Did these really seem romantic at the time? If a famous guest star who's the same age as the leads pops up on a TV show, fans are always wondering if they'll be a love interest. However, if the guest star is too old or too young for the leads, fans are really, really hoping it doesn't go there. They didn't usually last, but these age gap romances on TV shows made audiences totally cringe. While this may have been the intended reaction in a few cases, it's clear that the show-runners thought a lot of these were perfectly normal. Let's take a look at a few of the most uncomfortable age gap relationships on TV.
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00:00We can't always control who we fall in love with, and age isn't always a factor when it
00:04comes to picking a partner.
00:06Even scientists agree that the idea of the perfect age difference in a couple varies
00:10by culture and changes over time.
00:12But there are some age-gap relationships that we see on our favorite TV shows that kind
00:16of take it one step too far.
00:18Here are the most cringeworthy — and sometimes even criminal — small-screen character couples
00:23yet.
00:24Monica and Richard from Friends
00:27Relationship ups and downs were always a central theme to Friends, and the second season saw
00:31Monica hooking up with a much older man.
00:33Sure, it's Tom Selleck, but their age difference was an elephant in the room from their first
00:37date.
00:38When he starts showing her pictures of his grandchildren and comments that he's a whole
00:42person who can drink older than her, they debate just whether or not it was nuts.
00:46Behind the scenes, the Richard and Monica relationship wasn't meant to last as long
00:50as it did.
00:51Executive producer Scott Silveri told Vulture, with Courteney Cox and Tom Selleck,
00:56"...if I'm not mistaken, there was no sense that this was going to become a relationship
00:59with a capital R. They went into that, and it was going to be one episode, two tops.
01:04And then they had such good chemistry, the producers and the writers at the time decided
01:08to explore it a little more."
01:09Even as weird as it was that she dated her dad's best friend, nothing compared to her
01:13Season 1 hookup with young Ethan.
01:15"...You're not a senior?"
01:17"...Oh, I'm a senior.
01:21In high school."
01:25Paris and Asher from Gilmore Girls
01:27When Paris and Asher first met on Gilmore Girls, they were introduced by Rory's grandfather.
01:33Considering Asher was his former classmate, it's not surprising that it was the age difference
01:37that made this one more than a little uncomfortable to watch.
01:40Not only was he old enough to be her grandfather, but he was also a notorious womanizer, and
01:45Paris was barely of age at the time.
01:47According to actress Liza Wheel, she not only liked the storyline, but believed that the
01:52relationship was a major turning point for her character.
01:55She talked to Cosmopolitan about the Gilmore Girls revival and said,
01:58"...I think it warmed her for sure.
02:00It was very well handled as well.
02:02I'm a fan of that relationship, too."
02:04We'd take Paris and Doyle over Paris and her professor any day of the week, though.
02:09Puck and Shelby from Glee
02:11Just when fans thought things weren't going to get any more complicated for the lovestruck
02:15teens on Glee, Puck set his sights on a new lady, teacher Shelby Corcoran.
02:19The whole thing was made even more complicated by Shelby's adoption of the baby Puck had
02:24with Quinn.
02:25Actor Mark Salling told The Hollywood Reporter that was a big factor in driving forward a
02:29relationship that crossed some serious boundaries.
02:32"...I think his feelings for Shelby right now are pretty intense and pretty overwhelming.
02:36The fact that she has his baby now is a pretty strong bond.
02:39Puck really thinks he can be in that baby's life and be Shelby's man.
02:43He could be in it for the long run.
02:45It could be the real deal."
02:46And let's not forget that Puck had originally been teaming up with baby mama Quinn to get
02:50Beth removed from Shelby's care.
02:52There's literally no part of this love triangle that's a good idea, in spite of Puck's insistence
02:57that Shelby is the one that makes him feel like the family man he always wanted to be.
03:01Pacey and Tamara from Dawson's Creek
03:04Some shows let their characters grow a bit and become audience favorites before putting
03:08them into an awkward relationship that viewers might need some background to understand.
03:12But Dawson's Creek jumped right into it in the pilot episode, showing 15-year-old Pacey
03:16Winter having a fling with his 30-something teacher, Tamara.
03:20There are several reasons this one is incredibly uncomfortable.
03:23He's underage, and they're crossing the student-teacher boundary.
03:26It's a shocking way to start a series, and when experts weighed in on the plotline, they
03:30were afraid of some fallout from fans of the show.
03:33Kevin Dwyer, the assistant executive director of the National Association of School Psychologists,
03:38told the Chicago Tribune,
03:39"...having this behavior on television is a grand mistake.
03:42You're talking about a freshman in high school.
03:44A teacher who responds sexually is committing sex abuse, in my opinion."
03:48Of course, it wasn't the last time such a dangerous precedent would be set on the small
03:52screen.
03:53Aria and Ezra from Pretty Little Liars
03:56Even though the show is set in Pennsylvania where the legal age of consent is 16, viewers
04:00of Pretty Little Liars found out that teacher Ezra and his student Aria had their first
04:04fling when she was just a sophomore in high school.
04:07At the time, he was fresh out of college, so he wasn't that much older than her.
04:11But in just about every way that matters, their affair was way over the line, and they
04:15both knew it.
04:16What's even weirder is that he targeted her specifically because of her long-standing
04:20friendship with the missing Allison.
04:22Even though the two would rekindle their romance several years later, when everyone is actually
04:25legal, these two characters' relationship is still totally tainted by the illegal nature
04:29of their earliest days together.
04:31Rosita and Abraham from The Walking Dead
04:34The ages of Rosita and Abraham are never explicitly said, but when they joined the show, already
04:39a couple, actor Michael Kudlitz was twice Christian Serratos' age.
