Matthew Ashford and Melissa Reeves, Days of Our Lives’ Jack and Jennifer, are the epitome of super couples, offering a break from the predictable with humor.

Jack and Jennifer were never slated to be an item. Think about it . . . Salem's all-American beauty, the last remaining daytime virgin, with the town's bad boy? Al Rabin, the supervising executive producer of Days, credits his writers for focusing on these two and says, "You must make a couple bounce off one another. It's an organic process you must allow to evolve."

Ashford believes it began by accident with Jack and Jennifer starting out as friends. "We fought like hell, but we were always friends," he remembers. "I always cared about what was best for Jennifer. At some point someone must have had the volume turned down, saw us and said, 'Hey, these guys really have something going on here!' The humor this pairing brings to daytime is completely unique and refreshing, which is probably the key to its success.

Ashford says communication has played a part in his success with Reeves. "Missy and I try to communicate real feelings, we don't try to fake it. Sometimes things get really vaulted and can lapse into a formula, but we try to avoid that. If we get off track, the audience will, too." Reeves believes the element of surprise keeps their romance fresh and new. "The thing about working with Matt is you never know what's going to come out of his mouth next!" "We haven't done much spit-swapping," Ashford laughs, "but it still feels like we've been together. Our sensitivity toward relationships on television has been warped, because if you don't see immediate gratification you feel you haven't gotten something. But our romance has been the unspoken kind."

For Jack and Jennifer, the longing looks behind each other's back, the constant banter and the humor are the tools for romance. While Ashford couldn't be more delighted with his current storyline, he is uncomfortable being lauded as part of a super couple. "To me, the perimeters of Salem have always been defined by Steve and Kayla, and that's very easy to work in. [Being a super couple] is an outside issue left for other people to think about or care about. I just want to go day by day and do our work. If it pleases then that's good."