Over the course of many decades spanning TV history, there have been many couples that the small screen has graced us with. We have been introduced to iconic couples such as Marshall and Lily from How I Met Your Mother, hated couples like Jackie and Fez from That '70s Show, and controversial couples such as Rachel and Joey from Friends. Many TV couples have stayed together from beginning to end, while others did not end up together even when they should have. It's natural for people to become invested in the lives of the characters on the shows they watch, so when we see a couple get together or break up, it is expected that we will have a reaction. As emotional as it can be when a television couple makes or breaks a relationship, it is almost never as frustrating as when they repeatedly break up and get back together.
Watching a TV couple, who nine times out of ten shouldn't be together in the first place, constantly break it off only to get back together is tedious at the very least. There is a bit of a similar thrill in the on-and-off-again relationships as there is with will-they-won't-they relationships. Nevertheless, with will-they-won't-they relationships, there is at least an anticipation that builds as we wait to see if the characters will finally cave in. With the on-and-off-again couples, the routine becomes tiresome quickly. It gets to the point where we just want them to make a decision whether we agree with it or not. Still, something about the couples that routinely break up and get back together keeps us tuned in each episode. In honor of these indecisive characters, here are ten TV couples that broke up multiple times:
10 Ryan & Kelly - The Office
Jim and Pam are clearly the most iconic couple from the U.S. version of The Office, and rightfully so. They are a rare example of a couple that truly was perfect for each other and worked well together. While they are the most notable couple from the show, there were actually many couples that the show featured. Perhaps the most toxic of all were Kelly Kapoor (Mindy Kaling) and Ryan Howard (B.J. Novak). Kelly was absolutely in love with him from the start, and Ryan knew it. He treated her terribly and took for granted how much she cared for him.
They were on and off for most of the series, and the only time Ryan showed any interest in Kelly was when she was seeing someone else. Then he would behave obsessively, which Kelly mistakenly thought meant he cared for her. When Kelly finally had a healthy relationship with Ravi, she ended up breaking it off to be with Ryan in the series finale. It wasn't the happy ending for Kelly that most fans wanted, but unfortunately, it was probably the most realistic given their track record.
9 Miranda & Steve - Sex and the City
Anyone who has watched Sex and the City will remember the many flings and relationships that Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) had throughout the six seasons it was on. From Aiden to the Russian to Mr. Big, Carrie had a lot of relationship troubles. Although Carrie's relationship escapades are likely the most memorable, the other women had their fair share of mishaps as well. Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) and Steve (David Eigenberg) were one of the best couples on the show, despite breaking up more than once.
The couple met at a bar in the second season, and from then embarked on a relationship journey that has taken them all the way to the spinoff series, And Just Like That. The couple broke up several times before Miranda eventually got pregnant, leading to the two co-parenting and rediscovering their feelings for one another.
In the first movie, Steve cheated on Miranda which broke them up for a while, but by the end, they were back together. In the spinoff, however, Miranda suddenly realized she no longer felt the same way about Steve, so she filed for divorce. This did not sit well with some fans who adored the relationship between the two.
8 Brooke & Lucas - One Tree Hill
There are many, perhaps too many, teen-centered dramas in the TV landscape, but one of the most memorable is none other than One Tree Hill. This show was more like a soap opera with its constant scandals and familial drama, but it was also incredibly addicting. Everyone wanted to know who would end up with whom, which Scott brother would become a basketball legend, and who would actually make it big in the industry they were pursuing. Hayley (Bethany Joy Lenz) and Nathan (James Lafferty) were undoubtedly the best couple, but the love triangle between Lucas (Chad Michael Murray), Brooke (Sophia Bush), and Peyton (Hilarie Burton) was too delicious not to be invested in.
The show started out with Lucas having an immediate attraction to Peyton, who was with his half-brother Nathan at the time, but Brooke took an interest in Lucas. Brooke and Lucas got together in the first season, but she broke it off with him when he started a secret affair with Peyton. They tried again later on after Lucas told Brooke he loved her, but the relationship ended the same way when Lucas couldn't ignore his feelings for Peyton. This caused a lot of strife between Brooke and Peyton, who were best friends and messed with Brooke's normally high self-esteem.
Some may disagree, but it was for the best that Brooke and Lucas didn't end up together as they both found relationships with someone who was better suited for them.
7 Chuck & Blair - Gossip Girl
Chuck (Ed Westwick) and Blair (Leighton Meester) spent the majority of Gossip Girl breaking up and making up over and over again. From the beginning of the series to the end, they were a terribly mismatched couple who should never have been together in the first place. Their relationship was always toxic, filled with deceit and betrayal. Each breakup seemed messier than the last, proving that they would never mature as a couple. Chuck never treated her right, yet the two still ended up getting married by the end of the series. There were too many instances where they should have ended their relationship for good, but the couple continued to cling to whatever good they thought came out of that relationship.
6 Meredith & Derek - Grey's Anatomy
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The line "Pick me, choose me, love me" will haunt the memory of Grey's Anatomy for the rest of time. When the infamous episode aired, it seemed very romantic as she was professing her love to McDreamy. Years later, even Ellen Pompeo herself thinks the line is a bit ridiculous considering how Derek (Patrick Dempsey) treated her in the beginning when he was still married to Addison (Kate Walsh). Still, we all rooted for Meredith and Derek right up until he took his last breath after the tragic car accident in season 11.
