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.

I think I might be in love again, with another writer who doesn't know I exist. But seriously, Patrick Goldstein at the L.A Times, let me buy you a libation of your choice if I ever get to L.A. again. Your column about Jerry Lewis encapsulates so much of my disgust at seeing this glad-handing, crocodile-tear-leaking relic receive any kind of prize from anywhere, except possibly a partial credit for inspiring Krusty the Clown. This saves me from having to write an entire post on my own behalf, which I almost didn't want to do, because any disabled person who has been at all thoughtful about this issue has been to The Trouble with Jerry, and has read the brilliant analysis on this from Laura Hershey and others. So, you don't really need to hear what a pop-culture lightweight like me says about it, but it's interesting, isn't it, that for a community that often has no unifying force, how unified we've all been against this choice by the Academy.

I really hoped I would dig How's Your News?, even if liking the MTV chatfest puts me on the same side as curmudgeonly media critic Tom Shales, who has failed to spot a trend or have an original thought since Poppy and Bar went back to Kennebunkport.

I didn't have to worry about that, since I found every moment of News more painful than the one before, despite my generally positive feelings about people with disabilities doing man-on-the-street interviews.