Ten Favorite Valentine’s Day Sitcom Episodes

I mentioned on New Year’s Eve that I had neglected to touch on the holiday themed TV shows that were around. An even bigger over site was Valentines Day. For whatever reason, I haven’t talked about that yet Could be because I hate the holiday. Nevertheless there are toms of these episodes out there. Usually involving a romance that goes bad. And while I have no love for that holiday, I do enjoy watching these episodes on the 14th of each February.

       



The episodes are not in any specific order. And like last time every list I see online ignored TV was a thing before 1994. So I included some 80’s examples. And I’ll tell you right from the get go I am leaving a LOT off. From Fresh Prince to Boy Meets World (which had a very serious episode).  So feel free to let me know you favorites that I missed down below.


   




Here are my ten favorite Valentine’s Day episodes.




Golden Girls, “Valentines Day”

Well of course this show would do this. They did an episode for Mother’s Day also. It’s basically just vignettes of the girls spending different Valentine’s differently. We get a predictable gay joke, the girls at a nudist colony and apparently Sophia was at the St Valentine’s Day Massacre. The final one is a forced condom gag which isn’t really funny. So yeah, a so-so episode







Punky Brewster, “My Aged Valentine”

This show had some clever dream episodes, and the best is easily this one. It’s Valentines Day and Punky doesn’t like boy. After punching Chad Allen when he makes a pass at her (bet he loves that memory) Margot tell Punky she’ll end up up all old and alone, And the dream shows this, until the end and one of the better Punky/Henry talks in the series. And he make-up they did on Soleil Moon Frye is top notch. They didn’t half ass it they used real prosthetic to make her look 80!






Cheers, “Sam Time Next Year”

I’ll be talking more about this show coming soon, but for now we find Sam injuring his back just before an annual tryst. It is kind of nice to see Sam learn that there are other way to enjoy spending time with a woman.







Mad About You, “Love Among the Tiles”

There was an episode later in the series run that I don’t remember. This is a classic, as we have Paul and Jamie locked in their bathroom. What I really like though is that Valentine’s Day is mentioned and acknowledged really well for a “locked in” episode. The holiday gets equal time with the ways they try to get some help in their quite ti large to be real bathroom.







Home Improvement, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”

This episode is about Tim surprising his wife with a big Valentines Day surprise until his boss aborts those plans. I liked how in this show Tim didn’t forget holidays or events, which would normally be the cliche. The thing I don’t like in this episode is how it makes Tim the bad guy while not vilifying him. We see his boss basically force this on to Tim, and yet the rest of the episode he talks as if it was all his own fault for agreeing. And the stuff with Brad and his girlfriend is so cute.






Friends, “The One with the Candy Hearts”

While not the only episode to have a theme of Valentines Day on this series, easily the best. After accidentally getting paired up with his old girlfriend Janice, Chandler somehow ends up in bed with her. So he has to break up with her on Valentines Day. There is also the girls doing a boyfriend bonfire and a Ross story about trying to date again which is great, but I talked about that in my episode guide. The other episode is the one with the birthing video which is barely a Valentines episode.






Everybody Loves Raymond, “Diamonds”

This is a season one episode so it’s not quite in step with the rest of the series. We see Ray realize he bought Debra a bogus ring and his attempts to replace it don’t work. But since it’s an early episode almost everything established here will be retconned later om, and we have weepy crying Debra who would thankfully not last. Again, see my episode guide.






Frasier, “Three Valentines”

There was another episode where we see events split, seeing two outcomes. It’s a good episode but this is a better Valentine’s show. We get three vignettes, in one Frasier is not sure if a business meeting is business or personal. We get Frasier and Daphne keeping each other company on Valentines Day. And we get Niles’ story which is basically an old fashioned slapstick scene with no dialogue which David Hyde Pierce just kills.






Sabrina, The Teenage Witch, “Love in Bloom”

They had one almost every season but the one I am talking about is the episode where Josh is secretly vying for Sabrina’s affection. And this is causing odd side effects in Sabrina. We also get Roland (or whatever his name was) back again. There is a Salem story about him and a bird which isn’t worth mentioning. Seeing Sabrina go through the side effects of this is quite funny.







Big Bang Theory, “The Large Hadron Collision”

There were a couple but the one I think is the best is this, even though Valentine’s Day is only minor to the plot. The real plot is how Leonard is going to Switzerland and is taking Penny, not Sheldon. And Sheldon takes it as well as you’d expect. Another episode involves Penny and Leonard doing a bad job watching Raj’s dog and another where Raj has a lonely people party at the comic book store while Penny screwed up a romantic evening with Leonard. Still another episode has Sheldon and Amy on a Valentine’s Day train ride where they end up kissing for the first time. It’s actually a very sweet moment for the two. So sweet I decided to leave the clip.

 
Have a Happy Valentines Day my friends.