How we went from ‘When Harry Met Sally’ to ‘What Happens Later,’ Meg Ryan’s newest rom-com

Ask me when I saw my first romantic comedy, and I couldn’t tell you. They’ve just always been there — like my favorite ice cream flavor (Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food, I will heed no naysayers). Or, like the sun. Or leaves. The sky, even.

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Often condescendingly called “chick flicks,” romantic comedies have ebbed and flowed in the public’s favor over the years. While many are quick to say that rom-coms are no longer at their peak, some believe we are in a rom-com renaissance.

Members of the latter group might point to this significant development as proof: Meg Ryan, once crowned the queen of the romantic comedy, makes her return to the genre and the big screen in theaters nationwide starting this weekend.

After starring in the rom-com genre’s (arguably) biggest hitters — movies like “You’ve Got Mail” and “When Harry Met Sally” — Ryan stepped back from romance in the 2010s and took a break from acting altogether after her directorial debut, “Ithaca,” premiered in 2015.

But then, earlier this year, it was announced that Ryan co-wrote, directed and starred in a new rom-com entitled “What Happens Later.” Set to premiere Nov. 3, Ryan told EW that the film “sort of evolves the rom-com genre just a little bit.”

Currently, the public seems to be at odds with rom-coms. It is generally accepted that the rom-com heyday is decidedly over — as MovieWeb pointed out, “The once reliable formula to box office success of boy meets girl doesn’t seem to hold the same success it once did.”

But with Ryan’s latest foray into rom-com-dom, is there a resurgence of the genre happening now?

To answer that, let’s delve into the evolution of the romantic comedy and what the once-popular genre looks like today.

What is a romantic comedy?

Before we get into the evolution of rom-coms, we need to get on the same page: What exactly constitutes as a rom-com?

Anyone who is not a rom-com connoisseur like myself might mistakenly believe that a rom-com is simply any movie with a romantic subplot. But they would be very, very mistaken.

You see, any movie with a romantic subplot does not a romantic comedy make. A rom-com, in its most basic definition, is “any movie in which the film’s primary comedic tension derives from a central romantic relationship,” per EW.

That means all the tension and conflict, whether comedic or dramatic, revolves around the romance between the protagonists. All major plot points, character arcs and development hinge on the romantic relationship between two main characters.

The romantic comedy’s humble beginnings

To uncover the roots of the rom-com is to go way, way back.

I’m not talking about the 1930s, to classics like “It Happened One Night” (more on that later). I’m not even talking about Jane Austen’s books. I’m referring to the bard himself: William Shakespeare.

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What famous romantic comedies did Shakespeare write?

Shakespeare is known as the inventor of multiple colloquialisms and tropes that we still use today, including ones that appear in popular rom-com movies. “With bated breath,” for example, comes from “The Merchant of Venice.”

The first rom-com play Shakespeare wrote was “The Two Gentlemen of Verona.” As Jerry L. Crawford wrote for the Utah Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare’s rom-coms often contain “the stuff of romance — love, youth, and beauty.”

Shakespeare followed “Two Gentlemen” with other rom-coms, such as “Twelfth Night,” “Much Ado About Nothing” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

Many Shakespearian romantic comedies use tropes common in the rom-coms of today: In “Much Ado About Nothing,” Benedick and Beatrice embody the enemies to lovers trope; in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Demetrius, Lysander and Hermia are tangled in a love triangle.

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Kelly Capers examined “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “The Taming of the Shrew” in her paper entitled “What the World Needs Now: Love, Humor and the Shakespeare Connection.”

“The link between love and humor in relationships is depicted in both of these plays,” Capers wrote. “And each work reveals how these elements are ingrained in human nature.”

After Shakespeare, the public saw a few more romantic comedies take the stage — most notably, Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” in 1895 — but audiences didn’t see rom-coms hit the silver screen until much later.

Rom-coms on the silver screen

Before the 1930s, only a few rom-coms graced the screen: most notably “Sherlock Jr.,” starring Buster Keaton, and “Girl Shy,” two silent films from 1924.

It wasn’t until a decade later that one film set fire to the rom-com craze: 1934’s “It Happened One Night,” starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert.

Widely regarded “as the first screwball comedy, a subgenre of rom-com films,” per CNN, the film follows a spoiled heiress Ellie (Colbert) and reporter Peter (Gable) after their paths unexpectedly cross.

The film was a wild success. It was nominated for and won five Academy Awards, including best actor and actress, according to the Oscars’ official website.

Other similar films were released soon after. “My Man Godfrey” was released in 1936, and 1938 saw Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant’s “Bringing Up Baby.” The pair starred in another popular rom-com a few years later, 1940’s “The Philadelphia Story.”

