12 TV Couples We Wish Never Got Together

One of the big appeals to any show, even those not primarily focused on romance, is the strength of its various couples. Palpable chemistry goes a long way in elevating an ensemble cast and the level of investment the audience has in the characters. Of course, the opposite is also true, with a weakly realized coupling detracting from a show considerably. Viewers love having an amorous pairing to root for and live vicariously through, but can get frustrated when two characters they don't think belong together form a relationship.

In fairness to the creative talent involved, a lot of these questionable relationships were never intended to go the distance. Some of these couplings were introduced to bring fresh narrative directions and conflict into their respective series. Regardless of the creative motivations, these romances left viewers hoping for a quick break-up and for the pairing to never figure prominently again. Here are 12 TV couples we wish never got together — and still cringe when they do during every rewatch.

"Seinfeld" contained no shortage of failed relationships, always played for comedic value throughout the series' run. One of the show's most infamous was perennial sad-sack George Costanza (Jason Alexander) seemingly finding true love with Susan Ross (Heidi Swedberg). The couple got as far as becoming engaged, but tragedy struck when George unknowingly bought cheap envelopes for wedding invitations with toxic glue. In one of TV's most shocking deaths ever, Susan died from licking too many envelopes as she was preparing to mail the invitations.

Alexander has alluded to Swedberg not quite fitting in with the show's main cast. This led co-creator Larry David to kill the character off in what became one of the series' darkest episodes. Later, Alexander apologized for his comments about his perceived difficulties of working with Swedberg and her character's place in the show. But most fans would agree that George's brief engagement was an odd direction, with poor Susan Ross deserving better than she got in more ways than one.

Every possible combo of pairings on "Friends" among the main cast was explored to varying degrees throughout the show's 10-season run. While many of these were contained to a one-off smooch or a passing hint of romantic interest, one coupling that had legs was the one between Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston) and Joey Tribbiani (Matt LeBlanc). Starting in the ninth season finale, Rachel and Joey's relationship continued into the final season, with Joey eventually securing the blessing of Rachel's on-again/off-again beau Ross Geller (David Schwimmer). After multiple failed attempts to be intimate with each other, Rachel and Joey decided to revert to just being friends by Season 10's third episode.

Rachel and Joey deciding to take their relationship into a romantic direction felt like something that should've happened earlier on the series. This development came off as a forced way to instill some drama between the main ensemble as the show began to run out of steam. Fortunately, given the divided fan response to the Season 9 cliffhanger, the series knew to squash this coupling quickly, ending the pair's amorous inclinations decisively. An odd blip toward the end of "Friends," Rachel and Joey's love story was thankfully over before it could gain any real traction.

One of the last major relationships Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) gets into on "Sex and the City" is with Russian artist Aleksandr Petrovsky (Mikhail Baryshnikov). An older, cultured man, Aleksandr charms Carrie with his worldly ways and convinces her to move with him to Paris. However, as Carrie overcomes her honeymoon-phase affection toward Aleksandr, it quickly becomes clear how toxic he is.

We placed Aleksandr at the bottom of our most memorable "Sex and the City" boyfriends ranking, and it's because he's the worst long-term boyfriend Carrie ever had. Self-absorbed, emotionally unavailable, and consistently condescending, it was clear Aleksandr had little respect for Carrie and didn't regard her as an equal. Ultimately, Aleksandr accidentally struck Carrie during an argument, the last straw in what was already a visibly troubled relationship. For all his blatant red flags, Aleksandr seemed like a big step back for Carrie, making their breakup all the more of a relief.

"That '70s Show" had one of the best teen TV couples in Eric Forman (Topher Grace) and Donna Pinciotti (Laura Prepon). Conversely, Jackie Burkhart (Mila Kunis) had a much more turbulent love life, but was most commonly linked to Michael Kelso (Ashton Kutcher). Jackie went on to date their acerbic mutual friend Steven Hyde (Danny Masterson), but by the final season, she also dated foreign exchange student Fez (Wilmer Valderrama). This came as Kelso and Hyde both left Jackie after a misunderstanding in Chicago, with Kelso realizing he had growing up to do after attempting to propose to her.

