Average guy/hot chick stereotype...examples?

Cafe Society
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Little Nemo has [post=8177436]cited[/post] Grey’s Anatomy as an example of this stereotype being turned on its head. I contend that most of the examples of the average-guy-hot-chick stereotype are on (CBS) sitcoms, and the dichotomy is played for laughs, so it serves an actual purpose for the premise of the show. I don’t see a problem with that; it’s when the pairing is blatant pandering to a gender that it grates.

When I stop to think about the stereotype on dramas, I end up with more pairings where the guy is hotter than the girl. I watch a half dozen or so dramas, so maybe my sample size is skewed.

ER: Despite totally crushing on Maura Tierney and Linda Cardellini, it’s pretty clear to even me that the men on ER have always been hotter than the women. George Clooney and Julianne Margulies? Noah Wiley and Maura Tierney? Goran Visnic and Linda Cardellini/Maura Tierney? Parminder Nagra (sp?) and John Stamos? All these pairings include a hotter guy than girl. Mark Green wasn’t even in the same league as the hot English Surgeon, so by my count it’s 5-1 pairings against the stereotype when it comes to major storylines.

Lost: While I’m also hot for Evangeline Lilly, she is not as “hot” as either Matthew Fox or the guy who plays Sawyer. Neither was the chick who played Shannon as hot as the guy who plays Sayid. I’ll give you Charlie being less hot than Claire, but that pairing is outnumbered 3-1 against. Kim & Sun are a wash.

Bones: Here the stereotype appears to be in force, with the geeky bug guy pairing up with the hot artist chick. I have railed against this stupid (for various reasons) pairing multiple times on the boards. The two leads have never paired up, but if they did I’d call it a wash. That’s 1-0 for the stereotype.

Friday Night Lights: Everybody is hot.

Heroes: Cute waitress was hotter than Hiro. The voice chick who died last fall was probably a wash with both guys she dealt with, but both were because she was under orders anyway. The Cop isn’t as hot as his cheating wife. Psycho chick and black guy husband are a wash. Of course, I had to strain to come up with any pairings at all; this show isn’t really about romance. Still, I’d score it 2-0 for the stereotype.

Studio 60: Both major pairings involve a dumpy guy with a hot chick. 2-0 for the stereotype.

Rome: Pretty much all ties.

Tallying that up, I get 8-7 against the stereotype, ignoring ties.

Sex and the City: (I saw maybe two seasons worth, spread around the entire run.) Carrie and pretty much any guy she ever got paired with. Ditto for Samantha. The redhead mostly was a wash with her boyfriends, and Charlotte was smokin’ hot. It is worth noting that unlike the CBS sitcoms, the SatC episodes I saw never played the hotness disparity for laughs. IOW: They were supposed to be taken seriously. Since I haven’t seen most of the show, I cannot offer a count, but I suspect it skews heavily against the stereotype.
My purpose with this thread is to get people who watch shows I don’t to list the pairings in their favorite dramas while pointing out if either the guy or girl is noticeably hotter. A debate on the merits of the stereotype is fine, but mostly I’m looking for anecdotal data.

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Not anecdotal or fictional, but I would like to point out just for the record that the archetypal example of this is Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley.

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I think I am confused. You’re saying the stereotype is hot girl-average guy and the examples above prove it or disprove it?

George Clooney and Juliana Margulies–toss-up, both are quintessential beautiful people. Goran Visnic is in a class by himself but the women are nothing to sneeze at. And Sex and the City? Carrie is quite plain so pairing her with anyone leaves the gentleman at an advantage.

So, average guy and beautiful woman in a drama?

I agree with you on Charlotte and Harry in SatC; she even starts out thinking of him as not her type. Of course I don’t find Kyle McLachlan very attractive either.
But you’re right, as I think about it it’s hard to think of any where it’s not two beautiful people.

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There are a number of sitcoms where I think this comes into play. Unfortunately, I can’t think of the sitcoms. The one with Jim Belushi is one. The one with Jerry Stiller in it is another.

Edited: Crap. I missed in the OP that you weren’t looking for sitcoms. Blame my headache, please.

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King of Queens is one of the ones you were thinking of.

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On HBO’s Big Love, I thought all of the wives were much hotter than Bill Paxton.

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Everybody Loves Raymond. Patricia Heaton isn’t exactly totally hot, but she is much better looking than Ray.

The King of Queens. Leah Remini is beautiful and Kevin James is…well not.

Seinfeld. He dated some smoking hot women over the course of that show.

'Til Death. Joely Fisher and Brad Garrett.

I’m sure there are a bunch more, but that’s off the top of my head.

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Okay, dramas:

I’ll get arguments, but Veronica is so much better looking than Logan (Veronica Mars).

Simone is beautiful, while Peter is goofy looking (Heroes).

Megan is very attractive, while Larry is… Peter MacNicol (Numb3rs).

No women could compete with the hotness that is the brothers Winchester, so they just avoid recurring female characters at all (Supernatural).

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More dramas…

Desperate Housewives (dramaish) Marcia Cross and whoever plays her current husband. She is much better looking.

The Sopranos. I would say that Edie Falco is much hotter than Gandolfini.

