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?
E4 Humans, though that’s cause they’re all “siblings” (fully sapient sentient androids made all by the same creator, over multiple years)
Was gonna say Being Human, then I remembered that Russel Tovey does turn one of his girlfriends into a werewolf and she goes from side character to main character after that
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
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.
Humans are horny and attracted to proximity.
Three’s Company?
Seems like it depends on a group of screenwriters with a masochistic enjoyment of denial. You have to think would be a very tempting subplot to start.
As a result, most of the ideas people here have involve like three main characters. I’m not sure about 30 Rock.
They would have to think something awaits for them in the divine for resisting.
https://youtu.be/jXO5axomU7Q (perhaps my favorite and most relatable Hank Green video in recent memory)
The advengers.
The New Girl Only Murders in the Building Platonic
Lots of coworker shows: Brooklyn 99 Abbott Elementary The Oroville SuperStore The Office
And even more Anime vs. Cartoons
New girl, nick and jess, Schmidt and CeeCee. People hook up in that show.
Oh I only watched like four episodes
wtf
Only Murders in the Building I agree on but Abbott Elementary has romance between Gregory and Janine. The Orville has romance between Isaac and Claire and arguably Ed and Kelly (exes who seem to still have feelings for eachother) I can’t comment on your other examples, I haven’t seen them
OPs examples have one couple but still other friends.
B99 does the romance trope
Omg I forgot What We Do in the Shadows!!
30 Rock. None of the core group ever get together. There’s a little bit of sexual tension between jack and lemon but it’s always clear that it will never go anywhere
Jenna & Frank hooked up that one time though
The thing is that love is an pretty common theme, and a great way to build a conflict, meaning a story.
Even RPG nerd end up having some romance arc in their story, because suddenly it explains the murder, battle and other drama making us roll the dices (and in 90% it’s suggested rather than explicit)
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 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.
Only Murders in the Building
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
Good one, I hadn’t thought of that
Feels like asking if there’s a show where the main characters never eat together. Sex and food are sorta what we do. Like as a species. A show would have to be very limited in scope to leave one of those things out.
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.
