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And the winner, Worst Boston Accent in a TV Series, goes to ...

Buzzy's Trailer

How many episodes do you think this TBS series about a Charlestown barbershop will last before it's canceled? But at least it answers the question of what happened to Norm from Cheers after he realized he had a drinking problem and joined AA.

Via Matt Perkins.

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Comments

I shun any show with a laugh track on principle, but the writing on this is just abysmal, and this is the highlight reel designed to entice you into watching it the first time.

If it were on one of the broadcast networks, I'd give it 2-3 episodes before being cancelled: they pull the plug really fast these days. On TBS, who knows? Most of their lineup is syndicated reruns.

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It might last longer than The Playboy Club. I wouldn't put money on it, though.

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Sound like that!

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Guy sounds like a New Yorker trying to do a Boston accent, and failing.

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Half the transplants who are New Yorkers, try to do a Boston accent and fail.

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I've never heard that. I think maybe you're just wanting to hate on something.

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agree re: laugh track, and his accent is not great, but I thought the trailer was kind of funny. I'll not write it off. <- posted in case a year from now I am proven prescient.

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From the creators of Will and Grace - seriously? I enjoyed that show for years - this writing is nothing like the dialogue from W & G. They didn't "overdo" the NYC accent in W & G - why feel the need to do that with the Boston accent in this show? Ugh....couldn't listen to that much longer than the length of the clip!! (Will the retired Cliff Clavin be stopping by?)

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Sam Adams wasn't even started until 1984 and didn't really catch on until 89 or so.

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Or was Haffenreffers still around?

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OK, this one looks a bit better, although it's kind of disconcerting that the lead guy never seems to look at whoever he's talking to - like his older brother, played by the mayor.

Also, because I'm lazy, can anybody figure out the South Boston block shown at the beginning?

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be E 7th St between H and I. But none of the houses on that actual block look like the ones shown when they cut from the overhead view.

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That's also the largest friggin triple-decker I've ever seen.

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Including ones that go surprisingly far back on surprisingly big lots. But there's generally not as much daylight between them and the next one as in this show. That looks more like Somerville spacing.

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Lol! I will be tuning in! Thanks for that lil gem!

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JOEY MAC!

This looks terrible but I'm in, just for Joey Mac.

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Seems more like Saugus than Boston.

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It sounded like they melted Chicago, New York, and Boston into a puddle, drank it and are retching it up all over the screen.

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Any true Bostonian, on hearing the name Buzzy's, will think of roast beef, not a haircut.

(Disclaimer: I haven't watched the video, nor do I intend to. Just the name was enough for me to decide that the show couldn't possibly have any redeeming value.)

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that would have been a better setting. Roast beef shop near a prison.

But then again I don't really watch TV...at all...anymore. Save for the occasional sports event. I watched a lifetime's worth as a kid. This trailer suggests I'm not missing much.

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Back in the 70s, you never knew what you might see at Buzzy's Roast Beef circa 2 AM. Druggies, drag queens, hookers, the whole gamut. Between that and the 24 hour Phillips Drug Store across the street it was quite colorful. Not to mention those nuclear hot Buzzy's french fries (which were actually just quartered potatoes) that NEVER cooled off, no matter how long you let them sit around. Another colorful part of urban life that is long gone.

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I'd grab a late dinner on my way in to work, eat it first thing sitting at my desk. Good times.

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What was the name of that awful sitcom from about 20 years ago? Irish-American family. Stereotypes. I thought it was set in Boston, but I can't find it on any internet search. I thought it was named something like "The O'Shaughnessy's" or "The Gheoghans" or something like that. Couldn't find anything like it in the searches I've done. It was definitely a network sitcom.

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I finally found it!

The Cavanaughs.

Back in the late 80s - ran only about 26 episodes in two or three years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wl1GAsWVY80

Outspoken 71-year-old Irish expatriate Francis "Pop" Cavanaugh is the glue holding together his tightly-knit, yet constantly bickering, clan, who mostly all reside in the same house in a middle-class neighborhood in South Boston. That is, except for flashy, oft-divorced daughter Kit, who left the family years ago to chase her dreams of show biz. Stardom eluded Kit -- whose success was limited to the showgirl circuit -- and, after an absence of two decades, she returns home to try to mend ways with her crotchety, widowed father and act as mother figure for her conservative, widowed brother Chuck's four children: Father Chuck, Jr., a twentysomething priest who comes off more like a used car salesman; Mary Margaret, a shy, 16-year-old wallflower who's trying to find her way around the dating scene; and smart-mouthed 10-year-old fraternal twins, Kevin and John. Together, the adults all manage a family owned and run business, the Cavanaugh Bros. Construction Company

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did an excellent job of doing a typical Boston accent.

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I've been watching reruns on Cheers on Netflix recently (okay, everyone has their crap tv show(s) they like to watch). And I'm not annoyed by the accents as much as I was in the clips above. The ones above were trying too hard.

But I also think John Ratzenberger and George Wendt did good jobs on the Boston accent. They just sound natural. Although I would have expected Norm's to be stronger and Sam to actual have one. (he doesn't)

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Nobody from Boston would say "Nahm" for "Norm". That might be what non-natives hear, but a Bostonian would say "Nom". If you think those are the same, you must be from one of those places were "father" and "bother" rhyme.

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This is... a real thing?

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If these scripts had any appeal, would an extreme Boston accent even be necessary on this and other TV shows and movies supposedly based here? When done badly, as seems to be the norm, the attempt at a Boston accent is only a distraction. In real-life, I can detect an extreme Boston accent on maybe one in ten people locally. Why not have the actors speak normally and if necessary, hire a character actually from Boston for that extreme role? I haven't followed a sit-com in years (boring) but when you think of strong accents from other regions in TV's golden years, someone like Andy Griffith was actually born in NC, Polly Holliday (waitress "Flo" ) was born in AL, etc. Today, when Donnie Wahlberg narrates the Boston's Finest show and the like, he is obviously from here so the focus is on the show and not the nonsense. Amazing that these writers/producers have jobs.

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"Kiss mah grits"

LOL

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two minutes of my life I'll never get back.

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