I don’t know about everyone else, but after seeing several best TV Kisses Lists for Valentine’s Day last week, I couldn’t help but consider my own favorites (particularly when I found these lists desperately wanting). Best kisses are of course subjective. What may to one be the greatest kiss of all time, another finds especially putrid (there are a few I find disgusting that I shall not name here). Whatever the case, a kiss reveals emotion, angst, attraction, and lust, or intense feelings, but to make a great kiss, there has to be something special, something deeper, and something more…
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In television, sometimes a couple takes forever to kiss, so when it FINALLY does take place, the show catches the audience with a wonderfully pleasant surprise (these can become the best moments too). In others, a kiss can be an emotional goodbye or even a tease between the characters. It can be a reunion, an end of the world scenario, or the result of years’ worth of pent-up tension. Most importantly, however, the kiss between the two characters needs to feel earned when it happens, and at the same time, bursting with intense chemistry. While this list is certainly not comprehensive, and I know I left out some big ones, here are 65 memorable ones from many of my own favorites to kisses that undoubtedly left a mark:
The Top 65 (in no particular order)
#1: Booth and Bones’ 100th Episode Kiss
#2: Seth and Summer from the O.C. Their Spiderman kiss!
#3: Arthur and Gwen from Merlin
Their first kiss was just so beautiful.
TIED For #3: Lancelot and Gwen from Merlin
A great kiss that should have promised many more to come.
#4: Felicity and Gus from Road to Avonlea
“Better than kissing my dog.” A perfect coming-of-age kiss.
#5: Freddie and Bel from The Hour
A well earned kiss right before its undeserved cancellation.
#6: Betty and Gio from Ugly Betty
I loved how he just grabbed her!
#7: Spike and Buffy from “Intervention” in Season 5
This was my favorite of their kisses because it wasn’t based on lust.
#8: Buffy and Angel’s first kiss in Season 1.
This was pure romance for me when it first aired.
#9: Rick and Kate from Castle
The moment everyone had been waiting for!
#10: Chloe and Clark from Smallville
The Vessel end of the world kiss was something I had been waiting on forever.
#11: Chloe and Davis from Smallville
This dream kiss has to be one of the hottest kisses ever. Such intense passion!
#12: Chuck and Blair from Gossip Girl
Another fabulous example of chemistry.
#13: Sarah and Chuck from Chuck
Nothing like a kiss when you’re about to die…
#14: Nick and Claudia from Primeval
This was a great moment: a kiss right before he tries to save Claudia’s life.
#15: Damon and Elena from The Vampire Diaries
These two have several fantastic kisses but I like this one because the moment was quiet and real.
#16: Will and Alicia from The Good Wife
The elevator kiss just sizzled.
#17: Dawson and Joey from Dawson’s Creek
Say what you will about later seasons, but when this first aired, I WANTED this kiss from the end of the first season.
#18: Joey and Pacey from Dawson’s Creek
Pacey takes action in a perfect moment from season 3!
#19: Vincent and Catherine from Beauty and the Beast
A wonderful rooftop kiss!
#20: Dean and Jo from Supernatural
A goodbye kiss before Jo died was definitely one of the most romantic and equally depressing moments on the show.
#21: Wade and Zoe from Hart of Dixie
I love this kiss more than the one that follows because it was so heartfelt.
AND Tied for #21: Zoe and George from Hart of Dixie
I swooned at this simple kiss after George declares he didn’t marry Lemon for her.
#22: Moray and Denise from The Paradise
Moray chooses love in the final seconds of the first season!
#23: The 9th Doctor and Rose from Doctor Who
A self-sacrificial kiss to save the woman he loves.
TIED for #23: The 10th Doctor and Rose from Doctor Who
The extended “Journey’s End” kiss.
#24: Doyle and Cordelia from Angel
A beautiful and tragic kiss right before Doyle sacrifices himself to save everyone’s lives and in the process gain redemption.
#25: Emma and Graham from Once Upon A Time
A kiss before he dies; my favorite kiss from the entire show.
So many good ones! I love it. Soooo with you on Moonlight, Lost, Castle, and Bones.
Thanks! All of those were fantastic kisses but I have to admit that I am partial to Moonlight and Lost…
Excellent taste! No pun intended.
So with you on Emma and Graham. Our screen nearly got a remote hurled through it when he was killed. And I remember we laughed ourselves sick when Inara passed out. “Oh, you stupid son of a….!” *thunk*
And, of course, Castle and Beckett. Was anyone *not* screaming ‘Just do it already!’ at the screen for a season and a half?
Clearly you have excellent taste as well…I’m with you on that remote. Graham is my favorite character on that show (one to be honest I’ve mostly lost interest in). It was a big mistake to kill him off. And the Inara kiss was hilarious! I just had to include that one…I don’t watch Castle often but I wanted to include it because I knew everyone had been waiting for that kiss like forever! Maybe I’ll catch up on that show one day. If they put it on Netflix or something. I love Nathan Fillion.