Billy Mernit, author of “Writing the Romantic Comedy” and a story analyst and script consultant at Universal, considers this era as “the official, historical golden age” of romantic comedies — “from around ‘36 or so to maybe ‘41,” he told me.

Screwball romantic comedies grew less common after the 1930s. In the late 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s more serious movies became the norm.

But one could argue that it wasn’t until Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall,” released in 1977, that we saw a semblance of the rom-coms that would fill theater seats during the 1990s.

According to CNN, “Though the movie is undoubtedly a romantic comedy, it’s one that subverts the usual tropes in favor of something a little messier, maybe a little more real — Allen’s complicated legacy aside, it marks a notable shift in tone for the genre.”

The golden age of rom-coms: When were romantic comedies most popular?

Many consider the golden age of romantic comedies to be from the 1980s to the early 2000s. As Mernit told me, “A more contemporary golden age of rom-coms was actually in the ‘80s.”

“In terms of what most people think of contemporary romantic comedies that they love, they’re usually looking at movies in the ‘80s or ‘90s,” he continued.

The ’80s saw quite a few great rom-coms, notably the teen rom-coms from John Hughes, who was a pioneer in writing teen-centered stories. Without teen rom-coms like “Sixteen Candles,” “Pretty in Pink” and “Some Kind of Wonderful,” we wouldn’t have the cult classic teen rom-coms of the ’90s: “10 Things I Hate About You,” “Clueless,” “She’s All That” and much more.

But many cite Nora Ephron as a pioneer the romantic comedy, making the genre what we know it to be today.

Originally a journalist, Ephron eventually wrote essays at Esquire on “media, feminism, and having small breasts,” according to The New Yorker. She wrote the memoir “Heartburn” in 1983 about her divorce from her second husband, and wrote the script for the 1986 film of the same name.

Ephron’s first big hit rom-com was 1989’s “When Harry Met Sally,” starring Ryan and Billy Crystal. It was a romantic comedy less like the campy slapstick rom-coms of the 1930s and more reminiscent of Allen’s style: conversational. Intimate. Realistic.

It was clear that, while slapstick humor was undoubtably entertaining, genuine connection, emotion and visible chemistry rang true. The humor and absurdity of everyday life. The inevitable awkwardness and uncomfortableness of two people getting to know each other and fall in love.

Other rom-coms soon followed suit, like “Notting Hill,” “The Wedding Singer,” “10 Things I Hate About You,” “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” “Something’s Gotta Give,” “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” and much, much more.

According to Mernit, the popularity of rom-coms during this era directly correlates with the culture of the time. “Those movies in the late ‘80s into the ‘90s, there’s a kind of a freedom and a realm of wish fulfillment fantasy, where reality doesn’t intrude much.”

Mernit went on to tell me that the rom-coms of this time were realistic enough “to keep them credible,” but “we’re still in a world where marriage is the ultimate goal” and “courtship is considered fascinating.”

Why did Hollywood stop making rom-coms?

In the late 2000s and into the 2010s, big screens were littered with star-studded and poorly-received romantic comedies. A few films became rom-com classics, but many were box-office flops, loathed by critics and audiences alike.

So what happened?

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According to Mernit, the 2000s were when major studios began to kill the golden goose through overuse. Rom-coms were cheap to make and had seen wild success in the past, and so studios began overproducing rom-coms “with absolutely no quality control whatsoever,” Mernit told me.

“So you start to get these cookie cutter, incredibly derivative romantic comedies that are just not very good,” he said, adding that studios would throw in contrived, “fantastical elements” to add interest to their otherwise formulaic rom-coms. It didn’t work.

Mainstream studio rom-coms were no longer about the conflict, humor and eventual joy of two people romantically coming together. Instead, they threw lame obstacles in the couple’s way in order to create tension and conflict.

“Underlying all of this is a misperception on the current movie creators that rom-coms were easy to write,” Mernit said.

But the so-called death of the rom-com went beyond poor writing.

As Mernit told me, there was a cultural shift in the 2000s that fueled the rom-com’s downfall. “By the time you get to the 2000s, the world is a slightly different place. Less people are getting married. It’s a different culture. There’s social media, and the phone culture has come in. Even the whole process of dating is starting to change.”

The state of romantic comedies today

In the past 10 years, romantic comedies took a back seat to superhero movies and romance-less comedies. With that said, the 2010s and 2020s weren’t a completely dry spell for the genre.

The romantic comedies that audiences seemed to favor almost subverted the genre or, at least, common rom-com tropes.

2018’s “Crazy Rich Asians” featured an entirely Asian cast, disrupting the predominantly white genre. 2019’s “Isn’t it Romantic” starred Rebel Wilson, a plus-sized actress, and poked fun at regressive romantic comedy tropes.

