Ted Lange recently got candid and revealed that he was often treated as an afterthought by the creators of The Love Boat.
For those unaware, the 77-year-old American actor and director played the role of Isaac Washington in The Love Boat and was the only black guy in the 1976 sitcom.
While conversing with PEOPLE magazine after setting sail on Princess Cruises’ Love Boat Celebration at Sea, Lange reminisced about the time he spent on the set of the romantic comedy-drama television series, which was created by Wilford Lloyd Baumes.
He opened up to the outlet about facing “racism” while portraying bartender Washington because of being “the only Black guy on a White show” and admitted that his costars supported him during the tough time.
The Friday Foster star recalled, “Sometimes they would short shrift you, and by that, I mean they were concentrated on the white characters and they'd give you leftovers. And then my whole job was to make it equitable – just make it equitable.”
Lange highlighted that the white characters did the opening “welcome aboard” sequence and the closing farewell in the first season of The Love Boat.
“And so I went to the producers, I said, ‘How come I'm not in this?’ They said, ‘What are you worried about? You're doing this and you're doing that.’ I said, ‘No, no, no, it's not equitable,’” he shared, remembering.
It seemed that the producers shrugged off his concerns but “underneath, it was racism” that made them brush off his queries, according to the Blade alum.
"They said, 'Well, what would you be doing there?' I said, 'What's the captain doing there? The captain should be on the bridge. What's the doc doing there? He should be in sickbay. If you have enough creative imagination to write those guys in, you can do it for me,'" Ted Lange evoked.