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#1
11-02-2009, 08:14 PM
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"Will they or won't they" couples...who didn't
The recent marriage of Jim and Pam on The Office got me thinking about "will they or won't they" couples. For most of the examples I could think of (e.g. Rachel and Ross, Daphne and Niles, Scully and Mulder), the ultimate answer was "Yes, they do." I'm having a harder time thinking of cases where the answer was "No, they don't", although there have been a few. Can you help me think of more?
Some rules for the thread, to cut down on nitpicking later: I am specifically interested in serial works where the romantic tension lasted for a significant period of time, not things dealt with in a single book or movie or a few episodes of a TV show. The potential romantic relationship has to be plausible, not one character having a crush that is obviously doomed to remain unrequited (e.g. Newman and Elaine on Seinfeld). I'm looking for cases where the writer(s) deliberately chose not to have the characters wind up as a romantic couple, not a series that was canceled or abandoned before things could be resolved. A series that had a proper finale where the romantic tension was intentionally left unresolved does count, though. I'll accept examples of characters who never dated or slept together at all as well as those who gave things a try for a short time but then broke up and didn't get back together in the end. I would like to limit this thread to cases where romantic tension between the two characters was part of the "canon" rather than speculation or wishful thinking on the part of fans. To take the Harry Potter series as an example, Harry/Hermione or Harry/Draco do not count. Harry/Cho does, although it's not the best example because Cho was a fairly minor character and it always seemed obvious to me that things were not going to work out between them long term. Another not-so-great example would be Elaine and Jerry on Seinfeld. I say not-so-great because after their initial break-up they mostly did seem to think of each other as "just friends". However, there were several episodes where one expressed some lingering romantic or sexual feelings for the other. Jerry even proposes to Elaine in the "Serenity Now" episode. She seriously considers accepting, but Jerry reverts to his usual unemotional self and retracts the offer. In the finale, when the Seinfeld gang fears they're about to die in a plane crash, Elaine seems to be on the verge of confessing her love for Jerry. She never does though, and the show ended without Elaine and Jerry ever getting back together. 
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#2
11-02-2009, 08:30 PM
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Marshal Dillon and Miss Kitty.
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#4
11-02-2009, 09:21 PM
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Doctor Who (new series), for certain levels of "plausible." Viewers know the Doctor isn't going to have a long-term romantic relationshipwith all that entails because of the nature of the show, but the characters don't know that.
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Last edited by TWDuke; 11-02-2009 at 09:22 PM.
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#6
11-02-2009, 09:55 PM
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Sam and Diane, I think, count for this. Yes, they did hook up. Yes, they were engaged. But first she left him for California, and in the series finale, she left him again.
Buffy and Spike count, too. They were never in a real relationship. In S6, they were fucking without an emotional connection. In S7, they seemed to have a deeper emotional connection, with no fucking. When Buffy declared her love, Spike rejected it and then died. He considered hunting down Buffy when he was brought back to life, but ultimately, never succeeded before the finale of Angel. (I don't know if Buffy/Xander count as per the OP rules. It was never going to happen, but Xander was in lust/love with her for awhile). From Firefly/Serenity, we have Mal and Inara. There was clearly sexual tension between them, and more than once, it was hinted that they had deeper feelings for each other, but the movie ended with things more or less unresolved between them. ETA: Does Hotlips Hoolihan and Hawkeye Pierce count? Last edited by pepperlandgirl; 11-02-2009 at 09:57 PM.
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#7
11-02-2009, 10:04 PM
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There are a number on Boston Legal, aren't there? In particular I'm thinking Shirley Schmidt and Alan Shore - although perhaps the attraction was a little one-sided there.
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#10
11-02-2009, 10:18 PM
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Bailey Quarters and Dr. Johnny Fever of WKRP in Cincinnati
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#11
11-02-2009, 10:30 PM
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And let's not forget Buddy and Sally on The Dick Van Dyke Show.
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#12
11-02-2009, 10:33 PM
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#16
11-02-2009, 10:59 PM
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#17
11-02-2009, 11:01 PM
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#18
11-02-2009, 11:05 PM
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How about Roz and Frasier? They did sleep together but only once and they weren't a couple or anything.
