Elliot: Don't go too quickly, or like I said, you'll just end up with another beautiful girl!
JD: "Dating my laptop."
Elliot: Dating your laptop. Thank you.
JD: "Dating my laptop."
Elliot: Dating your laptop. Thank you.
— Scrubs, "My Half-Acre"
Like the Temporary Love Interest, the Girl of the Week is a way to give the hero some romance for the episode while still allowing the focus of the show to be on the plot or the arc, but she does not have to die at the end. The girl will be gone by the next episode, possibly because of a wacky misunderstanding à la the Three Is Company plotline, or a very minor flaw, but sometimes just not showing up again, with no explanation offered. This relationship will generally be rockier or less passionate than that with the Temporary Love Interest, allowing its end to be less dramatic.
If someone is noted for getting extremely passionate about every Girl of the Week, sincerely believing each one in turn to be the love of their life but then forgetting all about them a week later, they're a Serial Romeo. Sometimes, particularly in a Walking the Earth series, there's no relationship, but the girl is shown having an obvious interest in the hero (which may be mutual) before he inevitably moves on.
If she survives longer than her initial appearance, Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome is likely.
Related to Disposable Love Interest.
Changes in social gender roles mean that it is starting to become acceptable for female protagonists to have relations with male guest cast members that fit into this trope, although examples are less likely to lead to actual sex and usually tend to be more emotionally significant than a pure one-night-stand.
If you were looking for Monster of the Week, Well, This Is Not That Trope. (Usually.)
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- In City Hunter, Ryo Saeba accepts assignments almost exclusively from beautiful young women, most of whom are never seen again in further episodes. During the rare instances when Ryo accepts a job from a man, it would usually involve protecting a young woman.
- In Dragon Ball, there are quite a few Girls of the Week during the Walking the Earth segments. Even more are added during the filler episodes. Strangely enough, Goku's eventual wife Chi-Chi is originally introduced as a Girl of the Week and when she makes her second appearance in the manga over a hundred chapters later, there's a Lampshade Hanging where no-one can remember her except Oolong.
- Galaxy Angel parodies this; in each of Ranpha's episodes, she falls over a new hot guy, but they all look and sound the same.
- The anime series King of Bandit Jing offered this as a feature, with a different pretty girl in each of the Adventure Towns the titular hero journeyed to.
- Lupin III features a new girl for Lupin to woo in nearly all of its movies and television specials:
- The Castle of Cagliostro had Lupin trying to save Clarisse from the clutches of the Count and concluded with him leaving her in safe hands, after the treasure had been revealed.
- In The Secret of Twilight Gemini, he had the hots for Lara, the rebel leader of the Geltic Tribe, while still banging Fujiko on the side. Once Jean Pierre's schemes had been foiled and they'd found the treasure, Lupin leaves again.
- Voyage to Danger gives us Karen Korinsky, a Russian nuclear scientist who has a deep connection to Jigen's past. She wanted revenge against him for killing her father right in front of her as a child ten years ago (even though it was self-defense on his part). But even though she tried to kill him in the end, she ends up dying in Jigen's arms at the end after being shot by Keith.
- The Pursuit of Harimao's Treasue featured Sir Archer's granddaughter, Diana, a blonde Brit with pale blue eyes and a stunning figure. Unlike the previous two examples, Lupin didn't get anywhere with her, despite his best efforts.
- Island of Assassins downplayed the trope with Ellen. While Lupin did hit on her, it was mostly just fun 'n games for him, which was part of the reason she didn't trust him. Her opinion of him changed during the film, but she dies at the end after taking a bullet for Lupin.
- Lupin III: Steal Napoleon's Dictionary has Chieko Kido, an agent of the National Security Bureau.
- Crisis in Tokyo changed things up by giving Inspector Zenigata a love interest for once. Though it was hopelessly one-sided, since Maria failed to realize he was interested in her because she only saw him as a Cool Old Guy.
- The Columbus Files included Les Yay subtext between Rozaria and the amnesiac Fujiko. During the film, Rozaria was not only protective of her, but seemed more than a little taken with her. At one point, she even asked Lupin if they could "share" Fujiko.
- And in the Aloha Lupin television special, Lupin helps a deceased scientist's daughter restore her father's good name, by exposing the group of imposters that were using her father's inventions to orchestrate a high-tech crime wave.
- MARRIAGETOXIN: Somewhat. Each arc has Gero and Kinosaki getting new clients to help and protect, all of which are beautiful women whom Gero may want to date and marry. While the girls tend to not return later, and they don't start a romantic relationship, Gero is states to hang out with them offscreen during the manga's extras, and is seeing if they hit it off enough to start dating.
- Naruto:
- More like Girl of the Movie as the movies seem to love this trope. Naruto's had at least one older woman giving him a kiss, a Damsel in Distress literally offering to have his babies (which, due to the way she phrased it, Naruto unwittingly accepts), and in the second movie from the Shippuden era he ends up with the current girl clutching him to her chest (it would be Marshmallow Hell if she had bigger... tracts of land) while tearfully claiming that she'd never leave him... Since the three Naruto movies and the first six Shippuden movies are non-canonical, not one of them ever shows up again.
- Some of the more cohesive Filler arcs during the gap between the end of Part I and the beginning of Shippuden also brought this into play. This adds two female daimyos, a handful of kunoichi, and one girl with a bad skin condition to Naruto's roster. Of these, exactly one has appeared as a background character since then and she was rooting for Gaara.
- Subverted in The Last: Naruto the Movie, the first Canon movie of the franchise. It's an Interquel between the second-to-last chapter and the epilogue, so the "girl" of the movie is also the main love interest and the one Naruto gets Happily Married to: Hinata. The movie is the tale of how they fell in love, after the long and hard road that was the main series.
- Subverted throughout Pokémon: The Series, as Brock generally never has even a slim chance of actually getting the girl. There have been some very rare instances of girls actually being interested in Brock, but they always go their separate ways by the end of the episode, anyway. Also subverted in that half those girls are either Nurse Joy or Officer Jenny, who all look/sound/act the same.
- In Princess Tutu's second season, this trope is combined with Victim of the Week to give Mytho a new conquest in many episodes.
- Makoto of Sailor Moon usually fell for each minor male character shortly after their introduction. And they all remind her of an ex-senpai, even Haruka.
- Cobra from Space Adventure Cobra often gets a new female sidekick/Love Interest in each of the one-shot stories.
