Wilford Lloyd Baumes, the television writer who turned a paperback about shipboard romance into one of ABC’s longest-running Saturday-night hits, has died at 86.
Baumes developed comedy-drama “The Love Boat,” which sailed across nine seasons from 1977 to 1987 and made Gavin MacLeod’s Captain Merrill Stubing a household name, The Hollywood Reporter reported. Producer Aaron Spelling ran the series, but Baumes shaped its early pilots.
The series grew out of “The Love Boats,” a 1974 memoir by former cruise director Jeraldine Saunders, according to Looper.
Wilford Lloyd Baumes, ‘Love Boat’ Creator and ‘Wonder Woman,’ ‘QB VII’ Producer, Dies at 86 https://t.co/3BEXqrHkPK
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) July 1, 2026
Earlier in his career, he worked with producer Douglas S. Cramer on the acclaimed Holocaust miniseries “QB VII,” which won seven Emmys. He also produced the first seasons of “Wonder Woman” starring Lynda Carter.
He died June 28 in Cincinnati, according to the Mihovk-Rosenacker Funeral Home. No cause of death was given. (RELATED: ‘Dallas’ Star William Smithers Dead At 98)
Baumes grew up in Amberley Village, Ohio, the son of Dr. Ogden Hayward Baumes and Dorothy Hudson Baumes, his family obituary on Legacy.com states. He spent his later years in Santa Barbara, California, before returning to Cincinnati.
He attended Walnut Hills High School and Denison University, earned a master’s degree in design from the University of California, Berkeley, and served in the Navy, The Hollywood Reporter noted. After leaving Hollywood in the early 1980s, Baumes designed homesteads that appeared in Architectural Digest.
Baumes is survived by his nephew, Lloyd “Ross” Baumes, and his niece, Lee Ann Baumes, Deadline reported. The family asked that donations go to the Alzheimer’s Association.