1 hour ago, DeeVee said:

He set her up! It was a very sh!tty thing he did to her. It had to do with some phony emerald mine. Alan ended up blaming her and believing she colluded with Phillip to get him out of Spaulding.

I actually wish more of that story were up. Phillip's scheme to get Alan out of the company involved setting up a fake merger with Lewis and that fake emerald mine. The fake merger ends up scuttling the HB/Alex romance (well, no biggie), but I don't quite get the mechanics of it. Or how Alan had kicked both Phillip and Alex out on his '86 return.

2 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I always thought Josh was kind of a prick, but they didn't openly admit this, so the lack of friends does stand out. I suppose this is a consequence of being so tied to all-consuming Reva.

I'm actually surprised they didn't have any stories where a long-lost friend tries to bed Reva.

snort ... well, technically, Ed's kinda a prick too, but he had Ross.

They might've given Josh some long lost friend who tried to bed Reva....if the show hadn't been so obsessed with making all of the Josh/Reva conflict Reva stories.

33 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I always thought Josh was kind of a prick, but they didn't openly admit this, so the lack of friends does stand out. I suppose this is a consequence of being so tied to all-consuming Reva.

I'm actually surprised they didn't have any stories where a long-lost friend tries to bed Reva.

When Josh was first introduced, he was a total creep. Later, he had Billy to talk to as a friend, even when they were in conflict.

The lack of friendships on soaps becomes REALY obvious every time there's a wedding. Who's going to stand up with the bride and groom? It gets awkward sometimes. If they have a sibling of the same sex, no problem. Sometimes they have no one because they can't scrape anyone up.

I saw a picture a while back of Alan and Beth's wedding. RICK was Alan's best man!

WHAT? WHY?

Because he has no friends, and in this situation he couldn't ask Phillip.

But even so...that is SO weird. Like couldn't they have invented a golfing or racquetball buddy for Alan to stand up for him?

21 minutes ago, P.J. said:

I actually wish more of that story were up. Phillip's scheme to get Alan out of the company involved setting up a fake merger with Lewis and that fake emerald mine. The fake merger ends up scuttling the HB/Alex romance (well, no biggie), but I don't quite get the mechanics of it. Or how Alan had kicked both Phillip and Alex out on his '86 return.

I wonder if the scab writers even knew. They had Phillip do a lot of yelling during this period, maybe to cover up the fact that not much that was going on made sense.

Yeah, Alan comes back after two years of faking his death, running away from the Federalistas, then setting up an art smuggling ring in Europe, before easily waltzing right back into Spaulding.

I know white collar criminals get away with a lot, but I'm supposed to believe the stockholders would be O.K. with this? Uh-uh.

The ONE thing they explained was that Alex had a tape of Alan confessing to the Dreaming Death caper. That's how she forced him out in the first place. She planned to use it to keep him out of Spaulding when he returned. She was practically having an aneurysm over it. But like an idiot, she taped over it, and by doing that had nothing to hold over Alan's head anymore.

(1986 was such a baaaad year).

12 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

When Josh was first introduced, he was a total creep. Later, he had Billy to talk to as a friend, even when they were in conflict.

But even so...that is SO weird. Like couldn't they have invented a golfing or racquetball buddy for Alan to stand up for him?

I wonder if the scab writers even knew. They had Phillip do a lot of yelling during this period, maybe to cover up the fact that not much that was going on made sense.

Yeah, Alan comes back after two years of faking his death, running away from the Federalistas, then setting up an art smuggling ring in Europe, before easily waltzing right back into Spaulding.

I know white collar criminals get away with a lot, but I'm supposed to believe the stockholders would be O.K. with this? Uh-uh.

The ONE thing they explained was that Alex had a tape of Alan confessing to the Dreaming Death caper. That's how she forced him out in the first place. She planned to use it to keep him out of Spaulding when he returned. She was practically having an aneurysm over it. But like an idiot, she taped over it, and by doing that had nothing to hold over Alan's head anymore.

(1986 was such a baaaad year).

I'm not even positive Billy was ever Josh's best man at any of his weddings. Even the big Cross Creek one.

re: Alan---or even some skunk lawyer.

I knew about the tape Alex had that blackmailed Alan out...I didn't realize there was such a sloppy explanation of what happened to it. Couldn't Alan at least have stolen it back?

Yes, '86 is a bad year. The year of the summer camp. SMH.

14 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

I wonder if the scab writers even knew. They had Phillip do a lot of yelling during this period, maybe to cover up the fact that not much that was going on made sense.

Yeah, Alan comes back after two years of faking his death, running away from the Federalistas, then setting up an art smuggling ring in Europe, before easily waltzing right back into Spaulding.