- The plot of The World God Only Knows, where the main character's job is to make the Girl of the Week fall in love with him, so he may extract the spirit possessing them from their soul. With his gaming skills. Increasingly subverted as the story progresses, as he finds himself involved with some of the girls again.
Comic Books
- Bat Lash inevitably finds himself involved with a pretty girl whether he washes up. He equally inevitably winds up abandoning her, willingly or unwillingly, at the end of the issue.
- The whole premise of Franco-Belgian comic Julie, Claire, Cécile. The work is nothing, but one page gags about the three girls' dating life. No guy ever stay longer than one page except for Claire who eventually got a permanent boyfriend.
- Barbarella. Given that she's in a Free-Love Future the titular heroine hooks up with a handsome guy (she's not adverse to women either) in every adventure, and is often seen making eyes at her next conquest by the end of it.
- Supergirl: In her 70's series, Kara falls over a new guy in each episode, but she never gets the guy or they break up before the end of the issue. Regardless, the guy is never seen again.
- Wonder Woman (1942): Played with in the case of Steve Trevor's ever changing secretary. Steve only has eyes for his "Angel", while several of his secretaries have or pretend to have a romantic interest in him. His secretaries tend to turn out to be spies or end up killed and none last long.
Fan Works
- Calvin & Hobbes: The Series has Maria, who serves to drive the Love Triangle conflict for an episode before disappearing for the rest of the series.
- This is mostly the point of The Many Dates of Danny Fenton as Danny goes on a series of blind dates, meeting a new girl that he hits it off with...most of the time anyway.
- Played with in The Monkees fanfic "Take A giant Step Outside Your Mind". Davy, who usually had a different girlfriend every episode (and often had one girlfriend at the beginning of an episode and a different one by the end!) doesn't have a girlfriend at all, but both Micky and Mike have girlfriends.
Films — Live-Action
- Austin Powers. As a Bond spoof, it, too, has its own Bond Girls. In the first film, Vanessa Kensington was a Love Interest with a full back story that made her complex and sympathetic. Because Mike Myers only intended the film to do modestly, it was decided that Austin would learn An Aesop about how life as The Casanova was far less satisfying in The '90s, and underwent significant Character Development to be with her. After the character became a phenomenon and sequels were planned, the franchise underwent Flanderization from a quirky, sentimental comedy into Denser and Wackier Farce. Vanessa was Retconned out of the picture, and this trope was played straight with Felicity Shagwell, Ivana Humpalot, Dixie Normus and Foxxy Cleopatra.
Austin: (mournfully) I can't believe Vanessa, my bride, my one true love, the woman who taught me the beauty of monogamy, was a fembot all along... (cheerfully) Wait a tick, that means I'm single again! Oh, behave!
- The 90s Batman films. Batman (1989) had Vicki Vale (Kim Basinger), Batman Returns had Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Batman Forever had Chase Meridian (Nicole Kidman).
- Batman & Robin had Julie Madison (Elle MacPherson). And that just proves how pivotal she is to the plot.
- Although, both Vicki and Catwoman are given an explanation as to where they went. Bruce told Selina that Vicki couldn't handle his double life, and, as far as Batman knows, Catwoman is dead.
- An earlier draft of the script for Batman and Robin had Poison Ivy killing Julie Madison.
- Batman & Robin had Julie Madison (Elle MacPherson). And that just proves how pivotal she is to the plot.
- Peter Sterling gets involved with a different beautiful woman in every film of the Francis the Talking Mule series.
- Whenever Indiana Jones was on a major adventure, he was usually accompanied by an attractive Love Interest. Raiders of the Lost Ark gave us Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), Temple of Doom brought along Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw), while Last Crusade had Dr. Elsa Schneider (Alison Doody).
- Subverted in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, where the original love interest, Marion returns as a major character. It's even revealed that her son is also his son and they get married at the end of the film.
- There's also a line that justifies why it was played straight in the first three films. Indy tells Marion that it didn't last with any of the other girls because they all had the same problem: "They weren't you, honey."
- Not to mention the fact that when they meet in the first movie, they've already had a past relationship, making "Kingdom" the third and final(?) time they hook up!"
- Also, Temple of Doom is set chronologically before Raiders, so in that film Marion was still in his past.
- The James Bond film franchise is famous for its Bond Girls, the disposable companions that Bond acquires in each of his various adventures. Bond Girls have a very high mortality rate, and, with some exceptions, never appear in more than one movie. Unless of course we count Miss Moneypenny. Despite the mortality rate, almost every film will feature at least one Bond girl surviving, and given how many girls Bond tends to get- even in a single film- versus the amount who actually die, maybe the ratio isn't so bad after all.
- Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale (2006) has a direct effect on the plot of the film immediately following it, Quantum of Solace, in which she casts a long shadow but appears onscreen for all of two seconds.
- Madeleine Swann, introduced in Spectre, is the first time a main Bond Girl appeared in more than one movie due to being Bond's Second Love, coming back for No Time to Die. She also has the honors of mothering Bond's daughter and outliving Bond himself.
- Bond's murdered wife Tracy di Vicenzo also gets brought up every now and then, but always indirectly (possibly to hide the Continuity Snarl of Pierce Brosnan's Bond being called upon to mourn a woman George Lazenby's Bond married over thirty years earlier), though this was the unspoken reason Sean Connery's Bond was so pissed at Blofeld and frantically hunted him down at the beginning of the immediate sequel to On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Diamonds Are Forever. Tracy would have appeared in the film after On Her Majesty's Secret Service and be killed early in the film. Before filming of Lazenby's first film ended he had already decided not to do another, so she was killed at the end of the film.
- Maud Adams, meanwhile, has appeared as two different Bond girls: Andrea Anders in The Man with the Golden Gun, and the title character in Octopussy. The former doesn't make it.
- Timothy Dalton is by far the safest Bond to bed down with; only Della dies across his two films, and she's Felix Leiter's wife, not his (although it's strongly implied he and Della may have had a history). All four of the women Dalton's James sleeps with (unnamed pre-credits cameo girl, Kara Milovy, Lupe Lamora and Pam Bouvier) live to be ignored in the sequels.note
- Everybody else hovers vaguely in the neighborhood of a 65-80% survival rate, with Connery being the second safest behind Dalton (owing largely to the "Dead Bond Girl" trope not manifesting until his third film, he clocks in at a 76% survival rate), Moore being probably the next safest (despite his films sometimes leaning cartoonishly misogynistic, just under 74% of his women survive). Only 2/3s of Lazenby's women survive (although he'd trade 'em both for the one that didn't), and Brosnan's lovers have an exactly 70% survival rate. EON Bond has slept with 57 total women (Sylvia Trench appears in two films, so if you count her as two it's then 58), of whom just about 70% (40) survive. That's... still not great.
