Everybody Is Single: Difference between revisions
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In reality, though, the writers just want as many people to have as many potential love/lust interests as possible.
This is common in [[Sitcom|Sit Coms]] such as ''[[Friends]]'', but is more jarring and noticeable in dramas such as ''[[ER]]'' and ''[[CSI]]''.
Actors portraying these perpetually single characters are often married themselves, showing how odd the trope is for people of their age.
Compare [[All Love Is Unrequited]].
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==▼
* Any show with military underpinnings usually does this as well, since it would be "improper" to actually have a relationship within the ranks. ''[[Star Trek]]'' in particular usually plays fast and hard with this trope (and when two officers ''do'' get married, they always seem to be the same rank at least).▼
** Not actually considered much of an issue in the British Army, provided those involved are not in the same chain of command, i.e. no boinking the boss.▼
** The US military rules about "fraternization" are thus: 1) The two parties cannot be in the same chain of command. 2) You cannot cross the officer/enlisted divide. 3) You'd both better be either married to each other, or not married to anybody.▼
*** Note that #2 can have exceptions, as long as numbers 1 & 3 are followed. See [http://usmilitary.about.com/od/airforce/a/fraternization_4.htm #3, bold item 2, here].▼
▲== [[Anime]] ==
* Played largely straight in the original ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]'', which isn't surprising, since most of the main cast are junior officers still in their late teens. Averted in ''[[Zeta Gundam]]'', with two couples from the original who had gotten married in the intervening years. Most Gundam shows play it straight, though.
* Narrowly averted in ''[[Patlabor]]'', as shinshi often mentions having a wife at home. The rest of the main cast are single, but considering their personalities, that's hardly surprising.
* In fact, most [[Humongous Mecha]] shows usually play this straight with the pilots
* Double subverted in ''[[Fresh Pretty Cure]]!''. It seemed that, finally, in the sixth season of the [[
* [[Fullmetal Alchemist]]: the only married couples are Maes and Gracia Hughes, [[Battle Couple|Izumi and Sig Curtis]] and King Bradley and his wife, {{spoiler|and the first is broken up by Maes' murder in the fourth volume}}. Especially notable given that the series is populated with [[Good
* Funny thing about ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'', despite the fact that a decent part of the cast are parents, the only characters who are currently married are Chrono and Amy. Other parents either adopted their kids while single or lost their mate before the series began.
* Averted in ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]'' - everyone in the Ushiromiya family, with Battler and possibly Rosa as an exception is either married or in relationship. {{spoiler|Though Kanon usually admits his love for Jessica just before his death...}}
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== [[Comic Books]] ==
* Any superhero comic book character. Expect any long-term relationship with other superheroes to fall victim to [[No Going Steady]] and for non-superpowered spouses to end up [[Stuffed Into the Fridge]].
** Notably averted by ''Spiderman''. He managed to hang onto Mary Jane for decades. At least until the relationship was [[Retcon|RetConned]] out of existence in the [[One More Day]] storyline. That, and Lois and Clark.
** Averted in the DCU by the [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] Flash, Jay Garrick and his wife Joan.
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** Invincible and Atom Eve are a good example or an aversion.
** Averted by Reed and Sue Richards, aka Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman in ''[[Fantastic Four]]''.
* Most of the faculty in Archie comics, with the exception of Coach Clayton. And he's possibly the only subversion because his kid attends the school and is friends with Archie.
* Seems to have creeped up on [[The DCU]] with ''The New 52''. [[The Flash|Barry Allen]] is no longer in any kind of relationship with Iris West (effectively wiping out Wally West in the process), [[Superman]] is no longer married to or interested in Lois Lane...
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* Though this happens in a lot of sports movies, it's extra-noticeable in ''The Game Plan'' starring Dwayne Johnson. Not only is almost the entire team of professional sports stars unmarried and single, all but one (besides Johnson's character) aren't parents either, and are merciless with their teasing about his new status. In real life, of course, a '''lot''' of professional sports stars are married and/or parents.
