’t even live here.'” Dorothy passed away in 2005. The MacLeods moved back to California from Cape Cod in 2001 and settled in the Palisades to be closer to their family, who live in California and Hawaii. Their son Tommy Steele, his wife Fiona and their children Jane and Annie are Palisades residents. “We love everything about it here,” MacLeod said. “The air is so great. We love to go and park at Castellammare and look at the ocean.” They also enjoy eating at restaurants in town and supporting the local shops. “I like to be with Patti, no matter what we do,” he said. “She likes Gelson’s and I like Ralphs. We shop at Gelson’s most of the time but I love the people who wait on you at Ralphs.” MacLeod has worked with a handful of Palisadians, including Billy Crystal, who played “the kissing bandit” on an episode of “The Love Boat,” and former Honorary Mayor Nanette Fabray (1967). Fabray also appeared on “The Love Boat” as well as “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” and she and MacLeod played husband and wife in a production of “No, No, Nanette” in Long Beach. “There was one number that she did,” he remembered, “where she started tapping and that was just chilling’to see her tap. All of the other dancers filled in behind her; the whole stage was full and there she was in the center. That was the highlight of the show. “I worked with a lot of people on stage, but she was the best,” MacLeod continued. “Nanette is an icon and a legend. They don’t make ’em like that anymore. She could do anything.” MacLeod does not know a lot of people in the Palisades and said that most people in town don’t recognize him as an actor. “It’s kind of refreshing,” he said, admitting that he’s led a quiet, low-profile life here. “Being anonymous is sort of my middle name.” But he’s looking forward to getting to know the community and is interested in some of the more pressing issues, such as a location for a dog park, even though he does not have a solution to offer. “The bottom line is, you want everybody to like you, and that means you can’t make any decisions,” he said, laughing. The MacLeods used to have five dogs but found other homes for all of them because of the couple’s frequent travels. In June, before Gavin becomes Honorary Mayor, he plans to attend his 54th Ithaca College reunion and a naming ceremony for a new Princess ship, both in New York. He will fly back to the Palisades just in time for the installation dinner on June 15. If attendees at the dinner notice some extra cameras that evening, it might be the crew of Windmill Entertainment, who MacLeod said are interested in filming the installation for a “Living in TV Land” program on him. The show follows classic TV stars in their daily lives. In the past they’ve featured Dick Van Patten and William Shatner. In recent months, Van Patten, Mary Tyler Moore and MacLeod appeared together in an episode of “That ’70s Show” before it went off the air. MacLeod also has made guest appearances on “King of Queens,” and appeared in the film “Checking Out” (2005) with Peter Falk. His latest work is an improvisational film called “The Cook Off,” in which he plays himself as a celebrity judge. Of the hundreds of characters he’s played, he said his favorite is “whoever I’m playing at the moment.” Then he added, “If I ever had anything to do with making a mark on this business, I’m so glad it was with ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’ and ‘The Love Boat.’ ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’ has been called one of the greatest half-hours in the history of television and ‘The Love Boat’ created an industry.” He jokes that, in his new role as Honorary Mayor, he will have to hang another sign on the front of his Highlands home, near the one that says “Captain’s Paradise.” The new sign he envisions would be “Mayor’s Retreat.”