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Why do stories always stop when the couple gets together? Because it's 'boring'? That's when things get interesting!
The wise old fairy tales never were so silly as to say that the prince and the princess lived peacefully ever afterwards. The fairy tales said that the prince and the princess lived happily, and so they did. They lived happily, although it is very likely that from time to time they threw the furniture at each other.
Against all the odds, in defiance of the laws of drama, spitting in the face of Love Hurts, there is... the Happily Married couple.
This is a couple, Alpha or Beta, who are actually in love and not wangsting it up dysfunctionally all the time. They avoid Poor Communication Kills, won't jump to conclusions, and generally treat each other with love and respect. In short, whatever troubles they have are minor and don't lead to the misanthropy of No Accounting For Taste or The Masochism Tango.
These couples are amazingly rare, both inside and outside of Romance because Parental Abandonment and the Cartwright Curse tends to kill them off like flies. It doesn't help that most drama considers the above "boring!" and will usually try to make things "interesting!" with plot twists that threaten to split them up, and otherwise fill their path with rocks to make them Star Crossed Lovers.
The net effect of having a Happily Married couple in a series is one of stability. (As a general rule, couples with kids will be depicted as stabler than those without.) Just having them around gives viewers and characters in the show an emotional anchor and safety net, as well as someones to root for while the Official Couple is deciding Will They Or Wont They. (Occasionally, They Do!) Needless to say, most viewers will thusly become very protective of said couple and complain when authors needlessly torment them.
These couples may benefit from unbelievable levels of The Power Of Love. In addition, any time a sequel is set a generation later than the original, the main couple from the original will probably have this type of relationship to show that they did get a Happy Ending — and Babies Ever After to prove it.
Despite some fiction likening this to a Discredited Trope, a lot of people out there would call this Truth In Television, which is why we won't list all those examples. (Congrats to you!) Apparently the secret is to understand that you will end up arguing at some point and that does not mean you are no longer in love, to keep working at your marriage, talk to each other, do little things all the time, and never confuse falling in love and being in love, they feel different.
Not to be confused with Sickeningly Sweethearts, which is basically puppy love. They can overlap, but it's rare.
Examples:
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Anime
- Akio and Sanae, CLANNAD.
- Also Tomoya and Nagisa in After Story.
- Shirou and Momoko, Nanoha's parents in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. Nanoha comments that they still very much act like newlyweds.
- And, in a sense, Nanoha herself with Fate post-Time Skip, although Ship Tease plus a Straight Option in Yuuno makes one wonder whether they're together or not. Of course, since they are both female, they can't be married for real - at least not in Japan. Who knows what Midchilda's laws are?
- Official relationship charts released after StrikerS ended point that there is no 'love' going on between the two, nor is there any between Nanoha and Yuuno (though amusingly, the chart suggests Yuuno 'replacing' Fate's role as secondary parent, which the creator of Nanoha Masaki Tsuzuki declared Discontinuity, with Fate still being the mother of Vivio). A rather amusing move, considering the criminal amount of Nanoha/Fate fanservice in the season. Of course, this 'epic reset' has done nothing to stop the fans from happily pairing the two anyway, before the retconning of the 'epic reset' by the creator of the franchise himself.
- Technically, "right after Striker S was also the last gasp of the Ship Tease with Yuuno in the Sound Stage. After the deafening silence in response to this, Vi Vid gave us this
 with no Yuuno in sight, along with the last Sound Stages establishing Nanoha, Fate, and Vivio as a family, the "Takamachi Family", and Vivio declaring officialy that she is the child of Fate and Nanoha. Nanoha and Fate are happily married for all extents and purposes. It's whether they're having sex thats in debate.
- Shintarou and Sakura, Ichigo's parents in Tokyo Mew Mew, are an overdramatic pair that acts exactly like newlyweds. One is an Overprotective Dad and the other approves of anyone Ichigo brings home, but otherwise, they agree on absolutely everything. Ichigo even mentions that they're her "ideal couple".
- The "hive mind" parents in Marmalade Boy.
- Ikuko and Kenji Tsukino of Sailor Moon, in many respects, the anime equivalent to Ward and June Cleaver.
- And how.
- And Haruka and Michiru...except that they aren't...you know...married. They still act like they are, so they sorta count.
- In the beginning of DN Angel, it appears as though Daisuke's father is either dead or deadbeat, since he isn't around and is never mentioned. Soon, however, Kosuke comes back home from researching something related to the Niwa family history, and it turns out he and Emiko are very much in love and a shining example of this trope.
