Ted Lange is an expert on cruise control.

For 10 years he played Isaac Washington, the friendly bartender who dispensed advice as well as cocktails on the hit ABC television series The Love Boat. The series also allowed the actor, now 71, to play a highly visible character in a hit series when roles for African-Americans weren’t exactly plentiful.

He also got to kiss Diahann Carroll.

The show, which shot many scenes around the world, also allowed Lange to cruise the globe.

“Name a port and I’ve been there—from South America to China to Australia,” he says.

Does he get recognized when he tours now as a passenger?

“Oh, yes—but just from the older passengers,” he says. “They see me and go, ‘What? Isaac?!’ And for laughs, they tell me to get them drink. Absolutely they do.”

The series—which ran from 1978 to ‘88—also changed the image and the fortunes of the cruise industry.

“The series gave that industry a super boost,” says Lange. “Before The Love Boat, the image of cruises was something the elderly did for their last hurrah. You know, ships in those days had refrigerators for people who didn’t make it through the entire trip. Cruises weren’t known for couples and kids. But when we started the show and adding couples and young people into the story lines, then things changed.”

It wasn’t always smooth sailing. A network exec tried to get Washington to shave his mustache because he said people the food service industry didn’t have mustaches.

“They said that it wouldn’t reflect reality. I said, ‘Not real? The fact that I’m on television playing a bartender involves a bit of fantasy,’” he says.

Lange is aware of the significance of audiences seeing African-American faces in positive roles on major network shows, especially in the ‘70s.

“You never saw love stories among African-Americans on major television series,” he says. “That was kind of a first for television. When they gave one to Isaac. After all, the show was called The Love Boat and it was all about romance, so they had to give me some romance, too.”

He says actor-singer Carroll, who was a guest star on the series, was his first screen kiss.

“I messed up the shot 15 times until everyone caught on,” he says, laughing.

Carroll was one of his three favorite guest stars on the show, which featured multiple storylines featuring a new generation of actors but also some Old Hollywood, too.

“Brenda Vaccaro was another favorite and we—along with Fred Grandy [who played the ship’s purser Gopher] had the best time ever in Hong Kong and wherever in the world we went when she was a guest,” he says.

His other favorite guest was Gene Kelly. The cast was told to leave Kelly, who could be grumpy, alone. But one day Lange went up the famous actor-dancer-choreographer-director to express his appreciation for Kelly’s film work.

While most fans would have wanted to talk about the classic film Singin’ in the Rain, Lange asked Kelly what it was like to work with the Nicholas Brothers, the legendary African-American dance duo known for its extraordinary athletic dance moves.

“He looked at me and said, ‘I’ll tell you about the Nicholas Brothers,’ and he started telling me all these stories about them—and then he said, ‘Hey, when we’re done today, why don’t we go out for a drink,’” Lange recalls. “That was fantastic.”

Besides The Love Boat, Lange also had several unusual roles during his long career. He is a playwright and many of the works depict African-American figures not often mentioned in books on culture and history. He also co-wrote a sex advice column for a men’s magazine, FHM, and he was on television’s Celebrity Fit Club where he lost 27 pounds.

“The secret is to walk,” he says. “You have to walk. Walk after dinner, before dinner, just walk. Now I do swimming now, too, which is great cardio. I’ve gained a few pounds back but nowhere near the 27 I originally lost. My wife keeps me on track.”

Lange was also in the original production of Hair in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s.

“I toured all over the country for six months and then ended up on Broadway,” he says.

He was in the ensemble and was the second understudy to one of the leads.

“We toured down South and the KKK burned crosses on the theater manager’s front lawn,” he says. “They didn’t tell us that until after we left town and when the cast heard that, the actor who played the leading role of Hud—and whose wife was white—started getting nightmares and so he quit. And then for some reason his understudy couldn’t go one night so they turned to me in Evanston, Indiana [where the KKK flourished].

“The stage manager said, ‘Ted, it’s harder to hit a moving target, so keep moving.’ So when I went on I was all over that stage,” he says. “The review came out and it said the guy playing Hud was a fantastic ball of energy—but they named the actor who left the show. It was the best review I ever got and it was under someone else’s name.”

Could there be a revival of the television series: Love Boat 2020?

“Yes, because the cruise business has really changed, but you’ve got to real about what’s really going on in the world. Too often people get nostalgic and they go back instead of dealing with what’s going on today,” he says. “It’s all about the writing. It has to be rooted in the truth otherwise it’s just a rehash.”

Ted Lange will star in Christmas on the Rocks at TheaterWorks in Hartford, Sunday, Dec. 1 to Monday, Dec. 23.