There's this classic trope when it comes to any sitcom, whether it be one from the earlier ages of television to the modern sitcoms that we all know and love now – a dorky man who has a wife who is, in all honesty, way too hot for them and was a million lengths out of their league. And today we will go over the examples that I know everyone will agree with me on.
Clair Huxtable (The Cosby Show)
Possibly one of the most known examples of a TV wife who was way too hot for her husband was Clair Huxtable on the hugely popular The Cosby Show. The character was the wife of Cliff Huxtable, who played Bill Cosby. Phylicia Rashad portrayed her and looked gorgeous throughout her run.
Jamie Stemple Buchman (Mad About You)
Jamie Stemple Buchman was Paul's wife in the NBC sitcom Mad About You and was a main character for the entirety of the show. Helen Hunt portrayed the famous character, while her husband, Paul Buchman, was performed by Paul Reiser.
Angie Lopez (George Lopez)
George Lopez was an iconic sitcom of the early 2000s, but while the main character of the series might be the titular man, George Lopez, to me, it was always Angie Lopez who stole the show, the wife of George. Constance Marie portrayed the character for the entirety of the show's run.
Gabrielle Solis (Desperate Housewives)
Gabrielle Solis, or Gaby, was a main character on the TV series Desperate Housewives. While the show didn't have the typical sitcom quality you would probably expect, it featured plenty of wives who were way too hot for their husbands, and Gaby was one of them. She was portrayed by Eva Longoria.
Elyse Keaton (Family Ties)
Family Ties was a great TV series that made several big names famous, such as Michael J. Fox, Tina Yothers, and more, following the dynamics of a family household with two different political ideas. The family's matriarch was Elyse Keaton, played by Meredith Baxter, and her husband was Steven Keaton, played by Michael Gross – who couldn't come close to how perfect she was.
Wanda Mac (The Bernie Mac Show)
Another famous sitcom on this list is The Bernie Mac Show, where Bernie Mac starred as Bernard "Bernie" McCullough. And while the comedian is great, his wife steals the show. Kellita Smith played Wanda Mac and was every bit as smart as she was intelligent and beautiful.
Theresa Russo (Wizards Of Waverly Place)
As someone who grew up watching Wizards of Waverly Place and believes it deserves a reunion, I can think of no better example of a wife way too pretty for her husband than Theresa Russo, played by Maria Canals-Barrera. Don't get me wrong, Jerry's a great guy, but he can't hold a candle to her.
Debra Barone (Everybody Loves Raymond)
Played by Patricia Heaton, Debra Barone was the wife of Ray Barone in Everybody Loves Raymond, a sitcom that ran for over two hundred episodes for several years. She's the main person who runs the household, but in my heart, she's the star of the main show.
Claire Dunphy (Modern Family)
The Modern Family cast is filled to the brim with talent and beauty, but let's be honest – Claire Dunphy, played by Julie Bowen, was way too hot for Phil Dunphy, who Ty Burrell portrayed. But Phil also made up for it with the loving way he treats Claire, so honestly, they're the epitome of "couple goals."
Maggie Seaver (Growing Pains)
Released in the early 1990s, Growing Pains was part of a long list of sitcoms that yet again had wives who were way too hot for their husbands. Maggie Seaver of the Seaver family is one of those. She was played by Joanna Kerns, who acted alongside Alan Thicke.
Lucy Ricardo (I Love Lucy)
You can't get more classic than an I Love Lucy reference where we need to talk about Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Don't get me wrong, I do find Arnez at least attractive, but Lucille Ball, who played the titular character Lucy, was beautiful and had such hilarity and wit that she was the perfect lead for this series. And through everything, Ricky, her husband, always stood by her.
Ella Payne (House Of Payne)
So many Tyler Perry movies and TV shows are out there, and House of Payne was among the most successful. In this series, Ella Payne, who was married to Curtis Payne, is the matriarch of the Payne family. Always the voice of reason, she loved her husband dearly and kept the family together when chaos would inevitably ensue, all while looking good in her older years.
Jessica Huang (Fresh Off The Boat)
Fresh off the Boat is a modern-day sitcom that I love, and while I do love Randall Park's movies and TV shows and think the actor is great, he doesn't hold a candle to the beauty of Constance Wu. She is my queen, and I bow down to her and her character, Jessica Haung, which keeps the family moving in this series.
Carrie Heffernan (The King Of Queens)
Look, Kevin James is a great guy. I love his movies. He's hilarious, too. But when you watch The King of Queens, you know his personality won over the beautiful Carrie Heffernan, played by Leah Remini. She is utterly perfect – but hey, she also loves the heck out of her husband, so I can't complain. I would love Kevin James, too, with how often he makes me laugh.
Lily Aldrin (How I Met Your Mother)
Another cast I love is the How I Met Your Mother cast, and yes, I stand by the fact that Lily Aldrin was way too hot for Marshall. I mean, it's Alyson Hannigan. This role made her famous, but she is beautiful and funny, and Marshall, played by Jason Segel, is just alright, but he's nothing compared to her.
Gloria Delgado-Pritchett (Modern Family)
I mean, do I even need to give a reason for this? Gloria's looks, played by Sofia Vergara, was a running gag in Modern Family, how everyone could hardly believe that Jay (played by Ed O'Neill) could score someone like her and believe her to be a gold digger. But Gloria genuinely loved Jay, with all of her feisty self that I love – even if I think she is way too hot for him.
