Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic Best on-screen chemistry?

I have recently discovered something about my viewing tastes. I rarely watch TV, but when I do, I latch onto a show religiously and with fanaticism. One of the aspects which inspires this sort of devotion in me, that tides me through crappy/ boring plots and storylines through the seasons is the chemistry between the leads.

I don't just mean good chemistry. I mean INCREDIBLE chemistry. I mean chemistry that you couldn't deny even if you hired O.J Simpson'd lawyers and blackmailed the judge. Chemistry so strong that you can't IMAGINE one without the other.

When I say chemistry between the two leads, I don't just mean romantic leads. Here's my list:

Lois and Clark. Considering which board I'm on, I don't think I need to explain this. The way that Teri Hatcher and Dean Cain's palpable chemistry explodes off the screen is something I don't think can be duplicated anytime soon. Frog eating clones, what? How can you STOP yourself watching these two?


Maddie Hayes and David Addison of Moonlighting was the Lois and Clark of the eighties and the first of its kind that I ever watched. I was born too late to do more than watch them in re-runs during my tender prepubescent years, but I do credit them with leaving me primed and prepped for the advent of Lois and Clark into my life. The chemistry between Bruce Willis' rugged charm and Cybill Shephard's cool blonde sophistication wasn't something you'd buy on paper, but was so powerful on the actual screen that it managed to withstand progressively bad writing and production setbacks for a full five seasons and still endures as a cult classic.




Sam and Dean Winchester from Supernatural. My current obsession, and it's not because I am an avid fan of horror and urban legends and muscle cars and guns, either. (Quite the opposite, actually.) It's just that Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles portray the most realistic and three-dimensional sibling relationship on TV, and their brotherly banter and dysfunctional family issues are so well acted that it's easy to forget you're watching a TV show. Interestingly, some fans theorize that they aren't staging the chemistry at all, as Jared and Jensen are reputedly as close as brothers in real life.





Lorelai and Rory Gilmore from Gilmore Girls. This mother-daughter relationship is so idyllic that it's almost unbelievable sometimes, and yet it's a real testament to their believability as mother and daughter that we never think so. The occasional incomprehensibility of their rapid-fire dialogue and pop-culture references aside, what really carries the show is how naturally and seamlessly Lauren Graham and Alexis Bldel play off each other.



Kwai Chang Cain and his son Peter Caine from Kung Fu: The Legend Continues represents the ultimate father-son bonding experience. Long-lost families reuniting is always a significant draw for viewers, dodgy Shaolin powers or not, but couple it with a clash of culture, ethnicity and destiny and you have a winning formula. Played to flawless perfection as by David Carradiene and Chris Potter, this show always held a special place in my heart as a child.



And finally Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny who portrayed a partnership that made pop-culture history in a TV show that created the phenomenon of "mass scale cult hit", where before the terms "mass scale" and "cult hit" were thought by studio execs to be mutually exclusive.



So, what are the TV pairings that you consider the be-all, end-all of their show's success?

ETA: C_A's right. These posts demand pictures!

In no particular order:

Lois and Clark - Ours, of course. Some of the best on-screen chemistry ever. There are many other couples I love, but few have chemistry this good. I'm not talking about heat here, but that connection between them seeming present and real and you just want to see them on-screen together.

Simon and River Tam - Siblings from the show Firefly. They have great, great on-screen chemistry, IMO. I feel that relationship. From the first time they're on the screen together, it's just so powerful. It is one of my favorite relationships (of any sort) that I've ever seen in any fandom.

Paul and Victoria - From the movie A Walk in the Clouds. Not the best movie ever. Heck, I had to look up his character's name. But the chemistry there was just fantastic to me. Rarely does sexual tension actually rate with me. Very rarely. With them it did. I could just feel how much they wanted to touch each other and be together. And their love scene (or would-be love scene, if you prefer) is perhaps one of two love scenes ever where I have actually seen heat and emotion in a love scene. Or either individually, actually.

