Smallville: A more violent version in season nine, shown in Escape. Tess and Zod had a passionate kiss after Tess shoots at Zod, who returns a Neck Lift only to be subdued with kryptonite.
In Season 8 episode "Committed" when Oliver and Tess are fighting with sticks before their date, they wind up kissing each other.
Desperate Housewives contains the following interaction between Carlos and Gabrielle:
Gabrielle: Why are all rich men jerks?
Carlos: Same reason all beautiful women are bitches. (beat) Same time tomorrow?
Gabrielle: Sure baby. (they kiss)
The Cold Case episode Forever Blue revolves around a pair of cops, partners, who become closeted gay lovers, after a fight in which they go from literally beating each other up to making out.
One episode of Frasier subverts it by having Frasier in the slap phase with a coworker, but when (in a Continuity Nod to the Cheers example) he asks if she is as turned on as he is, she just says no and looks disgusted. Since the station manager saw the situation, everyone in the station has to attend a Sensitivity Training.
Doubly Subverted because eventually Frasier and the coworker do date.
A straight example of this trope occurred in an earlier episode in a very similar situation, and they actually had sex multiple times (including once on the air) despite claiming that they can't stand each other, but without the Shout-Out to the Cheers line.
A version of this trope occurred in the episode "Daphne Returns" where Daphne and Niles' first fight leads to them kissing and then having sex for the first time.
Moonlighting: Dave and Maddie finally resolve years of Belligerent Sexual Tension, when the two swap insults like bitch and bastard, Maddie slaps him hard across the face and tells him to get out. She tries to slap him a third time and he grabs her wrist. Then they kiss and keep going from there.
Dana: God, why am I wasting my time on you? You're nothing but a drooling, illiterate, imbecile! Rich: Hey, it's better than being a stuck up, man-hitting, know-it-all. Dana: Oh yeah? Here's an idea: why don't you go down to the railroad tracks and hop a train back to munchkin land? Rich: Oh yeah well, I got a better idea: why don't I find a tutor who isn't the president of the Lorena Bobbitt fan club? Dana: Oh yeah, that's pretty good for someone with the IQ of a potato. Rich: Better than having the sex appeal of a potato. Dana: Ugh, you make me sick! Rich: You make me sicker! Dana: I hate you! Rich: ... are you as hot as I am? Dana: Hotter! (passionate kiss ensues)
In "Smashed", when Spike discovers that his chip doesn't stop him from hurting Buffy, he starts taunting her that she Came Back Wrong and they get into a violent fight/insult exchange, which ends with Buffy aggressively kissing Spike and having passionate sex as the building collapses around them. Subverted in that, rather than showing their Belligerent Sexual Tension, it actually foreshadows the Interplay of Sex and Violence in the season 6 Buffy/Spike 'relationship'.
Also Cordelia and Xander, who at one point gets trapped in a basement.
Cordelia: I can't believe that I'm stuck spending what will probably be my last few moments on Earth here with you! Xander: I hope these are my last few moments! Three more seconds with you, and I'm gonna... (steps closer) Cordelia: (steps closer) I'm gonna what? Coward! Xander: Moron! Cordelia: I hate you! Xander: I hate you!
They look at each other for another second before grabbing each other and engaging in a mad, passionate kiss. It goes on for several seconds before they suddenly release each other and look at each other in horror.
Xander: We so need to get outta here. Cordelia: (nods) Mm-hm!
In "Wild at Heart", fellow werewolves Oz and Veruca meet in their wolf forms and immediately start snarling and fighting. The next day they wake up naked in each others arms.
Hawkeye and Margaret's brief liaison under fire in M*A*S*H is a variation on this trope. Even Hot Lips and Frank conveyed this trope note for note years earlier.
In Picket Fences, Max and Kenny finally end their three seasonlong dance whilst they are, typically, arguing and in the full throes of denial about their feelings for each other. Max has her back to Kenny, ranting about his behaviour whilst he calmly walks up behind her, waits for her to turn around, and then kisses her. Humorously she attempts to continue arguing whilst he's kissing her until she finally gives in and melts into it. Consummation of their relationship then ensues.
