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.

Basic cable’s ABC Family premieres the original movie Cyberbully on July 17 at 8pm ET. Part of the network’s summer-long Delete Digital Drama collaboration with Seventeen magazine, the film stars Emily Osment (Hannah Montana) as the increasingly distressed bullied party, high school student Taylor Hillridge.

Seventeen-year-old Taylor becomes a tortured victim of online bullying when she uses her new computer to attempt making friends on the Internet. Yet, instead of achieving the desired results, which include helping her deal with typical teenage anguish and her parents’ recent divorce, Taylor’s foray into the Wild Wild Web leads to unexpected betrayal, emotional pain, and further social isolation.

The cast of Cyberbully contains plenty of familiar television talent. Performers include Kay Panabaker, last seen on canceled ABC superhero series No Ordinary Family, as Taylor’s best friend Samantha Caldone; The O.C. veteran Kelly Rowan as Taylor’s mother Kris; and Being Human regular Meaghan Rath as Cheyenne Mortenson.

Star Osment recently provided some insight into the main theme of Cyberbully during a group interview with reporters. Her words make it clear she finds the subject matter very important, and she has sensible advice for young people who find themselves the target of meanspirited online behavior.

When asked about her personal experience with bullying — especially given her status as a celebrity, the type of person online haters love to hate on most — Osment replied she discussed the issue with her own mother, a sixth-grade teacher, and Cyberbully producer Joe Rice:

I spoke with [my mother] for a long time about what she sees in her school, and it’s frightening. It’s very sad. And I spoke with Joe Rice a very long time when I read the script, and I loved it for many reasons. One was because I knew this was a character that has an arc. She starts at one place and she drags through this mud a little bit, and then she comes out somewhere else. To play a role like that is an opportunity I haven’t had before, and I was jumping at the opportunity.

Plus, this is a campaign that needs to have more publicity surrounding it. Cyberbullying is a topic that is very hot right now. I know that Michelle Obama has a campaign that she is doing on it. Seventeen magazine obviously is doing a huge campaign right now with Delete Digital Drama. With this StompOutBullying.org that I’m an ambassador for, there is just so much we’re doing.

Osment also feels Cyberbully is not just a movie for teens or kids, and she believes parents should watch it with their children.

If you’re having trouble at home with a kid who’s being bullied and you don’t know how to help them, Kelly Rowan does an excellent job of playing this mother who is caught between a divorce and her job and two kids. And she’s so stressed, which a lot of mothers in America sadly are, but she does a great job of showing how she doesn’t really know how to help in the beginning and then she becomes supermom.

As for what young victims of bullying can do to avoid continuing harassment, Osment offers a few on-target suggestions:

If you’re being bullied, the best thing to do is to hit ‘Delete.’ That’s truly as simple as it is. If you’re seeing negative things online, try and get yourself away from it. And if you can’t get away from it, then you take yourself offline.

We’re very lucky we live in a generation where we have the opportunities that we do with electronics and technology, and we can use it anywhere we want pretty much. But this is our chance to sort of change the direction in which we’re going with the Internet and make it turn right a little bit, and we’ll be a little bit happier.

Basic-cable network ABC Family continues its string of interesting new teen-oriented series with tonight’s (June 6) premiere of the drama Switched at Birth.

Familiar child actress Vanessa Marano (Without a Trace) and deaf relative newcomer Katie Leclerc (Fashion House) play Bay Kennish and Daphne Vasquez, respectively. The two teenagers suddenly learn they are each growing up in the other girl’s family, thanks to a perplexing screwup at the hospital where they were born that sent them home with the wrong, nonbiological parents.

Constance Marie (George Lopez) portrays Daphne’s single mother Regina, while Lea Thompson (Caroline in the City) and D.W. Moffet (Friday Night Lights) portray Bay’s parents Kathryn and John. The show explores how the relatives involved react to the life-changing error after they discover it, and how the two daughters at the center of the blunder cope with their new life as members of two families.