* Averted explicitly in at least one instance in the baseball film ''[[Bull Durham]]'': when Millie, the younger baseball groupie (and protege to Annie Savoy (Susan Sarandon)) is working her way down the bench introducing herself to various Durham Bulls players, she flirts with one:
{{quote|
'''Player:''' [''brusquely''] Hi. I'm married. }}
** Possibly averted again, when {{spoiler|Millie marries Jimmy, another player on the team, in an on-field ceremony towards the end of the season}}.
== [[Literature]] ==
* In the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' [[Virgin New Adventures|New Adventures]] novels, the decision to give ex-companion [[Bernice Summerfield]] her own spin-off
* Exception: Jasper Fforde married off the character of [[Thursday Next]] in her first book, specifically to avoid romantic subplots in the rest of the series, and get on with the main story.
* Subverted in ''The Moon is a Harsh Mistress'', in which the protagonist is married... but still eligible for a love interest subplot, as it's a group marriage. (In fact, two spouses, one of each sex, get added to the marriage over the course of the book. The new wife is the protagonist's new love interest (and all the other spouses grow to love her too), the new husband is a friend protagonist and love interest acquire during the plot, who thoroughly charms all the other spouses.)
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* The ''[[Honor Harrington]]'' series has this in the earlier stories as a common issue. While there are many couples, the main character is very single with romance subplots. [[Loads and Loads of Characters]] with the Author taking 12 books to start cleaning up loose ends.
* All 7 Friends of Narnia in ''[[The Last Battle]]'' are single. None of them married either in Narnia or England.
* Subverted and played straight in
== [[Live
▲* Any show with military underpinnings usually does this as well, since it would be "improper" to actually have a relationship within the ranks. ''[[Star Trek]]'' in particular usually plays fast and hard with this trope (and when two officers ''do'' get married, they always seem to be the same rank at least).
* Averted ''and'' played straight in ''[[Women's Murder Club]]''; one of the main characters is a single workaholic whose obsession with her job destroyed her marriage, but another is happily married with kids and a third is in a long-term relationship (although she's a commitment-phobic with a tendency to stray).
* On ''[[24
** In season 8, this was averted by Cole and Dana {{spoiler|until, as you might expect, Dana turned out to be [[The Mole]].}}
* At the beginning of the ''[[Battlestar Galactica
* The only married character of ''[[Criminal Minds]]'' divorced in the third season--but everyone's favorite tech kitten is dating ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'''s Xander, and it looks like certain other characters might start getting some... Also, JJ has been living with and dating Will since season three. They even have a son together!
* ''[[Grey's
** The Chief and Bailey were both stressfully married, McDreamy had just split with Redheaded Doctor after banging McSteamy, so the grown-ups weren't even coping. In fact given the state of Izzie-Alex, George-Callie and Yang-Burke GA is not really an advert for the medical profession.
** In later seasons we get more stable relationships. Meredith and Darek are happily married and Owen and Christina are giving marriage a fair shot. Alex and Izzie got married but that ended badly when Izzie was written out. Even Mark seems to be looking for a stable relationship. Arizona has proposed to Callie even with the entire Callie-carrying-Mark's-baby debacle.
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** Taub, Cameron, Chase, Foreman and Thirteen are all doctors and none of them are single. This only leaves Cuddy, House and Wilson single in the primary cast. Kutner doesn't count.
** And then everyone breaks up except for Taub and his wife (until they divorce later in the series). On the other hand, Cuddy gets a boyfriend breaks up with him. Then she dates House for a while and then broke up with him.
* Going strong so far{{when}} on ''[[The Mentalist]]''. Viewers know little of Lisbon and Cho's personal lives (except Cho's seems to consist largely of working steadily through very thick books), with the impression they're too consumed with their work to bother. Rigsby loves van Pelt, but van Pelt runs like a frightened rabbit from the idea because as the junior member of the team, she'd get transferred out if she started dating a coworker (and she doesn't come off as that into Rigsby anyway). Jane, meanwhile, lost his wife and daughter to a pissed off serial killer he was helping to hunt, and still hasn't recovered emotionally.
** Cho was revealed to have a girlfriend and {{spoiler|Rigsby and Van Pelt finally give in, not without fear}}. The impression of consumption with work, however, remains strong, and social lives outside of work seem virtually nonexistent.
* None of the main cast of ''[[NCIS]]'' are married, and Gibbs, who has had three divorces, is rather cynical on the subject of marriage.