Chuck and Blair on Gossip Girl, all the time. Most clearly portrayed when they viciously say how much they hate each other and then have sex on a piano.
Pretty much the entire plot of every instance of "The Needlers", a recurring sketch on Saturday Night Live.
Happened in the penultimate episode of Two Guys and a Girl to set Pete and Ashley together.
Happened completely in the late first season between Marc Antony and Atia of the Julii. Slap. Pause. Slap. Pause. Kiss.
And in Season 2, Marc Antony gets into an argument with Cleopatra (over Atia, no less). She starts throwing vases at him and they end up having sex against a column.
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: There was a Girl of the Week who was rude to everyone, and Will wasn't getting along with her for that reason. Carlton had better luck, however, and after the "kiss" part of the trope kicked in, he was able to get her to treat people in a civil manner. After discovering that Carlton was able to assert himself, Will tried doing the same thing as Carlton did... however, Will was just as unable as ever to get past the "slap slap" stage of the relationship.
Drake & Josh: Josh and Mindy share the following heated exchange...
Josh: So today, you were just messing with my head? Mindy: I think you deserved it after the way you screamed at me. Josh: I still think that was a really obnoxious thing for you to do! Mindy: I think you acted way more obnoxious. Josh: Well, I'm just glad we're broken up! Mindy: Not as glad as I am! Josh: Oh, really?! Mindy: REALLY! (they make out)
Maddie shares one such scene with a one-shot character, Trevor, a "merit scholar", on The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, ending with the most passionate make-out scene ever on children's programming:
Trevor: I don't need a vote from some tree-hugger. Maddie: If you have it your way, there won't be any trees left to hug. Trevor: Oh, next you're going to blame the oil companies for global warming. Maddie: Yeah, 'cause they're to blame! Trevor: Oh, cry me a river! Maddie: If I did, you'd just pollute it! Trevor: You bleeding-heart liberal! Maddie: You establishment puppet! Trevor: Do you wanna kiss me as much as I wanna kiss you!? Maddie: I'm surprised someone as smart as you would have to ask! (Maddie and Trevor make out) London: (to a nearby museum staff) Didn't see that comin'. (the man nods) Maddie: I hate you! Trevor: I hate you more! (Maddie and Trevor make out again) London:(to the museum worker) Boy, I wonder what they'd do if they liked each other.
It doesn't help that Trevor and Maddie are played by the same people who played Troy and Sharpay.
"I wonder what they'd do if they liked each other?"
Battlestar Galactica (2003) has raised this to the level of an art form; nearly every canonical couple has engaged in it at some point and to some degree, often in the most literal sense (see — unsurprisingly — Lee Adama and Kara Thrace; also, Saul and Ellen Tigh). Though Adama and Thrace seem to be more inclined to Punch Punch Kiss/Punch Punch UST than anything else.
Deserving of special mention are Chief Tyrol and Cally. The first slap was actually CallyMurdering The Hypotenuse by shooting Tyrol's Cylon lover right before his eyes. The slap back came later that season, when she woke Tyrol up from a nightmare. Believing he was still dreaming, he beat her so brutally that it required not only a Discretion Shot but a Content Warning at the beginning of the episode. Two and a half episodes later, they were Happily Married and expecting. Admittedly there was a one-year Time Skip in the meantime, but damn. And this was one of the more stable relationships on the show. At least until the fourth season, but that's another story...
Burn Notice takes this and runs with it, since one of the "combatants" is a former CIA operative and the other an ex-IRA terrorist. After a short fight with heavy subtext, one finally gets the other in a choke pin... but then they start making out.
Ellen from Slings & Arrows does this twice within three episodes of each other: the first time with Geoffrey, the second with her brother-in-law Eric.
