Bad TV dialects

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated 10/2/02 11:06:01 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
hstahlke at WORLDNET.ATT.NET writes:

> How about the Indiana farmers on last week's West Wing.  They sounded like
>  Central Casting combed New England for bit players, and as Josh and Toby
got
>  closer to Cincinnati there was no trace of Upper South.  None of them sound
>  like any Indiana farmers I've ever known.

Of course not.  As one of the rural girls said, "We're not rednecks".

Which leads to a question.  I was under the impression that the term
"redneck" was used ONLY to apply to a bucolic Southerner.  A bucolic Hoosier
would be called a "hick" or a "yokel".  Correct?

According to an article in our local paper, that West Wing episode was filmed
somewhere other than in Indiana. Unfortunately I was not prescient enough to
save the article, so I can't tell you were it was filmed (but considering
that a few previous shows took place on Bartlett's farm in New Hampshire, it
could easily have been somewhere in New England and Herbert Stahlke has a
good ear).  Usually bit roles are played by locals, and the lack of Hoosier
accents in the show merely demonstrates the lack of Hoosier accents in the
locals who showed up for the casting call.  Still you would expect West Wing
to have a dialect coach.

Or perhaps they don't feel the need for a dialect coach.  People who hold top
jobs in the White House come from all over the country, so the producers
probably tailored each character's regional background to whatever regional
accent the actor playing the role has.  Having done that, they probably
figured they had done their duty about dialects and turned their attention to
other matters.

Come to think of it, few of the West Wing characters have specified regional
origins.  President Bartlett made his political career in New Hampshire,
where he owns a farm, but he went to high school and probably elementary
school in Washington DC, where his father was the principal of the school.
C. J. Cregg is the daughter of a schoolteacher somewhere in the Midwest (I
forget where) but before joining the Bartlett campaign she was a flack in
Hollywood.  Donna is from North Dakota (or maybe neighboring Canada), but her
dialog is so off-the-wall that nobody notices her dialect.  I don't recall
any of the others having their birthplaces identified.

       - Jim Landau