Actually, the late Ron Barry was the nephew of Jack Klugman! And speaking of accents, i'm surprised no one has mentioned two of the most memorable: Joan Bennett's "Mid-Atlantic" voice that was so prevalent among stage actors before Lee Strasberg changed everything, and David Selby's West Virginia twang, which worried him to no end during his first months on DS as a silent ghost. He feared that once his character finally got to speak, he would wind up like so many silent actors who couldn't make the transistion to talkies. Remember the 'Lina Lamont' character from Singin' In The Rain? That's how it seemed to him. Fortunately, he needen't have worried: he's been a star ever since.
Thjs post really struck me as, coincidentally, I am just coming off an email group discussion of weirdnesses of English/American and regional differences that segues RIGHT into what you are talking about with the accents.
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Yes, Joan Bennett's accent (like not only many stage actresses, but many early talkies ones like Myrna Loy) was that "stage English" or MidAtlantic. What my grandmother (who was the one raised me and thus watched DS with me) called being "well spoken". Funny thing, though, is given the social class and the time she (Elizabeth, and to a lesser extent the other characters she played) was raised in, it might have been more accurate for the character than the Down East accent. That "refined" accent is what the upperclasses used and what was taught in the colleges and finishing schools.
Same thing goes for Louis Edmonds' Roger (and Edward). He too did the upperclass accent one would expect of an upperclass man who was probably schooled at Harvard or Yale. He did so very well, too, considering that was NOT his native accent. Never had the pleasure of meeting him, rest his soul, but I gather his real accent was just what you'd expect given his southern roots.
That being said, I agree with those who wish they had kept up the attempts at Maine accents. For the NON Collins characters that would have worked very well and given it a sense of place, setting, atmosphere, whatever you want to call it. Would a middle America audience of the 60's found the accents hard to keep up with? Hard to say - I grew up in NYC, where everyone has SOME accent or other -- you get used to understanding different ones early.
And you really do have to sympathize with Selby on the accent thing. In retrospect, he was TRYING for the Midatlantic stage accent, but only managed to tone down his own accent. And, from what he said in his book
A Better Place he had worked very hard on trying to get rid of the accent when he decided to become an actor. (Makes sense because actors starting out have enough strikes against them without an accent giving a casting director a preconception about you -- and one more reason to decide not to hire you.) No reflection on his acting -- some people just can't do accents. Of course, I personally LIKE his accent...except when he makes me grind my teeth by pronouncing nuclear as nuk u lur.
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