I found the UK easier to move within than here. Perhaps its because the traditional defined class there has been replaced in America with one based on individual materialism and suspicion of anyone "not from 'round here".
Accents and dialect abound here, and the mountain Southern accents are considered intellectually bankrupt by Northerners, Valley California sounding people are considered vacant, &c. Every word uttered differently in the US opens one to ridicule, often swift and vicious. These are not a fun-loving people. Grin!
There never has been an attempt at a "high-American", not like BBC English or Hoch-Deutsche or the like, but regional or foreign accents garner instant judgement, especially from the more materialist regionals or as a reaction by the victims of that same immediate prejudice.
I find Americans much more individually prickly and sensitive, actually.
BTW, I assume you were on about Last of the Summer Wine?
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