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!" (remember, Rule of Drama) 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, Happily Married 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 Won't 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 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. This trope usually gives viewers Crowning Moments of Heartwarming instead of tasting like diabetes, though the cynicism of the viewers still has to be taken into account. If and when they have kids, they will often become Good Parents. When this overlaps with Arranged Marriage, it's Perfectly Arranged Marriage.
But when it turns out that they're not really as happy as they let on, however, it's Happy Marriage Charade.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
Ranma ½: At one point, Genma talks about him and Nodoka being like this. Ranma doesn't believe it though.
Genma: I carved this on our honeymoon. A memory of love.
Ranma: Who are you and what have you done with my father?
Akio and Sanae, CLANNAD, as well as Tomoya and Nagisa in After Story. Then it got worse for the latter couple. And better.
Sachiko and Soichirou Yagami of Death Note are portrayed as having a very stable and loving relationship. Kind of surprising, considering that everyone lives in the Dysfunction Junction.
Shirou and Momoko, Nanoha's parents in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. Nanoha comments that they still very much act like newlyweds.
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".
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 D.N.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.
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). By the end, Yukino and Soichiro themselves.
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. He chose suicide and, if it wasn't for the Major, would have gone ahead with it.
And after EP6 Battler and Beato too. In spite of all they went through, I'd say they're one of the most stable - and adorable - couples in the VN, at this point.
Actually caused problems in the backstory of Mahou Sensei Negima!. Negi's father, Nagi, was Happily Married to Negi's mother when he met Evangeline- and, naturally, he wouldn't respond to her advances because he was perfectly satisfied with his wife. In the end, he had to seal Eva in a boarding school just to get her off his back.
He could have gotten her to go away much easier if he actually told her he was married. As it is, she didn't find out until ten years later or so, from one of his friends giving her backstory. Of course, being an idiot is part of his character, and Eva was a Stalker with a Crush anyway, so even that might not have helped. But at least he could have bothered to try.
Although not actually married (kinda-sorta), Issac and Miria from Baccano!! fit this trope to a T. So much so that they're even still together seven decades later.
And in that vein: Claire and Chane.
As well as Firo and Ennis.
Even though Toriyama himself said he sucked at writing a decent romance, most couples in Dragon Ball are this.
It began as a brief fling and then they didn't give a crap about each other for awhile, but Vegeta and Bulma eventually became this in the latter parts of DBZ.
Surprisingly, Legend of Galactic Heroes has a few of these. Most obviously Wolfgang and Evangelin Mittermeier, but also Alex and Hortense Caselnes... and both couples play Beta Couple to their respective superiors: Reinhard and Hildegard and Yang and Frederica.
Kyoko and Katsuya Honda from Fruits Basket were this trope for the brief time they were both alive at the same time. Also, Kyo and Tohru Sohma and most likey every other Official Couple.
As common and expected for a group of adventurers, Parn is sometimes oblivious to Deedlit's affections (he eventually returns them after coming to terms with his past), and there's no happy ending for Shiris and Orson in Record of Lodoss War. However, when Lelyia is freed from being possessed by an evil spirit, Slayn marries her, they have a daughter, and their relationship continues without any problems.
In Hayate the Combat Butler the parents are either missing (and it's usually hinted that they're just happily married behind the scenes), unseen or Happily Married. There seems to be no middle ground between these three. Even Hayate's parents are portrayed as Happily Married.
Though we haven't actually seen Mr. Katsura, between Hinagiku's happy life as their adopted daughter and Mrs. Katsura's outlook, they are probably the happiest.
Wilhelm and Dorothea Malders from Victorian Romance Emma, one of few noble marriages shown to be happy and without much problems.
Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water: In the Distant Finale, the title character and Jean were shown married and with a child. The same applies for Samson and Marie as well as Eiko, the Nautilus navigator and Ikolina, the nurse.
This is implied about Byakuya and his deceased wife Hisana who was Rukia's older sister in Bleach. The few times he shows his softer side was when he was looking at Hisana's picture before going to Rukia's execution and when he was talking to Rukia about her.
Damn near every married couple in Naruto, of which there are many. Ties in with the themes of family and bonds, but also makes up for the fact that half the cast are orphans and those same happily married couples quite often ended up dead.
Majority of the One Piececouples are these, even if one of the spouses (usually the mother) is deceased. One example is Queen Otohime and King Nepture. He is a strong supporter in her determination to bring humans and mermen together. In a subtle but very sweet scene, Queen Otohime before going with the World Noble to negotiate reassures King Nepture to trust in her as his wife. It's perhaps the series' first unambiguously romantic scene.
Ouran High School Host Club's author tells us about the Hosts and a few of the other characters' futures at the end of the final volume. Official Couple Haruhi and Tamaki end up married at the end and we're told they are the first to have children. Honey and manga-only Reiko also end up married, and we're told Mori is married with children somewhere down the line.
Kuroshitsuji has Ciel's, now deceased, parents. In life it appeared that they were happy together and Good Parents. At least, it did in the anime, and in the manga from Ciel's point of view. Vincent's conversations in the Baron Kelvin flashback chapters beg to differ.
Kimi Wa Petto has Sumire and Momo happily married in the distant finale.
Kudo in Japan Inc. Contrast this to his foil Tsugawa: His wife's a Bottle Fairy, and he has barely time for his kids.
