History Main / ShippingBedDeath

** It's worth noting that Marshall and Lily started the series engaged and living together, so there was never any UnresolvedSexualTension between them (except for the period where they broke up because Lily went to art school in San Francisco, which was at least partially due to Real Life Driving the Plot: the actress playing Lily got pregnant, and it's less noticeable that you're never shown standing in full view when you're only getting a couple of minutes of screen time at most per episode).

* ''GossipGirl'', with Dan/Serena and Blair/Dan. Both groups (who are ShipMates) have hardcore rusted on supporters. Other people are tired of the "Chuck does something horrible, they break up, Chuck redeems himself, Blair forgives him, they get back together" and the "Serena redeems herself, Dan forgives her, they get back together" shtick. Which in the case of Chuck/Blair is happening for about the 6th time.

* Averted in ''ItazuraNaKiss''. In fact, a good number of fans will tell you that you wouldn't miss much by ''skipping'' the first season leading up to the OfficialCouple becoming, well, official.
* Notably averted in ''LightNovel/ToraDora'' where the establishment of Ryuji and Taiga didn't kill the interest in their romance, rather it enhanced it.

* Currently subverted in ''ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}''. While some fans thought that putting a man like John Constantine on a stable relationship, specially after almost all his friends and lovers have died horrible horrible deads, was a really bad idea, the latest Hellblazer comics have been something worth to look and read, as his partner, Epiphany Greaves, is a reckless young alchemist rebel woman that knows that his life has been tainted by all the deaths and dangers that his lifestyle provide, not to mention she's a real ActionGirl. Some may say that they're a perfect couple. Also, John is still John, grumpy, bastard and asshole, but has seen some character development while living with his wife.

* ''{{Dexter}}'s'' Dexter and Deb.

* ''Literature/{{Twilight}}''. Bella and Edward, even though some felt that they were not really that interesting before hooking up.

* ''{{Friends}}'' averted this with Chandler/Monica. We get to see them go from SecretRelationship to EverybodyKnewAlready to officially an item, get married, bickering, getting over it, eventually adopting children, and remaining in love the whole time. All of this without diminishing public interest in the couple. It helped that they had really good chemistry and that they sort of worked as BetaCouple to Ross/Rachel, giving the audience a couple to root for that were actually happy and interesting together. But the SliceOfLife and EnsembleCast nature of the show helped the most.

* ''{{Friends}}'' averted this with Chandler/Monica. We get to see them go from SecretRelationship to EverybodyKnewAlready to officially an item, get married, bickering, getting over it, eventually adopting children, and remaining in love the whole time. All of this without diminishing public interest in the couple. It helped that they had really good chemistry and that they sort of worked as BetaCouple to Ross/Rachel. But the SliceOfLife and EnsembleCast nature of the show helped the most.

* ''{{Friends}}'' averted this with Chandler/Monica. We get to see them go from SecretRelationship to TheNotSecret to officially an item, get married, bickering, getting over it, eventually adopting children, and remaining in love the whole time. All of this without diminishing public interest in the couple. It helped that they had really good chemistry and that they sort of worked as BetaCouple to Ross/Rachel. But the SliceOfLife and EnsembleCast nature of the show helped the most.

** The fact that the MassEffect series allows romances to be continued from one game to the next means that even if one game on its own would suffer from this, the relationship can continue into the next one and still continue to develop.
*** ''MassEffect3'' averts. While most all the romances, even ones carried over from previous games, end up in a conversation that sets the relationship basically in stone, the dialogue with them doesn't end there. Even the obligatory PreClimaxClimax scene isn't the end of the content, unlike previous games in the series; Shepard and the LI can discuss their relationship further during the final goodbyes, and the Extended Cut added a couple of romance-related scenes to the endgame and ending (though not enough for some fans). The Citadel DLC really took it UpToEleven though, with a ton of pre-final level romance content for most characters, including dates and a party.

* The {{Shrek}} movies avert this since even though the first movie ends HappilyEverAfter, the sequels show that Shrek & Fiona's relationship still has a lot of obstacles to deal with. ''Shrek 2'' deals with the ogre couple having to deal with being accepted by Fiona's human parents and each other and ''Shrek Forever After'' is motivated by Shrek tiring of married life and all the responsibilities that come with it.

* ''Literature/{{Twilight}}''. Even those who have not read the series know this, it's that bad.
** Although this does seem inevitable considering the writing ability of the author.

* Barney and Robin on ''Series/HowIMetYourMother''.

*** ''MassEffect3'' averts this especially hard. While most all the romances, even ones carried over from previous games, end up in a conversation that sets the relationship basically in stone, the dialogue with them doesn't end there. Even the obligatory PreClimaxClimax scene isn't the end of the content, unlike previous games in the series; Shepard and the LI can discuss their relationship further during the final goodbyes, and the Extended Cut added a couple of romance-related scenes to the endgame and ending (though not enough for some fans). The Citadel DLC really took it UpToEleven though, with a ton of pre-final level romance content for most characters, including dates and a party.

