[stylist] New Book, blindness on TV

Fri Feb 14 18:12:12 UTC 2014

Bill, I agree with all you have said here. What an enormous disappointment 
it is to me, to know that a sighted person is the actor playing a blind 
character. I guess that means, that acting is not a skill a blind person can 
be successul at?  We know better than that! So it is a major flaw in my 
opinion.

My experience this past 6 1/2 years after my own sight loss is that our 
close friends drop off like crazy when we become different - only a very few 
remain. but, the good news is that other great people step forward and 
become our friends.  We live in a world between sighted and blind, most of 
the time, when we are pursuing our careers, and doing the things we did 
before we lost our sight. We become very strange to many people who do not 
know how to deal with it at all, and really do not want to. I have had to 
very consciously put all this aside, and continue on my own career path and 
not dwell on the negativity - but keep my mind focused on the positive. We 
all have negative thoughts, but we do not have to verbalize them. I 
concentrate on being positive and up beat, and that becomes the reality in 
my life. Otherwise, we are taken prisoner by our sight loss and the 
perceptions of others.

Lynda

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Cheryl Orgas & William Meeker" <meekerorgas at ameritech.net>
To: "'Writer's Division Mailing List'" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, February 14, 2014 12:44 PM
Subject: Re: [stylist] New Book, blindness on TV

> Several things bode well for the portrayal of a blind character in 
> "Growing
> Up Fisher."
>
> 1.  The blind guy is one of the heads of the family, not the main 
> character.
> I believe the sighted public is not ready for a blind main character.
> Rather, blindness is most effectively approached obliquely.
>
> 2.  The show's creator has experience living with a blind person.  Sighted
> people who relate most easily to me have been used to being around a 
> person
> with a disability.
>
> 3.  The show's creator has perspective about blindness.   He says
> "...blindness is like the seventeenth thing wrong with him...".
>
> 4.  The show's creator intends to portray the character as a distinct 
> person
> rather than as an Everyman.  He said "I don't want this to be every 
> visually
> impaired person's story."  For me, a unique, distinct character is more
> engaging and memorable than an Everyman.
>
>
> The weak point may be in the blind character's portrayal.  The actor 
> playing
> the blind dad is sighted, and talks about "Your whole life is naturally
> fixed on picked up movements," and "throwing things out of focus," 
> although
> it's possible that he is alluding to his character's having some residual
> vision.  Regardless, the show's success or failure will depend on much 
> more
> than the blind character.
>
>
>
> Bill Meeker
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Chris Kuell
> Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 7:50 AM
> To: Writer's Division Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [stylist] New Book, blindness on TV
>
> I don't know if anyone has been watching the Winter Olympics, or can tell
> from the commercials, but NBC is plugging a new show called 'Growing up
> Fisher' that is about a family with a blind father. My wife says the
> commercials show him riding a bike, cooking, and cutting down a tree with 
> a
> chainsaw. The show is based on the life of one of the writers who grew up
> with a blind father. Maybe there's hope after all.
>
> Here's what I found in USA today:
>
> PASADENA, Calif. - NBC's Growing Up Fisher is another family comedy, but
> there's a difference: the father, Mel Fisher (J.K. Simmons), is blind
> (pictured).
> It's not arbitrary. Fisher, which premieres following Olympics coverage on
> Feb. 23 (10:30 p.m. ET/PT), is based on the childhood of series creator DJ
> Nash. It moves to its regular Tuesday slot (9:30 p.m. ET/PT) on Feb. 25.
> "My dad went blind when he was 11 and hid his blindness (to) pretty much
> everyone outside the family" until he and his wife divorced and he got a
> guide dog, Nash said Sunday at the Television Critics Association winter
> press tour. A scene where the father cuts down a tree with a chainsaw is
> based on his own experiences.
> Fisher's premise is not a gimmick, said executive producer Jason Bateman,
> who provides the voiceover for Mel's son, Henry, looking back on his 
> youth.
> "It's his true story. Cynicism, be gone," he said.
>
>
>
> The show, which is set in the present day, looks at the Fisher family 
> after
> Mel and his wife, Joyce (Jenna Elfman), decide to divorce. They remain
> "amazing parents" to teenage daughter Katie (Ava Deluca-Verley) and
> 11-year-old son Henry (Eli Baker).
>
> There were challenges to the situation at the time, Nash said, but 
> "looking
> back, I wouldn't change a thing."
> Simmons, who is not blind, said he had help from Nash, a visually impaired
> consultant and another consultant in learning how to play a man who can't
> see.
>
> "Your whole life is naturally fixed on picked-up movement, so it's a 
> simple
> case of throwing your eyes out of focus," he said. "The main things I
> learned (were) all the other bits of behavior, how you handle things, what
> you do with your hands, how you interact physically with other people."
>
> Although Mel's blindness may stand out initially, Nash said that's only 
> one
> aspect of the character's personality and one element of the family's 
> story.
>
> Some viewers may "see the first thing about Mel is that he's blind. My dad
> being blind is like the 17th thing wrong with him. He's stubborn. He hugs
> too much. He's a lawyer. There's a lot of craziness going on over there," 
> he
> said. "I don't want this to be every visually impaired person's story. ...
> We're trying to tell Henry's perspective of what that was like and how it
> informs who he is as a father today."
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Bridgit Pollpeter" <bpollpeter at hotmail.com>
> To: "'Writer's Division Mailing List'" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Monday, February 10, 2014 10:51 PM
> Subject: Re: [stylist] My New Book
>
>
>> It's very true. And most of us have come across literary characters who
>> are less than positive examples of blindness, so why not combat it by
>> writing our own strong, independent blind characters? Writing in any
>> form is a potentially great tool for change. When you look at history,
>> it's not politicians or their legislation that has made the most change,
>> but it is the artistic community who have organized and used their
>> talents to create change. The Civil Rights movement, LBGT issues,
>> feminism... The deepest change has occurred through art, theatre, music,
>> dance and yes, writing. So why can't the disabled community do the same?
>>
>> Bridgit
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of P.
>> Campbell
>> Sent: Monday, February 10, 2014 6:39 AM
>> To: newmanrl at cox.net; Writer's Division Mailing List
>> Subject: Re: [stylist] My New Book
>>
>>
>>    Thank you.  I feel that fiction, accurate fiction, is a good way to
>> promote the blind.  People who will not read an article, no matter how
>> well
>> written, will read fiction.
>>
>> I feel that in some cases this is equally true where the blind
>> themselves
>> are concerned.  This is especially true for young people, who often feel
>>
>> that their problems are unique to them.  Reading about a character who
>> may
>> have the same problems is often inspiring.
>>
>> "Mrs. Campbell, I didn't know that happened to other people." or "Do
>> other
>> people feel that way, too?"  are things I often hear from young people
>> who
>> are blind.
>>
>> Phyllis
>>
>>
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>
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