The poor doomed Waynes, parents of Batman and the beloved and equally-doomed Flying Graysons.
ElfQuest 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 ElfQuestEveryone is Bi) but in many respects they act like a married couple.
All of which is not surprising when you remember that ElfQuest was created by Wendy and Richard Pini, who've been happily married for over three decades.
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 Shiera 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 corpses are the central power battery of the Star Sapphire Corps (who are fueled by the Power of Love)
They are still married in Spider-Girl. Its 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).
Parodied in Ultimate Spider-man, in which Mary Jane and Peter are so close that Liz Allen starts to refer to Mary Jane as "Mary Jane Watson-Parker" because "You two are totally married!"
Scott Summers and Jean Grey — oh, same problem, even if it was a few years before the above, and not quite as blatant. On the other hand...
Likewise in Spider-Man, Uncle Ben and Aunt May had a long, happy marriage. Until poor Ben's death, of course.
Mystique and Destiny, Rogue's adoptive parents, had an amazingly long loving relationship that began when the two women met in the 1890s and only ended when Destiny gave her life so that Mystique could live. Although it is known that through some unexplained circumstances they were separated for unspecified times, there was never seen a cross word between them. Pretty good showing, especially considering they're both villains.
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.
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?
Yes, Midge's. A Joe Edwards story from the 1980's had Midge crying because her parents were on the verge of divorce. Though she said on the last page they would stay together "with counseling".
An early story had Veronica try to show up Betty but instead be miserable because she didn't have any connection with her parents. Also, Dilton's parents are shown on occasion to be distant academics who don't communicate with each other or Dilton.
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 probably being the only superhero with "bring home milk" on his crimefighting agenda.
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.
Same goes for Karolina and Xavin over at Runaways as of recently Xavin was Put on a Bus. The six couple that make up the Pride also count - while they're all murdering, thieving supervillains, their marriages and family lives are quite healthy (except for the way the Steins treat Chase).
Gertrude and Chase were practically this as well. And then Gert died, though recent events hint that it might be reversed.
Who wants to bet that the fangirly joy was part of the reason Wangst-and-Despair-happy Marvel hasn't consumnated their 616 Ho Yay?
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.
Legion of Super-Heroes actually has had quite a few of these- the first was Bouncing Boy and Triplicate Girl/Duo Damsel. Others that followed included Saturn Girl/Lightning Lad, Karate Kid/Princess Projectra and Ultra Boy/Phantom Girl
Swedish comic book Bamse has the eponymous character happily married with four children.
Top 10: Irma Geddon and her husband Ron. Kemlo Caesar and Neural 'Nette. Captain Jetman and Wulf probably count too, even if the court is out on whether or not they're actually married.
Shrek and Fiona have their problems to deal with, but they love each other. Same goes for Donkey and Dragon.
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."
Also from Pixar: Mr. and Mrs. Potatohead of the Toy Story movies.
Suggested to be the case between Barbie and Ken at the end of the third movie.
This is implied in most Disney movies and frequently supported in sequels, such as The Little Mermaid, 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).
Also the case in Cinderella 3. Heck, the first song of the movie has Cinderella telling us how happy she is in her married life and the prince several times referring to her as his "perfect wife". The sequel for Sleeping Beauty shows us that Aurora and Philip are quite happy as well.
Rapunzel herself and Eugene are officially this after Tangled Ever After.
Live-Action Film
Nick and Nora Charles, in The 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.
Tom and Gerri in Another Year seem to be the embodiment of this, even if no one around them is.
Ever After has King Francis and Queen Marie, Maurice and Louise, and Danielle and Henry clearly establish that they're going to be this in the first few months of their marriage that we see. It's implied that Jacqueline and Laurent will end up this as well.
Toula and Ian from My Big Fat Greek Wedding, complete with babies... well, baby ever after. Ian's parents, Toula's parents, and several members of Toula's family seem to apply as well.
George and Nina Banks, John and Joanna Mackenzie, and Annie and Bryan Mackenzie from Father Of The Bride, as were the main couples in the original film.
All three main couples from the Meet The Parents series: Greg and Pam, Jack and Dina, and Bernie and Roz.
Only if you're counting Hi's vision at the very end of the film; earlier they are on the verge of breaking up.
On the other hand, Ed only brought up divorce after thinking that she and H.I. just weren't fit to be a good family. They seem to be a bit happier after they return the baby and the father gives them some advice.
George and Lorraine McFly at the end of Back to the Future once Marty made changes to their past.
Given Lorraine's rant to Biff in the sequel, she and George had been happily married in that alternate universe as well, before Biff had George murdered. In the third movie, we see that Seamus and Maggie Mc Fly were happily married as well.
Doc Brown and Clara Clayton at the very end of Back to the Future Part Three, though their happily married status was expanded upon more in the animated series.
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.
Judge Hardy & Mrs. Hardy in the Andy Hardy film series.
Cindy Lou's parents in the live-action How the Grinch Stole Christmas, which is an upgrade from the book and TV special where they were pretty much nonentities.
Brody and Ellen in Jaws, a notable change from the book. (In the book, she cheats on him with Hooper)
Rick and Evy O'Connell in the second and third Mummy movies.
Jack and Marilyn Mickler, in Don Juan DeMarco. It gets even better as the title character's example works it's magic on Jack's libido.