I know white collar criminals get away with a lot, but I'm supposed to believe the stockholders would be O.K. with this? Uh-uh.

The ONE thing they explained was that Alex had a tape of Alan confessing to the Dreaming Death caper. That's how she forced him out in the first place. She planned to use it to keep him out of Spaulding when he returned. She was practically having an aneurysm over it. But like an idiot, she taped over it, and by doing that had nothing to hold over Alan's head anymore.

(1986 was such a baaaad year).

Wasn't the story started before the strike? I remember during Amanda's visit in December 1987, Phillip was asking for her voting shares.

I think the story got warped/ended quickly because of the strike. It caused the end of Chelsea's relationship with Phillip, caused the end of Phillips friendship with Reva, and caused him to hook up with Meredith eventually when she was on the outs with Rick.

Watching even more of the strike episodes, it's funny that Blake is basically a floater character hanging with Johnny, trading barbs with Chelsea, working with Phillip, friendly with Alex (that doesn't last LOL), and even getting Fletcher/Maeve to be leery of her. In addition to her random phone calls and going to a playground a lot in a sad mood. Not only viewers were curious she is was, but as it turned out.. Pam Long was curious as well as the scab writers LOL

The Sonni story was confusing, but I think it made it more interesting. And after doing some research, it is plausible for Sonni could realistically be played by Michelle Forbes and be Venezuelan. After all, Venezuela has around 40 to 45 % white people of European descent and it's possible maybe Sonni's family might have been European and adapted to the culture hence the father's name and Solita's name.. while Sonni could be an ancestral name from Europe.

I say this because my father was born to European descended individuals and lived there till he was 14/15 years old before he came to the United States.. and he had a European name, but knew Portuguese and English.

17 minutes ago, Soaplovers said:

And after doing some research, it is plausible for Sonni could realistically be played by Michelle Forbes and be Venezuelan. After all, Venezuela has around 40 to 45 % white people of European descent and it's possible maybe Sonni's family might have been European and adapted to the culture hence the father's name and Solita's name.. while Sonni could be an ancestral name from Europe.

Forbes is Latina. I believe she is Mexican-American.

Joe Breen, no. But there were a lot of Irish people who settled around Latin America. So not crazy (though he should have been able to pronounce the name Guillermo correctly, lol).

After the Haitian revolution the Spanish crown wanted to avoid more uprisings, so they encouraged Catholic Europeans to settle in Puerto Rico and Cuba. This is why a lot of people there have Irish, French, and Italian surnames. Some probably ended up in other parts of South America as a result.

How do I know this? My father's family is from Puerto Rico. When we did the Ancestry thing, we found out we were mostly Italian/French descent because our family came from Corsica. We looked up the history. They were part of that migration.

I hadn't checked out the vault in a while, there are some new uploads. A couple are from May '83, one of which is Vanessa getting blackmailed by her PI, which I'd only seen in German...so YAY! There's always hope more will show up.

9 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

Wasn't the story started before the strike? I remember during Amanda's visit in December 1987, Phillip was asking for her voting shares.

I think the story got warped/ended quickly because of the strike. It caused the end of Chelsea's relationship with Phillip, caused the end of Phillips friendship with Reva, and caused him to hook up with Meredith eventually when she was on the outs with Rick.

Yes, the takeover is starting the fall of '87, as Reva works her way into Alan's orbit, setting Vanessa's teeth on edge and pissing off Alex. Phillip decides to be a "good little Spaulding" and take his lumps by working in Spaulding's publicity department. Alan hires Reva, but Vanessa is trying to get her out--Reva's contract needs to be approved by the board. Vanessa is sure Alex and Phillip with vote with her--but they end up voting with Alan to lull him into thinking he's secure in the chair. Alan and Vanessa's engagement almost puts a roadblock up (as Henry/Vanessa would vote as a block and keep Alan in control) but Van dumps Alan, and Henry gets Van to sign over her proxy to him. Henry knows Alan's bs'ing him about the broken engagement (telling him they will plan a wedding when Van is back) and Alex has alerted HB to the fact Alan is kissing Reva while engaged to Van. (HB of course, seems more concerned about "poor little Reva" who's knowingly kissing up Alan than Vanessa, who appears to be in the dark about all that....but I digress...)

There's not a lot up in the vault from Jan-Feb-March '88, when the plan is coming together. There's episodes up around Phillip actually pulling it off though. I think the strike was from March to August, iirc.

12 hours ago, P.J. said:

I'm not even positive Billy was ever Josh's best man at any of his weddings. Even the big Cross Creek one.