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#19
11-02-2009, 11:21 PM
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Jean-Luc Picard and Beverly Crusher on TNG. The final episode don't count because it didn't really happen.
Mary Richards and Lou Grant on "the Mary Tyler Moore Show." In the next to last episode, Lou did take Mary out on a date, but when they actually kissed - they both burst out laughing at the idea that they would "do it." What's interesting about each example in each case, the show raised the possibility that each couple might hook up - but each couple made a conscious decision not to (rather than just the writers ignoring the possibility.)
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#20
11-02-2009, 11:35 PM
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#21
11-02-2009, 11:48 PM
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So far as I know, Bob the Builder and Wendy. All the episodes I've seen (and what with two single-digit nieces and a nephew, I've seen a lot of them), Wendy clearly has feelings for Bob, but he seems to be completely oblivious.
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#22
11-02-2009, 11:49 PM
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Piggy and Kermit.
Arthur and Francine.
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#24
11-03-2009, 12:10 AM
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Forgot about the Piggy/Kermit wedding.
Faye and Martin is a good one. I still am holding out hope that Faye will seduce Martin and turn Dora into an even bigger bundle of nerves and insecurities.
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#25
11-03-2009, 12:24 AM
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What about James Bond & Miss Moneypenny? Did they ever get it on? Poor Miss Moneypenny...did so much for that cad! Last edited by The New and Improved Superman; 11-03-2009 at 12:26 AM. Reason: fixed wording.
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#26
11-03-2009, 12:35 AM
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Marcus & Ivanova from B5.
Janeway & Chakotay from ST: Voyager. Last edited by Oakminster; 11-03-2009 at 12:35 AM.
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#27
11-03-2009, 01:00 AM
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Holmes on Homes Mike Holmes and Pinky (Corin) A lot of tension between these two for several seasons. They always denied anything was going on.
Pinky quit the crew during the New Orleans Special. Mike never made the score.
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#28
11-03-2009, 01:07 AM
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How about Andy and Maggie in Extras? They never did hook up, did they? From what I remember, their relationship wasn't riddled with sexual tension, but "will they or won't they" definitely crossed my mind numerous times.
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#29
11-03-2009, 01:09 AM
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Sees to me that the "will they or won't they" couples refer to potential relationships and if they'll ever give it a try. Listing all these couples where they gave it a try and found out that it wasn't meant to be and eventually fell apart misses the point. The Cheers couples definitely fall into that "They Did" camp even though they didn;t stay that way because the plot needed to move along.
Examples where there's tension and a ongoing question about it and they end the show without ever actually doing anything at all and always wonder are much more interesting.
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#30
11-03-2009, 01:09 AM
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#31
11-03-2009, 01:12 AM
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Ted and Robin from How I Met Your Mother may qualify - the two spend the entire first season of the show as a "will they or won't they?" pairing. The two then get together and are a couple throughout the second season, before breaking up in the season 2 finale. The show is now in its fifth season and they haven't shown any sign of romantic entanglement or interest since (with one minor exception).
Of course, Ted and Robin differ from the classic "will they or won't they?" scenario in that it's explicitly stated in the first episode of the show that they won't end up together. The show is narrated by Ted twenty years in the future, and is structured as a story he is telling his future kids (hence "How I Met Your Mother"). And FutureTed almost always refers to Robin as "your Aunt Robin" - including within the first episode. Last edited by Tanbarkie; 11-03-2009 at 01:14 AM.
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#32
11-03-2009, 01:14 AM
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Practically any show resolves romantic tension if it stays on the air long enough. Usually, it's a jump the shark event for the show. I Dream of Jeanie, Lois & Clark are examples.
I thought of one JAG Harm and Mac never hooked up. Last edited by aceplace57; 11-03-2009 at 01:15 AM.
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#33
11-03-2009, 01:22 AM
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JAG Harm and Meg Austin in season 1 same sexual tension and no hookup.
