History Series / SwitchedAtBirth

** After Regina's secret comes out, the Kennishes' lawyer advises that it's too late for a custody battle, since by the time it's settled the girls would be eighteen (legal adults in US) anyway.

* TheSpeechless: Melody and Emmett mostly, but [[spoiler: Emmett [[SuddenlyVoiced does speak]] in the summer finale.]] Melody occasionally does as well.

%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * SwitchedAtBirth: Well, yeah.
* TactfulTranslation: Daphne sometimes does this for Emmett.

* YokoOhNo: InUniverse - Simone tries to change Guitar Face's sound as soon as she starts dating Toby. However, she specifically denies being this, with varied evidence.

* SwitchedAtBirth: [[CaptainObvious Well, yeah.]]

** To ''{{Twilight}}'':

* QuestionableConsent: This issue is raised when [[spoiler: Bay]] wakes up next to Tank and can't remember what happened. After he reveals they had sex, she's skeptical that she'd consent to that, but he insists that she did. Others, however, note that being so drunk would cast doubt on her consent to begin, or even automatically make it a sexual assault.

** In "Ecce Mono," John imagines that Regina came clean about discovering the switch in 1998 but lost custody of the girls due to her drinking. Daphne is raised with the Kennishes, getting an cochlear implant to help her hear and not identifying as Deaf - but is a manipulative brat. Bay is now a studious young woman who falls in her sister's shadow; Toby is still gambling, and Kathryn is having an affair with another man [[spoiler:(Chip Coto)]]) The girls grow up thinking that Regina stopped contacting them altogether. [[spoiler: She actually has tried to make contact with them their entire lives, but the Kennishes stash away the letters and presents instead of giving it to the girls. When they find this out and go to find Regina, they instead only find Adrianna; they find out from her that Regina died of drinking on their birthday.]]

** Specifically, they're signing using ASL[[note]] American Sign Language[[/note]] and SEE[[note]] Signed Exact English [[/note]], in a mixture called Pidgin Signed English.
** Angelo speaks Italian, and French.

* ChocolateBaby: Daphne. Unlike both her presumed birth parents, Regina and Angelo, she was pale-skinned, plus red-haired. Naturally, Angelo thought Regina cheated on him and Daphne wasn't his. He was right on the latter, though [[RightForTheWrongReasons wrong about the reasons]], as she was switched for their real daughter while in the hospital.

* BizarroEpisode: "Yuletide Fortune Tellers" counts as it's an AlternateRealityEpisode which aired as the last episode of season three, directly after... well, see BittersweetEnding above.

* TheCastShowoff: Lucas Grabeel and Sean Berdy get to show off their musical skills in the fourth episode.
** Creator/LeaThompson shows off her singing voice in "Tree of Forgiveness," and ends up singing a duet with Lucas Grabeel.
** "Dance Me to the End of Love" gives almost everyone (not least former professional dancer Lea Thompson), with their varying degrees of ability, a chance to dance.
** Kathryn singing Christmas carols is a RunningGag in the season 3 Christmas special.

* UnexplainedRecovery: After Travis and Natalie are hit by a drunk driver, they're both injured. We see him with his arm in a sling, and Natalie has a neck brace on. She also complains of pain in her back and an MRI is ordered to see if her pelvis was fractured. That is the last we see or hear about their injuries-their next appearances have them perfectly fine.

* NoPartyGiven: John's run for office. He's either an old-school New England style Republican (in Kansas!) or a Blue Dog Democrat - liberal on "live and let live" social issues, fiscally conservative. Good luck getting through the primary!

* NeverTrustATrailer: A minor example but a lot of the previews use different takes than what’s actually used in the episode. One example being when a preview shows John, during a confrontation with Regina, saying in an angry yet restrained “You kept my daughter from me for thirteen years!” But in the episode proper he employs SuddenlyShouting by going “You kept...my daughter from me...for '''THIRTEEN YEARS!!!'''”

%% * NoPartyGiven: John's run for office. He's either an old-school New England style Republican (in Kansas!) or a Blue Dog Democrat - liberal on "live and let live" social issues, fiscally conservative. Good luck getting through the primary!

