In a strange way, the most authentic representation of disability on TV right now is American Movie Classics' "Breaking Bad", and not just because the son is played by disabled actor R.J. Mitte, although that helps. Mitte's Flynn is a multi-faceted character who is doing his best to grow up and away as everything he's always known about his family comes apart. It's a strange claim to make about a family drama/dark heist comedy, but I can't miss it.

I don't know what I was expecting from a film called "Autism: The Musical." It was just a title that attracted my attention, even as a dark-humored part of me wanted to suggest that it should be a rock opera to better accomodate all the head-banging. Yeah, yeah, I know. Elaine Hall founded the Miracle Project to use her theater-directing skills to enhance the journey that began when she found out her adopted son Neal was autistic. The miracle project is designed to help autistic kids express themselves through music, dance, and acting, which I started off being very skeptical of.

Something old and something new for my pop-culture report this week. It really is heartening how much more of the disability experience can be found on DVD of late. Watching childhood favorites can be a mixed bag, even when you aren't trying to be Social Security Cultural Critic. Some of them just don't hold up to informed scrutiny(Most of the Star Wars trilogy) the discovery of irony(Batman as played by Burt Ward and Adam West) or just the fact that watching vans blow up isn't your idea of a good time anymore(The A-Team) so even though Mom and I agreed to start watching The Rockford Files together about two years ago, I was kind of afraid of facing that same letdown, but Jim Garner, always and forever, turns my mom's crank, and it was a detective story, so what would be the harm?(It's where I learned about two things: The power of a wiseass' smile and the existence of machines that record phone calls, both things that would haunt much of my later life.)

I was slow to hear about the situation with BBC children's television host Cerrie Burnell. Several online friends had mentioned some parents' tendencies to want to sanitize kids' lives from all but the most Disney-fied realities, but that could apply to anything from a racy web page to blowback from an appearance on an adult television program, as when the actor who used to star on Blue's Clues appeared on the gritty crime drama Homicide: Life on the Street. (Not as Steve; I could see why that'd be upsetting.) Check out the following video.