ABSTRACT
When asked if he thought films should be a slice of life, director Alfred Hitchcock is
reported to have said, no, they should be a slice of cake. We might well pose the same
question about television: Is it a slice of life or a slice of cake? The images we see on the
screen show us real people and objects, and the sounds we hear are taken from our real
experience, with dialogue spoken in a language and idiom with which we are familiar.