* OffTheWagon: Not long after seeing Simone at an AA meeting, Regina catches a guy buying booze for Simone. After getting chewed out, Simone tells Regina that she fell off the wagon after her indiscretion was spread around the school, and that she felt like she had no friends anymore.
** [[spoiler:As of episode 2.05, Regina has fallen off the wagon.]]

* [[spoiler:RapeAsDrama]]: A season 4 storyline.

** Before the families reveal to the public that Daphne and Bay were switched, Kathryn's friends think that John has a relationship with Regina.

* SignificantGreenEyedRedhead: Daphne, who has green eyes and red hair (see the image above), much like her biological mother Kathryn. It's all the more jarring when Regina refers to Daphne as having been a blond, blue eyed baby.[[note]]Though babies often have lighter hair for the first two years or so.[[/note]]

* SlutShaming: Someone finds out about Simone's indiscretion with Emmett, and posts it on a Slut Shaming website for the world to see. Toby had long since broken up with Simone over it, but he does call out some classmates for reading the website and being Slut Shamers themselves. Simone later confides in Regina that the slut shaming was the reason why she fell off the wagon.
* SocialServicesDoesNotExist: After Regina's secret comes out, the Kennishes' lawyer advises that it's too late for a custody battle, since by the time it's settled the girls would be eighteen (legal adults in US) anyway.

* TheSpeechless: Melody, and Emmett, but, [[spoiler: Emmett [[SuddenlyVoiced does speak]] in the summer finale.]]

* LatinoIsBrown: Averted with Daphne. Though her birth parents aren't actually Latinos, Regina who raised her was, and she still has the surname Vasquez, and none of the Latinos whom she meets doubt her status even though she's pale with red hair.

* BreakHisHeartToSaveHim: gender-flipped version. [[spoiler:Ty lies to Bay that he cheated on her, because the alternative--admitting that he's going into a high-risk warzone with a serious chance of getting killed and leaving her heartbroken--is something he can't do.]]

* DisappearedDad: Bay's biological father, Angelo. She's not happy about this. [[spoiler:He eventually shows up out of the blue in the midseason finale, after reading about the switch in a newspaper. Then disappears again. Then comes back. You can understand why Regina told him she wants off his roller coaster of comings and goings.]]

* LamarckWasRight: Daphne gravitates toward athletic endeavors, as her biological father John is a retired major league ballplayer. She is also a really good cook like her mother Kathryn. Bay is an aspiring artist, a trait that she seems to have inherited from her biological mother Regina.
** Daphne even states that she believes she inherited her basketball skills from John.

-->John: "You kept my daughter from me...for '''THIRTEEN YEARS!!!'''

* VictimBlaming: All the other characters seem to like to do this with Bay in a minor way. Taken UpToEleven in season 4 after [[spoiler: Bay is raped by Tank]]. Mary Beth's attitude about the situation is especially awful.

* JustForFun/XMeetsY:
** Emmett's character was described by the producers as "Deaf James Dean." Similarly, Travis has been described in-series as "Deaf Creator/MattDamon."
** Invoked in universe by Bay.

** Lea Thompson shows off her singing voice in "Tree of Forgiveness," and ends up singing a duet with Lucas Grabeel.

* JustForFun/XMeetsY: Emmett's character was described by the producers as "Deaf James Dean." Similarly, Travis has been described in-series as "Deaf Creator/MattDamon."

** A particularly {{egregious}} example is during one episode where Bay walks around the campus in a tank top and plaid skirt that vaguely resemble the school colors.

* {{Expy}}: Chef Jeff is a blunt, no-nonsense chef with a short temper, leading to comparisons to Creator/GordonRamsay.

* XMeetsY: Emmett's character was described by the producers as "Deaf James Dean." Similarly, Travis has been described in-series as "Deaf Creator/MattDamon."

* {{Homage}} / LawyerFriendlyCameo: One of Daphne's favorite movies is ''Deafenstein'', an incredibly cheesy ''{{Frankenstein}}'' adaptation performed entirely in ASL. It's a takeoff of the RealLife film ''Film/{{Deafula}}'', a 1975 version of ''{{Dracula}}'' done in ASL, with a similar reputation.