Valentine's Day Episodes

Jewelry, Roses and Chocolates. Valentine's Day (technically Saint Valentine's Day) is a big deal, and boy do writers know it! The holiday on February 14 has been used a million times in all sorts of media to bring up love and romance. White Day is a similar holiday observed in Japan and South Korea on March 14. In some countries, it's normal to give Valentine's Day cards or gifts to friends, whereas in other countries you'd only give a Valentine's Day present to someone you are romantically interested in, leading to a bit of Values Dissonance for certain audiences.

In fiction, characters face romantic challenges or break new ground on episodes that revolve around valentine's day. A Valentine's Day Episode plot typically centers around hooking up, or with struggling to find the right gift, or with someone (usually the man, usually on some kind of comedy) forgetting about the holiday and struggling to find a suitable gift. There are any number of Love Tropes, comedic love tropes and Sex Tropes that are common to Valentine-centric plots. Can be fertile ground for Shipping Tropes. And likely to be a pivotal part of a Romance Arc.

While many Valentine's Day Episodes will usually air just before or on Valentine's Day, this is not always the case. To be consider a Valentine's Day Episode a work needs to both explicitly mention Valentine's Day and have a plot focused on love, romance, and relationship, when that hasn't been the sole focus previously.

See Halloween Episode and Christmas Episode

Comics

 * Calvin and Hobbes had a series of comics about Valentine's Day every year during its run. These tend to focus on Calvin's and Susie's nascent crush.
 * Peanuts often used Charlie Brown's not getting valentine cards as a theme.
 * The Hack Slash and Bomb Queen crossover was supposed to be this, though apparently due to delays causing it to be released after February the holiday aspect was dropped.
 * Marvel once produced a number of I (Heart) Marvel one-shots; the Spider-Man themed one, "Web of Love", was all about Spidey trying to think of a good Valentine's Day present for his wife, Mary Jane. In the end he had Tony Stark make a pair of web-shooting bracelets for her.
 * The Books of Magic had a Valentine's Day story called "This Is Not About Chocolate", in which Eros/Cupid attempted to strike back against his modern image as a cherub in a nappy (and by analogy, the comercialisation of romance in general).

Fan Fic

 * Script Fic Calvin and Hobbes: The Series has "Insanity is In The Air", which gave some Character Development to Andy.

Literature

 * Older Than Print: The first known connection between romance and Valentine's Day was made by Geoffrey Chaucer.
 * Harry Potter has had two:
 * In Chamber of Secrets, Lockhart sets up an ill-conceived Valentine's celebration which annoys everyone but himself. Ginny sends Harry a singing valentine using Lockhart's "card-carrying cupids", but it backfires badly.
 * In Order of the Phoenix, Harry takes Cho Chang to a date on Valentine's day. This also doesn't go so well.
 * The Savannah Reid mystery Sugar and Spite. Savannah laments somewhat over the fact that her only Valentine's Day plan is to assist her cop buddy Dirk with a stakeout. When Dirk's ex-wife shows up and is murdered with his gun, Savannah spends the days leading up to the holiday working to clear his name and find the real killer, comforting Dirk along the way and realizing, not for the first time, that her feelings for him might be a little more complicated than just friendship. At the end he thanks her for her support by splitting a heart-shaped box of chocolates with her.

Live Action TV

 * ALF
 * Arrested Development: 'Marta Complex' has a Love Triangle between the titular Marta and brothers G.O.B. and Michael.
 * Beverly Hills, 90210 a bunch.
 * The Big Bang Theory: "The Large Hadron Collision" has Leonard going to CERN and seeing the LHC. He has a plus one and since it will be Valentine's Day would like Penny to accompany him. Sheldon has other ideas.
 * The Bold And The Beautiful
 * Bones
 * Boy Meets World
 * Brothers and Sisters
 * Buffy the Vampire Slayer: "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered". Xander concocts a Love Potion to use on Cordelia so he can dump her in the most spectacular fashion possible, but it backfires. Angelus intends to use the holiday and his history with Buffy to inflict a good dose of Mind Rape on her, but Xander's problems ruin his plans.
 * Charmed: "Animal Pragmatism" from season 2, in which Phoebe accidentally enables a bunch of her college buddies to cast a spell that turns animals into hunky (but slightly evil) guys.
 * Cheers
 * Community the first season has 'Communication Studies' and second season has 'Early 21 century Romanticism'.
 * Coronation Street
 * Cougar Town
 * Criminal Minds: "Closing Time". The Bartender who hears everybody's sob stories decides to put the storytellers out of their misery, while Hotch's relationship with his triathlon training partner grows.
 * Days of Our Lives, a bunch.
 * Dawson's Creek
 * Desperate Housewives
 * Dharma and Greg
 * The Drew Carey Show
 * Eastenders
 * 8 Simple Rules, at least two episodes.
 * ER
 * Everybody Hates Chris
 * Family Matters
 * Forever Knight
 * Frasier at least two episodes.
 * Full House at least two episodes.
 * Glee: "Silly Love Songs" and "Heart"
 * Grey's Anatomy, the February Day episode reminded two of the doctors that they were single and they proceeded to make out in the closet.
 * Guiding Light at least two episodes.
 * Happy Days, the musical montage episode "Be My Valentine."
 * Home Improvement
 * How I Met Your Mother at least two episodes.
 * House
 * Friends at least two episodes.
 * The King of Queens at least two episodes.
 * Las Vegas
 * Mad Men
 * Make It or Break It
 * Married... with Children
 * Melrose Place
 * The Middle Two episodes as of the third season.
 * Modern Family: "My Funky Valentine" in the first season and "Bixby's Back" in the second season.
 * Mike and Molly
 * The Nanny at least two episodes.
 * Neighbours
 * Nip Tuck
 * The OC
 * The Office: "Valentine's Day" in the second season and PDA in the seventh season.
 * Outsourced (TV series)
 * Parks and Recreation
 * The Pretender had a Valentine's Day episode in its second season. It was Jarod's first experience of the Day, due to his deprived childhood.
 * Sabrina the Teenage Witch
 * Saturday Night Live at least twice.
 * 7th Heaven, at least two episodes.
 * Smallville: In the episode "Persuasion", Clark is exposed to wish fulfilling gem-kryptonite on Valentine's Day and wishes for a more traditional relationship with Lois.
 * Step by Step
 * Supernatural: "My Bloody Valentine" from season 5.
 * That 70s Show
 * 3rd Rock from the Sun
 * Thirty Rock "Double-Edged Sword" in the fifth season had Liz boycotting Valentine's Day, choosing to celebrate the birthday of sufragist Anna Howard Shaw instead, and scheduling a root canal for that very day. Naturally, things don't go according to plan.
 * Veronica Mars
 * Whos the Boss
 * Will and Grace

