Whelan, who was a teenager on the popular series, said the idea was to embarrass her into slimming down

Love Boat star Jill Whelan says producer tried to trick her into losing weight

Whelan, who was a teenager on the popular series, said the idea was to embarrass her into slimming down

By Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt is a writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2024. Her work has previously appeared on Yahoo and in American *Journalism Review* and *The Shreveport Times*.

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April 29, 2026 6:57 p.m. ET

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Jill Whelan on 'The Love Boat' in 1984. Credit:

ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

- Actress Jill Whelan played young Vicki Stubing on *The* *Love Boat *between 1978 and 1987.

- A teen at the time, Whelan recalls a producer tricking her during wardrobe fittings so she would feel pressured into weight loss.

- Whelan, who's now 59, remembers being on a 400 calorie-a-day diet around the same time.

Actress Jill Whelan treasures the relationships she formed while making classic TV series *The Love Boat* — mostly.

But she feels differently about late producer Douglas S. Cramer, whom she remembers as "a misogynist."

She recalled a particularly cruel move that involved her and fellow actress Lauren Tewes in a resurfaced interview on Steve Kmetko's *Still Here Hollywood** *podcast.

"We would come to a wardrobe fitting at a new season," Whelan said, "to get new uniforms and new evening gowns and new loungewear, and he would call the wardrobe department and tell them to buy everything one or two sizes smaller than we are so that we would come in and be embarrassed in fittings about things not fitting."

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Cramer, one of the producers on *The Love Boat*, died in June 2021. He was an accomplished producer, with credits including *Dynasty*, *Hotel*, and *Wonder Woman*.

Whelan played Vicki Stubing, the daughter of Gavin MacLeod's Capt. Merrill Stubing, between 1978 and 1987, on the popular dramedy. During that time, she went from an 11-year-old kid to a young adult.

So, yeah, her body changed.

"I remember one time, and at that particular time I was going through puberty, and it's, you know, things happen in puberty," Whelan said. "I had gone to a fat farm, or I guess you would say today a spa. I went to a spa in Ojai and I had lost some weight and I was also working with some crazy doctor who had me on 400 calories a day."

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She looked back at another difficult moment on the ABC series earlier this month.

"I remember one time when I was just 13 and quote unquote becoming a woman, the very day of," Whelan said on the *Patrick Labyor Sheaux With Patrick Labyorteaux**,* "and I was doing a scene with Loni Anderson, and we were in the purser's lobby, and I used to get everything in one take. I didn't mess up like that. And I couldn't get this line out. I couldn't get it out."

Whelan in 2024.

Rocket Weijers/Getty

She started to cry, but her costar Tewes, who portrayed cruise director Julie McCoy, helped her when she "admonished the director and said something to the effect of 'leave her alone, this is not helping her at all, and all you're doing is making things worse.'"

Still, Whelan, who's now 59, has often spoken highly of most of her years on the ABC series and her colleagues.

The star's later career has included appearances on shows such as *Criminal Minds* and *The Bold and the Beautiful*.

Listen to the full conversation between Whelan and Kmetko above.

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