By Alan Sepinwall, [Newark] Star-Ledger

NBC’s new drama “Parenthood,” premiering Tuesday night, features a family whose son is diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome. It’s among an increasing number of television shows that are trying to depict characters with the disorder, and is one of the first to acknowledge the diagnosis. An excerpt:

… the storyline — a personal one for one of the show’s creators — has the potential to be a breakthrough in how television depicts characters with a condition that’s increasing in prevalence, both nationwide and in New Jersey.

“I am always happy when I see characters on TV who are portrayed with Asperger’s, when it’s done correctly,” says Lori Shery, president and co-founder of ASPEN, a national Asperger support and education group based in Edison. “We need to change the cultural perception.”

See also:

Off-kilter characters: TV shows feature kids (and adults) with what looks like Asperger’s — Ellen Gray in the Philadelphia Daily News

By Lisa de Moraes in the Washington Post:

Actor Patrick Warburton, who voices a character in “Family Guy,” told TV critics Wednesday that he objected to the show’s recent gag about Sarah Palin.

“I know it’s satire but, personally, that [joke] bothered me too,” Warburton said on a conference call to promote his other primetime show, CBS’s sitcom “Rules of Engagement,” which returns for a fourth season on March 1. (On “Family Guy” Warburton does the voice of the wheelchair-bound police officer, Joe.)

“I know that you have to be an equal-opportunity offender, but there are some things that I just don’t think are funny.”

Earlier posts here.

Lennard Davis, writing at Huffingtonpost.com about the flap over “Family Guy,” says Sarah Palin misrepresented the show’s meaning in an effort to “attack the left in any form.” Far from being a slight on people with disabilities, Davis said, the episode “serves to show us that we can’t and shouldn’t underestimate people with Down syndrome.” An excerpt:

Tellingly, she didn’t mind Rush Limbaugh use the R-word, saying is was just “satire.” Satire? What is Family Guy? Greek tragedy?

The moral of this story isn’t that Family Guy is an insensitive show; it’s that Palin is using Trig as a hostage to shield her from the shoot-out of the last election. With Trig in tow she’s not the incompetent former governor of Alaska or the incendiary anti-wonk, she is simply the good Mom protecting her child and all people with disabilities.

If Palin really cared about people with disabilities, she would be supporting health care legislation and stronger enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act. But then that would be more of that “hopey changey” stuff she ridicules.

Lennard Davis is professor of English, disability studies, and medical education at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

(Photo from www.lennarddavis.com)

Mia Navarro, writing at Politicsdaily.com, salutes actress Andrea Fay Friedman for responding to Sarah Palin’s attack on Fox’s “Family Guy.” Friedman voiced the character of Ellen, a teenager who has Down syndrome (as Friedman does herself.) An excerpt:

The thing is, in the broader context, Ellen represents a tremendous step forward in Hollywood. For too long, the public image of people with disabilities in this country has hinged on the heroic or the tragic … Members of the disabled population don’t want to be defined by their disability, just like so many other minorities don’t want to be defined only by, say, race or sexual orientation.

… Friedman told the Times she was raised by her parents “to have a sense of humor and to live a normal life.”

“I was doing my role,” she insisted. “I’m an actor.”

I think it’s safe to say she’s a role model too.

Earlier posts here.

“Family Guy” actress Andrea Fay Friedman is interviewed on ABC Good Morning America about her dustup with Sarah Palin.

“Sarah Palin didn’t even get the joke,” Friedman told ABC News.”It would be nice if she did have a sense of humor … Come on Sarah, laugh a little.”

The actress’s mother, Marjorie Friedman, says the “Family Guy” episode was inspirational to other people with Down syndrome because it portrayed them as “everyday teens.”

“She was feisty, she was aggressive, she was mean. It was a real acting job.”

Rehashing the drama involving Sarah Palin and “Family Guy”, Dave Itzkoff writes on the front page of the New York Times that the show is “probably the last program that anyone expected to serve as a catalyst for a continuing fight about the depiction of disabled people on television, and whether they are fair game to participate in and be the subjects of satire.” An excerpt:

Gail Williamson, executive director of the Down Syndrome Association of Los Angeles, which, among other services, assists films and television series in casting actors with the disability, and helped [Andrea] Friedman get hired by “Family Guy,” said it did not matter whether she thought the episode was funny.

“Within ‘Family Guy,’ the character was fully included, well-rounded, dynamic, not dealing with stereotypical Down syndrome issues,” Ms. Williamson said. She added: “Am I a fan of that kind of humor? Eh. It’s beside the point.”

“If we’re asking for full inclusion in the schools and full inclusion in the world,” she said, “ we should appreciate full inclusion with other genres. Even if those genres are not what we appreciate.”

From Entertainment Weekly: “Family Guy” producer Seth MacFarlane tells Bill Maher that Sarah Palin wanted to “inspire phony pity” for people with Down syndrome.

Video update: Interview with Andrea Fay Friedman ‘The Insider” is here. From the Washington Post account:

“Sarah, I know you’re watching this. … A lot of people have teased me because I have Down syndrome. … [It's] a challenge, not a disability.”

Citing Trig’s having Down syndrome, Friedman appeals to Palin: “Don’t take advantage of that. He has a normal life. I have a normal life.” She goes on to say she’s angry because she believes Palin is using Trig to gain votes.

Related posts.

On CNN, talk show host Leslie Marshall says the “Family Guy” controversy has been a “win-win” for both Sarah Palin and Seth MacFarlane, the show’s producer, because it “ups her popularity and the show’s popularity.” Entertainment reporter Tanika Ray says MacFarlane’s goal is to stir up controversy. “He thinks: if Sarah Palin’s responding, he did his job.”

Blogging at the Baltimore Sun, critic David Zurawik says he supports the free speech rights of Bill Maher and Seth MacFarlane, but thinks they are “bullying” people with disabilities.

…there is a larger point to these two remarks this week: I think they are emblematic of how toxic and nasty our public discourse has become.

Reading some of the comments in reaction to my post from people who found the “Family Guy” joke funny, I was struck by just how far we have fallen as a society in our anger and need to feel superior to someone else.

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper says Sarah Palin needs to acknowledge that the “Family Guy” episode was satire — unlike Rush Limbaugh’s “retard” reference.

And there’s coverage of Andrea Fay Friedman’s response to Palin at the New York Daily News, USA Today, CBS, Village Voice and elsewhere.