Tonight at 8 pm EST, the CW will air a TV We Love episode about The Love Boat!

https://www.channelguidemag.com/tv-news/2025/10/27/monday-oct-27-cw-tv-we-love-the-love-boat/

"The Love Boat" Actor Shares his Big Regret after Co-star was Fired over Using Cocaine
by Raechal Shewfelt
October 27, 2025


The '70s and '80s TV favorite "The Love Boat" sailed on without original actress Lauren Tewes in 1984.

Tewes, who had played cruise director Julie McCoy, since the series debuted in 1977, returned for a handful of episodes in the dramedy's final two seasons in 1986 and 1987. But she wasn't the mainstay on the series that she'd once been after being dropped for her cocaine use. She later revealed that she had struggled with addiction, which was treated much differently at the time.




Fred Grandy, the actor who played Burl "Gopher" Smith, the ship's purser, on the first nine seasons of the ABC show, wishes he had reacted differently to what was happening.

"My one regret about her situation was that I never really came forward and defended and supported her in a way that we should have," he said Monday on The CW's docuseries TV We Love, per PEOPLE. "So there is some regret there, at least as far as I'm concerned."




Grandy explained that the production was a very good time, particularly after it began traveling.

"The third season, they began to say, 'Why not the world?'" he said. "'Why don't we go to Australia? Why don't we go to Greece and the Mediterranean? Why don't we go to England and Norway and Copenhagen and places like that?' And eventually, 'Why don't we become the first show to ever go to China?'"

Grandy recalled that "there was a disco on every ship, and they'd usually be filled at night. There was a casino." He added, "Let's face it, this is a business where a lot of people use controlled substances in one way, shape, or form."




But it wasn't all fun for Tewes, who was trying to handle it all, including her addiction.

"It was a different time," Tewes said in the series. "I was a woman, so I was blacklisted for that."

https://ew.com/the-love-boat-actor-shares-regret-after-costar-fired-for-cocaine-use-11838263

Shame on them not mentioning Vicki at all. She was on the show a lot longer than Ted McGinley and the mermaids. :rolleyes: