LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE/NBC/1974-83 (Blind)
*(Melissa Sue Anderson/costar) Mary Ingalls Kendall, the daughter of
Minnesota farmer Charles Ingalls who lost her sight after a bout
with scarlet fever that destroyed her corona on the two-part episode
"I'll Be Waving As You Drive Away" broadcast February 6 & 13, 1997.
To help her cope, Mary was sent to a school for the blind (The
Sleepy Eye School for the Blind) and later married her instructor
(himself blind). Over the life of the series the blind couple moved
to the Dakotas, then returned to Walnut Grove (Mary's hometown) and
finally left for New York when Mary's husband Adam Kendall (Linwood
Boomer) took a job as a lawyer with his father's firm after he
(Adam) miraculously regained his sight via a freak accident. Adam
Charles Holbrook Kendall Jr. the baby boy of Adam and Mary Kendall
was killed in the fire at the blind school. Christopher Bowman
played the recurring blind student, George, at the blind school
where Mary and Adam worked. He is first seen in "Blind Journey" in
which the school moved with the help of Charles and Joe Kagan, from
Winoka to Walnut Grove. This frontier series was based on the
Little House novels written by Laura Ingalls Wilder.
LONGSTREET/ABC/1971-72 (Blind)
*(James Franciscus) Michael "Mike" Longstreet, an insurance
investigator blinded when a booby-trapped bottle of champagne
exploded (also killing his wife). After recuperating from the
accident, Mike enrolled in a school for the blind and then returned
to his job at Great Pacific Casualty Company based in New Orleans.
He was assisted by a white German shepherd guide dog named Pax; an
electronic cane which gauged distances using sound waves; and his
devoted girl Friday, Nikki Bell (Marlyn Mason). After Mike was
attacked in an alley, he hired a martial arts instructor (Bruce Lee)
to teach him self defense.
MACGYVER/ABC/1985-92 (Blind)
*(Dana Elcar/costar) Peter Thornton, the Director of Field
Operations for the Phoenix Foundation who supervised Angus MacGyver,
a troubleshooter for the firm. A few years into the program, actor
Dana Elcar discovered he was going blind. However, with a little
help from his friends and crew of the show, he continued to work on
the series.
MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE/FOX/2000-2006 (Injured Eye)
**(Daniel von Bargen) Commandant Edwin Spangler, the head of a
private military school. He has a patch over his left eye, sports a
hook for his hand (he is missing his right hand - and later his left
hand, as well), and limps from a bum leg. Spangler's life centered
on tormenting and torturing the innocent students under his command.
When he lost his job, he ended up in Alaska as an employee at Snow
Valley Retirement Home where he bullied the elderly folks in his
care.
MR. SUNSHINE/ABC/1986 (Blind)
*(Jeffrey Tambor) Paul Stark, a balding, blind college professor who
was trying to patch up his life after an unhappy marriage. Barbara
Babcock played his middle-aged landlady who had the hots for him.
NED BLESSING: THE STORY OF MY LIFE & TIMES/CBS/1993 (Deaf, Blind, Mute)
**(Bill McKinney) Verlon Borgers, a ruthless outlaw struck deaf,
dumb and blind when the ghost of a dead sheriff (whom Borgers
killed) materialized during a gunfight against Ned Blessing. Borgers
had placed the head of the sheriff on display in a pickle jar. A
mute character named Seli Pedit, a black man born without being able
to speak, was also featured on the series.
THE NEW ADDAMS FAMILY/FOX/1998-99 (Colorblind)
**(John De Santis) Lurch, the towering zombie butler of Gomez and
Morticia Addms who lived in an eerie Victorian house at 001 Cemetery
Lane in Greenbriar, USA. Morticia dug Lurch up in a cemetery. Once
Lurch tried to smile and his face broke.
NIGHT COURT/NBC/1984-92 (Blind)
**(Marsha Warfield) Roz Russell, a tough, but quiet black court
bailiff working in a New York City night court. On a December 1987
episode, Roz discovered she had diabetes and didn't like the idea of
having to inject herself with insulin to stay alive. She later had
an attack of low-blood sugar, began to act incoherently, and almost
fell off the roof of the court house. Other physically challenged
characters included Daniel Frishman as Vincent Daniels, a dwarf city
official who supervised Assistant. D.A. Dan Fielding (John
Larroquette) who constantly made jokes about his bosses lack of
height; S. Marc Jordan as Jack Griffin, the blind operator of the
courthouse newspaper stand in the cafeteria; and Elayne Boosler as
Joy Buscallia, the blind love interest of sighted court Bailiff,
Bull Shannon. Joy could touch typed 60 wpm and Xerox with the lid
up. Joy had gone blind four years earlier. Being blinded had
mellowed Joy's normally mean disposition, but not by much.
