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[dotsomething]

Dear flist,

There are a number of you who need to read this article in Slate right now, this minute. Here's an excerpt:

Television hates nothing more than a happy couple....we've all grown used to the couples we love waiting a lot longer than two years to get it on. The problem seems to be that writers and actors are unable to reliably generate

Comments

[amilyn]

Oh...and as mtgat and, recently, wiliqueen have said, the true shippiness, for grown-ups and self respecting folks is Beatrice and Benedick. THEY are grown-ups and have worked out their issues FIRST and they are a pairing I believe will continue.

[dotsomething]

True, yes. But they're still a will-they-won't-they--their story is of them *getting together*. It's the best will-they-won't-they is the history of Western literature. All TV will-they-won't-theys should end as successfully as that play. :)

What I'm puzzling is the complete LACK of already established couples in hour-long TV format.

Books have them in droves (especially mysteries). So it's not like it's all that difficult for writers to do it. TV writers have as much writing chops as book writers. I think it's something about TV as a format that prevents it from being done. Or maybe every network is trying to recapture the mind-blowing ratings bar Moonlighting set--not that the shows are imitating the style of it, but Moonlighting seems to have established the pattern of TV couples in general. Before Moonlighting, the couples did get together, eventually, at the pace of watching grass grow...but they did. And you felt like they'd stay together.