Valentine's Day Episodes

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Jewelry, Roses and Chocolates. Valentine's Day (technically Saint Valentine's Day) is a big deal, and boy do writers know it! The holiday on February 14 has been used a million times in all sorts of media to bring up love and romance. White Day is a similar holiday observed in Japan and South Korea on March 14. In some countries, it's normal to give Valentine's Day cards or gifts to friends, whereas in other countries you'd only give a Valentine's Day present to someone you are romantically interested in, leading to a bit of Values Dissonance for certain audiences.

In fiction, characters face romantic challenges or break new ground on episodes that revolve around valentine's day. A Valentine's Day Episode plot typically centers around hooking up, or with struggling to find the right gift, or with someone (usually the man, usually on some kind of comedy) forgetting about the holiday and struggling to find a suitable gift. There are any number of Love Tropes, comedic love tropes and Sex Tropes that are common to Valentine-centric plots. Can be fertile ground for Shipping Tropes. And likely to be a pivotal part of a Romance Arc.

While many Valentine's Day Episodes will usually air just before or on Valentine's Day, this is not always the case. To be consider a Valentine's Day Episode a work needs to both explicitly mention Valentine's Day and have a plot focused on love, romance, and relationship, when that hasn't been the sole focus previously.

See Halloween Episode and Christmas Episode

Examples of Valentine's Day Episodes include:

Comic Books

  • The Hack Slash and Bomb Queen crossover was supposed to be this, though apparently due to delays causing it to be released after February the holiday aspect was dropped.
  • Marvel once produced a number of I (Heart) Marvel one-shots; the Spider-Man themed one, "Web of Love", was all about Spidey trying to think of a good Valentine's Day present for his wife, Mary Jane. In the end he had Tony Stark make a pair of web-shooting bracelets for her.
  • The Books of Magic had a Valentine's Day story called "This Is Not About Chocolate", in which Eros/Cupid attempted to strike back against his modern image as a cherub in a nappy (and by analogy, the comercialisation of romance in general).


Fan Works


Literature

  • Older Than Print: The first known connection between romance and Valentine's Day was made by Geoffrey Chaucer.
  • Harry Potter has had two:
  • The Savannah Reid mystery Sugar and Spite. Savannah laments somewhat over the fact that her only Valentine's Day plan is to assist her cop buddy Dirk with a stakeout. When Dirk's ex-wife shows up and is murdered with his gun, Savannah spends the days leading up to the holiday working to clear his name and find the real killer, comforting Dirk along the way and realizing, not for the first time, that her feelings for him might be a little more complicated than just friendship. At the end he thanks her for her support by splitting a heart-shaped box of chocolates with her.


Live-Action TV


Newspaper Comics

  • Calvin and Hobbes had a series of comics about Valentine's Day every year during its run. These tend to focus on Calvin's and Susie's nascent crush.
  • Peanuts often used Charlie Brown's not getting valentine cards as a theme.


Web Animation

  • Teen Girl Squad. "Issue 12" involves the girls trying to find dates for the big day. What's Her Face finds true love with the Wireless Wizard, the other three girls die. The episode is "drawn" in red pen for the occasion.


Web Comics

Western Animation

  • The Cleveland Show
  • Blue's Clues: Featured in an episode, though in a similar fashion to You Mean "Xmas", they refer to the holiday as "Love Day".
  • Futurama
    • 'Put Your Head on My Shoulder' focuses on a Fry/Amy relationship. Just as Fry decides to break up, they get in an accident and Zoidberg has to graft Fry's head onto Amy's shoulder to keep him alive.
    • In 'Love and Rockets', Planet Express gets a lucrative job transporting candy hearts, while Bender starts dating the Planet Express Ship's computer, then chooses the worst possible time to break up with her. The whole thing plays out as a very strange parody of 2001: A Space Odyssey. The episode also features some Ship Teasing for the Will They or Won't They? relationship between Fry and Leela.
  • Johnny Bravo had a Valentine's Day special, where it's revealed that Johnny was born on February 14. It had him finally meet a woman who likes him, only she turns out to be a secret agent.
  • Peanuts had a few Valentine TV Special, including "Be my Valentine, Charlie Brown" and "A Charlie Brown Valentine".
  • In The Simpsons:
    • After the actual death of Ned Flanders' wife, Ned at a Valentine's Day dance became conscious of the fact, thanks to Homer speaking out loud about the fact its a day for couples.
    • Another Simpsons example, Homer and a bunch of other married men got mad at Apu for making them look bad one Valentine's Day by his over-the-top romancing of Manjua - getting Elton John to sing for her, etc.
    • "I Love Lisa" focuses on a crush Ralph Wiggum has on Lisa.
  • The Spectacular Spider-Man: Gangland in season two has a huge group date...and a mobster summit where Hammerhead betrays Tombstone/The Big Man, and a three-way fight between Tombstone, Silvermane, and Doc Ock breaks out. The Green Goblin put Hammerhead up to it.
  • SpongeBob SquarePants had a story where he schemed to get the best Valentines Day present ever for Patrick. Things go wrong, Hilarity Ensues.
  • The House of Mouse episode "Goofy's Valentine Date."
  • Recess had "That Stinking Feeling" and "My Funny Valentines" paired together for airing. "That Stinking Feeling" was about Spinelli's crush on a boy, while "My Funny Valentines" (which is the more official Valentines episode) was about T.J. making joke Valentine cards for the girls of the school, but with them thinking that he had crushes on him. Ship Tease ensued between T.J. and Spinelli (again). Oddly enough, the episode didn't air anywhere near the Holliday (though the show is usually in it's off-season in February)
  • Doug's 1st Movie was set around Valentine's Day, centering around a Valentine's Dance.
  • While KaBlam! doesn't have an official Valentine's Day episode, "A Nut In Every Bite!" (where Henry falls in love with Dawn, the network executive's granddaughter) was usually re-ran in February.
  • Rugrats had a Valentine's Day two-parter.
  • The My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic episode 'Hearts And Hooves Day', in which the Cutie Mark Crusaders try to get Cherilee and Big Mac together using a love potion. It doesn't go as well as they'd hoped.
  • 101 Dalmatians: The Series had "Valentine's Daze", showing Cruella's dislike for the holliday as she has no one to be her Valentine.