In the end, Julia and Barnabas were classified as non romantic. Go to my main site in 5 minutes.
Boy, what a tough crowd we have on here tonight - or possibly they're just not romantics.
Of course, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. That's what makes the discussions on these boards so much fun. Be that as it may, though, I could produce dozens of letters to the various fan magazines from people who definitely saw Barn and Julia as a romantic couple, and who, in fact, continued to watch DS with the one hope that they would eventually get together. (And by 1970 some even threatened to never to watch the show again when it looked like that was never going to happen.) But soaps often have two interesting ways to set up their couples. One is too make them bitter enemies and then to bring them together with the realization that they've always loved each other (as DS did with Barn and Angelique), and the other is to drag out a supposedly unrequitted love for a really long time until the clueless partner (that being Barn in this case) finally realizes his/her love. DS never got to that point with Julia/Barn before it ended - but it certainly played Julia's feelings for Barn for all they were worth. As they say, love needs its martyrs, Julia was nothing if not that, and martyrdom in love is one of the tried and true ways for a soap to build its audience. But I have no doubt that if DS had continued past the point that it did, Julia and Barn would have eventually ended up as a real couple at some point. As to whether or not they would have lasted as a couple, well, does ANY soap couple have that sort of a guarantee?!
All that being said, though, after looking over the nominations, I think Julia and Barn have a much better chance of being selected as favorite non-romantic duo, so it might be for the best to have put them there. After all, what might be considered a lead performance is often submitted in the supporting category because the actors/studios feel they have a much better chance of winning there...
And BTW, I've moved this topic over to Current Talk because it's evolved way beyond a simple Web site announcement and is crossing more and more into storyline discussions...