<<silent-era snarls>>

Before speakies, actors had to indicate broadly so the audience could follow the story. Perhaps it was the silent clowns who put this limitation of silent film to best use. In fact, with respect to a certain kind of humor, sound has proven limiting--nearly to the point of extermination.

As to television, many of the players are very competent actors and I wonder if this isn't a question of direction--ultimately coming from the executives. Given the very large targeted audience and the variable intelligence of its constituents--as well as of the scripts and scenarios written to entertain them, I would guess this kind of indicating fills the same role it did in the silents.