Sneak a peek at the series premiere below. ABC Family has captioned the video footage, which is fitting since both Leclerc and her character Daphne are hard of hearing. Looks very good to me, so I definitely plan to give the drama a chance and watch the 10 episodes in Season One.

Been meaning to catch (up on) all of the mysterious A shenanigans from this winter on ABC Family drama Pretty Little Liars or just want to relive the excitement again? If either situation applies to you, then you’ll get your chance on Monday, February 21, when ABC Family airs seven whole episodes of the popular rookie series back to back.

Tune in to the network for the seven-hour winter season marathon at 1pm ET on Presidents Day. The encore fun starts with the eleventh episode, the winter premiere “Moments Later,” and ends at 7–8pm with the most recent installment from February 14 titled “The New Normal.”

Then, to top the marathon off properly, ABC Family will premiere the next fresh episode of the show called “The Badass Seed” at the normal time of 8pm. Just four installments will remain in the current season after that one, including the March 21 finale.

Sure, Pretty Little Liars has settled into a dramatic rut and isn’t remotely as interesting or intriguing these days as it was at the very beginning. But I can still think of many worse ways to cap a three-day holiday weekend, especially if you’re looking for something new to watch on TV during your day off.

Hit rookie ABC Family series Pretty Little Liars has definitely struck a chord with viewers. Based on the young adult set of novels by author Sara Shepard, the teen-oriented drama focuses on four high school students as they attempt to determine who is harassing them electronically following the alleged death of their best friend.

The show continues to perform better than well in the ratings after half a season, no doubt in part because of the four attractive stars: Troian Bellisario (Spencer), Ashley Benson (Hanna), Lucy Hale (Aria), and Shay Mitchell (Emily). Although the male members of the cast don’t get anywhere near as much coverage as the leading ladies, they play a sizable role in the action as the mystery of the all-knowing persecutor referred to simply as “A” unfolds.

Brant Daugherty portrays bad boy Noel Kahn, a fellow Rosewood High student whose attitude takes a turn for the creepy and worse when he discovers a huge secret Aria has been hiding. The 26-year-old actor recently devoted a bit of his time to answering questions about his role on the show and where he thinks it’s heading. Read on for the good stuff, some of which may be spoiler-y if you haven’t been keeping up with the series this winter.

On “A” and how Noel fits into that situation: I honestly have no idea who ["A"] is. I’ve been watching and following [the show] with the fans, trying to figure it all out. And God knows they don’t tell me anything about that, but I’m right there with everyone. As far as how Noel fits into that, you’ve got to look at his motives and the situation he was put in. He may not necessarily be working maliciously as “A,” but he’s still got a bone to pick, and he’s still trying to figure things out for himself. Ultimately, at the end there, at the end of Episode 13 ["Know Your Frenemies"], he becomes a victim himself, which adds another interesting twist to it, I think.

On the evolution of his character Noel Kahn: Well, we’ve already seen a pretty dramatic turn in how we view Noel and the sides of him that we’re seeing. In the future, I think, we’re just kind of see how he’s going to relate to these four girls and what interaction he’s going to have. As far as specifics, I’m afraid I can’t delve too much into that. But he is a character in Rosewood, and we’re going to see a bit of him around town and everything. It’s mainly just how he relates to these four girls, and when they’re ready for him, he’ll be around.

On what’s most enjoyable about playing Noel: It has to be his duality. When I was first on the show during the last ten episodes, Noel was this great stand-up guy. They would talk about how perfect he is and he’s got a great life, and all these great things happening for him. Then just suddenly, he just flips completely, and then you’re never really sure what to make of him after that. Is he lying? Is he telling the truth? Who is he lying to? Why is he lying? I think when I sat down and talked to Marlene [King] and Oliver [Goldstick], the executive producers, about this transition, they were so excited to see how this played out, and I was right there with them. I couldn’t wait to show this side of the character.

