A common feature of what makes a sitcom work so well is its depiction of the everyday lives of its larger than life characters.
Whether including bizarre coworkers, quirky families with more members than you can count, unlikely groups of friends, or high school students, sitcoms delight in showing the highs and lows of everyday life.
Some of them are more outlandish than others, and some may have dramatic elements to tilt them more toward dramedy than outright comedy.
However, regardless of their setting, and their specific genre, sitcoms prominently feature families, friendships, and romances.
Certain sitcoms prefer to focus on messy relationships and why they were doomed to fail from the start, and others chronicle addictive “will they, won’t they” couples from beginning to end.
However, whether the couples are meant to be given a happily ever after is sometimes besides the point. If the writing is poor, or the chemistry is off, no amount of attempted development can save a bad couple from tarnishing an otherwise enjoyable sitcom’s legacy.
Here are the 8 Couples That Hurt Iconic Sitcoms (And 7 That Saved Them).
Hurt: Haley and Andy (Modern Family)
From the start, Modern Family was known for its unconventional but lovable couples and their many children.
Phil and Claire, Cameron and Mitchell, and Jay and Gloria all have adorable, often hilarious stories. Their personalities and differences complement one another perfectly, allowing for laughter-inducing scenarios one after another.
However, when eldest Dunhpy child Haley came of age, the show decided to pair her with her first adult love interest, Jay and Gloria’s nanny, Andy.
While the two couldn’t have been any more different in terms of personality and preferences, while their predecessors’ differences worked wonderfully, their differences clashed quite sharply.
Every scene between the two was steeped in awkwardness.
This is only made worse by the fact that Sarah Hyland and Adam Devine shared absolutely no palpable chemistry whatsoever.
Saved: Jesse and Becky (Full House)
From the moment Jesse Katsopolis and Rebecca Donaldson met at the start of Full House season 2, it was clear that their story was going to be a long, romantic one.
The couple had a traditional Hollywood meet cute, with Jesse coming home to find Becky in the Tanner living room and finding himself blown away by her beauty.
While there were a few speed bumps along the way – Becky initially denying her interest in Jesse, or the two being unable to decide what their future looked like – the couple were married in season 4, welcoming twins in the following season.
Throughout the entire series, the chemistry between John Stamos and Lori Loughlin was entirely effortless.
This perhaps is owing to the actors’ own brief romantic history.
Even all these years later, the couple is going as strong as ever on spinoff series Fuller House, now having adopted a young daughter, Pamela.
Hurt: Michael and Jan (The Office)
The Office’s Michael Scott is arguably one of the most out-of-this-world characters in sitcom history, thanks in large part to the amazing comedic timing and talent of Steve Carell.
It was therefore always going to be a bad idea to try and pair Michael in a relationship with anyone who was nowhere near his level of humor and zaniness.
However, it was perhaps the worst idea of all to pair Michael with a moody, domineering businesswoman – and his superior, at that.
Jan Levinson offered almost nothing to the show in terms of humor, save for the unintentional humor that came with the dissolution of her and Michael’s relationship.
The two lacked all compatibility, but perhaps the sole benefit of their ill-advised relationship was the fact that it led Michael to become even zanier, even more hilarious, and even more willing to be totally out of control in terms of his lack of a humor filter.
Saved: Niles and Daphne (Frasier)
Few sitcom couples took a longer time getting past the “will they, won’t they” stage than Frasier’s Niles Crane and Daphne Moon.
From the moment that they met in the series’ first season, the straitlaced Niles was absolutely smitten with the wonderfully quirky Daphne.
At the time, nothing could come of it, as he was married to the never seen, but often maligned Maris. Of course, once Niles was single, Daphne was not, and things would take ever longer once Daphne found herself near a marriage of her own.
However, the two destined lovebirds would find their way to one another at the very end of the series’ seventh season.
From then on, the series never wavered in its quality.
Instead, it was buoyed by the relief and joy that came with the long awaited union of the couple, strengthened further by their eventual marriage and the birth of their son, David.