- Miu's parents from Piano bicker somewhat from time to time—especially about him drinking—but their marriage is usually very harmonic.
- Though we don't see much of them, Umi's parents from Magic Knight Rayearth in the second season. Umi refers to their marriage as 'the eternal honeymoon'. One that Tastes Like Diabetes.
- Sieg and Izumi from Fullmetal Alchemist.
- Tatsuya and Kazuya's parents in Touch.
- Sayuri and Suguru in Digimon Savers, much to some fans' chagrin.
- Yui's parents in K-ON, who love to go on romantic trips.
- Laura's parents in Hamtarou, after they stop being a Takahashi Couple.
- The parents of Yukino Miyazawa and of Soichiro Arima in Kare Kano are all happily married, despite Hiroyuki Miyazawa (Yukino's father) not getting on with his father-in-law, and despite the problems with Soichiro's real parents (he's living with adoptive parents, who are the happily married ones).
- From Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, there's Dayakka and Kiyoh. Very happily - he knows how lucky he is.
- MY-WIFE-IS-THE-BEST-IN-THE-UNIVERSE SWING! Yeah.
- Togusa and his wife (and their children) in Ghost In the Shell Stand Alone Complex, though we only get the occasional glimpse of his family in the show; Solid State Society uses them a bit more, eventually leading to arguably the most painfully suspenseful moment in the movie where Togusa is forced to choose between letting the Puppeteer force him into giving up his daughter for brainwashing while cyberhacking him, or killing himself to let her go free.
- Umineko No Naku Koro Ni has Eva and Hideyoshi. Rudolf and Kyrie also count. Krauss and Natsuhi have some... issues (it's implied that they have separete bedrooms), but they do love each other.
Comic Books
- The poor doomed Waynes, parents of Batman and the beloved and equally-doomed Flying Graysons.
- Elf Quest has a lot of happily married couples, despite the elves' open sexuality. Among the elves there are Redlance and Nightfall, Strongbow and Moonshade, Woodlock and Rainsong, and Cutter and Leetah. You could also add Bearclaw and Joyleaf - they do have some pretty fierce quarrels, but always make up afterward. Also the trolls Picknose and Oddbit (really!) and the humans Nonna and Adar. In the event of romantic rivalries, forming threesomes is considered a perfectly acceptable, if relatively rare, solution.
- What's more, in a sense Cutter and Skywise are "married" - yeah, they're both guys (though remember, in Elf Quest Everyone Is Bi) but in many respects they act like a married couple.
- All of which is not surprising when you remember that Elf Quest was created by Wendy and Richard Pini, who've been happily married for over three decades.
- Barry Allen and Iris West-Allen in The Flash.
- There seems to be a tradition of this in the Flash legacy; see also Wally West and Linda Park, and Jay and Joan Garrick, who have possibly the longest-standing marriage in the DCU.
- The Hawkmen and their partners (both at work and at play, as it were) used to have a similar happy relationship. Pre-Crisis, Carter and Sheira Hall of Earth-2 were married for about the same length of time as the Garricks, and used to go off on archaeological expeditions together in between JSA meetings. Likewise on Earth-1, Katar and Shayera Hol were married right from their creation. Post-Crisis (and post-John Ostrander and Hawkworld), Hawk continuity is just a mess, but Carter and the new Hawkgirl still get together fairly often.
- In fact the very first Hawkman and Hawkgirl's corpes is the central power battery of the star sapphire corp (who are fueled by the Power Of Love)
- Peter Parker and Mary Jane in Spider-Man — oh, right. Many walls were banged.
- They are still married in Spider-Girl. It's number one fan? Joe Quesada, since Mary Jane is a mother in that continuity (but making her one in the main is somehow out of the question).
- Scott Summers and Jean Grey — oh, same problem, even if it was a few years before the above, and not quite as blatant (but still as much of a Wall Banger).On the other hand...
- Hoping both get fixed soon by people not imposing their personal problems on the comic.
- Luke Cage and Jessica Jones.
- Reed Richards and Sue Storm-Richards sometimes more than others.
- Apollo and Midnighter. Interesting in that they're both gay superheroes who are happily married.
- Frequently played with, too, as they still have squabbles, and the kid-equals-stability thing was utterly subverted in the Revolutions arc (though that was mostly down to Manipulative Bastard Arch-Villain Bendix). However, they've been together for a long, long time, and no matter what crap gets thrown at them, their relationship is consistently a very loving one.
- Ma and Pa Kent, in the continuities where they're both alive.
- Currently dead, but it's comics, so let's see how long that sticks:
- Ralph and Sue Dibney. (They came back as ghosts but are currently zombified... and happily married.)
