Flaming Bros San Fernando Backstory

By 2017, I had watched a small handful of queer reality TV shows, including The A-List New York, The A-List Dallas, RuPaul's Drag Race, and more recently at the time, the YouTube reality web series Chasing: Atlanta. And of course, I watched all-female reality shows like Rica Famosa Latina, The Real Housewives, Married to Medicine, and Basketball Wives. No matter which shows I was watching, I would always think, "Wow... these people are... crazy. Do they even like each other at all?"

 

But it got me thinking: what if I created a reality TV show that mainly focuses on the young gay Latino community in/around the City of San Fernando, CA, diversifying to varying degrees before eventually "getting it right" in that diversity department?

 

The City of San Fernando is a general-law city in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles County in Southern California. I grew up in the Lake Balboa area within the San Fernando Valley, and have been to the City plenty of times to visit family, to work, to eat, and to just simply explore. And as a Black person with West African, Native-American, and Irish roots, one thing I always noticed as a kid was that the City of San Fernando was predominantly Mexican/Chicano. Welcome to California, right? Although there are plenty of people of Latinx, non-Latinx, and non-Mexican descent who reside in the City of San Fernando as well, which is something that the show often points out, visually more than verbally.

 

To this day, there's just something unique about the City that separates it from the rest of the Valley, and I'm not sure what it is. It just feels more... cozy and intimate... and cultural… and HOT! I'm not saying that everyone who lives in the City feels these ways (minus the HOT part), but as a quasi-tourist from the Lake Balboa area, that's the vibe I currently get to this day.

 

Anyway, I know some would probably find it strange and limiting that this fictional show would be based in the City of San Fernando, given its heat and that it's only about 2.37 miles long with a population of 24K (which would immediately make for a claustrophobic environment, in hindsight). And I totally get that, but there have been enough SoCal shows that take place in Hollywood, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Malibu, Orange County, the greater Los Angeles... and I like being different. That's just how I roll lol

 

And hey, cast members don't HAVE to live in the City; they could live anywhere in the broader San Fernando Valley. That's totally fine! A lot of housewives from the Real Housewives of Potomac don't even live in Potomac (or even Maryland, for that matter); some live in Washington DC or Virginia, which makes sense as the show is based in the DMV Metropolitan. So why not apply that to this San Fernando-based show? If I was on the show, it would make sense because I live in Lake Balboa (which is 15-30 minutes away by car; closer than you'd think) and have visited the City of San Fernando so many damn times throughout my life, to the point where I've grown personally connected to it.

 

And the name I came up with back in 2015 is kind of... hilarious: Flaming Bros. Now I'm sure most gays don't mind being called bros, but some would question the choice to use "flaming" in the name. "Flaming" is actually a derogatory way of describing a gay male's stereotypical manner or appearance. In a world where minorities continue to claim a derogatory term/phrase as their own (which I do feel torn about, as a Black person who *HATES* the words “nigger” and “nigga” with a deep passion), I figured "flaming" would be just another one of those terms.

 

Put the location "San Fernando" in the title, and now you got "Flaming Bros San Fernando" (or FBSF⛈️ for short)! No need for a colon between "Bros" and "San", and or an "of" between "Bros" and "San".

 

And out of all the Flaming Bros shows I’ve come up with since 2012 (Starting with Flaming Bros Chatsworth aka FBChatsworth🕊️), FBSF⛈️ (which I created in 2017) is definitely my personal favorite show, and the most consistently updated and developed. Why? Well... to be honest, it's not because it follows the problematic structure of Basketball Wives and Rica Famosa Latina AT FIRST before eventually (or rather quickly given the timeline) outgrowing that toxic dynamic, especially when we see how it takes a mental toll on certain cast members (especially one in particular). But the real reason is this: the more I visit/research the City of San Fernando (and its neighboring areas like Sylmar, Mission Hills, and Pacoima), the more inspired and curious I get, which always helps with world-building and character development for a fictional reality show built around the slightly fictionalized lives of *REAL* people.

 

Despite the early toxicity and the fact that certain cast members fall into the "ghetto" trope (you’ll see who that is when we talk about Season 1 eventually), the show eventually prioritizes personal growth over toxic dynamics. And hey... believe it or not, you can learn a lot about a reality show, including what NOT to do when dealing with conflict. That may sound boring if you're a fan of trash TV, but it ends up working out for this show, for the better.