That onscreen spark! There’s just something about watching a couple fall in love on television. Sure, it’s not why you tune in, but a lot of the time, it’s why you stay. With so much TV on today, something has to stand out – and since the beginning of time, couples have done just that.
Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz’s Lucy and Ricky were one of the first onscreen pairs that audiences just couldn’t get enough of, beginning when I Love Lucy debuted in 1951. Married and in love, they had the bickering bit down pat – something that carried on through the years. In fact, it was so popular that it’s sparked the “will-they, won’t-they” theme that appears in nearly every show on TV today.
Joshua Jackson’s Pacey Witter and Katie Holmes’ Joey Potter went from “you annoy me” to “I love you” and back again for the entire second half of Dawson’s Creek – and it worked. By the finale, you still weren’t sure if they’d end up together. The same went for Adam Brody’s Seth Cohen and Rachel Bilson’s Summer Roberts on The O.C. She couldn’t stand to be in the same room with him in the beginning – and wouldn’t think of being without him by the end.
While you could tell David Schwimmer’s Ross Geller and Jennifer Aniston’s Rachel Green were endgame in the Friends pilot, you still watched and laughed and loved when they dated other people, but 10 seasons later, you knew you’d see the lobsters together. And Rachel said it perfectly in the finale: “This is where I want to be. No more messing around. I don’t want to mess this up again. It’s you and me, all right? This is it.”
In May 2021, Schwimmer and Aniston opened up about the bond they developed offscreen while exploring Ross and Rachel’s love story.
“The first season, I had a major crush on Jen,” Schwimmer shared during HBOMax’s reunion special, to which Aniston replied, “It was reciprocated.”
The American Crime Story alum noted that neither of them acted on their feelings — instead they chose to stay close friends. “I think at some point we were both crushing hard on each other, but it was like two ships passing because one of us was always in a relationship, and we never crossed that boundary,” he clarified at the time. “We respected that.”
Aniston, for her part, recalled how their first onscreen kiss allowed them to keep their feelings platonic.
“I remember saying one time to David, ‘It’s gonna be such a bummer if the first time you and I actually kiss is going to be on national television,’” she shared. “Sure enough, the first time we kissed was in that coffee shop. We just channeled all of our adoration and love for each other into Ross and Rachel.”
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