I was gone all weekend with friends and just catching up. I'm now at Reva/Josh's wedding! They never explicitly named a best man or maid of honor (probably because of this very thing we're talking about), but Billy was there standing with Josh along with Bill, Dylan and Rusty. I remember during Josh's wedding to Annie, Matt was his best man (they actually seem to be friends here and there since they also work together).

@DRW50 - what was the Lorelei book you were talking about? Is that a real book or something in a storyline?

13 minutes ago, alwaysAMC said:

@DRW50 - what was the Lorelei book you were talking about? Is that a real book or something in a storyline?

https://www.amazon.com/Loreleis-Guiding-Light-Intimate-Diary/dp/0312308329

Not posting the link as a suggestion to buy from there - if you are interested there are other outlets and I believe it is also free on Internet Archive.

I should warn this is a story you haven't seen yet - you're about 2-3 years off.

22 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

https://www.amazon.com/Loreleis-Guiding-Light-Intimate-Diary/dp/0312308329

Not posting the link as a suggestion to buy from there - if you are interested there are other outlets and I believe it is also free on Internet Archive.

I should warn this is a story you haven't seen yet - you're about 2-3 years off.

Oh wow, well that's cool they did something like this. Even written by Beth C! Some of those reviews though are ouch LOL.

2 hours ago, alwaysAMC said:

I was gone all weekend with friends and just catching up. I'm now at Reva/Josh's wedding! They never explicitly named a best man or maid of honor (probably because of this very thing we're talking about), but Billy was there standing with Josh along with Bill, Dylan and Rusty. I remember during Josh's wedding to Annie, Matt was his best man (they actually seem to be friends here and there since they also work together).

@DRW50 - what was the Lorelei book you were talking about? Is that a real book or something in a storyline?

I think the '02 wedding, Marah and Shayne stand up with their parents. I'm not exactly sure when Josh's wedding to Annie is--Billy might still be in jail.

I think the Lorelei book kicked off P&G's brief foray into tie-in books.

1 minute ago, P.J. said:

I think the '02 wedding, Marah and Shayne stand up with their parents. I'm not exactly sure when Josh's wedding to Annie is--Billy might still be in jail.

He was.

On 3/28/2026 at 1:57 PM, DeeVee said:

So, there's a thread going on right now about soap set feuds, and people are spilling the tea.

It turns out Beverlee McKinsey really disliked Michael Zaslow and they hated working together.

I was so shocked by this, I hunted down the interview, and yeah, IT'S TRUE.

(It's a corker of an interview, btw, Bev also tells what happened when she walked out on GL).

This is the first page with the GL exit story:

https://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/wanted-gls-beverlee-mckinsey-0/

And this one has the part where she talks about not liking MZ:

https://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/wanted-gls-beverlee-mckinsey-page-2-0/

ALSO INTERESTING: she names being on the island with Fletcher as one of her favorite storylines. Apparently, she was good friends with Jay Hammer.

I don't know. I was never a fan of Alex and Fletch together. I don't remember them being popular with the audience. Amazing the different opinions actors can have from the audience.

Thanks for linking these! Interesting reads. I hope I'm not crucified by saying this, but she kind of seems like a... well, a lot to deal with haha. I at least wish she had more respect for GL or enjoyed working there. I know she didn't like the grueling work schedule, but it would have been nice to have her back at least as a cameo somehow for the fans, but she clearly wasn't interested.

26 minutes ago, P.J. said:

I think the '02 wedding, Marah and Shayne stand up with their parents. I'm not exactly sure when Josh's wedding to Annie is--Billy might still be in jail.

I think the Lorelei book kicked off P&G's brief foray into tie-in books.

Yep, he was. Josh/Annie got married in Dec 1995 and Billy came back briefly in Sept 1996 and then again in Jan 1997 after being released. Reading my recaps of Dec 1995 - gosh that was such good soap opera for me! Josh/Annie are married in a snowstorm, Alex realizes Reva is alive and rushes to the wedding and announces it to everyone, showing the CCTV footage of Reva/Buzz dancing at the diner... then Josh leaves his wedding and comes face to face with Reva on Alan's plane... all while Marian attacks Susan at the boarding house in the shower, Psycho-style. What a time to be alive! Haha.

3 minutes ago, alwaysAMC said:

Thanks for linking these! Interesting reads. I hope I'm not crucified by saying this, but she kind of seems like a... well, a lot to deal with haha. I at least wish she had more respect for GL or enjoyed working there. I know she didn't like the grueling work schedule, but it would have been nice to have her back at least as a cameo somehow for the fans, but she clearly wasn't interested.

Beverlee McKinsey GL run was 1984-1992. She acted only once after leaving GL, a short arc on General Hospital in 1994. Beverlee passed away May 2, 2008, a little over a year before GL ended.