Few shows captured the easygoing optimism of network television in the 1970s like "The Love Boat." The man who helped set it in motion has died.

The show that set sail

Wilford Lloyd Baumes — known throughout his career as Bud — developed the three television-movie pilots that led ABC to launch "The Love Boat" as a weekly series in 1977, The Hollywood Reporter reported. Based on Jeraldine Saunders's book about her life as a cruise director, the show ran nine seasons, until 1986, turning a cruise ship into one of the most recognizable settings in American pop culture and building each episode around a rotating carousel of guest stars. The series itself was produced by Aaron Spelling and Douglas S. Cramer.

He was 86. A Cincinnati funeral home announced his death on June 28; no cause was given, Deadline reported. His family asked that donations be directed to the Alzheimer's Association.

From Cincinnati to Hollywood

Born in 1939 and raised in the Cincinnati area, Baumes studied design and served in the Navy before making his way into television in the early 1970s. His early credits included work on the CBS comedy "Bridget Loves Bernie" and, as an associate producer, the landmark 1974 ABC miniseries "QB VII," adapted from the Leon Uris novel and among the first American television miniseries.

The superhero years

Before "The Love Boat" became a weekly fixture, Baumes was an executive producer on "The New Original Wonder Woman," the 1975 ABC telefilm starring Lynda Carter that relaunched the DC Comics heroine and led to a series running until 1979. His television-movie work in the era also included several issue-driven dramas typical of the period.

A lasting formula

For all the range in his career, it is "The Love Boat" that fixed his place in television history. Its formula — regular ensemble, guest-star cameos, overlapping romances against a sunny backdrop — proved widely influential, and its Jack Jones theme song remains instantly familiar decades later. Baumes spent his later years in Santa Barbara. He is survived by a nephew and niece and their families.