Kyle Reese and Sarah Connor - From the Terminator movies. It sort of develops along the way. Their love scene is the other one of the two ever. And the cut scene from T2 - makes me mushy inside and I want to cry and it just works so well and wonderfully. I absolutely love them. Hope she doesn't have love interests in the show, because I just couldn't see her wanting anyone else. Recovering and moving on with life is great for some characters (Zoe, from Firefly), but not for her.

That's it for now, but I might think of some others that need to be on my list and come back and add them.

Note: My spelling of some of the names below is horrendous and I don't particularly care at the moment and am not going to look them up ;-).

One show I find I'm LOVING [to the point of spending my bday money to purchase 3 seasons of] is NCIS. The cast works SO well together IMO. I'm sure there are those who would disagree and there's no REAL romantic storylines between the leads but the whole cast really works so well together. The DVD commentaries are some of the best I've heard [two actors/whoever sitting in a studio watching, calling another actor on the cell phone to pick on him about a scene [I think - maybe they just talked about it], rather than the ones like say "Friends" where it's 3 producers recording at different times etc.].

Michael Weatherly [Tony DiNizzo] is hilarious and Pauley Perrette [Abby Sciuto] is FANTASTIC and pulls off the Goth forensic scientist like nobody's business. The only regular I'm only so/so on is the Director of NCIS whose name is escaping me at the moment [character's first name is Jen]. Mark Harmon as Leroy Jethro Gibbs is just perfect. Cote de Pablo is fabulous as the Mossad agent on loan to NCIS [Ziva David] and her problems with English idioms are always good for a giggle [though none are coming to me at the moment of course - okay quick Google search: "beating around the tree", "you look like you've seen a goat", "the poor girl's probably passed on [meant passed out/tired]", "Spic and spam", "shooting fish in a pond", "pork-u-pig [porcupine]", "Does a bear sit in the woods?", etc.]

As for the romantic part... chemistry doesn't have to be romantic. There is some romance on the show, but it tends to focus on the crime fighting aspects of NCIS life. It is MUCH better than CSI, imvho, no comparison.

It's funny but smart funny for the most part. Sure there's the stuff that you would also find in something like Friends where the comedy is blatant and doesn't require a whole lot of thought most of the time or like... the Simpsons? where it's just crass [at least the last few I watched].

Okay - I need to be writing or pass out, one of the two...
Carol

In addition to Dean and Teri...

Michael T. Weiss and Andrea Parker from The Pretender. Their chemistry was so good that you noticed it even though they were rarely in the same scene together . Actually, all the actors/actresses on this show had good chemistry with each other.



Also, Patrick MacNee and Diana Rigg from The Avengers. I think they epitomize the phrase "on screen chemistry."



The whole original cast from Stargate SG-1 (Richard Dean Anderson, Amanda Tapping, Michael Shanks and Christopher Judge).



Special mention goes to the chemistry between RDA and AT (because, I'll admit it, I'm a J/S shipper):



And Ben Browder and Claudia Black from Farscape. They teamed up again in SG1 but I didn't enjoy their interaction as much, mainly because Vala just annoyed the heck out of me for the most part.



ETA: This post is worthless without pictures.

Oooh, I couldn't pass up this one! My new show obsession has been Bones , on Fox. The whole lab crew has this great chemistry, but I love the banter between Booth and Brennan . The whole reason I picked up the show, actually, was because the back reminded me of Lois and Clark's partnership. (Continual denial of their romantic feelings!) It's like watching season 2 of L and C over and over again. Except with more dead bodies and less blue tights.

OMG I said those the same thing when I was trying to explain to my friend my developing obsession with the show. My exact words "It's almost just like Lois and Clark except with more dead people and less tights." I agree with you about the banter, it's my favorite part about the show. I only started watching it this season and I'm already hooked.

Ok now that I'm done with my Bones rant I have to mention Olivia and Elliot from Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. They keep this very cool appearance only concentrating on the case but when something happens one of them it really shows how much they care for the other.