- Scott Free and Big Barda.
- Archie Comics has this as the norm: Archie's parents, Betty's parents, Jughead's parents... even Veronica's parents, despite being
mbillionaires, aren't using that money as an excuse to become a stereotypically disconnected rich couple. (Though their daughter is well on her way...)
- And, yeah, Reggie may be a jerk, but he can't blame it on a dysfunctional family either. Can anyone name any parents in Riverdale who aren't Happily Married?
- an early story had Veronica try to show up Betty but instead be miserable because she didn't have any connection her parents. Also, Dilton's parents are shown on occasion to be distant acedemics who don't communicate with each or Dilton.
- These are story-by-story cases, though.
- Clark Kent and Lois Lane. Lampshaded on occasion.
- This is such a major point in the Animal Man comics that it affects his costuming. He adds a denim jacket over his regular skintight costume so he can carry around his keys and notes from his wife.
- Animal Man probbably being the only superhero with "bring home milk" on his crimefighting agenda.
- Reed "Mr Fantastic" Richards and Sue "Invisible Woman" Storm tied the knot in Fantastic Four Annual #3, back in 1965, and they've been together ever since.
- Except when Sue cheats on him with Namor. But really, who could blame her?
- An odd gay example played absolutely straight. In the gay-themed, Furry, and miraculously not pornographic Comic Book Circles, Paulie and Doug are happily, if unofficially, married, and Paulie routinely refers to Doug as his husband.
- Hulking and Wiccan from the Young Avengers are well on their way to filling this trope. They're already the longest-lasting couple on the team.
- Technically, it'll be more like "Happily Civilly United". But saying that's a little awkward, So Yeah.
- Same goes for Karolina and Xavin over at Runaways as of recently xavin went away
- In one alternate universe, Captain America and a female version of Iron Man. Seriously. And their happy relationship is the main reason that that alternate Earth is a utopia. No, seriously.
- In Fables Beauty and Beast definitely qualify, despite the occasional bickerings (as Beauty points out, you can't expect a marriage to last for thousands of years without quarreling). Snow White and Bigby also qualify later.
Film
- Bob and Helen Parr in The Incredibles, though this is played with a little.
- Nick and Nora Charles, in the various Thin Man mystery-movies. It's been said theirs was among the very first truly happy marriages depicted by American cinema. They do tend to drink a lot by contemporary standards, though.
- Marge and Norm Gunderson in Fargo.
- The Darkos in Donnie Darko.
- H.I. and Ed in Raising Arizona.
- Only if you're counting Hi's vision at the very end of the film; earlier they are on the verge of breaking up.
- George and Lorraine McFly at the end of Back To The Future once Marty made changes to their past.
- In the end, in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, it turns out that Roger and Jessica are Happily Married. (Even Sickeningly Sweethearts.)
- The Little parents in Stuart Little, to the point where they finished the other's sentences. The moment they couldn't tell what the other was thinking led to slight panic, but all got resolved.
- Both of the main couples—Julia and Paul Child, and Julie and Eric Powell—in Julie & Julia.
Literature
- Molly and Arthur Weasley. While they were still alive, Harry's parents Lily and James probably counted, too.
- There's even reason to believe that Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy may fit this trope.
- Vernon and Petunia as well, whatever else you can say about them.
- Bill and Fleur. The canon pairings among the kids end up as happy marriages, too.
- Thursday Next and Landen Parke-Laine (although Landen suffers from a case of Ret Gone-induced existence failure for a while, until Thursday rescues him).
- In a story-within-a-story that Thursday visits in The Well of Lost Plots, the lead character Jack Spratt laments that as a fictional detective he isn't allowed to have a stable relationship for plot reasons. Thursday advises him to Screw Destiny and live his own life, and sure enough when the novel The Big Over-Easy was published we found Jack happily married with several kids.
- Touchstone and Sabriel, and considering their day jobs are ruling and making sure magic runs steady in the land, and fighting the Living Dead, it's a good thing they've got each other.
- Jane Austen managed a handful of these, most notably Admiral Croft and his wife, Sophie, in Persuasion.
- The Westons in Emma and the Gardiniers in Pride And Prejudice fit this trope too. Actually, it seems like she puts in at least one stable couple in each book, if only to serve as a subconscious suggestion to her assorted heroines.
- And her heroines themselves, with whichever men they wind up marrying.
- Commander Vimes and Lady Sybil, Fred Colon and his unnamed wife, and King Verence and Queen Magrat of Lancre.
