In "Different Drummer", we meet Leo, a strikingly handsome young man who is also intellectually disabled (or as they frequently say in the episode, retarded.) Blair encounters him and pursues him based on his looks, not realizing until later that he has this disability.
To everyone's surprise, rather than disassociate from him, Blair starts taking him out to museums and cultural events. However it becomes clear that she looks at him more as a project for improvement than a whole person, and that she is not taking his limitations seriously.
This comes to a head during a painting lesson when Blair pushes Leo too hard and he has an emotional outburst and flees. After a talk with Mrs. Garrett, Blair realizes Leo is a complete and good person the way that he is, and she repairs their friendship by accepting him totally.
It's an episode that was clearly a "very special episode" moment in the series, and Whelchel's performance is actually relatively nuanced and delicate in light of the subject matter. However, in terms of its treatment of intellectually disabled people, it is dramatically outdated. Aside from the frequent references to Leo being "retarded", everyone's somber reaction to Leo's disability reads more like they've found out he's contagious with a deadly disease.
In particular, Tootie's concern that Leo may be prone to violence (comparing him to Lenny in "Of Mice and Men") is disturbingly offensive even for 30 years ago. You can clearly tell that the writers were trying to address the public's ignorance around intellectual disabilities, similar to how they (more successfully) addressed CP with the character of cousin Geri.
At the end of the day the lesson of accepting someone's limitations rather than trying to force them to change is a good one, but one wonders if anyone truly watched this episode and learned anything about accepting the intellectually disabled.
To everyone's surprise, rather than disassociate from him, Blair starts taking him out to museums and cultural events. However it becomes clear that she looks at him more as a project for improvement than a whole person, and that she is not taking his limitations seriously.
This comes to a head during a painting lesson when Blair pushes Leo too hard and he has an emotional outburst and flees. After a talk with Mrs. Garrett, Blair realizes Leo is a complete and good person the way that he is, and she repairs their friendship by accepting him totally.
It's an episode that was clearly a "very special episode" moment in the series, and Whelchel's performance is actually relatively nuanced and delicate in light of the subject matter. However, in terms of its treatment of intellectually disabled people, it is dramatically outdated. Aside from the frequent references to Leo being "retarded", everyone's somber reaction to Leo's disability reads more like they've found out he's contagious with a deadly disease.
In particular, Tootie's concern that Leo may be prone to violence (comparing him to Lenny in "Of Mice and Men") is disturbingly offensive even for 30 years ago. You can clearly tell that the writers were trying to address the public's ignorance around intellectual disabilities, similar to how they (more successfully) addressed CP with the character of cousin Geri.
At the end of the day the lesson of accepting someone's limitations rather than trying to force them to change is a good one, but one wonders if anyone truly watched this episode and learned anything about accepting the intellectually disabled.
