Entertainment
10 TV Couples Who Are #RelationshipGoals
Everyone is looking for love. It’s the cold and simple truth. Everyone – or more or less everyone – is constantly searching for that one person who is perfect in every way and who, in their eyes, in the most beautiful person in the whole world. They’re looking for that person who they can deeply connect with, who can be the last thing they see every night before they go to sleep and the first thing they see when they wake up every morning. Isn’t that really the whole point of life – to find someone to share it with? But let’s be honest, it’s pretty hard to find that person. Even if you do manage to meet someone, get them to like you, and enter into a relationship with them, the chances that they are your soulmate are like seven billion to one. So, you sort of have to play the waiting game and trust that, one day, they will come along. And in the meantime, there’s plenty of couples on TV who have found that special someone who you can look up to and aspire to. So, here are 10 adorably loving couples from TV shows who are the ultimate #RelationshipGoals.
10. Cory and Topanga
It’s not often with TV shows that you get to see the couple grow up together from kids to adults, but that’s what makes Boy Meets World so special. We meet Cory Matthews in middle school, where he starts to take a romantic interest in his cute classmate, Topanga Lawrence, and we follow him through high school as they start dating and come of age, right up to college where they become adults and get engaged and marry each other. These are the same two people we met as pre-pubescent kids all the way back in season 1. They ended up getting married! And, as we saw when their story continued in the sequel series Girl Meets World on the Disney Channel, they went on to have a long and happy marriage – and they also had two wonderful kids, Riley and Auggie. Aside from being a beautiful and unique love story that tells us a more in depth version of a romance than any other TV show before it, Boy Meets World is also a significant show for social change. The show was aimed at kids and the fact that they included an interracial romance in the partnership of Shawn and Angela has been praised for normalizing a previously taboo topic. They also covered many important issues, like child abuse, sexual harassment, and underage drinking.
9. Monica and Chandler
When the writers of Friends had the idea for Chandler and Monica to hook up in London, they decided to run it by the audience first. They shot it and showed it to a bunch of test audiences, and the pairing was met with resounding approval from the show’s fans. And so began one of the most beautiful romances in all of television. We should’ve seen it all along – they were meant to be! Monica is the most uptight and cynical of the three women on Friends, and Chandler is the most uptight and cynical of the three men on Friends, so it only makes sense that they would find happiness together. While Ross was busy inviting his ex to his wedding where he was marrying a woman he had only met a few months earlier and saying the wrong girl’s name at the altar and screwing up his whole life, two soulmates who had known each other as friends for years and years were hooking up for the first time ever. It’s funny how life works like that sometimes. TV Guide ranked the moment where we discover that Chandler and Monica have slept together to be the third greatest TV plot twist of all time.
8. Leslie and Ben
Thank God Adam Scott decided to drop out of Party Down and commit to a recurring role as Ben Wyatt on Parks and Recreation, because he provided Leslie Knope with the soulmate she deserved. Until Ben came along, Leslie had always struggled in the dating world – she once got dumped via skywriting, she once ended up in an MRI on a first date, she once overdosed on Ambien during a date. She never had it easy. She even struggled with Ben for a while, as rules dictated that they couldn’t be together – but eventually they got on the right track, getting married and having triplets. Everything will always work out when you’re meant to be together. The series finale ended with the suggestion that either Leslie or Ben went on to become the President of the United States in 2048. But they didn’t reveal which one it was, because they didn’t need to! Whichever one of those two turned out to be the President, you just know that they only managed to do it because the other one supported them through their whole campaign – it’s exactly what Michelle Obama did for her husband Barack, and they’re a perfect example of a real life couple who are #RelationshipGoals.
7. Rob and Laura
What makes The Dick Van Dyke Show so great – apart from being a timeless and freaking hilarious classic of the sitcom genre – is its attitude towards women. Considering it was made in the 1960s when women were regarded as little more than their husband’s servant and receptionist, it has some phenomenally strong female characters. There’s Sally, who is just as funny and talented as her male co-workers, who listen to her suggestions and appreciate her input. And then there’s Laura, Rob’s wife. She isn’t there to serve him. He doesn’t see her as inferior to him. For Rob and Laura, it’s like “us versus the world,” which is really the ultimate relationship goal, isn’t it? Having someone to share all your problems with so you can tackle them together – that’s the dream! And Rob and Laura Petrie were living that dream fifty years ago! They’re really just two people sharing their lives together – there’s no gender stereotypes getting in the way. At times, Laura is shown to be more physically capable than Rob and Rob is shown to be more emotionally sensitive than Laura. These are just two people married together who see each other as equals pequals. It’s really quite terrific and inspiring.
6. Glenn and Maggie
Glenn Rhee began his life on The Walking Dead as a nerdy pizza delivery boy who felt like a badass to finally be able to live out his favorite video games and horror movies. And then, in season 2, the group of survivors stopped off at Hershel’s farm for a while, where they got to know his family. Glenn became instantly infatuated with Maggie Greene, who epitomized the cliché of the beautiful farmer’s daughter. They subsequently began a relationship and ended up getting married. Glenn and Hershel became close as they developed a sort of mentor/mentee relationship (the best relationship anyone has ever had with their father-in-law) and, whether it was the sense of impending doom brought on by the zombie apocalypse or the total loss of humanity, Glenn and Maggie very quickly and very madly fell in love with one another. They got married and Maggie got pregnant. Their future seemed so bright, even in this bleak, post-apocalyptic world. Unfortunately, as it very often goes in The Walking Dead, their love was cut short when one of them died. But this was no usual Walking Dead death. Neither of them were bitten by walkers. Instead, Glenn had his head caved in and his eye popped out by a maniac wielding a baseball bat wrapped in barb wire. It was ruthless – and extremely tragic. And it wouldn’t have been anywhere near as tragic if they weren’t in love and if Glenn hadn’t ended his life by saying, “Maggie, I will find you.”
