LOS ANGELES -- It's a tale as old as time: A tough, type A lawyer hires a surfer-dude contractor to remodel her kitchen. OK, the type A lawyer and surfer-dude characters aren't that classic, but the story of two very different people finding a connection has been around forever.

NBC is banking that a new spin on this old plot will create enough sparks to make the new comedy "Bent" a hit. It will be up to Amanda Peet, the lawyer, and David Walton, the surfer, to generate those sparks.

"I think chemistry, in real life, it's hard to put words around it. You either have it with someone or you don't," Walton says. He thinks viewers will see -- and be attracted to -- the chemistry between he and Peet.

Both actors credit executive producer Tad Quill with writing a script that has enough sexual tension and sexual suspense to make it easy to create the needed sexual electricity.

"It's not something that I think about or that I set out to accomplish. It's just play the scene," Peet says of the connection she has to her co-star.

She has played those kind of scenes in TV and film projects before, from "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" to "The Whole Nine Yards." The key to making the audience believe there is some type of connection is believable casting.

Peet and Quill knew immediately Walton was the guy for "Bent."

"When Tad and I were looking for a co-star, we definitely wanted to find something that would make the show really sexy. We wanted to create a real kind of lifestyle rift between these two people. And when David Walton came in, it was obvious that he was our guy. And, frankly, from the bottom of my heart, I am shocked that I get to be with him and not Reese Witherspoon or Jennifer Lopez or some movie star right now because he's just a really crazy genius combination of being really funny and really gorgeous and kind of a dork," Peet says. "I feel very lucky that we found him."

Walton is a veteran of situation comedies, having starred in "Perfect Couples," "100 Questions" and "Cracking Up."

Quill, who worked as a producer on "Scrubs," "Spin City," "Good Morning, Miami" and "Samantha Who?," wants "Bent" to have the same romantic comedy elements of those shows while being just a little different.

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Old storyline, new chemistry and comedy in 'Bent'