On Noel taking advantage of Aria and Ezra’s relationship by trying to coerce the teacher into giving him a better grade: I wouldn’t say that he’s taking advantage of it. I think that he’s lashing out a little bit. I think maybe “trying to get back at Ezra” would be a better term. I feel like he thinks Ezra has taken advantage of Aria more than Noel is taking advantage of Ezra or Aria. Aria’s asked him not to do anything, so he’s struggling with how he’s going to handle the situation and ultimately try to get a dig in at Ezra the only way he knows how — intellectually, through his work.

On the reaction of fans to Noel’s transition from sweet guy trying to win over Aria to bad guy: You can always tell where the fans allegiances lie by how they react to the situation. Some of them are just furious and hate me and can’t believe this dark turn I’ve taken and the way that I’m hurting their poor, dear Ezra. Some of them love it, on the opposite end. Some of them are kind of rooting me on, and they’re like, “Yes! Get him! Get him!” So, it’s been interesting to see the kind of double nature of the fans that way. [It's] great, honestly, because coming in, I wasn’t sure if I’d ever win anyone away from Ezra. But I got a couple of them, and I’m happy with that.

On what makes viewers watch Pretty Little Liars: In a short answer, it has to be the four pretty little liars themselves. I think they so accurately depict sort of America right now for these young girls with their struggles and the lies that they have to tell and the secrets they keep. Especially hitting things like eating disorders in the last couple episodes and hitting things like coming out to your parents, the gay teenager. These things really resonate with the youth in the world today, and I think it’s exploring storylines like that that keep us coming back every week.

On how he was cast as Noel: That was quite a process actually. I had to fight for that one. I auditioned for the pilot to play Ezra. I was too young for that. Then, I auditioned again a couple of months later to play Toby, which was a fun audition. I had a blast with that one, I’m sure you could imagine. Toby’s quite a character. They liked me and wanted to keep seeing me and find me a fit on the show. And then Noel came up, and Noel and I just clicked. We get each other. I auditioned for the part and just a couple of days later, I was on set with the cast and the crew.

Lucky, lucky dude. Tune in to Pretty Little Liars Mondays on ABC Family at 8pm ET.

Meaningless-but-fun ABC Family suspense series Pretty Little Liars returns to the tube tonight, January 3, at 8pm ET to launch the second half of its successful freshman season.

The first episode up in the shiny new 2011 year has the curiosity-inspiring title “Moments Later.” The moments in question are those following Hanna’s fall season-ending date with a car, and the terrifying incident apparently represents the end of the “nice” A era. Now the anonymous texter known only as A is ready to kick her (his?) harassment up a notch and become even more threatening. Smells like really good times are on the way!

But wait … there’s more. Fans of entertaining ABC Family college dramedy Greek have something to look forward to also. The series begins its fourth season on January 3 at 9pm ET, immediately after the return of Pretty Little Liars, with the premiere episode “Defending Your Honor.” Sounds tense.

Check out the network’s promo for the new Monday-night matchup of its two popular teen-oriented shows below.

Once-promising summer series Huge is no more at ABC Family after the network decided not to pick up ten additional episodes of the show following the ten that aired during its rookie run earlier this year.

The dramedy focused on a group of overweight teenagers at a weight-loss camp and the numerous issues they faced, both related and unrelated to the scale. Members of the ensemble cast included Hairspray star Nikki Blonsky and relative newcomer Hayley Hasselhoff.

Although the series started off strong ratings-wise when it premiered in June, the number of viewers slowly but steadily decreased as more episodes aired. As a result, the show’s ratings dropped from about 2.53 million total viewers for the June 28 debut to about 1.45 million total viewers for the August 30 finale.

This is a perfect example of “when bad things happen to good shows.” It’s sad to see another quality series that filled a clear need — providing a more diverse, realistic, and ultimately positive representation of young people — get the boot.