Web Animation

 * Teen Girl Squad. "Issue 12" involves the girls trying to find dates for the big day. What's Her Face finds true love with the Wireless Wizard, the other three girls die. The episode is "drawn" in red pen for the occasion.

Web Comics

 * Xkcd: Is fond of mixing love and science for Valentine's Day comics. #63, #223, #543, #701.
 * SMBC: Had this couple strengthen their relationship on Valentine's Day.
 * Electric Wonderland: "Valentine's Day Massacre" has the three main females argue over a guy and make fools of themselves in the process. The comic itself never refers to Valentine's Day by name.

Western Animation

 * The Cleveland Show
 * Blue's Clues: Featured in an episode, though in a similar fashion to You Mean "Xmas", they refer to the holiday as "Love Day".
 * Futurama
 * 'Put Your Head on My Shoulder' focuses on a Fry/Amy relationship. Just as Fry decides to break up, they get in an accident and Zoidberg has to graft Fry's head onto Amy's shoulder to keep him alive.
 * In 'Love and Rockets', Planet Express gets a lucrative job transporting candy hearts, while Bender starts dating the Planet Express Ship's computer, then chooses the worst possible time to break up with her. The whole thing plays out as a very strange parody of 2001: A Space Odyssey. The episode also features some Ship Teasing for the Will They or Won't They? relationship between Fry and Leela.
 * Johnny Bravo had a Valentine's Day special, where it's revealed that Johnny was born on February 14. It had him finally meet a woman who likes him, only she turns out to be a secret agent.
 * Peanuts had a few Valentine TV Special, including "Be my Valentine, Charlie Brown" and "A Charlie Brown Valentine".
 * In The Simpsons:
 * After the actual death of Ned Flanders' wife, Ned at a Valentine's Day dance became conscious of the fact, thanks to Homer speaking out loud about the fact its a day for couples.
 * Another Simpsons example, Homer and a bunch of other married men got mad at Apu for making them look bad one Valentine's Day by his over-the-top romancing of Manjua - getting Elton John to sing for her, etc.
 * "I Love Lisa" focuses on a crush Ralph Wiggum has on Lisa.
 * The Spectacular Spider-Man: Gangland in season two has a huge group date...and a mobster summit where Hammerhead betrays Tombstone/The Big Man, and a three-way fight between Tombstone, Silvermane, and Doc Ock breaks out.
 * SpongeBob SquarePants had a story where he schemed to get the best Valentines Day present ever for Patrick. Things go wrong, Hilarity Ensues.
 * The House of Mouse episode "Goofy's Valentine Date."
 * Recess had "That Stinking Feeling" and "My Funny Valentines" paired together for airing. "That Stinking Feeling" was about Spinelli's crush on a boy, while "My Funny Valentines" (which is the more official Valentines episode) was about T.J. making joke Valentine cards for the girls of the school, but with them thinking that he had crushes on him. Ship Tease ensued between T.J. and Spinelli (again). Oddly enough, the episode didn't air anywhere near the Holliday (though the show is usually in it's off-season in February)
 * Doug's 1st Movie was set around Valentine's Day, centering around a Valentine's Dance.
 * While Ka Blam! doesn't have an official Valentine's Day episode, "A Nut In Every Bite!" (where Henry falls in love with Dawn, the network executive's granddaughter) was usually re-ran in February.
 * Rugrats had a Valentine's Day two-parter.
 * The My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic episode 'Hearts And Hooves Day', in which the Cutie Mark Crusaders try to get Cherilee and Big Mac together using a love potion. It doesn't go as well as they'd hoped.
 * 101 Dalmatians: The Series had "Valentine's Daze", showing Cruella's dislike for the holliday as she has no one to be her Valentine.