Frasier Online

Who do you think was the worst actor/actress to ever be on the show?
I didn't like Trevor Einhorn as Frederick at all, he was a bit cringy to watch, but improved over the years. I thought the same about Steven Anthony Lawrence who played Jason White, the one who was playing pranks on Gertrude in 'Tales From the Crypt'.

I don't know as child-actors go, I thought they were pretty good. Trevor Einhorn was definitely better than his predecessor, who acted like he was reading the phone book. The one who played Eve in Halloween was rather bland. Doctor Phil keeps talking like he's addressing a crowd. Other than that they were all pretty good, even the ones who's characters I didn't like.

Yeah doctor phil wasn't too good, but then he's not an actor, so I guess i can let him off for that funnily enough, the person who played Eve in Halloween was Kelsey's wife (Camille) at the time of filming

Patrick wrote:I don't know as child-actors go, I thought they were pretty good. Trevor Einhorn was definitely better than his predecessor, who acted like he was reading the phone book. The one who played Eve in Halloween was rather bland. Doctor Phil keeps talking like he's addressing a crowd. Other than that they were all pretty good, even the ones who's characters I didn't like.

The one who played Eve in Halloween was Kelsey's real life wife at the time. She was awful. And Dr. Phil was pretty awful too. Bill Gates couldn't act his way out of a wet paper bag.

Annie was pretty bad in Ski Lodge, mainly because of the bad accent, aswell as Clive for the same reason

CatNamedRudy wrote:

Patrick wrote:I don't know as child-actors go, I thought they were pretty good. Trevor Einhorn was definitely better than his predecessor, who acted like he was reading the phone book. The one who played Eve in Halloween was rather bland. Doctor Phil keeps talking like he's addressing a crowd. Other than that they were all pretty good, even the ones who's characters I didn't like.

The one who played Eve in Halloween was Kelsey's real life wife at the time. She was awful. And Dr. Phil was pretty awful too. Bill Gates couldn't act his way out of a wet paper bag.

Bill Gates had better not quit his day job.

Tranquilox wrote:Annie was pretty bad in Ski Lodge, mainly because of the bad accent, aswell as Clive for the same reason

So she isn't really English? Do you think she's American?

Patrick wrote:

Tranquilox wrote:Annie was pretty bad in Ski Lodge, mainly because of the bad accent, aswell as Clive for the same reason

So she isn't really English? Do you think she's American?

Yep. She's American. And she looked much better as Annie than she does in her IMDb picture!

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0483701/

The actress, Cynthia Lamontagne who played her is American, the accent is badly put-on

CatNamedRudy wrote:

Patrick wrote:

Tranquilox wrote:Annie was pretty bad in Ski Lodge, mainly because of the bad accent, aswell as Clive for the same reason

So she isn't really English? Do you think she's American?

Yep. She's American. And she looked much better as Annie than she does in her IMDb picture!

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0483701/

I can see that, nevertheless I think her body is still... wow!!!

Tranquilox wrote:The actress, Cynthia Lamontagne who played her is American, the accent is badly put-on

Does Daphne sound Mancunian at all? Or is her accent also fictitious although I am guessing of much better quality than most?

To me I'm not really sure if it sounds Mancunian, since i'm from the south of England, but her accent is definitely fictitious. From the moment I first watched Frasier, her accent sort've bugged me, because it sounded a bit too fake. In interviews she sounds completely different

I'd say the accent she uses is quite believable.

Yep, sounds perfectly manc enough to me. Certainly good enough as a north-west accent in general. And even more certainly for a US show's needs.

Moon-Crane wrote:Yep, sounds perfectly manc enough to me. Certainly good enough as a north-west accent in general. And even more certainly for a US show's needs.

It's really interesting to see how different people have different opinions about her accent. I had an English friend aho was a linguist and he said her accent was laughable, but then again he may have been judging her too harshly. Over the years I've seen people say it's bad, just off the mark, decent and good. Being a foreigner, I can't tell myself, but I absolutely agree it's quite good for Americans, most of whom have probably never (or rarely enough) heard a Mancunian accent.

Daphne's accent sounded a little "put on" to me in the early episodes, perhaps to emphasize her how quirky she was. It seemed toned down later. Maybe an opinion of her accent depends on which episodes a person is watching. I'm not from England, so I can't really judge.

I thought Simon's accent sounded so bad because he was supposed to be drunk all the time and the "drunken accent" bit just didn't come out right. I thought his character would have been less annoying if the accent was toned down quite a bit and he didn't walk so weird all the time.

Frasiertime wrote:Daphne's accent sounded a little "put on" to me in the early episodes, perhaps to emphasize her how quirky she was. It seemed toned down later. Maybe an opinion of her accent depends on which episodes a person is watching. I'm not from England, so I can't really judge.

I thought Simon's accent sounded so bad because he was supposed to be drunk all the time and the "drunken accent" bit just didn't come out right. I thought his character would have been less annoying if the accent was toned down quite a bit and he didn't walk so weird all the time.

Hey, that's the Moon-walk!

PistolPoet wrote:

Moon-Crane wrote:Yep, sounds perfectly manc enough to me. Certainly good enough as a north-west accent in general. And even more certainly for a US show's needs.

