At the center of both the film and the television versions of Amy Heckerling's Clueless is the friendship of Cher (Alicia Silverstone and Rachel Blanchard, respectively) and Dionne (Stacey Dash, in both versions). Of all the central teenage relationships featured in the film, this is the only one to occupy an equally prominent space in the spin-off television series, which originally premiered on ABC in 1996, before moving to UPN in 1997 for its final two seasons and ending in 1999. While Cher and Dionne's friendship remains central in the television version, other key relationships from the film, such as their friendship with Tai (Brittany Murphy/Heather Gottlieb) and Cher's romance with her stepbrother Josh (Paul Rudd/David Lascher), are much more peripheral.

Writing about contemporary romantic comedies, Celestino Deleyto directly identifies Clueless (the film) as indicative of the increasing emphasis of the genre on friendship over romance. He argues that, while female friendships are typically codified in romcoms as “conventionally previous to the arrival of ‘true love,’” the true narrative interest of Clueless lies with the female friends. This is perhaps partially due to the film's generic hybridity, blending elements of the romantic comedy with the teen genre. Same-sex friendships are key to the teen genre, as exemplified by Heckerling's earlier teen film Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) as well as by more recent films such as The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ken Kwapis, 2005) and Superbad (Greg Mottola, 2007), offering a relatively safe space in which teenage characters can work through issues—often related to sex and romance—as they negotiate the transition from childhood to adulthood. In turn, teen films and television series, including Clueless along with teen dramas such as The Carrie Diaries (The CW, 2013– 14) and Gossip Girl (The CW, 2007–12), both of which Heckerling directed episodes for, and teen sitcoms such as Girl Meets World (Disney Channel, 2014–), are often centrally concerned with shifts in these relationships as characters gradually mature.

Owing to the shared centrality in them of teenage characters and concerns, teen films and television series are frequently conflated in scholarship.