Has there ever been a show about a mixed-gender group of adult friends where there are no romantic entaglements within the group?
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?
The IT Crowd i think, i don't remember in group romance in that show, maybe light flirty comedic moments but not more.
Douglas Reynholm tried to roofie Jen
Do.. do you consider attempted sexual assault/rape a "romantic entanglement"?
What the fuck.
I don't, and don't "what the fuck" me before I've even responded
Then why did you say it?
The question was about any shows with a mixed gender group of friends with no romantic engagements between them.
Someone said IT crowd, you then brought up one person attempting to roofie someone. Based on the available information, this very strongly implies that you are considering this a "romantic entanglement".
If you didn't think that was a romantic entanglement, why the fuck would you bring it up?
sorry I strayed a bit from the assignment, please back off
Since when was he anything more than a side-character? Or friends with any of them?
He was at worst a villain, at best an annoyance
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
Has there ever been a mixed-gender group of adult friends where there are no romantic entaglements within the group?
Facts lmao
Maybe a group of aces?
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
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Dee and Charlie bang.
Mac bangs Dee and Dennis' mom.
Frank bangs Charlie's mom (a lot).
Frank, Charlie, and Dennis all bang the waitress.
Dennis tries to bang Mac's mom.
Frank and Mac both try to bang Dee and Dennis' Aunt Donna.
I think Frank bangs Dee and Dennis' cousin Gail the Snail
But all of these are one off bits rather than being part of a larger arc or plotline, so I think it still fits the spirit of the question.
Mac and the waitress do hand stuff.
Well that and the question was about "between the group", i.e. intra-group entanglements. The only one that's intra-group here is the first (to which what you said about a one-off applies).
Mac is gay for Dennis, and Charlie and Dee had a fling in The Gang Misses the Boat
Addressed the Charlie and Dee thing below; I just don't consider a one-off, single-episode B-plot like that 10 seasons into the show (with a later throwaway joke in one episode three seasons later) a "romantic entanglement" for what's an ongoing 17-season comedy show.
Mac's crush on Dennis is the closest we come, but that's still very distant from "romantic entanglement" to me; that implies an entanglement, where in reality Mac's one-sided crush is infrequently referenced and pretty much always for laughs, and Dennis clearly demonstrates at every turn that literally nothing will ever come of it. The audience is always deliberately shown that this will never turn into anything; there's no "will they, won't they" going on because the answer is always and in perpetuity "won't they".
TL;DR: There's no actual arc or plotline.
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".
"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.
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
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
You should go watch Arrested Development.
Just be prepared for a noticeable quality drop when going into the Netflix seasons. I suggest even taking a break between them, as I personally didn't mind the netflix seasons so much until I did another watch through and tried to watch the netflix ones right after the original seasons.
Though the whole "written for people who aren't really paying attention" also got obvious enough that the constant recaps of shit that just happened got annoying enough I aborted the rewatch. That said, the netflix seasons do still have some good bits.
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
Nice try, I thought of the A-team but there's no girls, there's some in later seasons but not really a major part.
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
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.
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
Probably nothing that made it past one season, the writers eventually will turn to that. Good question, curious.
Scooby-Doo? No, they're supposed to be teens.
Fred and Daphne are a couple I’m pretty sure
So are Shaggy and Scooby.
Ruh roh!
And sometimes Velma and Shaggy.
I read that as Velma and Scooby. Oops.
They drive a van don't they?
They're probably poly, less drama
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.
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 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.
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)
Seems like that depends on a group of screenwriters with a masochistic enjoyment of denial. You have to think it 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.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Avengers_%28TV_series%29?wprov=sfla1
I was never a big fan of Seinfeld, and didn’t know this.
Well, they do really mean briefly. They're already broken up again by the season two premiere, which I think is when the 'no hugging, no learning' rule was implemented.
Yeah, I don't think it's even mentioned in the next episode
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
Thundercats? Although here to see who people think Cheetara was involved with.
Me in my dreams hnnnnnnnng
You had to see that coming OP.
Cheetara was paired with Tygra in both the comics and the reboot of the show.
she was responsible for keeping the group cohesion until wily kit was of age to assist.
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
B99 does the romance trope
Omg I forgot What We Do in the Shadows!!
You mean the show that could have been titled "Laszlo fucks anything that moves"?
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.