'Parenthood' told a flawed autism story. This time, Jason Katims vowed to 'do better'
LOS ANGELES — A few years ago, Jason Katims, the TV writer behind shows like "Friday Night Lights" and "Parenthood," started to think about what adulthood would look like for his maturing son who is on the spectrum.
"There's a lot that is written about children with autism, but the idea of adults with autism is less explored," says Katims, whose son, Spencer, is 23. "And so I was just there; it was something that I was thinking about in my life, and wondering about, and maybe losing a little sleep about."
In the months that followed, he began to wonder if it might be subject matter worth exploring on a TV show. Katims has gotten personal in his work before — on "Parenthood" he tackled the complexities of raising a child with high-functioning autism through the character Max Braverman, played by Max Burkholder. Katims' agent told him about an Israeli show, "On the Spectrum," and sent three episodes for him to watch.
"I watched them the moment I got them and I just felt strongly that this is the show I want to do," he says. "There's the old adage to write what you know, right? I had a professor in college who said: Write what you're learning about. This was a subject matter that I felt, on one hand, I knew a lot about; I felt that I could do it justice. But on the other hand, it was something I was learning about and am learning about. And so it felt like