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#34
11-03-2009, 07:30 AM
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#35
11-03-2009, 07:51 AM
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Joey and Rachel had feelings for one another in the later years of Friends. They almost hooked up more than once but ultimately never did. Obviously not as long or important an arc as Ross/Rachel, but they did stretch it out over a couple seasons.
Oh, and I always thought there was a lot of sexual tension between Warrick and Katherine on CSI. They never really dwelt on it, but there was definitely something there. As far as I know (didn't watch every episode) they never did get together. Last edited by Wheelz; 11-03-2009 at 07:54 AM.
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#36
11-03-2009, 08:30 AM
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In the series finale, they reveal that the reason they've never seriously tried to be a couple is because they'd have to choose one person's career over the other. So rather than be split up, they get married and flip a coin. Said coin never lands. You are right in your belief that the creators waited that long because resolving their relationship sooner would have made the rest of the show anticlimatic.
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#37
11-03-2009, 09:09 AM
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Remington Steele - Remington Steele and Laura Holt
Pierce Brosnan, and Stephanie Zimbalist 1980's series ended in a similar way. They implied a hookup in the final seconds of the last show, but didn't show it. It may or may not have happened. Last edited by aceplace57; 11-03-2009 at 09:11 AM.
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#38
11-03-2009, 09:18 AM
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Here's an older than TV example: Jo and Laurie in Little Women and Good Wives. These books are often published together as a single volume, but were originally written and published a year apart. (As a kid I had a copy of Little Women alone and didn't read Good Wives until I was a teenager, so I always think of them as two different books.) Many fans of the first book wrote to Louisa May Alcott asking for a sequel in which Jo and Laurie got married. Alcott would have preferred for Jo to remain a "literary spinster", but decided the fans wouldn't be satisfied with this...and also decided to make it very clear that Jo would never wind up with Laurie. Jo refuses his proposal in Good Wives, and both marry other people.
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How I Met Your Mother is also an interesting case in that the title and framing device make it clear that Ted will eventually have children with a woman (I'm not sure if it's ever specified that they actually marry). The mystery is who she'll be. The Wonder Years is somewhat similar in that the narration by Adult Kevin indicates that he does eventually get married and have children. Young Kevin and Winnie were on-again-off-again for several years, and if the last moments of narration were removed from the series finale it would have looked like they did wind up together for good. However, the very end of that very last episode makes it clear that although the two remain close friends for life, Kevin does marry someone else.
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#39
11-03-2009, 01:35 PM
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#40
11-03-2009, 01:43 PM
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Angel & Cordelia were treated as a potential romance from the 3rd season on, but never actually did it except in a magic-induced hallucination. I'm not sure how much that counts, though, as the other characters seemed to see them as a couple who just didn't have sex.
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#42
11-03-2009, 01:56 PM
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#43
11-03-2009, 02:01 PM
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Suzumiya-san and Kyon-kun in Haruhi Suzumiya. We know Kyon will get nowhere with Asahina-san, since her future self tells him, and Nagato-san is just a humanoid interface, with or without her glasses, but Suzumiya always seems like a possibility.
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#44
11-03-2009, 02:04 PM
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 Am I being whooshed? I never thought Buddy and Sally had anything going on! Buddy was always married to Pickles. Sally had her boyfriend Herman for a while, a unconsumated romance with the deli owner (can't remember his name, but he was played by Sid Melton), and a failed affair with a TV comic who only loved her for her jokes.
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#48
11-03-2009, 02:17 PM
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As for Joey & Phoebe on "Friends", the storyline briefly suggest that would happen, but it was scrapped after the producers realized that Matt LeBlanc & Lisa Kudrow had zero chemistry as lovers. And anyway, LeBlanc signed on to do a solo spin-off show (remember that?) Kudrow went on to do a much better (but unfortunately just as short-lived) non-spinoff series.
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#50
11-03-2009, 02:26 PM
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They had a child together. There were several episodes where a sexual relationship was implied. The first time Mulder sees her in the series finale he kisses her like she's the love of his life and he never thought he would see her again. At the end of the series, they essentially run away together. And also they're very clearly a committed couple in the recent film.
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