Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Tiffani Thiessen and Jaime Pressly on FastlaneThe preview for this weeks Blade teased a kiss between Krista (Jill Wagner) and Chase (Jessica Gower). In celebration of that possibility, I thought now would be a good time to touch on other girl-girl kisses in our television history. Sometimes they are to make a statement. Sometimes they are a ploy to grab ratings. And every once in a while, it’s just a natural part of the story. Here are the five that come to mind first for me.

Roseanne (Roseanne Barr) and Sharon (Mariel Hemingway) - Roseanne This was an important moment in television. At the time, there was no L-Word, and two girls kissing was still a very controversial thing. Roseanne has her faults, to be sure, but standing up to the network to get this episode on the air is something to be proud of.

Ally (Calista Flockhart) and Ling (Lucy Liu) - Ally McBeal This one strikes me as somewhat the opposite of the Roseanne kiss. There was much less statement, and much more ratings grabbing sensationalism in this lip-lock. In that regard, it worked very well. Of course, the gang over at Ally McBeal had plenty of practice. Along with Ling, Ally also kissed Georgia (Courtney Thorne-Smith) and Elaine (Jane Krokowski). But if I have to pick one, it’s Ling every time. And yes, I was an Ally McBeal fan.

Willow (Alyson Hannigan) and Tara (Amber Benson) - Buffy The Vampire Slayer Stretching a bit, because it’s not just one moment, but I have to have Willow and Tara on the list because of the way Joss Whedon handled their relationship. It was never played for the sensational ratings grab and it was never about the show adding gay characters. It was just the natural progression of the story and Whedon always dealt with it in a very real way. As real as you can get when you are talking about witches living on a hellmouth anyway.

Inara (Morena Baccarin) and The Councilor (Katherine Kendall) - Firefly I don’t know if Joss makes the list twice because I am a big fan of his television work, or because of the way he writes women. A little of both perhaps. Either way, when the Councilor came calling on Inara, all aboard Serenity were a bit taken aback. Unfortunately for them, they weren’t privy to the scene in Inara’s shuttle that we were. It’s a tiny little scene that doesn’t really factor in to the overall "War Stories" plot, but it does give us a little glimpse at Inara with her guard down. Either that, or I was taken in by Inara as much as the Councilor was. Along with the two beautiful women kissing, this pairing is also notable because it was the setup to one of the classic Jayne lines in the series. "I’ll be in my bunk."

Billie (Tiffani Thiessen) and Sara (Jaime Pressly) - Fastlane Another entry that was played hard for ratings, and managed to deliver a moment Kelly Kapowski fans had been waiting years for. Taking a page out of Ally’s play book, the week leading up to this kiss you couldn’t watch FOX without being hit over the head by the promo. Yeah, it was cheap, but if you can think of a girl-girl kiss from television that features two more beautiful women, I’d love to hear about it.