# Happy, functional relationships, please **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 14, 2008, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-functional-relationships-please/467973 "2008-10-14T23:59:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cat\_In\_A\_Top\_Hat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f6c823/32.png) [@Cat\_In\_A\_Top\_Hat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_In_A_Top_Hat)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-functional-relationships-please/467973/1 "2008-10-14T23:59:36Z")
Alright, guys. I need some inspiration. Could someone give me a few examples in movies, literature, comics, or whatall else of people in happy, functioning relationships? I mean, maybe it’s watching Serenity, again, that did it for me, but I’m really sick of seeing either people in relationships where one or the both of them die horribly, or are unhappy, bad for each other, or otherwise fucking each other over. I’m of the opinion that there are people/characters out there (gay, straight, bi, mono, poly, or whatall else) who have good, ongoing relationships. I mean, Joss Whedon probably doesn’t write them, but yeah. Anyone? Thankee big-big, –CiaTH ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-functional-relationships-please/467973/2 "2008-10-15T00:06:51Z")
The first one that springs to mind is Marge and Norm Gunderson from **Fargo**. ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-functional-relationships-please/467973/3 "2008-10-15T00:12:12Z")
Just asked **Mrs. Fresh** , and she came up with Angela and David from [Caffeine](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460732/). Days before the wedding, Angela finds out that David is a transvestite, but she loves him and decides to accept him for who he is (as long as she wears the wedding dress). On edit: Martin and Lorna from **Lethal Weapon**. She’s the only character in the series Riggs absolutely does not mess with. And how could I forget Danny Glover and his wife in the series. _Great_ couple. ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-functional-relationships-please/467973/4 "2008-10-15T00:13:01Z")
Dan and Roseanne Connor of Roseanne were very happy with one another for years. Their relationship actually reminded me a lot of my own marriage, which, coming up on 20 years, is very, very happy. ---
**Author:** ![JustThinkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@JustThinkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustThinkin)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-functional-relationships-please/467973/5 "2008-10-15T00:18:36Z")
Fetchund’s thoughts: The Bill Cosby show. The Waltons. Eight is Enough. In the meantime, I’m trying hard to remember the name of a show from the early 80s or so. It involved a married couple solving mysteries. They were rich and had a older male housekeeper/cook. I can see the actors but can’t come up with their names. Aarrgh! ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-functional-relationships-please/467973/6 "2008-10-15T00:18:47Z")
Nick and Nora Charles from the Thin Man series (not the current movie) seemed pretty happy, though they were constantly quipping at each other. ---
**Author:** ![mrpayday](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@mrpayday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrpayday)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-functional-relationships-please/467973/7 "2008-10-15T00:22:14Z")
> [@JustThinkin](#): > > Fetchund’s thoughts: The Bill Cosby show. The Waltons. Eight is Enough. > > In the meantime, I’m trying hard to remember the name of a show from the early 80s or so. It involved a married couple solving mysteries. They were rich and had a older male housekeeper/cook. I can see the actors but can’t come up with their names. Aarrgh! Hart to Hart? ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-functional-relationships-please/467973/8 "2008-10-15T00:25:21Z")
**JustThinkin’** , was it **McMillan & Wife**? It starred Susan Saint James and Rock Hudson. Morticia and Gomez Addams were very happy, as were Lily and Herman Munster. ---
**Author:** ![WF\_Tomba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d9b06d/32.png) [@WF\_Tomba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WF_Tomba)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-functional-relationships-please/467973/9 "2008-10-15T00:28:59Z")
> [@Equipoise](#): > > Nick and Nora Charles from the Thin Man series (not the current movie) seemed pretty happy, though they were constantly quipping at each other. Not only were they happy, they were cool! Most of the couples in the funny papers seem pretty happy. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-functional-relationships-please/467973/10 "2008-10-15T00:47:18Z")
Coach Taylor and his wife on **Friday Night Lights**. They have arguments and issues, but they are realistic ones, and they are clearly presented as two people who deeply love each other. But real people, not Huxtables. Also, Swedgin and Wu on Deadwood 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-functional-relationships-please/467973/11 "2008-10-15T00:57:58Z")
Mr. and Mrs. Sin…together since 1972, still laughing, joking, holding hands…arguing about politics. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Idlewild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8491ac/32.png) [@Idlewild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idlewild)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-functional-relationships-please/467973/12 "2008-10-15T00:58:27Z")
Frank and Shirley Gilroy were married for 11 happy years on the popular Australian soap opera _A Country Practice_. They managed very well even though she was a hippy free spirit and he was a stolid country policeman. Mind you, reading one line episode summaries of ten years worth of ACP to confirm how long they were married has now done my brain in; it’s amazing anyone survived to be married that long with the number of murders and accidental deaths in the small town the show was set in. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-functional-relationships-please/467973/13 "2008-10-15T01:04:55Z")
How about **Juno** ’s parents? I thought they were very realistic. And happy. ---
**Author:** ![PeskiPiksi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e495f1/32.png) [@PeskiPiksi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PeskiPiksi)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-functional-relationships-please/467973/14 "2008-10-15T01:16:33Z")
Jim and Pam from The Office seem to be doing pretty well so far, contrary to usual sitcom contrivances. ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-functional-relationships-please/467973/15 "2008-10-15T01:24:18Z")
Helen and Will Girardi (Mary Steenburgen and Joe Mantegna) on “Joan of Arcadia” had a lovely, warm marriage. They were my favorite characters on the show. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-functional-relationships-please/467973/16 "2008-10-15T02:00:19Z")
Marshall & Lily on How I Met Your Mother Ellie & Captain Awesome on Chuck ---
**Author:** ![stucco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e56c9b/32.png) [@stucco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stucco)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-functional-relationships-please/467973/17 "2008-10-15T02:20:09Z")
I always liked Ferris and Sloane in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-functional-relationships-please/467973/18 "2008-10-15T03:19:40Z")
> [@WF\_Tomba](#): > > Not only were they happy, they were cool! …and perpetually drunk! That relationship always seemed half a step from turning the corner to **Days of Wine and Roses**. Not that that ever stopped them from being entertaining, of course ;). ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-functional-relationships-please/467973/19 "2008-10-15T03:31:22Z")
> [@norinew](#): > > Dan and Roseanne Connor of Roseanne were very happy with one another for years. Their relationship actually reminded me a lot of my own marriage, which, coming up on 20 years, is very, very happy. One of my favorite moments from that series was when Roseanne said something like, “I just want to crawl in a hot tub and slit my wrists” and Dan replied, “I’ll get some fresh towels.” Alice and Ralph Kramden seem realistic…always fighting, but always making up. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-functional-relationships-please/467973/20 "2008-10-15T03:49:09Z")
TV Tropes’ [“Happily Married”](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HappilyMarried) entry seems pretty germane. (Caution: This website will consume your mind. _It’ss bliiiiissss…_) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-functional-relationships-please/467973.md?page=2)