Alejandro and Elena in The Legend Of Zorro for the most part. They do split up for awhile, but that was mostly because Elena was blackmailed into splitting up with him
The parents in A Christmas Story. Not even the legendary "Battle Of The Lamp" can permanently derail them.
Undercover Blues: Despite a few disagreements about, e.g., taking the baby into dangerous situations, Jane and Jefferson Blues are one of the finest examples of Happily Married to be spotted in an action film. Their easy camaraderie is an enjoyable counterpart to the danger they're facing.
Mike and Jackie Flaherty from Win Win. Their relationship can get harried, but it's ultimately a loving and commited one.
Literature
Millie and Christopher in the Chrestomanci Chronicles. Modecai Roberts and Miss Rosie are also hinted to be this.
Molly and Arthur Weasley. While they were still alive, Harry's parents Lily and James 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.
Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom were likely this until they were driven insane by the Cruciatus Curse
Mr. and Mrs. Granger appear to be this, even though we don't see much of them.
Bill and Fleur. Harry and Ginny and Ron and Hermione end up as happy marriages, too.
Word Of God has that Luna, Neville, George, Percy, and Dudley all were this as well.
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.
in the short story "The Wedding Present" by Neil Gaiman, due to a mysterious magic letter received as a wedding present, Belinda and Gordon have a very happy and successful marriage. In the alternative universe that the letter describes... not so much. Though in the end, after Gordon dies in an accident that doesn't occur in the alternative universe, Belinda burns the letter as she's willing to sacrifice her happy family life for an estranged one just to be able to see and talk to Gordon again.
J. R. R. Tolkien seems to have had a very strong conviction that this was how relationships are supposed to work out, and so his works provied a lot of examples. Almost all requited love in The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion ends in happy marriages: Aragorn and Arwen, Faramir and Éowyn, Sam and Rosie, Celeborn and Galadriel, Beren and Lúthien, Idril and Tuor, Bombadil and Goldberry, etc. etc. There is one couple that does not marry (Andreth and Aegnor) and the three that end up unhappily married (Ar-Pharazôn and Tar-Míriel, Fëanor and Nerdanel, Túrin and Nienor) are that way because Pharazôn is evil, Fëanor heads that way, and Túrin and Nienor are cursed.
The number of happy relationships are probably due to the fact that he too was Happily Married.
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.
In the Star WarsExpanded 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.
Eddard "Ned" Stark and Catelyn Tully in A Song of Ice and Fire. An 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.).
Dany and Drogo also get this until Drogo dies.
As well as Edmure and Roslin, even if their wedding didn't exactly go off without a hitch.
Lord and Lady Macbeth. Yes, they brought doom and damnation upon themselves together, but they loved and supported each other along the way (though Lady Macbeth could get a little mean in her "supporting"...). Macduff and his ill-fated wife also count.
Aral and Cordelia Vorkosigan in Lois McMaster 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 (Kou and Drou, who are also Happily Married), 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 the 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.
More than a few in the Honorverse. There's Honor's parents, and Queen Elizabeth and Prince-Consort Justin, not to mention Prince Michael and and Princess Judith.
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 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.
Following her parents' example, Meg Murry and her husband, Calvin O'Keefe.
For the most part, but not the shining example her parents' marriage was. It's stable, as noted by characters in later books, but it's more realistic than the Drs. Murray. Meg assists Calvin in his work as a marine biologists, but feels "restless" as her children grow older and are less dependant on her. She toys with the idea of going back to school. Her teenage insecurities come back when she wonders if the rumors of Calvin having relationships with female colleagues might be true.
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.
Provost'sDog also gives several examples. Goodwin and her husband, for one, and Okha and Nestor (although it is difficult to know whether they're actually "married"). Tunstall and Lady Sabine were also unmarried as of the second book, but they did have a domestic, stable relationship.
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.
In their case, it helps that Michael Carpenter is in some ways quite literally as close to being an ideal Man (in the very best sense of that word) that it is possible to be in a Fallen race and world. He is the best person in Harry Dresden's world, and the marriage of Michael and Charity exemplifies what marriage is meant to be. Charity is not as good being good as her husband...but she's getting there.
Sonia and Mickey Malone.
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.
Twilight All couples seem to be very happy: Carlisle/Esme, Rosalie/Emmet, Alice/Jasper, Sam/Emily, Renee/Phil. The Canon Pairing: Bella/Edward had shown to be very happy the few months they were married in the books and where not in danger of dying. After the conclusion, a return to this is a given. It's also implied that Charlie and Sue are going to become this.
Jonathan and Mina Harker from Dracula, especially once that whole vampire business is taken care of and they get their Babies Ever After ending
Patrick and Wendy McLanahan in Dale Brown's books. Until Wendy gets killed.
Pretty much every married couple in the Mitford series. They're just those kindof books.
Marmie and Robert, Amy and Laurie, Meg and John, and Jo and Fritz from Little Women and its sequels.
Mr. & Mrs. Hardy, parents of the eponymous Hardy Boys
In Dune, Count and Lady Fenring, despite the Count's inability. Also Leto and Jessica Atreides are "Happy De-facto Married".
The Lions Of Al-Rassan has Rodrigo and Miranda until he's killed, anyway, Ines and Rodrigo after they reconcile and Jehane with Ammar and Alvar with Jehane's friend in the epilogue.