Gilmore Girls: The Luke/Lorelai relationship is built on this (although they only get to the 'kiss' part in Season 4). To a lesser degree Jess/Rory. Particuarly amusing as Luke is Jess' uncle and Lorelai Rory's mother; it must run in the family...
Worf explains to Wesley that this is how all Klingon courtship works. The woman roars and throws heavy objects, while the man reads love poetry and ducks a lot. Martok and Sirella's relationship (the Klingon equivalent of Benedick and Beatrice) backs this up.
Captain Picard has one with Captain Phillipa Louvois, who had previously prosecuted Picard with zeal during the court martial following the loss of the USS Stargazer, in "The Measure of a Man".
Picard: It's been ten years, but seeing you again like this makes it seem like fifty. If we weren't around all these people, do you know what I would like to do? Louvois: Bust a chair across my teeth. Picard: After that. Louvois: Oh, ain't love wonderful.
In "Let He Who is Without Sin", Worf and Ezri Dax have a heated argument while stranded on a forest planet, intensified by the feelings shared between Worf and Jadzia Dax, Ezri's symbiont predecessor. It eventually degrades into name-calling and fisticuffs, and a passionate kiss with (implied) off-camera relations.
Odo and Kira in "His Way" — not too heavy on the slapping, but a heated argument in the middle of the frickin' Promenade should count too.
Chief O'Brien has this almost done to him as well. He's working with a female Cardassian engineer and the two of them won't stop arguing over everything. Soon he learns that she believed that he was flirting with her.
The way Worf and Jadzia got together in "Looking for Par'mach in All the Wrong Places". Although that was more "Bat'leth Fight, Attempted Strangulation, Destructo-Nookie." This is more of a traditional Klingon romantic interlude - they even have (implied) ritual phrases for initiating a fight that they intend will end in sex.
Bashir: No... No, I don't need that image, either. In fact I'm gonna stop asking that question altogether. People will come in, I will treat them, and that's all.
Star Trek: Enterprise. In "Precious Cargo", Tucker rescues the princess Kaitaama after she was kidnapped by an alien species for ransom. From the moment they meet Kaitaama and Tucker bicker and argue which continues as they use an escape pod to land on an uninhabited planet. Here, their argument escalates to name-calling and insults culminating in Kaitaama kissing Tucker followed by off-camera relations.
Jordan and Dr. Cox. Although it's more of a "Stab Stab Sex" sort of thing. In later seasons, however, it becomes more because of habit and pride than any actual friction. In fact, in season 8, Cox tells Jordan he's fed up with all the snarking and insulting, and deconstructs this trope, as it's become contrived and fake:
Cox: I'm sick of pretending we don't like each other. It is distinctly not fun anymore, and would you like to know why? Because a) we are over 12, and b) we actually do like each other. In fact, brace yourself, we love each other. Jordan: *Gasp!!!*
Jordan again, this time with JD. He gets fed up with her behaviour as a patient, tells her so, and she tells him to take his pants off.
Gene Hunt to Alex Drake in Episode 1 of Ashes to Ashes (2008) (immediately after grabbing her breast in the supply room):
Gene: Now then, Bollinger Knickers. You going to kiss me or punch me?
She did not, needless to say, kiss him. Nor has she yet, but let's face it — it's only a matter of time.
Receptionist Amanda and Nick Pepper revert to this after quite a few scenes of sexual tension, coming to a close when both tag each other out of a game of company paintball — and consequently decide that their catfights actually turn them on.
Justin and Austin had a mild form of this before their first kiss which included insulting one another, and right before the kiss, them playfully shoving one another.
Spike and Lynda of Press Gang conducted their kissing-and-slapping exchange while on the set of a Saturday morning children's cartoon show, where Lynda was supposed to be promoting the wholesomeness and public-spiritedness of the Junior Gazette.
The Vicar of Dibley has something similar to the Frasier subversion but played more seriously: Geraldine, the title character and a liberal female vicar, is always trading insults with the arch-conservative councilman David. At one point in the series, he reveals his love for her, interpreting her snarking as flirting. In actuality, she doesn't really consciously like him much at this point. This declaration starts his character on a more Pet the Dog path and makes her better disposed to him.
