From Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, and Gary Goetzman--Masters of the Air is a World War II drama miniseries based on the actions of the airmen who risk their lives with the 100th Bomb Group, and a brotherhood forged by courage, loss, and triumph.
History
The TV version of Biddick: New Yorker.
The real life Biddick: Born in Livingston, Wisconsin. Graduated from high school in Davis, California, then earned a BS in Agriculture from the College of Agriculture (now University of California Davis.) Was working as a wholesale meat buyer in San Francisco when he enlisted in January 1942.
The TV version of Biddick: KIA during the Regensburg attack as he attempts to land the plane in a field after co-pilot Richard Snyder is severely wounded.
The real life Biddick: KIA during the Regensburg attack after the plane was engulfed in flames when the oxygen tanks were hit. Biddick went down with the ship, while Snyder bailed out but did not survive the jump.
Over the target, the aircraft was attacked by a large number of enemy fighters. Cannon shells and machine gun fire tore through the ship, killing some crew and leaving large holes in the nose and fuselage, and starting a large fire in the oxygen storage compartment. Lt Snyder exited the burning plane through one of these holes, reached back and retrieved his parachute, and put it on while standing on the wing. When he jumped, he hit the stabilizer which killed him.
The aircraft crashed after Lt Biddick made an effort to miss a small village directly in the impact area.
(Some of the above is speculative.)
I am curious about why the TV writers opted to make Biddick a New Yorker.
I also wonder why his fate during the Regensburg raid was rewritten when the real person may have sacrificed himself for the sake of German civilians. That would contrast him with the “terror flyers” that the civilians are shouting about in Episode 6. (And at least some of the civilians who took part in the real Russelsheim massacre were working in the Opel factory that was producing Blitz trucks for the Wehrmacht and Ju-88s for the Luftwaffe.)
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Can listen to John Orloff himself talk about Biddick here. There's many versions of the story of Biddick's death, and they're all a bit open to some interpretation since they're almost entirely eyewitness testimony. The "avoiding a German village" version was taken under consideration but ultimately they wanted to tie it more into being heroic for his friends. The "helplessly burning alive in a cockpit with no way of escaping" version is pretty obvious as to why they wouldn't kill off a main character that way.
As for the New Yorker accent. My speculation is Barry Keoghan probably didn't have a lot of prep time for the role. He's an Irish actor and has a ton of stuff going on right now. So I'm sure his schedule is super full. I can see a reason for not trying to learn a new (and not so easy to do) Midwest accent, especially if you know you're not going to have a lot of time to learn it. He might know how to do a New York accent so went with that.
The NY accent is both easier to get right imo (even if you ham it up too much it doesn't sound so off to most audiences) and the NY accent makes the character a bit more memorable in a short period of time for a broader audience. Everyone around the world can understand where he's from based on the accent. It can be a good way of making the character concise since he's only there for 3 episodes. That's just a guess tho. There might be an interview where he talks about it.
Also worth noting, we already had a character from Wisconsin (Bucky) so maybe they just decided to have him come from New York to diffentiate them a bit.
Funny enough, the episode after Biddick dies, a replacement New Yorker (Rosie) is promptly shipped out to the unit so they can remain mission capable.
"NY Accent" It's funny but although I am from The Mid Atlantic region of The US ( Virginia) and was raised with a touch of a tidewater Va accent I can't pull off a New York Accent when I'm messing around. However I started Learn Spanish a few years ago, and My Wife (who is from Northern Mexico) swears I speak it with the accent of people from Mexico City.
The Midwestern and Southern California accents are easier to learn than the NYC accents. That “Brooklynese” accent Barry Keoghan used never existed, and is just an exaggerated stereotype. As a Brooklynite, who does not have a NY accent, I was cringing every time Biddick opened his mouth. It became even more apparent that Keoghan’s accent was horrible, when Rosie debuted and Nate Mann mimicked Rosenthal’s distinctive Brooklyn-accent correctly.
Nate’s accent was spot on.
This all highlights the problem of going with Apple TV. Apple relies on proven star power to carry its programming (Ted Lasso, Morning Show, Lessons in Chemistry, etc.) When you're writing war series scripts trying to attract major Hollywood talent you have to include things like meaningless love stories, moments of crisis punctuated by overly dramatic dialogue, and any death has to be the most heroic shit you've ever seen. Stars have brands and they aren't going to take a war project that doesn't make them look like a hero.