Jackie and Hyde felt like a mismatched couple already, despite somehow lasting for three seasons of "That '70s Show." The Jackie and Fez pairing, though, was a step too far beyond that, more of a relationship of convenience for Jackie after all other suitors were otherwise coupled up or absent. Though Fez had been infatuated with Jackie for years, there was zero romantic chemistry between them as an actual couple. The continuation series "That '90s Show" wisely brought back Jackie and Kelso in the intervening years, leaving her other romantic entanglements largely unaddressed.

One of the best CW shows of all time was "Gilmore Girls," which chronicled single mother Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham) raising her teenage daughter, Rory (Alexis Bledel). As Rory experienced her first serious relationships for the first time, Lorelai dated a line of boyfriends during the series' seven-season run. Lorelai's biggest love interest on the show was Luke Danes (Scott Patterson), with Lorelai proposing to him in the fifth season. But after their wedding was delayed by the surprise arrival of Luke's adolescent daughter, Lorelai eventually begged Luke to elope; when he refused, she impulsively broke up with him, resumed dating Rory's father, Christopher Hayden (David Sutcliffe), and eloped with Christopher in Paris.

While no character on "Gilmore Girls" was immune to making reckless decisions with disastrous consequences, these choices felt particularly out of character for Lorelai. Breaking up with Luke was one thing, but the protracted series of events leading to Lorelai marrying Christopher felt forced every step of the way. The revival series "Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life" quietly brushed most of the final season's events under the carpet, barely making reference to them. Though Christopher briefly resurfaced on "A Year in the Life," Lorelai was happily with Luke for the limited reunion series.

The 2005 American version of "The Office" saw two particular points when it struggled to find its way creatively after culminating longstanding storylines. The first saw the show trying to replicate the successful romantic tension between Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) and Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) after the two finally became a couple. The other involved filling the void left by the departure of hilariously inept yet compassionate boss Michael Scott (Steve Carell). The latter seasons tried to reconcile both with new developments for Michael's promoted replacement, Andy Bernard (Ed Helms), and his courtship of receptionist Erin Hannon (Ellie Kemper).

Though Andy and Erin dated intermittently prior to Michael's departure, their relationship took on a heightened focus in the show's eighth season. This only highlighted how lackluster their romance actually was, with the show going as far as to call it out through Erin's new love interest, Pete Miller (Jake Lacy). The inevitable romantic rupture drove Andy to become an antagonistic figure in the series' final season, further underscoring the awkwardness. Not every romance on "The Office" was on the same level as Jim and Pam or Michael and Holly (Amy Ryan), and Andy and Erin discovered that the hard way.

The entire crux of "How I Met Your Mother" is watching protagonist Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) stumble through failed relationships in his prolonged search to find true love. That means Ted was always going to suffer through a number of failed relationships, but his time with Zoey Pierson (Jennifer Morrison) was especially off. An activist protesting one of Ted's architectural projects involving the demolition of a historic building, Zoey becomes frenemies with Ted in Season 6. This, of course, adds fuel to the romantic tension between them, despite Zoey being married to an older man who is referred to as The Captain (Kyle MacLachlan).

For as much build-up as there is between Ted and Zoey, they aren't together all that long, breaking up eight episodes after their relationship begins. Even worse, during their time as a couple, there just really aren't that many palatable romantic sparks between them. One nice development added by the courtship is the introduction of The Captain, who continues to play a role after Zoey's departure. A mismatch where the pursuit was better than the actual coupling, the Ted/Zoey split was always a foregone conclusion.

Throughout much of "Parks and Recreation," Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones) provided a voice of reason amid the wackiness in Pawnee, Indiana's titular municipal government office. That made her romance with the department's constantly hustling administrator, Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari), in the fourth season all the more puzzling. During one of Ann's breaks from her on-again/off-again beau Chris Traeger (Rob Lowe), she agreed to see Tom despite a disastrous first date. Though poorly suited for each other, the couple went as far as moving in together despite being broken up, even as they quickly realized this was a mistake.

