As that '70s love between Ashton Kutcher and Danny Masterson continues on Neflix's 'The Ranch,' we explore 17 TV families who were besties when the cameras stopped rolling.
Fans of That ‘70s Show will be thrilled to see Ashton
Kutcher and Danny Masterson together again in The Ranch, a Netflix
original series that begins streaming on April 1. The two pals play brothers --
Colt (Kutcher), a failed semi-pro football star, and Rooster (Masterson), his
never-left-the-ranch older sibling -- and viewers can expect the same natural
camaraderie and old-fashioned ribbing from their “high school” days in the
fictional Point Place, Wisconsin.
It works because it’s real. Since That ‘70s Show
ended a decade ago (we can’t believe it’s been that long either), Kutcher,
Masterson and the rest of the gang have remained friends -- partying together
at nightclubs, posting Instagrams of home sing-alongs and collectively
investing in restaurants. Two of the stars -- Kutcher and Mila Kunis -- even
got married and started a family. As that ‘70s love continues, we explore 17 TV
families who were besties when the cameras stopped rolling.
30 Rock
On Saturday Night Live, the cast ends each week with
an on-stage hug session at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, but last year, when Tracy
Morgan returned to host after a near-fatal car accident, the hugs were extra
tight as his 30 Rock co-stars -- Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Jane Krakowski
and Jack McBrayer -- joined him in a sketch based on the hit show. Fey and
Krakowski also see each other pretty regularly, as Krakowski stars on the
Fey-created Netflix series, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.
Full House
The Full House cast is the poster child for off-camera
affection. Since the show ended its run in 1995, the Tanners have reunited so
often that it wouldn’t be surprising if they actually lived together in real
life. Weddings, birthday parties, Comedy Central roasts, you name it and they
are there, together, hugging and likely getting “dad talks” from Bob Saget. Now
you can catch some of them in the audience of Dancing With the Stars cheering on Jodie Sweetin or on Netflix, where Fuller House continues to
provide America with a hand to hold on to.
The Brady Bunch
They were America’s favorite family in the ‘70s, but the
cast of The Brady Bunch loved each other more than you can imagine.
Susan Olsen (Cindy Brady) admitted she and her TV stepbrother, Mike Lookinland
(Bobby Brady), used to have make-out sessions in the Brady doghouse, and
Maureen McCormick (Marcia! Marcia! Marcia!) revealed in her memoir that she had
a steamy romance with Barry Williams (Greg Brady). Call it a hunch, but maybe
this group shouldn’t have somehow formed a family.
Empire
It may be one of the most drama-filled shows on television
right now, but in real life, the Empire family is more like the
Partridge family, having wholesome family fun, like rollerblading and taking
trips to Target together. On their off-time, they have sushi dinners at
Terrence Howard’s house, the cast is expected at Kaitlin Doubleday’s upcoming
wedding, and every Saturday they get together for an intense game of Spades.
And through it all, no one hits anyone with a broom.
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Growing Pains
Fresh off broken relationships in real life, both Alan
Thicke and Joanna Kerns bonded on set while playing the Seaver parents. While
it did get flirty, there were no blurred lines about their relationship. The
same cannot be said for Kirk Cameron and Chelsea Noble, who played boyfriend
and girlfriend on the hit show before marrying in real life. There may not have
been an on-set romance for young Jeremy Miller (Ben Seaver), but it was
revealed that early on in the show’s run, he’d cry at the end of every season. Now,
that’s love!
Felicity
Fans flipped when Keri Russell, Scott Speedman and Scott
Foley reunited (in their pajamas) for the cover of Entertainment Weekly last
year. It was reportedly their first time together since the WB drama ended in
2002, which is strange for a cast that produced two off-set romances. Russell
and Speedman dated towards the end of the show’s run and Foley briefly married
Jennifer Garner, who played his girlfriend on the first season.
Alias
Two Felicity alums, Jennifer Garner and Greg
Grunberg, joined forces on another J.J. Abrams hit series. The two have
remained friends, with Garner often supporting Grunberg’s TalkAboutIt.org
website dedicated to epilepsy awareness. Garner has other close ties to the
cast, having dated co-star Michael Vartan and naming TV dad Victor Garber
godfather to her daughter, Violet. Garber also officiated Garner’s beachside
wedding to Ben Affleck. Since her split with the Batman v Superman star,
Garber has remained by Garner’s side.
Happy Days
It’s been more than 30 years since the hit show went off the
air, but the gang still remains close. Maybe it was the cast baseball games or the
fact that Marion Ross and Tom Bosley were seen as real-life parental figures to
the rest of the stars (Bosley helped Anson Williams negotiate his first
mortgage!), but to this day, the cast can be seen together at car shows or
television shows, as Henry Winkler and Scott Baio both reunited with Ron Howard
on Arrested Development.
