Okay, I’ve been quiet about this as long as I can. Although I’m not normally in favor of government regulations, here’s one we need. The FCC needs to pass a rule that all actors, narrators, and anyone else with a speaking part on television must be Texan by birth. All right, maybe we could make exceptions for people who spend long enough in Texas to lose their accents.
Some examples of the problems with the current non-regulation in this area:
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I’ve tried to watch a new program called “Boston’s Finest,” but I can hardly understand a word that’s said on the show. They seem to speak in some foreign language. It would be nice to know what’s going on.
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By comparison, “Rizzoli & Isles” is set in Boston, but Detectives Rizzoli and Korsak are played by native Texans. They speak good English and are easily understood. Lee Thompson Young, who played Detective Barry Frost, was from South Carolina and could be understood fairly well, but he is now deceased.
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One of my favorite programs to watch is “Castle”—mainly because I like to look at Stana Katic. But I do almost need a translator to understand what they say sometimes. Well, I can understand them a lot better than the “Boston’s Finest” guys, but they do sound funny.
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More recently, I’ve found another new program called “Marshal Law: Texas.” It’s a similar concept to “Boston’s Finest,” showing real life stories rather than fiction. It takes place in Houston, though, instead of Boston, and everyone on the show is easily understood.
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Since the LPGA has gone international and started having tournaments all over the world, they have started using a lot of foreign announcers—Australian, I think—who not only can’t speak English, but don’t even use proper terminology. Instead of using an eight iron, they say a player used an “A-Tine.” And instead of being tied for third, a player is “equal third.” What’s up with that?
Wouldn’t life be simpler if we could all understand one another? And what better standard to use than the way Texans speak, since we have no accents? I’m sure all my New York and Canadian and other friends wish they’d been born here. Maybe we need to send teachers from Texas to teach ESL classes in other parts of the country.
What do you think?
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David N Walker 
Kitt – don’t hold Jerry World against real Texans. He’s a Razorback from Arkansas, and none of us claim him.
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David, have you considered that maybe it’s the Texans who need the ESL teachers? LOL! Oddly enough, maybe it’s from all the travel as a child, I understand everyone’s accents in the US….and often the transplants, too. It’s only when they are speaking in a completely different language that I can get lost.
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No, Kitt, I haven’t considered that. Texans sound normal to me. And I’ve looked a globes many times and discovered Texas to be at the center of the world. And I NEVER speak with my tongue in my cheek.
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You don’t say… Guess Jerry World, the football Mecca just cemented it as proof. 😉
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I think that if you come from anywhere, you have an accent. That’s a fact. I have one from my hometown, even though I’ve been gone for 20 years. Many times without telling a person where I am from, the person has asked me what part of Pittsburgh I am from. Sorry, David, but I feel the opposite way. I embrace a people’s accents, because it is part of who they are. I really have not found it difficult to understand any dialogue on any program. Oh, and David? Texans most certainly do have accents.
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Can’t believe you think Texans have accents, Carole. They sound normal to me. And I agree with you to an extent about enjoying hearing other accents, but when they so garble the language you can’t even tell what they’re saying, like the cops on “Boston’s Finest,” or when they use terms that don’t make sense like the LPGA announcers, it ceases to be enjoyable.
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I think that the fact that most Southerners speak more slowly than Yankees makes a huge difference. I don’t hear well anyway, and when someone speaks fast, it makes it even harder for me to understand that person. Why not use closed-caption? It helps me.
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Shouldn’t have to, Sharon. American TV shows should feature understandable English.
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