Accents galore.

[BuzzH]

Man. You ought to hear the jibes I get from my Worcester, Massachusetts "accent" since I moved to the south.
Many - and you know who you are - taunted me unmercilessly about my accent. I told John Karlen this and he said, "What accent?" But you all know he has a similar east coast twang, eh?

Johnny's from Brooklyn, which is a WHOLE other accent than someone who grew up in Manhattan!    I have a friend that grew up in Brooklyn, one that grew up in Manhattan and still another that grew up in Long Island, and all three sound different!  However, that said, there's no mistaking that ALL of them are from the NYC area!  

[BuzzH]

Rest assured it is no different for someone from the south who moves a little further north and has to hear that her accent sounds like she is from Texas or Austrailia. 

What I think is funny is my NYC area friends, some from Jersey too, think I have a southern accent which I definately do not.  You on the other hand do!     But I wouldn't mistake it for Texas and certainly NOT Austrailia, sheesh, those ppl need to have the wax cleaned out of their ears and watch an episode of Lost to hear someone w/a real Aussie accent.  

[arashi]

     A downeast accent might work but it might be laughable if they all sounded like the pepperidge farm guy.

::laughing:: Peppridge Fahm Remembahs!

[Amy Jennings Fan]

A downeast accent

[CyrusL]

If I remember, one of the few times someone on the show did have a "southern accent", it was during the Leviathan storyline. It was Elzabeth Eis's character Nelle Gunston. She was supposed to be from Virginia. The accent was a little strong for most areas of our state, but I've heard worse. (Elizabeth is one of my favorite and underrated short term players.)  There is a lot of variation in southern accents. From working on the phones in customer service, I can pretty much tell what state someone is calling from, even regionally. Atlanta has a pretty specific accent for example. Virginia accents overall aren't as strong as say the deeper southern states, say South Carolina or Alabama, although I admit our former governor and current Richmond mayor Doug Wilder has a pretty solid accent. Kind of like on some Brit shows when they want an American accent, they seem to default to Texas drawls. If you listen closely, you can occasionally hear David or Louis slip into their regional accents for a line here and there. The one and pretty much only time I noticed traces of Lara's Tennessee accent was in the movie "Hi, Mom".

Michael

[BuzzH]

Virginia accents overall aren't as strong as say the deeper southern states,

I concur.  It seems to me that folks from Northern VA, like me, don't have any real trace of a southern drawl.  Now, I'll admit, when I'm drunk MAYBE a little comes through, but when stone cold sober I have no trace of one.  The further south you get (i.e. Richmond and beyond) the accent deepens, but still not as strong as any from the Carolina's down to Florida.  I've also noticed that ppl from the middle/southern mountain areas of VA have stronger, almost "hillbilly" accents.

Having said this, I must say that it irritates the HELL out of me to see a Civil War movie where General Robert E. Lee sounds like he just arrived from Tennesse or something!  The man grew up in Alexandria and moved to Arlington when he married.  His "accent" would be as non-existant as mine.  Sheesh!   :-