Anyone else notice this American/British slang mistake? - As Time Goes By (1992) Discussion

[–] crazykeyman 19 years ago

Yes I saw that episode and that really cracked me up. Otto Jarman (Mike Barbosa) over all does a pretty good American accent, but from time to time he puts a British emphasis on a word or two.

On the last episode of season 4 he explains how Dick Van Dyke's botched delivery of a cockney accent is what the American potato farmer expects a cockney accent to be. Moments earlier when he was introducing everyone to Moses, he says "This is our Die-rector Moses Crispiani. Another time he pronounced nice as noyce.
Moses' accent appears to be New York but not entirely. Of course none of this really bothers me I actually get a kick out of it.

I know there's more I'm not thinking of, but I must say I always find myself intrigued with their interpretation of us. Much the way they must get a kick out of the way we see them.

I must say I have been enjoying picking up on their slang. I amused how much of it is similar to ours with slight change here and there. For instance their takeout food is take away.

We Must All Have Waffles Forthwith!

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[–] 19 years ago

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[–] lisaboothe 16 years ago

I thought that the actors playing Mike and the American director were english but I read an interview with Jenny Funnel (Sandy) the other day and she said that the actors were Americans. That really astonished me, they sounded like Brits doing bad accents!

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[–] mch3172 16 years ago

I was convinced they were British actors with bad accents as well. I've seen Otto Jarman in another British TV series, so perhaps they were Americans who've been llving in the UK a long time. I've listened to American academics who had been teaching 15-20 years in the UK, and they had picked up partial British accents without really realizing it.

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[–] matt_oshkosh 8 years ago

I'm shocked that the actors were not British doing american accents. It's not even so much that there were a few slang goofs, but just they way they spoke was not "American", I mean the words used and the way the sentences were formed were completely British. I guess they had to keep tight to the written script.

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[–] vranger 10 years ago

You're right on target. The American accents in ATGB were worse than transparent.

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[–] hifijohn 8 years ago

and they were all too young to be in those positions.also they should have used more of a n LA type of accent ,instead of that bad east coast/NYC accent.

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[–] Keno27 19 years ago

Yup! What a silly mistake! I wouldn't be surprised if that expression was American first and then found it's way into the British language. Like OK and "snuck!"

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[–] crazykeyman 17 years ago

It's funny you mentioned O.K. because it was just yesterday I was reading of it's origin.

It comes from Martin Van Buren Our eighth president.

"Martin Van Buren,Our a native of Kinderhook, NY, was popularly known as Old Kinderhook, or O.K. In support of Van Buren's 1840 campaign for reelection, the New York Equal Rights Democrats ... formed the O.K. Democratic Club. The cry "O.K.," indicating enthusiastic approval of Old Kinderhook, soon began to resound at rallies, and the letters O.K. became common on placards and in political cartoons."

I just love finding the origins of words

We Must All Have Waffles Forthwith!

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[–] phishhead 17 years ago

I noted this on another post, this episode is just painful to watch. I also noted that this is the only blemish on an otherwise perfect series. Bob Larbey had a hatred of Hollywood, hence the ridiculous American stereotypes. We Americans are not all bad, Bob! : )

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[–] crazykeyman 17 years ago

Speaking of blemishes they also have another mistake of a different type. I'm speaking of of Jean's last name when she was married to David. Her marraige to Lionel went from Pargeter to Hardcastle. This is obviously a mistake because Jean's marraige to David was a loving one.

For some reason this doesn't bother me. I guess I have more grace for shows that have excellent written dialogue.

We Must All Have Waffles Forthwith!

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[–] cotehaverhill 17 years ago

I notice everyone on these boards assumes Pargeter is Jean's maiden name and Hanson was her married name. Was this ever established? I always assumed Pargeter could be her married name, but that Hanson was definiterly Judith's married name.

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[–] EightTenPM 17 years ago

Pargeter is Jean's maiden name because the letters that Lionel sent to Jean while they were courting were all addressed to Jean Pargeter. Those are the letters they read in the first episode of the fourth series.

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[–] crazykeyman 17 years ago

Pargeter is Jean's maiden name because the letters that Lionel sent to Jean while they were courting were all addressed to Jean Pargeter. Those are the letters they read in the first episode of the fourth series.
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This is true and it is also so true that she goes by this name in the recent times before her marraige to Lionel. This is why I believe they messed up. This is a woman who very much loved her late husband.

We Must All Have Waffles Forthwith!

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[–] darryl-tahirali 10 years ago

Pargeter is Jean's maiden name because the letters that Lionel sent to Jean while they were courting were all addressed to Jean Pargeter. - EightTenPM

According to the show's Wikipedia page, Jean's maiden name is Pargeter and Judi's maiden name is Hanson, which corresponds with Jean's having been married to David Hanson when she had Judi.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_Time_Goes_By_%28TV_series%29

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"We hear very little, and we understand even less." - Refugee in Casablanca

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[–] mandlk 17 years ago

That was my take also that both were using married names.

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[–] just_julie71 16 years ago

Perhaps she went back to her maiden name when she started "Type For You" ??

Now that it's been brought up I'm curious; what David's last name even mentioned (if it wasn't Pargeter)

Oh, suddenly thought of something; I think Pargeter must be her married name! If it was her maiden name Lionel would have known her right off, right? Or am I not remembering the earliest meeting right?

Imagine Penny Pargeter! PP for short!

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[–] brandy5 16 years ago

Well, the missing letter was addressed to Nurse Jean Pargeter so that must have been her maiden name.

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[–] pc-daisy 11 years ago

Sorry for very late reply, but your post intrigued me. I can't say for sure about England, but I do know that here, in Australia, the correct legal name of a married woman is the name on their birth certificate. The adoption of our husband's name upon marriage is a social tradition, not a legal requirement. So we can use either our maiden name or our married name.