It's really interesting to see how different people have different opinions about her accent. I had an English friend aho was a linguist and he said her accent was laughable, but then again he may have been judging her too harshly. Over the years I've seen people say it's bad, just off the mark, decent and good. Being a foreigner, I can't tell myself, but I absolutely agree it's quite good for Americans, most of whom have probably never (or rarely enough) heard a Mancunian accent.

I certainly don't think it's "laughable"
As a native of the North West of England (Manchester is 33.3 miles away from Liverpool according to the RAC) I don't think there is anything wrong with her accent at all.
I wouldn't think it was odd if I heard an accent like that while I was out and about.

As has been pointed out, her accent may have been stronger earlier to make her appear quirkier, or it could be that living in America for so many years has softened it a bit.

i'd say Daphne's accent sounded more northwestern/manchester in the early years and toned down through the later seasons into a more generic tone. If you go on youtube and check out clips from shows such as Shameless, Queer As Folk, The Royle Family, In With The Fynns, etc, they're all set in the Manchester area. Listen to the women on those and i wouldn't think Jane Leeves is too far out for the job she needed to do.

I reckon a UK linguist would say i effect a fake geordie accent. But i am originally from Tyneside, just with a bastardised version of the accent from living in other parts of the country. Everyone else in the UK would simply hear me as a geordie but the 'natives' would say i don't have the accent at all. It's not something i get hung up about.

I always thought Hugh Laurie's accent sounded a little weird and slightly exaggerated for House, but then he would get good stateside reviews for it. I'm not American so who am i to say. Like Frasiertime, i thought Simon was always meant to sound hammered. But it never really bugged me how he sounded.

Unless somebody sounds completely bizarre and extremely exaggerated, i don't really worry about it.

Forever Jung wrote:

PistolPoet wrote:

Moon-Crane wrote:Yep, sounds perfectly manc enough to me. Certainly good enough as a north-west accent in general. And even more certainly for a US show's needs.

It's really interesting to see how different people have different opinions about her accent. I had an English friend aho was a linguist and he said her accent was laughable, but then again he may have been judging her too harshly. Over the years I've seen people say it's bad, just off the mark, decent and good. Being a foreigner, I can't tell myself, but I absolutely agree it's quite good for Americans, most of whom have probably never (or rarely enough) heard a Mancunian accent.

I certainly don't think it's "laughable"
As a native of the North West of England (Manchester is 33.3 miles away from Liverpool according to the RAC) I don't think there is anything wrong with her accent at all.
I wouldn't think it was odd if I heard an accent like that while I was out and about.

As has been pointed out, her accent may have been stronger earlier to make her appear quirkier, or it could be that living in America for so many years has softened it a bit.

I only know well enough the accent of my own region, to tell the difference between a good fake and the real McCoy. Anywhere else in France I can most of the time place an accent on the map but can't tell if it's native or acquired. Of course sometimes a bad fake is meant as a parody and then it can be hilarious, but only when it's a good bad fake, like a caricature. If you see what I mean.

I can't tell the difference between regional accents in the UK. You guys have different accents if you cross to the other side of the street. I mean I can tell the difference between Cockney and what we refer to as "the King's English" but not much else.

I can quite easily tell most US regional accents though. MC mentioned Hugh Laurie's accent. I found his American pretty flawless but I have heard others say it's awful. Personally I think those are just people who are trying to pretend they are smart.

Forever Jung wrote: I certainly don't think it's "laughable"
As a native of the North West of England (Manchester is 33.3 miles away from Liverpool according to the RAC) I don't think there is anything wrong with her accent at all.
I wouldn't think it was odd if I heard an accent like that while I was out and about.

My friend was a phonetician and an elitist, so any slight derivation from his idea of Mancunian would set him off .

Moon-Crane wrote:I reckon a UK linguist would say i effect a fake geordie accent. But i am originally from Tyneside, just with a bastardised version of the accent from living in other parts of the country. Everyone else in the UK would simply hear me as a geordie but the 'natives' would say i don't have the accent at all. It's not something i get hung up about.

Awww, Geordie! I'd love to hear you! (I have a degree in English and am therefore a big anglophile ).

PistolPoet wrote:My friend was a phonetician

I don't know why working in a call center qualifies him to judge on how well the accent was done

I've been told by people from outside of Liverpool they can tell i'm from Liverpool, but i've had a lot of people in Liverpool ask me where i'm from. Work that one out

Forever Jung wrote:

PistolPoet wrote:My friend was a phonetician

I don't know why working in a call center qualifies him to judge on how well the accent was done

I've been told by people from outside of Liverpool they can tell i'm from Liverpool, but i've had a lot of people in Liverpool ask me where i'm from. Work that one out

Well, I've been in that bizarre situation myself. I've worked in Marseilles for a year and while the people from Marseilles could tell that I was from Picardie, the People from Picardie thought that I was from Marseilles. Go figure!

Daphne's accent is definitely not laughable but it's nowhere near a Manc accent imho. Like M-C says it's definitely a North-West accent but it's not whiny enough to be a proper Manc accent like Gary Neville for example! (No offence to any forum members from Manchester)