Gilmore Girls is incredibly coming up on its 25th anniversary on October 5. And in getting in the spirit of the milestone, actress Vanessa Marano, who had a recurring role on the comedy drama, noticed something that possibly connected the Gilmore Girls universe to another series she starred in, Switched at Birth.
In a short clip posted to Instagram on Saturday, September 27, Marano is seen sipping out of a Gilmore Girls mug while she watches the season 6 episode, “Super Cool Party People.” In the episode, Rory rushes to the hospital to visit Logan after he’s seriously injured while taking part in a stunt with the Life and Death Brigade, a fictional secret society at Yale University.
“And I will be here as long as you want me to be,” Rory (Alexis Bledel) says in the clip. “I’ve already located the gift shop and the good cafeteria, good being a relative term. And the maternity ward, in case I want to plan a little practical joke, swap the newborns around.”
“Eight more days until the Gilmore Girls 25th anniversary and today I discovered that, in an alternate timeline, Rory is responsible for Switched at Birth?!?!?” Marano incredulously captioned the clip, in which she exclaims “WHAT?!” at the revelation.
A post shared by Vanessa Marano (@vanessamarano)
Marano played one of the leads on Switched at Birth, which ran on ABC Family (later rebranded to Freeform) for five seasons from 2011 to 2017. In the series, the now 32-year-old starred as Bay Kennish, a teenage girl living in the suburbs of Kansas City, who discovers during a school lab assignment that her blood type is incompatible with her parents.
Subsequent genetic testing confirms that she not biologically related to her parents, and that she was, you guessed it, switched at birth with another girl living in a low-income neighborhood of East Riverside, Missouri.
The series deals with how the two families grapple with the mixup, as the girls navigate their new normal and attempt to bond with their biological parents while maintaining a relationship with the families that raised them.
Interestingly enough, Marano was involved a similar storyline in Gilmore Girls. Her character was first introduced in season 6 when Luke (Scott Patterson) learns he has a 12-year-old daughter named April Nardini when she takes a DNA test for a science fair project. Unfortunately, the surprise takes a toll on his relationship with Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and they eventually split up.
All told, Marano appeared in 13 total episodes between 2005 and 2007. And clearly, she’s still a huge fan of the show—even if she’s not exactly amused by Rory’s nursery prank.