In Rainbow Six every member of the Badass Crew is married, almost all with children Ding and Patsy's child is born part of the way through the book, making it all of them.
John Paul and Theresa Wiggin, parents of Ender, were most definitely this, despite—nay, because of—their religious differences; just being religious (him Catholic her Mormon) gave them enough in common to smooth out problems, apparently. To be sure, they have their problems, but how could it be any other way when your children are, respectively, the future savior well, not really, but whatever and the future ruler of humanity? Both Ender and Valentine end up in the same situation (Valentine with kids).
Amelia Peabody and her husband Radcliffe Emerson, archeologist detectives. They quarrel all the time, partly for the fun of it, but also hold each other in something like awe and devote a considerable part of their considerable will-powers to making the marriage work.
Their son Walter "Ramses" Emerson apparently learned from his parents' example and has this relationship with his wife Nefret.
Justinan and Theodora in Belisarius Series are an odd variant. They are not a happy couple per se but they love each other deeply and are obviously meant for each other. They would probably be closer to A Shared Suffering.
Howl and Sophie from the sequels to Howl's Moving Castle. Yes, they bicker and argue a lot, but that's because they want to. It helps keep them on their toes.
Popular trope in Betsy Tacy. All of the married couples seem very happy, with a lot of discussion in later books being about how these loving, healthy marriages form and continue to work.
Leonard and Griselda Clement from Murder At The Vicarage. That's despite the fact that Leonard did just about the opposite of what he considered conventionally right when he married Griselda.
As well as Michael and Claudia Joy Holden, Frank and Denise Sherwood, and Roland and Joan Burton. There was the whole thing where Frank and Denise tempoarily filed for divorce because Denise cheated on him and Roland and Joan have to deal with Joan withdrawing due to PTSD and Roland's one night stand with a reporter, but both couples worked through their problems and got better.
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.
Dr. Billy Kronk and Dr. Diane Grad of Chicago Hope
Ellie and Devon "Captain Awesome" Woodcombe in Chuck don't get married until the end of Season two, but they provide the main stable relationship in the show.
As of the season four finale, Chuck and Sarah now qualify too
CSI NY got in on it too with Danny and Lindsay. They had a tumultuous courtship,pushing each other away repeatedly and Danny slept with someone else (Rikki Sandoval), and there was stress during Danny'sstint as a sergeant in early season 8 but things seem great now, especially with Lucy having come along.
Until they separate at the end of season seven. Even then, some would argue that they've been doing The Masochism Tango for quite some time.
Mike and Susan are generally happy together during the times when they're in a relationship (and when they're not it's because of some external obstacle, not friction in the relationship.)
Also, Bree and Orson Hodge in season 3 and 4, when not dealing with each other's past misdeeds.
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 (who were also happily married). Though, a recent episode of Two and a Half Men shows them as a bickering, on-the-verge-of-divorce couple.
Jerry and Theresa Russo of Wizards of Waverly Place demonstrate rather realistically how a happy marriage isn't a perfect one.
Wayne and Diane Szalinski of Honey, I Shrunk The Kids: The TV Series, though Diane can get understandably flustered by her husband's inventions at times. So in short, their relationship is pretty much the same way it was in the movie the series came from
You get this in the Canadian Series' that aired on Disney Channel as well:
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 first Happily Married couple.
As of "The Wedding of River Song", The Doctor now seems to be a happily married man. She may spend her days in prison, but the nights...That's between them, eh?
If you include a scene from 'The End of Time' part 2, Martha and Mickey seem to be happily married and fighting evil!
Surely Pete and Jackie Tyler. Sure, they're both technically rebounds from parallel-universe versions of themselves, but they still seem pretty happy with their lot.
Amy and Rory as of the end of "The Big Bang", solidified in Series 6.
Series 4 of The Sarah Jane Adventures confirms that Ian and Barbara are married, and gives us a reappearance from Jo, who is still married to Cliff Jones (RTD specifically mentioned that he wasn't happy with parts of the Expanded Universe saying she and Cliff got divorced).
This seemed to be the case with the senator and his wife on Dollhouse. When he's drugged and possibly raped, his first reaction to the blackmail attempt is to take the call girl to his wife. For once, a person who didn't cheat but is in circumstances that can lead to Mistaken for Cheating does the sensible thing and plans to explain the situation to their SO instead of trying to cover up the non-affair for fear of not being believed. And then, the wife turned out to be evil and possibly not even legally his wife. Much as I consider Whedon a brilliant storyteller, I have to say: Damn you, Joss. Damn you so much.
Donna and Alex Stone of The Donna Reed Show
Robert and Cora Crawley, the Earl and Countess of Grantam, have been Happily Married for twenty-three years. They've actually been married for twenty-four years; it took a while for Impoverished Patrician Robert to fall in love with American heiress Cora after he married her for her money.
Tom and Joan Bradford of Eight Is Enough. That is, until Joan was killed off because her actress died. Tom marries schoolteacher Abbey Abott in season 2, and this was also a happy marriage.
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).
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.)
Eric and Tami Taylor of Friday Night Lights have a great marriage, despite some disagreements.
Monica and Chandler in the last three seasons of Friends. Also, Monica and Ross' parents, Jack and Judy Geller (as opposed to the parents of the rest of the gang).
