Whether we find them on Craigslist, through a trusted reference, or from our own personal friendships, roommates–for better or worse–prove an important factor in our lives. And though their cleaning habits, excessive presence, or fondness for our groceries can cause conflict, sharing a home life together can come with many satisfying benefits as well. On TV, we have gotten to know pairings, triplings and even quadruplings sharing their living spaces together. Here are 10 of the most memorable TV roommates (and one you may have never known about) who showed us cohabitation can be a true art form.
Joey Tribbiani and Chandler Bing – “Friends”
Sometimes it’s hard to live with your best bud. But although they had their share of ups and downs, Joey and Chandler definitely made it work. While Joey struggled as an actor and Chandler struggled with his WENUS, collectively they kept the home fires burning. With not just a little help from “Baywatch.”
The ultimate 90’s sitcom (officially Seinfeld began in 1989) had the ultimate TV roommates. What will be a recurring theme of this list, Joey and Chandler could not have been more different. But through all their trials and Tribbianis -– home robberies, love triangles, and the ultimate deliberately opposite retaliation to hiding the others’ clothes -– their love for both one another and their cherished friendship always brought this fine bromance to a joyful resolution. (Photo credit: Warner Bros./Photofest)
Monica Geller and Rachel Green – “Friends”
Right across the hall from Joey and Chandler lived Monica and Rachel, another solid pair of TV roommates. The ladies lorded over the heart of the “Friends” universe, Apartment 20. Controversially superior to the boys’ Apartment 19, and one that would by all accounts cost a fortune in NYC rent – the balcony with the obstructed entrance could add hundreds and hundreds of dollars to its cost alone – here was where all the friendliest, funniest antics would take place each week.
Though the differences between them were not as stark as Joey and Chandler, Monica and Rachel’s personalities were definitely divergent. Rachel was a bit breezy and spontaneous, while Monica was an obsessive perfectionist with a shameless competitive streak. But all seemed fun and games in the ladies apartment, and though the home team players shifted a bit when Monica and Chandler fell in love and married, the frenzied “Friends” action that audiences adored for ten seasons never skipped a beat. (Photo credit: NBC/Photofest)
Ernie and Bert – “Sesame Street”
If you really want to know the ABC’s of roommate cohabitation, look no further than Ernie and Bert. Encouraging the others’ bottle cap collection and predilection for pigeons or relinquishing one’s own nose for the completion of a sculpture are all model lessons to be learned by current and future roommates of all stripes. Lessons with a capital L.
While Bert’s frequently furrowed eyebrow elicits throaty giggles from Ernie more times than you can count, opposite personalities finding harmony and mutual respect in the same household during both bad times and playtimes is what it’s really all about. Sure their sexuality has often been called into question, but if you’ve lived with the same guy in the same bedroom since the ’60s, that’s bound to happen. (Photo credit: PBS/Photofest)
Jack Tripper, Janet Wood, and Chrissy Snow – “Three’s Company”
Also not gay was Jack Tripper, but in order to keep residence with fellow heterosexuals Janet and Chrissy, he had to pretend to be to ever-present landlords Mr. Roper and then Mr. Furley. Way before its metamorphosis into Silicon Beach, Santa Monica was best known as the mailing address delivering the fantastic farce this scenario (and others) would create every week on “Three’s Company.”
For eight seasons hers and hers and his modest two bedroom/one bath became the epicenter of more hilarious misunderstandings than Kim Kardashian would find at any institution of higher learning. You could knock on their door, you could dance on their floor, and you could count on a steady dose of good, clean, sexually suggestive comedy from this trio of roomies (and its latter seasons’ iterations) with jokes and stumbles that flew in your face as furiously as a swinging kitchen door. (Photo credit: Photofest)
Mindy McConnell and Mork – “Mork and Mindy”
One might assume that living with a foreigner could create its own set of awkward situations. Living with a manic alien from an uncharted planet however, is a recipe for true chaos. Spun off from the ’70s coolest show “Happy Days,” “Mork and Mindy” may not have been the best sitcom to ever land on earth, but it introduced the world to the biggest, brightest talent, Robin Williams. And now, only after the death of this comic genius, we realize that the boundaries he broke from the confines of this small show were gigantic in terms of television’s trajectory.