Arrested Development
Speaking of Arrested Development, the reunion never
stops for the star-studded cast of the show that originally ran on Fox from
2003 to 2006 and then again on Netflix in 2013. (Another season is supposedly
coming to Netflix, but the service has yet to confirm it.) Whether they are
filming or not, though, kissing cousins Michael Cera (George Michael) and Alia
Shawkat (Maeby) remain best friends, while Jason Bateman and Will Arnett, who
run a production company aptly called DumbDumb, have been known to stroll
around New York City hand in hand. Additionally, David Cross and Jeffrey Tambor
have guest-starred on Jessica Walter and Judy Greer’s animated series, Archer.
MORE: Jessica Walter 'Hasn't Heard a Word' About 'Arrested Development' Season 5
Modern Family
Sitcom families who win lots of awards together, stay
together, as proven by the cast of Modern Family, who partied together
until 6 a.m. at Sofia Vergara’s November wedding at The Breakers Resort in Palm
Beach, Florida. It makes sense since it was co-star Jesse Tyler Ferguson who
set up Vergara with husband Joe Manganiello in the first place. The cast also
stuck together when renegotiating their contracts and stood by co-star Ariel
Winter when she was seeking emancipation from her mother. When the show finally
comes to an end, we don’t expect the love to stop.
Roseanne
There was a lot of love on the set of Roseanne as
Laurie Metcalf married (and later divorced) one of her many on-screen
boyfriends, Matt Roth (Fisher). But, leave it to Chuck Lorre, a one-time Roseanne
writer, to keep the rest of the cast close to this day by reuniting them on his
hit show, The Big Bang Theory, which stars Johnny Galecki. Even
though they are tight, it was a surprise for Roseanne Barr, when her TV
children -- Michael Fishman and Lecy Goranson -- joined her and Metcalf on The
Talk (co-hosted by Sara Gilbert) a couple years back.
Friends
Many watched as the Friends cast reunited (sans
Matthew Perry) for the James Burrows tribute that aired on NBC in February, but
fans of the show know that this cast has been a tight-knit group from day one.
Courteney Cox and Jennifer Aniston have come a long way since they both took a
shot at dating Counting Crows frontman Adam Duritz. In 2005, Aniston became the
godmother to Cox’s daughter, Coco, and last year, Cox was Aniston’s maid of
honor at her wedding to Justin Theroux. And the women have continued to remain
supportive of each other’s post-Friends TV efforts by guest-starring on
Cox’s Cougar Town and Lisa Kudrow’s Web Therapy.
Beverly Hills, 90210
On the show, Brenda dated Dylan, who later dated Kelly, who
dated both Steve and Brandon, who had a gambling problem but never rolled the
dice with Donna, who dated David, who also dated Valerie. As it turns out, in
real life, it was almost as complicated. Tori Spelling revealed that she had
flings with both Jason Priestley and Brian Austin Green, who also dated Tiffani
Thiessan. Priestley also had a serious relationship with Christine Elise, who
played Emily Valentine. Almost all of them have turned up to support each other
at their real-life weddings, and were likely the first call after the many
divorces.
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
Talks of a Fresh Prince reboot are in the works, but
the Banks family has been known to get together from time to time. Karyn
Parsons, Tatyana Ali and Joseph Marcell all showed up to support Alfonso
Ribeiro when he was on Dancing With the Stars, and Ribeiro and Will
Smith have been known to dance “The Carlton” together, as seen on The Graham
Norton Show. One mistake Smith jokingly says he made with that friendship:
letting Ribeiro teach his son, Trey, how to drive.
MORE: Will Smith's 'Fresh Prince' Co-star Alfonso Ribeiro Taught His Son to Drive
Brothers & Sisters
It’s icky when brothers and sisters become boyfriends and
girlfriends, even if part of it is just for television. Such was the case when
Dave Annable began dating his on-screen sibling, Emily Van Camp. Producers
found a way to make them not related on the show so the characters could also
hook up, but when that ended, so did the plotline, and Annable’s next
girlfriend (and now wife) Odette Yustman joined the cast as his love interest.
That ‘70s Show
Of course, the bond between the stars of That ‘70s Show isn’t
limited to the friendship of Ashton Kutcher and Danny Masterson. Quite possibly
the greatest love story in television history belongs to Kutcher and Mila Kunis,
who was just 14 when the series began in 1998. Her first real-life kiss came on
camera with Kutcher, who played TV boyfriend Kelso to her Jackie. Fourteen
years later, they were dating in real life, and in 2014, the couple welcomed a
baby girl, Wyatt, who is already besties with Masterson's daughter, Fianna.
Scrubs
If you follow Zach Braff on Twitter, you know it’s hard to
tell the difference between J.D. and Turk’s fictional bromance and the
real-life brothers from another mother bond he has with Donald Faison. The two,
along with castmates Christa Miller and John McGinley recently spent Easter
Sunday together and nearly every Scrubs star made an appearance on
Miller’s follow-up hit series, Cougar Town, from Scrubs creator
(and Miller’s husband) Bill Lawrence. But the highlight of the Braff-Faison
friendship is when the two went skinny-dipping together in the Bahamas while
co-star Sarah Chalke swam alongside in her suit.