From House, Greg House and Lisa Cuddy: "I try to make you miserable. You deny that it's making you miserable. You try to make me miserable so I'll stop making you miserable." How romantic... And let us not forget the ending of the episode "Joy" in season 5, where they actually do kiss after the slap slap. Season 6 seems to be heading for deconstructing this trope. Apparently, Cuddy doesn't find it at all romantic. Maybe House should read Pride and Prejudice.
Done in Friends between Ross and Rachel. After their major break up in Season 3, the couple are constantly at each other's throats, insulting and humiliating each other and sabotaging the other's relationships every chance they get, despite still obviously being attracted to each other and sleeping together at least twice. At the end of Season 8, Rachel is very pregnant and overdue for labor, and the doctor has advised several home remedies, including sex, to speed up the process. They try everything else and nothing works, so Rachel insists they have sex. Since she had been very mean to Ross that entire episode, Ross declines. Rachel then starts angrily ranting at him about how this is all his fault and so on, but is interrupted by Ross kissing her. Rachel is surprised and Ross says, "I don't care what it takes, I am getting that baby out of you!" Rachel immediately starts having contractions and Ross says, "I am good!"
Also done between Rachel and her colleague/love interest Gavin in season 9. Their relationship is initially competitive and Gavin is a jerk to Rachel, but the two kiss at Rachel's birthday party leading to a brief fling between the two.
Interestingly, this trope is repeatedly, deliberately defied with Ross' and Rachel's FoilBeta Couple Chandler and Monica, for whom fighting is always unquestionably non-sexy. They try taking a romantic weekend trip together in "The One With the Kips," only to end up bickering over petty things; they spend the weekend fighting and not having any sex. "The One With Ross and Monica's Cousin" takes place during a period when they've decided not to have sex before their wedding; when they both can't take it anymore, they decide that if they were to, say, have a big fight and call the wedding off, they could have sex again, but they end up jokingly insulting each other so much that Monica decides "the wedding is back on" — even fake fighting turns them off. Then there's the infamous scene in "The One With Phoebe's Birthday Dinner" where they have a big fight over Chandler smoking again; Monica still wants to have sex like they planned because she's ovulating and they're trying to get pregnant, but Chandler just can't do it when they're fighting like this, so she has to pretend to apologize and make up with him to trick him into sleeping with her. Watching the two opposite approaches to this trope side by side in the same series makes for some fascinating viewing.
Basically describes the whole relationship between Luke and Reid in As the World Turns. The Slap Slap part of the relationship dies down some after they become an actual couple.
An episode of Saved by the Bell featured Slater and Jessie arguing as they always do before launching into a kiss.
Jon Stewart and Wyatt Cenac did something similar during their White House Beer Simulation, though it was more Fight Dance Fight Dance Fight Dance Grope.
Family Matters: In the Season 5 episode "Opposites Attract", Laura is the editor of her school paper and can't stop arguing with a writer for the paper. After several fights, it ends in their making out.
Lost. Ana Lucia tries to get Sawyer's gun — she asks him for it, tries to steal it, and gets caught. She and Sawyer fight before he pins her down and asks her what she's going to do, and she kisses him, leading to them having sex. She steals the gun after when he's too distracted to think about it.
Played around with in the season 4 finale of How I Met Your Mother, between Barney and Robin. The two are unable to admit their feelings without provoking the other into an automatic rejection response (as both are relationship averse). Leads to a long, rapid back-and-forth "I love you"/"Let's be friends" style exchange that escalates in aggravation until they become so confused and frustrated they simply kiss. And it's awesome:
Barney: Why are you so afraid of giving this a chance? Robin: Because I am scared of how much I like you! Barney: Whoa, this is a bad idea. Robin: You're right, this is a mistake. Barney: Yes. No! Robin: I love you! Barney: Let's be friends. Robin: Okay, friends then. Barney: I love you. Robin: Let's get married! Barney: No, you're smothering me! Robin: Okay, forget it! Barney: Gaaah! Robin: Gaaah! (they kiss)
In series 1 of Torchwood, Jack and Ianto go from pointing guns at each other's heads in episode 4 to UST in episode 5 and discussing stopwatches in episode 8. (To be fair, it's also been suggested that they were having sex before episode 4, though nothing in canon actually proves it.)
