NOT IN THE SCRIPT Launch Party and Favorite TV Couples

Today is Amy Finnegan’s Book Birthday! Her novel, NOT IN THE SCRIPT, is now available everywhere! We will be celebrating all week at EMU’s Debuts and we are delighted that you are here celebrating with us 🙂

I’ve read Amy’s book and I loved it! One reason I loved it is because I found Emma Taylor and Jake Elliott realistic and appealing as a couple. And isn’t “realistic and appealing” what makes a couple special? Especially a TV couple that we’re going to watch week after week! Isn’t “realistic and appealing” what keeps us watching? What TV couples keep or kept you watching a series? That is the question for the EMUs today. And that is the question for you!

After you read about the couples that keep/kept EMUs watching, we would like for you to join us by voting in a poll. There are way too many “favorite” couples to list so I’m keeping the poll limited to the ones that the EMUs chose. If none of them suit your fancy, mention a couple when you comment. And don’t forget to comment because if you comment on any post this week, you will have a chance to win a copy of NOT IN THE SCRIPT along with some awesome swag!

EMUs Favorite TV Couples

Lindsey Lane

I gotta go with Bones & Booth…aka Dr. Temperance Brennan and Seeley Booth of BONES. I love the Sherlockian, literal mind of Brennan in contrast to the instinctual and emotional Booth. I love that they are playing against gender and the angsty period of ‘should we be a couple?’ didn’t go on and on. Speaking of Sherlock, I love the new BBC version with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. But that’s not really television, is it?

Megan Morrison

I adore Leslie Knope and Ben Wyatt from Parks and Recreation. I love that they really love each other – they’re into each other, they’re geeks together, they laugh at each other’s jokes, and they admire each other.  Each of them has put the other ahead of their own career, too.  But my favorite thing about their relationship is that it’s never cynical. Their love is never threatened by the usual plot twists that threaten TV relationships. Leslie and Ben are just too solid for that kind of drama.

Rebecca VanSlyke

1) Penny and Leonard from “The Big Bang Theory.” A great case for opposites not only attracting but strengthening each other. I like to think that my husband and I do this for each other. Usually. When we’re not baffled by how the other one thinks.
2) Paul and Jaime Buchman from “Mad About You.” I swear NBC owes us some BIG money for bugging our apartment early in our marriage. We had some of the same conversations, disagreements, and situations that they did. They were two very different personalities, but they stuck together because they were, you know, mad about each other.
3) Cliff and Clair Huxtable from “The Cosby Show.” They were hilariously funny, but not at the expense of the other person. They had a great sense of humor, but they always treated each other and their kids with respect.

Tara Dairman

Favorite TV couples…oh, this is a tough one. I’m tempted to go with Ross & Rachel from “Friends”–THE couple of my teenage TV-watching years–or Starbuck and Apollo from “Battlestar Galactica,” who had pretty much the best tension (though maybe the least functional relationship!) in all of space and time. But if I just have to choose one, I think I have to pick Cam and Mitchell from “Modern Family.” They provide plenty of hilarity, shrieking, and hysterics…but also know how to pull together when they need to for the good of their family. And for me, comedy + closeness seems like the perfect formula for a great TV couple.

Christine Hayes

I loved rooting for Jim and Pam from The Office to get together. They were both just so nice! Pam gained confidence with every season and really figured out who she was and what she wanted out of life. Jim had such a good heart and a wicked sense of humor–he reminded me of my own sweetie in many ways. I felt every twist and turn in their relationship keenly, because they felt like real people to me.

Mylisa Larsen

My favorite TV couple is actually a movie couple—Carl and Ellie from Pixar’s Up. It’s a great opposites attract kind of romance where the whole is so much greater than either of the parts would have been alone. Plus, I have a deep affection for couples who figure out how to make love work in the long game. The story of that romance only takes up five or ten minutes of that movie but the rest of the movie would be nothing without it.

Laurie Ann Thompson

I was going to go with Castle and Beckett on CASTLE, but I’m sure someone has already beaten me to that punch. I mean, we’re writers. We gotta love CASTLE, right? (No one beat you, Laurie, so you get Castle and Beckett along with Chuck and Sarah!) So, another one of my all-time favorite TV couples has to be Chuck Bartowski and Sarah Walker on the long-running series CHUCK. I love how fundamentally different they were and how that made them perfect for each other. And, of course, there’s a chance that I may just be partial to geeky yet good-hearted guys. 😉

Donna Bowman Brattan

It’s about to be very obvious that I don’t watch much television and I am woefully ill-prepared to conjure pop-culture characters. Maybe because, in my house, the cat and I are the only females. And Mittens limits her screen time to cat videos on YouTube. I do catch Big Bang Theory sometimes and I kinda giggle at the pairing of Sheldon and Amy because they are both socially awkward in hilarious ways. But my first thought about TV couples was a blast to my childhood. I loved watching The Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman. Mostly, they were separate shows, of course, but I remember looking forward to any episodes when they crossed into each other’s television world. Steve What’s-his-name (aka Lee Majors) was a major hunk who could bend cities in half while he eyeballed straight through Mt. Everest. And Jamie What’s-her-name (Lindsey Wagner) was beautiful, strong, sweet, and she could hear a seahorse burp on the moon. Or so it seemed. Imagine the genetic lottery their children would inherit! Oh, oh, what if the children of the bionic couple (let’s pretend their bionicness was genetic) married Sheldon and Amy and had their own TV show. Ha! Now THAT would be a show I’d watch.

Jennifer Chambliss Bertman

Three couples immediately come to mind:

1) Luke and Lorelai from “Gilmore Girls.” I mean, he built her an ice skating rink, for Pete’s sake!!

2) Cliff and Claire Huxtable from “The Cosby Show”. The affection they showed each other felt so genuine, and they made each other laugh even when they were exasperated with one another. Maybe especially when they were exasperated with one another.

3) Coach and Tami Taylor from “Friday Night Lights.” The Taylors had such respect for each other, through all their ups and downs. Both were good people, and they worked so well together as a team.

Penny Parker Klostermann

I know Chris already picked them, but I didn’t know that when I chose them. So, I’m going with Jim and Pam from “The Office”, too. (Chris, we should hang out and watch TV!)  The reason they’re my favorite couple is that it was so sweet that Jim hung in there even though Pam was engaged to another guy And we all knew Jim and Pam belonged together way before they got together. Also, I loved the office-romance aspect and how they handled it. For me, they added a bit of “normal” in the most dysfunctional office EVER! They did it with a sense of humor and, to me, that’s a necessary element for “couple success” on or off the screen.Thanks for hanging around. And just for fun, vote for your favorite couple!

Comment for a chance to win this super swagalicious giveaway.
Comment on any of the posts this week (Oct. 6-10). 

Of course, you can order hardcovers, paperbacks, and ebooks from:

• The King’s English (signed copies)
• Barnes & Noble
• Books-a-Million
• Amazon.com
• Indiebound (find a local independent bookstore near you!)

And don’t forget to add it to Goodreads here!