E!'s newest show matches singles, celebrities

NEW YORK -- Love may have been exciting and new when "The Love Boat" ruled Saturday nights in the 1970s and '80s.

Now, the actress who played Capt. Stubing's daughter is among the stars on the latest blind date show trying to prove it's just as exciting -- if not new -- to watch strangers struggle for small talk over Cobb salad.

Jill Whelan -- Vicki from "The Love Boat" -- is one of the celebrities on "Star Dates," which matches stars and singles with mixed results. The series premieres at 9:30 p.m. today on E! Entertainment Television.

You're thinking, another dating show?! And you're right. Between "Blind Date," "Shipmates," "Dismissed," "Elimidate," "EX-treme Dating," "Taildaters," "The 5th Wheel" and the biggest of all, "The Bachelor," there's no shortage of this genre.

You're also thinking, another celebrity reality show?! And you're right again. Between "The Osbournes," "Cribs" and "Diary" on MTV, and E!'s own "Anna Nicole Show," there's no shortage of stars willing to share the most intimate details of their lives on camera.

"Star Dates" combines the fly-on-the-wall element of those programs with the where-are-they-now nostalgia factor. Besides Whelan, Gary Coleman from "Diff'rent Strokes," Dustin Diamond from "Saved By the Bell" and Kim Fields from "The Facts of Life" go looking for love.

The first episode features Butch Patrick, who played Eddie Munster on "The Munsters" from 1964 to '66. (Without the widow's peak and pasty skin from his child actor days, you'd never recognize him -- he has wavy reddish hair and freckles.)

Now 49, Patrick splits his time between making appearances at nostalgia conventions and working as a consultant on haunted houses at Halloween. Having just gotten out of a six-year relationship, he says he's "looking for someone to fill the emptiness that I have at the moment."

He has a great time with Bachelorette No. 1, Lisa Marie Bolick. They go to a psychic book store together, where a tarot card reader tells them, "I get a real spiritual connection between the two of you."

That explains how they end up playing footsie in a hot tub later that night.

"Butch is, like, a really, really cool guy," the buxom blond Bolick tells the camera.

Patrick's reaction: "This would be a nice person I'd like to have a relationship with -- a physical relationship with."

But Bachelorette No. 2, Eden Byrd, is less impressed after meeting him for their date at a county fair, where he's autographing glossy black-and-white photos for $10 apiece.

"My first impression was, like, this is a (bleeping) joke," Byrd confesses, scrunching up her face. "The whole thing blew me away -- it was too much."

Patrick's take on the date: "She's kind of a wacko of sorts, but a nice wacko."

E!'s vice president of development, Kary McHoul, said everyone's had that kind of disastrous blind date, and that's why so many of these shows exist.

"I think it's relatable, and that's what people like, whether they're watching a mean-spirited dating show and they can laugh, or one like this where there's a twist," McHoul said.

The cable channel's talent bookers worked the phones to find actors to participate.