Oooh…did she actually get into his briefs?
James Bond and Miss Moneypenny.
Doesn’t sound like you got any in college, either.
Seconded. They’re the first “couple” I thought of when I saw the thread title.
(They’re [male] characters from the sitcom “Scrubs,” by the way.)
And I think they’re the best answer, even though I didn’t think of them once when starting the thread. They’re clearly in love–hell, Turk’s wife, Carla, hopes that one day Turk will love her the way he loves JD–but it’s unconsummated because their genitalia don’t match their orientations.
Well, we don’t KNOW it wasn’t consummated, you couldn’t discuss stuff like that on 1960s sitcoms.
Hmm, what DID he mean by “Little Buddy”?
As long as we’ve moved into slash territory:
Kirk and Spock
I heard a story that the writers on Designing Women were upset when Delta Burke left the show because they had hoped for a final episode with Suzanne and Anthony eloping.
Bob: Something always something days, something something tell the truth, okay?
Charlotte: Okay.
There’s a bunch of versions posted in the comment boxes here, which incidentally is the first result that pops up if you google “lost in translation” and “whisper”. What I put in the spoiler box is what I managed to make out on full volume and after a quick run through a lip-reading manual at the library.
(I did this all about a year ago, and before I tried to look it up on the intarwebs, so it’s not quite a case of hearing Paul is dead on a Beatles record; yet I can’t help but think my brain is simply making words up to hear and see because I so desperately want to. It does comfort me [a bit] that a bunch of my RL acquaintances have claimed separately to have heard things along the same lines, though.)
Dante and Beatrice. What do I win?
All of the Golden Girls. (Well, ok, maybe not Sophia.)
Oooh, that’s a good one! Reminds me of another along those lines: Kierkegaard and whatshername, that chick he was ga-ga over. Rachel? Regina?
I would also second the nomination for Steed and Mrs. Peel. I remember reading an interview where the actors were asked of their characters, “Did they or didn’t they?” Patrick Macnee said yes, Diana Rigg said no. (It might have been in one of the Avengers companion books.) Anyway, I’d consider it enough of an unknown to qualify here.
I like to think Diana Rigg was right.
Dr. Who (Christopher Eccleston’s incarnation) and Rose Tyler.
(By the way, is there a difference between “platonic love” and “friendship”?)
I have friends that I like… and I have friends who I honestly dearly love in a platonic way.
Lemony Snicket and Beatrice Baudelaire
Dante & Beatrice?
What makes you think that one was unconsummated?
Oh, and Shalmanese, about your erroneous suggestion of Romeo & Juliet - you’re probably mixing them up with Tristan and Isolde. They’re the ones who don’t get it on before they both croak in the final act. Damn shame, too, having to suffer through what seems like endless hours of Wagnerian open cadences (the musical equivalent of an extremely bad case of blue balls), and ending up with nothing to show for it. That is one frustrating story, if ever there was one.
Consummated- in the made-for-TV reunion film BRING ME THE HEAD OF DOBIE GILLIS. They’d been married for years w/kids.
Unconsummated- Dobie & Maynard G. Krebs
and Zelda & Thalia Menninger 
I’ve seen an interview with Patrick Macnee where he also said “no”. (I think his exact words were “You don’t sexualize with people you’re working with.” If “sexualize” actually counts as a word, that is … )
As to the OP; nobody’s mentioned Modesty Blaise and Willie Garvin yet?
Joel Fleischman and Maggie O’Connel from Northern Exposure. Yes, they did roll in the hay once (literally), but one could argue it was a result of temperary insanity brought apon by the cursed winds.
Never have I seen two characters more perfect for each other – and more hopelessly incompatible. Never have I seen two characters sharing a level of spite only matched by the intensity of their lust. Like the sexual tension, their denial was so thick you could cut it with a knife. For four seasons they danced along the fine line between love and hate, and every moment was a joy to watch.