Oprah?! OH COME ON!!!!

[LitmusDragon]

I'm a huge Attenborough fan, and don't see the need to replace his narration for the American market, but people will probably watch this JUST for the Oprah narration, which will get it a wider exposure, so I suppose that's a good thing for an educational film.

I'll probably wait till Blu-ray to watch this anyway, and that will probably include the Attenborough narration.

The way that they air these things on Discovery you practically have to get it on Blu-ray to see it all, unless you plan to watch all twelve hours in a single week.

(My DVR will only hold about 10 hours of HD programming total)

 

[Hermiod]

Question - when Oprah does narrate this, will she be using the exact same script ?

If not, I can't see the educational content being increased as a result.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

If more people watch it, more people are educated.

 

[Warp Coil]

Why on Earth would you replace Sir David, though ? He's quite possibly the greatest nature documentary filmmaker of all time.

For the same reason that Discovery replaced him with Sigourney Weaver for the American broadcast of Planet Earth, or that the truncated theatrical release (Earth) was narrated in the U.S. by James Earl Jones, and in the U.K. by Patrick Stewart. They're trying to make it appeal to the audience that will be watching it. Oprah has a good voice, and her involvement isn't going to turn me away from watching Life when it airs over here.

Bingo. Add to it the fact that Discovery loves Oprah. She pimped out Planet Earth on her show several times when it aired and when it was released on DVD. Ultimately, Oprah partnered with Discovery to launch her own network with the company - OWN, which was set to debut and replace the Discovery Health Channel platform (but has been delayed to 2011).

 

[LitmusDragon]

Question - when Oprah does narrate this, will she be using the exact same script ?

Probably yes. IIRC Sigourney read from Attenborough's script for Planet Earth.

PS- I don't care if you're Sigourney or Oprah or whoever, having to read the same lines as David Attenborough has got to be intimidating.

 

[Hermiod]

^Well, at least there's that. Losing Attenborough to appeal to a wider audience is one thing, dumbing it down to achieve the same result would have been another.

I don't know why Mythbusters on our Discovery Channel needs a British voiceover either.

 

[JiNX-01]

I can't stand Oprah! I just learned that she is narrating Discovery Channel's Life. This aired in on the BBC in 2009 narrated by the legendary Sir David Attenborough. How embarrassing the American version will be narrated by this... woman.

Why do the people at the American version of the Discovery Channel think this daytime "talk show host" is appropriate for such a show. Crusty the clown would be better.

On behalf of all Americans I want to apologize to the Brits for this abomination of a choice. I've seen it and only Attenborough will do. He has a history and credibility Oprah simply doesn't have. He is simply better in every conceivable way for the subject matter at hand.

So, they're going to air the BBC version with Oprah substituting as narrator for Attenborough? Or is this going to be a Discovery channel version?

Why have a different narration? Don't American understand English?

They do, but some of them don't like the way that we Brits speak it -- particularly the English, strangely enough. We sound foreign, and we use words, phrases and idioms that aren't commonly used in the US.

I have a couple of friends who are English and I love the way they talk! One is from Manchester and the other from Hampshire and they have completely different accents.

Why on Earth would you replace Sir David, though ? He's quite possibly the greatest nature documentary filmmaker of all time.

For the same reason that Discovery replaced him with Sigourney Weaver for the American broadcast of Planet Earth, or that the truncated theatrical release (Earth) was narrated in the U.S. by James Earl Jones, and in the U.K. by Patrick Stewart. They're trying to make it appeal to the audience that will be watching it. Oprah has a good voice, and her involvement isn't going to turn me away from watching Life when it airs over here.

James Earl Jones... no disappointment there.

 

[Amaris]

I'm a huge Attenborough fan, and don't see the need to replace his narration for the American market, but people will probably watch this JUST for the Oprah narration, which will get it a wider exposure, so I suppose that's a good thing for an educational film.

I'll probably wait till Blu-ray to watch this anyway, and that will probably include the Attenborough narration.