ON THE AIR/ABC/1992 (Blind)
**(Tracy Walter) "Blinky" Watts, the apparently blind sound engineer
who kept pushing all the wrong buttons on The Larry Guy Show variety
program. Actually Blinky's not blind. "He suffers from Bozman
Symplex; he see 25.6 times as much as we do."
THE OTHERS/NBC/2000 (Blind)
**(John Aylward) Albert McGonagle, blind member of a paranormal
research community who has heightened sixth sense “They say when one
sense is lost, the other sense is heightened. In my case, when a
rocket grenade explosion took my natural sight, I gained my 6th
sense. All I can see are psychic visions that I wish I were blind
to. My visions are in the negative. The darkness appears light and
the light is dark” (as stated on the NBC show website for “The
Others“)
SABLE/ABC/1987-88 (Blind)
**(Ken Page) Joseph "Joe" Tyson, a blind black computer whiz who
provides information to Jon Sable, a children's author and
vigilante. Joe's nickname is "Cheesecake" because Sable sends a
strawberry cheesecake to Joe when he needs information (the flap of
the cake box hold instructions in Braille).
THE SAMMY DAVIS JR. SHOW/NBC/1966 (Injured Eye)
*(Sammy Davis Jr.) Sammy Davis Jr., the popular black singer, dancer
and all around entertainer lost his left eye in an automobile
accident on November 19, 1954 while driving from Las Vegas to
Hollywood. He recovered from his injury at the Community Hospital in
San Bernardino. Soon after the accident he began to wear an
eye-patch. It was replaced by a glass (actually plastic) eyeball.
When he returned to work at Ciro's, he received a ten minute
ovation. Mr. Davis also appeared on THE HOLLYWOOD PALACE/ABC/1964-70
(an occasional host); THE NBC FOLLIES/NBC/1973 (a regular on the
show); SAMMY & COMPANY/SYN/1975-77 (his own talk/variety show); and
BARETTA/ABC/1975-78 (sung the theme song "Keep Your Eye On The
Sparrow"). Sammy Davis Jr. died in 1990 at the age of 64.
SECOND SIGHT/BBC/1999-2001 (Blurred vision, blindness)
*(Clive Owen) DCI Ross Tanner, a London-based police detective
diagnosed with a degenerative condition of the retina which produces
blurred vision, starlight flashes, extreme sensitivity to light,
intermittent blindness and hallucinations. Tanner's Doctor diagnosed
his problem as acute zonal outer occult retinopathy (AZOOR), a rare
virus that makes his vision come and go as it destroys the victim's
retina. Tanner's partner DI Catherine Tully (Claire Skinner) soon
becomes his eyes as they investigate criminal cases for the
Metropolitan Police Force. Tully sees helping Tanner as a way of
getting on the fast track to promotions. So she keeps his secret and
helps Tanner get through the cases, aiding him when his sight goes
out on occasions. Initially, Ross did not want to admit anything was
wrong with his eyes. He was a fast-rising detective with a promising
career and unlike his policeman father who never advanced up the
ranks, Ross was determined to make something of himself. And
although a rare disease was eroding his vision, he managed to keep
the problem hidden to remain head of an elite homicide squad.
Tanner's awkward attempts to hide the condition distanced him from
his colleagues and increasingly put his job at risk. All the while,
Ross struggles with his ambition, tries to come to terms with his
un-welcomed impairment while fielding a complex relationship with
his ex-wife and son and a romantic entanglements with DI Tully and
her eventual resignation from the unit which leaves him without an
ally. Unawares of Tanner's visual difficulties, colleague DI Boyd
credited Ross' frequent stumbles to alcohol.
SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN/ABC/1974-78 (Injured Eye)
*(Lee Majors) Colonel Steve Austin, USA Astronaut badly injured in
the crash of an experimental moon-landing craft in the California
desert. His shattered body was reconstructed with bionic parts which
included a powerful right arm, two mechanical legs which enabled him
to run faster than a car and a left eye which transcended normal
vision. The price of his operation-six million dollars. Steve used
his new found powers by working as a spy for the OSI (Office of
Scientific Information). See also "The Bionic Woman"
STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION/SYN/1987-94
(Blind with Visual Prosthesis)
*(LeVar Burton/costar) Starfleet Lt. Geordi La Forge, a Helmsman
(and later Engineer) for the 24th century starship Enterprise. La
Forge "saw" via a prosthetic device placed over his eyes called a
VISOR (Visual Input Sensory Optical Reflector). The curved, silver
band of metal with rows of vertical slits was attached to two
blinking red implants imbedded into each of his temples. Giordi's
real eyes were covered with a film of white. His artificial sight
transcended normal human vision. The powers of an alien named named
"Q" once intervened to give La Forge a moment of "real" sight but
Geordi refused the gift. In the Star Trek movie Insurrection (1998)
Geordie no longer needed his visor. The miracle of technology had
provided him with natural sight.
TRIVIA NOTE: The Geordi character
was inspired by a young man named George La Forge who suffered
from muscular dystrophy. However, his affliction didn't keep him
from attending as many Star Trek conventions he could afford to go
to. He became a friend of series creator Gene Roddenberry, who made
George an honorary Lieutenant in Starfleet before George died in
1975. While creating new characters for his revival of the series
Roddenberry remembered George and as a tribute to the valiant man,
named the navigator of the starship, Geordi La Forge.
TAXI/ABC/1978-83 (Blind)
*(Danny DeVito/costar) Louie De Palma, a tyrannical dispatch
operator for the New York City based Sunshine Cab Company who issued
orders over the loudspeaker. When Louis stepped out of his wire
covered office, he was seen for what he was, a pint-sized little
twerp of a manager with more faults than you could shake a stick at.
Louis was so despicable that he instructed his drivers not to pick
up the handicapped because you could pick up four "normal" fares in
the same period of time. Later in the series his character (now a
bit more sensitive) fell in love with Judy (Murphy Cross), a blind
woman introduced in the last season of this comedy series. Her sight
was later restored via a surgical operation.
TWIN PEAKS/ABC/1990-91 (Injured Eye)
**(Wendy Robie) Nadine Hurley, a red-haired woman with a black eye
patch over her left eye who lived in the strange Northwest town of
Twin Peaks. Nadine failed an attempt at suicide and later, losing
touch with reality, began to believe she was back in high school.
Also appearing was the hard of hearing FBI Bureau Chief Gordon Cole
(played by the show's producer David Lynch). The program also
featured a supernatural little person known as the "Dream Dwarf" and
"The Man from Another Place" (played by Michael J. Anderson) who
lived in a dream like world surrounded by red curtains. When he
spoke, his voice sounded as if it was being played backwards. There
was also a one-armed man named Phillip Michael "Mike" Gerard played
by Al Strobel. See also NICKNAMES: "The
Log Lady"
WEREWOLF/FOX/1987-88 (Injured Eye)
**(Chuck Connors) Janos Skorzeny, an evil sea captain with a black
patch over his left eye. His character had the ultimate handicap-he
was a real life werewolf (killed later in the series).
WINNETKA ROAD/NBC/1994 (Blind)
**(Eddie Bracken) Father Burke, a blind Roman Catholic priest living
in the Chicago suburbs of Oak Bluff, Illinois who looked after a
young boy Nicky (Nicholas) Mear.
THE X-FILES/FOX/1993-2002 (Colorblind)
**(Nicholas Lea) Alex Krycek, Soviet double agent working with C. G.
B. Spender, a.k.a. the Cigarette Man (William B. Davis), a
mysterious operative under orders from a shadowy organization called
The Syndicate. On the episode “Terma” Krycek lost his left arm
escaping villagers who tried to help him from being a test subject
at the Russian chain gang excavating rock from Tunguska, Russia.
Krycek is responsible for terminating both William Mulder, the
father of FBI agent Fox Mulder and Melissa Scully, the sister of FBI
agent Dana Scully. Agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) is red-green
colorblind as revealed in episode “Wetwired.” Cigarette Man’s
constant habit of smoking eventually gave him throat cancer. After
his surgery, he still smoked by placing a cigarette at the hole in
his throat.
A - K /
L - Z
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