Ways Of The Cane: GoodBye Mel Fisher

Ways Of The Cane: GoodBye Mel Fisher: Growing up Fisher isn’t terrible, is funny, snarky, and in spite of the occasional disparaging quote about disability, the show works. So ...

GoodBye Mel Fisher

Growing up Fisher isn’t terrible, is funny, snarky, and in spite of the occasional disparaging quote about disability, the show works. So why is it being canceled?

Mel Fisher is a successful lawyer, father of two, and main focus of the show, who has depended on his family and 12 year old son in particular, to act as human guide dogs, until a divorce forces him to get a real guide dog and honestly face his blindness for the first time. The show is formulated around the family dealing with change, the kids growing up, and the unit as a whole keeping their individuality  and family identity as they branch out from underneath a patriarch who jumps back and forth between being a charismatic and larger-than-life presence, and at the same time a helpless goofball.

So, what’s the problem with the Fishers? I personally had no issues with a show about a half amazing/half clown blind lawyer and his enabling family. For many who haven’t come to well adjusted terms with their disabilities, walking the line between exceptional and comic relief is a daily occurrence. My issue was not the portrayal of disability, it was the show itself.

I was curious to know what others thought of Growing Up Fisher. As a blind person watching a show about another blind person, my opinion felt absolutely   biased, and as such I wanted to take a look at what actual “abled bodied” reviewers and critics had agreed upon before I shared my thoughts. Their issues were as follows: It’s not believable that a successful blind lawyer would be able to hide his disability from everyone for so long; and the show is just too happy, contrived, and seems very classically “sitcom" without any serious plot or character development. Other issues had to do with the parents and their May-December relationship but no one really had an issue with blindness, very likely because it’s not very easy to feel sorry for Mel Fisher. Before we know Mel cannot see, , he is introduced to us as the typical know it all dad as he cuts down a large tree with a chainsaw in his yard, and this sets up the rest of the show, as Mel stubbornly does things  which initially seem to go against society’s idea of the passive blind person. As the episodes progress, you question less and less whether it’s “believable” or not for someone who is blind to do the things Mel does, and you simply take him for what he is: a cocky, stubborn, lawyer.  

Still, let’s address the possibility of Mel Fisher being able to have a successful career while hiding his blindness. He is not an unusual character as far as blind people are concerned. I would say that many of us have faked, use trickery, and deception for much of our lives in order to deal with the stigma that society places on blindness. As a blind person, I would disagree with those which say that this is not a believable aspect of the show: it’s not only believable, it’s how many blind people have managed to be successful. The sitcom is based on writer DJ Nash’s true family life experiences, and the show is meant to be semi-autobiographical.

But the critics and reviewers are right about one thing, and that is that the show is simply too happy, too familiar, and too bland. For the first time in television, a network has the opportunity to explore these unique characters and situations which we have never really come across before in a sitcom or drama, and can bring to light the nuances of disability in a believable and relatable context. Instead of an original show, they gave viewers silly jokes, cuteness, and life lessons at the end of each snarky but forgettable half-hour episode. And of course, the show will not be renewed for another season. This does not come as a surprise.

What’s even more of a tragedy about Growing Up Fisher is that it was the only show which featured a blind individual who didn’t make me cringe or yell at the screen every time he was on, because he only traveled by hanging on the arm of everyone, or didn’t use a cane or dog and this made him superior to other blind people somehow, or could see with their hearts instead of their eyes, or had some strange ability, mystical power or lesson to teach that good intentioned but lost soul of an abled bodied person. I was actually able to focus on the quality of the show, instead of focusing on whether or not I felt misrepresented as a person with a disability.

Mel Fisher had issues, he was divorced, he tricked people for most of his life into believing that he could see more than he could, he used his friends and family to compensate for a lack of basic skills, and at the same time, he was educated, knew enough about driving to teach his daughter how to do so, impressed people through his wits not his disability, and managed to be an inspiration to his ex-wife and children. He was complex but the sitcom didn’t want to explore complexity. His family really had a unique story, but the network chose to focus on quick mediocre comedy. And, when there are popular sitcoms out there like Modern family, which bring to light gender issues, ageism, and cultural differences, and you have dramas out there like Switched at Birth and Parenthood that directly focus on disability through the lenses of social status, empowerment, neglect, culture and characters which go through the full spectrum of human emotion, Growing Up Fisher just seems to offer the same old thing, feels late to the game by about a decade, and comes across as lazy and poorly executed television.

And after all that criticism, I still have to say that a semi-complex blind central character in an outdated and cheesy mediocre sitcom, is better than the usual: no representation on television at all.

Goodbye Mel Fisher.