Television Dating

I was watching Friends today because I tend to jump on bandwagons a little late. Sure the show is sentenced to the world of reruns and can't any longer be the cool show to watch but I've never been so good at following trends. Anyway, the episode I was watching it was about Joey falling in love with Rachel. Hold on here, I thought it was supposed to be Ross and Rachel. I guess, it was time for a new couple. It turned out though that Rachel didn't return the feelings and poor Joey was left the rejected soul. That isn't the point here. My observation is that it appears all the characters at some point in that show end up in some kind of dating relationship with each other. They all seem to through each other like a high school goes through dresses before Prom.

Then I started realizing that almost any show that had a focus on relationships tended to have all the main characters eventually start dating each other. Saved By The Bell had Zack Morris date Kelly and Lisa, while Slater dated both Kelly and that other girl whose name I forget. Those Dawson River kids all seemed to be dating each other all within the same episode. That 70's Show has Jackie date at least two of the main guys in the show. Maybe this whole post is just proving I've watched two much sappy television or I just have way too much time on my hands. I find it amusing that in the world of television it appears within the small circle of friends that everyone ends up dating each other. Your best friend seems to be destined to end up with your girlfriend eventually.

I can understand why it happens. You've got your 6 cast members that the audience can relate to. You can throw in your occasional guest star and they can date your main star but in the end there isn't a real attachment. The guest star doesn't mean a whole lot because he became the romantic interest in his very first appearance. On the other hand, you put two of the main character together and your sure to have some bit of the audience that has been rooting for the two characters to get together. The relationship connects with the audience because you have two people together that the audience knows very well.

It works in the real world too. Friends tend to get more excited when two other friends get hooked up together rather than when a friend starts dating some unknown. Farmilarity is a nice thing. Though I'm pretty sure that most friends would start to get tired if one person ends up dating everybody in the friend circle. Maybe that'll end up being the next reality show.