Written by: Mark Siegel
I
love television. For a long time, a statement like that was likely to
earn you sneers from the intelligentsia. After all, television was
supposed to be a wasteland that that catered to the lowest common
denominator. Cheap laughs, shallow characters, simplistic plots:
television was supposed to have none of the qualities of great art or
literature. Television belonged to the great unwashed masses and it
would never transcend its pedestrian limitations. At least, that was
the conventional wisdom.
In truth, television has never been
quite as mind-numbing as its critics proclaimed. For every dozen
wretched sitcoms, there's at least one MASH. For every hackneyed drama,
there's at least one The Sopranos. But now, television writers are
finally beginning to realize that television is capable of telling
layered stories with complex characters. Lost, Battlestar Galactica,
The Office, The Wire: these shows rival and sometimes surpass anything
that can be seen at the multiplex. There are so many good stories being
told on television that I was compelled to add extra storage space to
my TiVo.
And that's why I'm so excited about [with]tv.
It's an opportunity to tell some great stories--our stories. As people
with disabilities, we have perspectives and experiences that don't get
much play in the media, except for the occasional human interest story
on the local news. When [with]tv becomes a reality, it will give us the
means to tell our stories on our terms. But I don't want [with]tv to
simply be "the disabled channel". I want to see shows that aren't just
about people with disabilities; I want to see shows that feature
characters who happen to have disabilities. Sometimes the disability
will be a part of the story and sometimes it won't even be mentioned.
Because isn't that how it is for most of us with a disability? There
are those occasions when our disabilities are front and center and
can't be ignored, but much of the time it's background noise.
Over
the coming weeks and months, I'll be posting here about various topics
related to disability, pop culture, and whatever my current television
obsession is. I'll do my best to keep it interesting. I'm really
excited to be part of the [with]tv community
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