I don't have any stories about Gavin MacLeod. Met him once briefly…no memorable chit-chat…seemed like as nice a man as you'd expect the guy playing Murray Slaughter and Captain Stubing to be. The thing I thought was great about him was how you could divide his acting career up into three acts…
Act One was everything before The Mary Tyler Moore Show. He did dozens of parts (maybe hundreds of parts) on dozens of shows (maybe hundreds of shows)…the all-purpose Day Player. Every so often, he'd be recurring or a way-in-the-background regular like on McHale's Navy or two Hawaii Five-Os. In the later, he played an odd, sick villain character. Did you ever see him play Big Chicken on Five-O? (The original one, that is.) Weird casting. I think they couldn't get Telly Savalas so they picked another bald guy at random. But that was Gavin MacLeod then.
Act Two was The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which was where he changed it up. Before that, he wasn't on anyone's radar…a character actor who probably worked enough to make an okay living but without anyone really knowing who he was. He went in to audition for Lou Grant. He came away with Murray…a key component in one of the most beloved TV shows of all time. I think he worked on it because he, Ed Asner and Ted Knight all had such different relationships with the star. He wasn't the funniest but he was the most human.
Act Three was Love Boat, which probably paid him a lot more. He had no clout or name when he was cast on MTM but he was a big star when he signed aboard that ship. There was a time when even his most supportive agent couldn't have imagined him as toplining a series that ran for nine seasons on network and forever after in syndication. That was after being a supporting (but strong) player on an acclaimed series that ran seven seasons on network and forever after in syndication.
We'll be seeing a lot of Gavin MacLeod on TV forever. As will future generations, long after we're gone. What a nice career for a nice man.