8.4 /10 1 Votes
9/10 TV Composer(s) John Swihart First episode date 6 June 2011 Awards Peabody Award | 7.8/10 IMDb Theme music composer John Swihart Country of origin United States | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Starring Sean BerdyLucas GrabeelKatie LeclercVanessa MaranoConstance MarieD. W. MoffettLea ThompsonGilles Marini Cast Profiles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Switched at Birth is an American teen/family drama television series that premiered on ABC Family on June 6, 2011, at 9:00 ET/PT. The one-hour scripted drama is set in the Kansas City metropolitan area, and revolves around two teenagers who were switched at birth and grew up in very different environments: one in an affluent suburb, and the other in working-class areas. According to ABC Family, it is "the first mainstream television series to have multiple deaf and hard-of-hearing series regulars and scenes shot entirely in American Sign Language (ASL)".
Contents
- Plot
- Main characters
- Recurring characters
- Guest stars
- Production
- Filming locations
- Broadcast
- Reception
- Media information
- References
The show's debut was ABC Family's highest-rated series debut to date. The series won an honorary Peabody Award in 2013, and on July 30, ABC Family ordered a third season which premiered on January 13, 2014. On August 13, 2014, ABC Family renewed the series for a fourth season, which premiered on January 6, 2015.
On October 21, 2015, ABC Family (now rebranded as Freeform) confirmed the series had been renewed for its fifth season, which was later confirmed to be the final season. On March 19, 2016, it was announced that the fifth season was bumped from a March 2016 to a January 2017 premiere date. In October 2016, the network announced that the final season would premiere on January 31, 2017.
Plot
Bay Madeline Kennish, a teenage girl from the wealthy Kansas City suburb of Mission Hills, Kansas, discovers from a school lab assignment that her AB blood type is incompatible with her type A/O parents John and Kathryn. Genetic testing confirms Bay is not the Kennishes' biological daughter. She uses the phrase "real parents," but is informed that "biological" is the preferred term. It is revealed that the hospital mistakenly switched Bay (who was actually born Daphne Paloma Vasquez) with the Kennishes' newborn daughter, who is raised by her single mother Regina and grandmother Adriana in the low-income neighborhood of East Riverside, Missouri. Daphne is deaf, having lost her hearing as a result of contracting meningitis at age three. The Kennishes invite Daphne and Regina to their home, and after learning that Regina is struggling financially, propose that they move into their guest house with Adriana, an offer that Regina accepts.
This forces the girls, along with both families, to understand their differences and embrace their similarities. The girls sometimes struggle with their identities, as Bay discovers she has inherited her artistic talent from Regina, and Daphne discovers she has inherited John's athletic skill and Kathryn's love of cooking. Both mothers learn to bond with their biological daughters, while often unintentionally angering their legal ones. John learns to relate to his new-found daughter by coaching her deaf school's basketball team and employing her in the office of one of the local chain of car washes that he owns. Bay is driven by a need to find her biological father Angelo Sorrento, who left Regina shortly after Daphne went deaf. That causes a bond between her and Emmett that later becomes an intense romance.
Main characters
Recurring characters
Guest stars
Production
On August 1, 2011, ABC Family announced that they were ordering more episodes for the first season of Switched at Birth, bringing the first season to a total of 30 episodes. The series continued with a winter premiere on January 3, 2012, ending on March 20, 2012, with 12 episodes. The series began airing the remaining 8 episodes of its first season beginning September 3, 2012. On August 17, 2012 (2012-08-17), ABC Family renewed Switched at Birth for a second season; it premiered on January 7, 2013 (2013-01-07). After the spring finale on March 11, 2013 (2013-03-11), the second season resumed on June 10, 2013 (2013-06-10). On July 30, 2013, ABC Family renewed the show for a third season to premiere on January 13, 2014.
The show has an American Sign Language expert who helps make sure that the sign language used by the four fluent regulars (Katie Leclerc, Sean Berdy, Constance Marie, and Marlee Matlin) all employ a similar dialect.
Airing on March 4, 2013 to mark the 25th anniversary of the "Deaf President Now" protests at Gallaudet University, the season 2 episode "Uprising"—which featured a similar student-led protest surrounding the closure of Carlton School for the Deaf, was produced almost entirely in sign language.
Filming locations
The show is filmed in Los Angeles, California. Establishing shots used in several episodes feature video of downtown Kansas City, Missouri, including: a shot of the Liberty Memorial in the first episode; the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art; and Loose Park. There are scenes filmed in Santa Clarita, Valencia, Beverly Hills, and Pasadena.
Broadcast
The series is first-run on the ABC Family cable channel (now called Freeform). It airs in Ireland on TG4, in New Zealand on TV2, in Australia on Fox8 & in Albania on Junior TV. The first 93 episodes are available on Netflix's Watch Instantly service.
Reception
The show's premiere on the ABC Family network was the highest-rated ever, with 3.3 million viewers. The total, including the first episode's repeat later that evening, was an estimated 4.9 million.
Media information
ABC Family promoted the series by launching an online game, Switched at Birth: Hunt for the Code one week before the premiere. Bay, a graffiti artist, left her signature stencil image on ten different websites, and players searched for the picture and accompanying code to redeem sneak peeks and enter a drawing to win $4,000. Each weekday, ABCFamily.com posted two clues hinting at a site featuring the image, and instructed users to scan the code with a Microsoft Tag Reader for exclusive content. Additionally, each code had two letters for fans to collect and enter to win upon completion of the ten-digit code.