- Interestingly, Sylvia Trench was meant to be an inversion - recurring in every movie, but always excluded from the actual adventure. However, she was dropped by Goldfinger (there are rumors she was meant to eventually become the Bond love-interest).
- With all of that said, there's Miss Moneypenny, with whom Bond constantly has Unresolved Sexual Tension but adopts a strict Sleeps with Everyone but You policynote , likely because it would be mixing business with pleasure a bit too close to home.
- The Karate Kid: Daniel had a different Love Interest in each one of the three movies where he appeared. By the time of Cobra Kai, he's settled down with yet another woman and they've had two children together.
- The OSS 117 films with Jean Dujardin. Cairo Nest of Spies has Larmina El Akmar Betouche (Bérénice Bejo) as main girl, Lost in Rio has Dolorès Koulechov (Louise Monot) and From Africa With Love has Zéphyrine Bamba (Fatou N'Diaye).
- The Pink Panther had several:
- The 1963 original: Mme. Clouseau — she divorced her inspector husband for Sir Charles Litton.
- A Shot in the Dark: Maria Gambrelli.
- Inspector Clouseau: Lisa Morrell.
- The Pink Panther Strikes Again: Olga.
- Revenge of the Pink Panther: Simone.
- In the Sällskapsresan series by Swedish director/actor Lasse Åberg, the protagonist - the Cool Loser Stig-Helmer Olsson - will always hook up with one girl per movie. No matter how well they seem to fit together, the start of the next movie will mention that they broke up or divorced or parted in some other way, to make space for the next girl.
- 3 Ninjas: Rocky has at least one different love interest in every movie except Knuckle Up, where Colt is the one to fall for the female lead.
- In the original movie, literal Girl Next Door Emily and Rocky have some Puppy Love.
- In Kick Back, Rocky wants to impress a girl named Lisa during the baseball game. However, later in the movie, he and Miyo have a Meet Cute moment when they both have to take out reading glasses, and they quickly become romantically attached.
- In High Noon at Mega Mountain, Rocky is dating a girl named Jennifer.
Literature
- Ciaphas Cain has these in several of the chronologically earlier books. Interestingly two of them do make an appearance in later books, one of them is friendly to him while the other wants to steal his soul. Of course once he meets Amberley (in For The Emperor) he settles down so the chronologically later books don't have any.
- Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian does not always get a girl. But when he does, she vanishes without a trace before the next story. Justified in that there are huge gaps in time between many stories, and that they weren't written in chronological order. Conan had several lengthy relationships, and eventually married. Also before his marriage Conan is specified to run out of money a lot.
- Gender Flipped in The Diadem Saga. Protagonist Aleytys has a high sex drive and tends to shack up with one or two men per book. She has Commitment Issues that make it difficult for her to form lasting relationships: she blames it on being half-Vryhh based on a message her mother left for her, but her handler in Star Hunters says her Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse.
- Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series employed this trope. At least one of the women left her people to join Fafhrd, but where is she in the next book?...
- She's there just long enough to suffer Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome.
- Then, there is a story where they set out, full of vim, certain that they would bump into someone from their old adventures — and owing to the wrath of certain gods, meet up with Girl of the Week after Girl of the Week, and everyone of them had made her own life and rejects them both. (Until the very end, where abject humiliation succeeds in winning the two they least wanted to meet.)
- Though The Twain both end up more or less as faithful (more or less) married husbands in the last stories, set on Rime Isle.
- The Gor novels (when Tarl isn't pining for Talena or Vella) tend to have a Slave Girl of the Book, who Tarl teaches to love her slavery. By the next book she's either in his slave harem and (almost) never mentioned again or sold off to someone who is her "ideal master."
- Bertie Wooster runs through love interests quickly and frequently ends up engaged (often against his will), but never actually gets married because Status Quo Is God.
- The Jennifer Morgue discusses, lampshades, and generally plays hell with this trope: the opposition is using a Hero-trap geas, meaning that all efforts to oppose him will be funneled into the Theory of Narrative Causality; since he cast himself as the villain, he can only be successfully resisted by a James Bond archetype, which is played by Bob. He is quickly paired up with a female Black Chamber agent, making her a Bond girl. And then the trope is turned completely upside down: it turns out that Angleton was able to successfully end-run the geas by making Bob's girlfriend, Mo, the true Bond-figure in the geas, meaning that Bob is the actual Bond girl, allowing Mo to save the day in a Bond-worthy Big Damn Heroes moment. The narrative also notes that there's almost always two Bond girls, one "light", one "dark", thus making room for the Black Chamber agent in the geas.
- Bernie Rhodenbarr, Lawrence Block's Gentleman Thief protagonist, sleeps with at least one female love interest per novel, and none of them reappear or are mentioned again after that. The closest person in Bernie's life is Carolyn Kaiser, a lesbian pet-groomer who describes herself as his "minion", and is Platonic Life-Partners with him.
- The pre-WWII The Saint novels and short stories switch randomly between having Simon dating his long-term love interest Patricia Holm and having Girls of the Week (some of which he is clearly indicated to have sex with). It is implied that he and Patricia have an open relationship.
- Deconstructed in Tales of an Mazing Girl Story X of the Week, in which Mazing Girl rapidly falls in love and loses him. The villain gave her a drug to make her fall in love with him, then killed him for the sole purpose of making it personal.
- Thomas Lewellyn, of Will Thomas's Barker and Lewellyn Victorian-era mysteries, will fall in love at least once a book, but it never works out. (Then again, it never gets far- twice he's warned off by the young lady's father or guardian and immediately gives up on the matte and twice it turns out she's seeing someone else and lied about it. The one time he manages to entertain serious thoughts of a relationship until the end of the book? Turns out she's the Big Bad. Oops.)
- Each volume of The Unexplored Summon://Blood-Sign has Kyousuke help out a new girl, who also acts as his partner in performing Summon Magic. Said girls, in keeping with Kyousuke's motif as the White Rabbit, are referred to as his "Alices". Though he doesn't actually have a romantic relationship with any of them, presumably because the White Queen, the Big Bad of the series and the first "Alice", would kill them if he did.
