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What Happened To THAT Accent?

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Re: What Happened To THAT Accent?

Postby Leander » Sun Aug 29, 2010 10:52 pm

CatnamedRudy

Ah so that is what John Mahoney sounds like to an American? I suppose I do notice the Chicago bit.

By the way Anthony LaPaglia's accent sounds terrible in Frasier. It is totally wrong for being Daphne's brother unless they both were separated at birth and he was brought up in the east end of London spending his holiday's in Australia. Daphne was brought up in Manchester and is fairly authentic for Manchester as far as I can tell, though someone from Manchester might argue the point - a little bit Lancastrian maybe?

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Re: What Happened To THAT Accent?

Postby wlan2nd » Tue Oct 19, 2010 4:29 pm

Leander wrote:CatnamedRudy

Ah so that is what John Mahoney sounds like to an American? I suppose I do notice the Chicago bit.

By the way Anthony LaPaglia's accent sounds terrible in Frasier. It is totally wrong for being Daphne's brother unless they both were separated at birth and he was brought up in the east end of London spending his holiday's in Australia. Daphne was brought up in Manchester and is fairly authentic for Manchester as far as I can tell, though someone from Manchester might argue the point - a little bit Lancastrian maybe?

Leander


her early accent, although not a superb rendition of "mancunian" is a fairly good attempt, well as far as im concerned anyway, maybe we have someone from Manchester on here who can clear this up. I agree with you about ALaP, he sounds like an eastender not her macnhester brother, and what about Robbie Coltraine, whos from Scotland, why do they have him speaking gibberish, I know the writers are trying for the whole "goofy family from hell" thing, but the either took it too far, or, in my opinion, got lazy
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Re: What Happened To THAT Accent?

Postby Mr Blue Sky » Tue Oct 19, 2010 5:57 pm

wlan2nd wrote:her early accent, although not a superb rendition of "mancunian" is a fairly good attempt, well as far as im concerned anyway, maybe we have someone from Manchester on here who can clear this up.


Agreed. Lancastrian John Mahoney helped her out a bit apparently. It sounded authentic to me and I was born 30 miles from Manchester.

I agree with you about ALaP, he sounds like an eastender not her macnhester brother,


His Cockney was quite convincing though! :lol:

and what about Robbie Coltraine, whos from Scotland, why do they have him speaking gibberish, I know the writers are trying for the whole "goofy family from hell" thing, but the either took it too far, or, in my opinion, got lazy


Ha, that's so funny. David Lee would be smirking to himself reading that post. I read an interview with him where he said Robbie Coltraine's performance was deliberately sticking two fingers up at all those people who complained about the various accents employed on the show! It was also self-parodying as they knew some of the accents were a bit off but didn't really care a great deal. Remember, Frasier was made with a solely American audience in mind and (no offence to any of our US friends on here!) most Americans either wouldn't know or couldn't care less if a regional UK accent was slightly off.
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Re: What Happened To THAT Accent?

Postby CatNamedRudy » Tue Oct 19, 2010 6:38 pm

most Americans either wouldn't know or couldn't care less if a regional UK accent was slightly off.


That's absolutely true. You guys are ultra sensative to regional accents. We don't give a rat's ass. And we don't generally give a rat's ass about American regional accents either.
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Re: What Happened To THAT Accent?

Postby Moon-Crane » Wed Oct 20, 2010 10:38 am

I don't give a rat's ass either :D

I might laugh at accents like Clive's mary poppins one, but it doesn't really bother me or affect my view of an episode. Anyway, if i was an actor and had to use my own accent to represent my home town, it's likely people from my home town would say that's a crappy attempt at a fake accent :lol:
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Re: What Happened To THAT Accent?

Postby wlan2nd » Wed Oct 20, 2010 6:12 pm

Moon-Crane wrote:I don't give a rat's ass either :D

I might laugh at accents like Clive's mary poppins one, but it doesn't really bother me or affect my view of an episode. Anyway, if i was an actor and had to use my own accent to represent my home town, it's likely people from my home town would say that's a crappy attempt at a fake accent :lol:


bang on with that one, this thread proves though that Brits really do care about how their dialects are represented, i kinda guessed that Americans don't care how their regional dialects are on TV, but do they care how non-americans do the accent? just curious
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Re: What Happened To THAT Accent?

