In a recent impromptu survey of Twitter, I posited the question: Who was the first disabled character you recall seeing on television? I remember characters in wheelchairs popping up here and there, usually in reruns. I recall watching the “Teen Line” episode of “Saved By the Bell” — wherein Zach Morris (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) goes on a blind date with a girl he meets on a teen chat line only to freak out because, gasp, she’s in a wheelchair — during summer vacation from school. But more often than not, these characters weren’t actual people, just conflicts meant to give a teachable moment to the able-bodied main leads.
I’m sure to many a disabled television viewer that’s all they were doing — viewing these characters, but not actually identifying with them because the only thing to identify with was the disability. Remember how, as a kid, your mom would say...
I’m sure to many a disabled television viewer that’s all they were doing — viewing these characters, but not actually identifying with them because the only thing to identify with was the disability. Remember how, as a kid, your mom would say...
- 8/13/2020
- by Kristen Lopez
- Indiewire
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