Ah, the '90s — the most important decade in television history, if you ask me. It brought us Friends, Dawson's Creek, and Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and gave us something to look forward to every Friday night with the unforgettable TGIF lineup (I still miss you, Boy Meets World). But even better than the TV shows themselves were the relationships they sparked, which gave us the joy of watching some seriously cute '90s couples on the Emmys red carpet.
Back before we could get a Google Alert or a Snapchat update about a Hollywood couple's every move (what crazy times those were!), the red carpet was a place where celebs could take the world's "will they, won't they?" rumors and put them to rest once and for all. The Emmys red carpet was a place for TV couples to announce themselves in real life, and I will never, ever forget my own personal freakout when Dawson and Joey hit the carpet together in 1998.
Sadly, though, as Ultracynic put it — nothing lasts forever.
The most depressing part about taking a walk down Emmys red carpet memory lane in pursuit of this list (other than seeing the ugly AF outfits some of these people decided were red carpet appropriate back in the 90's) was realizing that not a single one of these couples is still together. Apparently, these relationships just weren't strong enough to survive Y2K.
Here's look at some of the cutest couples to grace the Emmys red carpet during our favorite decade, and take a second to mourn what could have been at the 68th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards this Sunday night. RIP forever, Brad and Jen.
1. Katie Holmes & James Van Der Beek
Joey (née Katie Holmes) may technically have picked Pacey (and who can blame her after seeing Dawson's horrifying ugly cry), but she gave everyone on team Dawson a littttttle bit of hope at the 1998 Emmys when the pair walked the red carpet together. Sing it with me now: I don't wanna wait...
2. Brad Pitt & Jennifer Aniston
Honestly — I still can't even talk about Brad and Jen and what coulda, woulda shoulda been. Their breakup effected me more significantly than any of my own ever have (probably because I've never dated anyone as attractive as Brad Pitt...). How could a couple who loved each other through so, so many bad hairstyles not last forever?
3. Bruce Willis & Demi Moore
As someone who grew up during the throngs of "Mrs. Kutcher" mania, it almost feels weird to see these two standing on a vintage red carpet without Ashton and their kids. Moore and Willis divorced in 1998, but it didn't stop them from attending awards shows together with their family. They were the OG "conscious uncouplers," and we should all appreciate the hell out of them for showing the world what it really means to be a "modern family."
4. Téa Leoni & David Duchovny
Thanks to Duchovny's superstar status on The X-Files (which was basically the pre-cursor Stranger Things), these two were Hollywood royalty back in the '90s. They divorced in 2014 after 17 years of marriage due to Duchovny's sex addiction, which I can only imagine made watching him play sex fiend Hank Moody on Californication a littttttle awkward for everyone.
5. Ellen Degeneres & Anne Heche
It's hard to believe Ellen Degeneres was ever with someone other than picture-perfect Portia de Rossi, but back in the '90s, Degeneres and then-girlfriend Anne Heche were one of the first lesbian power couples in Hollywood.The couple came out to Oprah on her daytime talk show in 1997, and spent three and a half years crushing red carpets in matching blonde pixie cuts.
6. Julia Roberts & Benjamin Bratt
If you can look at this picture and not immediately hear Gracie Lou Freebush singing, "You think I'm gorgeous, you want to hug me, you want to kiss me...," you should be ashamed to call yourself a millennial.
7. Kelsey & Camille Grammer
This photo is proof that there was a time, long before Season 1 of The Real House Wives of Beverly Hills," that Kelsey and Camille were truly happy. Le sigh.
8. Will Smith & Sheree Zampino
Before he was the patriarch of the Hollywood power family we've come to know and love, Will Smith was married to Sheree Zampino. The two were together from 1991 to 1995, and have a son, Trey, 23. Trey Smith has not starred in a Louis Vuitton campaign or whipped his hair back and forth while covered in paint like his half siblings, but he was featured in the 1997 music video for Smith's song "Just The Two of Us." Sometimes I feel like life would be so much cooler if Will Smith was my dad, too.
Don't forget to tune in to the Emmys on Sunday, Sept. 18 to see all the fabulous couples of 2016. Sure, it might not seem as exciting as those ones from the '90s, but I'm sure we'll all be mourning over the current couples that didn't make it in 2036.