** This could be a [[Double Subversion]]. McGee and Abby dated at one point, and Tony's [[Urban Legend Love Life|supposedly a ladies' man]], but never gets serious with anyone. And then it gets averted outright with [[Happily Married|Vance]].
* All versions are represented in ''[[New Tricks]]''; the boss is a single workaholic, one of the detectives is a multiple-divorcee and another is a widower. Ironically, however, the most psychologically-screwed up of them all is also the only one who is happily married, and has been for a good long time.
* Everyone in the mayor's office in ''[[Spin City]]'' is single, except for the mayor himself, and he gets divorced during the series. Paul does attain a happy marriage at one point, but his wife later leaves him to become a nun.
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** Santos is also notoriously happily married with his wife often delaying him for a hook-up.
** This is true of all of Sorkin's movies and TV shows; he just can't write couples very well.
* The central characters in ''[[Las Vegas]]'', except for Ed Deline, mostly stay out of serious relationships. Samantha is [[Allergic to Love]] (although we later learn that she was married), Mary wants to settle down but can't make it last, Mike and Danny date multiple girls, and Delinda flits from man to man until she and Danny get together near the end. In season 5, new owner A.J. Cooper had a wife that he never talks about.
* This was the premise of ''[[Sex and the City]]'' for the first several seasons. Near the end, though, they all wind up either married (Miranda
* All of the main cast of ''[[Cold Case]]'' are single, widowed, or divorced.
* As mentioned in the summary, ''[[CSI]]'' is this to a ridiculous extent. Subverted with Grissom and Sara, who are married, but since neither one is a regular character anymore, we're right back where we started. (There have been rumblings about Wendy/Hodges and Catherine/Vartann, but neither are canon as of yet.)
** {{spoiler|Catherine/Vartann is canon, and Wendy/Hodges is... sorta canon. She kissed him, but it was never really said if they're in a relationship. Maybe we'll find out in the premiere, right around the same time that we never see Wendy again because they fired Liz Vassey...}}
** Warrick got married which surprised all the other characters since they did not even know that he was seeing anyone. The marriage is rarely mentioned on the show with the implication that Warrick is trying very hard to keep his professional life separate from his private one. When he gets divorced it comes equally out of the blue and then {{spoiler|he is killed}}. The audience does not really get to see the wife.
* Subverted in the first episode of the British sitcom ''[[The IT
* Only Gwen in ''[[Torchwood]]'' has a partner, Rhys. Captain Jack encourages her to stay with him and not let her work consume her... it doesn't go well. {{spoiler|On the other hand, they're still together at the end of series 4, so...}}
** Although Ianto and Jack later officially became a couple, so it's was subverted in series 3 when all of the Torchwood team were in a relationship at the same time.
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** The show's USAF technical advisers put the kibosh on a proposed Sam-Jack relationship that the writers had been planning.
** there is the Daniel/Vala pairing, and it sorta did happen, but then didn't since there was time travel
** Carter and Pete Shanahan as well as Lantoosh the Tok'ra
* Almost averted in ''[[The X-Files]]'', Scully was originally supposed to have a boyfriend named Ethan. A scene with him in the pilot was filmed but cut when the idea was scrapped before the show premiered. Mulder and Scully instead remained single until finally hooking up with each other sometime in the later seasons. Skinner is shown to be married but we only find out about this in the episode where he gets divorced.
* Initially true in ''[[Bones]]'', but notably averted by the eventual marriage of the on-again/off-again {{spoiler|Hodgins and Angela}}.
** Though they all date throughout the show.
* When ''[[Parks and Recreation]]'' started, Tom was the only character who was married. He later got a divorce (in an episode titled "Tom's Divorce", no less).
* ''[[30
== [[Professional Wrestling]] ==
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** Manfred seems to subvert this even further, in that he mentions having a granddaughter. Neither Edgeworth or Franziska are ever mentioned to have children, and it's very unlikely so he's probably got another (perfect) kid.
** Ship teasing is probably the main reason here. There's pretty strong hints for Phoenix wanting to be with multiple different characters.
== [[Real Life]] ==
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Gender and Sexuality Tropes]]
[[Category:Everybody Is Single]]
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