Played straight in Season 8 including Annie Wersching's prediction...
Stargate SG-1: Vala and Daniel go through this a few times:
Vala tried to invoke it with Daniel in the first episode. During a brutal fight, she kisses him as a means to disarm him, but that just leads to more fighting, followed by a stun blast. He did see her naked, but she's rather disappointed that she was unconscious, thus defeating the purpose.
In "Unending" where a pretty brutal argument (mostly on Daniel's side) turns into smooches.
Joe and Helen do this on Wings, except that the slaps are done with flour-coated pieces of veal. (Don't ask.)
Joe: One minute we're spanking each other with meat, and the next minute it got weird!
Delayed version in Dollhouse, where Topher is forced to punch out Bennett when he finds out she is trying to kill Caroline/Echo. Later on, when Bennett is helping Topher put together Caroline's original personality wedge, she forces him to tell her why, and subsequently returns the favor with an even more vicious right hook. A scene later, the two finally give in to their respective crushes and start kissing.
Happens offscreen in iCarly "iDate a Bad Boy". The audience (and Carly's brother) only get the kissing part, but Carly later explains that it started off with an argument.
On Glee in the episode "Never Been Kissed", Kurt confronts Dave Karofsky, a recurring bully who has been torturing Kurt for being gay, which leads to Dave passionately kissing Kurt and leaving Kurt visibly traumatized, and understandably considering that it was Kurt's first real kiss.
In The Brittas Empire, the episode, "Sex, Lies, and Red Tape", Laura gives the bewildered Mr. Brittas a rather solid kiss after yelling about her unrelenting hatred of his idiocy.
In Roseanne, Nancy and Arnie did this CONSTANTLY when they were married. On one memorable occasion, Roseanne and Dan playfully fight over items to sell in a garage sale (including throwing furniture outside), before pausing to stare at each other, panting, and running to the bedroom.
In the Leverage episode "The Two Live Crew Job", the fight scene between Eliot and Mikel, his counterpart in the opposing crew, feels like (extremely violent) foreplay even before it hits the kissing stage. Nicely done, and hot enough to definitely qualify as Fanservice.
Max: No, Iago, it isn't fucking funny! You always have to bother everyone, or what? First lying to the whole world, then it turns out that you are a thief, and now disappearing and the whole world is concerned about what happened to poor Iago. Iago: Are you worrying [about me] too? Max: Don't say foolish things! I haven't thought about you for even a second, Iago, do you understand? I don't care if they're breaking your legs and locking you up in prison, which is what you deserve! (they kiss passionately)
Done with unique minimalism in Seinfeld's "The Puerto-Rican Day" episode. Elaine leads a group of complete strangers underneath the bleachers along 5th Avenue when suddenly they reach a dead-end. The guy following her starts screaming in panic and she slaps him across the face. He pushes her, she pushes him back, and as they grab each other for more serious violence they suddenly pause, look in each others' eyes, and then kiss passionately.
In the third season finale of Suits, Mike and Rachel are locked in a file room, arguing. Finally, he admits he never went to Harvard, and he's a fraud. She slaps him twice, and when she reels back for a third, he grabs her wrist. She goes to storm off, and he grabs her arm to stop her. Then, they make out and have some very acrobatic sex.
Matthew and Mary in Downton Abbey. A great deal of the first series revolves around their Belligerent Sexual Tension, though they only get to the "kiss" part in the penultimate hour. Only increases in Series 3 after they get married.
