The ’70s and ’80s TV favoriteThe 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.
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“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, who’s also appeared in TV shows such as Maude and The Mindy Project, 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, whose later work included Who’s the Boss?, My Two Dads, and Martin, said in the series. “I was a woman, so I was blacklisted for that.”
Cocaine had cost Tewes not only her job, but her home and even more money, she told TV Guide in a March 1985 interview (via UPI).
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“I wanted to be one of the gang. I am ashamed to say it, but it’s true,” Tewes said. “The first time I took cocaine, I had just gotten the job on The Love Boat, and I was on my way to a party. My date said, ‘Let’s do drugs.’ And I said, ‘What the heck?'”
She described the feeling it gave her as “incredible euphoria.”
“You think you are fine,” she said. “You think you are stronger, braver. I thought it gave me the courage I missed. It was like going to Oz and asking for courage, but instead, I got cocaine.”
The Love Boat originally aired for 10 seasons, from 1977 to 1987, but it’s still around in reruns like other shows featured in the docuseries, such as The Brady Bunch, I Love Lucy, and The Honeymooners.
TV We Love airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on the CW.