The way that they air these things on Discovery you practically have to get it on Blu-ray to see it all, unless you plan to watch all twelve hours in a single week.

(My DVR will only hold about 10 hours of HD programming total)

I hope the Blu-ray has Attenborough, because even though I'm excited about owning this, part of that reason is Attenborough himself.

 

[Hunter X]

Why have a different narration? Don't American understand English?

They do, but some of them don't like the way that we Brits speak it -- particularly the English, strangely enough. We sound foreign, and we use words, phrases and idioms that aren't commonly used in the US.

I do find it weird when he pronounces "algae" with a soft "g" rather than a hard one, and he says orangutan almost exactly how it's spelled, "oran-u-tan" rather than "or-ang-u-tang," which I'm more used to. I couldn't figure out what he was talking about at first, it sounded so different.

There's also something about the way he emphasizes "bat droppings" in the Caves episode of Planet Earth that cracks me up.

 

[nx1701g]

Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't Oprah buy the Discovery Channel recently?

 

[iguana_tonante]

I have a couple of friends who are English and I love the way they talk! One is from Manchester

Oi, luv! What's oop?

(all I know about Manchester, I learned it from Gene Hunt )

 

[MEATLOAFr]

I can't stand Oprah in any way, shape or form (that VH1 declared her the greatest pop culture icon of all time still irks the shit out of me), but that's nothing new in my neck of the woods.

What I love is when people who don't know me accuse me of being racist for disliking her. I love that we've actually gotten to that point as a society. The fact that I find her irritating, pretentious and obnoxious doesn't have anything to do with the freaking colour of her skin.

At least I'm not the only one... AND Discovery is giving HER own a channel next year... she's taking over Discovery Health and changing it 'O' as in Oprah... or O my god she's at it again... or O my god people watch this crap

 

[Temis the Vorta]

All it takes to be a narrator is to have a nice voice and don't flub your lines. Oprah's okay by me, although I might have preferred Avery Brooks.

But we all know why they hired Oprah - for the marketing boost her name will provide. Americans don't know who the fuck Richard Attenborough is (and if they do, he's that old dude from Jurassic Park).

I do find it weird when he pronounces "algae" with a soft "g"

Yeah, I gotta admit, that drives me up the frakken WALL! There's some other stuff I don't like... "Schedule" and "aluminum" and "garage." At least Oprah won't subject me to that!

 

[T J]

Avery Brooks, now that would have been much better!

 

[Mysterion]

If a giant hole were to open up in the surface of the Earth right this second and swallow Oprah whole causing her never to be seen or heard from again, not only would I not be upset, but I would be very excited and joyous.

 

[FordSVT]

If a giant hole were to open up in the surface of the Earth right this second and swallow Oprah whole causing her never to be seen or heard from again, not only would I not be upset, but I would be very excited and joyous.

^That's some irrational hatred you've got there....

I don't partake in what Oprah is selling, but she's undeniably intelligent, driven, charismatic and successful. Not really sure why anyone would hate her. Annoyed by the whole thing? Why not... but actually loathing her as a person?

 

[cardinal biggles]

But we all know why they hired Oprah - for the marketing boost her name will provide. Americans don't know who the fuck Richard Attenborough is (and if they do, he's that old dude from Jurassic Park).

It's not Richard, it's his younger brother David, who is a highly respected documentarian. But I guess that sort of proves your point, doesn't it?

 

[Checkmate]

Why have a different narration? Don't American understand English?

Most of the English don't even speak English anymore than Americans or Australians do.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I hope the Blu-ray has Attenborough, because even though I'm excited about owning this, part of that reason is Attenborough himself.

If not, you could import the UK version. However, I don't know if the discs are region-free.

 

[Amaris]

I hope the Blu-ray has Attenborough, because even though I'm excited about owning this, part of that reason is Attenborough himself.

If not, you could import the UK version. However, I don't know if the discs are region-free.

That's my primary concern. If I could, I would simply purchase the UK version.