User Reviews

partially because I've always been a hypochondriac and partially I've always felt if something bad could happen, it would happen to me.

A college student is studying to become a writer when she begins to feel ill, and at first thinks it is the flu. Later she is diagnosed as having spinal meningitis and is paralyzed from the waist down as a result. I didn't remember the romance part in the plot, I guess because I was horrified that there was a contagious disease hanging about even in the 1970s that could put you in a wheelchair. As a teen I thought the days of worrying about that were over with the polio vaccine in the 1950s. From what I remember, Sian Barbara Allan, as the paralyzed girl, is understandably quite bitter about her fate during the first part of the episode. She was in quite a few TV episodes as guest stars and then seemed to disappear from acting after 1980. If you ever get a chance, I'd advise watching this one, but it will be hard to find since Season four of Marcus Welby is not on DVD and this aired before the VHS era.

First of all, "We'll Walk Out of Here Together presents a very stereotyped view of physical disability, as the overwhelming majority of individuals with physical challenges are NOT (repeat: NOT) wheelchair users. Having a neuromotor deficit, which affects motor coordination and speech to a moderate degree, have first-hand knowledge that the latter is much more common. Also, the episode also shows a rather romaticized view, being that physically "disabled" people don't spend most of their time singing "Kumbuya", but, instead, deal with such mundane issues as acceptance by others, employment discrimination, dignity, and respect, and being treated as a fellow human being.

Also, perhaps worth mentioning is the fact that while, in the plot, the main character was told, in regard to her potential relationships with men, she was a "freak", yet Sir Paul McCartney, who is both a world-class entertainer and a billionaire and, therefore, can, obviously, have his choice of any woman, married Heather Mills, an amputee.