- In the Star Wars Expanded Universe, Han and Leia are very happily married. Then the New Jedi Order happened. (Granted, there were good reasons for the unpleasantness and they got better.) Also, Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade... Until
Karen Traviss Jacen killed her.
- RA Salvatore's Drizzt novels recently had Drizzt and Catti-brie upgrade to this. Of course, two books later, she's dead, for all intents and purposes.
- Eddard "Ned" Stark and Catelyn Tully in A Song Of Ice And Fire. A Arranged Marriage forged for political reasons, the two grow into deep love and affection, though Ned's rather more reserved about it than Catelyn. In fact, theirs is the only marriage in the series that doesn't directly lead to bloodshed in some way. Probably. Shame what happens to them (though it's a nice way to cram in another trope.).
- Lord and Lady Macbeth. Yes, they brought doom and damnation upon themselves together, but they loved and supported each other along the way. Macduff and his ill-fated wife also count.
- That's debatable, since Lady Mc B's "support" for her husband was motivated by greed.
- Aral and Cordelia Vorkosigan in Lois Mc Master Bujold's books have a rock-solid relationship, managing to combine the best of their two wildly different cultural backgrounds.
- Witness this conversation from A Civil Campaign, where Cordelia, her best friends the Koudelkas, and the relevant parties are discussing the romance between (and possible marriage of) her son Mark and their daughter Kareen.
Kareen: Not... not yet, anyway. It's like I've just started to find myself, to figure out who I really am, to grow. I don't want to stop.
Cordelia: Is that how you see marriage? As the end and abolition of yourself?
Kareen: It is for some people. Why else do all the stories end when the Count's daughter gets married? Hasn't that ever struck you as a bit sinister? I mean, have you ever read a folk tale where the Princess's mother gets to do anything but die young? I've never been able to figure out if that's supposed to be a warning, or an instruction.
Drou: You grow in different ways, afterward. Not like a fairy tale. Happily ever after doesn't cover it.
- Miles and Ekaterin Vorkosigan are also an example, probably at least partly because Cordelia and Aral are Miles's parents.
- Hamish and Emily Alexander and later Honor too from Honor Harrington series. After sixty years of marriage, Emily's injury and whatever else they're still quite lovey-dovey around each other. It also helps that Emily is Hamish's chief political advisor and confidant, so they know how to work together too.
- Eve Dallas and Roarke in the In Death series. They actually become more stable after marrying. Roarke winds up going (mostly) legit to avoid upsetting Eve, and he tempers her Raised By Wolves tendencies. In fairness, she was; Her father was a sociopath who planned to sell her to pedophiles, and her mother was a prostitute of the unpleasant variety that hated her.
- The Drs. Murry from Madeleine L'Engle's Time Quartet books (okay, even if you count the fifth.) Dr. Mrs. Murry remained faithful to her husband for the five years he was vanished without a single word as to where he'd gone, with any man in town ready to throw himself at her.
- Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester may count as this; Your Mileage May Vary between this and Sickeningly Sweethearts (if that is even possible for Charlotte Bronte.)
- In Sandy Mitchell's Warhammer40000 novel Scourge the Heretic, Lord and Lady Tonis. They give each other a look that makes Horst quite envious of them. Of course, this is Warhammer400000; this was just before they jump to their deaths together; Horst still envies them.
- Alanna and George in Tamora Pierce's novels count, although their daughter seems to view them as Sickeningly Sweethearts in Trickster's Choice.
- Kel's parents are also happily married; they've had something like ten kids, and are probably Tamora Pierce's most well adjusted couple.
- The Happily Married couple is not a rarity in Pierce's books:
- In the Tortall Universe, besides those already mentioned, there's Jon and Thayet; Daine and Numair; Coram and Rispah; Myles and Eleni; Mequen and Winnamine (and Sarugani before her); Roald and Shinkokami; Aly and Nawat; and according to Word Of God, Wyldon and his wife, and Owen and Wyldon's daughter Margarry.
- In the Circle Of Magic universe, there's Sandry's dead parents; Pasco's parents; Kol and Matazi; Ambros and Ealaga; and Ben Ladradun and his deceased wife Kofrina.
- Pel and Ursula from Mil Millington's Things My Girlfriend And I Have Argued About. Though not married, they are in a stable relationship with two children. The whole point of the story is that though they fight like cat and dog, it's all just surface noise and their relationship is completely solid. The same might be said of Mil himself and his girlfriend Margret.
- Michael and Charity Carpenter from The Dresden Files. Very happily and solidly married and given that their oldest child is eighteen and their youngest (of seven) is two or three, they have a full married life.