Hurt: Barney and Robin (How I Met Your Mother)
Unlikely couples can sometimes work in a series’ favor. Spur of the moment decisions in the writers’ room – whether based on a need for storylines, or the realization of chemistry between two actors – can lead to the strongest seasons of a series that would never have been made otherwise.
Unfortunately for How I Met Your Mother, such a decision led to year after year of the insufferable pairing of Barney Stinson, one of the most unlikable male characters in sitcom history, and Robin Scherbatsky, the show’s resident sweetheart.
The crux of their relationship can be boiled down to the fact that Barney was never truly willing to change his lothario ways.
Their fundamental incompatibility would lead to their eventual separation in the series finale, and no matter how divisive the finale may have been, the fact remains that these two characters were much better off apart than they ever were together – Robin, especially.
Saved: Ben and Leslie (Parks and Recreation)
Relationships where characters initially cannot stand one another are extremely common in television in general, but even more so in sitcoms, which are known for pushing the boundaries and having fun with viewer expectations in so many ways.
Take, for example, Parks and Recreation’s Ben Wyatt and Leslie Knope, two characters who initially could not have been any more different in their approach to the world.
Ben was straight shooting in his demeanor, totally unfiltered and snarky, while Leslie is a hardworking idealist with romantic dreams of enacting real positive change in the world.
Add to this clear conflict that they were in a boss-employee dynamic, and the slow-simmering attraction that developed between them, and it was clear that this sitcom was going places with them that would be all too enjoyable to witness.
Sure enough, by the time they gave into their feelings for one another, there could be no denying that they were truly made for each other.
Hurt: Sheldon and Amy (The Big Bang Theory)
In its earliest seasons, The Big Bang Theory was a show that celebrated the joys of being a nerd. It celebrated the fun aspects of nerddom, ranging from Comic Con to movie marathons, while also highlighting the difficult parts, including childhood bullying.
At the center of its cast, the brilliant and incredibly unique Sheldon Cooper stood out as a one of a kind character, interested in intellectual pursuits and Star Trek and scarcely much else.
However, following the introduction of Amy Farrah Fowler, the character of Sheldon – and the show – soon began to lose its way.
Over time, Amy doggedly committed herself to the pursuit of changing Sheldon into the boyfriend she wanted him to be, stripping him of the quirky traits that made him so entertaining to begin with.
Now, unfortunately, Sheldon at times feels like any of the other stereotypical male characters on the show, discussing romantic gestures and planning for his and Amy’s forthcoming marriage.
Saved: Jake and Amy (Brooklyn Nine-Nine)
It’s a familiar trope in sitcoms: the uptight perfectionist and the slacker goofball somehow find themselves drawn to one another, and ultimately fall in love, despite any potential consequences.
Given how common a story it is, it’s also incredibly easy to handle it poorly, as it will inevitably be compared to other instances in which it was handled better.
Admittedly, in the earliest episodes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, the potential of a flirtation between Andy Samberg’s Jake Peralta and Melissa Fumero’s Amy Santiago did feel rather difficult to imagine, as the characters struggled to find their footing.
However, in the course of the five seasons of the series’ run, Jake and Amy have proven themselves to be one of the most consistent, compatible, genuinely realistic couples on television, no matter the heightened scenarios of their procedural police sitcom universe.
Hurt: Fez and Jackie (That 70s Show)
As a show following characters from high school to adulthood, it was only natural that there would be plenty of ill-advised romantic pairings along the way on That 70s Show.
Eric and Donna were ostensibly the show’s greatest love story, but even that one was forced to fade with time following Topher Grace’s departure from the series.
Red and Kitty were its longest lasting couple, but as the older generation on the series, it wasn’t likely viewers would become as invested in them.
For poor Jackie Burkhardt, however, love stories seemed to come and go depending on the season, as the show struggled with what to do with her.
Hoever, by the show’s end, Jackie was abruptly paired with the comic relief character Fez, with whom she had never so much as shared any romantic chemistry whatsoever.
Thankfully, Jackie and Kelso would at least get their happy ending in real life, as Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher found their way back to one another.
Saved: Lily and Marshall (How I Met Your Mother)
While the relationship between Barney and Robin proved to be one of How I Met Your Mother’s worst decisions in the end, the unflagging love story between Marshmallow and Lilypad remains one of the smartest choices the series ever made.
