untitled

—Oscar winner Denzel Washington stars as a man on fire.
from a commercial for a television broadcast of Remember the Titans

Friday night on ABC, five couples competed for a teenager's unborn child and Nightline consisted entirely of Ted Koppel reading the names of all the servicemen and women who have died serving in Iraq.

Before all that, however, ABC aired a first-run episode of George Lopez which I think crossed the line more than anything else on ABC Friday night.

I tuned in about halfway through and paid moderate attention.

In the episode, George and his family go to Disneyland, which immediately made me suspicious, because Disney owns ABC.

While George debated whether or not to go to Disneyland with his mother, I noticed a Mickey Mouse head silhouette (a black circle with two smaller black circles for ears) on one of the dining room walls in the background.

—Odd, I thought.

Then I noticed how the characters kept mentioning the "new Tower of Terror ride" at Disneyland, which, in fact, opens at Disney's California Adventure on May 5.

George's family later rides the Tower of Terror ride.

During the end credits, I saw text on the screen that read —Write down the number of Mickeys.

I did some research and apparently, Friday night's episode was part of a Great Mouse Hunt contest.

—While watching, keep track of the hidden Mickeys that you spot. There are between 50 to 150 hidden throughout the episode.

—One lucky grand prize winner will receive a family vacation for four to the Disneyland Resort, where you will drop in to the "Twilight Zone Tower of Terror", plus you'll get $10,000 cash!

A few weeks ago, when Around the Horn and Pardon the Interruption on Disney-owned ESPN chose The Bachelor as a debate topic on the day of its season premiere on ABC, I let it go, because the "bachelor" this time around is a football player for the Giants, and that's sports-related.

But this…

Disney used a sitcom it produces for its own broadcast television network to shill a new ride at one of its theme parks while sneakily embedding its brand logo in viewers' heads.

Michael Eisner, have you no shame?

At least Fox doesn't try to pass off American Idol as art.