- Chris and Cathy
DollangangerSheffield in Seeds of Yesterday and If There Be Thorns by V.C. Andrews.
- A very... interesting example of this in The Mists Of Avalon with Morgause and King Lot. Interesting because they aren't in love at all. Theirs was a political marriage when Morgause was 14 and Lot was around 30, and they regularly cheat on each other (although both of them know about the other's affairs). But they are still very close and when Lot dies towards the end of the book, Morgause spends a lot of time mourning for her 'husband and best friend'. It's actually the best marriage in the book, which is curious because of Morgause being evil.
- Claire and Jamie Fraser in the Outlander series, despite 200 years and a hell of a lotta conflict.
- Nuala Anne mcGrail and her loving "spear-carrier" husband Dermot Michael Coyne from Andrew M. Greeley's Nuala Anne mcGrail novels. The first three, "Irish Gold", "Irish Lace" and "Irish Whiskey" covered their courtship, and there were a couple of moments where the relationship was threatened(usually by one or the other's sense of unworthiness), but from "Irish Mist" on, it's been pretty much smooth sailing, despite assorted conventional pitfalls( Homeland Security tried to have the Irish-born Nuala deported for no good reason, their third child was born premature, etc.). Not to mention that Nuala's a bit fey, leading to her and Dermot investigating crimes both in the past and the present. In "Irish Gold" the story involves uncovering who killed IRA founder Michael Collins.
Live Action TV
- Gomez and Morticia Addams. Also notable in being one of, if not the first on-screen couple who were passionately in love.
- Black satin sheets. In 1964.
- Wash and Zoe from Firefly.
- And then Joss proved that even they are not immune to the Whedon Curse in Serenity when Wash gets impaled right in front of Zoe. Thanks, Joss!
- Phil and Vivian Banks from The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air.
- Will and Helen from Joan Of Arcadia.
- Ted and Joan Lawson from Small Wonder.
- DCI Tom Barnaby and his wife Joyce from Midsomer Murders have a pretty stable and happy marriage (unusual for a TV detective). She often gets annoyed when he runs off to follow up clues at a moment's notice, but it never seriously threatens their relationship.
- Dharma and Greg Montgomery in Dharma And Greg. Most of the comedic tension of the show came from the antics of their friends and parents.
- Likewise with Paul and Jamie in Mad About You.
- Although they had a couple of narmy near break-ups. And an actual break up in the finale, but they got better.
- Ralph and Alice on The Honeymooners are always fighting, but the idea that they might ever break up is as inconceivable as Ralph actually knocking Alice "right to the Moon."
- I Love Lucy.
- Bob and Kimerly Brown on The Unit are an excellent example.
- Heathcliff and Claire Huxtable of The Cosby Show, naturally.
- Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright weren't actually married (on the show, at least; some of the Extended Universe books explicitly state otherwise), but nevertheless they remain Doctor Who's only Happily Married couple.
- Allison Dubois and her husband Joe have a pretty stable marriage and three daughters in Medium. This despite the fact that whenever she has a prophetic dream, she ends up waking him up in the middle of the night.
- Eric and Tami Taylor of Friday Night Lights have a great marriage, despite some disagreements.
- Herman and Lily on The Munsters.
- Lily and Marshall on How I Met Your Mother, although they did break up at one point.
- An interesting example is Melinda and Jim on Ghost Whisperer, because they are the main couple, the relationships of her friends get barely any attention, they hardly ever fight, they don't have kids, and it's a drama. But then, this show is sap central.
- This is challenged when Jim dies. He Body Surfs into a dead guy named Sam and gets amnesia. Naturally, he (Jim; Sam "crossed over" immidiately after dying) gets better.
- Frank and Cyril on Slings And Arrows, despite (probably) not actually being married.
- Hal and Lois on Malcolm In The Middle. The show is unusually frank about the importance of their sex life to their conjugal stability: they have sex twice a day, on average, and when some unusual circumstance makes that average slip, they go a little crazy. At one point, Hal revealed that not only is he never unfaithful, he never even thinks about other women.
- Their oldest son, Fancis ends up this way, and seems to have inherited his father's sense of devotion to his wife.
- Rose and Bernard on Lost. They bicker at times, but remain deeply in love. Rose spends the entire first season certain that her husband, who was in the tail of the plane, is still alive. Sure enough, he's one of five surviving Tailies we meet in season 2.
- On the Japanese drama Joshi Deka, Yoshi and his wife Akiko are very happy together. Until Akiko gets killed off.
- Piper and Leo in Charmed.
- When they finally get married, of course.