It has nothing to do with whether a marriage is a loving one or not. And since the 80's and after the second-wave of feminism, it became commonplace for women to work under their maiden names, although married.

And I think that is one of our legal rights inherited from the English legal system.

Can't speak for the Scots, Welsh, Northern Irish etc.

Ironically one of my 'peeves' is how everything in the UK becomes British to Americans. Even accents, when there is no such thing as a British accent. One is either English, Scots, Welsh etc.

Jean may have always used her maiden name, even while her first husband was alive. I have never noticed Judy's last name being mentioned. Has anyone else?

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[–] stepperry2010 9 years ago

Only when Judy got married and I think in one of the early episodes too, come to think of it. I tend to think that use Pargetter as maiden name could have either oversight. We never even knew Penny's maiden name since she only ever Penny. Her married name is Johnson I believe.

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[–] mch3172 16 years ago

I agree with you that the Americans in the series are pretty stereotyped, but I think it is a pretty good depiction of how the British view American Anglophiles who go to England expecting everything to resemble a Jane Austen novel.

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[–] MsMarple 16 years ago

Another mix-up I spotted was when one of the Americans commented that they were watching their starches to lose weight. An American would never say that - they would say that they were watching their carbs.

I love this show but I was very dissappointed by how one-dimensional and stereotypical the American characters were. They were either dim-witted or wielding a gun! I'm sure the Brits get annoyed by how Hollywood presents them, too. Apparently, they all wear costume dress and ride to the hounds!

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[–] Melpy 15 years ago

Depending on the year. Back in the 80s and early 90s starches would have been the word.

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[–] kmatlack 15 years ago

I think that they also have a peculiar idea of how Americans view the English which was demonstrated when Lional and Jean's story was being filmed. All those "what ho's" and "all that rot's", etc. that the actor portraying Rocky was saying were ridiculous. I always thought that those things were some sort of joke and have never thought that the English actually spoke that way.

It is true that a great many American tourists expect England to be whatever era they favor--Miss Marple, Jane Austen, Brother Cadfael, etc.-but realistically most of us know that it's a modern country and don't expect quite the cozy, country village aspect that we see filmed. I understand the Brits irritation about this since where I live is an area where we're all supposed to be riding horses and roping steers and living in log cabins. VERY irritating.

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[–] laurence01 15 years ago

However I thought it was very amusing that "Young Rocky" was played by Bruce Boa who is Canadian, and is also the person who ordered the Wardorff Salad in "Fawlty Towers".

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[–] Planet-38 15 years ago

Yup! Each time one of us gets ticked off by the one dimensional way Americans are portrayed, they are loudly reminded of just how one dimensional we portray the Brits.

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Getting You Satisfied
(One way or another)

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[–] 15 years ago

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[–] lisaboothe 15 years ago

I just watched the episodes where they were in LA last night and I really can't stand the American actors in them. I'm not sure if they are really Americans or British actors doing really bad accents but even so the writing isn't good and they just aren't up to this show's usual standard.

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[–] LuluMcAfee 15 years ago

I didn't like this episode either- I don't like it when sitcoms "go" places, like Lionel and Jean going to "America"- for example I hated it when I Love Lucy "went" to "Hollywood" as well- it all seemed so phony, not up to par, and yeah that slipup with the "taking a leak" bit disturbed me too- I have heard that saying my whole life and I am from and IN New Jersey- I always thought that saying originated in the US- it seems too crass for the British

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[–] DavidAH_Ca 14 years ago

that slipup with the "taking a leak" bit disturbed me too- I have heard that saying my whole life and I am from and IN New Jersey- I always thought that saying originated in the US- it seems too crass for the British

Actually, I think they both said 'having a leak' rather than taking, which was the only reason I could come up with for the lack of understanding (although I did think that was a bit of a stretch -- I was grasping at straws).

I checked the Oxford English Dictionary, and the first 3 quotations they gave for taking a leak (which was under leak n.) were from:

1934 H. MILLER Tropic of Cancer (American)
1968 K. WEATHERLY Roo Shooter (Australian)
1969 G. GREENE Travels with my Aunt (British)

so it is obviously not American only.

But while the exact phrase 'taking a leak' might have first occurred in the US, the use of the verb 'to leak' in the sense of 'urinate' certainly did not. The first quotation for this meaning is from:

1596 SHAKESPEARE 1 Hen. IV, II. i. 22

There is a quotation from the US, but much later:

1957 J. KEROUAC On the Road (1958)

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I did not see this episode as saying anything about Americans. I saw it as being a shot at Hollywood and the attitude that it seems to have that everything must be aimed at the lowest common denominator (their [Hollywood's] average viewer: the 'potato farmer from Idaho').

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[–] cinnamonsugar 15 years ago

I got a kick out of how the episode where they film at Madge and Rocky's deals with American's perception of Britions when everything Barbosa does is so big and overblown. The only place I've ever seen anyone act like he did was on television. Of course, television is where a lot of people get their perceptions of people from other areas of the world, so I guess it makes sense.

You have no fear of the underdog. That's why you will not survive.

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[–] liddylewis 11 years ago

That is only one possible origin of "Ok." It is also said to be derived from an African word, something like, "Yakay". It's also said to be Native American in origin. There are many other, similar stories. If you do some etymological research, you will simply find more questions than answers.

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[–] 11 years ago

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[–] pacwarbuff 7 years ago

In the L.A. episode, Jean uses the word "hospitalized." From what I've read elsewhere, that is not a term often used in the UK. Perhaps our resident UK ATGB fans can confirm or deny this.

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