Chuck: Pretty much anyone Casey gets involved with, particularly Verbanski.
Done as a Visual Pun in a commercial where a Latina woman walks up to a guy and slaps him for no reason, then starts making out with him.
Damon: Listen to us! This is toxic! We are in a toxic relationship, Elena! I just killed your friend and you find someone else to blame! Elena: You want me to blame you? Easy! Done! You screwed up, Damon. Again! Damon: Thank you! Elena: You put me in a position where I have to defend you, again, where I have to bend my morals, again. Where I have to go against every single thing that I believe in, again, because I love you! Damon: Then stop loving me! Elena: I can't! Damon: Well, that's the problem! We don't work! Elena: I know.. Damon: Then we agree? This has to end. Elena: It just did. It's over.. We're over. (They stand next to each other's eyes and for a second they start kissing)
Joe: What up?! Stella: Don't give me all what up all so innocent like you don't know what up!!! I can't believe how somebody can be so irresponsible selfish and just thoughtless!!!! Joe: Well you are stuck up pretentious and totally gorgeous!!!! Stella: Gorgeous?! You said I was gorgeous!!! Joe: I meant adorable!!! You're so adorable you make me sick!!!! Stella: I'm sorry. If I'm so sickeningly adorable, then why did you come to the restaurant tonight?! Joe: Why did you go out with Van Dike?!! Stella: Because he asked me!!!! Isn't that how it works, Joe?! A guy asks out a girl because he likes her!!! Joe: What about a guy not asking out a girl because he likes her?!!! Have you ever thought of that???!!!! Stella: What?!!! Joe: I don't want to wreck everything you and I don't have together!!!! Stella: That makes absolutely no sense!!!! Joe: Well sometimes things don't make sense!!!!! Stella: Okay well....(Joe pulls Stella in and they kiss)
Orange Is the New Black: Alex and Piper spend their time in season 3 saying how much they hate each other, getting physically violent before kissing and having sex.
Person of Interest. Happens with John Reese and Kara Stanton, who was his Evil Mentor while they were assassins for the CIA. Kara is annoyed because Reese is a reluctant killer, and "to be good at this job, you need to enjoy it." Finally she puts a gun to his head and invites him to leave, saying she needs a killer, "not a boy scout". Reese then grabs Stanton by the throat and slams her up against the wall, saying that he does enjoy his work. Cue passionate kiss.
A nasty version occurs in Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond. Ian Fleming slaps Ann O'Neill after she taunts him about the death of Muriel and gets slapped in return, so he pins her to the floor and beats her with a belt, then tries to rape her only to ejaculate prematurely. Anne is a sadomasochist however, so that's when they start kissing.
A variation when Petra has her KGB superior shouting right in her face before a full KGB tribunal for letting a Cicada agent escape, then we cut to them in bed together, with him explaining that he had to put on a performance for everyone else. He does explain that if she doesn't fix her latest mistake however, he'll have to punish her for real.
Played straight when Petra is with CIA agent John Bentley whom she seduced during his brainwashing—one minute they're shouting in each other's faces and Bentley is threatening to shoot himself, next they're tearing off each other's clothing.
The Punisher (2017). In "Nakazat", there's a particularly gruesome example between Billy Russo and his therapist Krista Dumont, who's hiding him from a police manhunt while also trying to treat him. They get into a loud argument, Krista slaps him, then Billy starts choking her, then she stabs his hand, and instead of pulling the knife free he kisses her instead.
Interview with the Vampire (2022): In "Like Angels Put in Hell by God", Louis de Pointe du Lac and Lestat de Lioncourt quarrel, and it ends with Louis uttering "I hate you," to which Lestat replies "As you should." Louis then throws Lestat to the floor and slams him against the dresser before kissing him fervently, with Lestat responding in kind by wrapping his right arm around Louis' head to deepen the kiss.
Mad About Alice: Whilst Doug and Alice spend most of their time arguing, it's implied that they do still have romantic feelings for each other, and they sometimes end up kissing.