Live-Action TV
- Virtually every Dom Com with teenaged characters has or has had stories where one of the male or female teenaged characters would become involved in a (almost always, temporary) relationship. The catalyst to the relationship's failure — usually by episode's end — provided that episode's Aesop. Other times, the date would be successful, but — since most of the family sitcoms didn't have story arcs — the relationship would end without explanation and never be referred to again.
- The A-Team had tons of these, and they almost always ended up with Face, except for a handful of times when they ended up with Murdock.
- The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.. featured several Girls of the Week. Brisco got kissed by many beautiful women, but his heart always belonged to Dixie Cousins.
- In The Adventures of Pete & Pete, Big Pete had several Girls of the Week, especially in the last season.
- In the first season of Beverly Hills, 90210, many episodes focused on Brandon's Girl of the Week. Late in the season, Brenda actually commented on it. (See: Lampshade Hanging) Sometimes this would flirt with "Very Special Episode" territory, since most of the girls Brandon hooked up with had some kind of "issue" connected to them, e.g., the girl with the baby, the black girl, the racist girl—never let it be said Brandon wasn't an equal opportunity dater.
- Bergerac (the detective from the island of Jersey, not Cyrano) was a more constant type of chap. He went through a girlfriend per season.
- The cast of Buffy has a handful of these for both genders: Buffy's one date with Owen, who she has to dump because living in her world would get him killed; Cordelia has several of these in seasons 1 and 2. Not to mention Xander's tendency to have possible love interests turn out to be demons trying to kill him - one of the few instances where the girl and Monster of the Week are actually one and the same.
- Each sister on Charmed goes through quite a number of love interests that last one or two episodes throughout the series. Even Piper, who has the longest lasting relationship on the show with Leo, gets a couple in season six when she and Leo are separated.
- CHiPs: Ponch often had one (or more) of these per episode, and they were the hottest, most babelicious girls you could ever feast your eyes on.
- Doctor Who:
- Happened not infrequently in the first season, before the iconic Doctor Who No Hugging, No Kissing was in effect. A notable example is an elderly Aztec woman named Cameca, the first love interest the Doctor is ever given.
- Barbara had a few:
- A male Thal who she apparently had an offscreen romance with in "The Daleks", although we see no indication of this beyond an extremely sexual goodbye kiss and he is never mentioned again. The expanded universe suggests that she had been sleeping with him but it wasn't a big deal.
- Leon in "The Reign of Terror".
- Samantha in "The Faceless Ones", a Plucky Girl with a Scouse accent who Jamie Honey Traps in order to steal her plane tickets. The director wanted her to stay on as a companion to replace the departing Ben and Polly, but the actress declined.
- The sexual tension between Jo and King Peladon in "The Curse of Peladon" is definitely two-way, despite his sudden and entitled initial proposal to her, and she seems to genuinely consider abandoning her life on Earth for him.
- In the last couple of series of the original run of Doctor Who, Ace seemed to find a new young female best friend to hang out with almost everywhere (and everywhen) they went — Shou in "Battlefield," Gwendoline in "Ghost Light," Susan Q in "The Happiness Patrol" and Kara in "Survival," for starters. The level of subtext varied, but was later confirmed to be deliberate with at least some of them (especially the latter two).
- Drake from Drake & Josh. There eventually came an episode where Drake does wish and attempts to have a committed relationship, but we never see this girl again either. The guy's pick-ups change so much that Josh has even commented and/or mixed up some names to remember. This was even lampshadeded at one point...
Drake: Lucy might be the one.Josh: Oh. The one who you date for more than three weeks?Drake: Yeah. She might be a month-er.
- Used extensively in the Spiritual Sequel iCarly. Many of these can't imply anything other than that Spencer basically has sex with the girl and she slinks off the next day never to be seen again. The reboot gives this a Cerebus Retcon, as Spencer put being Carly's guardian above his own social life.
- The rest of the gang have had: Valerie, Melanie, Griffin, Jake, Jonah, Shane, Pete and even Carly/Freddie (to each other) show up like this. Spencer has more than the Power Trio combined. One notable example was Pete, whom Sam could be argued to have succeeded in getting him, only for it to Snap Back next week.
- Used extensively in the Spiritual Sequel iCarly. Many of these can't imply anything other than that Spencer basically has sex with the girl and she slinks off the next day never to be seen again. The reboot gives this a Cerebus Retcon, as Spencer put being Carly's guardian above his own social life.
- Most of the episodes of Flight of the Conchords, mainly because most of the duo's songs are love songs. Mel is the only regular female character, and she's a stalker that they cannot stand. The only recurring girlfriends are Sally (3 episodes) and Coco (2). Possibly lampshaded with the song "Carol Brown", in which Jemaine imagines being sung at by a choir of his ex-girlfriends...all of whom we've never seen before.
- Fans of Forever Knight referred to this phenomenon as "Neck of the Week."
- Early seasons of Frasier rarely had Frasier Crane with a girlfriend who stayed around longer than an episode; sometimes they didn't even break up, she simply wasn't there any more an episode later. In later seasons, the girlfriend might stay for a mini-arc but would likely be gone after. Often a focus of Lampshade Hanging as Frasier obsessed about his inability to commit. In one memorable episode, several of his former love interests made a cameo in a Dream Sequence on the subject.
- Carmen on The George Lopez Show averted this in that most of her boyfriends lasted for two episodes or more, and the break-up was usually explained.
- In Happy Endings, Penny, is usually breaking up or having problems with a new guy each week, although mostly off screen. Also happens sometimes with Dave.
- Hogan's Heroes did this a lot. The women could be German civilians, members of the underground, foreigners, or even German officers, and the Heroes would still go for them. However, the only recurring women were Tiger and Marya. Even Klink got a few women, although the one non-spy lady wound up leaving with Burkhalter by the end of the episode.
- How I Met Your Mother. How many candidates have we had for the mother, now? A few dozen? And let's not even get into Barney's numerous conquests.
- Lois & Clark: Jimmy can't keep a girlfriend for more than a week or so, despite professing eternal love to any woman who crosses his path. It gets to the point where Lois actually lampshades it.
- The Girl of the Week was frequently used on Magnum, P.I. In fact, when they weren't Girl of the Week episodes, they were probably Temporary Love Interest episodes. Pretty much a staple of PI series from the 50's to the 80's (e.g. Vega$ (1978))
- A very commonly used trope in The '60s spy series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (befitting the series's status as a James Bond knockoff). Usually the girl wound up in the arms of suave operator Napoleon Solo, but the occasional episode would give her to distaff fan favorite Illya Kuryakin.
