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How to read this ranking
“Iconic” is an argument, not a measurable title. The order below weighs how central a relationship is to its show, how the characters complement or challenge each other, what conflict reveals about their bond, and the relationship’s cultural and narrative legacy. It also considers the evidence available in credible retrospectives. These are consistent editorial criteria, not a universal scoring system.
The word “duo” needs some flexibility for a list about television friendships. Most entries are two characters, but some well-known examples are groups; Lorelai and Rory are mother and daughter rather than peer friends. Those distinctions matter: a chosen family, a sibling bond and a friendship can all be powerful without being the same kind of relationship.
40 female television duos and friendship groups
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Abbi and Ilana — Broad City
Their friendship is the show’s engine: chaotic, affectionate and practical when it counts. TIME calls them each other’s “ride or die,” while the Royal Television Society points to Abbi carrying Ilana to hospital during an allergic reaction as an example of care beneath the comedy. Their bond is a modern friendship defined as much by showing up as by having fun.
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Dorothy, Rose, Blanche and Sophia — The Golden Girls
This is a quartet, not a duo, but it is one of television’s clearest portraits of friendship becoming chosen family. The Television Academy describes the four older housemates as a circle of friends who support and advise one another. The sitcom ran on NBC from 1985 to 1992 and produced 180 episodes, according to the Academy.
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Mary and Rhoda — The Mary Tyler Moore Show
Mary and Rhoda’s connection is warm without being frictionless. The Television Academy’s account of the show’s female friendships emphasizes their support and complexity, including a story in which Mary recognizes and rejects a friend’s prejudice toward Rhoda. The willingness to let conflict test a bond gives it lasting credibility.
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Laverne and Shirley — Laverne & Shirley
Roommates, coworkers and partners in troublemaking, Laverne and Shirley made everyday female friendship a sitcom premise rather than a supporting detail. TIME cites them as a friendship with lasting television impact: their shared adventures are the point, not a detour from the story.
Rank #2
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Lucy and Ethel — I Love Lucy
Lucy and Ethel’s conspiratorial partnership turns domestic schemes into comic set pieces. TIME includes them among enduring television friendships, and their combination of loyalty and exasperation helped establish a durable model for women as co-conspirators in comedy.
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Daria Morgendorffer and Jane Lane — Daria
Jane is Daria’s best friend and confidante, TIME notes. They share a dry, skeptical sensibility, but their friendship is not merely an echo chamber: the characters’ differences give their conversations room to challenge the world around them—and each other.
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Meredith Grey and Cristina Yang — Grey’s Anatomy
Meredith and Cristina’s intense friendship is built around ambition, trust and an unusually frank understanding of each other. TIME includes them among notable female television friendships; their bond stands out because neither character has to become less driven to make room for the other.
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Taystee and Poussey — Orange Is the New Black
Their friendship holds humor, arguments and grief in the same frame. TIME quotes actor Danielle Brooks describing Taystee and Poussey’s pattern of falling out and reconciling: “We argue, we fight, fuss, then we come back together in love.” That is a useful description of a bond whose durability does not depend on constant agreement.
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Leslie Knope and Ann Perkins — Parks and Recreation
TIME includes Ann and Leslie among memorable television friends. Their connection pairs Leslie’s exuberant devotion with Ann’s steadier presence, and makes female friendship a continuing source of encouragement rather than a one-off plot device.
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Monica, Rachel and Phoebe — Friends
This beloved friendship is a trio, not a duo. Its place in a conversation about female screen friendships reflects how sitcoms can make a group’s everyday rituals, disagreements and mutual support central to a show’s appeal.
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Max Mayfield and Eleven — Stranger Things
Max and Eleven’s friendship offers a young, genre-driven counterpoint to the workplace and domestic sitcom bonds elsewhere on this list. Parade reports that a Roku survey placed Max and Eleven among its top five favorite television friendships; the report does not show the survey’s sample size or methodology, so it is a reported audience ranking, not proof of a representative consensus.
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Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha — Sex and the City
The four central women form an ensemble rather than a pair. Their friendship gives the series a framework for contrasting different approaches to love, work and city life, and for letting disagreements coexist with loyalty.
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Tia and Tamara Mowry — Sister, Sister
Tia and Tamara’s real-life twin casting gave the sitcom its premise, but the characters’ contrasting personalities gave it momentum. TIME includes the sisters among television’s notable female friendships; their relationship also offers a reminder that sisters can be a distinct kind of duo from chosen friends.
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Lorelai and Rory Gilmore — Gilmore Girls
Lorelai and Rory are mother and daughter, not peer friends, though the Royal Television Society describes them as “more like sisters.” Their fast, playful exchanges and Rory’s graduation tribute to her mother make their closeness central to the series while keeping the generational difference in view.
These examples illustrate why a single ranking can only be an editorial choice: television friendships range from two-person confidences to large, evolving circles. Parade’s report of the Roku survey placed The Golden Girls first among favorite TV friendships, but the passage reviewed does not provide the survey’s methods. That result is best read as a reported preference, not a definitive verdict.
Quick Recap
Sources and context
- TIME’s retrospective on female television friendships discusses Broad City, Laverne and Shirley, Daria and Jane, Taystee and Poussey, Ann and Leslie, Lucy and Ethel, Meredith and Cristina, and Tia and Tamara.
- The Royal Television Society’s guide to screen friendships covers Abbi and Ilana and Lorelai and Rory.
- The Television Academy on Mary, Rhoda and Phyllis describes the complexity of their friendship and its conflicts.
- The Television Academy’s Golden Girls entry describes the quartet’s friendship and records the series’ NBC run and episode count.
- Parade’s report on Roku’s favorite-friendship survey gives a reported top five but, in the passage reviewed, does not provide sample size or methodology.
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