Pairs That Can’t Be Beat

Love is the locomotion that keeps a lot of sitcoms, action serials and dramas on the track to a place called Syndication. What else, really, can provide writers with conflict, charm and a sense of viewer connectedness--show after show, season after season?

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, which falls on Tuesday, we offer an analysis (of sorts) of six of our favorite couples:

“Wings”

Joe Hackett and Helen Chappel

Played by: Tim Daly and Crystal Bernard.

Pounds lost, love found: As childhood best friends on the Cape, it was popular Joe who always comforted a chubby Helen.

Fickle periods: They first fell for each other in the show’s second season, then broke up and got back together and engaged this year, the sixth season.

Pounds lost, love found, Part 2: Helen to Brian (Steven Weber): “What I’m saying is, a woman can meet a guy and feel nothing whatsoever. She can be completely, totally turned off, but in time a spark can grow. That’s what happened with Joe and me.” Joe: “What do you mean turned off? You didn’t have a spark for me at first?” Helen: “Did you have a spark for me?” Joe: “Come on, you were a fat 11-year-old. The only sparks were the ones coming off of your silverware!”

The future: This season, Helen and Joe are crashing weddings to get ideas for their own ceremony. (In tonight’s episode, Valentine’s Day plans by Helen are complicated when Joe awaits paternity results stemming from a past fling.)

“Family Matters”

Harriet and Carl Winslow

Played by: Jo-Marie Payton-Noble and Reginald VelJohnson.

Love at first flip: After meeting in the police academy, Harriet tossed Carl onto the mat.

Say it with a sofa: When Carl decides to redecorate the house with tacky police-auction furniture without consulting Harriet, he crowns himself “Mr. Action.” Says Harriet: “OK, Mr. Action, you can sleep on that ugly sofa ‘cause that’s all the action you’ll be getting!”

In sickness and intrusions ... : There’s a chance Urkel (Jaleel White) may burst into their house one too many times.

“Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman”

Lois Lane and Clark Kent/Superman

Played by: Teri Hatcher and Dean Cain.

Romantic inspiration: D.C. Comics

Slow burn: As Hatcher puts it, “Lois and Clark do the hokey-pokey: one foot in, one foot out.”

If anyone knows why this couple ... : Despite contact on a daily basis, Lois still can’t tell that Clark and Supie are the same guy. But, as supervising producer Tony Blake says, “This guy’s got two personalities. She’s in love with two different guys who are the same guy and she doesn’t know it. They’re conflicted, but who isn’t?”

Sweet ironies: Lois to Clark, “Have you ever loved someone and knew you’d love them your entire life, whether or not they’d love you in return?” Lois about Superman: “He’s intelligent and caring. He has integrity and innate goodness,” realizing she’s describing Clark.

Future chances: It took D.C. Comics 50 years to get the couple engaged. Producers say it won’t take them that long. On Sunday, Clark asks Lois out on a first official date, which she accepts. Unfortunately, last season’s fiance, Lex Luthor, pops up.

“Mad About You”

Paul and Jamie Buchman

Played by: Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt.

Romantic inspiration: Reiser’s own married life.

The Co-Cupid: Paul and Jamie are “honest, and somewhere in that area beyond new and before old, “ says co-creator (with Reiser) and executive producer Danny Jacobson. “Neither of them keeps stuff in. Their marriage is really important to them and what they struggle with. And what’s funny are everyday things: family, work, food and finding a sock.”

Love is never uttering long sentences: Jamie, during a fight in the kitchen: “Is this marriage?” Paul: “This is what I’m thinking.” Jamie: “Based on what?” Paul: “I asked around.”

Speaking the same language: “When they tell the same story individually, it doesn’t work, but when they tell it together, that’s when they get a laugh,” says Jacobson.

But thinking differently: Jamie believes in fate and that she and Paul met in early childhood. She believes their relationship will continue after death. Paul’s a skeptic about all this.

Jamie’s finest line: “You’re a little, little man.”

Future chances: “They need forever, that’s how long it’s going to take them to work out their stuff,” Jacobson says.

“Northern Exposure”

Holling and Shelly Vincoeur

Played by: John Cullum and Cynthia Geary.

Shelly and Holling’s turn-ons: Each other. “Joel (Rob Morrow) was amazed at the number of times they had sex--five times a day,” say executive producers Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider, a married couple who finish each other’s sentences.

Run that by us again!?: Shelly gets turned on when Holling’s being macho--talking about his past hunting days and breaking up bar fights. As John Cullum and Cynthia Geary put it in a joint statement, “Young love never grows old, and babies make it better.”

Best expression of “the big picture”: Shelly to Holling during the first season, when he is distressed she’s still married to someone else: “If you’re going to let a little thing like that bother you, what are you going to do when the really big things come along?”

He’ll never leave her: Despite their 40-year age gap, Holling’s afraid that Shelly will die before him. Because men in his family live to a ripe old 120, Holling thinks of himself as middle-aged.

Sentimental fool: “Shelly, I’d love you if your feet were big as logs.” “I don’t love you for your mind, I love you for your body.” That’s music to Shelly’s ears.

The future: On Wednesday, Holling tells folks they’d like a dozen little Vincoeurs.

“Roseanne”

Roseanne and Dan Conner

Played by: Roseanne and John Goodman.

Bombastic inspiration: Roseanne’s stand-up act, which also was based on the comedian’s own life.

Roseanne re Dan: “Well, Dan, you aren’t the man I thought you were! And I wasn’t too happy with that one either!” “Oh, they’re not thinking that I’m a shrew. They’re thinking that you’re an idiot!”

Dan re Roseanne: “They think I’m an idiot for marrying a shrew.”

Sticking together: Will all the Conner kids and their partners end up all living in the Conner household?

The Conner way: When Roseanne accuses Dan of picking on her, he says “We always make little cracks. We always make jokes. That’s how we are. That’s why we get along so well!”

Blue-collar turn-ons: Roseanne was visibly excited when Dan shaved his armpits and between his eyebrows: “Oh Dan, you have two eyebrows again!” When he returns the compliment with a bark, she says, “Ooh, my weakness. Animal noises.”

Blessed are the children: Roseanne, while contemplating their last will and testament, “All right, we’ll decide who gets the kids. Now, who do we really hate?”