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.
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.
[spoiler]Rose was pretty obviously head over heels in love with him, but after two years of time travel, breaking down dimensional barriers, and exterminating the Dalek race - a couple of times - she gets stranded in a parallel world with a cheap copy with one heart and no Tardis.
Martha loved him “to bits,” spent a year scrubbing floors and worked in a flower shop to support him, but she might as well have been Adric for all he cared.[/spoiler]
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?
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.
Not only Sam and Diane, but also Sam and Rebecca. They did hook up to try to make a baby, but pretty quickly decided that they didn’t work as a couple.
And let’s not forget Buddy and Sally on The Dick Van Dyke Show.
I’d forgotten that part of the finale, but you’re right. Sam and Rebecca would also count. The series ends with Rebecca engaged to another man and Sam still single, not winding up with either of his more serious love interests.
I said why they don’t count in the OP. I don’t want this thread to turn into a lengthy hijack about what “hints” were or weren’t in a particular work, and I’d appreciate it if people would respect that.
I don’t remember how Who’s The Boss? ended. I know Tony and Angela had gotten together at some point, but were they still a couple when the show ended?
How about J.D. and Eliot on Scrubs? They were on-again, off-again, but they never hooked up for good (although I suppose it was heading that way in the finale).
I don’t remember how the show ended either – not sure I even saw the last season or two. Wikipedia says that the finale “did not close with the widely expected marriage but on a more ambiguous note”, although I’m not sure if that means that it was unclear whether Tony and Angela would actually marry or unclear whether they’d stay together as a couple at all. Tony Danza apparently felt the characters should not get married.
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.)
Tony and Angela were absolutely together. They decided to separate because he was offered a job elsewhere, and Angela couldn’t leave. They were very sad. And then she heard a knock on a door, and in a scene that mirrored their first meeting, Tony was standing there except in a suit. So we didn’t get the marriage, but I don’t think the ending was at all ambiguous. He chose her.