Seinfeld- Jerry and Elaine are exes and breify get back together at the end of season one
Friends- lots of romantic entaglements but mainly Chandler/Monica, Ross/Rachel, and Joey/Rachel
How I Met Your Mother - two of the main characters are a steady couple, the other three are a love triangle
Big Bang Theory- by the end, it’s three couples and one single guy
Any shows like these where the main characters never date each other or hook up with each other?
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Love the show, but Dee and Charlie hook up in ‘The Gang Misses The Boat’. She also admits to SAing him later in ‘Time’s Up For The Gang’
Yeah, it does happen, although I still went ahead with the comment because I don’t consider that a “romantic entanglement”.
- The show has 178 20-ish-minute episodes over 17 seasons.
- Of those, there’s one B-plot in one episode (“The Gang Misses the Boat”) ten seasons in and a later one-off reference to it in “Time’s Up for the Gang” (S13).
- The show has mostly minor elements of serialization, and there’s no ongoing romance between the core gang at any point; if you accidentally missed those two episodes (or one and walked away to get a drink without pausing for like a minute on the other), you’d literally never know.
- Arguably the closest we get is Mac’s obvious crush on Dennis, but this only comes up infrequently, is rarely played for any kind of actual drama, and is almost exclusively a punchline, and Dennis never reciprocates in the slightest.
“Entanglement” to me implies that the two or more characters have ongoing, mutual romantic feelings for each other that are explored or at least consistently shown over multiple episodes.
Probably not, because romantic entanglements make for better TV.
Very subjective. In my opinion introducing romantic subplots is the laziest of writing.
3rd Rock from the Sun? Been a while since I rewatched that, though. Kinda not “friends” but “co-workers”.
Hadn’t thought of that one. It’s a bit hard to decide if they should be considered coworkers or a family. I guess it technically counts cause they’re a gender mixed group not actually related by blood. One of them is a kid but is actually the oldest. Although I’m not sure the aliens really had gender in the way humans do
Though do you count that even though one of the characters is obsessed with his romantic entanglement outside of the group, to the point that I’d consider Mary a part of the group with how much she’s there. Iirc each of the other characters pairs up with someone, too.
That is a tough call. She was a series regular, therefore a main character, but not really part of the core group
Golden girls comes to mind. And maybe arrested development? but that’s more family than a group of friends.
I can’t comment on Arrested Development cause I’ve never seen it, but Golden Girls are all women not a mixed-gender group
Damn it. I think I subconsciously ruled out of the mix gendered and ended up at golden girls just trying to think of a sitcom that didn’t feature romantic interests in the group.
I’m a dummy, carry on.
More like co-workers instead of friends but MAS*H.
Margaret and Frank were a couple and she hooked up with Hawkeye at one point
Valid points.
I want to say Resident Alien. The core 3 adult friends don’t have any romantic relations as far as I remember. Although there is one love triangle involving one of the main and side characters I guess. But the majority of the show is about real beautiful mixed-gender friendships IMO.
Harry and D’Arcy dated for a few episodes (maybe only one or two, I don’t recall clearly). There was a bit of teasing that Asta and Harry would be a thing at some point but thankfully that never materialized.
There were definitely romantic relationships with side characters - Sheriff Mike had a couple, obviously the mayor and his wife, Harry and the bird lady, Liz had a boyfriend (though he rarely appeared or was even mentioned), plus D’Arcy tried a few times to find love and Judy… had several flings?
Yeah my main thinking was that at least those relationships (with the exception of d’arcy/the mayor) weren’t central to the friend group/drama, but of course there’s gonna be romantic relationships in anything because they are a part of life. As far as I remember, the harry/d’arcy thing was an awkward date in a very early episode but maybe I’m misremembering.
Ghosts? Does that count as a group of friends
The British one would qualify as one with no romantic entaglements (if you don’t count the living couple) but the American one has several couples in the core group Thor/Flower, Trevor/Hetty, Pete/Alberta
Didn’t know there was an American one tbh
There are also French, German, Greek, and Australian versions
Three’s Company?
I’m not sure about Three’s Company. I feel like one of the main women may have hooked up with either Jack or Larry at some point. But I’m not sure
Scooby-Doo? No, they’re supposed to be teens.
Fred and Daphne are a couple I’m pretty sure
And sometimes Velma and Shaggy.
I read that as Velma and Scooby. Oops.
They drive a van don’t they?
E4 Humans, though that’s cause they’re all “siblings” (fully sapient sentient androids made all by the same creator, over multiple years)
Was gonna say Being Human, then I remembered that Russel Tovey does turn one of his girlfriends into a werewolf and she goes from side character to main character after that
Feels like asking if there’s a show where the main characters never eat together. Sex and food are sorta what we do. Like as a species. A show would have to be very limited in scope to leave one of those things out.
Thundercats? Although here to see who people think Cheetara was involved with.
Cheetara was paired with Tygra in both the comics and the reboot of the show.
Me in my dreams hnnnnnnnng
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