Ep 1245's final voice-over

[MagnusTrask]

I don't think it was a planned practise.   I think they picked from whoever was at work that day.    It's interesting that you can tell which character is about to reappear after a long absence by hearing her/him do the voiceover.    And on the rare occasions that JF did it, we get to hear his real voice, not his Barnabas voice.

[BuzzH]

And on the rare occasions that JF did it, we get to hear his real voice, not his Barnabas voice.

Yes!  I noticed that too!  It's funny, he had two 'voices', just like you describe above.  He even talked about that on the Ron Barry Show and in fact Ron asked him to say something in his 'Barnabas' voice and he did, then went back to his regular voice, it was interesting to compare them. 

[MagnusTrask]

What puzzled me was, if you can speak like Barnabas, why ever speak any other way?    Why sound like a plain old unresonant mundane North American dork like most of us?   I suppose that's what Louis Edmonds thought.    He's an American southerner, and can't have grown up sounding like Roger, but in the brief snippet of him as himself on the promo bit of the DS videotapes, he sounds like Roger.   He must have made a decision at some point.

[BuzzH]

I suppose that's what Louis Edmonds thought.    He's an American southerner, and can't have grown up sounding like Roger, but in the brief snippet of him as himself on the promo bit of the DS videotapes, he sounds like Roger.   He must have made a decision at some point.

Indeed, Louie trained away his southern drawl because he felt, and rightly so, that he couldn't properly do the plays of Shakespeare, Ibsen and Shaw "sounding like a magnolia"!  (his quote).  Once he trained it away, he took on an "affected" dialect.  Jonathan Harris, aka Dr. Smith of Lost In Space fame, did the same thing.  He was from Brooklyn, and decided early in his career to ditch the Brooklyn-ese and take on an affected dialect.  He said in an interview once that he was asked if he was from England and he replied, "Oh no dear boy, I'm just AFFECTED!"    Then went on to explain he was from Brooklyn and wanted to lose that dialect.  He then imitated himself BEFORE losing said dialect.  He said, "I'd say things like 'Ya wont to go for coofie!"  It was too funny!   

Then there are the actors from Brooklyn who can just DROP the accent whenever they need to!  Richard Lynch is one of those Brooklyn born actors.  I was shocked to learn some years ago he was from Brooklyn, I always figured he was from the mid-west 'cause that's what he sounded like in the few things I'd seen him in to date.  Then I saw The Seven Ups!

[MagnusTrask]

Thanks Buzz, I appreciate all the history and personal detail I can get.   What about Hugh Laurie, hah?   He shifts back and forth and it's practically supernatural.   Peter Ustinov could.

[Jackie]

I don't think it was a planned practise.   I think they picked from whoever was at work that day.    It's interesting that you can tell which character is about to reappear after a long absence by hearing her/him do the voiceover.    And on the rare occasions that JF did it, we get to hear his real voice, not his Barnabas voice.

Well I heard one of the actors say on an interviews that in the beginning, Alexandra Molkte did all the voiceovers [over 300] even if she wasn't in the episodes.  After a while Dan Curtis, realizing that he was paying her even if she wasn't in the episode, decided to change it by having an actor who was in the episode do the voiceover that day.  That's what I meant by "practice".  More like the "standard".

[The Doctor and K9]

I missed the voting, but I'd have voted for David Selby, because he missed the latter part of the story due to his sugery.  If he'd been well enough, I think it would have been nice for him to be included.  I have to admit, though, aside from that reason, Frid, Moltke, Bennett, Edmonds, or Barrett would really have made more sense.  Selby would have sequed the show into the second movie though.  I doubt they'd have gotten anyone who wasn't in the episode though.  They were already paying an army of people, compared with the cast they usually had in an episode.

[MagnusTrask]

Well I heard one of the actors say on an interviews that in the beginning, Alexandra Molkte did all the voiceovers [over 300] even if she wasn't in the episodes.  After a while Dan Curtis, realizing that he was paying her even if she wasn't in the episode, decided to change it by having an actor who was in the episode do the voiceover that day.

That's depressing.  Though maybe he was up against the wall as regards money at that point.  Thanks for the background.    It added something to have AM always doing it.   It just seemed sloppy when she wasn't any longer, and the show seemed to "mean" less, somehow.

