13 Vintage TV Duos We Totally Would Have Shipped If We'd Known it Was a Thing

The Facts of Life complete DVD set was released last week and it got us thinking that Jo and Blair might have been the most shipped couple in all of ‘80s television  if shipping and slash fiction were a thing back then. Of course that inquiry led us to consider other TV couples who may have escaped the slash fiction treatment, but deserve it. Some of our couples go back to the '70s while a couple reach into the early 2000s. We did include one or two couples that helped kick off the whole phenomenon. Who did you ship back in the day? 

Christine (Sharon Gless) and Mary Beth (Tyne Daly) Cagney and Lacey 

Sure, Mary Beth had their families and personal lives but they were never better than when they were collaring some low-life together. And they did it all with those irresistible, thick New York accents. 

Abby (Maura Tierney) and Neela (Parminder Nagra) - ER 

Long before Callie and Arizona made eyes at each other over their surgical masks on Grey's Anatomy, Abby and Neela had amazing chemistry amidst the blood, guts, and trauma!  

Whitley (Jasmine Guy) and Kimberley (Charnele Brown) on A Different World 

Prissy upper crust Whitley and hard-working good girl Kim (or "Kimmmmberlay" as Whitley would say)? We think they would teach each other a thing or two.  

Electra Woman (Deidre Hall) and Dyna Girl (Judy Strangis) - Electra Woman and Dyna Girl 

A romantic combination of these two superheroes would've melted our hearts faster than a speeding bullet.

Jo (Nancy McKeon) and Blair (Lisa Whelchel) - The Facts of Life 

Many a budding lesbian in the '80s fell for motorcycling tomboy Jo Poniaczek. Her perfect on-screen foil was the rich, often bitchy Blair, and their energy was palpable whether they were sniping at one another or occasionally sharing a tender moment. They were at boarding school after all. What happens there stays there, right?

Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) and Monica (Courteney Cox) - Friends 

Rachel and Monica are a perfect case of an opposites attract love affair through the ages as they were best friends in high school who later reunite in their twenties as the cutest roomies ever. They were equally fetching whether in love (see above) or war (see below). And all these years later we'd still love to see that behind-closed-doors make-out session that won them their apartment back from Joey and Chandler. 

DJ Tanner (Candace Cameron Bure) and Kimmy Gibler (Andrea Barber) — Full House.

Kimmy’s crush on Uncle Jesse was clearly just an attempt to cover up her feelings for her best friend.

Laverne (Penny Marshall) and Shirley (Cindy Williams) - Laverne and Shirley 

A classic comedy duo and rommies who shared the same room! Of course these two were shipped! They worked in a brewery and bowled in their free time. Laverne and Shirley pretty much had the best set up of all time, and that ubiquitous "L" on Laverne's chest. That was a double entendre right? 

Olivia (Mariska Hargitay) and Alex (Stephanie March) - Law and Order: SVU

SVU has had the advantage of several fantastic district attorneys throughout its run, but there was a noticeable energy on screen whenever D.A. Alexandra Cabot and Det. Olivia Benson were in the same room. They collaborated, solved crimes, aruged, drank together occasionally, and they had each other's backs... If that's not enough to prove their shippability, just look at them! 

Kate (Susan Saint James) and Allie (Jane Curtin) - Kate and Allie 

Kate and Allie, the two divorced moms who shared a Greenwich Village brownstone, had the chemistry to be a perfect couple — different but tolerant of each other, always mutually supportive. The CBS suits were reportedly worried that viewers would perceive them as a couple and decreed that they be shown clearly retiring to separate bedrooms. In a 1984 episode, the show got back, in a way, by having the women pretend to be a lesbian couple in order to avoid a rent increase — their landlady, who happened to be a lesbian, had decreed that they pay rent as two separate families, so they made a case that as a couple, they were one family. The landlady found them out but relented about the rent increase, and along the way Kate and Allie made some points about love and family diversity. “It’s love that defines a family,” Allie told the landlady. “And it can be any kind of love. Your kind, our kind, theirs.” Kate added, “Who’s to say which kind of family is the best? You of all people ought to know that.” Kate and Allie obviously loved each other platonically, but we think they could love each other romantically too.

Jessie Spano (Elizabeth Berkley) and Lisa Turtle (Lark Voorhies) - Saved by the Bell

Kelly Kapowski (center) was hot, and every dude at Bayside High School was drooling all over her. But feministy brain Jessie Spano and fashionable baby-snarker Lisa Turtle was a secret match made in heaven. 

Mary (Mary Tyler Moore) and Rhoda (Valerie Harper) -The Mary Tyler Moore Show

Even though they were both attractive, intelligent, and personable, neither Mary Richards nor Rhoda Morgenstern ever managed to have a lasting relationship with a man (Rhoda’s marriage on her spin-off series ended in divorce), and frankly, they seemed to prefer each other’s company to that of any man. So we think Mary and Rhoda would make a great couple, with Rhoda’s sarcastic wit providing a counterpoint to Mary’s excessive niceness and assuring that things would never get boring. 

Xena (Lucy Lawless) and Gabrielle (Renée O'Connor)- Xena: Warrior Princess 

It's fair to say that Xena and Gabrielle helped kickstart the slash fic craze. Look at them. There's really no explanation needed for why they're here.