Thankfully, the show from My So-Called Life creator Winnie Holzman will not just fade away into oblivion without some noise from fans. Women-oriented website Jezebel has reported on an online petition to help save the series, and you can join the movement and show your support by taking a few seconds to sign it. Doing so would be time very well spent, regardless of the eventual outcome.

I have been enjoying the heck out of new ABC Family teen suspense saga Pretty Little Liars, so I’m a tad sad the network has decided to separate its 22-episode freshman run into two parts. The first break occurs tonight with the tenth episode, intriguingly titled “Keep Your Friends Close.” Uh-oh.

Aria, Ashley, Emily and Spencer prepare to celebrate snotty Mona’s birthday with a high-end “glamping” camping trip, despite the mysterious A’s increasingly spookier and troubling “messages,” one of which seems to hint the unknown person — or presence, if you will — may even be at the event, as well. Worse, the FBI shows up in Rosewood, Pennsylvania, when new clues regarding Alison turn up.

Preview Pretty Little Liars‘ “Keep Your Friends Close” midseason finale in the sneak peeks below. The episode premieres at 8pm ET.

ABC Family has another new young adult-oriented original series premiering on June 28 called Huge, and this hourlong drama has a welcome twist.

Twenty-one-year-old Hairspray star Nikki Blonsky headlines the newbie as plus-sized Willamina Rader, better known as Will, who heads off to a weight-loss camp called Camp Victory armed with personality — and attitude — to spare. There, she meets her fellow campers who also yearn to become thinner, which would probably be much easier to achieve if Will wasn’t selling them her spare food on the sly. I smell a troublemaker with personal issues.

Blonsky’s camp-aged castmates include 17-year-old Hayley Hasselhoff (yes, daughter of Baywatch David) as newly and unexpectedly popular Amber, 18-year-old Raven Goodwin (Good Luck Charlie) as shy book lover Becca Huffstatter, Harvey Guillen (Miss Guided) as funny yet self-loathing Alistair, and Ashley Holliday (Discreet) as earnest and well-liked Chloe Delgado. The icing on the cast cake is Whedonverse player Gina Torres (Standoff, Alias, Firefly) as dedicated Camp Victory overseer Dr. Dorothy Rand.

Love the cast, expect to love the show. Tune in at 9pm ET tonight for the opening episode “Hello, I Must Be Going,” which introduces the various regular cast members and a heap of good old summer-camp conflict. A brief sneak peek follows, featuring Blonsky showing how to work it. Like I said, troublemaker, no doubt.

Am I a little too old to be looking forward to the new ABC Family mystery series Pretty Little Liars, which premieres tonight, June 8, at 8pm ET? Probably, but who cares. Suspense is suspense, and the genre equals great TV when it’s done right.

One thing that Pretty Little Liars has going for it from the very outset is a terrific cast of both young and older talent. The series focuses on four teenage girls forced to get over their estrangement after they become the texting targets (how modern) of a mysterious threatening person known only as A.

A fifth friend disappeared unexpectedly without a trace a while back, and now the girls are receiving unsettling messages that reveal their darkest and deepest personal secrets. Could A be their missing friend keeping tabs on them from a hidden place? Love that familiar-but-still-intriguing premise. So many possibilities.

The regular cast of Pretty Little Liars includes Troian Bellisario (NCIS), Ashley Benson (Eastwick), Lucy Hale (Privileged), and Shay Mitchell (Degrassi: The Next Generation) as the central characters Spencer Hastings, Hanna Marin, Aria Montgomery, and Emily Fields, respectively.

On the adult side, there’s Charmed fan favorite Holly Marie Combs as Ella and Rob’s younger brother Chad Lowe, whom I’ll always remember for his work on Life Goes On. Lowe took over the role of Byron from Angel and Buffy the Vampire Slayer vet Alexis Denisof, who was originally cast in the pilot. I wish Denisof had stuck around, of course, but I’m cool with Lowe as a replacement.

Get a taste of Pretty Little Liars in the following clip before checking out the premiere. It looks like a promising summer series to me, especially for mystery lovers.