The Ex Files: TV’s 15 greatest recurring exes
From Lilith and Janice to the Tammys and...her(?), these past partners are always welcome on their respective shows
TV Lists Frasier
Bebe Neuwirth in Frasier (Chris Haston/Paramount+), Max Greenfield in Veronica Mars (UPN/The CW), Zack Fox in Abbott Elementary (Gilles Mingasson/ABC), Maggie Wheeler in Friends (NBC) Graphic: Karl Gustafson
You know a love interest is noteworthy when they become integral to a TV show, even it’s only as a recurring ex. Take Frasier’s Lilith Sternin, for example, who returns in Paramount+’s current reboot. There’s a reason past partners like her are hard to get over—or hard to get rid of, depending on the situation. Instead of just reminiscing about our favorite TV exes, we decided to celebrate them. Sure, they’re not regular characters, which means they appear on and off, but these series would be incomplete without them. These are our top 15 picks, in chronological order.
46 Comments
Number 7 was not posted…
Has no one at the AV Club ever heard of David Puddy? He is not just some dumb grease monkey you know.
“Dumb and lazy I understand!”
I don’t care for that term. I don’t know too many monkeys who could take apart a fuel injector.
There was that one who could do sign language.
That chimp’s alright. Hi-Five!
You are correct, sir. I think he is my favorite part of Seinfeld. This is my favorite exchange;Puddy: What’s going on over there with you and, uh, vegetable lasagna?
Elaine: This guy? He’s an idiot. He doesn’t mean anything to me.Passenger: I can hear you.
I love the one where Elaine is convinced she’s going to hell. Puddy’s reaction: “Must be rough.” I use that one all the time when hearing of some made-up misfortune.
Father Curtis: Oh, well then it’s simple. You’re both going to hell.
Puddy: No way, this is bogus, man!
Well played. High five!
no nick tortelli? get out of here
Ah – The Tortellis. The show Frasier could have been.
Makes you think what would have have happened if they pushed a Frasier spin-off before Cheers ended, would it have been as good of a series. I think they really needed the arch of his marriage, birth of his son, divorce and mental breakdown to really put the character of Frasier where he needed to be in order to lead his own series.
With all due respect to the late Matthew Perry, Janice was too good for him or any of the Friends
I’m glad to see you’re still on here, commenting. The comment sections seem like a sad shell of their former selves.
At least the forums are still here, unlike with Jezebel
Are they just deliberately killing the sites, narrowing it down to the ones that can be used for content aggregation? Because otherwise the strategy makes no sense. Oddly, Deadspin is putting out some solid content and has been for a while. But still no comments.
Spanfeller: Are my methods unsound?
“the horror… the horror…”
I don’t see any method, assface.
It is unclear to me, but definitely sad
Jez may rise again, seems to have a buyer.
Teddy on B99. He was not wrong to be that into Amy
“She went from being the reasonable boss to a woman who eventually hooks up with and dates Michael Scott (Steve Carrell), and their ensuing relationship saw her turn her into quite an unhinged person”But let’s be honest–dating Michael Scott would turn anyone into an unhinged person.
Him outing their sexual relationship to the office should have resulted in a murder.
Honestly. It’s hard to be too mad at her for all she ended up putting him through after he did that to her.
SNIP SNAP SNIP SNAP!!
huh…im only now finding out janice wasnt played by fran drescher
The Nerd Herd would recomend Bryce and Jill from Chuck
the omission of stanley zbornak here is pretty nuts imo
Do we think Dean Winters has been type cast as a recurring ex with ties (of some kind) to sexual predators, because I think he did the same thing on “Law & Order: SVU” after spending the first season(s?) as a the rookie detective in the unit. He and Benson had a recurring thing that brought ripped from the headlines drama with it.Also… no Derek? Wind chimes! Wind chimes! Hold my classy while I get down to business.
Winters in SVU definitely came to mind. He left the unit but stayed with the NYPD in a variety of detective roles, so occasionally he turned up organically. You eventually learn he joined and then quit SVU because he was badly sexually assaulted as a kid, which pretty much poisoned him for a stable relationship with Benson. But he was always good on the show.
I assume these are in no particular order? Because Janice and Lilith are the GOATs.I’m add Fiona from Burn Notice, although I guess they do get back together at the end.
Oh man, Fiona… Loved Fiona, except in the first episode where she had that awful Irish(?) accent. Test audiences must have hated it too, because in the second episode she doesn’t have it, and they also talk about why she doesn’t have it.
She was fun. Her default mode was “can we just blow it up?”
“One word: coffee. One problem: where do you get it?”
Tammy Two is the absolute winner to me. Played to psychosexual perfection by Megan Mullally, who is Nick Offerman’s real-life spouse.
She’s a real piece of work
She really knows her way around a penis
Just watched the episode where Lilith returns. Still cold, still gold.(if you liked the original Frasier, the new ones are worth a watch).(also, why the fuck is there a fan-made parody trailer heading the page of Frasier coverage?)
There seems to be a mistake here. Lilith was not cold – Lilith was smokin’ hot.
I mean if you’re talking Fraiser ..what about Maris? , I man she got a load of laughs without ever being onscreen or actually being played by anybody.(and even one on The Simpsons , which her character wasnt even in!)Also , I dont know who that Addison person is , but that’s clearly The Handler from Umbrella Academy.
Hugo on Bob’s Burgers is always good for some laughs.
Now that the Scott Pilgrim show is out, Mae Whitman can lay claim to TWO stellar roles as an ex.
On Monday, AV Club sister site Deadspin uploaded an article accusing a child of wearing blackface to a Kansas City Chiefs game, a claim that was quickly debunked. Today the site updated the article, but still failed to correct the erroneous claim.
To me this suggests that G/O Media websites not only publish false information, but stand by it, and therefore cannot be trusted. I will no longer be reading AV Club or any of its sister sites, and I strongly suggest any who continue to do so fact-check their claims vigorously. Please help stop the spread of misinformation!
Teddy (Kyle Bornheimer) from Brooklyn Nine-Nine, had some fun appearances.