Dear TV Crushes from the early to mid 2000's

Joshua Lyman (Bradley Whitford), The West Wing

As I got older, so did my men and so did their problems. Welcome to the complicated, hilarious, determined, arrogant, egotistical, vulnerable world of one Joshua Lyman. A man whose swagger both literal and metaphoric created a legion of female fans. If men were to have a 'smart' sex symbol in the 90's with Dana Scully, the ladies got their own back in the mid-2000's with Josh Lyman.

Thanks to the amazing words from Aaron Sorkin and the Peter Pan infused performance from Bradley Whitford, Josh was everything I desired - wait, still desire. He was wounded and brooding on occasion, whipfast smart always and that perfect balance of ego driven brilliance (as opposed to being ego driven jackass) and vulnerable man with wounded soul. Often described by his peers as the best among them (just never to his face), he only ever wanted to be the 'guy' that other could depend on and at times worked himself to extremes to achieve this goal.

Then of course, there was his Girl Friday inspired romance with his assistant Donna Moss. It was seven years of banter fuelled fun and misinterpretations and while it killed me as a fan, it never became old or Ross and Rachel-esque. At the conclusion of this amazing show, the interview Bradley Whitford and Janel Maloney did with Backstage magazine, basically summed up their relationship.

"In our relationship, I was always the hotshot Washington kid who needed a lot of ego to function, and people assumed I was in charge--when the truth was I couldn't have done anything without her."
-- Bradley Whitford

"I decided early on that this was a passionate, deep love relationship where my character was mad, head over heels in love."
-- Janel Moloney

He was also sporting possibly the sexiest white man backside in TV at the time. And ladies who know, will support me that when he rolled up his sleeves to get to work, those forearms - WOWSER! And those dimples to this very day, still kill me.



Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring), Veronica Mars

From one damaged man to another! Logan was more snark, more sarcasm and more deep vulnerabilities thanks to a completely messed up family. But boy did he love our legendary Veronica, who challenged his masochistic tendencies and loved him inspite and maybe because of his failings.

From the wealthy side of Neptune, with an abusive alcoholic, sleeping with your girlfriend murdering father and a missing presumed dead mother, he was bound to be messed up. But with Veronica, he was slightly calmed without ever being a converted puppy dog. He was always acting first thinking later, from his blind early hatred of Veronica based on misunderstandings, to carrying a gun to protect her from thugs who meant harm. Of course, he had an acid tongue which could be both hilarious and harsh and cause humour and heartbreak and when he wasn't being the best badass boyfriend around, he could be plotting your downfall just as easily.

The first two seasons of Veronica Mars, were chock full of the epic romance of LoVe (Logan and Veronica's portmanteau) from secret romances, to surprise party discoveries to make out session in girls bathrooms to violent (for the Mars lounge lamps only) breakups and then anti-prom declarations. And you know what, Wikipedia agrees with me, Logan Echolls is referenced in both Breakout Character status and Supercouple - that's a gold stamp of TV Crush approval right there.