The two got off to a rocky start and broke up several times throughout the earlier seasons as they always had a hard time verbalizing their feelings to one another. They broke up numerous times before their memorable Post-it note wedding in season five and legal marriage in season seven. They were briefly estranged in season ten due to their careers, but they resolved it before Derek's death.
5 Kelly & Dylan - Beverly Hills 90210
Drama was the name of the game in Aaron Spelling's classic teen-oriented show, Beverly Hills 90210. The show ran from 1990-2000 and followed a group of mostly privileged teens from high school through post-college adulthood. In the ten years that the show was on, the group went through many changes and many life-altering situations. Characters frequently came and went throughout the ten seasons, but relationship troubles were always present. One of the series' few original characters that was on the show from start to finish was Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth), Brenda's (Shannen Doherty) best friend.
Kelly had an on-again-off-again relationship with both Dylan McKay (Luke Perry) and Brenda's brother Brandon (Jason Priestly), but the relationship with Dylan proved to be the one that lasted. Kelly had a crush on him long before the Walsh family moved to town, and still had feelings for him even when he was with Brenda. The two had a summer fling when Brenda was in Paris, but Kelly broke it off to not betray her best friend. Shortly after, the girls made Dylan choose between the two, and he chose Kelly. They then broke up during college, only to get back together not long after.
This repetitive break-up happens numerous times throughout the rest of the show in between Kelly dating Brandon and Dylan leaving the show for an extended period. By the series finale though, it was implied that Kelly ended up with Dylan.
4 Logan & Veronica - Veronica Mars
Veronica Mars was a unique teen drama because while there was certainly drama, it was more focused on Veronica and her path toward healing her trauma. After a series of tragic personal and family events, Veronica went from a popular girl with a jock boyfriend to an outcast with little to no friends. The first two seasons detail her dedication to solving the mysteries of her past as she works at her father's private investigation business. The one person who Veronica always found herself coming back to was Logan, her dead best friend's former boyfriend.
Despite being absolutely horrible to her in the pilot episode, the two of them quickly formed an intense romantic relationship that endured three seasons, a movie, and an eventual fourth season that aired on Hulu. They broke up quite a few times, most notably when Veronica dated Piz (Christopher Lowell) during college, but their love was too strong to keep them apart. Logan's passionate speech in season two, where he told Veronica that he thought their story was epic, "Spanning years and continents. Lives ruined, bloodshed", is forever seared into the memory of all Veronica Mars fans.
3 Joey & Pacey - Dawson's Creek
The love triangle on Dawson's Creek was truthfully infuriating at times, but the connection to these characters kept us all coming back for more. Dawson (James Van Der Beek) and Joey (Katie Holmes) were childhood best friends and spent nearly every waking moment together, with Joey frequently scaling the side of his house to watch movies with him in his bedroom. Pacey (Joshua Jackson) was Dawson's other best friend, who didn't always get along with Joey.
By season three, Joey and Pacey's friendship takes the next step as they start to rely on each other more and more when Joey and Dawson are hardly speaking. They eventually form a romantic relationship that lasts through most of their senior year of high school. They broke up and got back together several times after that during their college years, each time just as in love with each other as they were in the beginning. Sometimes they broke up because of Dawson, sometimes it was for other people entirely. Whether you think Joey should have ended up with Dawson or with Pacey doesn't change the fact that their romance was undeniable, and they did end up together by the series finale.
2 Ted & Robin - How I Met Your Mother
From the pilot episode of How I Met Your Mother, it was evident that Ted (Josh Radnor) and Robin (Colbie Smulders) were going to have a complex relationship. All Ted ever wanted was a wife and kids, while Robin wanted to focus on her career and enjoy her life as much as possible. Their relationship was doomed from the start. Both of them constantly disregarded one another's boundaries and disrespected each other's dreams. Each time they broke up, it became even more apparent that despite caring for one another, they were not right for each other.
When Robin and Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) got together and eventually married, it seemed as though Ted finally realized Robin was not the one. This notion seemed even more clear when Ted finally met the titular mother, Tracey (Cristina Milioti). They were a great couple, so fans were shocked and upset when Tracy was killed off in a flash-forward during the series finale, and Future Ted went back to Robin once and for all.
1 Ross & Rachel - Friends
Quite possibly the most prominent couple in television history is Ross (David Schwimmer) and Rachel (Jennifer Aniston). Ross had been pining over Rachel for years prior to the first episode of Friends and spent the first season and most of the second season trying to gain her affection. They finally got together halfway through season two but were already broken up for the first time halfway through season three. This sparked the infamous debate over whether they were on a break and set the couple on a course for multiple break-ups and make-ups.
They briefly got back together in season four before Rachel quickly ended that when she found out Ross had not actually read her letter. In season five, they drunkenly got married in Vegas but soon filed for divorce. Then they slept together a few seasons later, resulting in the eventual birth of their daughter Emma.
The on-and-off-again nature of their relationship became the linchpin of their friendship, but the two finally got back together for good during the beautiful series finale in the show's tenth and final season.