The title characters in Gavin and Stacey, as well as Gavin's parents.
Agent 86 and Agent 99 in Get Smart once they get hitched in season four.
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" immediately after dying) gets better.
Burt Hummel and Carole Hudson-Hummel of Glee. Both of their first marriages were apparently happy too, since it took them a long time to get over the deaths of their spouses.
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."
Charlie and Hope Shanowski from Hope & Faith
Lily and Marshall on How I Met Your Mother, although they did break up at one point.
This is rather a strange case, because we know that twenty odd years on, when Ted is telling his children about how he met their mother they're definitely in a very happy marriage, so everyone knew that their break-up would work out alright in the end... that said, it didn't stop fans of the show itching to track down the writers and flay them with something hard.
Elliot and Kathy Stabler on Law And Order: SVU. They do break up at one point when the stress of being a police officer's wife gets to Kathy, but they reconcile later.
Charles and Caroline, Laura and Almanzo, and Mary and Adam of Little House on the Prairie. A Truth in Television for the first two couples, since they are based on real people.(In real life, Mary never married)
Nellie Olsen and Percival. Not a Truth in Television, since Nellie wasn't a real person. (She was based on three different girls)
The eponymous couple in the final season of Lois and Clark.
Despite having marital issues for the first season or so, Jin and Sun eventually play this straight, and they even become Together in Death near the end of the series. Awwww....
As of Season 5's flashforwards we also have everyone's favorite couple Desmond and Penny, now living on their boat with a young son.
Minor characters Horace and Amy from Season 5 as well.
Harry and Jennifer Crane are noted as Happily Married from the beginning...but then Harry has a one-night stand with Hildy (a secretary) after a typical drunken Sterling Cooper party, and has hell to pay for it when Jennifer finds out. Fortunately for him, she forgives him; he doesn't seem to so much as look at another woman after that (until season 4, when he has apparently morphed off-screen into a bit of a douche).
Pete and Trudy Campbell get to Happily Married ahead of everyone else on the series (besides Harry and Jenny) after working through (in agonizing detail) Pete's problems with infidelity and adoption. The Campbells dance a most enthusiastic Charleston at Roger Sterling's wedding, and in the end Pete, after his last indiscretion, decides he never wants to be away from Trudy again. After that, he's seen consulting her about serious stuff fairly often (like the decision to hop over to the new Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce).
As for the rest of the marriages on the show: Roger and Mona Sterling? Divorced. Roger and Jane Sterling? Shot to Hell. Joan and Greg Harris? Complicated at best. Sal and Kitty Romano? A lie. Don and Betty Draper? Divorced.
And now we hear that Ken Cosgrove is about to get married, just as he's joining SCDP (and thus rejoining the show). Let's watch as the writers make his life totally miserable!
Though it appears, when the higher-ups at SCDP try to get him to use his wife to land an account and he shoots it down, that their relationship may actually be based on (gasp!) love and respect!
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.
Married Single Other didn't actually have a Happily Married couple - The original married couple Dickie & Babs had split up & moved on by the end of the series; whilst Eddie & Lillie are happily in a long term relationship, but aren't married. At least until the fifth episode, where they have a rush wedding after Lillie is diagnosed with a brain tumour. Naturally, she dies on her wedding day.
B.J. and Peg Hunnicutt in M*A*S*H. Having to be away from her led to a downward spiral of depression and a campaign of increasingly nasty practical jokes on B.J.'s part. Also from M* A* S* H Sherman and Mildred Potter, which led to him becoming the father figure. And he's a career soldier who's fought in both World Wars and now Korea. These were a complete reversal from the characters they replaced, "Trapper" John and Henry Blake, who despite being married slept with (or tried to sleep with) every nurse in the camp.
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.
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.
Jay and Gloria, Claire and Phil, and Cameron and Mitchell on Modern Family.
Jim and Stephanie Powell of No Ordinary Family have their spats, but there's no denying their devotion to each other.
Sandy and Kirsten Cohen, and later Seth Cohen and Summer Roberts on The O.C.
Jim and Pam Halpert seem to be this on The Office (US version).
Also Phyllis and Bob Vance, Vance Refrigeration. For now, anyways. It's been heavily implied that Phyllis is cheating. Though it may be part of their kinky lifestyle, which includes: public sex, nudity at work, and goading flirtatious men into fistfights.
Snow White and Prince Charming & Cinderella and her prince Thomas in the backstory of Once Upon A Time
Nathan and Haley James Scott from One Tree Hill. Yeah, they've had their ups and downs, but given they got married in the first season of a long-running soap-opera, while they were in high school, their long-term marital stability really deserves it's kudos.
The TV series adaptation of Parenthood has Zeek and Camille, Adam and Kristina, and (despite some occasional strains) Julia and Joel.
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.
Patrick and Audie Gallagher of Ruby And The Rockits. In fact, it's revealed that they're passionately married, and frequently arrange to meet at home on their lunch breaks to spend quality time together.
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.
Also inverted in the case of Dr. Cox and Jordan, who are happy together so long as they aren't married. It was only well after they thought they were divorced that they started a family and when they found out their original divorce was false, their relationship quickly broke down again until Parry decided to ask Jordan to divorce which quickly restored it.
