I saw a video clip of "ER" as it is shown in Germany and it was so weird to hear the actors' voices dubbed into German! I know dubbing is common but it must be so strange to watch the show and never really know what the actors sound like, talking in their true voices. Needless to say the actor who dubs Benton's voice into German does not sound like Eriq La Salle at all... If you watch ER dubbed into your own language, do you ever get a chance to hear what the actors really sound like?

-- Tracy (bankybooda@aol.com), July 13, 2000

Answers

I'm from Germany. It's not really strange to watch ER in German if you don't know their real voices, because you are used to it and you don't think about it.But if you know their voices it's in fact strange. I was in the U.S. for several weeks this year and could watch a few episodes in English. When I came back it was really weird, because their German voices sounded just so wrong. We can hear their real voices in showbiz magazines and we can also watch 'Jay Leno' and 'Conan O'Brien' in Germany.

-- Patricia (paddyer@yahoo.de), July 13, 2000.

Well, as for me, I have seen the original version, and the German and French ones. It's pretty much as Patricia said earlier, you only start to think about it when you know the difference. For some actors they found pretty good voices- for example the German Doug had a pretty sexy voice too, just as Clooney, but the German voice for Carol is pretty lame compared to the original. I always loved JM's original voice for the way she spoke her lines, and Gloria Reuben has a great voice as well. But even more 'disturbing' than the German version to me is IMO the French one. Not that I hate French- certainly not- but the way they pronounce the American words as for example the characters' names is just awful. Again, only IMHO, LOL!

-- Anne (annebercher@gmx.de), July 13, 2000.

I'm from Germany, and IMO the German voices are quite close to the originals, especially compared to the French!!! It's not only what they sound like, but also how they pronounce the different names, like "Karroll" or "Karrtair" (lol) I think the German speakers of Mark, Carter, Liz, Lucy and especially Kerry are pretty well chosen. (Also Doug's one, although he didn't sound like GC...) What season was the episode you saw of? Benton has a different German voice since the 5th season, he sounds more like Eriq LaSalle now.

-- Elisabeth (sweetliz141@aol.com), July 13, 2000.

A couple of years ago I was on holiday and a saw a few eppys of series three in Spanish. As someone who's only ever watched it with the real voices it was very strange. I know this is very petty but my friend made a point, what happens when the doctors treat a patient whom they can't understand (i.e they have to call for a translator) does everyone speak in the same languge because I think that would be a little confusing? If anyone who usually watches it in Spanish could answer this for me I'd be grateful as it's always intrigued me.

-- Lara Aine (survivngseattle@hotmail.com), July 13, 2000.

I had the opportunity to listen both version of ER, dubbed in italian and in original, and it was pretty much the same, actually George Clooney has a more seductive voice in italian than in english. What I really miss are the pun on words, the inside jokes untranslatable in italian, I look forward to hear how they will transpose the "It's not so worth explaining" scene from AITF :-) Ciao

-- Claudia (Spicla@libero.it), July 14, 2000.

I remember getting a kick out of watching ER and Star Trek in Germany because of the different voices. I may be a bit odd, but I thought it added an extra level of entertainment to the show. Also, now that I live in Asia I have to say that they don't even try to get people who sound the same. (And it's a hoot!)

-- Seb (fusion@poppy.ocn.ne.jp), July 16, 2000.

Please, forgive my English (I've forgotten it all since I was at high school) but i want to answer the question about the Spanish episodes. I'm spanish, and here ER is translated (not very well, as far as I know); when a spanish patient comes to ER and they call Chuny for a translation it's very funny, because they made as the patient were from Brasil (and Chuny speak portuguese with them, that it's awful). I try not to cry when it happens, but it's very weird. I remember an episode where Doug have a problem with the world "inyeccisn" (in English must be "injection", I suppose), and as the portuguese world is also "inyeccisn" the situation was hard to understend, because we don't know why Doug misunderstand the woman: they were saying the same world!!! Uf, you can laugh at me, cos my English is not better as Doug'Spanish. Un saludo desde Barcelona

-- Ana Camallonga (anacamallonga@mixmail.com), July 19, 2000.