The Good: "The Kid and I," "The Ringer," and "Murderball" all featured people with disabilities in an empowering light.
The Bad: A child with autism and cerebral palsy was kicked out of a showing of "March of the Penguins" for the terrible offense of ... laughing?
The Ugly: Products licensed from the film "Napoleon Dynamite" included a pen that said, "You guys are retarded!"
The Good: "Supernanny" worked her magic on the family of a child with autism, but brought along an autism expert to help.
The Bad: On "Desperate Housewives," the man imprisoned in Betty Applewhite's basement was revealed to be developmentally disabled and maybe a murderer.
The Ugly: An episode of "The Closer" involved the mother of an autistic child killing the father over a disagreement on treatment; the confession was elicited by threatening to send the child to a hellhole institution.
The Good: New role models -- Keira Knightley's dyslexic, and Tim Burton may have Asperger syndrome.
The Bad: The controversy over the link between vaccines and autism moved to the gossip pages with allegations that actors Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards split because they disagreed on vaccinating their children.
The Ugly: Tom Cruise became a public punching bag after speaking out against Ritalin. His views were dismissed as Scientology ravings, but some folks thought he had a point.
The Good: Timmy Kelly, an 11-year-old with cerebral palsy who has become something of a good luck charm for the Philadelphia Eagles, was the team's guest at the Super Bowl.
The Bad: Boxing movie "Million Dollar Baby" got lots of love from Oscar, but disability rights activists decried its "Better Dead than Disabled" message.
The Ugly: A T-ball coach allegedly bribed a player to throw a ball at an autistic teammate's head so the boy would be unable to play.
The Good: The parents of Charlotte Wyatt had a court ruling overturned that would have allowed doctors to let her die if her hold on life weakened.
The Bad: A Supreme Court ruling that parents have to prove a special education program inadequate sounded like bad news for parents, but experts said "Not so much."
The Ugly: The parents of Katie Wernecke, a 12-year-old with Hodgkins disease, lost custody because they disagreed with doctors on the need for radiation treatment.
The Good: The Atkins diet may be fading as the nation's eating craze, but it's showing some promise as an easier-to-manage version of the ketogenic diet for children with epilepsy.
The Bad: A girl with a peanut allergy died after kissing her boyfriend, who had eaten peanut butter shortly before.
The Ugly: Obesity has become such a problem for kids that Type 2 diabetes, often described as "adult-onset," is becoming a serious threat for children too.
The Good: Talk about an off-label use -- the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra was found to help pediatric patients with Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension.
The Bad: The ADHD drug Cylert was discontinued, maybe due to declining sales, maybe due to stories of liver-damaging side effects.
The Ugly: Can the antidepressant Zoloft turn a teen into a murderer? The jury in the case of a 15-year-old who murdered his grandparents rejected his "Zoloft defense" and sentenced him to 30 years in prison.