The Kents on Smallville, naturally before Jonathan dies and Lois and Clark as of the series finale
Batiatus and Lucretia, bizarrely enough, in Spartacus: Blood and Sand, considering that she repeatedly cheats on him with Crixus. Nonetheless, they seem to be deeply in love and totally devoted to one another in every other respect.
Say what you like about Teyla and Kanaan's somewhat Ass Pull of a relationship, they are clearly very happy together, though not actually married, despite the fact that Teyla runs off risking her life every day and a psychopath wants to kill their baby. Those things would usually tend to strain a relationship.
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.
By Klingon standards, Martok and his wife Sirella are also happily married. Martok's speach about this is probably the ONLY Klingon Moment of Heartwarming.
Martok: We are not accorded the luxury of choosing the women we fall in love with. Do you think Sirella is anything like the woman I thought that I'd marry? She is a prideful, arrogant, mercurial woman who shares my bed far too infrequently for my taste. And yet... I love her deeply. We Klingons often tout our prowess in battle, our desire for glory and honor above all else... but how hollow is the sound of victory without someone to share it with? Honor gives little comfort to a man alone in his home... and in his heart.
Well the mythical Klingon couple, Kahless and Lukara,that conquered heaven with their love in the wedding ceremony might be a CMOH as well as a CMOA.
Bill and Judy Miller from Still Standing. They're notoriously badparents, but they love each other and they genuinely love their kids and try to do right by them.
Subverted in parts. It turns out that although they did love each other, their relationship was pretty rocky (with John actually leaving Mary at one point when Dean was a child), but that after she died John pretty much retconned their marriage in the minds of everyone except Dean, who remembers it.
Dean: Their marriage wasn't perfect until after mum was dead.
Cordell Walker and Alex Cahill-Walker in the final season of Walker, Texas Ranger.
The Waltons is in love with this: Grandma Esther and Grandpa Zeb, John Sr. and Olivia, most of the kids eventually, Rev. Fordwick and Rosemary, Ike and Corabeth, Sheriff Bridges and Sara.
Of course, there was the time where he promised her he'd just be President for one term, and then decided to go for a second one without telling her first...and the time one of her old lies about his MS almost sunk the Congressional investigation into his nondisclosure...and the time she blamed his military decisions for getting their daughter kidnapped by terrorists...but all in all, they were very happy given the kind of hell being President and First Lady puts on a marriage.
Greg and Kim Warner & Jimmy and Christine Hughes on Yes Dear
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 we're talking about. Well, okay, there was the stuff with Circe, Calypso, and Kallidike... but he did go to the ends of Earth (and Hell, and back) to get back to Penelope. That counts for something.
And for her part, Penelope did all she could to hold off the obnoxious suitors and stay faithful to her husband.
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.
In the version I grew up with, she voluntarily walked through the flame after her rescue. She left Rama when he asked her to do it again later on to prove her virtue to his followers years later, and didn't know that she was pregnant until he went to find her years later and had to fight two badass little kids.
Orpheus and Eurydice... until she was dragged to Hades.
Thor and Sif. Odin and Frigga. Freyr and Gerðr, though getting her to fall for him does lead to his death. Balder and Nanna. The Norse really liked their gods to be happily married before they were killed by giants.
Osirus and Isis were surprisingly non-dysfunctional considering they were siblings. When the former was killed, the latter devoted much of her life to bringing him back.
Pygmalion and Galatea
Another Greek example: Hades and Persephone. Hades cheated on her once in the three thousand years they've been together (and that's only if you read one, lesser known myth), and the fact that he wanted to marry her (as in, keep her around) rather than have a one-night stand speaks volumes in Greek mythology.
Robin Hood and Maid Marian didn't get married in many of the original ballads (usually because she didn't exist yet), but many recent adaptations happily pair them off.
Hilariously, TyphonandEchidna of Greek myth. Two of the worst monsters to ever come out of Tartarus (who by the by is their father), the two of them are entirely faithful to one another and support each other in all of their endeavours. Typhon eventually becomes Sealed Evil in a Can, but Echidna never moves on, and all of her young (and there are a lot of them) are also Typhon's. By Greek standards that is wierdly functional.
Hector and Andromache in The Iliad in sharp contrast to pretty much everyone else. Priam's a philandering bastard, Helen and Menelaus/Helen and Paris are horribly dysfunctional, and we won't even get started on Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. But Hector and Andromache honestly seem to have been a good match.
Many newspaper-strip comics are more about the travails married people find than about their personal relationship. Dagwood & Blondie, Hi & Lois, Hagar and Helga, Baby Blues, 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.)
Their daughters end up happily married to the men of their choices. All three unions face varying external conflicts that try to tear them apart, but the love between the couples never wavers.
A few of the vignettes in I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change have these kind of couples, namely "Whatever Happened To Baby's Parents", "Sex and The Married Couple" and the untitled one featuring the song "Shouldn't I Be Less In Love With You?" It's indicated that the couple in "Wedding Vows" will be this since, despite some initial last minute panicking, they go through with the wedding because they sincerely love each other.
George's parents, Emily's parents, and Emily and George from Our Town
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.
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 were married with children in Mickey's Christmas Carol, where they played the Cratchits; they also appeared to be married 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, were, in fact, married; Allwine has since passed away.