04:43The relationship was always a weird sort-of-friends-with-benefits situation, and when Michael Kudlitz talked to
04:49The Hollywood Reporter about just what was going on between the two characters, he said,
04:53"...I think he loves her, but it's also a relationship of convenience for both of them.
04:57It's wartime, and every day could be your last."
05:00In the scene when Abraham finally leaves her, their age difference is painfully clear.
05:05While it's pretty straightforward for him, she needs a reason.
05:07"...Tell me why!"
05:08"...When I first met you, I thought you were the last woman on Earth.
05:14You're not."
05:17As if that weren't cruel enough, he proceeded to parade his budding relationship with Sasha
05:21right in Rosita's face until his dying day.
05:24Ronda Volmer and Roman Grant from Big Love
05:27Devae Chase was 16 when she played 14-year-old Ronda Volmer on HBO's Big Love, while her
05:32love interest, Roman Grant, was played by the legendary Harry Dean Stanton, who was
05:3580 years old at the time.
05:37The show surrounded the polygamous family of Bill Paxton's character Bill Henriksen,
05:42taking a very real look at how a family could be far from mainstream but still function
05:45as a unit.
05:46They also created Roman Grant as the patriarch of the more menacing type of Mormon compound
05:51that Paxton and his wives had left.
05:53But it's Ronda — and her relationship with the so-called prophet — that's equal parts
05:57fascinating and uncomfortable.
05:59Embracing her status as wife to Roman, Ronda walks the line between entitled and immature
06:04to conniving and manipulative, finding pleasure in being his newest and shiniest wife.
06:09And just in case you were wondering, their wedding night scene was completely unwatchable.
06:14Lady Edith and Sir Anthony Strallan from Downton Abbey
06:17Lover or hater, the end of Lady Edith's May-December romance with the much older Sir Anthony was
06:22sad, even if it was uncomfortable to watch.
06:25Fans of Downton Abbey will know that it ended at the altar.
06:28It was interference from the rest of the family — and Sir Anthony's inability to stand up
06:32to them — that put an end to this happy ending.
06:35Uncertainty about their age difference left Sir Anthony fleeing the church, and while
06:39Edith might have been devastated, she was ultimately better off that this mismatched
06:43marriage never happened.
06:45Archie and Miss Grundy from Riverdale
06:47The CW gave 1940s favorites Archie Jughead, Betty, and Veronica a 21st century update.
06:53And for some reason, that included writing in an illicit and illegal relationship between
06:58Archie and teacher Miss Grundy.
07:00The one-time white-haired spinster teacher of the comics was recast as a music coach
07:04that every teen boy had his eye on, but it's Archie that she's interested in.
07:09Even KJ Apa, who plays Archie, has said,
07:11"...I guess that's a really inappropriate kind of romance he has going on there."
07:15It's not just a forbidden romance, though.
07:17It's a crime.
07:18In fact, the show has been panned for promoting statutory rape as a point of intrigue.
07:23Jughead actor Cole Sprouse said of the contentious coupling,
07:25"...I think inherently because it's a controversial topic, a lot of people are saying don't do
07:30it, which I also think is the wrong way to approach a controversial topic."
07:34If you say so, pal.
07:36Lord Walder Frey and his many young wives from Game of Thrones
07:39Of the many disgusting and lecherous old men on Game of Thrones, Lord Walder Frey ranks
07:44as one of the most heinous.
07:45Not only was he the architect of the heart-wrenching Red Wedding, but he also maintains a brood
07:50of young wives who are portrayed on the show as being a half-step away from sexual slavery.
07:55In one of his earliest appearances on the series, he introduces Catelyn Stark to his
07:59newest wife, who stands meekly by his side, looking as miserable as any 15-year-old girl
08:04who was just wed to a 90-something-year-old man would be.
08:07"...See that?
08:08Fifty-ish years.
08:09A little flower, and her honey's all mine."
08:21Obviously, Lord Frey is meant to be a loathsome character, if not the very personification
08:25of evil.
08:26George R.R. Martin, the author of the books on which the HBO series is based, has even
08:31stated that he modeled the character of Lord Frey after real historical figures.
08:35Martin based the character on stories of two Scottish clans who duped their enemies
08:38into sharing a meal, only to slaughter them immediately afterwards.
08:42Martin also said,
08:43"...No matter how much I make up, there's stuff in history that's just as bad or worse."
08:48Hayley and Rayner from Modern Family
08:50When Nathan Fillion kicked off his guest appearances on Modern Family as Rayner Shine, it didn't
08:55take long for his relationship with Sarah Hyland's Hayley Dunphy to venture into the
08:59territory of Uncomfortable.
09:00It wasn't just a matter of the 20-odd-year age gap between their characters, but it was
09:04also uncomfortable because of her father's initial reaction to it.
09:07Not only was Rayner her father's friend and hero, but her father also accidentally set
09:12them up.
09:13"...If it's not crossing a line, can I give you my daughter Hayley's number?"
09:16"...Really?"
09:17"...Yeah, she's available and she actually expressed some interest."
09:19He thought he was getting her a job as his makeup artist, but, well, whoops.
09:24After that, he had to come to terms with the fact that she was dating someone much older
09:27than he happens to admire.
09:29Yeah, it's weird.
09:31Fillion told the New York Post,
09:32"...he is shocked and horrified but the reality is he kind of set us up accidentally.
09:36He hates it, but it's also all his fault."
09:39Hayley's father wasn't the only one that wasn't a fan of the idea, and when the relationship
09:43went sideways after a rejected marriage proposal, fans headed to Twitter to voice the relief
09:47that Hayley didn't become the new Mrs. Shine.