Supercouple
The term originated in the United States, and it was coined in the early 1980s when intense public interest in fictional soap opera couple Luke Spencer and Laura Webber, from General Hospital, made the pair a popular culture phenomenon.
[9] Thirty million viewers tuned into the event,[4][10] and the widespread media attention it received from prominent newspapers and magazines set the pairing up as the default model for other soap opera supercouples.
In Queer TV: Framing Sexualities On US Television, Nancy Martin says, "Actively desiring heterosexual pairs not bent on reproduction became a required advertising device and a narratological mainstay on daytime and primetime.
"[9] In Russian Television Today, David MacFadyen concludes, "Even the busiest, most rambling soap operas are often neatly and conclusively distilled in the public's mind by a 'supercouple' or tiny, central pair of protagonists.
The "shipping fandom" scene, whose name is derived from the word "relationship", is a general term for fans' emotional or intellectual involvement with the ongoing development of romance in a work of fiction.
[21] The romances in daytime dramas are significantly characterized by bringing couples together, splitting them up, and starting the cycle over again to ensure that viewers remain invested in the pairings, if popular.
It is because of this, that after the usual fairytale wedding, if the supercouple remains on the series, writers do not allow the item to live happily ever after as a couple in a fairy tale would but rather subject them to a continual cycle of being separated and reunited.
[25][26] Luke Spencer and Laura Webber, portrayed by Anthony Geary and Genie Francis from General Hospital, are considered the most famous soap opera supercouple.
[4] The couple was featured on the covers of People and Newsweek, and was credited with having brought "legitimacy to daytime serials" and its fans by crossing boundaries and becoming celebrities in the mainstream media.
[30][31][32][33] "Dirty" Den and Angie Watts, portrayed by Leslie Grantham and Anita Dobson on the British soap opera EastEnders, generated an audience response similar to Luke and Laura's.
Days of our Lives in particular had a significant number of supercouples — Bo and Hope,[14] Shane and Kimberly,[36] Patch and Kayla,[14] and Jack and Jennifer all going on at roughly the same time.
[14] The supercouple phenomenon spread to foreign shores, with Scott and Charlene, portrayed by Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue on the Australian soap opera Neighbours.
[44] The success of their romance prompted a fellow Australian daytime drama Home and Away to shelve out their own supercouple, Shane and Angel,[44] and Den and Angie from EastEnders emerged as Britain's most famous soap opera couple.
When it came to the mainstream shows, audiences were built up as "replications of the idealized, middle-class nuclear family, defined as monogamous heterosexual couples with children" (Buxton, 1997, p. 1477).
[66] One soap opera in particular, As the World Turns, has been successful in launching the first popular romance between two men on an American daytime drama, Luke Snyder and Noah Mayer.
One year before Luke and Noah, the British soap opera Hollyoaks had already embarked on issuing their own gay male supercouple, between characters John Paul McQueen and Craig Dean;[69][70] the storyline became one of the show's most successful, gaining "legions" of fans.
[76] The show cast actor Freddie Smith in the role of Jackson "Sonny" Kiriakis, the second openly gay contracted character in a daytime soap opera.
After all, it's pretty rare for one half of a great couple to go from gentle and caring to sadistic and murderous in the course of a single night...and spurred on by having sex with the girl he loves no less.
"The first one is when one person pursues the other, then finally gives up and dates someone else," the site stated, "and the other scenario is when the two characters are so different and often do not get along with one another, they fight and argue constantly, but then one thing or a series of 'things' happen and they are forced to put up with each other.
Critics state that in such cases, if a series extends sexual tension for "too long" before finally acting on romantic intimacy between the characters, it can result in viewers feeling that the best part of the pairing's buildup was their "will-they-won't-they" status.
People described Gable and Lombard, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn,[6] Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner,[6] and Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor,[6] were couples recognized as "the greatest love stories of the century".
[6] The two were referred to as the first superstar couple of the Internet age,[112] and the pairing's popularity resulted in their being known by the portmanteau "Bennifer" (for Ben and Jennifer) to the media, as well as to fans using the name combination.
[116] The two emerged as a prominent supercouple,[6][124][125] Robert Thompson, director of the Centre for the Study of Popular Television, said the coupling of A-list stars like Pitt and Jolie, or in years gone by Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, was "a paparazzi's dream come true".
He added that "as silly as it sounds, this new tendency to make up single names for two people, like 'Bennifer' (Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez) and 'TomKat' (Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes), is an insightful idea'.
[15]In 2023, American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift and football player Travis Kelce began dating, leading media outlets to call them a supercouple,[138][139][140] with some even going as far as dubbing them "America's Royal Couple".
Billboard opined that Swift and Kelce "are arguably the world's most high-profile couple right now, consistently making headlines on the daily for simply holding hands or enjoying dinner together.
[149] Journalist Emily Yahr opined in The New York Times that the United States "giddily contemplates" the pairing of Swift and Kelce that, "for many observers, checks all the right boxes.
[157] Double Dragon features the protagonist Billy Lee, as he attempts to rescue his girlfriend (Maria) from his evil twin brother (Jimmy), leader of a sinister street gang.
"[154] The Compilation of Final Fantasy VII has several notable couples, such as Cloud Strife and his relationships with childhood friend Tifa Lockhart and flower girl Aerith Gainsborough.
Romeo and Juliet, due to their enduring legacy and popularity, are considered an ideal supercouple outline[14] for aspects of forbidden or tragic love, and the relationship between Antony and Cleopatra has been described as fitting the power-couple trope.
