Seinfeld- Jerry and Elaine are exes and breify get back together at the end of season one
Friends- lots of romantic entaglements but mainly Chandler/Monica, Ross/Rachel, and Joey/Rachel
How I Met Your Mother - two of the main characters are a steady couple, the other three are a love triangle
Big Bang Theory- by the end, it’s three couples and one single guy
Any shows like these where the main characters never date each other or hook up with each other?
Has there ever been a mixed-gender group of adult friends where there are no romantic entaglements within the group?
Facts lmao
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Tricky – because they’re entangled off set(?)
Love the show, but Dee and Charlie hook up in ‘The Gang Misses The Boat’. She also admits to SAing him later in ‘Time’s Up For The Gang’
Yeah, it does happen, although I still went ahead with the comment because I don’t consider that a “romantic entanglement”.
- The show has 178 20-ish-minute episodes over 17 seasons.
- Of those, there’s one B-plot in one episode (“The Gang Misses the Boat”) ten seasons in and a later one-off reference to it in “Time’s Up for the Gang” (S13).
- The show has mostly minor elements of serialization, and there’s no ongoing romance between the core gang at any point; if you accidentally missed those two episodes (or one and walked away to get a drink without pausing for like a minute on the other), you’d literally never know.
- Arguably the closest we get is Mac’s obvious crush on Dennis, but this only comes up infrequently, is rarely played for any kind of actual drama, and is almost exclusively a punchline, and Dennis never reciprocates in the slightest.
“Entanglement” to me implies that the two or more characters have ongoing, mutual romantic feelings for each other that are explored or at least consistently shown over multiple episodes.
Only Murders in the Building
Good one, I hadn’t thought of that
That’s only if you only consider the 3 main characters. They each have relationships with recurring characters.
The discussion is whether there is a show where the main group of friends have no romantic entanglements WITHIN THE GROUP. So yes, Only Murders in the Building qualifies unless the main three date or hook up with eachother
Probably not, because romantic entanglements make for better TV.
Very subjective. In my opinion introducing romantic subplots is the laziest of writing.
Only well written romance… which is not most romance on TV
More like co-workers instead of friends but MAS*H.
Margaret and Frank were a couple and she hooked up with Hawkeye at one point
Valid points.
Humans are horny and attracted to proximity.
3rd Rock from the Sun? Been a while since I rewatched that, though. Kinda not “friends” but “co-workers”.
Hadn’t thought of that one. It’s a bit hard to decide if they should be considered coworkers or a family. I guess it technically counts cause they’re a gender mixed group not actually related by blood. One of them is a kid but is actually the oldest. Although I’m not sure the aliens really had gender in the way humans do
Though do you count that even though one of the characters is obsessed with his romantic entanglement outside of the group, to the point that I’d consider Mary a part of the group with how much she’s there. Iirc each of the other characters pairs up with someone, too.
That is a tough call. She was a series regular, therefore a main character, but not really part of the core group
Golden girls comes to mind. And maybe arrested development? but that’s more family than a group of friends.
George Michael and maybe is a pretty big plot point 😂
I can’t comment on Arrested Development cause I’ve never seen it, but Golden Girls are all women not a mixed-gender group
Damn it. I think I subconsciously ruled out of the mix gendered and ended up at golden girls just trying to think of a sitcom that didn’t feature romantic interests in the group.
I’m a dummy, carry on.
Did you forget about Golden Girl pilot where they had a gay housekeeper? Mixed gender bam!!!
I don’t consider him a main character unless he was a series regular for at least one season
Power Rangers?
The original Power Rangers were teenagers. And I thought Jason and Kimberly were a couple but I don’t know, the only season I really watched was RPM, which has a romance between Dillon and Summer
That was my guess too, but I needed someone with more memory of the show to confirm
I want to say Resident Alien. The core 3 adult friends don’t have any romantic relations as far as I remember. Although there is one love triangle involving one of the main and side characters I guess. But the majority of the show is about real beautiful mixed-gender friendships IMO.
Harry and D’Arcy dated for a few episodes (maybe only one or two, I don’t recall clearly). There was a bit of teasing that Asta and Harry would be a thing at some point but thankfully that never materialized.
There were definitely romantic relationships with side characters - Sheriff Mike had a couple, obviously the mayor and his wife, Harry and the bird lady, Liz had a boyfriend (though he rarely appeared or was even mentioned), plus D’Arcy tried a few times to find love and Judy… had several flings?
Yeah my main thinking was that at least those relationships (with the exception of d’arcy/the mayor) weren’t central to the friend group/drama, but of course there’s gonna be romantic relationships in anything because they are a part of life. As far as I remember, the harry/d’arcy thing was an awkward date in a very early episode but maybe I’m misremembering.
Ghosts? Does that count as a group of friends
The British one would qualify as one with no romantic entaglements (if you don’t count the living couple) but the American one has several couples in the core group Thor/Flower, Trevor/Hetty, Pete/Alberta
Also, Thomas+Allison.
It was one-sided and played for laughs, but it’s pretty much always there, so you might count it.
Good point
Didn’t know there was an American one tbh
They even recycled a lot of the same basic characters and plot points. It’s has a pretty different feel though, so I’m not sure whether to be mad.
There are also French, German, Greek, and Australian versions
TIL. Did any of them deviate much from the original set-up, or is there a too-nice scoutmaster with an arrow through the neck in all of them?
I’ve only watched the British and American ones but I think all or most of them have a character like that
Scooby-Doo? No, they’re supposed to be teens.
Fred and Daphne are a couple I’m pretty sure
And sometimes Velma and Shaggy.
I read that as Velma and Scooby. Oops.
They drive a van don’t they?
Three’s Company?
I’m not sure about Three’s Company. I feel like one of the main women may have hooked up with either Jack or Larry at some point. But I’m not sure
being human kinda. the werewolf ends up dating someone who moves in so that kinda messes it up but the original trio never has relations I think.
I was going to say Spaced till I remembered Twist and Brian have their weird thing and he maybe slept with Marsha. Tim and Daisy never hook up tho, but they do pretend to be a couple for a bit to get the flat.
Black Books - Bernard does mention he once possibly might have slept with Fran but she made him forget, and then it never comes up again.
Brian almost definitely slept with Marsha. As best as I remember from subtext and possibly the DVD extras, he was behind on rent, and Marsha made an indecent proposal. Add that to the fact that he’s hung like a horse and you understand why Marsha might retain some interest.
Also, Tim and Daisy do eventually get together, but officially only after the series ends. Tyres saw what was going on a lot sooner than that though.
Finally, there’s the potential that Mike might actually have more than a man-crush on Tim. They have a bromance, sure, but there might be other things going on in Mike’s head that Tim is completely oblivious to.