- A few episodes of the Lee Van Cleef/Timothy Van Patten series The Master that appeared on MST3K followed this trope to a tee, the first featuring a young Demi Moore. They weren't all pining for Tim, but there was always a young woman or two, of variable relevance to the plot.
- Billy from Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers had enough of these to give almost any other character on this list a run for their money. He got more romantic subplots than any other Ranger and probably still holds the record as the franchise's biggest in-canon stud.
- Monk: A recurring joke during Sharona Fleming's tenure in the first three seasons is her love life. Despite her astuteness in both helping Monk navigate his life and in assisting him in solving homicide investigations, her judgment regarding potential romantic partners for herself is remarkably poor. Besides her ex-husband Trevor Howe, she's dated, among others: an architect who turns out be a streaker that is regularly interrupting Stottlemeyer and Disher's press conferences ("Mr. Monk and the Red-Headed Stranger"), a mob enforcer ("Mr. Monk Meets the Godfather"), several married men, and sometimes the very murderer who Monk is investigating. The seeming common denominator between these and many other men is a compulsive inability to be honest with her.
- The Monkees often had a token female love interest for one of the guys (but mostly for the cute heartthrob and Chick Magnet, Davy Jones.) Sometimes, it was one of the Monkees themselves who acted as the girl, whenever they were so hilariously Disguised in Drag. They did lampshade it from time to time, though. "Well well, he's in love, for the very first time today!"
- Many Murder, She Wrote episodes feature charming, sometimes roguish gentlemen of Jessica's generation who blatantly flirt with her, even when she's accusing them of the murder. (Gentleman Thief Dennis Stanton and MI 5 agent Michael Flaherty are Recurring Character examples of the archetype.) She always remains true to the memory of her late husband, but still enjoys their company (and is a bit sad if it turns out they are the murderer).
- A few episodes of Our Miss Brooks had a Girl of the Week plot:
- "New Girl In Town" is Exactly What It Says on the Tin. Walter Denton dates the new girl, while Miss Brooks' Love Interest Mr. Boynton is attracted to the girl's widowed mother.
- "Life Can Be Bones" sees Miss Brooks romantically threatened by Mr. Boynton's temporary laboratory assistant.
- In "Hello, Mr. Chips", Miss Brooks tries to date an English schoolmaster to make Mr. Boynton jealous.
- In "Clay City English Teacher", scheming Clay City High School principal Jason Brille tries to lure Miss Brooks to his school with the eponymous male teacher. Miss Brooks won't go unless there's a job for Mr. Boynton too.
- The guys in The Professionals never have the same girl for more than one episode. Generally, if Girl of the Week is blonde, she will be dumb and annoying. If she's brunette, she will be mildly intelligent, but still in need of looking after. The most notable Girls of the Week are Ann in "Involvement" (Doyle's girlfriend) and Marikka in "Fall Girl" (Bodie's girlfriend).
- Quantum Leap loved this trope - justifying it in that Sam's scrambled brain would pick up on the feelings of the person he replaced and that his pursuit would set the GOTW and the person Sam leapt into "on the right path".
- Besides which, unless it was a two-parter Sam would be forcibly "leaped" out of the situation, therefore he couldn't have an ongoing relationship with any of them. (He had a wife in his "present" but didn't remember her. She decided that was for the best: because if he knew, she knew he'd feel obliged not to pursue any GOTW no matter how right it would be for the person he leaped in to. Ironically, his wife originally was a GOTW from an earlier episode, but because Sam helped her solve her commitment issues in the past she didn't leave him at the altar like she had originally, a fact we don't find out until nearly four seasons later.)
- Any of Zack's love interests on Saved by the Bell that wasn't Kelly, Tori, or Stacy. Including Lisa, even though she was a main character for the entire run of the series, Slater's sister (never seen before or after), and the homeless girl that moved into his house with her father.
- Seinfeld gave a Girl of the Week to practically every main character — not just Jerry, but also Kramer (the original Kavorka Man) and even George (the resident loser). And it's gender-flipped for Elaine, who had more boyfriends than George and Kramer had girlfriends (even though she had a semi-steady boyfriend in David Puddy in the last couple of seasons), and several episodes make it clear that she values sex in a relationship just as much as the male leads. But no one beats Jerry, who has a tendency to go through girlfriends like it's nothing, often breaking up over increasingly petty reasons. Larry David said they absolutely loved ending an episode with a girl storming out and Jerry asking after her, "What!?" Lampshaded in one episode in which Jerry's Girl of the Week had taught him to overcome his Emotion Suppression, leading him to suddenly lament the fact that he's broken up with her:
Elaine: What are you worried about? You're dating a new girl, like, every week.
- Every romantic interest on Silver Spoons for anyone besides Kate and Ricky's father Edward.
- The Six Million Dollar Man - Steve Austin made out with a lot more women than just Jamie Sommers and Farrah Fawcett....
- The repeated use of Girls of the Week in later seasons of Sliders was criticized by fans, although they were usually temporary love interests since most of the time they died tragically at the end of the episode.
- Stargate Atlantis is filled with this. Ascended Ancients, non-ascended Ancients, Princesses, Female Starship Captains, etc etc.
- Likewise, Stargate SG-1 had its fair share, including one episode where O'Neill accidentally marries a woman who is never seen again.
- All of the main male characters of the Star Trek spinoffs (even including that main male character, who actually is the reigning champion of TNG) got at least one (and occasionally Crusher and Troi would get a Guy Of The Week). As for the original? They were all hogged by Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. Mostly Kirk.
- Lies! Chekov got two girls. They didn't even die! (Like Kirk, Chekov insisted the Enterprise was his true love and told his flower child girlfriend to hit the street. This scenario would be replayed, ad nauseum, throughout each of the five Star Trek series. Walter Koenig was pissed. There was also Yeoman Landon, although Vaal did not approve.
- Scotty once got a girl too. Really, the only regular male character on TOS who never got one was Sulu. Oh my! (Though he already had a wife, with whom he had a daughter, back home.)