- Not to spoil anything, but while this connection survives, its hardly without conflicts that are actually larger than the ones of the people without stable relationships, including the couple separated by force, and apparently forever, on multiple occasions.
- Jonathan and Jennifer Hart on HartToHart, who were essentially an updated Nick and Nora Charles.
- Turk and Carla on Scrubs. Despite a few setbacks along the way, these two have been together since the pilot and proceeded to get married and start a family, and seem to be quite happy together.
- Samantha and Darrin in Bewitched. Despite all the efforts of the mother-in-law from hell, they stayed steadfastly in love.
- Frasier's Niles and Daphne. After they work through their Unrequited Love Switcheroo thing anyway (that This Troper was more than glad to see go).
- They're happy and relatively frictionless for exactly one season (10), then Daphne gets pregnant and becomes an overbearing, hormonal harridan (she seems to be back to normal in the final episode, once her child is born).
- Ned and Chuck, the Official Couple on Pushing Daisies. They verged on Sickeningly Sweethearts during Season 1; Season 2 has them transition from falling in love to being in love, as they learn to negotiate the rocky parts of couplehood.
- Y'know, little things, like he accidentally killed her dad with his powers. Or she tricked him into bringing her father back as a mouthy zombie.
- According to Word Of God They have a long, loving relationship. Many, many years later they finally kiss when Ned is on his deathbed and Chuck hasn't aged a day.
- It should be noted that they're not actually married - they couldn't be, as she's dead on paper.
- Rita Rocks is based on this trope. Rita is harried, but she and her husband have a very happy marriage.
- Home Improvement's Tim and Jill Taylor definitely qualify.
- Though they go through just as much hell as everyone else on Battlestar Galactica, by the finale, Helo and Athena are happily married with their kid.
- Really, they're happily married (or happily coupled, beforehand), from pretty early on. They do go through a lot of hell, but their love for each other (and for Hera) never wavers, and arguably is one of the things that allowed them to make it through everything. You really get a sense of their trust in each other after Helo fraks Boomer, thinking she's Athena, and Athena doesn't even think about accusing him of anything.
- Monica and Chandler in the last three seasons of Friends.
- Star Trek has a couple of these: Voyager had Tom Paris and B'Elanna Torres (she gave birth to their daughter in the series finale), and both Tuvok and Samantha Wildman had happy long-distance marriages. Deep Space 9 had Miles and Keiko O'Brien (also on TNG)and Ben Sisko and Kasidy Yates as well.
- Harold and Jean Weir on Freaks and Geeks. (Series creator Paul Feig said that he intentionally chose for the Weirs to have a happy marriage partly because his own parents had one, but mostly because he was sick of all the dysfunctional parent couplings so prominent on television.)
- Rob and Laura from The Dick Van Dyke Show.
- Tom and Lynette Scavo in Desperate Housewives.
- Trevor and Roxy Lablanc in Army Wives.
- Howie and Marion Cunningham in Happy Days.
- Jed and Abbey Bartlet on The West Wing.
- Both the Goods and the Ledbetters in The Good Life.
Mythology
- Baucis and Philemon in Greek Mythology. Having entertained Zeus and Hermes unaware, they received a wish. They wished that they would die at the same moment so that neither of them would have to live widowed.
- And they didn't even die, exactly. At the end of their long lives, as they stood looking at one another, they were transformed into a pair of trees with the limbs intertwined so that they could never be separated. Aaaaaaw!
- Odysseus and Penelope may be an even better example. If you read The Odyssey, you'll know what This Troper is talking about.
- That Odysseus was a cheating bastard who didn't deserve a wife as faithful and clever as Penelope? Think Circe, Calypso, Kallidike...
- This is still difficult to make out, as his love for Penelope was never in question, yes he was unfaithful, but it was all so he could make it home ALIVE and see his wife again.
- Surprisingly, considering how the vast majority of the Greek pantheon was constitutionally incapable of anything resembling fidelity, Eros and his wife Psyche qualify.
- Another example is Perseus and Andromeda. Just the fact that neither cheated on the other is a very good sign
Newspaper Comics
- Calvin's parents from Calvin And Hobbes.
- Many newspaper-strip comics are more about the travails married people find than about their personal relationship. Dagwood & Blondie, Hi & Lois, Hagar and Helga, For Better Or For Worse.
- The best of these is arguably Zits, in which the loving, stable marriage between Connie and Walt Duncan infuriates their son Jeremy, by adding to their general dorkiness: their happy stability makes him too well-adjusted to have a tragic backstory. One strip shows the parents talking and laughing over doing the dishes, prompting Jeremy to sigh, "the award for 'person whose life least resembles MTV' goes to..." (or something like that.)
