William Frawley was in his early 60s and Vivian Vance was in her early 40s when I Love Lucy debuted. Does that count?
Actor Tim Moore (George ‘Kingfish’ Stevens) from TV’s “Amos ‘n’ Andy” was 29 years older than his TV wife Ernestine Wade.
Dick Van Dyke was 11 years older than Mary Tyler Moore. Van Dyke said he didn’t think anyone would believe Mary would be interested in an “old guy” like him
Lucille Ball was 10 years older than Desi Arnaz in real life. Though Lucy was playing 10 years younger on “I Love Lucy.”
Would it have been any stranger if he’d been involved with Joyce, who was maybe 35 or 40?
Not to mention much hotter.
Actually, he didn’t marry her – Grace Gardner showed up at the wedding and Phil fainted before the marriage was official.
That was the episode where the wedding ring was swallowed by a suspect and they had to wait until it passed through his system. After they retrieved it, Belker handed to the best man, who thought it might be from police evidence. He asked, “Is this ring hot?” and Belker replied “No. Just body temperature.”
I believe the OP is about differences in age of the characters, not of the actors who portray them.
In NYPD Blue Andy Sipowicz was significantly older than Connie McDowell.
Blanche and…any number of guys on The Golden Girls.
Frawlery was 22 years older than Vance, but Fred & Ethel were supposed to be about the same age. Vance resented being cast opposite such an older man and she & Frawley hated each other in real life.
On The OC, Julie Cooper had an affair with her daughter’s high-schooler boyfriend Luke.
I feel shame that I know this.
Yeah, I was tentative about posting it because it did seem they aged Vance a bit, and Ethel was supposed to be have been a vaudeville entertainer. On the other hand, I’m pretty sure she referred to Fred as “old goat” a few times, whereas he never mentions her age (his insults always targeted her weight). Also, there’s one episode in which we meet Fred’s previous partner. I could imagine that Fred was an established entertainer who came through Albuquerque, swept young and naive Ethel May Potter off her feet, and made her part of his act just as vaudeville gasped its last breath.
Apropos of nothing, I was in a second-hand store the other day and saw an old “I Love Lucy” record cover with artist renderings of Ricky, Lucy, and the blondest most blue-eyed Little Ricky I’ve ever seen.
It was just one episode, but also on Friends Monica dated a virgin college boy. After they do the deed, she confesses she’s older than she had said and he confesses he’s younger and, in fact, still in high school.
“I thought you were a senior!”
“Oh, I’m a senior all right…”
While Rob Petrie was clearly older than Laura, they even had an a few episodes about the difference in the ages, I’m not so sure about Fred and Ethel being the same age.
Lucy is playing ten years younger than she was. This puts her at Desi’s real age. OK so Lucy and Ricky Ricardo are the same age. Lucy says she’s 35 when they move to CT.
The only thing really clear is that Ethel is older than Lucy. But we never know exactly how much older. Vivian Vance was a few years older than Lucille Ball though it wasn’t publicly discovered till after Ball’s death. Prior to that it was widely thought Vance was younger than Lucille Ball. Then the raw notes of Vivan Vance’s autobiography (never published) were found to indicate Vance’s real birthdate was a few years older than Lucille Ball.
But anyway, one thing that is clear is that Fred Mertz had a vaudeville partner BEFORE Vivian. So we can assume Fred is at least a bit older, because he had a partner and the act was “Mertz and Kurtz”
We later find out that Fred and Ethel were in Vaudeville together. But Ethel also seems to indicates she was in vaudeville by herself too.
Of course that really doesn’t say much. After all Rose “Dick Van Dyke Show” Marie was a child and in Vaudeville
I don’t know if they ever specified the age difference but on “Upstairs, Downstairs” Ricjhard Bellamy (David Langton, born 1912) was definitely older than his second wife Virginia
(Hannah Gordon, born 1941). Although Virginia did have a son in the Navy killed during the First World War, she did have two small children from her first marriage. where Richard’s two children from his first marriage were adult brats (although Elizabeth had moved away by the time Virginia came to 165 Eaton Place).
The gang also visited Albuquerque on the way to California and we got to meet Ethel’s father. IIRC he was about the same age as Fred and didn’t care for him one bit. In the first/second episode (1st aired, 2nd made) the Mertzes celebrate their 18th anniversary. That was in 1951 so they married in 1933. If Fred & Ethel were the same age as their actors she’d be 24 and he’d be 46.
By believable and touching of course you meant horrible and squick-inducing… Seriously though, I didn’t like this relationship at all. Even beyond all the age stuff, clearly, clearly this was Deborah looking for Dad-substitute. Incest ick! And, older man actor just isn’t pretty at all…
So… there’s plenty of older men - younger women, which is fine (if it’s not a Daddy issue like Deborah) but still somewhat cliché…
Still, older man but still OK?.. Old Christine + Sam Beckett…
Older woman? Cougar Town duh. to Die For. How I Met Your Mother.
Gay older man? Jefffrey.
Lesbian older woman? IDK…
On Roseanne, Dan’s father Ed impregnated and married Roseanne’s best friend Crystal–a 30 year age difference.
An episode of 2-1/2 Men had Evelyn Harper hooks up with Charlie’s friend Bill, who five years ago was Charlie’s lover Jill, leading to some of the best lines on the show:
Alan, who doesn’t know Bill’s history: Think of the age difference.
Charlie: That’s the least of the problem.
Alan’s wife had a lesbian relationship after she threw him out.
Berta: One brother turns them gay and the other turns them guy. What are the odds?
Renee O’Connor and Lucy Lawless are about the same age, but I always took it that Xena was a good ten-twelve years older than Gabrielle. In the first year of the show, in particular, Gabrielle is almost always treated as an extremely young adult: the way we tend to treat people of about 18 or 19 in my neighborhood, that is, adult in a technical and legal sense, but still with a lot of maturing to do.
(And of course there are still those who think they were just friends.)