- In TOS: In the first season, Yeoman Rand (the late Grace Lee Whitney) is no longer seen, without explanation, but she's often replaced by the "Hot Yeoman/Female Junior Officer" of the week, and not just for Kirk. While many are simply eye candy; there are a few dalliances. One is with a young psychologist, Dr. Helen Noel, whom Kirk is acquainted with, though at first their encounter didn't go all the way. Perhaps Helen wishes that it had, because in the mind-altering chair in that penal colony they're investigating, after the attempted escape of one of their DOCTORS who'd gone mad with that chair, she plants a suggestion that indeed Kirk had bedded her, and we see his face with...a BIG smile. Then the evil director and his henchmen enter, take over, and begin to screw with Kirk's mind. Helen is mortified that what had seemed to be a harmless prank is now used to destroy Kirk; she helps him with some rather provocative crawling through the penal colony's air ducts. In the early second season, Scotty crushes on a comely blonde anthropologist, Carolyn Palamas, but when "Apollo" encounters the Enterprise, and she comes down to his planet with Kirk, Mc Coy, Scotty, and Chekov, he also has the eye for her. Things don't go well for a jealous Montgomery Scott; but despite Apollo coming on VERY strong to her, she finally resists, mocking him as a "specimen". Apollo doesn't exactly take her "no" as final, and it's strongly implied he simply rapes her. In the James Blish adaptation of this episode, in an epilogue, Mc Coy informs Kirk that Lt. Palamas is pregnant, presumably with Apollo's child, and that his training in obstetrics doesn't include demi-god children.
- Picard had a few dalliances with his female crewmembers, but he only consummated one of them (annoyingly, he did not bed Beverly, a series regular, but a science officer who disappeared as quickly as she came). He also came this close to performing the... Picard Maneuver on Famke Janssen.
- Riker also had several, including a holographic one in Minuet. But, of course, his heart from the start belonged to Deanna.
- Averted with DS9: everybody was in love on that show. Ben Sisko, who nurtured a Second Love with a civilian freighter Captain, eventually married her near the end of his series. Ditto with Jadzia Dax and Worf. Odo ended up with Kira. Bashir had a (mostly-offscreen) relationship with Leeta, one of the girls from Quark's casino, before ending up with another series regular, Ezri. Bashir and Odo had one-off girlfriends in "Melora" and "Simple Investigation" respectively.
- Captain Janeway teased at a romance with her Number Two, Chakotay, but for various reasons (syndication concerns, the two actors hating each others' guts, etc.), nothing ever came of it. She had three 'boyfriends' over the course of VOY: the smarmy Hans Landa lookalike in "Counterpoint", the veteran actor James Read in "Workforce", and a piece of rough in "Fair Haven/Spirit Folk". The latter was a hologram, if that counts. A downside of the series premise is that Voyager never revisited old locations, and officers are forbidden from intermingling with the crew, so a long-lasting relationship was out of the question.
- Chakotay had two major relationships in the series: the first one turned adversarial (Seska), and the other hastily-whipped up by the writers, seemingly to torment the actor (Beltran complained that the far superior Jeri Ryan was stealing his screentime; as punishment, his few remaining scenes were spent courting Jeri. The lesson: Don't fuck with Brannon Braga.) In "Unforgettable", his romance with Virginia Madsen is thwarted when her people blank out the memories. Even before she got the Will Smith treatment, there was a constant impression that both actors would rather be elsewhere.
Joe Ford
: A Chakotay romance almost seems like a contradiction in terms. The guy is a robot, plain and simple, and all of his actions are fairly mechanical so to suggest that there is a heart beating underneath all that New Age mysticism and Starfleet procedure is a joke...Beltran makes the plea ‘don’t go’ with all the passion of a Speak’n’Spell reading poetry.
- This was such a common event that characters who keep getting the Girl of the Week in a TV series are sometimes referred to as 'Kirk' or 'a Kirk', either as criticism or compliment, often by geeky characters. See various episodes of Stargate Atlantis as an example, with Rodney McKay calling John Shepherd 'Kirk' after he has met and conquered the girl - but then he's jealous! The epitome of this was when Shephard tried to hit on Rodney's married sister in the episode 'McKay and Mrs Miller' (S3 E08).
- This specific example was hilariously lampshaded in the In Living Color! skit The Wrath of Farrakhan: 'You even take the ugly ones, Captain!'
- Omnipresent during the early seasons of Supernatural, where for all but the most important of mythology episodes there would be a new girl in every episode, usually but not always at least an implicit love interest for one of the brothers. In season 4 when the Filler ratio has become far lower this becomes much less common, and then by season 6 it has disappeared altogether. It's almost jarring going from season 1 where Dean could seemingly not go five minutes without meeting and flirting with some hot girl to seasons 8-10 where through which he doesn't go on a single on-screen date.
- 30 Rock has girls/boys of the season for both Liz and Jack. They also tend to break up with people around the same time. It's eerie.
- Time Trax had very few episodes without one of these.
- A common trope on The Wild Wild West — many episodes ended with West and Gordon on a double date, either with women they'd worked with during the story, or with previously-unmentioned female characters.
- Milked for all it was worth in an episode of Wizards of Waverly Place where everyone is thrilled that geeky Justin is dating someone, and he rattles off a list of girls that's been with, only for his brother to say "Nope, don't remember them."
- Two and a Half Men: Girl of the Week is probably an understatement, seeing how Charlie has even had more than one per day.
- A few characters on Babylon 5 had partners-of-the-week, generally justified by a mix of the characters being career military or politicians, or by the space station being a major travel junction.
- Jeffrey Sinclair, the first commander, had Carolyn Sykes in the pilot, with Catherine Sakai being another on-again off-again girlfriend in the series propernote Sakai notably had the ability to recite Tennyson and make it sound incredibly sexy.
- Catherine Sakai doesn't meet the strict definition of a Girl of the Week, as she appeared in 3 episodes and their story was continued in a novel.
- Dr. Stephen Franklin had several one-off romantic interests, though it is implied that at least a few of these relationships continued Out of Focus after they were no longer important to the plot.
- Centauri ambassador Londo Mollari not only had one, but he also had three wives (all at once, perfectly legal on his homeworld). He ends up divorcing two of the wives and then the girlfriend gets killed off as part of a plan.
- Jeffrey Sinclair, the first commander, had Carolyn Sykes in the pilot, with Catherine Sakai being another on-again off-again girlfriend in the series propernote Sakai notably had the ability to recite Tennyson and make it sound incredibly sexy.
- For the first few seasons, Shawn from Boy Meets World had this. Even in episodes where they tried to establish a backstory of a serious relationship, you only saw the girl for one episode. Eventually they lampshaded it in the episode where he finally takes a permanent girlfriend who sticks around for most of the rest of the series. Justified (kinda) by Shawn's "two-week rule".
- Averted with Peter Gunn. Pete had a steady girlfriend in Edie, the local nightclub singer.
