Take the Good - "Facts of Life" and Jo/Blair with Del Robertson and Misty Flores

If you're like me, you probably didn't detect a whole lot of subtext when watching the sitcom "The Facts of Life", because it was only the early 1980s, homosexuality wasn't exactly acceptable subject matter for a show about teenage girls, and, well, you were seven years old. Even if you were seven, though, you were probably still like every guy on that show - you found Blair Warner irresistible. As you grew older, however, you discovered that some women found her irresistible as well. And the idea of a Blair/Jo Polniaczek romantic pairing even more so. Whether it's because you see them as the ultimate butch/femme couple, or because of the "opposites attract" thing, or just because they seemed to work together so well in spite of the apparent differences, Jo/Blair continues to be a popular source of Facts of Life fanfic - perhaps the only source these days - over twenty years after the show ended. Tonight we'll talk with two experienced Jo/Blair authors, Del Robertson and Misty Flores, about when they first saw the Jo/Blair friendship in a different light, the comparative appeal of Jo/Blair when they were teenagers vs. adults, whether or not Natalie or Tootie might one day get a femslash of their very own, and why they think a 25-year-old sitcom like Facts of Life continues to draw 'shippers even today - unlike, say, Mr. Belvedere.