Postby CatNamedRudy » Wed Oct 20, 2010 10:13 pm

wlan2nd wrote:
Moon-Crane wrote:I don't give a rat's ass either :D

I might laugh at accents like Clive's mary poppins one, but it doesn't really bother me or affect my view of an episode. Anyway, if i was an actor and had to use my own accent to represent my home town, it's likely people from my home town would say that's a crappy attempt at a fake accent :lol:


bang on with that one, this thread proves though that Brits really do care about how their dialects are represented, i kinda guessed that Americans don't care how their regional dialects are on TV, but do they care how non-americans do the accent? just curious


Do I care how non-Americans do American? If it sounds American I don't care. And Hugh Laurie, Anthony LaPaglia and Mark Addy (the only ones I can think of off the bat) do it well. Though LaPaglia like John Mahoney actually speaks "American" in real life.

The only time it bugs me for whatever reason if when a Canadian is portraying an American and they don't try to cover their Canadianese! I can pick out a Canadian accent a mile away and it bugs me when they don't try to correct it.
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Re: What Happened To THAT Accent?

Postby jrsightes » Thu Oct 21, 2010 6:13 am

I've always found it odd that such a small island can have so many accents crammed into such a tight space. We only have a few accents, and like Cat said, they're regional. There's some small variations within each region (New York vs. Boston; Charleston vs. the deep South), but you've got to be pretty familiar with the accents to pick them out.

I can't understand why Brits expect an American show to satisfy the differences between accents within a particular city, which are nitpicky at best, when to most Americans, British people just sound "British," or at the very most, "English" or "Scottish." Only those who spend a lot of time around British people or watching British television are going to notice that there are significant differences among the accents. It took me a long time to even notice that there were differences, and to this day I couldn't identify a single one of the accents by location.
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Re: What Happened To THAT Accent?

Postby wlan2nd » Thu Oct 21, 2010 10:03 pm

jrsightes wrote:I've always found it odd that such a small island can have so many accents crammed into such a tight space. We only have a few accents, and like Cat said, they're regional. There's some small variations within each region (New York vs. Boston; Charleston vs. the deep South), but you've got to be pretty familiar with the accents to pick them out.

I can't understand why Brits expect an American show to satisfy the differences between accents within a particular city, which are nitpicky at best, when to most Americans, British people just sound "British," or at the very most, "English" or "Scottish." Only those who spend a lot of time around British people or watching British television are going to notice that there are significant differences among the accents. It took me a long time to even notice that there were differences, and to this day I couldn't identify a single one of the accents by location.


i suppose the only real faux pas that any American, or other non-Brit can commit, is to call us (the Scottish), English, if you really want to piss off a Scot is to do this, we are a tiny country, but very very proud and patriotic and to call a Scot "English" doesn't go down well
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Re: What Happened To THAT Accent?

Postby Mr Blue Sky » Fri Oct 22, 2010 8:12 am

wlan2nd wrote:
jrsightes wrote:I've always found it odd that such a small island can have so many accents crammed into such a tight space. We only have a few accents, and like Cat said, they're regional. There's some small variations within each region (New York vs. Boston; Charleston vs. the deep South), but you've got to be pretty familiar with the accents to pick them out.

I can't understand why Brits expect an American show to satisfy the differences between accents within a particular city, which are nitpicky at best, when to most Americans, British people just sound "British," or at the very most, "English" or "Scottish." Only those who spend a lot of time around British people or watching British television are going to notice that there are significant differences among the accents. It took me a long time to even notice that there were differences, and to this day I couldn't identify a single one of the accents by location.


i suppose the only real faux pas that any American, or other non-Brit can commit, is to call us (the Scottish), English, if you really want to piss off a Scot is to do this, we are a tiny country, but very very proud and patriotic and to call a Scot "English" doesn't go down well


I think JR's point was, why should Americans, and the makers of American TV shows care about upsetting English or Scottish people? I think it's a fair point. As M-C mentioned earlier, I tend to laugh when I hear a poor accent but it doesn't tend to ruin anything for me, and I'm aware these are American shows aimed at a US audience who couldn't give a shiny shite what we sound like.
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Re: What Happened To THAT Accent?