Ann and Tom formed one of those intentionally mismatched couples where the pairing was positioned to provide ongoing gags. The problem was that the jokes drawn from their relationship weren't all that funny, at least compared to everything else going on at the time. And while Ann had questionable relationships prior to Tom, every decision she made in pursuing a romance with him seemed like an out-of-character step back. Tom and Ann couldn't split fast enough; Ann eventually reconciled with Chris, and their rekindled romance was going strong when Chris and Ann returned in the series finale.

Desperation makes strange bedfellows, and the desperate survivors of "The Walking Dead" had their fair share of strange relationships on the series. The oddest of them all, not counting spur-of-the-moment hook-ups, was between Rosita Espinosa (Christian Serratos) and Father Gabriel Stokes (Seth Gilliam). The romance was revealed halfway through Season 9, having taken place sometime during the six-year time jump since the mid-season finale. The relationship endured for several years, ending off-screen during the latter portion of the final season, with the pair sharing custody of Rosita's daughter.

Though Gabriel refered to Rosita as his soulmate in the 10th season finale, their relationship always seemed like one of convenience. Rosita had been adrift ever since the death of her first love on the series, Abraham Ford (Michael Cudlitz), and Gabriel had long been a lonely figure. A romance blossoming between them felt like an easy way to signal how much had changed for the characters following the ninth-season time jump. Just as their love story quietly started off-screen, it also ended the same way, closing out the most awkward relationship on "The Walking Dead."

Like its literary source material, "Game of Thrones" is full of icky dangerous liaisons, sometimes within family members. As a reminder to that point, the show's first episode ends with an illicit tryst between siblings Cersei (Lena Headey) and Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). The show's last eyebrow-raising romance is between Jon Snow (Kit Harington) and Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) at the end of the seventh season. What makes the coupling uncomfortable is that the show's sixth season reveals Jon is Aegon Targaryen, Daenerys' secret nephew, which even he was unaware of at the time.

To be clear, the relationship between Cersei and Jaime is no less gross than Jon and Daenerys', but the way the Targaryen royal embarks on her last romance was worse. When the truth of Jon's parentage was revealed, Daenerys insisted on continuing their relationship, undeterred by the familial connection. The moment was meant to stir the moral conflict within Jon about siding with Daenerys further, but surely, her razing of King's Landing could've accomplished that sufficiently. "Game of Thrones" took its time in making Jon and Daenerys a couple, but the ugly truth behind it made it an awkwardly unnecessary development.

One of the surprise breakout characters in the early seasons of the CW superhero series "Arrow" was Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards). Initially providing tech support to aspiring hero Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell), Felicity offered a welcome contrast to the normally dour Oliver, and their friendship blossomed into a serious relationship. This love story was not without its ups and downs and temporary breakups, with Ollie and Felicity finding different romantic partners in the interim. Though this led to questionable couplings for both characters, the weakest of them all was Felicity's fifth-season boyfriend, Billy Malone (Tyler Ritter).

After starting to date Felicity in between the fourth and fifth seasons, Billy was lured into a trap by the supervillain Prometheus (Josh Segarra). Prometheus tricked Oliver into killing Billy, putting both him and Felicity on a downward spiral from the lethal mistake. With that in mind, Billy never felt like anything more than a cheap motivation for Oliver and Felicity's feud with Prometheus to get personal. Savvy fans always knew that "Arrow" was going to bring back Olicity, so Billy just felt like a pointless hurdle to get back to that point.

"Riverdale" was an enormously popular teen drama on The CW, adapting characters appearing in Archie Comics for its titular ominous town. Like any good teen drama, this meant plenty of convoluted romantic relationships, occasionally centered around protagonist Archie Andrews (KJ Apa) as he progressed through high school. But the relationship that always seemed particularly doomed to fail was the one between Archie and Valerie Brown (Hayley Law), the bassist for local band Josie and the Pussycats.

The relationship between Archie and Valerie came in the show's sixth episode, with their mutual attraction fueled by their love of music. At this point, Archie was already showing interest in Veronica Lodge (Camila Mendes), and the impromptu Archie-Valerie relationship felt like a stalling tactic. Fortunately, Archie and Valerie's romance didn't last all that long, with Valerie dumping him three episodes later for putting his priorities elsewhere and neglecting her. While many of us have had short-lived teenage flings, this romance's brevity makes one wonder why it ever occurred at all.