Can men and women really be friends?

Grace Adler and Will Truman met as freshmen at Columbia University and instantly bonded. Their attempts at romance foundered when Will faced his homosexuality. Though at first angry, Grace realized that a gay best friend is perfect: You don't have to worry that he's secretly in love with you or feel guilty that you're leading him on. While friends Karen and Jack considered Will and Grace co-dependent sexless lovers, the two continued to do what they do best: finish each other's sentences and share fashion tips.

In 1920, Ernest Hemingway was a Chicago reporter feuding with his editor when he decided to visit Italy. Novelist Sherwood Anderson convinced Ernest to visit Paris instead, and he provided an introduction to Gertrude Stein. The salons of Gertrude and Alice B. Toklas were frequented by Fitzgerald, Picasso and others. (Woody Allen showcases Gertrude's salons in Midnight in Paris.) Gertrude became Ernest's mentor and godmother to his first son. He published her writings in magazines he was editing. They were just like brothers, Ernest explained.

Bill Geddie met Barbara Walters while field-producing Good Morning America. She asked him to produce a Barbara Walters Special. One became two, two became four and, over 20 years later, he and Barbara remain close friends and business partners. Together they created and produce The View. Barbara may be the star of her shows, but Bill quietly yet skillfully keeps those shows running. They share his-and-her Emmy Lifetime Achievement Awards (his in 2012; hers in 2009). They also share honesty and mutual respect. Their friendship flourishes where her four marriages have not.

At 12, she made National Velvet and became a star. He was 8 when The Jackson Five burst onto the scene. They bonded, she said, because neither one of us had a childhood. In more than three decades of friendship, they never wavered in their devotion. Despite the 27-year age difference, she stood by him when he faced molestation charges, and he hosted her eighth (and final) wedding at Neverland Ranch. Her last public appearance was at his funeral, her wheelchair stationed in the front row.

Liz Lemon created The Girlie Show, only to have ambitious network executive Jack Donaghy retool it completely. From this antagonistic beginning, Liz and Jack have developed a deep and trusting friendship. Though he usually calls her by her last name, Jack respects her writing abilities and thinks she's great. Liz seeks Jack's advice in both personal and work-related problems and admits that they now have the longest, most meaningful relationship of her life (as does he). Together they work at 30 Rockefeller Plaza (30 Rock) in New York City and bring new meaning to the words what the what?

Whether separate in their eponymous comics or together in the Justice League, Wonder Woman and Superman share more than the same job and matching outfits. Despite disparate beginnings, they are close friends who sustain, spark and challenge each other. Though he was raised as a farmer's son in Kansas while she is a warrior princess of the Amazons, they both have superhuman powers of strength and endurance. Alone with one another, they're just Clark and Diana—only she has better jewelry.

FBI special agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully were partners in exploring the strange and inexplicable in The X-Files. He was the believer, she the skeptic. Mulder's acceptance of the paranormal and intelligent extraterrestrial life was countered by Scully, a medical doctor who tried to refute the irrational with logical, scientific explanations. Early in the series, both Scully and Mulder became embroiled in extra-governmental conflict and had only each other to trust, deepening their friendship. They shared a kiss in a dream sequence—or was it an alternate reality? The truth is out there.