Viewers have a stake in TV romances

updated 5:42 p.m. ET Feb. 9, 2006

NEW YORK - Television is a haven for matchmakers.

That certainly goes for the folks who create TV. They know better than anyone how a little heat, a little on-screen hanky-panky, can do wonders for a show’s drawing power. You gotta have heart — or an erotic substitute. Then, when your TV twosome clicks, the audience can become as committed to the relationship as the partners themselves.

But as we watch love bloom or wither on television’s vine, we viewers are more than passive observers. We actively identify. We serve as advocates. We cheer on a happy couple. When trouble brews, we search ourselves for how the struggling lovers might get back on track. Or maybe from our living rooms we call for them to cut and run.

As Valentine’s Day looms, it’s a good time for us to take note of our role as wannabe matchmakers in the TV world.

Consider ABC’s “Lost,” for instance. Other viewers may be rooting for Kate (Evangeline Lilly), the sexy fugitive, to settle down with Sawyer (Josh Holloway), the sexy con man.

They’re both hot all right. But I argue that Kate and Sawyer together is a little too much of a bad thing.

No, Kate should hook up with the sexy doctor, Jack (Matthew Fox). It’s obvious why. Jack is just as handsome as Sawyer. And besides, he’s a doctor!

But reasonable people can disagree.

In 2004, fans of “Sex and the City” were as divided as voters in the presidential race when, after six seasons, time came for the HBO series’ finale. The polarizing issue: Should Carrie bolt to Paris with her sexy artist boyfriend, Aleksandr Petrovsky? Or stay with her longtime squeeze, sexy businessman Mr. Big? (Everybody knows it was Big who won Carrie, but there are probably still Aleksandr advocates who would like a re-count.)

‘Office’ romance
TV comedies are a great way to observe romance, and no wonder. Love is often funny when it’s happening to somebody else.

Or even funnier, when it’s not happening. Nothing is more poignantly funny (and, oddly enough, hotter) than unrequited love.

Among TV’s hottest nonstarters: Pam (Jenna Fischer), the sweet, wallflower-ish receptionist on NBC’s comedy “The Office,” and Jim (John Krasinksi), the smitten sales rep who suffers from the knowledge that she’s out of reach. (She’s engaged to a loutish warehouse worker, but sort of wishes she weren’t.)

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Poor Pam and Jim! Friendly but forced to stay at arm’s length, these lovebirds with clipped wings have every viewer pulling for them: Carpe diem, Pam and Jim!

Second thought, never mind. The longer Pam and Jim hold out, the more comically tormented they will be. And that’s all the more amusing for the audience.

Not quite so amusing is the sexual tension between Tony and his psychotherapist, Dr. Melfi, and when the HBO drama “The Sopranos” returns with new episodes next month, nothing is likely to have changed.

As played by Lorraine Bracco, Jennifer Melfi is beautiful and smart. She’s also professionally ethical. That puts Tony, as with any client, squarely off-limits, no matter how much she might prefer otherwise.

For Tony (James Gandolfini), Melfi is exasperating. She is that rare thing to which he can’t lay claim through charm, a payoff or violence. For each 50-minute hour, she’s his guide through his psyche — and a tantalizing tease.

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