I agree with everything Lady M said about Rory and Loreli from Gilmore girls. Ofcourse Lois and Clark is a given.

Well, yeah, Lois and Clark was a given .

LOVE Bones too but did not spend bday money on them. Sis has them [and NCIS too actually but I really wanted them] so I can borrow them pretty much whenever I want.
Carol

This is my favorite TV series ever, a Danish series called Matador.



In the center of the narrative are two families. In the image above you can see one of them, the Varnas family. (Sorry, I can't reproduce the special Danish spelling of that name.) This family, consisting of Hans Christian, Maud, Ulrik and Regitze, is the finest, richest family of the smallish Danish town where they live. Hans Christian's family has owned the bank of the town for generations. (By the way, this series takes place between the 1920s and the 1940s.)

Into this small town comes a young and almost penniless widower, Mads Andersen, to seek his fortune for himself and for his young son.



Mads rents a room for himself and his son from the "pig dealer" of the town. This man is kind and charming but utterly childish, and you expect him to crack jokes about farting pigs at any time.



The pig dealer is rich, and his daughter falls in love with Mads. They marry, and suddenly Mads has access to a lot of money. He starts various businesses in the town, eventually opening his own bank, challenging the Varnas family for the position as the finest and richest family in town.

Mads, who now calls himself Mads Skjern, and Hans Christian Varnas become bitter rivals. Hans Christian is an old-fashioned, laidback, mild, somewhat spoilt aristocratic sort of person, while Mads is a hungry, eager, slightly ruthless go-getter.

To me, the best thing about this series is the fact that Mads has a brother, Kristen, and Hans Christian has a sister-in-law, Elisabeth, and Kristen and Elisabeth fall in love with each other. They have so much in common. They love music, they both play an instrument, they love to go to concerts (well, violin concerts and the like ), they love to read, and they take an interest in politics. None of them has ever met another person who has shared so many of their interests. But, alas, their families are bitter enemies! And Kristen is emotionally as well as financially dependent on his brother, and Elisabeth is emotionally as well as financially dependent on her sister. (And Elisabeth is five years older than Kristen, too...)

Watching these two middle-aged "Romeo and Juliet" characters fight for their love over a period of about twenty years was just totally gripping.

Elisabeth and Kristen rule!!!

Ann

Best on screen chemistry? Mythbusters, ranges from hot to down right explosive.

Way back in the 80's, I thought Michael J. Fox and his then costar (but soon real life wife) Tracy Pollan had an amazing on screen chemistry on Family Ties.

I am not sure if anyone on here ever watched a little known show that only aired one season on the old Fox Family Channel called Higher Ground, but honestly all the characters seemed so in sync.

L and C of course!

Mona

I really loved Dick Christie and Marla Pennington from the kids' series 'Small Wonder'



And bit off the screen to reality... I loved the Crocodile Hunter episodes of Steve and Terri Irwin. They had such wonderful chemistry both on and off-screen.

I almost cried when I heard the news of Steve's untimely death. He was one of those people who manage to touch hearts beyond the man-made and geographical boundaries.

I like all these examples, (especially the Serenity mention, that whole crew just absolutely rocked!) but I got a couple few that might not fly or may totally date me.

Everybody on "Cheers" including the two leading ladies that did the switch out(Kirstie Ally and Shelly whatserface)none of those people ever seemed uncomfortable about what they did together.

Gilligan and Skipper on "Gilligan's Island" were timing and slapstick masters!

Dan and Roseanne on "Roseanne" I had a hard time believing those two had never been a couple before they played on the show together.

The Carol Burnett crew.

Roy Clark and Buck Owens from Hee Haw(yes, did it, I'm totally dating myself) they were not only obvious great friends but they played fine music together.

Sonny and Cher even when(or especially when) they bickered. It was hard to believe they got a divorce.

I've got my kids some old Abbott and Costello DVD's and George Burns and Gracie Allen, so I can say those guys are a complete shoe in for chemistry.

