The Lord has spoken to Gavin MacLeod of TV's The Love Boat. Providing Gavin with inspiration for a speech to an audience of Christians, the Lord made Gavin aware of the real meaning of his show's theme song. "If you listen to the lyrics, it's all about Jesus," Gavin said recently on the American Family Association's radio show, Today's Issues. He provided a new reading of the song's lyrics: "Love, exciting and new, come aboard / He's expecting you." Gavin changed the original wording ("We're expecting you") to focus on the Jesus connection ("He's expecting you"). I assume that he received the Lord's permission to change the words. "It's a whole new approach to that song," Gavin revealed. "The Lord didn't tell me about that until how many years we were off the air."
It is astonishing how born-again Christians like Gavin can view familiar things in completely new, unexpected ways. I had always thought The Love Boat was a simple show about finding love on the high seas, but Gavin has made me reevaluate my naïve understanding. When I first reread lyrics like "Love, life's sweetest reward / Let it flow" and "Love won't hurt anymore," they sounded vaguely pornographic to me, but that is probably because I am gay and Gavin's Lord does not speak to me.
Inspired, I decided to hear the world through Gavin's ears while listening to other TV theme songs of the 1970s. A logical place to start: The Mary Tyler Moore Show, another show that starred Gavin MacLeod. This show appears to be about a plucky, independent woman, because its theme song goes like this: "Who can take a nothing day and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile? / Well, it's you, girl, and you should know it." But if we just make one little switcheroo (as the Lord allowed Gavin to do with The Love Boat theme) and change the line to "Well, it's you, God, and you should know it," it becomes clear that the theme to The Mary Tyler Moore Show is about Jesus Christ.
The popular '70s show Three's Company started with these inspirational lyrics: "Come and knock on our door / We've been waiting for you / Where the kisses are hers and hers and his / Three's company too." Obviously, this is about the Holy Trinity.
How about Happy Days? Remember those rockin' lyrics? "Sunday, Monday, happy days / Tuesday, Wednesday, happy days." These words could easily be changed to "Sunday, Sunday, happy days / Sunday, Sunday, happy days" to make us aware that the Lord's day, Sunday, is indeed a happy day.
The Laverne and Shirley theme song starts with "Schlemiel, Schlimazel." These are Yiddish words. I do not really know how to interpret them, but I assume that Gavin's Lord would have a field day reinterpreting that song for us.
One of the catchiest tunes of 1970s TV went like this: "Baby, if you've ever wondered / Wondered whatever became of me / I'm living on the air in Cincinnati / Cincinatti WKRP." Can this song be about Jesus? Probably. "Wonder" and "air" can be related to Jesus, right? And maybe WKRP is an acronym for something godly? I am not sure, but the Lord must leave us some mysteries, I suppose.
The theme song to Maude appears to be a feminist anthem that mentions Lady Godiva, Joan of Arc, and Betsy Ross, and ending with the repetitive "And then there's Maude / And then there's Maude." But if we just change "Maude" to "God," it becomes all about Jesus Christ: "And then there's God / And then there's God / And then there's God / And then there's God."
Praise the Lord that He hath spoken through Gavin MacLeod and allowed us all to see that 1970s theme songs are really inspirational tunes all about Jesus Christ!