[michael c]

it's funny that barnabas introduced himself as a "cousin from england" and yet he did not speak with an english accent.

not only did jonathan frid and "barnabas" have different speaking voices but barnabas' entire intonation differed depending on what character he was speaking to at the time.

contrast the fawning obsequiousness with which he speaks to "cousin elizabeth" to the sarcastic tone he takes with dr.hoffmann early on...recognizing her as something like an equal yet one whom he still has the upper hand with...to the low command with which he speaks to a true underling like willie.

i always think that barnabas,liz and roger are meant to sound old-money and upper-crusty whether they really did or not.

i'm not sure why they decided that jason mcquire would speak with an irish brogue but it did make him seem more like a "seafaring scoundral".

it seemed like kathryn leigh scott used a slighly higher,more ingenueish,pitch as maggie than her own voice.

and for someone who was supposed to have had the hardscrabble background that vicki did she speaks with an absurdly aristocratic bearing.because alexandra moltke is from denmark i always fancied a vague danish accent coming from her but i learned that she was raised in the u.s. so perhaps i just projected that.

[dom]

...barnabas' entire intonation differed depending on what character he was speaking to at the time.

Agreed. And I loved it! It is subtleties such as these that help to make Barnabas such an enthralling character (IMO).

I feel this way about Joan Bennett as Liz, which is one of several reasons why Liz is my favorite character. Of course I didn't realize this until I was older and finally got to see the first two years of the show, (when there were so many different personalities Joan had the opportunity to play opposite).

[BuzzH]

it's funny that barnabas introduced himself as a "cousin from england" and yet he did not speak with an english accent

Yes, and I for one find that MADDENING!    Not to mention the fact that it's completely ridiculous that Joshua even put in the family history that his son ever went to England.  Why would he go to what was at that time an enemy country to the US that we'd just won our independance from?  Especially when Joshua actually FOUGHT in said war!?  It was just stupid.

Just a side note, does anyone else notice that there are times when Frid sounded more American, and then suddenly sounded very Canadian.  There are times when Barnabas will say something like, for example, "Julia, we must figure this thing out" and he says out like an American.  Then an ep or 2 later, he'll say something similar, but his OUT sounds more like OOT!  I like to joke when that happens that he spent the weekend in Hamilton w/his mama!  

for someone who was supposed to have had the hardscrabble background that vicki did she speaks with an absurdly aristocratic bearing.

Another good point, wouldn's she sound more like Archie Bunker, being from New YAWK!?  

[IluvBarnabas]

The fact that Barnabas never had an English accent is an interesting point but it never really bothered me. But it could have made one heck of a plot twist, for example when Burke was so suspicious of Barnabas, how come he never asked "If you're supposed to be British, where's your accent? Did you leave it behind in London?" Burke could have opened up a whole lot of worms with that one, don't you think?

[Lydia]

Why would he go to what was at that time an enemy country to the US that we'd just won our independance from?

In 1797, the war had been over for more than a decade.

for example when Burke was so suspicious of Barnabas, how come he never asked "If you're supposed to be British, where's your accent? Did you leave it behind in London?"

I can imagine Barnabas answering:  "Family tradition, Devlin.  Even in England, we remembered our American background.  But you wouldn't know anything about having family traditions, would you?  Didn't your father sweep the floors at the cannery?"

It seemed just right to me to have Thayer David do the final voiceover.  If Alexandra Moltke had come back for it, an awful lot of viewers would have been asking, "Who's that?"

[Jackie]

I find it interesting that only one person picked Grayson Hall and in reality, she IS the one who did the voiceover for that episode. 

[MagnusTrask]

I wasn't going to say this, because it's embarrassing, but---

I never had the problem many American viewers had with English accents, at least in the 60s.    Many Americans, especially in the Midwest, would hear some slight trace of dignity or resonance in an actor's voice, and think he was British.   They'd buy an obviously fake or practically nonexistant English accent from an American actor.    I watched British shows from early childhood on, and thought I was immune to this kind of thing.


I've always thought the cousin-from-England cover story was meant to explain the (at least semi-) English accent of Barnabas's.   Even now, in the last four years that I've had DS tapes in adulthood, he seems to have at the very least a sort of Transatlantic accent, which could be believable from someone whose American ancestor moved to England.   If I'm just some easily duped sort of rube who gets suckered in this easily, well, that's going to be unsettling.