Remember taking chemistry in high school?  All the students would don their lab coats and start pouring chemicals from one beaker to the next, while hoping that the stuff would change colors, start smoking, or do whatever it was the teacher said it was supposed to do.

    Not every concoction was a winner.  Some would fizzle out and meet their maker down the drain.  But every once in a while the minute one chemical hit the other, the mixture would come to life, smoking and bubbling furiously while everyone looked on and cheered raucously...

    You may not know it but that same magical, wonderful reaction is probably playing out on a screen near you.  It's called "chemistry", and it's the one thing that can't be scripted, can't be faked, and most certainly can't be bought.  That's why it's in such great demand.

    Guiding Light executive producer Jill Farren Phelps knows far too well that without chemistry, you have nothing.
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    It's no secret that every successful soap needs a staple of love stories that transcend time and place.  After all, romance is what soaps are all about.  However when a particular couple clicks in just the right way, and the magazines start referring to them as a "supercouple," that's when you know you're in.
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    Although she hastens that there are always exceptions, Farren Phelps has witnessed the same phenomenon.  "In my experience, people who are truly involved don't (convey) the sexual tension, because they don't really have it.  If you're really having sex, then you have to act less of a familiarity then you really have," she says.  "Sexual tension is one of the things that creates chemistry between two actors who are not involved off-camera...

"That certainly happened with Buzz and Jenna.  That was really not a planned crossover at all.  When Buzz first came to town, something happened at the studio.  I was upstairs watching with the other producers that day and it was just so palpable," she says of the love story that Justin Deas and Fiona Hutchison have created.  "That's the kind of chemistry that happens when you put two good actors together, and watch what happens when they realize how good the other one is.  You begin to see that sort of delight unfold right before your very eyes."
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   "It's not about like and dislike," theorizes Fiona Hutchison, who plays Jenna on GUIDING LIGHT and previously portrayed Gabrielle on OLTL.  "You can dislike someone but still admire them.  If I am impressed by their method of work, I get inspired."  Hutchison believes good chemistry, comes out of good writing.  "Jim DePaiva [Max, OLTL] and I had a scene that was touted as the sexiest scene in 10 years on ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT.  The characters were written that way--young and foolish and straight out of Argentina making love with music and candles!"

    By contrast, Hutchison says that Gabrielle's pairing with Max's brother, Steve, had the opposite effect.  "Russ Anderson and I adored each other, but they didn't write passionate scenes for us.  gabrielle wasn't supposed to be passionate with Steve.  Maybe the chemistry wasn't there, so they didn't write it for us.  I don't really know.

    "Chemistry is a very ethereal thing," concludes Hutchison.  "If there were a formula for it, we would have Luke and Laura on every single show."