Postby wlan2nd » Fri Oct 22, 2010 12:18 pm

I think JR's point was, why should Americans, and the makers of American TV shows care about upsetting English or Scottish people? I think it's a fair point. As M-C mentioned earlier, I tend to laugh when I hear a poor accent but it doesn't tend to ruin anything for me, and I'm aware these are American shows aimed at a US audience who couldn't give a shiny shite what we sound like.]


thats the truth, were just going to have put up with it, nice wee discussion about accents though
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Re: What Happened To THAT Accent?

Postby CatNamedRudy » Fri Oct 22, 2010 1:16 pm

It's funny this accent thing came up here because there's one going on over on the IMDb Mad Men board right now too. It seems the French Canadians on that board have a real issue with Megan's "French". They are upset because she's supposed to be from Montreal (and the actress who plays her is in fact from Montreal) but she speaks French with a "French" accent instead of a French Canadian accent. All I can hear is somebody speaking French!
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Re: What Happened To THAT Accent?

Postby Karin » Fri Oct 22, 2010 2:00 pm

CatNamedRudy wrote:The only time it bugs me for whatever reason if when a Canadian is portraying an American and they don't try to cover their Canadianese! I can pick out a Canadian accent a mile away and it bugs me when they don't try to correct it.

I find it really hard to tell a Canadian accent from an American one. I can pick out a Southern American or a New York/Brooklyn accent, but I hardy hear any differences between a Canadian and an American one.
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Re: What Happened To THAT Accent?

Postby Moon-Crane » Fri Oct 22, 2010 2:15 pm

I doubt i could tell much difference between Canadians and Americans speaking, much like i can't tell too much difference between Australian and New Zealand accents. You're probably only going to notice the differences when you're used to hearing it day to day.
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Re: What Happened To THAT Accent?

Postby Mr Blue Sky » Fri Oct 22, 2010 3:28 pm

CatNamedRudy wrote:It's funny this accent thing came up here because there's one going on over on the IMDb Mad Men board right now too. It seems the French Canadians on that board have a real issue with Megan's "French". They are upset because she's supposed to be from Montreal (and the actress who plays her is in fact from Montreal) but she speaks French with a "French" accent instead of a French Canadian accent. All I can hear is somebody speaking French!


Damn pedants! :lol:
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Re: What Happened To THAT Accent?

Postby CatNamedRudy » Fri Oct 22, 2010 6:23 pm

Mr Blue Sky wrote:
CatNamedRudy wrote:It's funny this accent thing came up here because there's one going on over on the IMDb Mad Men board right now too. It seems the French Canadians on that board have a real issue with Megan's "French". They are upset because she's supposed to be from Montreal (and the actress who plays her is in fact from Montreal) but she speaks French with a "French" accent instead of a French Canadian accent. All I can hear is somebody speaking French!


Damn pedants! :lol:


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Re: What Happened To THAT Accent?

Postby jrsightes » Fri Oct 22, 2010 8:07 pm

Mr Blue Sky wrote:
wlan2nd wrote:
jrsightes wrote:I've always found it odd that such a small island can have so many accents crammed into such a tight space. We only have a few accents, and like Cat said, they're regional. There's some small variations within each region (New York vs. Boston; Charleston vs. the deep South), but you've got to be pretty familiar with the accents to pick them out.

I can't understand why Brits expect an American show to satisfy the differences between accents within a particular city, which are nitpicky at best, when to most Americans, British people just sound "British," or at the very most, "English" or "Scottish." Only those who spend a lot of time around British people or watching British television are going to notice that there are significant differences among the accents. It took me a long time to even notice that there were differences, and to this day I couldn't identify a single one of the accents by location.


i suppose the only real faux pas that any American, or other non-Brit can commit, is to call us (the Scottish), English, if you really want to piss off a Scot is to do this, we are a tiny country, but very very proud and patriotic and to call a Scot "English" doesn't go down well


I think JR's point was, why should Americans, and the makers of American TV shows care about upsetting English or Scottish people? I think it's a fair point. As M-C mentioned earlier, I tend to laugh when I hear a poor accent but it doesn't tend to ruin anything for me, and I'm aware these are American shows aimed at a US audience who couldn't give a shiny shite what we sound like.


Exactly. A good example is the Fawlty Towers episode with the American guy and his wife staying at the hotel. The guy's accent sounds really weird to me, and not like any American accent I know of, but who cares? It's a British show.
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Re: What Happened To THAT Accent?