Laura Petrie (The Dick Van Dyke Show)
You can't get more classic than Mary Tyler Moore on The Dick Van Dyke Show. I mean, Dick Van Dyke was a good-looking younger man, especially in early TV standards where every leading man seemed to wear a suit. But my eyes always went to Laura Petrie, Rob's wife in the show, played by Moore. She was another level of beauty – and comedy!
Rainbow Johnson (Black-ish)
Believe it or not, Tracee Ellis Ross is the daughter of famous singer Diana Ross, and she is every bit as beautiful as her mother – talk about people that you never knew were related before.
Ross's role in the hit TV show Black-ish as Rainbow Johnson has been hailed as one of the greatest of the 2010s in sitcoms. Her on-screen husband, Andre Johnson, who Anthony Anderson plays, is also good-looking, but Tracee is such a vision I can't help but love her.
Rebecca "Becky" Donaldson (Full House)
Okay, so hear me out. I know that John Stamos is one of the most good-looking men alive. I get that. He even looks excellent now, decades after Full House ended. But Becky was too hot for him, and I stood by that. Lori Loughlin, an icon of the show, played her.
April Ludgate (Parks And Recreation)
Anyone would agree with me when I say that Aubrey Plaza's best TV shows include Parks and Recreation, and her character of April Ludgate has become a mainstay in modern TV history for her sarcastic and deadpan responses. Her husband in the show was Andy Dwyer, who Chris Pratt played.
Yes, I know what you're thinking, but the show was before Pratt joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There was a time when he was just the super funny guy before turning into a space superhero. But Andy and April were cute, so I'll give them a pass.
Marge Simpson (The Simpsons)
Okay, I'll be the first to admit that I've openly called cartoon characters hot, and I have no regrets. The people who draw these people know what they're doing. But Marge Simpson from The Simpsons is not only too good-looking for Homer but too good for him. In my rewatches of the show, she is the glue that holds that family together because the amount of drama Homer gets into regularly is almost otherworldly.
Alice Kramden (The Honeymooners)
Alice Kramden from The Honeymooners needed to be on this list. Audrey Meadows plays her for most of the show, and Pert Kelton plays her for the first nine skits of the series. However, both of these actresses are way hotter than Alice's husband, Ralph, played by Jackie Gleason – and it doesn't help that he gets literal tantrums.
Joy Turner (My Name Is Earl)
Jason Lee played the titular character, Earl, in My Name is Earl, and he's a decent-looking guy – but have you seen his ex-wife, Joy Turner? Jaime Pressly and good god play her. I don't know how Earl scored her years ago, but somehow, they were married at one point.
Vivian Banks (The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air)
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air will live on in my heart as one of my favorite TV shows because it was so funny. But I will always stand by the fact that Vivian Banks was always way too hot for Uncle Phil. Both actresses who played her, Janet Hubert and Daphne Maxwell Reid, were just out of this world.
Lily Munster (The Munsters)
One of the most iconic TV shows of the 1960s had to be The Munsters, and while Herman Munster (played by Fred Gwynne) was the main character, let's be truthful here and say that Lily Munster was so much better-looking than him. Portrayed by Yvonne De Carlo, Lily Munster turned scary freaky into fabulous with her Frankenstein hair.
Lois Griffin (Family Guy)
Family Guy has made jokes about how Lois Griffin is far too hot for her husband, Peter Griffin. And now, after growing up on this show, I can fully admit it, too. She needs someone else because Peter wouldn't do it for me, and he most certainly shouldn't do it for Lois because he often makes a mess out of everything.
Jordan Sullivan (Scrubs)
Scrubs was another iconic TV series that was hilarious in so many ways, and in that show, we had Jordan Sullivan, played by Christa Miller. While she is the ex-wife of Dr. Cox, you can still wonder how he pulled someone like her way back when considering Cox is played by John C. McGinley who isn't as good-looking, to be frank.
Maude Flanders (The Simpsons)
Ned Flanders is probably the most unproblematic cartoon character out there, at least nine times out of ten. He just wants to be kind most of the time and is often only driven to extremes because of Homer. But his wife, Maude Flanders, is still way hotter than him. Not sure how he got her when they were young, but I still can't believe they're a thing.
Lindsay Bluth Funke (Arrested Development)
The entire Arrested Development cast is talented and good-looking, but Portia de Rossi played Lindsay Bluth Funke, and she was way hotter than Tobias, whom David Cross played. He can't even hold a candle to her. It's not even fair to compare.
Cheryl Mabel (According To Jim)
Jim Belushi played the main character of According to Jim, but you want to know who played his wife, Cheryl Mabel? Courtney Thorne-Smith is a million times more good-looking than her husband.
Kate Summers (Silver Spoons)
Silver Spoons was a sitcom released in the 1980s with several plot threads, but one of the big ones was between Kate and Edward and the "will-they-won't-they" dynamic they had going on. Kate was played by Erin Gray, and Joel Higgins played Edward, and I'll be honest and say that Kate was undoubtedly the better-looking pair of those two.
Gayle Gergich (Parks And Recreation)
The Parks and Recreation cast has plenty of great characters, but one of the best was Gayle Gergich, played by Christie Brinkley, who was Jerry's wife on the show (who was played by Jim O'Heir). The biggest reason he should be on this list is that everyone is shocked that Jerry's wife is gorgeous because he's, well, Jerry. And she's utterly beautiful.
There are so many other sitcoms with this same trope, but this highlights some of the most famous ones. But upon writing this, I think I want to go back and rewatch some of these now. That would be great—time to hope on Netflix.
