I never thought I’d care whether some forty-year-old guy from Texas decided to skydive to commemorate his big day. In fact, I think in some other broadcast I’d write it off as some big cliché.

However, Brian Scheele is no ordinary white guy from Texas.

Brian spends much of the show trying to reclaim some of the thrill-seeking stuff he left behind when he broke his back in a horseback-riding accident twelve years ago. It’s surprisingly touching when Brian’s glamourous wife Cyndi confesses her fears about Brian getting back on a horse and, later, when he makes his tandem jump from a plane.

They have a lovely chemistry and very cute six-year-old quadruplets.

(One of the most endearing moments of the broadcast is when Brian receives his first gift: a jazzy handbike, so he can follow his kids on their tricycles.)

Less endearing, the $2000 pricetag on an equivalent bike.

The Big 40 is TV Land’s latest entry into unscripted programming, although, thankfully, it steers clear of the dumb challenges typical of so much of the genre in favor of creating suspense in the form of a time clock ticking away the days and hours until the big birthday blowout.

As an activist, though, I’m concerned about broadcasts like this one. While almost anything that makes disabled people just part of the American Experience is good, in my opinion, and Brian and Cyndi seem to have one of those one-in-a-million love stories that it makes one’s heart lighter to watch, I can’t help feeling concerned that Mr. and Mrs. Average who might be watching, might think that it’s typical for a disabled person to live in a big, suburban, fully accessible house with a beautiful partner and great kids, so what are the rest of us, at the risk of creating a political gaffe, so bitter about?

You tell me, Disability Nation. Watch the show(I'm not sure how it will play on dial-up) and let me know.

Or should I just lighten up? Is it enough to care about his personal story, and just be glad when his parachute opens?

I spent much of this admittedly lightweight broadcast pondering this question.