Yeah, doing that pretty much spoiled any kind of redemption arc for me with Regina, *ever*. They’d try to drum up sympathy for her, and I’d be there yelling, “Yeah? What about GRAHAM?” My husband was about to make me a sign with ‘Suffer in the Name of Graham, Regina,’ so I could just hold it up at appropriate intervals.
We love Fillion, too. I don’t know if you’ve seen Dr. Horrible, but if you haven’t and if you like musicals, *do* watch it. It’s one of the funniest superhero parodies you’ll ever see. Felicia Day is as close to a girl crush as I’ll ever get.
Have you ever seen the movie Waitress? It was an off-beat rom-com flavored indie. Not one which came out as one might expect, but still an HEA, which is fine by me.
I think you’d really like Castle. The main reason we tried it *was* Fillion; we kind of have a pact at home about no-cop-no-lawyer-no fictional crime scene shows because we both know too much to suspend disbelief and we fail to suspend disbelief rather loudly at the screen. Castle drew us right in, though. Just great interplay all around the cast, not to mention the Castle-Beckett relationship. It wasn’t just the UST; it was the growth and change on the part of both characters. Classic romantic arc, but it’s never dominated the show.
I actually wish DC would look at the character of Beckett and give it to the writers for Wonder Woman and say, “Okay, THIS is how you write a kick-ass but feminine woman with command presence. Now, go dump Gal Gadot, hire a real actress and start writing.” But I digress.
I shamelessly want more Firefly just to see more of Mal and Inara. And about a million other reasons. But still! Such a great kiss!
All of Caskett’s kisses are swoon-worthy and of course, I adore Bones and Booth! Aw, Moray and Denise, so sweet. Emma and Hook… haven’t decided about them and am super nervous about the upcoming changes when ‘Once’ returns (I’m busy reading up on S3 spoilers to keep me up-to-date until the DVD arrives). I like Logan (he’s SO protective of Veronica) but… I go back and forth if I want them together for good; Sydney and Vaughn (so cute!) and then, YES! I adored Ned and Chuck. They have to be one of THE cutest TV couples ever. Phryne and Jack – another BIG yes! 😉
Moray and Denise’s kiss has to be one of my personal favorites just because it was so romantic. With Emma and Hook, I included them because Rebecca loves them so much but I only check out a scene or two that has to do with Emma and Hook when I hear about it. I’m more of a Graham fan (LOVE him), but I prefer anyone to Neil (one of the main reasons I lost interest in this show aside from some of the head scratching choices by the writers).
I’m definitely all in with Logan and Veronica. I can’t wait for the movie….Looking forward to their interaction, along with all the snark. And Ned and Chuck really are one of the cutest couples ever. Adore them and I adore Phryne and Jack.
I’m *dying* to see the Veronica Mars movie! Especially now that I found out it’s going to play in one of the theaters I use – I didn’t expect that! I’ll be surprised if V ends up with anyone but Logan. 😉
Me, too! I really liked Graham (‘Once’). Too bad he was murdered – and I agree. The writing is flawed in the show, but I’m such a fairytale fan, I cannot seem to resist. 🙂
I’m seriously dying too. I’ve been waiting almost seven years for this to happen. It is in one of my theaters as well so I’m super excited. I was a backer though so I will at least be getting my digital copy!! And I think if there is a happy ending, it will be ambiguous more than anything. I’m okay with that as long as it feels more like an ending than the show.
And Graham was awesome! When I say I love him, I mean it. Like he was my favorite character on the show. I thought it was such a weak and cliche choice to kill him in that episode rather than to think of a creative way to keep him around (i.e. Graham remembers everything but has to keep it from Emma and therefore distance himself romantically because the Queen threatens to kill him at any moment. Just one idea as I have many…).
The writing is flawed and I had a lot of problems with the dialogue and some of the creative choices. That said, this was a real bummer for me because I am such a huge fairy tale fan as well and I kept trying to like it more than I did. Maybe eventually I’ll give it another chance because I do like aspects of it. And I do tune in occasionally because I find Hook intriguing.
Great article. I can’t pick my favorite so many good ones.
Thanks and there really are a lot of good kisses on TV.
Oh, my! Ten and Rose, Nick and Jess, Michael and Maria! So many fabulous kisses. I’m a Star Trek geek, so B’Elanna and Tom and Trip and T’pol are on my list, and Leslie and Ben from Parks & Rec!
Hmm. I know nothing about Star Trek kisses! I’ll have to look those up for future reference and I’ve never seen Parks & Rec either. I could probably do round two of kisses that I missed and include recommendations!
Thank you for including Nine and Rose! There are dozens of great kisses here, but that one is absolutely fantastic!
Sure! That is one of my favorite kisses. Very romantic.
I would add John and Aeryn in FarScape and Lucy and Wyatt in Timeless.