Long-time lovebirds Marshall Eriksen and Lily Aldrin began the series as the initial sources of cuteness and comic relief.
However, as the seasons went on, and they faced their fair share of struggles, their relationship deepened and grew stronger and more supportive than it ever had been before.
Thanks to the effortless warmth and chemistry between co-stars Alyson Hannigan and Jason Segel, their love story never once felt stale or tired, never falling into the trap of running out of gas once a couple became married with children of their own.
Hurt: Susan and George (Seinfeld)
It’s not rare for sitcoms to feature couples so utterly incompatible that it begins to take a toll on the quality of a show. The existence of a list like this only attests to that.
However, it is rare for a show to feature such an unbearable couple that it finds it necessary to cut off one half of the couple to prevent any future mistakes.
On Seinfeld, the eternally lazy George Costanza somehow found himself engaged to marry the wealthy executive Susan Ross.
The couple never seemed to have anything in common, never mind any display of chemistry, but for season after season, they remained an item – no matter George’s attempts to put an end to the relationship.
However, in the seventh season finale, the unthinkable finally happened: Susan suffered the bizarre fate of being poisoned by cheap envelope adhesive, allowing the series to move on from the discomfort of their relationship in a truly outlandish way.
Saved: Chandler and Monica (Friends)
In a series full of surprising romantic twists, it was the decision to pair unlikely couple Chandler Bing and Monica Geller that truly showed the magic a series like Friends was capable of.
The two had certainly been shown as good friends in the moments leading up to the sudden reveal that they had become romantically involved.
They were each other’s source of comfort on many occasions, including moments of sickness and following rough breakups.
All the while, they were never intended to become romantically involved.
However, once they were, it not only solidified their future as the strongest couple in the entire series, but it also made all the moments that had come before that much more meaningful.
Whether in their proposal, their wedding, or their adoption of twins, the couple showed their unending love for one another regularly, strengthening the series as a whole as a result of it.
Hurt: Nick and Jess (New Girl)
It’s not just a couple that can bring down an entire sitcom. Sometimes, a single character can take all of the enjoyment out of a series.
Unfortunately, that character is sometimes the lead, whose love story is the focus of the series for much of its run. Look no further than New Girl for a clear example of this.
Zooey Deschanel’s Jess has consistently been one of television’s most grating sitcom leads, even as she’s surrounded by a cast of incredibly entertaining supporting characters.
Nick is a perfectly amusing character in his own right, grumpy and sarcastic and wonderfully absorbed in his friendships with Schmidt and Winston.
So naturally, when the two are paired together, Nick loses all of his vitality.
In this case, Jess overpowered the show even more than she already did on a regular basis.
Saved: Jim and Pam (The Office)
It was the love story that stole America’s heart, captivating them for seasons as the adorable coworkers struggled to find their way to one another.
In the clearest example of a workplace relationship done wonderfully right, the love story between Jim Halpert and Pam Beesly on The Office remains one of the strongest love stories on television to date.
They began as coworkers, turned to best friends, and struggled through the awkward phase of unrequited love.
This happened all before they blissfully found themselves with the perfect opportunity for admitting their mutual feelings and getting together – and not a moment too soon.
By the sixth season, they were happily married, and would go on to form a beautiful little family of their own, within the office and outside of it as well.
Hurt: Joey and Rachel (Friends)
Few ideas in sitcom history have made less sense than the romantic pairing of perennial playboy Joey Tribbiani and uptight rich girl Rachel Green.
Ignoring the fact that Ross and Rachel were clearly meant to be together, and that Joey’s soulmate was clearly always himself or food, there’s no logical reason for these two have been paired together – other than the fact that the show went on much longer than it should have.
When Joey initially developed feelings for Rachel, it was sweet: she was pregnant, and Joey, normally the most shallow man alive, had fallen in love with her.
However, after nothing came of that, the show decided to return seasons later to pair them up in an ill thought out, short-lived (but not short-lived enough) storyline that found their relationship threatening to tear the core friendship unit apart.
What couples do you think have saved and hurt the most iconic sitcoms? Let us know in the comments!
