why?

Jan. 20th, 2012 04:29 pm
dbskyler: (up to eleven)
[personal profile] dbskyler
I just came across an American version of Top Gear. Why does this exist? Just like everyone else, we have the British version of Top Gear. Isn't that all we need? Why do American television executives seem to believe that Americans won't watch TV where people speak with British accents?

(no subject)

Date: 2012-01-25 09:04 am (UTC)
thisbluespirit: (dw - Five Guilty Reading)
From: [personal profile] thisbluespirit
Heh, actually, having said all that, I think I know what you mean - or, at least, I do something similar. If it's one person and I can tell they have an Accent, then which one will sometimes take quite a while to dawn, depending. :-)

I've just realised that most of the Canadians I know were in the UK, so maybe the tendency to sound more mid-Atlantic was due to that, but it seems to me there is a difference, although sometimes not much. (I mean, if someone comes from a v northern part of the US and a Southern part of Canada, there vcan't be much, by and large, can there?) I had a history teacher for A-Level who was Canadian and it used to drive him mad that people thought he was American. (He shouldn't have worn the cowboy boots, really. :lol: Oh, and that wasn't a bad joke. He actually wore cowboy boots.)

Downton Abbey is definitely shown in the US - I think on PBS as part of Masterpiece, if that makes any sense to you? They've chopped the episodes down a bit, though, and I think they're showing S2 at the moment. (I hang out on [livejournal.com profile] downton_abbey sometimes, so I know this stuff.)

Coronation Street is one of our two endless soaps, so you definitely won't get that, but it's been going for longer than Doctor Who and is a national institution. There are even some people still in it who've been there for over 40 years. Victoria Wood was mostly on years ago, and I can't imagine it went over the Atlantic, but I have a feeling her sitcom Dinnerladies might have done, but that would be a few years ago. (That was set in a factory canteen in Manchester, and was really quite funny and sweet - I recommend it if you did ever fall over it. I don't think there's very much of it! It had the actress who plays Gita in it, too.)

And I don't know if this will make ANY sense, but it's brilliant - one of the sketches in her original 1980s show was a soap-pastiche called Acorn Antiques, in which all the camera angles are wrong, the acting bad, the accents dodgy, everyone misses their cues, overdramatic dialogue, no budget, improbable storylines and the same extras in every shot. It's here.

(Sorry... I just really like some of Victoria Wood's stuff, but she may be mystifying overseas, especially a couple of decades later!!)

(no subject)

Date: 2012-01-26 07:33 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dbskyler.livejournal.com
Yes, I think we agree that accents are hard, but also interesting! Believe it or not, last summer when I was in London (for "Much Ado"), someone stopped me on the street to ask for directions, and then complimented me on my accent. I was floored, because no one normally thinks that an American accent is very interesting to listen to. Except apparently for this woman, who was English, but didn't know London very well. Not that I know London well either, but I had a map. So maybe she was just being nice. *g*

Downton Abbey is definitely shown in the US - I think on PBS as part of Masterpiece, if that makes any sense to you?

Yep, that makes sense! It doesn't tell me when it's going to be on, but it does help to track that information down. (Each local PBS station does slightly different things, so having to look it up for my own station was kind of inevitable, really.)

(no subject)

Date: 2012-01-26 12:59 pm (UTC)
thisbluespirit: (Default)
From: [personal profile] thisbluespirit
:-)

I can't imagine someone would randomly compliment you on your accent unless they genuinely liked it! So, there, you must have a nice one. ;-) And, :lol:, it is the Rule in London than anyone you ask for directions is also a visitor.

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