You look at HBO's casting and it's a bunch of up and comers. Basically everyone on BoB was an unknown except David Schwimmer and he lasted one episode. Everyone on The Pacific was an unknown. They got actors who fit the part and they didn't write plots hoping to attract big names. Turns out by doing that they got the extremely talented Damien Lewis, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Tom Hardy, and Rami Malek.
Then consider the dialogue of BoB, TP, and MotA. The first two really feel like listening to soldiers talk. When Winters leads the charge at the crossroads he explains the terrain to Talbert and then says, "We have no choice," before explaining the plan in detail. Can you imagine how much extra fat would have been on that scene if Austin Butler had to lead a single-man bayonet charge?
"If I don't make it, give this to Marge."
"See ya on the other side, boys."
Or some other corny dialogue on par with, "You're gonna pay for that!"
This show felt like a B- Hollywood movie.
The casting was impacted by COVID, with much of the auditioning done online instead of in person. That may have contributed to making some safer casting decisions.
Austin Butler worked on the Elvis film with Tom Hanks and was brought into MotA by Hanks.
Jon Seda was well established prior to being in The Pacific. (I am not a fan of his, but he was tolerable in The Pacific.)
I agree with you about the clunky dialogue. The "you're gonna pay for that!" line is one among many that are cringeworthy.
Even Rami Malek was not a complete unknown. He was in both the “Night at the Museum” and “Twilight” franchises. Just because he had not won an Oscar yet, did not mean he was not an established actor.
I don't think Apple TV made an effort to cast stars - Barry Keoghan and even Austin Butler weren't big names when MoTA started filming in 2021 - Banshees of Inishirin came out in 2022 and Saltburn in 2023, while Elvis came out in 2022. And look at Nate Mann and Anthony Boyle, both huge talents but basically unknown and cast in leading roles. Band of Brothers also cast people who were already somewhat known, like Ron Livingston and Donnie Wahlberg. I think the fact that Butler, Keoghan, McAvoy and Fassbender have gone on to big things says a lot about the casting of these shows overall.
Anthony Boyle is an award-winning and well-established stage actor. He was the original Scorpius Malfoy in “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child”. While the only reason an unknown was cast as Rosie, was due to his the religion/ethnicity being integral to his arc. Similar to why Jefferson and Macon are portrayed by African-Americans, while the background Tuskegee Airmen are all British actors. Should the producers have just cast Logan Lerman as Rosie instead? Pretty sure, he was not available.
I know Anthony Boyle was an established stage actor, I'm saying he wasn't an established screen actor or a household name. My point is that he and Nate Mann were not known and were cast in main roles, so they weren't just going for star power, especially since Butler and Keoghan weren't famous when cast either.
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I didn’t know who ANY of the MOTA actors were.
When cast Butler Keoghan and Turner weren't as big as they are now. Most shooting was done pre Elvis and Inisherin. Arguably Callum Turner was the biggest name on the show because he was in the Fantastic Beasts franchise.
Anthony Boyle was well-known too for originating Scorpius Malfoy, in both the West End and on Broadway. He actually won several awards for that role.
Callum Turner mentioned that Egan was obsessed with NYC, and spoke with a phony NY-accent, despite having never been to the city. My guess (besides Barry Keoghan sucking at accents) is Orloff thought having an original crew-member being from NYC, would help bring out Egan’s obsession with the Big Apple. Since, Rosie was only going to be introduced around the time the Bucks were shot down, and he was distinctly “uncool” for a pilot.
PS: Barry Keoghan’s “Brooklynese” accent never existed.
My guess is that Barry Keoghan could do a New York accent but not much else. This was a much shorter job for him than the other leads, so the producers probably accepted that rather than spend a lot of time and money on voice coaching that wouldn't really change the story anyway, given that they didn't flesh out his back story.
This happens a lot with British, Irish, and Australian actors playing American roles. They can often do non-rhotic accents a little more easily, so they put on a vaguely Southern or New York accent. There are a few others in this show. One of the majors or colonels who does briefings is clearly British but puts on a vaguely New England accent, for example. In The Pacific, there's a scene where a rotary club or Shriners guy is introducing John Basilone at a war bonds drive. The actor is Australian, but he puts on some sort of vaguely new England accent.
TV and reality very rarely ever go hand in hand in telling the real story/truth. Same for movies.
His story reached its climax and denouement, without exaggeration or embellishment.I personally would not add anything.