The Love Boat’s Fred Grandy Says Lauren Tewes ‘Was a Victim of Circumstance’ Being Fired for Drug Addiction

• Love Boat stars Fred Grandy, Bernie Kopell, Ted Lange and Jill Whelan reunited on Princess Cruises’ Love Boat Celebration at Sea that left out of Brooklyn, N.Y. on Aug. 31 and stopped in New England and Canada throughout the seven-night sailing
• Lauren Tewes, who played cruise director Julie McCoy on The Love Boat, got written off the show due to her cocaine addiction
• Though Tewes did not participate in the cruise, Whelan said during a Q&A on board that Tewes “is a sister to all of us”

The Love Boat ran for 10 seasons, but cruise director Julie McCoy, played by Lauren Tewes, disembarked after season 7, being written off due to her public struggle with cocaine addiction.

Tewes, 70, got sober, but she did not participate in Princess Cruises’ latest Love Boat at Sea Celebration, which saw stars Fred Grandy, Bernie Kopell, Ted Lange and Jill Whelan reunite on the Enchanted Princess cruise ship for a seven-night sailing out of New York City beginning on Aug. 31. But fans didn’t forget about Tewes, and when one brought her up during the Love Boat: Behind the Scenes Stories panel on Friday, Sept. 6, the cast had nothing but kind words to say about her.

“We should talk about our pal, who is a sister to all of us,” Whelan, 57, told the crowd of Tewes. “She’s just a very genuine, sweet human being, and by the way, a spectacular actress. I mean, I even look back at The Love Boat episodes and I just marvel at her and her ability to move so effortlessly between doing a dramatic scene and comedy. But she is one of our favorite people and we adore her.”

Grandy, 76, shared with the audience in the Princess Theater that Tewes came to see him, Lange, 76, and Whelan in the play I’m Not Rappaport that they did together in Michigan earlier this year. “She came and watched two nights of the show,” the former politician, who played purser Burl “Gopher” Smith on The Love Boat, said. “It was lovely.”

Lange, a self-proclaimed “Shakespeare buff,” recalled doing a production of The Taming of the Shrew with Tewes. “We had a ball,” he said.

Whelan said she sees Tewes regularly. “She will fly to my house and we’ll spend the weekend together cooking and just laughing and sharing stories all the time,” the former child star explained.

Today, Grandy marvels at The Love Boat’s “continued durability” and “its increasing popularity,” which already inspired another Love Boat Celebration at Sea, slated to leave from Galveston, Texas on the Regal Princess in November 2025.

“You can see the synergy between the popularity of the show and the enormous appeal of cruising, which has probably been one of the most harmonious business partnerships in the history of commerce,” Grandy said. “I find astonishing is that it’s the show that refuses to die. It’s like The Walking Dead with piña coladas.”

ABC and TV critics alike didn’t think The Love Boat would take off. “Nobody gave this, what we used to say out in Iowa, a fart in a whirlwind’s chance,” Grandy said. “But after about the third week, we thought, ‘Oh my God, we’re onto something.’ Because our ratings were sky high. All of a sudden we were not just a cruise ship, we were a battleship. By the second or third year, we knew it was not only going to run, it was going to go around the world. It happened at warp speed.”

Grandy and his castmates hosted meet and greets with fans throughout their time on the Enchanted Princess, but they also happily greeted guests and snapped selfies with them while meandering around the ship or its stops in Boston, Maine and Canada. Grandy even popped in for drinks with some fans at an Irish pub in Saint John, New Brunswick.

“I had been walking around town and was coming back to the ship and I passed this Irish pub called O’Leary’s,” he recalled. “There were some very nice passengers in there getting totally hammered, and they came out and dragged me into that bar, and I spent another hour drinking with them.”

Along with show-themed activities like Love Boat trivia, a cocktail demonstration with Love Boat bartender Lange and a vow renewal ceremony hosted by Whelan, guests on board the Enchanted Princess from Aug. 31-Sept. 7 could also take advantage of the ship’s specialty dining experiences, including a meal of fresh seafood at The Catch by Rudi, a steak dinner at Crown Grill or an intimate, immersive seven-course meal at 360, where Brooke Shields shares signature dishes from some of Europe’s most popular destinations while engaging all five senses. Additional entertainment on board the Love Boat Celebration at Sea sailing included comedy from Quinn Beasley, aka The Mighty Quinn, Gary Delena and Eric Buss, as well as a staging of the musical Rock Opera.

“I was surprised at how much of a culture it becomes for people,” Grandy said of cruising. “I’ve met people on these things that are on their 67th cruise. There are people that live to come on these. They’re already anticipating doing another one of these out of Galveston next year, so I think as long as we’re upright, they’ll keep trying to do this.”