Ahhh! That explains it! I wondered why he hadn't sounded that way (or at least I hadn't noticed it) when he guested on Andromeda or that execrable show The Mountain.

I didn't place the accent, I guess, because all my friends who live in Nebraska either didn't grow up there or were educated back East like myself, meaning that their accents are less noticeable.

I wouldn't have thought much of it, but you're right that everyone else on the show sounds like everyone else on TV on the WB: California with an occasional flash of Vancouver Canadian!