* The {{Shrek}} movies avert this since even though the first movie ends HappilyEverAfter, the sequels show that Shrek & Fiona's relationship still has a lot of obstacles to deal with. ''Shrek 2'' deals with the ogre couple having to deal with being accepted by Fiona's human parents and each other and ''Shrek Forever After'' is motivated by Shrek tiring of married life and all the responsibilities that comes with it.

* ''That70sShow'' averted this with Eric and Donna. They got together after a LOT of teasing late in the first season, and the show remained just as interesting, if not ''more''. Although they did have a couple breakups, they spent a large portion of their time on the show as a PowerCouple, and it didn't affect the quality at all.

** If so, that might be because Keenan and Lloyd left the show ''at that very moment'' and other aspects of Seasons 8-10 were equally suspect. The eleventh season kind of bears this out, as N&D are also far more interesting there. Ostensibly, the coupling had something to do with Kelsey Grammer's ego, as he wanted the focus to shift to the title character (something also rather botched until the eleventh season). Season 11 in general was a huge reverse shark-jump. On the other hand, most viewers agree that Niles and Daphne got together at just the right time, as they had avoided irritating or losing the interest of the viewers by not dragging the WillTheyOrWontThey on too long (as opposed to say, [[{{Friends}} Ross and Rachel]]. One could say that while Niles and Daphne suffered from this, they didn't ''have'' to, and they wouldn't have if Keenan and Lloyd had stayed. Incidentally, people forget that production problems is what made ''{{Moonlighting}}'s'' Maddie and Dave, this trope's poster child, suffer so severely from ShippingBedDeath: it's just more ''difficult'' to pull off a good post-RelationshipUpgrade romance than a {{UST}}-fueled one.

This trope may be an extreme reflection of [[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4478040.stm what actually tends to happen, over time, to real life relationships]].

The fact that romantic or sexual anticipation is so easy to write that it is usually only ''very'' bad writers who can't pull it off does have some standing here. Actually writing a relationship and the characters ''in'' that relationship requires...well... genuine writing ability. Just like a real relationship, writing one takes work, and in a world of quick-reaction drama, it is often easier for lazy, untalented or even just insecure writers to keep either the WillTheyOrWontThey going indefinitely, or continually breaking a couple up once they get together and recycling more of the same anticipation. Relationships are ''not'' boring by nature but they ''do'' test whether a writer actually has ability. In the same way that superficiality and excess drama[=/=]melodrama or routine action is always easy to write while genuine depth of character, character development and originality requires some amount of skill, so will a writer who either can't or has not bothered to create characters with real depth or character growth find that suddenly without that anticipation and WishFulfillment to keep the audience going through the bad writing, the relationship is suddenly boring. The audience starts looking around themselves for deeper meaning, and if there isn't substance to the relationship then they are going to notice. The more difficult the depth and meaning to the relationship is to find, the quicker the audience will divert their attention elsewhere[[hottip:Note:A good but subtle writer may also have written depth in a relationship that is difficult to find, but the difference is that there is real substance there, and the people who stick around to find that out will find the wait worth the pay-off, leaving the writer with a devoted but niche audience... instead of a disappointed and angry audience that may find you suddenly remembering an appointment you have out of town]].

The fact that romantic or sexual anticipation is so easy to write that it is usually only ''very'' bad writers who can't pull it off does have some standing here. Actually writing a relationship and the characters ''in'' that relationship requires...well... genuine writing ability. Just like a real relationship, writing one takes work, and in a world of quick-reaction drama, it is often easier for lazy, untalented or even just insecure writers to keep either the WillTheyWontThey going indefinitely, or continually breaking a couple up once they get together and recycling more of the same anticipation. Relationships are ''not'' boring by nature but they ''do'' test whether a writer actually has ability. In the same way that superficiality and excess drama[=/=]melodrama or routine action is always easy to write while genuine depth of character, character development and originality requires some amount of skill, so will a writer who either can't or has not bothered to create characters with real depth or character growth find that suddenly without that anticipation and WishFulfillment to keep the audience going through the bad writing, the relationship is suddenly boring. The audience starts looking around themselves for deeper meaning, and if there isn't substance to the relationship then they are going to notice. The more difficult the depth and meaning to the relationship is to find, the quicker the audience will divert their attention elsewhere[[hottip:Note:A good but subtle writer may also have written depth in a relationship that is difficult to find, but the difference is that there is real substance there, and the people who stick around to find that out will find the wait worth the pay-off, leaving the writer with a devoted but niche audience... instead of a disappointed and angry audience that may find you suddenly remembering an appointment you have out of town]].

* ''{{Friends}}'' averted this with Chandler/Monica. We get to see them go from SecretRelationship to TheNotSecret to officially an item, get married, fight, get over it, eventually adopt a child. All of this without diminishing public interest in the couple. It helped that they had really good chemistry and that they sort of worked as BetaCouple to Ross/Rachel. But the SliceOfLife and EnsembleCast nature of the show helped the most.