One of the most important moments in the life of most people is the birth of their child. In the majority of instances such an event is understandably a cause for joyous celebration. When it comes to television dramas the dominant theme is by necessity based on cases where the natural course of events is marred by unfortunate circumstances. In many such stories the themes have the tendency towards such emotionally difficult circumstances as unwanted pregnancy, adoption, the foster care system or outright theft of the new born child. Recently the ABC Family Network endeavored to tale on another situation that can mar the usually happiness of a family; discovering your child was ‘Switched at Birth’. Yes, that is not only the premise of their last foray into teen oriented drama but it aptly serves as a succinct title for the series. Thankfully, this is not a very common occurrence but there are verifiable instances on record to serve as a frightening reminder that it can happen. This is the worst nightmare that many new parents have. The nurse takes away your newborn child out of your sight and for as brief moment this horror goes through your mind. When my Daughter was born there was a time when an overworked nurse inadvertently brought us the wrong baby. Good thing the mix-up was particularly noticeable since the babies were different in gender and ethnicity. In this series the family involved where not so fortunate. It took nearly sixteen years for the mishaps to come to light. There is a temptation for a network to attempt to push this series in a more lighthearted direction. When a topic of such a series presents such serious overtones and the target demographic are impressionable teenagers the inclination is to sidestep the potential controversy by minimizing the dramatic implications. To their credit the ABC Family Network has built a reputation as producers of intelligently written, exceptionally acted series that but not insult the young people watching. They also have become known for creating shows that the teens can actually enjoy with the parental units present. Once again this network has scored a solid hit on their hands.

The life of teenage Bay Kennish (Vanessa Marano) has been reasonably ideal. She is bright, artistically talented and gets along well with her family. They reside in Mission Hills, Kansas, a wealthy suburb of Kansas City, Missouri. I’ve been to that region and it is unusual how the communities straddle state boundaries. Her father, John (D. W. Moffett), is a retired professional baseball player and her mother Kathryn (Lea Thompson) is a stay at home mom. There is also her younger brother Toby (Lucas Grabeel) completing the family tableau. This well order life is about to disrupted by a seemingly innocuous event, a routine assignment in Bay’s biology class. All it took was a little drop of blood to set Bay’s life spinning. After comparing the results of her blood type with that of her parents it became obvious that she was not their biological child. This sort of discovery has a major impact on anyone but to gain this knowledge at the time in life when the teen has to establish what will become there adult sense of identity it understandably set the Kennish household in a spin. The supportive parents perform due diligence by having a professional genetic assay performed which only confirmed Bay’s findings. Upon further exploration it is determined that the hospital did indeed make a mistake and Bay had been switched at birth. The biological child of John and Kathryn is currently living under the name Daphne Vasquez (Katie Leclerc). She lives in the working class neighborhood of Riverside, Missouri with her single mother Regina (Constance Marie) and Puerto Rican grandmother (Ivonne Coll). As a result of a case of meningitis as a child Daphne is hearing impaired. Currently she attends a school for the deaf and excels on the basket ball court. Immediately upon meeting Daphne finds a kindred spirit in her athletically inclined biological father sensing some sort of connection, it is discovered that Regina is coping the best she can with an untenable financial difficulty so the Kennishes offer them the use of their guest house. Has the unusually constructed family endeavors to blend there are several obstacles that that must be overcome. One of the most significant is the feeling of abandonment as Kathryn tries to maternally connect with her biological daughter.

It would have been extremely easy for the show’s creator and runner, Lizzy Weiss to take this series down the path of least resistance. A while back there was a mildly successful sit-com based on a similar premise, ‘Sister, Sister’. There it was a case of twins reunited as teens but the general progression was nearly identical down to the affluent parent providing a home for the financial struggling mother and daughter. ‘Switched at Birth’ is an excellent example of how to rework an idea to arrive at a completely different result. This series is an incredibly well conceived and executed family drama. In a fashion typical of what has come to be expected from ABC Family the factors that elevated this series above the myriad of other teen based dramas exceeds beyond the core principles to the expert deployment of the nuances. As mentioned there is really nothing novel in juxtaposing economically different families but it was the methods used to present the circumstances that matters. It is only one thread in a rich tapestry of plot points and issues that support the story. Having the one daughter as hearing impaired is not included as a gimmick; it is infused in the series as a natural part of life affording much deserved dignity to this portion of our society. According to the production notes care was taken to ensure the signing was accurate and the soundtrack is edited to remove all but the barest ambient sounds to assist in the hearing audience some perspective on the deaf community and highlight the emotional impact of the scene. This is expanded by the use of a hearing impaired actress, Katie Leclerc. Great concern is displayed with the care, understanding and sensitivity the series exhibits. There is another recurring use of casting that appears to be standard for an ABC family drama; using an eighties icon in a parental role. Lea Thompson had a highly success career in that decade as a teen and a young adult in such films as the ‘Back to the Future’ trilogy and ‘Red Dawn’. Here she demonstrates that her dramatic talents have only increased with time. This is one series that should be on you season pass list so catch up with this DVD set.