That's all I got for now.

Oh my God, yes! I used to love that show so much, even back when I was too young to follow some of the more complicated storylines. It was the cast that did it for me. Unfortunately, they stopped showing it in SL after Season 1, and I haven't had time to look it up again yet.

Omg! Coolgirl, "Small Wonder" sure brings back memories! I have not thought of that show in eons! I definitely remember watching it though.

Mona

That's one of the shows I've downloaded and made into a DVD for my son to watch.

And remember I dream of Jeannie? Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman?


And Full House? The three little girls - wonderful sisters. And the whole family... lovely and down to earth!

Full House and Bob Saget, FTW! I wonder what happened to those kids. D.J, Stephanie, Michelle and the twins. I still remember many of the eps very clearly. That entire cast had terrific chemistry.

And I remember "Small Wonder" so very well. I remember some of my favourite lines from some of the eps, which is surprising considering I was only about six at the time this show aired.

Mrs. Brindle: "No-nono-no-no-no!" (Cracks me up, everytime!)

Joanie, Jeremy and Vicki: "Ted, go suck an egg!"

Jeremy (wilting under his parents questioning):"Yes! Kinda. Sorta. Maybe... No."

Sadly, all the actors seem to have fallen off the radar after that show.

The only things that really stand out in my memory about Joanie and Ted were their Rudolph-Valentino-style screen kisses and that Joanie had really great nails.

Ah - Small Wonder! No idea what the title of the show was but I remember it very well - particularly the ep where some govt officials come by to see if it's true that there's a robot daughter and they peek in the window to find the neighbor's daughter acting like a robot. And yes, I remember the "No no no no no" vividly.

Full House - the twins... well, they're not cute little girls anymore. I read yesterday - while sitting in DH's urologist's office for 3 hours - that one of them is dating Lance Armstrong, but that his friends are giving him a very hard time about it b/c he's 15 years older. The other twin was seen recently with another athlete - football player?

But yes, another favorite show .

And who could forget Urkle and... oh, the cop neighbor dad [the one who also played a cop in Die Hard]. They played so well off each other.

The whole cast of Friends had great chemistry but I especially loved Monica and Chandler. I know I know - Ross and Rachel were *the* Friends couple, but I liked M/C better [heck I liked Joey and Rachel better too...].

I'm sure there's more...
Carol

What happened to the cast? Well, in terms of the girls, Candace Cameron (DJ) is married to an ice hockey player named Valeri Bure. She's now Candace Cameron Bure. They have three children. I think she's pretty much given up acting, though she did appear with the woman who used to play Rudy on the Cosby Show as a host for an E! child stars special a wee while back.

Jodi Sweetin (Stephanie) was married to a guy named Shaun Holguin, but they divorced in 2005. She's now married to a guy named Cody Herpin and is expecting her first child. She was addicted to crystal meth for a while.

As for Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen (Michelle)? You only have to look in the gossip mags to see where they are. They were attending NYU...they may still be doing that, or they may just be working on their new, expensive non-child clothing line. Or both.

Any, back on topic. As for my favourite chemistry on shows, I love the Full House chemistry too, also Teri and Dean on Lois and Clark and Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel on Gilmore Girls. I also loved the chemistry between David Tennant and Billy Piper on Dr Who. So sad she's not on there anymore, though I did like Freema as Martha.

I also used to love Jane Seymour (Mikalea Quinn) and Joe Lando (Sully) on Dr Quinn Medicine Woman. And I also currently adore Hugh Laurie (House) and his relationships with both Robert Sean Leonard (Wilson) and Lisa Edelstein (Cuddy). They work so well together, even though House is anti-social...

~Anna.

You know I tried to find a way to work House in and couldn't - bravo!

Carol [who is avoiding writing but is up to 35673 and whose husband is on Vicodin at the moment ]

OMG!! I forgot JD and Turk on SCRUBS!!

And JD and Dr. Cox

And JD and Elliot

And JD and the Janitor....

I think just JD and everybody