5. Andy and April
Do you remember a time when Chris Pratt was just the chubby schlub from Parks and Recreation? It’s hard to remember, since he has since gone on to become a buff, handsome, devilishly charming action blockbuster movie star. But still, if you look back at Andy, it’s the same old Chris Pratt, just out of shape. You can see how any girl would fall for his charms – but in the first instance, you wouldn’t expect it to be April. As characters, Andy Dwyer and April Ludgate are like chalk and cheese. Fun-loving Andy is brimming with bubbly enthusiasm and positivity, whereas April is a dark abyss of anger and hatred and negativity. You wouldn’t pair them together, at least on the surface. But then the employees of the Parks Department went on that fateful hunting trip, leaving Andy and April alone at the office to hang out, and it very quickly became obvious that these two were adorable together. IGN’s reviewer Matt Fowler wrote of the episode, “I could literally watch Andy and April for a full half hour. Their pairing was amazing, and might I add, very naturalistic. It didn’t feel like they were just two quirky characters, I felt like they were really interacting on a sweet and real level.” Shortly after that initial interaction, they started dating (after Andy failed to pick up on April’s flirting for a long time), and shortly after that, they had a surprise wedding ceremony and invited all their friends. They have that deep, loving connection that we’re all looking for.
4. Mitch and Cam
Until very, very recently, the world was generally homophobic. But now that everyone is woke and accepting and PC, fortunately, most people seem to be okay with the gay community. A huge part of that is the popularity of Modern Family and its character Cam and Mitch. Any homo-skeptics could see that gay people could be in love and raise a family just like straight people. Cam and Mitch love each other just as much as any straight couple and they love their daughter just as much as any straight couple. As a pair of dedicated fathers, Mitch and Cam were included on TV.com’s list of the Five Best TV Dads. Cam and Mitch are just two people who happen to both be men who met and fell in love and moved in together and started a family and got married. Whether we’re gay, straight, bi, asexual, trans, or any other orientation, we’re all looking for a love like Mitch and Cam have for each other. It’s also worth noting that Eric Stonestreet, the actor who plays Cam, the eccentric, camp, flamboyant one who exhibits all the stereotypes of a gay man, is actually straight, while Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who exhibits none of those stereotypes, is the one who’s gay in real life. As soon as you realize that, it busts your whole perception of the gay community wide open.
3. Jim and Pam
The ultimate goal when you’re searching for love is to find someone who you can feel about the way that Jim and Pam feel about each other. You want someone who you can look at and smile at the way that Jim and Pam do. That is completely, one hundred percent exactly what you’re looking for. The heartbreaking angle of this TV couple is that they were not always a couple. At the start of the show, they were just co-workers who often flirted with each other and joked around with each other. Pam was actually engaged to another guy! And he was a horrible guy. He was mean and emotionally abusive and wouldn’t let her have any fun. And Jim was right there! It was so painfully obvious that they should be together. And then they did get together and they got engaged in the most romantic way possible (Jim proposed to Pam in the pouring rain with a ring that he bought one week after they started dating after his original plans fell through, thanks to Andy) and they got married at Niagara Falls and they bought a house together and they had a baby – aside from beginning when Pam was engaged to another man, this was a storybook romance.
2. Homer and Marge
Is there anything that the marriage of Homer and Marge Simpson can’t withstand? Homer once gave a class at the community center entitled “Secrets of a Successful Marriage,” and he’d probably have a lot of great advice to offer if he wasn’t so stupid. Homer and Marge’s marriage is ironclad. No matter how many mistakes Homer might make, he loves Marge more than anything in the entire world, and no matter how many times he screws up, he always realizes the error of his ways and remembers how lucky he is and makes it up to her. He’s not a model husband and doesn’t always know how to show it, but he is in love with Marge. And Marge, of course, is always loyal and loving and wonderful to Homer. With the amount of crap she puts up with, she’d have to be in love with him! Homer lucked out in high school and he hasn’t looked back since. A lot of TV husbands look back on their single life fondly and resent their monogamous marriage, but not Homer – the way he sees it, he’s got the greatest girl in the world. And he’s right! Marge is beautiful (inside and out), helpful, calming, understanding, kind-hearted – she’s perfect.
1. Marshall and Lily
Marshall and Lily from How I Met Your Mother are the ultimate #RelationshipGoals. Their purpose in the story of the show is to exhibit exactly what Ted is looking for in his search for the one. They met in college and it was a truly beautiful case of love at first sight, and aside from one tiny hiccup, they’ve been happy ever since. They have everything you want in a relationship. They tell each other everything and they help each other through every problem they’re faced with and they even have adorable pet names for one another, Marshmallow and Lilypad! They have rituals like when Marshall picks Lily up at the airport and how Lily leaves notes for Marshall in his lunch and how they tell each other what they had to eat at the end of every day. When they temporarily broke up, it was like the biggest, most shocking, most mind-blowing event in television history. It was so heavy and devastating. If Marshall and Lily can’t make it, then what the hell chance do any of the rest of us have? And then, when they got back together, it was the biggest relief. Marshall and Lily are the couple that we can all look up to and aspire towards. They’re perfect for each other!