I guess trying to answer the chemistry question is a bit like the old adage about pornography -- it's hard to define, but you know it when you see it.

I think on-screen chemistry is an intangible, undefinable thing, yet it's an element that a TV series can live or die by. It's sometimes quite magical -- you have two actors who show up, do a scene and ... voila, we the viewers feel like voyeurs intruding on an intimate moment. Moonlighting may well be one of the best examples of chemistry in television history. It's in the way they look at each other, it's in their body language, it's in their voices ...they just ooze chemistry.

Maddie and David often had sexual chemistry that could melt your TV screen, scenes in which you could practically smell the pheremones flying around (i.e. when they were dancing in The Son Also Rises, or the "and to all, a good night" kiss in It's a Wonderful Job, or - of course - the big bang). Then other times they had very sweet and tender chemistry, scenes in which their affection for each other was almost tangible (i.e. "No, but I believe *in* you" or "I hate you too, Maddie Hayes. I always have.").

And, with that, I now must succumb to the uncontrollable urge to go watch that scene in "Maddie's Turn to Cry" ... :-)

~~Amy C. (posted on the Moonlighting Discussion List)