TelevisionAcademy.com 101n September 12, 1989,
Life Goes On made history when it premiered as the first major series to feature an actor with Down syndrome in
a major role. This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of that debut.
Before Life Goes On, characters with disabilities were rare on television — and actors with disabilities were
even rarer. For example, able-bodied actor Raymond Burr played the wheelchair-using title character on Iron-
side from 1967 to 1975. (One significant exception: in 1980, NBC’s The Facts of Life featured the first actor with
a disability in a primetime series. Geri Jewell, born with cerebral palsy, played recurring character Cousin Geri on
the Norman Lear sitcom.)
On Life Goes On, Chris Burke played eighteen-year-old Charles “Corky” Thacher, first-born child to a work-
ing-class family in the Chicago suburbs. Tony-winning Broadway star Patti LuPone played protective mother
Libby, and Bill Smitrovich (Crime Story) portrayed Drew, his father. Kellie Martini played Corky’s nerdy sister,
Becca. Two actresses played Paige, Drew’s daughter by a previous marriage: Monique Lanier on the first season
and Tracey Needham after that.Long before shows like Born This Way profiled persons with
Down syndrome living productive lives, ABC’s Life Goes On
cast an actor with Down syndrome in a regular role. The ‘90s
family drama also broke ground with its HIV storyline, setting
a new bar for the embrace of differences in primetime.ABC/PHOTOFEST