• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, October 3, 2018

The 27th edition of “Dancing With the Stars” started last week with another “first” among its diverse cast of celebrity participants.

One of them, Danelle Umstead, 46, is blind. Watching her on this past Monday's show dancing with pro partner Artem Chigvintsev was inevitably heartwarming and inspirational.

Umstead (seen in the photo above, center) is a blind athlete specializing in skiing who has been a member of the U.S. Paralympic team.

On Monday night, her dance routine began with her coming onstage alone and flamboyantly incorporating the cane she uses to guide herself into her dance steps.

She might not be the most skillful dancer on “DWTS” this season, but her performance understandably drew praise from the show's three judges -- Carrie Ann Inaba, Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli.

Unfortunately, the praise on Monday night was not enough to prevent Umstead from being eliminated from the show at the conclusion of Tuesday night's episode. Alas.

Nevertheless, “Dancing With the Stars” is a unique and special rarity on television -- a show that remains continually upbeat, highly energetic and dazzling to look at.

The TV Blog has often made this observation about TV today in the context of various commentaries and reviews: Much of what is seen on TV today is a downer.

In show after show, characters are seen struggling with sordid secrets, failed relationships, financial problems and personal, private strife of all kinds.

And then there is the violence, which becomes more grotesque with each passing season. Violence on TV today is so commonplace, pervasive and graphic that it has almost ceased to be considered in the popular imagination as anything anyone seems to be concerned about anymore.

In this environment, a dancing showcase taking up to four hours of prime time each week (two hours each on Monday and Tuesday nights), that can accurately be described with words such as positive, upbeat and joyful, sticks out of the TV landscape like the proverbial sore thumb.

Every time I watch this show, I thank heaven it exists. Monday night’s show was no exception.

The show was New York-themed, featuring dance routines supported by iconic songs about New York City with dramatic theatrical backdrops of city landmarks.

In fact, the effort that goes into producing this show week after week is breathtaking. As previously noted, “Dancing With the Stars” does up to four hours a week of live dance performances that the participants (including dancers, judges, hosts Tom Bergeron and Erin Andrews, and the show's huge production staff) seem to pull off with just a few days of rehearsal time.

Among the standout dance performances given on Monday night were ones given by NFL star DeMarcus Ware with pro partner Lindsay Arnold, former “Dukes of Hazzard” star John Schneider with partner Emma Slater, and actor Milo Manheim, 17 (son of actress Camryn Manheim), with pro Witney Carson.

All of this and Mary Lou Retton too. The 1984 Olympic champion gymnast once known as “America's sweetheart” is 50 now and participating in “Dancing With the Stars” for the first time.

On Monday’s show, this accomplished athlete came across as surprisingly insecure and anxious about her ability to hold her own on the “DWTS” dance floor. She did very well, though, with pro partner Sasha Farber.

It was another heartwarming moment for a show that has plenty of them each week. “Dancing With the Stars” really does represent TV's happy place (along with a tiny handful of other shows that have been described in previous TV blogs in much the same way).

This “happy place” is where people of all ages and backgrounds can feel safe coming together to be entertained.

No politics, no Trump, no Supreme Court nomination hearings here -- “Dancing With the Stars” gives us all a weekly reminder that there is more to life (and TV media) than contentious news talk.