The Best TV Couples of All Time

While we know their story ends in tragedy, This Is Us fans can't help but love Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) and Rebecca Pearson (Mandy Moore) in all of their timelines -- from young lovers to parents of three teens, and everywhere in between. And, thanks to the show's flashbacks, we can see even more of their story as the series unfolds, loving every step of their relationship (and mentally blocking out the parts that make us want to curl up in a ball and cry forever).

When Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott) first came to town in Parks and Recreation's second season, Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) was immediately on the defensive, trying to protect her beloved Pawnee from the cost-cutting auditor. But it didn't take long for the pair to realize all the things they had in common -- a passion for local politics, the City Hall wildflower mural and, eventually, each other. Watching Ben and Leslie fell in love, tie the knot, start a family and pursue their political dreams together was the whipped cream on top of the waffle sundae that was Parks and Rec's beloved seven season run. 

They say that behind every great man is a great woman, and Friday Night Lights may have illustrated that trope better than any show on TV when they paired powerhouse high school football coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler) with a wife (Connie Britton) that was every bit his equal (except in the hair department, where Tami clearly triumphs). Watching this pair support each other through tumultuous seasons, career changes, daughter Julie's high school dramatics, and more added a heartfelt layer to the sports-centric show that paid off dividends, all the way up to the emotional series finale. Clear eyes, full hearts, you know the rest.

At face value, Bones was a standard procedural, running for 12 seasons of crime solving, evidence examining, blood, guts and, most importantly, bones. But at the core of the long-running Fox series -- the “heart of the matter,” if you will -- was a partnership between forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz).

From their first episode together, Brennan and Booth’s dynamic was electric, and while the will-they-or-won’t-they of it all took nearly seven seasons to sort out (more if you count that they don’t actually tie the knot until season nine), their relationship kept fans hooked for all 245 episodes. We watched Brennan wrestle with her feelings as Booth looked for love, saw them lay it all on the line only to yank it back again, and finally, at long last, got to witness their happy ending. Two kids and countless hurdles later, their partnership was still going strong.

The ultimate office romance between salesman Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) and receptionist Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) had fans hooked from The Office's very first season -- though it took a few more years before everything fell into place for the Dunder Mifflin desk jockeys. Thankfully, even after finding their happy ending -- tying the knot and welcoming two kids -- there was still plenty of time to play pranks on Dwight. Win-win-win.

The complicated pairing of Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell) and Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring) is one only a WB teen drama could engineer: popular girl-turned-pariah falls in love with her dead best friend's former boyfriend while investigating her murder. But the chemistry doesn't lie -- throughout the scandal and tragedy seemingly lurking around every corner in Neptune, California, these two kept finding their way back to each other. (Lives ruined, blood shed, and all that). Sorry Piz, Logan was right: they're epic.

Long before the Grey's Anatomy docs were hooking up in the on-call room, there was Doug Ross (George Clooney) and Carol Hathaway (Juliana Margulies) making heart eyes at each other in a hospital hallway. Their rekindled relationship saw its share of ups and downs throughout several seasons of the beloved medical drama -- including, and especially, Doug/Clooney's departure from the show in season five -- but every fan's heart soared when Carol made the decision to move to Seattle with the couple's twins and live happily ever after as a family.

OK, hear us out on this one. Ross and Rachel might steal all the thunder with their roller coaster romance, from "going on a break" to "getting off the plane," but Chandler and Monica were perfect for each other, and -- as evidenced by flashbacks -- destined to be together! Following their hilariously slapstick sneaking around in season five ("They don't know that we know that they know!"), the committed pair became the romantic backbone of the beloved sitcom, showing fans their journey as a couple through side-splitting banter and tear-jerking emotional moments. Mondler forever!

Maxine Shaw (Erika Alexander) and Kyle Barker (T.C. Carson) were that on-and-off, bickering couple that everyone knows, who can go from pet names to pushing buttons in a split-second or less. But the pair's compelling chemistry pulled them together time and again, and fans loved to root for them whether they were heating things up or icing each other out. Thankfully, a twist of fate brought them together for good in the show's final season.

The truth is out there -- but the facts about Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) and Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) are right here in front of our faces. While the relationship between the skeptical FBI agent and her big-time believer partner was canonically platonic for much of the series' original run, the pair's longing looks and devotion to each other were anything but. The X-Files films and revival seasons explored more of Mulder and Scully's romantic relationship -- of course, complicated by a multitude of supernatural forces -- but we'll always want to believe that these two got their happily ever after.

Boy Meets World was all about young Cory Matthews (Ben Savage) learning to navigate the ups and downs of life, but it was also about his relationship with Topanga Lawrence (Danielle Fishel), the rare case of puppy love that lasts forever. Fans saw this pair adorably stick together through middle school kisses and high school skids (looking at you, Lauren), navigate their way through college as an engaged (and then married) couple, and finally, become the parents of two equally precocious kids on Girl Meets World, the spinoff series in which Fishel's character aptly asks, "I wonder how many people the idea of Cory and Topanga has ruined?"

Dwayne Wayne (Kadeem Hardison) and Whitley Gilbert (Jasmine Guy) were the perfectly-college couple, seeing each other through relationship ups and downs before finally coming around to what was right there in front of them all along. From love letters, to proposals, to a last-minute wedding objection, the pair sure knew how to bring the romantic gestures -- all the way through their series finale decision to move to Japan together to start their new family.

The marriage between Lucille Esmeralda Ricardo née McGillicuddy (Lucille Ball) and Ricardo Alberto Fernando Ricardo y de Acha (Desi Arnaz) was one built for comedy, and it delivered for six seasons and then some. But Ball and Arnaz's real-life relationship added an extra layer of heart to this perfectly-complimentary pair, as they gave viewers the classic laughs and crackling chemistry that made them the stuff of TV legend.

Back in the day when TV censors still required married couples to sleep in separate beds and a female character in pants registered as scandalous, Rob (Dick Van Dyke) and Laura Petrie (Mary Tyler Moore) were one of the small screen's most likable pairs: a vibrant young couple with big dreams and even bigger affection for each other. The star power of Van Dyke and Moore certainly didn't hurt, either, and fans tuned in week after week to watch the beloved couple's sometimes-slapstick triumphs and misadventures as they navigated life as a team -- something that was also relatively ground-breaking for their era.