Real-Life Drama! 10 Secrets & Scandals Of The Soaps

They’re the shows that we tune into for a bit of escapism. But – as this list shows – sometimes the drama that goes on behind-the-scenes of our most beloved soap operas is juicier than the plotlines themselves.

1. Rock Hudson & The Kiss

All other soap scandals pale into insignificance when compared to Rock Hudson’s appearance in Eighties’ soap Dynasty. Shortly before it was revealed in 1985 that the once hunky actor had AIDS, he bemused costars and crew on set by his reluctance to kiss Linda Evans during a passionate love scene. At a time when little was known about the virus, fear mongering began and rumors – which the actress has denied – swirled that she was scared Hudson had given her the deadly disease that eventually killed him.

2. George Peppard

The late actor is best known to a generation as silver-tongued Hannibal from The A Team. But the Breakfast At Tiffany’s star originally signed up to play Blake Carrington in another Eighties hit, Dynasty. After arguing with executives he left the show and John Forsythe – the voice of Charlie in Charlie’s Angels – was hired instead.

3. Sarah Michelle Gellar

Before she was Buffy The Vampire Slayer Sarah Michelle Gellar was a regular on the classic daytime drama All My Children playing Kendall Hart, the long lost daughter of vixen Erica Kane, played by Susan Lucci. But rumor has it the two actresses didn’t get along and Lucci, allegedly, had her onscreen daughter written off the show in 1995.

4. Victoria Rowell

For years they played onscreen rivals Drucilla Winters and Phyllis Summers in The Young and the Restless. But it seems that actresses Victoria Rowell and Michelle Stafford locked horns behind-the-scenes as well. In an interview with Daytime Confidential, Rowell once alleged that Stafford deliberately spat on her while they were filming a heated argument.

5. The Bold and The Tweets

“Don’t get caught up in the chaos.” That’s what Bold and the Beautiful actress Hunter Tylo tweeted to her former costar Katherine Kelly Lang after a Twitter row broke out between their fans in 2012. After one user complained to Lang that Tylo does “nothing 2 stop” her fans spreading “vicious rumors/gossip” about the actress, Lang demanded of her colleague: “Hunter, why don’t you talk to me?”

6. The Young and the (Very) Restless

Onscreen they played rivals Jack Abbott and Victor Newman in The Young and the Restless. But in 1991 rumors circulated that actors Peter Bergman and Eric Braeden came to real life fisticuffs. According to Daytime Confidential the show’s creator had to threaten to fire both stars in order to settle the dispute.

7. Joan Collins v Linda Evans

No episode of Eighties drama Dynasty would have been complete without Alexis and Crystal Carrington rolling around in the mud, trying to scratch each other’s eyes out. The characters’ onscreen rivalry was supposedly matched by the onset tensions between the actresses who played them – Joan Collins and Linda Evans. In 2007, long after the series ended, they costarred in the play Legends. But at the end of the run Collins’ camp accused Evans of getting too physical onstage with the British actress, leaving her with “a sprained knee, a scar on her hand and almost choked to death.”

8. Miss Ellie

Back in the Eighties Dallas had its fair share of cast tensions. At the height of the show’s success the late Larry Hagman was accused of butting heads with veteran actress Donna Reed who replaced Barbara Bel Geddes as Miss Ellie during the 1983-84 season. After she was abruptly fired Reed sued the production company and Hagman later denied squabbling with the star, telling fans in an online interview: “I loved her.”

9. Michael Muhney firing

The most sensational Young and the Restless plotline of recent times apparently happened when the cameras stopped rolling. As RadarOnline.com has reported actor Michael Muhney was abruptly fired in December 2013 following allegations that he groped his costar Hunter King, supposedly fondling the 20-year-old’s breasts on two separate occasions. The actress reportedly threatened to file a police report if the 38-year-old actor wasn’t fired.

10. Eric Braeden v Michael Muhney

In an exclusive interview with RadarOnline.com Eric Braeden claimed that he was “prompted to get into fisticuffs” with former co-star Michael Muhney because he “wanted me off the show.” Braeden claimed the younger star “wanted to be head honcho” and denies trying to get rid of him. The veteran actor said: “We did have our differences but for anyone to say that I had him fired is a lie.”