Playful couples are my favorite; those wonderful pairs who smile at each other through pot-shots, one-liners and snark. They're devil enough to make you wonder why they're together, until you read the love in their eyes as they make their cracks or get a glimpse of vulnerability behind the scenes.
Make the couple detectives and hard-drinking socialites and the sky's the limit.
I just got through watching The Thin Man, a 1930's murder mystery (based on a book by Dashiell Hammett), and its heroes, Nick & Nora Charles, pretty much define the type. Emma Peel & John Steed, Ralph & Sue Dibney, Laura Holt & Remmington Steele, Maddie Hayes & David Addison, even (to a degree) Rory & Lorelai Gilmore; they all draw their inspiration from these two.
I couldn't do the dialog justice without quoting reams of it, so you're better off just watching the film. It suffers from pacing that's about 70 years out of date for today, but every moment that Nick & Nora are on the screen is pure gold. I've written a rare few scenes like this pair get, and I treasure every one. I just wish that they had more time on screen together uninterrupted - fortunately, there's 5 sequels I can get a hold of.
Funny thing about watching the movie, though; I'd sort of seen it before and didn't remember until now. Lena and I saw it on, I guess, our second date. It was one of the movies they played on the big open-air screen in Bryant Park over the course of that summer, and we sat together on the steps and mostly talked as the movie played in the background. I remember that being a good night, but right now I'm just thinking that more towns need to do free movies and shows in their various public parks in the summer.