Theatre
Video Games
- The Fire Emblem series has Ethlin and Cuan, Glade and Selfina, Yuno and Zealot, Dorcas and Nathalie (bonus for being childhood sweethearts) and Lord Pent and Louise.
- It also contains Canas, who joins the party happily married in Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword, although his wife does not appear. In Fire Emblem: Sword of Seals (which is a chronological sequel to Blazing Sword) it was established that Canas's son Hugh was raised by Canas's mother Niime, resulting in Canas's death being written into the ending of Blazing Sword. This resulted in the fan meme that Canas was "killed by continuity errors".
- More tragic example from Sacred Stones Sir Orson and Monica were Happily Married. But as she was an Ill Girl, she perished at some point before the story, and Orson was driven mad and evil due to this. Lampshaded by Seth before the fight with Orson, who mentions that their happy marriage was famous among the Renais knights.
- In the Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn continuity, we have Calil and Largo.
- Twinsen and Zoe, expecting their first child in Little Big Adventure 2.
- The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess has Rusl and Uli, Colin's parents, in Ordon Village.
- Kingdom Hearts has (in theory at least) Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Since they rule together as King and Queen, it's not unreasonable to presume they're married, although it's never explicitly stated that they are.
- Prior to this they appeared to be married with children in Mickey's Christmas Carol and once in a dream sequence in Mickey's Nightmare. A particular quote of Walt Disney's from 1933 tends to float around, stating that "In private life Mickey is married to Minnie..." Fans tend to either shrug this off or take it as canon; either way, the main consensus seems to be to keep them eternally courting as to not "spoil the illusion of youth."
- However, Mickey and Minnie's voice actors, Wayne Allwine and Russi Taylor, are, in fact, married.
- Sadly, Wayne Allwine has passed away.
- Ron and Desiree DeLite from Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations, despite the fact that they are a cripplingly insecure Gentleman Thief and a spend-happy Biker Babe respectively.
- Two of your units, Karl and Lynn, in Valkyria Chronicles are Happily Married and a full-blown Battle Couple to boot. At the end of the game, after the war, Largo and Cpt. Varrot and Welkin and Alicia also marry.
Web Comics
- Fred and Faye MacIntire, Davan's parents from Something Positive. Faye dies peacefully of old age, and since most characters are based on the cartoonists' life, his mom started looking at him funny.
- The strip following this had the tagline at the bottom: "I got a very annoyed voicemail from my mother today. I wonder why?"
- Also Aubrey and Jason, who were also based on real people, but not a couple in real life.
- Donovan and Miranda Deegan in Dominic Deegan who still get busy every once in a while.
- In Umlaut House 2, the three couples that got a Happily Ever After ending in the first series are now Happily Married with children.
- Dora and Sven's parents in Questionable Content.
- The Boy's parents The Mother and The Father in Scary Go Round, and those of his French exchange paramour Elodie.
- Ryan and Amy in Bad Machinery.
- The Donlans, as seen in this Gunnerkrigg Court comic.
- Kevin and Kell Dewclaw have been happily married since before the strip began in 1995.
- The Dunkels from El Goonish Shive have a peaceful, happy home life.
- Ma and Pa Todd from Nip And Tuck... much to their son's chagrin.
- Fox and Collin of Friendly Hostility. While they're not officially married (being two male college students) and have the occasional rough patch, they confide in and trust one another to a degree rarely seen in main couples in fiction, effectively and quickly resolving situations ripe for Not What It Looks Like misunderstandings.
- Fox's parents (and Rafi) have been happy together for decades. Fatima also seems to have found someone who suits her.
- Tom and Karla of Home On The Strange.
- Dwayne and Nicole Duncan in General Protection Fault. So far, Nick and Ki.
- Greg and Liz Dean, getting into no bigger scraps than little smatterings of Fridge Logic, in-comic. Probably like this in their actual real life, too.
- Finn and Charlie, from Finn and Charlie are Hitched, have been happily married for years, and are in fact based on the creator and his husband.
- Mr. Mighty and Jane from Everyday Heroes. Also the neighbors Ed and Joan Generic.
- In Tales Of The Questor, Quentyn's parents' marriage is rock solid as demonstrated by how his father cheers his wife up.
Web Original
- Both Shandala's adoptive parents—Mama and Papa Tui—and her biological parents— Lear Dunham and Mariko —have marriages like this, until each of the mothers die. And interestingly, it was Lear himself who killed Mama Tui, as part of the Evil Plan.