Aribeth and Fenthick were on their way there before Fenthick's trusting nature got him executed at the end of the first chapter of the first campaign. He only existed to give Aribeth a reason to turn to the dark side, anyway.
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.
Atrus and Katran of Myst, in contrast with their epically screwed up family in general. And if those two had paid more attention to what their kids got up to, the Stranger could have avoided twenty years of troubleshooting.
Saavedro and Tamra count as well (that is, before Sirrus and Achenar arrive on Narayan...) Sadly, it's never clarified if she survived/stayed single in those twenty years when Saavedro was trapped.
Maxim and Selan embody this in Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals, doubling as a Battle Couple, even up to the point where Maxim dies nearly right after Selan, and only after making sure that Doom Island misses destroying thousands of people, including their son.
Sue's parents in Mitsumete Knight. Influenced by this, she seeks her ideal husband and wishes for this kind of relationship with him.
Cecil and Rosa of Final Fantasy IV, at least after the credits and in the sequel. The only primary couple in the main Final Fantasy series to date that has managed this, astonishingly. While some other pairs are implied to become this later, Zidane and Garnet of Final Fantasy IX most prominently, only Cecil and Rosa have officially tied the knot, which is what this trope is about. Yang and his wife also qualify.
Final Fantasy VI has a tragic example. Cyan and his wife Elaine were appearently this. Before her death.
Final Fantasy VIII has two examples, Cid and Edea and Laguna and Raine. Prior to her death as well.
John and Abigail Marston of Red Dead Redemption. Even though Abigail is held hostage for most of the game, John turns down the advances of many women, and does everything within his power to get his family back. And eventually he does.
Part of the Harvest Moon experience is the player character becoming Happily Married to the bachelor/ette of their choice. Supposed to be a small part of the game, but Popularity Power means that it's grown in importance as the series continues. That aside, within the games themselves are several (dozen) NPC couples, the majority if not the entirety being Happily Married.
Subverted in Harvest Moon DS (Cute) where, when you talk to the rival couples after marriage, all but one couple seem to voice doubts about the marriage to the player.
Umineko is impressive by managing to have two very unexpected Happily Married couples; Eva and Hideyoshi, in a family full of internal squabbling and backbiting, manage to be good, loving spouses. She snaps as soon as he dies, showing that the marriage is really Eva's rock concerning her sanity. And secondly, and doubly impressive is Battler/Beato, counting as a bizarre combination of Happily Married and Unholy Matrimony; Battler is The Hero, and Beatrice is The Chessmaster. Everything suggests that they honestly enjoy challenging each other, though, and it might just be a pillar of their happy marriage.
King's Quest: Graham and Valanice seem to be doing pretty well for themselves, Alexander and Cassima also seem to be doing okay, Cassima's parents seem happy, and it's pretty much assumed that Edgar and Rosella will go here...eventually. In the Fan Remake of King's Quest II Caldaur and Lavidia, Count and Countess of Kolyma also are still quite in love.
Let's not forget Citan and Yui of Xenogears, who were a Battle Couple in their younger years.
Guilty Party has Butch and Charlotte. They may differ in age,height, and even ethnicity, but they're a Battle Couple and Butch is a hopeless romantic anyway. Interestingly, the game's other couple, Dorian and Olivia, is a toss-up between this and No Accounting For Taste—they clearly love each other despite the fact that they argue all the time, but, well, they're also one another's arch-nemeses. Dorian knew this, and still somehow doesn't care.
Khalid and Jaheira of Baldur's Gate. Sure, Jaheira is bossy around him but their marriage is a happy one. She also cries when Khalid dies. The player character can also be married with either Jaheira, Aerie and Anomen.
The world of Dragon Age seems significantly more accepting of extramarital affairs than a normal medieval setting, so the only romantic pairing in either game in which the player ends up getting married is with a female Human Noble Warden and Alistair in the first game. Aveline and Donnick end up Happily Married in Dragon Age 2 if Hawke helps out.
Other examples include Bryce and Eleanor Cousland, who stay together in their last moments, Fergus and Oriana Cousland until she and their son Orin are killed, Delilah Howe and her husband Albert, as revealed during Nathaniel's personal quest, Danyla and Athras but only continue to be so if you take one of the few scenarios where she doesn't die, Cyrion and Adaia Tabris, Aveline and Wesley Vallen until he dies from the taint, and Leandra and Malcolm Hawke.
We have Meryl and Johnny getting a happy wedding at the end of Metal Gear Solid 4.
Golden Sun is pretty good at stable families, even when wrecked by disasters. However, the grand prize of this trope goes to Briggs and Chaucha in The Lost Age, whose subplot pretty much consists of each one digging themself a deeper hole and getting bailed out by the other, with help from baby and grandma. The Badass Family that delves into crime together...
Even Briggs's death in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn can't ruin this trope— as he's dying, Briggs worries about Chaucha's well-being.
Catherine: In the game's "True Lovers" ending (one of several true endings), Vincent and Katherine get married. Orlando and his ex-wife even decide to give it another chance as well. Happy endings for everyone!
The King and Queen of All Cosmos from Katamari, as shown in We Love Katamari and Katamari Forever.
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; they are also based on real people, though those people are not a couple in real life.
Donovan and Miranda Deegan in Dominic Deegan who still get busy every once in a while.
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. At least until the later strips...
