Friends. Lovers. Family members. Partners in crime. There’s something about seeing a relationship develop between two fictional characters that resonates more and becomes extra memorable when you see it develop over the course of a TV series across multiple episodes for multiple years, even if it’s not a particularly dramatic or deep show like a sitcom or a Nicktoon. People really love a good TV duo, whether it’s the slow but eventual friends-to-lovers development of Sam and Diane from Cheers, the strong mother-daughter relationship of Lorelei and Rory Gilmore, the odd couple pairing of Bert and Ernie, the vigilante team of Batman and Robin, the sycophantic work relationship of Michael Scott and Dwight Schrute, or the close friendship of Beavis and Butt-Head, two teenagers with a strong bond over their shared interest in the stupid. Many of my favorite fictional character duos have been TV characters. Here are my top ten favorites.

10. Rocky and Bullwinkle (The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends)

Jay Ward’s squirrel and moose duo are great characters from a comedic perspective because at their core they are naive and good-hearted woodland creatures who miraculously always come out on top, even when spies like Boris and Natasha and evil dictator Fearless Leader are on their tails. But it’s their chemistry that’s the true key to their charm. The show would not be as good if it was either Rocky or Bullwinkle who was the show’s solo star. Bullwinkle’s loyalty towards Rocky and Rocky’s loyalty (and patience) towards Bullwinkle elevate the appeal of both characters in ways that make them feel much more likable and three-dimensional than a typical “the smart one and the dumb one” pairing.

9. Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy (Jellystone!)

This father-daughter canine duo started out as a father-son canine duo in Hanna-Barbera’s The Quick Draw McGraw Show, but in the HBO Max series Jellystone! their relationship was taken to hilarious new heights in ways that I often felt were the comedic highlights of the show. It’s rare that I laugh so hard at the antics of fictional family members that are not portrayed in a dysfunctional way, especially in the post-Homer-strangling-Bart era of animation. Despite my overall mixed feelings towards Jellystone! as a Hanna-Barbera fan, these two characters always lit up the screen.

8. Red and Kitty (That ’70s Show)

As funny as the young stars of the sitcom That ’70s Show can be, the two characters who always made me laugh the most were Eric’s dad Red and Eric’s mom Kitty. Those two characters are the stuff of comedy gold because their personalities are the complete opposites of each other, Red being the crabby disciplinarian and Kitty being the smothering coddler. And the writers on that show were so good that they always knew how to take full advantage of the joke possibilities involving that contrast while never leaning too much into caricature at the expense of their believability as a married couple.

7. Rick and Morty (Rick and Morty)

More than just the evil mirror versions of Marty McFly and Doc Brown. Rick is the smartest person in the universe and he and his grandson Morty can literally go anywhere they want in space and time. And yet Rick’s volatile abrasiveness, Morty’s feckless anxiety and their dysfunctional but caring relationship remains the most turbulent journey of all. Watching these two characters is like watching a train wreck. They could run a lemonade stand and it would be entertaining.

6. Stewie and Brian (Family Guy)

These are my two favorite Family Guy characters by far. Brian is the intellectual straight man (or straight dog) while Stewie is the diabolical toddler genius with a time machine, only this is no Peabody and Mr. Sherman. I could watch a spin-off revolving around these two characters and enjoy it just as much because Stewie and Brian are responsible for many of Family Guy‘s funniest moments. I especially love when they parody Bing Crosby and Bob Hope’s Road movies in one of their special musical half-hour episodes, where they often go on some wacky journey on the other side of the world. Family Guy creator and voice actor behind both characters Seth MacFarlane took “boy and his dog” companionship to unhinged but hilarious new levels in this adult comedy.

5. Kenan and Kel (Kenan & Kel)

These two Nickelodeon stars who started out as players on the sketch comedy show All That before spinning off into their own sitcom are a very classic dynamic in the tradition of Laurel and Hardy or Abbott and Costello, but they made me laugh harder than I had ever laughed as a kid because they talked the way many kids of my generation in the nineties talked (as idiosyncratic as their slang could be). And just like many of the duos on this list, they both make each other better. Kel is the ridiculous contrast to Kenan’s common sense and Kenan is the deadpan contrast to Kel’s utter insanity, but they weren’t child actors saying funny lines. There was real brilliance behind their performances and their comedic timing as well as their chemistry.

4. Abbi and Ilana (Broad City)

I said I liked Kenan and Kel because they talked like kids of my generation, but Abbi and Ilana from Comedy Central’s Broad City are the first female TV duo I ever saw who talked like the girls I grew up with. Up to this point we had millennial-focused shows like Lena Dunham’s Girls, which was well-written but had a distinctly upper middle class perspective. Abbi and Ilana were much more down and dirty. And that uniqueness translated to a memorable, authentic, heartfelt and often very funny portrayal of female friendship. I’ve seen pairings of confident characters and awkward characters before but Ilana and Abbi really excavated comedy gold out of that dynamic in an original way.

3. Pinky and the Brain (Animaniacs)

These two lab mice who come up with a new plot every night to take over the world have always been popular characters ever since Animaniacs began, to the point where they got their own spin-off two years later and executive producer Steven Spielberg even singled out their segments as his favorites. I completely understand why all those things happened. This is basically another pairing of a straight man and dumb guy (“Narf!”) but with so much more flavor than what we usually get out of that dynamic thanks to the creativity of Tom Ruegger’s team of writers, who followed the formula that guided the Looney Tunes decades earlier by writing not to the audience but to themselves (while still letting the audience in on the joke). The result? A fresh twist on the mad genius and his mad assistant, and also my favorite cartoon duo of all time.

2. Sam and Dean (Supernatural)

This was my Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Ever since I first watched the pilot I was hooked for life, and the relationship between demon hunting brothers Sam and Dean Winchester is the main reason why. These two have been through a lot over the course of Supernatural‘s 15 seasons, possibly going through the worst hell any fictional characters have ever gone through (literally – these characters have actually gone to Hell). But no matter what they go through, even when they make each other mad, they always have each other’s backs and keep each other on the right track with a level of love and loyalty that the writers and actors both convey in ways that feel totally grounded in reality and occasionally moved me to tears, despite how formulaic and downright crazy this show would often get. They were also just entertainingly badass characters, and not just because they killed monsters and saved lives every day but because they knew how to have fun doing it.

1. Deborah and Ava (Hacks)

I can’t think of another TV duo who took me on such a thrilling and satisfying rollercoaster ride of emotions than stand-up comedian Deborah (Jean Smart) and comedy writer Ava (Hannah Einbinder) in the HBO Max comedy Hacks. From their first moment on screen together in the first episode I could tell this was going to be an antagonistic and dysfunctional employee-boss relationship for the ages, but the way that their relationship and indeed their friendship evolves over the show’s five seasons as they go from despising each other to slowly seeing the humanity in each other is so gradual and meticulous in its execution that I can’t help but feel the emotional impact of every breakthrough they feel as they slowly learn to respect one another, and the show’s portrayal of Hollywood as a cold and ruthless world of eccentric egomaniacs is not only accurate, but it is also a key element of the series that tests the strength of Deborah and Ava’s relationship. It’s the ultimate example of TV writers using the power of an episodic medium to maximize an emotional impact.