- Highlander loved this after the first season. Mac did have Amanda around on and off, but he had a lot of Girls of the Week too. The series even had a parody song on one of its commercially released outtake reels that lampshaded it. "He'll chop a head, then land in bed with this week's guest star..." It used to make fans complain because Richie and Joe so rarely had girlfriends.
- The Golden Girls had the genderflip of this, with most of the girls having frequent *guys* of the Week.
- Merlin had a milder form of this in the earlier seasons, with several princesses of the Week that came at Uther's behest to try and get Arthur married to someone the king approved of. It didn't work.
- In Ellery Queen, Ellery had several girlfriends in the series, none of whom appeared in more than one episode.
- Friends distinguished between the type of relationship the different characters have. Both Joey and Phoebe have numerous relationships which last barely an episode. Ross and Monica preferred long-term relationships that lasted for at least a few episodes (Julie, Elizabeth, Mona/Richard and Pete). Rachel switches between Guy of the Week and long term interests. Chandler interestingly tried to pick up Girl of the Week one night stands but struggled and was actually happier in his longer relationships (Janice and Kathy).
- The show also had a rather interesting way of using this trope. Often the way relationships worked was that a character would pick up a new love interest, become overly-idealistic and excited about the person. And then some sort of "big reveal" would happen, either immediately ending the relationship (Phoebe and Gary in S5) or gradually ending it throughout the corresponding episode (Rachel and Paul in S6). By the next episode, the character would be totally over it and ready to pursue a new love interest.
- Chandler lampshaded this in an episode, where the group discovers a man in an apartment in their building had died lonely. Chandler reads the man's reasons for dumping his girlfriends — all of which were done for petty reasons — and realizes he's been doing the same thing. He resolves not to do that anymore and decides to give his former girlfriends a second chance. The first one he sees, Janice, is pregnant and thus unavailable, but he actually goes on a date with the second one — a girl he dumped for having a "big head". He then realizes he actually liked her big head, and the episode ends with him smiling.
- Also lampshaded in an episode after Chandler and Monica started dating. After they had their first fight, Chandler assumed the relationship was outright over.
Monica: Why exactly?
Chandler: Because of the weekend. We had a fight.
Monica: Chandler, that's crazy. If you give up every time you have a fight with someone, you'd never be with anyone longer than... (realizing) Oh... - Irene Adler is the protagonist's Girl of the Week in episode 4 of Sherlock, though her disappearance from Sherlock's life at the end of the episode is more out of a desire to adhere to the source material than a firm belief in maintaining the status quo.
- Played for laughs on Married... with Children. There were many episodes where Bud Bundy brought a girl back to his house, using a fake tough guy persona, only for one of the family members to embarrass him and run her off.
- Farscape mainly had shipping within the regular cast, but several regulars had a Boy/Girl of the Week in at least one episode. These ranged from casual sex to love tragically ended by death or betrayal.
- As indicated by its title, a major theme of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis was Dobie's pursuit of various Girls of the Week. Two of the girls lasted long enough to become major characters: the money-hungry Thalia Menninger and the hyperintelligent Zelda Gilroy.
- Iolaus had countless flings with women on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, most of which he never saw again given the nature of the series. Hercules had quite a few as well, but he had more qualms about romance given his history with women. He was more likely to have long-lasting relationships than Iolaus.
- It isn't quite the serial-romance version, but every episode of the Casablanca TV series centers on a woman who interacts with Rick in some way.
- Happens pretty often in Silicon Valley. The only character who had a girlfriend for any amount of time was Gilfoyle. Dinesh and Richard have had a handful of Girls of the Week, and one episode implies that the seemingly shy and awkward Jared Really Gets Around when he wants to, but there haven't been any relationships lasting more than a few episodes.
- In the Saturday Night Live recurring sketch "Whiskers R We", Barbara DeDrew has a new girlfriend every sketch (played by the show's host) to help her showcase the cats in her adopt-a-thons.
- In the early seasons of MacGyver (1985), Mac seemed to get involved with a different woman every week. It was toned down in later seasons.
- Full House would frequently have plots that see Jesse, Danny, and/or Joey paired up with women, who would rarely make more than one appearance. Jesse eventually became an Official Couple with Becky after she was introduced in the second season, and while Danny did get a recurring girlfriend in the fifth season and went as far as to get engaged with her at the sixth season finale, they eventually realize the relationship isn't working and break up in the seventh season.
- Jessica Jones (2015): Jessica gets a different boyfriend for each season: Luke Cage in season 1, Oscar Arocho in season 2, and Erik Gelden in season 3.
Radio
- A few episodes of Our Miss Brooks had a Girl of the Week plot:
- "New Girl In Town" is Exactly What It Says on the Tin. Walter Denton dates the new girl, while Miss Brooks' Love Interest Mr. Boynton is attracted to the girl's widowed mother.
- "Life Can Be Bones" sees Miss Brooks romantically threatened by Mr. Boynton's temporary laboratory assistant.
- In "Hello, Mr. Chips", Miss Brooks tries to date an English schoolmaster to make Mr. Boynton jealous.
- In "Clay City English Teacher", scheming Clay City High School principal Jason Brille tries to lure Miss Brooks to his school with the eponymous male teacher. Miss Brooks won't go unless there's a job for Mr. Boynton too.
- At least the radio show of Have Gun – Will Travel has the main character Paladin returning from his adventures to a new girl. Subverted in that he wasn't always successful in the attempt.
- Harry Lime almost always had one of these (generally some girl he was attempting to scam) in The Lives of Harry Lime.
- Ectoplasm (2000) has a Damsel in Distress of the Week, played each time by Sophie Aldred.
Video Games
- Dante from the Devil May Cry series had one for almost each game. The first had Trish, the second had Lucia and the third (a prequel) had Lady. The fourth game brings back Trish and Lady at the same time. However, Dante has not shown explicit romantic interest in any of them, and how exactly they feel about him is up in the air as well.
- Ribbon is this to Kirby in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, never seen after that game. She never does get a proper replacement, however, unlike most other examples, and fans clamor for her return.
