PREMIUM SEARCH Search by job title, geography and build a list of executive contacts
Pelswick Eggert has red hair, freckles, and a long nose. Like most other 13-year-olds boys, he wears his baseball hat backward, and he's starting to notice girls. But Pelswick, who refers to himself as "permanently seated," gets around via wheelchair, not a trendy Razor scooter. Also, he's the main character in a new animated comedy series -- Pelswick -- that launches Oct. 24 on the kids-oriented Nickelodeon cable network.
In this case, fiction is far better than fact. The likable rascal who easily finds himself in trouble is far more believable than most past TV portrayals of wheelchair-using youths -- helpless, docile, angelic wallflowers. And shattering that stereotype is precisely the point, according to the show's creator and executive producer, cartoonist John Callahan, who is paralyzed from the armpits down and uses a wheelchair. "I created Pelswick because I want kids to know that people using wheelchairs are just like everybody else, and they want to be treated the same way as everybody else," he explains.
From his own experience, Callahan knows how little others, especially children, understand about the lives of people in wheelchairs. Kids often ask him, "Do you sleep in your wheelchair?" and "Do you have a special dog to help pull your wheelchair or help you in other ways?" Such questions served as the motivation for creating his brand-new character. "I want to show the viewers there's no mystery to disability," says Callahan.
"A RELEASE." That's a worthy goal, especially considering that about 1 million Americans use wheelchairs, including 90,000 high-school kids, according to the U.S. Education Dept. Pelswick's combination of entertainment and information can help impressionable kids and teens better understand the lives and needs of the "permanently seated."
The 49-year-old Callahan has been drawing cartoons since his early days as a Catholic school student in San Francisco. He has had no formal training in drawing, proudly saying, "I have always had the gift of drawing. I find it a release from the everyday stress of competing." When he draws, which he does for hours every day, Callahan clasps his left hand firmly around his right wrist for support. (He also writes out all the words for his cartoon strips.) Some of his art can be seen on his Web site.
The author of seven cartoon collections, Callahan syndicates his often-acerbic strips to dozens of major publications, including the Los Angeles Times and Harper's. The American Civil Liberties Union awarded Callahan its Freedom of Expression prize in 1991. Actor Robin Williams is starring in the movie based on Callahan's best-selling autobiography, Don't Worry, He Won't Get There on Foot. (In fact, Williams once may have saved Callahan's life by throwing his body in front of the cartoonist's runaway wheelchair on a hilly San Francisco street.)
As the title of his autobiography suggests, Callahan has no trouble poking fun at his disability, and he endows Pelswick with that same quality. In the first episode, Pelswick tells his friends, "I brought my own seat." In another show, he addresses the fears that he might get injured on a school-sponsored camping trip with the dark quip: "I'm the only one in the class who can't get accidentally paralyzed."
TOO EASY? In my view, Callahan glosses over a few aspects of wheelchair life. For example, in the first episode Pelswick is seen waking up and transferring himself from his bed to his wheelchair. To me, the transfer is done too easily and quickly, and could send the wrong message to viewers who have no idea how difficult this procedure can be. And, to be sure, Pelswick isn't the first major character in a TV series to use a wheelchair (remember Raymond Burr in Ironsides?). But what's different about Pelswick is the plot often hinges on his disability and directly addresses the attitudinal and physical barriers that people using wheelchairs face every day.
While I'm excited that the show could help educate viewers about the day-to-day life of the disabled, I'm also hoping that it will encourage more people with disabilities to pursue animation. Several rendering or graphics-manipulation programs, including Adobe Freehand and Photoshop, already offer assistive-technology capabilities. Callahan doesn't use them, but he hopes to explore uses of assistive-tech devices in upcoming episodes, which could be yet another way to expand viewers' awareness.
It will be a few weeks before we know whether kids are tuning in to Pelswick. But I believe Callahan is targeting the right audience -- children -- to change attitudes on disability. Regardless of whether he succeeds, Pelswick is a breakthrough. And Callahan deserves our applause for trying to educate people -- especially kids -- about the disabled with humor and insight.
Williams offers his views every week for BW Online. Got a comment or question? Write to him at JMMAW@aol.com Edited by Alex Salkevr
Copyright 2000, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
Printer-Friendly Version
