TV Jots

Star Discusses ABC Family Standout

It seems the older I get, the more I enjoy television shows aimed at young people. Case in point: Switched at Birth, ABC Family’s newest original drama, which premiered on June 6. The series won me over from the very first episode, and it now ranks at the top of my regrettably short Must See TV list.

If you haven’t had the pleasure of watching Switched at Birth yet, the series revolves around teenagers Daphne Vasquez (Katie Leclerc) and Bay Kennish (Vanessa Marano). Even-tempered “good girl” Daphne has been deaf since she was a toddler due to meningitis, and moody Bay is a talented artist with a rebellious streak. Despite those differences, both girls are intelligent, down-to-earth, family-oriented, and basically kind people.

After they learn the hospital where they were born sent them home with the other girl’s family by mistake, their parents decide to live near each other in order to get to know their respective biological daughter. The proximity helps the families accomplish that goal while highlighting the contrasts and similarities between them.

George Lopez veteran Constance Marie plays Daphne’s mother Regina Vasquez. When she spoke with reporters earlier this month, Marie emphasized how important it is that Switched at Birth seamlessly “merges the hearing world with the deaf community,” with her character Regina serving as a bridge between the two.

Since the deaf community is fifteen million strong, the fact that [the show] merges those two seamlessly is a huge gift to America. If you go into the other [important] things, Switched at Birth calls into question the nature versus nurture question — the racial differences, cultural differences, socioeconomic differences in families. How, no matter if you’re a single parent family, a two-parent family, you have money, no money, you’re Puerto Rican or you’re white, everybody’s got issues. And the conflict comes from that. It is just a melting pot of drama.

Although she appears to have lengthy signing experience on the show, Marie had to learn American Sign Language, or ASL, to prepare for her role as a hearing person strongly involved in the deaf community. Anthony Natale, a certified sign language instructor, helped her acquire and polish her signing skills, which also have to pass muster with her fellow cast members Leclerc, Sean Berdy (Emmett), and Marlee Matlin (Melody), who are all both deaf and fluent in ASL.

I really was blessed to be able to work with Anthony Natale about three weeks before we started production. I didn’t know anything about ASL. I watched a tremendous amount of documentaries and I have a wonderful ASL instructor who came and literally beat me into submission.

I say that in a loving way, but really, I had to hunker down and essentially learn a language that I had no clue about. It’s so funny because in my Mommy and Me group with my young baby, all the moms — every single mom — taught their child sign language, except for me. And, of course, I’m the one who ends up having to do a TV series where I have to become fluent in sign language in a matter of weeks.

Regina is more than just a mother, however. As a single woman, she also has a personal life outside motherhood that will evidently heat up sometime soon. Viewers witnessed a little of that personal side in recent episodes, which found Regina developing mutual interest in a wealthy acquaintance of the Kennishes.

I just have to say that the episodes that we have coming up, Regina gets busy. I guess that’s my heavy-handed way of saying she gets to go out on dates and things.

She also has big secrets to be revealed. There’s so much stuff coming down the pike, it’s unbelievable. These shows are just getting better and better, and more complex, and I think we won’t leave anybody unfulfilled, that’s for sure.

I bet some of those secrets will involve Bay’s unidentified biological father, a forbidden topic in the Vasquez household whom viewers have not met yet. Whether we ever learn who he is or not, Marie believes another valuable aspect of Switched at Birth is that the series demonstrates families are not about perfection.

I hope viewers learn, number one, that deaf people are just like everybody else, except they speak fabulously with their hands. I [also] hope they question what a family really is, and how it doesn’t necessarily have to be, like, the perfect mom and dad and 2.5 children. How families are completely different, but yet, the love underneath that is the most important thing, however you skin that family cat.

Watch Switched at Birth Mondays this summer on ABC Family at 9pm ET. I always do.