- Solid Snake had a different potential love interest in the earlier Metal Gear games which culminated with Meryl in MGS1 (the previous ones being Diane in MG1 and Holly in MG2). This was subverted in subsequent installments, with Snake having no real love interest in MGS2 (going as far as to dismiss Olga as a potential love interest by claiming that he's "tired of tomboys"), and in MGS4 Meryl marries Akiba (which upset quite a few Snake/Meryl fans) and the game ends with a scene of Snake promising to stay at Otacon's side for the rest of his life (which made a lot of Snake/Otacon fans extremely happy). He got quite a few ladies after him in the non-canon games, if you count Chris Jenner, Teliko Friedman, and Venus. Out of all these girls, the only ones whose affections are truly reciprocated are Meryl, Chris and (depending on how you interpret their relationship) Teliko - Diane won't admit she admires Snake, Venus flirts with Snake but Snake shows disinterest, and while Snake agrees to go on a date with Holly he loses interest in her pretty much immediately afterwards and dumps her, with the game ending on a humorous, James Bond-esque stinger of Holly complaining about not getting a dinner.
- Ratchet from the Ratchet & Clank series, seems to be quite the ladies man for a short fuzzy dude. While Angela Cross from the second game is a debatable case, it really started with Sasha Phyronix in the third game (she made a cameo in the fourth), a character named Hydrogirl offered Ratchet to 'come hook her up' if he was ever near her home planet at the end of the fourth game, the most recent games seem to have Talwyn Apogee in this role.
- Clank himself is probably more successful. Hell, the dude literally was a robot James Bond in his big-screen movie role.
- The Uncharted series both fits and subverts this trope. In the first game Elena Fisher is the main love interest for Nathan Drake. The second has Elena absent at first and instead has an even older flame, Chloe Frazer supposedly rekindling her relationship with Drake. Halfway through the game, Drake runs into Elena which starts a love triangle of sorts. At the end after Elena has seemingly died (they even show Drake standing next to a Tibetan grave), the game reveals her to actually be alive and well (the grave was for another supporting character), Chloe and Drake go their respective ways and Drake and Elena officially become a couple a last. Awwwwww. And they do it whilst bickering into the sunset. Lampshaded in Elena's first encounter with Drake and Chloe in Among Thieves. "Elena Fisher, last year's model."
- Ys's heroine changes each game. Some are seen again in the sequels, but none of them ever get the guy.
Web Original
- In the TV Tropes original series Echo Chamber, Tom starts dating Porn Girl, but for some reason, doesn't realize the relationship is doomed. Dana is not fooled.
Web Serial Novel
- Sapphire: Ivanka, Michiru, and Élodie.
- Averted in Episode II. Michiru would fit this trope, but Alec refuses to fall for her, still waiting to be with Ivanka again. Although, Alec and Michiru eventually try to make love, but are rudely interrupted by Daisuke.
Western Animation
- In the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic had a new love interest every other episode. Averted on the rare occasion when his job was to set the girl up with her true love and to save her from Robotnik's advances. He "married" Robotnik himself disguised as said love interest. He also hooked up a former Girl of the Week with Robotnik's son, which worked because they were both robots.
- Avatar: The Last Airbender:
- In "The Tales of Ba Sing Se", Zuko, while hiding out in Ba Sing Se, goes on a date with a local girl named Jin. The date goes well and the two even share a kiss, but Zuko breaks it off and leaves, presumably because he knows that having a girlfriend will only make his situation as an exiled prince hiding out in enemy territory even more complicated. He says at the end of the segment that he enjoyed the date, but Jin never appears or gets mentioned again, and Zuko ends the series in a relationship with Mai, so presumably the romance didn't go any further.
- Tammy the squirrel and Foxglove the bat in Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers. There were others too, including Sparky, a rare example of a "Boy of the Week", for Gadget. It was a fairly regular trope in the show. An interesting case, since Foxglove does return in the official (but short-lived) comic revival.
- On Daria, Quinn could have a new boyfriend every week, along with her usual harem, the Three J's. Daria herself had one Boy of the Week in Ted Dewitt-Clinton, though it was more of just an Odd Friendship with rather obvious Ship Tease. Jane had one in Nathan the retrophile.
- Mabel of Gravity Falls, due to her wanting an 'epic summer romance'. The very first episode had a montage of her flirting with various guys with no success. This has happened so much that in "Boyz Crazy", she laments that every boy she's met has had to leave her. In "Sock Opera", Dipper refers to her latest crush as her crush-of-the-week. In something of a subversion, Mabel is actually affected by these failed romances to the point where she's seriously considering Laser-Guided Amnesia.
- James Bond Jr. is said to have "learned the game from his uncle James".
- Two second season episodes of Jimmy Two-Shoes dealt with Jimmy falling for these: "Heloise, Schemeloise" (in which he fell for Heloise's Robot Me Schmeloise) and "She Loves Me" (where he competed with Beezy for Arianna). Both were justified as Arianna turned out to be a giant insect monster in disguise and Heloise destroyed Schemloise in the end, but all this is very Out of Character considering Jimmy is usually Oblivious to Love.
- In Life With Loopy, Stacy is this to Larry in the short "Larry's Girl". After they become a couple at the end of the episode, she's never seen nor mentioned again.
- In Over the Garden Wall, Lorna is this to Wirt. After being freed from Demonic Possession, she opts to stay with her family rather than go with him and Greg.
- Phineas and Ferb:
- The episode "That Sinking Feeling" features Baljeet and his childhood friend Mishti. The titular brothers attempt to create romance for the two during the episode (even though Isabella mistakenly thinks it's for her), and it looks like it worked at the end (kinda). Too bad she's never seen again.
- Candace got one in "A Hard Day's Knight." Interestingly, he looked almost identical to her usual Love Interest, Jeremy; since that episode takes place while the family is on vacation the writers presumably just realized they needed a replacement.
- Subverted with Vanessa's boyfriend Johnny, who seemed like this at first but was revealed to be officially dating Vanessa a season and a half later. Stacy has also had Chad and Coltrane, though the latter is implied to be her on-and-off boyfriend.
- All the Doof's dates.
- Megan for Chuckie in "Cradle Attraction" in Rugrats, much to Chuckie's dismay.
- On The Simpsons, Bart and Lisa have occasional love interests, or at least someone romantically interested in them. These characters are almost always played by a celebrity guest, so they are never seen again.
- The girls in Totally Spies! rarely keep a love interest for more than one episode due to Status Quo Is God.
- Kimber from Jem has a new love interest every several episodes and they almost never last more than that episode. Two eventually did come back though, and there was a Love Triangle where both wanted to marry Kimber.
- The T.U.F.F. Puppy episodes "Love Bird" and "Girlfriend or Foe?" respectively have Dudley falling for a bank teller named Becky and having a girlfriend named Daisy. Neither of them appear in any further episodes.