There were quite a few romantic comedies that flopped at the box office in the past decade. 2022’s “Marry Me,” starring Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson, received a 61% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Romantic comedy as a TV genre

As interest in going to see romantic comedies at movie theaters plummeted in the 2010s, the genre found a new home: television.

In recent years, there have been rom-com TV shows that found resounding success. Both 2011’s “New Girl” and 2005’s “How I Met Your Mother” garnered a cult-like following. Raunchier shows, like “Sex in the City,” became wildly popular.

Today, as streaming platforms reintroduce older shows to newer audiences, these shows are finding even more fans.

During the 2010s and into the 2020s, streaming platforms also started producing new romantic comedy TV series. “I think that some of the best romantic comedy work that we’re seeing in recent years has been in that serial TV form,” Mernit said.

Streaming platforms have since come out with short, easily binge-able rom-com TV series. Rom-com shows like “High Fidelity” on Hulu, “The Summer I Turned Pretty” on Prime Video and even “Bridgerton” on Netflix — all of which have come out in 2020 or after — have 10 or fewer episodes.

Romantic comedies on streaming platforms

Streaming services have also helped bring about a resurgence of rom-com films. The most popular rom-com of 2018 — and of the decade, maybe — came out on Netflix.

“To All The Boys I Loved Before,” a sweet, fake-dating high school romance, earned high praise from AV Club, which called it “the best of the platform’s romantic comedy slate and a full-on cultural phenomenon.”

What made this rom-com work? No contrived gimmicks. No outlandish obstacles. Instead, “To All the Boys I Loved Before” purposely harkened back to “the spirit of the best of the 1990s high school rom-coms,” per AV Club.

“To All the Boys I Loved Before” wasn’t just a one-off success for Netflix that year. In fact, it was part of a calculated, highly-marketed “Summer of Love,” during which Netflix released a bevy of rom-coms.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Netflix’s data-focused team found that its subscribers were watching older rom-coms and the streaming giant began greenlighting its own supply to keep up with apparent viewership demand.”

It paid off. Per AV Club, over 80 million viewers around the world watched a movie from 2018’s “Summer of Love.” Since then, Netflix has released more rom-coms, with other streaming platforms following suit.

This recent success shows that there’s still a strong audience for rom-coms, Mernit said. “(Romantic comedies) still have a pull and we’re still interested in looking at them. But here, in 2023 and going forward, it’s just not the kind of movie that’s going to send people running to multiplexes.”

Ian Bricke, Netflix’s vice president of independent film, told The Hollywood Reporter that there’s “a lot more material in the genre today than there was five years ago.”

He continued, “For us and all the other studios that have leaned into the genre, there’s a little bit of a renaissance happening, which is very exciting.”

The return of Meg Ryan

Will the rom-com resurgence continue in the years ahead? Many fans of the genre point to the return of Meg Ryan as a positive sign. Her latest flick, her first in eight years, is set to release Nov. 3.

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In “What Happens Later,” Ryan plays Willa, whom she described as “a magical thinker” in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. During the movie, Willa finds herself stuck at an airport with Bill (David Duchovny), her ex-lover.

“But as they try to unravel their mutual past and compare the trajectory of their lives to the dreams they once shared,” Entertainment weekly continued, “they begin to question if their reunion is coincidental or guided by a greater force in the universe.”

Ryan said the film is a nod to both Nora Ephron and the slapstick rom-coms of the ’30s and ’40s in her interview with Entertainment Weekly.

“It has a relationship to movies from the ’40s, like ‘Bringing Up Baby,’ in terms of the banter and the rhythm of things and a lot of that era of filmmaking,” Ryan said. “Nora Ephron used to say about rom-coms that they were really a secretly incredible delivery system to comment on the times, and we do that in this movie.”

Are rom-coms making a comeback?

While romantic comedies still have a strong appeal, Mernit told me that the genre likely won’t regain the popularity it had 30 or 40 years ago. “The genre, in terms of its cultural prominence, I think has peaked. And I doubt that it will ever regain prominence it once had.”

“But it’s not dead,” Mernit said.

But Mernit still has hope for the genre. “Hope springs eternal,” he told me. Whenever he sees a rom-com hit the big screen, “I’m always rooting for it to succeed.”

While he isn’t excited about Ryan’s latest rom-com — “I’m warily interested. ... I don’t think I’m excited to see it,” he told me — Mernit said that he does get excited when he sees fresh ideas come across his desk.

“When you see something where you have unconventional casting and unconventional characters involved, that gives me hope,” Mernit said. He told me that rom-coms should be “keeping pace with where we are as a culture.” They need more diversity. More inventive ideas.

“It’s a hard nut to crack,” Mernit told me. “Rom-coms are now more than ever hard to get right. It’s a genre that’s been way, way taken for granted for years.”