No one ever said that living with roommates was easy. Maybe that’s why there are so many popular television shows based on what life with roommates is really like. Do we watch because we are entertained by their antics or because we can see ourselves in their situation? Whatever the case may be, here are the best TV roommates of all time:
15. Will Truman and Grace Adler (Will & Grace)
Will prefers everything to be in its proper place. Grace usually leaves things wherever she happened to stop using them. Put the two of them in a single New York apartment, and even a shared bathroom can become a fight over who gets a say in the household.
Eric McCormack and Debra Messing convey years of friendship through the way they bicker over trivial matters. Grace can ruin Will’s plans, and he can fret over her decisions, but neither of them has to pretend everything is fine at home. They know each other far too well for that.
14. Dave Rose and Max Blum (Happy Endings)
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Being stood up at the altar is a rough deal. Sharing a place with Max Blum (portrayed by Adam Pally) brings a whole new batch of things to regret. Dave Rose (portrayed by Zachary Knighton) is trying to rebuild his life, while Max would rather stay on the couch.
Zachary Knighton gives Dave the eager grin of a man convinced his next plan will work. Adam Pally’s Max can deflate that hope with a single look. Since they’re friends, the jabs hit harder than they would coming from a stranger. It’s easy to see why Dave sticks around, even if you’d hesitate before taking the spare room.
13. Chloe and June (Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23)
Chloe’s approach to getting a roommate is to take her money and make her want to leave. June is supposed to be the next victim. Instead, she pushes back, and that’s where this strange friendship begins to get fun.
Krysten Ritter plays Chloe completely without shame, while Dreama Walker lets June develop a backbone instead of spending the whole show looking shocked. You would keep your cash well out of Chloe’s reach. Watching June figure out how to live with her is far less of a risk.
12. Chandler Bing and Joey Tribbiani (Friends)
Chandler and Joey transform their apartment into the place you would have dreamed of before you had to start paying rent for one. There is a foosball table, a pair of recliners, and way too much spare time for watching TV. After that, they bring home a chick and a duck.
Matt LeBlanc makes Joey’s terrible ideas sound fairly sensible, at least until you pause to think about them. Matthew Perry delivers the dry comeback that you were just about to make yourself.
Their arguments sting because the friendship carries so much weight. Even after Joey gets a place of his own, the two of them both miss each other’s company. It turns out that a bigger apartment is a poor substitute for having your best friend around.
11. Adam, Blake, and Anders (Workaholics)
Sharing a house and a job ought to save you time. Adam, Blake, and Anders spend that time coming up with even worse ways to make it through the day. They work as telemarketers yet still carry on as if nobody ever told them college is finished.
Adam DeVine, Blake Anderson, and Anders Holm share the relaxed familiarity of friends who know exactly how far they can push each other. Ders makes an effort to be the adult. That seldom holds up. If a roommate has ever turned a boring evening into a truly terrible scheme, you’ll understand how these things get going.
10. Kimmy Schmidt and Titus Andromedon (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt)
Titus Andromedon is after fame, comfort, and as little work as he can get away with. Kimmy is eager to make up for the life she lost while stuck in a cult. A tiny New York apartment leaves them hardly any space to sulk on their own.
Ellie Kemper’s cheerfulness might grate on you around the wrong people, but Tituss Burgess gives her a partner who needs that hope, even when he would rather grumble. His dreams of stardom leave ample opportunity for Kimmy to be pulled into trouble.
9. Grace Hanson and Frankie Bergstein (Grace and Frankie)
Grace is looking for a drink and a bit of quiet. Frankie has different ideas, and most of them don’t include staying silent. After discovering that their husbands are in love with each other, they wind up in the same beach house, so neither woman feels much like being polite.
Jane Fonda can earn a laugh simply by having Grace stare at something Frankie has said. Lily Tomlin gives her more than enough to stare at. Still, each of these two also understands what the other has lost. You can battle over a house and still be happy that someone else is in it.
8. Nandor, Laszlo, Nadja, and Colin Robinson (What We Do in the Shadows)
Centuries of existence have done almost nothing to improve these vampires’ social skills. Nandor holds house meetings, Laszlo does whatever he pleases, and Nadja has no tolerance for either of them. Colin Robinson can suck the energy out of a room simply by talking.
The Staten Island house in What We Do in the Shadows functions so smoothly because the conflicts are so minor. Put these creatures under one roof, and before long they sound like people who cannot agree on how to manage it. Guillermo handles much of the labor that allows them to keep being terrible. You may have had to clean up after a selfish roommate, but yours probably never needed help concealing the bodies.
7. Jess and Schmidt (The New Girl)
Shocking, but before we lose you, hear us out. No matter how you feel about Zooey Deschanel and her music career, there is no denying that Max Greenfield, the actor who plays ‘Schmidt’, is an established comedy star.
Greenfield single-handedly carries the show on his shoulders, not only making it watchable but also lovable and somewhat addictive. Who doesn’t want a roommate like that?
6. Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement (The Flight of The Conchords)
Shepherds turned musicians in New York City? In a television landscape full of lovable losers, Bret and Jemaine may be the most lovable of them all.
While constant singing isn’t a characteristic most of us look for in a roommate, in this case, we have to make an exception.
5. Jake and Charlie Harper (Two and a Half Men)
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There is just something about watching Two and a Half Men reruns that takes me back to a simpler time. While we would never want to live with Ashton Kutcher, the relationship between playboy Charlie and prepubescent Jake is what great sitcoms are made of.
Sure, they have problems, but in the end, they’re always looking out for each other. Isn’t that the most you can ask for from a roommate?
4. Troy and Abed (Community)
Once their characters emerged from under the writing that Season 1 of Community was famous for, the pair became the face of fanboy roommates everywhere.
If you can’t enjoy watching ‘Blade’ and ‘The Dark Knight’ on repeat, you should probably live alone.
3. Leonard Hofstadter and Sheldon Cooper (The Big Bang Theory)
What can we write that hasn’t already been written about the character of Sheldon Cooper? All we can say is that we would never want to be his roommate. Leonard, on the other hand, is quiet, clean, and spends most of his time with the girl across the hall.
You couldn’t dream up a better roommate than that.
2. Turtle and Johnny Drama (Entourage)
While Vince and Eric went through the same drama week after week, Turtle and Johnny’s side stories carried the show through even its darkest days.
The biggest laughs from the glory years belonged to Johnny and Turtle as they lived the good life on their friend’s dime. Probably not the kind of guys you want to live with, but they would make great friends.
1. Frank Reynolds and Charlie Kelly (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia)
Our favorite roommates of the new millennium are Frank Reynolds and Charlie Kelly, and it wasn’t close. The pair is so close that they share a bed! Frank and Charlie’s apartment is dirty, barely furnished, and infested with wildlife.
It’s the perfect home for two people who no one could ever stand to live with. No one wants either of them, but somehow they found each other. We hope that someday we’ll find a roommate like that.
What are the best TV roommates of all time, in your opinion? Share with us in the comments!
Well, this list sucked the life out of what was left of my life