Top 10 TV Meet Cutes

Top 10 TV Meet Cutes

Sometimes, meeting Mr. or Mrs. Right is as simple as having something go wrong. Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’ll be counting down the Top 10 TV Meet Cutes.

For this list, we’re looking at TV couples who meet in an adorable, funny, or offbeat way, and we’re only considering meetings that eventually develop into a relationship. It can be a textbook example of a meet cute or a reinterpretation of the popular trope. We’re also stipulating that the meeting has to happen on screen, rather than just being mentioned as a past encounter.

#10: Snow White & Prince Charming
“Once Upon a Time” (2011-)

This meeting is a little more... violent than your typical meet cute. Far from falling in love at first sight, Prince Charming and Snow White’s first encounter involves Snow ambushing Charming’s carriage and robbing him. When Charming manages to chase her down, and discovers that she is in fact a woman, she uses his moment of surprise to hit him with a rock. Charming is engaged to another woman at the time and it turns out that the pouch Snow stole contained the ring he was going to give his fiancée. At this point, a romantic relationship doesn’t seem the most plausible, but we’ve read the fairytales. SO, we know all about their inevitable happy ending.

#9: Buffy & Riley
“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” (1997-2003)

Riley isn’t exactly Buffy’s type - in that he’s actually not a vampire, unlike her other major love interests on the show. In a textbook meet cute during her first week at college, Buffy accidentally drops a pile of heavy textbooks on a cute guy’s head at the bookstore. Viewers got pretty excited about Buffy dating a “normal” guy. But it turns out that Riley wasn’t the simple and stoic student we thought he was– in fact, he’s a member of “the Initiative,” a government agency that tracks and captures demons. Riley ends up being far more complex than he initially seemed, which makes him that much more of a formidable romantic match for our favorite slayer.

#8: Jane & Michael
“Jane the Virgin” (2014-)

In this hilarious flashback scene, we get to see how Jane and Michael first met on Jane’s 21st birthday. Jane’s party gets out of hand, causing one of her neighbors to make a noise complaint to the police. When Michael arrives to tell them to tone it down, a tipsy Jane assumes her friends have gotten her a stripper as a surprise. Michael is ambushed by Jane’s friends, all the while protesting that he is in fact a real cop. Jane grabs what she thinks is his “fake” gun and shoots it skyward, realizing the misunderstanding when a very real bullet goes through her ceiling. Now that’s what we call explosive chemistry.

#7: Jack & Kate
“Lost” (2004-10)

You always hear that people find love in the most unlikely of places... but meeting that special someone on a mysterious desert island after surviving a plane crash seems really unlikely. That’s what makes the first interaction between Jack and Kate so memorable– they’re both reeling from the terrifying reality of their situation, but manage to find time for a quiet and intimate moment as a tentative Kate helps stitch up a wound for Jack. Nothing says romance like discussing spinal surgery and drapes. It may have taken them a little while to get together after this moment, but theirs ended up being one of the most significant relationships in the show’s run.

#6: Eric & Donna
“That '70s Show” (1998-2006)

As far as meet cutes go, this one is pretty darn… adorable. Flashing back almost a decade to when the Foreman's new neighbors moved in and came over to introduce themselves, we get to see the first meeting between future couple Eric and Donna. Their dynamic as little kids is pretty much exactly what you’d expect from these two, with Eric becoming instantly infatuated with the new girl-next-door, and eternal tomboy Donna putting him squarely in his place. This first encounter establishes what is essentially the relationship between these two central characters for the whole run of the show.

#5: Ted & Tracy
“How I Met Your Mother” (2005-14)
Robin and the overly smitten Ted may have kicked off the series with their meet cute, but one could argue that all nine seasons of “How I Met Your Mother” function as one giant meet cute for Ted and Tracy. The entire trajectory of the show builds towards this moment in the finale where they finally meet face to face. It’s not so much about the particular interaction since they’re just two people meeting at the train station, but rather the audience’s knowledge of the many times they crossed paths and just narrowly missed kicking off this “legendary” relationship. The series finale may have been divisive amongst fans, but at least we finally found out HOW Ted met the mother.

#4: Diane & Sam
“Cheers” (1982-93)

In the pilot episode of the classic sitcom “Cheers,” college student Diane happens upon a bar while on the way to the airport with her fiancé. By choosing to answer the bar’s phone when it rings, Diane unintentionally involves herself with bartender Sam Malone. His attempts to mime out excuses as she talks to his scorned former lover over the phone is the start of their quirky connection. When Diane realizes that her intended has abandoned her, she finds herself desperate and penniless. Thankfully, Sam offers her a job. It may have taken a whole season for these two to give in to their sexual tension, but their combative dynamic ended up being a cornerstone of the show’s success.

#3: Rory & Dean
“Gilmore Girls” (2000-07; 2016-)

If we’re to believe what happens on TV, at least 50 percent of teenage couples meet when one party drops their books and the other helps pick them up. We forgive “Gilmore Girls” for the cliché in the pilot episode of the show because Rory’s extreme awkwardness is what sets this moment apart. She clearly doesn’t have a lot of experience talking to cute guys, especially not ones who can understand her obscure pop culture quips. This meeting puts a snag in Rory’s plans to transfer to Chilton, since she now knows what Stars Hollow High has to offer. No stranger to the meet cute, Rory has a similar, slightly “meta” encounter with Logan later in the series.

#2: Elena & Damon
“The Vampire Diaries” (2009-)

In a season three flashback, “Delena shippers” got to see the first meeting between vampire Damon Salvatore and seemingly normal teen Elena Gilbert. It’s a regular night in Mystic Falls when Elena is walking alone in the dark and is approached by a mysterious stranger who mistakes her for someone named Katherine. It’s an awkward start… But Damon recognizes his mistake and manages to salvage the introductions. Turns out this Katherine person is Damon’s ex and the exact reason he’s come to town. Elena is unaware of the fact that she is the doppelganger of this long-dead vampire and therefore looks exactly like her. The two future lovers have an intense conversation about passionate love and the rest... is history.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

Marissa & Ryan
“The O.C.” (2003-07)

Barry & Patty
“The Flash” (2014-)

Mindy & Casey
“The Mindy Project” (2012-)

Liz & Drew
“30 Rock” (2006-13)

Rachel & Paolo
“Friends” (1994-2004)

#1: Carrie & Big
“Sex and the City” (1998-2004)

The ladies of “Sex and the City” are no strangers to meet cutes. Charlotte leaves one train wreck of a date, only to meet her “prince charming” in a near car wreck when she trips directly in front of his taxi. It’s a memorable way to kick off a relationship, but our narrator Carrie takes home the prize with a slightly more embarrassing blunder. She inadvertently upends the contents of her purse onto the sidewalk, including a supply of Trojans… only to discover that someone tall, dark, and handsome is there to help. It’s the start of a truly messy relationship, but in the end, she’s grateful to the guy who knocked into her that day for the accidental introduction.

Do you agree with our list? What do you think is the best TV meet cute? For more adorable top 10s published every day, be sure to subscribe to MsMojo.