Western Animation
- Avatar Roku in Avatar The Last Airbender got his perfect happy family.
- Barney and Betty of The Flintstones. Oddly, Fred and Wilma fall under No Accounting For Taste.
- Hermes and LaBarbara from Futurama, as well as Leela's and Amy's parents.
- Though in the DVD movie Bender's Big Score LaBarbara temporarily leaves Hermes (twice) for another man right after he loses his body and becomes a head in a jar.
- Alternate universe 1 Fry and Leela.
- George and Jane in The Jetsons.
- Homer and Marge Simpson; yeah, they have arguments and the like, but there is that sense that they genuinely love each other and they always bounce back. And when their current troubles do genuinely threaten their marriage, it's always treated as a Big F'n Deal, not just life as usual.
- Indeed, it was quite a shock to this troper to realize that Homer Simpson was quite possibly the most faithful husband on network television.
- Not to mention that, bizarrely enough, beautiful single women keep throwing themselves at Homer, and he keeps turning them down flat. Let's see, so far we have... country singer, co-worker (Mindy?), and at least one other this troper can't quite recall the details of. (Not counting his Vegas wife, whom we can assume married him for reasons unrelated to love or lust.) But really, how in the world does Homer Simpson manage to get beautiful single women to want to go to bed with him???? Not to mention at least one gay guy!
- There was a stripper but it was just a picture and Homer didn't do anything. Also, he does go to Masion Derriere, but he doesn't touch.
- Second most faithful; see the Malcolm In The Middle example above.
- Hank and Peggy Hill in King Of The Hill are also an example of this, with Hank probably the second most faithful guy on network television, experiencing several moments where beautiful women threw themselves at him and him turning them down.
- Dale Gribble could probably be named the MOST faithful guy on network television, if his actions mean anything. He worships the ground his wife walks on, pampers her, never says an unkind word to her, trusts her completely, the works. Even when his hero - a genius of an exterminator - throws herself at him, he pushes her away with a rant about his marriage vows that implies that he thinks his utter devotion to fidelity should be obvious to anyone, as well as mentioning that his wife "is the most wonderful person in the world." All this is fairly undeserved: Nancy cheated on him for fourteen years and passed off her lover's son as Dale's. Considering that her lover, John Redcorn is Native American and the boy is the image of him, that's a testament to Dale's faith or stupidity. However, after she stopped cheating, they became at least as happy as Hank and Peggy, and much more affectionate. Of course, this is mainly because Dale never found out about his wife's affair - he trusts and loves her so much the thought of her cheating on him doesn't even cross his mind. Oh yeah ... that's one guy whose never gonna mess around. Ever.
- Mr. Dr. (rocket scientist) and Mrs. Dr. (neurosurgeon) Possible on Kim Possible. Even better is that it's clearly a marriage of equals.
- Peter and Lois Griffin. Sometimes.
- The fact that Jack and Maddie are happily married in Danny Phantom is actually a justification Danny uses on Vlad Masters, who desires the latter.
- Despite being utterly batty, Mr. and Mrs. Turner from The Fairly Oddparents are a tight-knit, mutually supportive couple. Most of the time, that is. Cosmo and Wanda qualify as well.
- Half the time their entire motivation is making Timmy happy and the other half is ignoring him, almost deliberately. They practically share a hive mind.
- A small Wall Banger in that Timmy got his godparents because he had an evil babysitter, neglectful parents, bullies, mean teachers etc. and the fairies are given to him in order to make his life a little less like a living hell.
- Carl and Ellie in Up definitely qualify, even if they had trouble making a family and fulfilling their dream to go to South America since by the time they were able to afford the trip Ellie soon passed away. This is demonstrated at the end, when Carl looks through Ellie's Adventure Book one last time to find the message "Thanks for the adventure! Now go have another one."
- Doc and Drew in The Secret Saturdays.
- This is implied in most Disney movies and supported in the sequels for The Little Mermaid, Aladdin (both of them), The Lion King, and Beauty and the Beast (technically a midquel, but the ending fastforwards a year after the first movie so the audience can see Belle and the Prince together).
- Not to mention the sequels to Cinderella, where the Prince is finally given a real personality (and Took A Level In Badass) but is also a genuinely loving and devoted husband.
- Interestingly, the Scamp newspaper strip makes it clear from the first day◊ that Lady and Tramp's marriage isn't exactly perfect.
- Strongly hinted that the only reason Looney Toons Pepe Le Pew and Penelope Pussycat (yes she has a name) aren't this is because Pepe just smells bad.
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