Part 1 of 2. A Hollywood movie company is filming a musical, called "Dream Boat", on board the ship, with plans to use both crew and passengers as extras. Starlet Shelley Rush (
Melba Moore) desperately wants to audition for the production crew but can't seem to get their attention. Merrill (
Gavin MacLeod) falls for faded star Angela Lovett (
Alexis Smith), while Vicki (
Jill Whelan) is enamored of her son, Johnny Lovett (
James A. Osmond), a rock star who has never acted before, is very apprehensive about his debut, and takes it out on Vicki, by being rude to her. Julie (
Lauren Tewes) is pursued by the movie's producer, Marty Chenault (
Dean Jones), the older brother of Jack Chenault (
Tony Roberts), whom Julie almost married; the movie's director, Bennett Barton (
Ben Vereen) tries to keep his star, Faye Marsh (
Juliet Prowse), happy at Doc's (
Bernie Kopell) expense.