Set in Colorado, Mindy takes Mork in as he sets his sights on learning all about this strange, new planet Earth. Will They or Won’t They flowed through the course of the series and finally they did, and married, and gave birth to Jonathan Winters. By that point audiences had mostly ejected themselves from viewership, but the impact of “Mork and Mindy” at that time in history was indisputable and its contribution to our popular culture still holds, with or without the aid of rainbow suspenders. (Photo credit: ABC/Photofest)
Oscar Madison and Felix Unger – “The Odd Couple”
The ultimate TV odd couple roommates were, well, “The Odd Couple.” First an acclaimed Broadway comedy and then acclaimed film adaptation in the ’60s, the concept was repurposed once more for the small screen to usher in the ’70s. Though heavyweights Walter Matthau, Art Carney and Jack Lemmon, who appeared in the stage or movie versions (or both!), left large shoes to fill, actors Jack Klugman and Tony Randall stepped up and made the TV versions of Oscar Madison and Felix Unger their undeniable own.
Usually the careless slob of a roommate who left discarded dirty dishes, dirty clothing, ashes, and stubbed cigars about the shared space would be the annoying one. But it is Tony Randall’s Felix in all his neurotic, immaculate, finicky glory who won that title decisively. Felix’s divorce and subsequent breakdown catapulted him right into Oscar’s hands, and for five seasons the slovenly sportswriter hilariously did all he could to keep them from wringing his unwanted roommate’s neck. (Photo credit: ABC/Photofest)
Charlie, Alan, and Jake Harper – “Two and a Half Men”
Divorce is also the impetus for this next unlikely roommate combination and brothers Charlie and Alan Harper both make a respectable modern day Oscar and Felix respectively. Add Alan’s young son Jake to the mayhemic mix and you’ve got “Two and a Half Men.”
Charlie’s hedonistic home is no place for a child, but that doesn’t keep suddenly single father Alan from raising his son in this den of iniquity. Though growing up in a beach house in Malibu dripping with women and booze would be any kid’s dream come true. But it is Charlie and Alan’s ongoing sibling rivalry that brings about most of the comedy in this raunchy sitcom where being too close for comfort with your family creates all sorts of trouble. Just like in real life. (Photo credit: CBS/Warner Bros./Photofest)
Larry David and Leon Black – “Curb Your Enthusiasm”
Divorce, aborted nuptials and interstellar travel are all circumstances that have brought some of our TV roommates together thus far. In the case of “Curb Your Enthusiasm’s” Larry David and Leon Black, it was a natural disaster. Hurricane Edna left the Black family homeless, and through the goodness of Larry’s wife Cheryl’s philanthropic heart, the couple took them all in. And although Leon lived in LA at the time and was technically not displaced by any storm he moved in too.
Leon came along when Larry needed him most. Cheryl would soon end the David’s marriage, pulling the rug right out from Larry and leaving him completely unprepared how to navigate life as a single man. But Leon had all the answers, which usually consisted of lots of expletives. It became Leon’s mission to put Larry back together as a man. And to never move out of Larry’s phat accommodations. With Larry’s wealth and access and Leon’s street sensibilities the pair become a true Hollywood fight-the-power couple. (Photo credit: Courtesy of HBO)
Vincent Chase, Eric Murphy, Johnny “Drama” Chase and Salvatore “Turtle” Assante – “Entourage”
Why keep LA roommates to a coupling when you can pull off a whole “Entourage”? Vincent, Drama, Eric and Turtle lived the Hollywood dream together in whatever mega-mansion they happened to be paying astronomical rent for that particular season. Theirs was a high life of fast cars, fast women, and lots of marijuana. A charmed life that made the rest of us working stiffs seriously consider becoming an actor, or at least driving one around.
Sure, complex problems came the boys’ way but they always seemed to effectively wiggle out of all of them without a scratch. Kind of like the long unexpected journey in “The Hobbit” over and under the Hollywood Hills. (Photo credit: HBO/Photofest)
Leonard Hofstadter and Sheldon Cooper – “The Big Bang Theory”
Pasadena is not exactly Los Angeles, but they’ve got roommates too. Smart ones, it would seem, if “The Big Bang Theory” is any guide. Put a pair of scientists together in a living situation like Leonard and Sheldon and you’ve got two superior elements of stress and a quantum amount of inertia.
Leonard and Sheldon bicker and argue like an old married couple, if that old married couple were both PhDs, awkward around women, and enamored by comic books and Dungeons and Dragons. But like all of the roommates on our list, their friendship can withstand whatever forces come their way with a sturdy bond that would make any atom proud. (Photo credit: CBS/Photofest)
BONUS: Matthew Wiggins and Nick Chase – “Roomies”
There was actually a ’80s sitcom called “Roomies,” though looking at its eight episode lifespan, apparently not many people watched it. Though the idea of a young Corey Haim as the nerdy one and Burt Young as the older ex-drill sergeant finally giving college a shot is definitely an interesting premise. But premise alone wasn’t enough to carry this summertime series into the fall semester. Although television audiences were spared a visit from Corey Feldman, Haim’s evil twin, the dramatic duo would team up for their first unholy alliance during the same year in “The Lost Boys.” (Photo credit: YouTube)