Postby jrsightes » Fri Oct 22, 2010 8:13 pm

Moon-Crane wrote:I doubt i could tell much difference between Canadians and Americans speaking, much like i can't tell too much difference between Australian and New Zealand accents. You're probably only going to notice the differences when you're used to hearing it day to day.


Well, there again, I think it's regional. We get many Canadians as guests at the hotel where I work, and some of them have a distinct "Canadian" accent, but with most of them, I can have an entire conversation with them and have no idea they're Canadian until they hand over their driver's license. Granted, most of the Canadians we get at the hotel (which is in southern Michigan) are from southeastern Ontario, between Detroit, Michigan and Buffalo, New York, so that might affect their accents.
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Re: What Happened To THAT Accent?

Postby kat » Fri Oct 22, 2010 8:15 pm

jrsightes wrote:
Moon-Crane wrote:I doubt i could tell much difference between Canadians and Americans speaking, much like i can't tell too much difference between Australian and New Zealand accents. You're probably only going to notice the differences when you're used to hearing it day to day.


Well, there again, I think it's regional. We get many Canadians as guests at the hotel where I work, and some of them have a distinct "Canadian" accent, but with most of them, I can have an entire conversation with them and have no idea they're Canadian until they hand over their driver's license. Granted, most of the Canadians we get at the hotel (which is in southern Michigan) are from southeastern Ontario, between Detroit, Michigan and Buffalo, New York, so that might affect their accents.


it's like that over here, some of my relatives live near the Yorkshire border and some people can't tell which side they come from whereas the further away from the borders the accent becomes more pronounced as is to be expected
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Re: What Happened To THAT Accent?

Postby Dr Arnold Shaw » Fri May 18, 2012 9:19 pm

I'm of the opinion that her accent is spot on Yorkshire.
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Re: What Happened To THAT Accent?

Postby CatNamedRudy » Fri May 18, 2012 9:36 pm

Kind of fun reading this thread again. 1 1/2 years later, the IMDb Mad Men board is STILL having that discussion about Megan's French!
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Re: What Happened To THAT Accent?

Postby tenpercenter » Sat May 19, 2012 12:43 am

id say think of the work you do..... do you do everything the same as you did 10 years ago? i think its just actors wanting to mix it up
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Re: What Happened To THAT Accent?

Postby Annieb » Fri Jul 26, 2013 12:35 pm

I'm no end amused at the idear that there is ONE New York Accent! Like Glasgow, New York City has very very strong accents along borough lines, as well as a Long Island accent. Believe me, even after 60 years out of Brooklyn, other people in our southern retirement town can spot my Brooklyn accent, and same for Bronx, Queens, LI and Jersey! And if you think you can only spot southern and NYC, you've never heard a Mainer! (Oh, yes, you have actually, Alan Alda does a nice mild one as Hawkeye in Mash). And what about Boston? Actually, for accuracy in US accents, MASH is very good. How about the accurate Brahmin Boston sounds from David Ogden Steirs as Charles Emerson Winchester and the Toledo accent of Jamie Farr as Klinger, for example, as well as several good mid-western accents.
I don't know what LaPaglia was trying for, besides a vaudeville stint, but his accent wasn't the worst of it, though he does a very nice flat American accent in Without a Trace.
And to my Albany NY ear, incidently, Niles has a Saratoga NY accent....which makes sense as that's where he's from!
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Re: What Happened To THAT Accent?

Postby Buttonsandbows » Tue Sep 10, 2013 4:49 am

I'm perplexed as to how anyone hasn't mentioned that Jane Leeves IS ENGLISH. Her accent towards the beginning of the show is exaggerated but then she slides into her real accent . She is from Essex and her "put-on" accent was to make her sound more mancunian. It cannot be dismissed as an attempt because that really is the way she speaks...
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Re: What Happened To THAT Accent?

Postby heartofmotion » Wed Jan 01, 2014 8:31 pm

her (Jane Leeves) accent would've changed in real life the longer she stayed in the US


Ironic that she still speaks with a perfect English accent although she's lived in the US for years!

You can say the accents don't matter, and in the greater scheme they probably don't, but it's still a reflection on the quality of a show and it's not so hard to get it right. We would think more of the show, and the characters involved, if the Daphne family accents were realistic. If David Lee is not bothered about it, to me it's just another indication that complacency was starting to creep in from season 8 onwards.
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