Bones. The sort of relationship between Angela and Hodgkins. She wins in the looks department. (Bah, you mentioned this one…)

Sorry about my other post, somehow it escaped me that you were looking for dramas…

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Men in Trees: 2-1 against
Anne Heche (worn out) has nothing on Jack the sherrif
Patrick is better looking than Annie
The asian lady and Buzz the pilot are a wash
The bartender is not as good looking as his girl(s)

Desperate Housewives: 3-1 against
Teri Hatcher has nothing on anyone – does this even need to be asked, she’s hideous
Felicity Huffman is not as good looking as her husband (on the show – IRL, Ed Macy ::chuckle::slight_smile:
Marcia Cross is not as good looking (but close) as her husband
Eva is better looking than everyone

Ellis, might it be that sit-coms tend to be targeted more to men and thus present an image that men will respond to (i.e. King of Queens and Kevin James/Leah Remini, or Seinfeld and Jason Alexander/any of Costanza’s girfriends); whereas, dramas are targeted toward women and the opposite is true.

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as a flaming heterosexual male, I could not disagree more

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the other is What about Jim

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the other is What About Jim

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It’s the trophy-wife syndrome: Unattractive older men, if rich and/or famous, can attract beautiful younger women. As the men get more successful (not necessarily better-looking), they “trade up” for younger, more beautiful models.

Nicholas Cage and Jim Carrey, for two easy examples.

I don’t know how King of Queens fits in with that syndrome though. Call it creative casting/writing.

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Nope, you’re not confused; you got it in one.

I think most people would rate George Clooney in the stratosphere of hotness – Charlize Theron level hotness – whereas Julianne Margulies is simply attractive. I don’t recall her ever getting the equivalent accolade of “sexiest man alive,” for example.

I adore Maura Tierney, but she’s not really hot. She’s “girl next door” cute. Her body is so-so at best, which was made pretty clear on Celebrity Poker. Still, I find her adorable and would put her on a “5 free passes” list, but super hot she is not. She barely out-hotted Dave Foley on NewsRadio.

As for the sitcoms, feel free to add any others but as I said in the OP I believe they serve the premise by being played for laughs. It’s the disparate pairings that are played straight that I’m interested in, because those are the pairings that pander to (half of) the audience.

I would have thought so until Still Standing became a staple on Lifetime. WTF is up with that? It’s the epitome of average-schlub-hot-wife sitcom…

Also, a note to all: Please try to divorce your own tastes from your posts. My crush on Maura Tierney doesn’t mean I rate her the hottest chick on the planet, nor does my hetero leaning prevent me from assessing the guys. Some I simply have no clue about, though, like Lucius Vorenus from Rome. Is he hot? Niobe sure as hell was…

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That’s a tad hard to do. Looks and beauty are purely subjective things. For example I think Marcia Cross is a quite beautiful woman and much better looking than any of the guys she’s been paired with, where Whole Bean seems to disagree. Though we completely agree that Eva Longoria outshines them all.

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Actually I’m looking for examples that are exactly not that. If it’s a trophy wife situation, that at least resembles real life. (Billy Joel / Cristie Brinkley being the perfect example.)

I’m looking for examples that people would naturally find irritating, and I think the only ones that are legitimately offensive are ones that involve blatant gender ego-stroking pandering.

Seinfeld is a good example of the disparity not being played for laughs. That was blatant pandering in the worst way.

King of Queens, Still Standing, and Everyone Loves Raymond didn’t pander (IMO) because the premise of average-schlub-hot-wife is played for laughs. I haven’t seen Til Death or According to Jim.

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Obviously true. I just ask that we give it a shot.

Can you imagine Marcia Cross in a sexiest redheads countdown? What about whomever she is paired with being characterized in a similar way? That kind of thinking is what I’m going for.

Maybe when listing someone who is a personal favorite, just mention that others may disagree. I find Paris Hilton revolting, but recognize that many find her hot, for example.

P.S: hehheh, Eva Longoria does nothing for me, while I find Marcia Cross way hot.

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I was never a regular viewer of Ally McBeal (aka Single Female Lawyer), but Lucy Liu was hotter than that guy she dated, Ally’s boss I think he was? Also Portia DiRossi was hotter than that little awkward lawyer she dated. I don’t think Calista Flockhart is attractive at all, so I’m going to assume that most of her dates were better-looking that she was.

On Ugly Betty, Salma Hayak (Sofia) is hotter than Daniel but they are both in the same league, so I don’t think that should count for much. Henry is cuter than Betty right now, but that’s because mostly because of her wardrobe and hair, of course. (I like to pretend that Walter, Betty’s total drip of a boyfriend, doesn’t exist because I hate him, but Betty is way cuter than he is.)

On House, House’s ex-wife played by Selma Ward is more attractive than he is. Also I have no idea why I know who Selma Ward is because I have never watched whatever show she was in. Also, they only went on one date as far as I know, but Cameron is hotter than House.

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Northern Exposure:

Shelley was gorgeous compared to her walking cadaver of a husband but that was set up as part of the drama/twist

Janine Turner was prettier than Joel was handsome, but it’s pretty close

Adam and Eve were pretty well-matched, slight advantage to Eve

Teri Polo better looking than her husband but not by much

John Corbett and Ed were simply hot, but I don’t remember who they were matched with.