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By Mark Lorando 1992, Newhouse News Service
THEY HAVE emerged as one of prime time's most-talked-about twosomes. But the Jeff-and-Ginger romance on ''Homefront'' was supposed to be only a three-night stand.
''We were supposed to have three shows together last year - get together, sleep together, have the pregna ncy scare and then break up,'' says Tammy Lauren, who plays aspiring starlet and ''Lemo tomato juice girl'' Ginger Szabo on the '40s drama, airing at 8 p.m. Thursdays on Channel 2.
Series creator and head writer Lynn Latham soon realized the chemistry between Lauren and Kyle Chandler, who plays her baseball-playing boyfriend, Jeff Metcalf, was too good to toss.
''When they started working together, we asked them to come into the office and look at Preston Sturges' films,'' Latham says. ''We asked Kyle to look at Cary Grant and David Niven, and asked Tammy to look at Barbara Stanwyck, and how the timing was in the '40s . . . They came back with this incredible comedic timing. I knew they were wonderful actors. Now I think they're brilliant actors.''
Before ''Homefront,'' neither had found the right showcase. Lauren had been around - but never around anything as good as this lushly produced period piece.
''I've been in the business for 18 years,'' says Lauren, a 25-year-old native of Carrollton, Ga. Her first series role was as Scott Baio's hyperactive 9-year-old sister in the ABC sitcom ''Who's Watching the Kids,'' which lasted half a season in 1978. ''That was the big joke,'' she says. ''Who's watching the show?''
She also had co-starring roles in the high school drama ''The Best Times'' and the orphanage-retirement home drama ''Morningstar-Eveningstar,'' both bombs.
The hunky Chandler had been typecast in combat roles, with his only TV exposure in recurring parts on ''Tour of Duty'' and ''China Beach.''
''That was a great deal of fun - playing army and getting paid for it,'' he says.
Chandler, a native of Buffalo, N.Y., spent most of his childhood on a farm outside Atlanta, where he watched WTBS and dreamed of The Duke.
''WTBS played movies - black and whites - over and over and over,'' he says. ''And I pretty much grew up out in my pasture and in the woods living out those characters, including everything John Wayne ever did.
''I was a little psycho as a kid.''
He says he never imagined himself as a romantic lead, and isn't sure how long he'll remain one on ''Homefront.'' The Jeff-and-Ginger pairing carried the show last year, but how long it lasts is anybody's guess, the actors say.
''I really don't know what they're gonna do, because last year they said, 'This could happen and this could happen and this could happen' - and five other things happened,'' Chandler says. ''They write this show very much by the seat of their pants.''
Lauren says the characters will remain engaged this season, even though they've currently broken up, but there hasn't been any talk of a wedding episode. That could be bad news for Lauren's social life, which hasn't seemed the same since she and Chandler became an on-air item.
''When you do the show week to week, it's hard not to get stuck in that era,'' she says. ''It's even become hard for me to date. You start to want those types of men. You want a Jeff or a Charlie or a Hank. It was a gentler time.
''Nowadays, it's men with perfect bodies and perfect faces and perfect hair and no idea how to treat a lady.''
''Homefront'' is about a time when ''the women were women and the men were men, and there was charm and there was glamour and there was mystery,'' says actress Kelly Rutherford - and she wears the era well.
''I remember the moment we cast her,'' Latham says. ''We were looking for someone who could bring to the show a feeling of the '40s characters that Gloria Graham and Virginia Mayo played. Kelly came in, and we were all in shock, because she walked in with this air of Gloria Graham. She just stole the part. Walked away with it.''
It's another one of those ensemble parts that wasn't supposed to last. Rutherford was brought in to play Judy Owen, a spring-training bartender with a soft spot for ballplayers - particularly for Cleveland Indians rookie Jeff Metcalf. The story line was supposed to be the ''Homefront'' answer to ''Bull Durham,'' with Rutherford as the beauteous baseball sage and Chandler the young pup she seasons.
''When we saw her on screen,'' Latham says, ''and saw how well she fit into the ensemble, and what the character brought to the show, we said, 'Wait! We can't lose this woman.' ''
She was promoted from part-timer to series regular at the end of last season. This year, Judy has taken her bartending skills to the main series setting of River Run and formed an intriguing friendship with union-busting plant owner Mike Sloan (Ken Jenkins).
''Her love life is going to improve, definitely,'' Rutherford says.
It is a dream role, she says, because it allows her to follow in the footsteps of her acting icons.
''I grew up watching old movies,'' Rutherford says. ''I think Carole Lombard and Hedy Lamarr are the for all times.''
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