"You can't have drama without the spark and energy of a villain, otherwise you violate the laws of drama," Gordon Thomson explained. Michael Zaslow added, "A hero, too, must be able to find the dark side of his character." Of Shakespeare's Iago, it was explained, "We see in this man someone who is after power, and will use any means of manipulation to get what he wants." Louise Sorel insisted, "I don't think you can have a successful soap without at least one...woman viewers love to hate. Without her, the soap is in big trouble...Television, especially the prime time soaps, is opening up to women writers, producers and directors who are insisting that women should be portrayed as multi-dimensional characters."
Gordon reasoned, "Antagonists are the keystone of prime time soaps and it helps if you look like a good guy." Michael maintained, "Some people, for whatever reason perhaps something that happened in their childhood – allow those darker traits to become dominant." Gordon argued, "Some men and women are born amoral or rotten...there’s something missing in their makeup...On ('Dynasty') it is a matter of angels versus devils. What surprises me is the number of viewers who are on the side of the devils rather than the angels." Jane Elliot theorized, "It's actually easier to be bad. You have a hundred options on how to play mean and conniving. It's easier to cheat humanity than to serve it."
Morgan Fairchild recounted, "If you stick around long enough, everything comes back. It is like all of my clothes from the '60s, '70s, '80s – I just hold onto them and they come back...In Hollywood, it's always 'We need a bitch; let's get Morgan'. Or, 'It's a blonde glamor role. How about Fairchild?' I've made a good living with such parts." Susan Lucci shared, "I never ask what's going to happen in the future because the writers always do so well by me...The acting is important but the writing comes first. Characters have to be written so that they're credible. The stories have to be there for the actors to work with. The play is definitely the thing, and when the stories are well told, the audience will accept them. Maggie in 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' and Cleopatra in 'Caesar and Cleopatra' and Blanche in 'Streetcar'...Anything by William Inge, or Shakespeare, or Tennessee Williams or Eugene O’Neill. I feel these playwrights created some of the best parts for women." On 'Dawson's Creek', the character Eve "sort of took the show to a darker, harder, edgier place and a lot of what works about the show is the hopefulness and the emotional bonding of the characters." 'Melrose Place', Darren Star disclosed, "We schedule these shows like Chinese jigsaw puzzles." Susan believed, "Fantasy is part of dreaming and hoping and that's part of the reality of human nature."
Marvin Rosenberg, it had been said, "His books are deservedly familiar to every scholar of Shakespearean acting in the world."