Fox's parents (and Rafi) have been happy together for decades. Fatima also seems to have found someone who suits her.
In Fans!, Rikk's parents are happily married. Later Rikk's marriage to Alysin proved to be rather tumultuous (Aly's tendency toward self-loathing led to her wanting to break it off with Rikk at one point). Currently Rikk and Aly (and Rumy) are a happily married couple triple.
Also, Tim and Julia are decidedly so. Will and Shanna had some bumps in the road, but they seem to be working it out.
A Magical Roommate is simply abundant with these, including those who got married before and during the plot. The only glaring exception is Lettie and Joralan... but really, where would the story be without their insane antics?
Erika and Matt of DAR: A Super Girly Top Secret Comic Diary, both in the webcomic and in real life. Erika herself says that her years with Matt have been the happiest time of her life. Made even more noteworthy by her originally being a 100% lesbian with a very dim opinion of "hetero-normativity" until she met Matt.
Broken Saints: 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.
DC Nation tends to run with this, despite being based on the DCU, with the Garricks and the Dibnys being the examples other heroes aspire to.
In a world where the Critic was never born, apparently The Nostalgia Chick would have been a sweet, well-adjusted, hugely successful director with a baby and a husband. (Even then, her bent towards Black Comedy couldn't help subverting this: in the outtakes her stay-at-home husband breaks down in tears after the Chick and Nella leave, then the baby starts crying and he yells at her to stop. This was presumably cut to show everyone being happier without the Critic.)
Hermes and LaBarbara from Futurama, as well as Leela's and Amy's parents.
Though in the DVD movie Bender's Big ScoreLaBarbara 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.
Fry's big brother apparently led a Happily Married life also, and his son, the first man on Mars, was buried wearing a wedding ring.
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's quite possible that Homer Simpson is the most faithful husband on network television. *
Especially odd considering beautiful single women keep throwing themselves at him, and he keeps turning them down flat. Not to mention at least one gay guy!
Shown quite well in The Simpsons Movie. When the family is fleeing the town, the only valuable thing Marge takes is the tape of her wedding dance with Homer. Later, the fact that Marge recorded over part of the tape was enough to wake Homer up to how selfish he was and go off to save his family.
Ned and Maude before the latter died.
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 "the greatest woman there ever was." 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 spitting 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.
To answer your question, it's a testament to his stupidity. When he came along on a vision quest John Redcorn had arranged for Joseph, he had a vision of a man wearing a large Native American headdress having sex with Nancy, and then one of Joseph being born wearing that same headdress. He interpreted this to mean that he was actually Native American. Also he thinks John Redcorn is gay.
Not to explain the joke, but the reason why Dale being so utterly trusting of Nancy is funny is that he's also the most intensively paranoid person imaginable about every other person on the planet, even his best friends and son.
Mr. Dr. (rocket scientist) and Mrs. Dr. (neurosurgeon) Possible on Kim Possible. Even better is that it's clearly a marriage of equals.
American Dad has Hayley and Jeff. The events of the 2010 Christmas episode indicate it may actually last.
By the end of season 6, this one has been averted and played straight in regards to status quo. Averted in that they're still married and have overcome a few marital issues, and played straight in that the show rarely brings up the fact that they are indeed married (on the infrequent occasions that Hayley and Jeff even appear at all). It's shown that Jeff has seemed to move in with the Smiths, and sleeps in Hayley's room, but most of the time he's nowhere to be seen.
Heck, even the Maddie program Vlad made admits that she's always loved the Jack program.
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.
Don't forget Jorgen Von Strangle and the Tooth Fairy.
Fox is actually far less evil than her husband, and often serves as his Morality Chain. In fact in one episode which suggests the two are using the Manhattan Clan and the Pack in a sort of chess game against each other, she's the one on the side of the good guys.
Zachary and Eliza Foxx on Adventures Of The Galaxy Rangers. Granted, it's mostly in the backstory, as she was captured in the pilot. Still, it's clear that Zachary is utterly devoted to her and their kids. Eliza was even Fighting From The Inside to warn, then later comfort, her grieving husband in "Psychocrypt."
Phil and Gertie Shortman from Hey Arnold! Their son, Miles - Arnold's father - is shown to be in the same kind of relationship with his wife, Stella, for the brief time they're shown.
All the parents on Rugrats(and subsequently All Grown Up!) are this. Chas and Kira (Chas' first marriage appears to have been this as well), Stu and Didi, Betty and Howard, and Charlotte and Drew.
Especially Chas and Kira. As seen in the episodes "Finsterella", "The Big Sneeze", "Bow Wow Wedding Vows", "Babies In Toyland", "Sweet Dreams", "Mutt's in a Name", and "Kimi Takes The Cake" just to name a few.
Linda and Lawrence on Phineas and Ferb are happily married and happily raising the children from their respective first marriages together.
The parents of Dave the Barbarian are shown to be in this type of relationship in their brief appearances between fighting evil
A famous person example: as shown in this picture, Rick Moranis and his wife Ann seem to be very happy together!, as they go for a walk in New York City with their then 3-year-old daughter.
The problem with living examples in Real Life is that it's typically too soon to say whether they're an example. But George Burns and Gracie Allen were confirmed this by the time they became famous, and were happily together many more years than anyone in show business. Compare Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, famously Happily Married for 20 years, until they divorced.
