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{{trope}}
Examples of [[{{TOPLEVELPAGE}}]] in [[{{SUBPAGENAME}}]] include:
* From 1950 to 1958, [[George Burns]] was breaking the fourth wall on ''[[The Burns and Allen Show]]''. In every episode, he spoke directly to the audience while predicting events later in the episode and reporting on events that he (as a character in the episode) shouldn't know about. In many of the later episodes, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXIW3kjWpu0 he was seen watching the other characters on television.] In fact, the term "breaking the fourth wall" is a massive understatement when applied to this series. George Burns did some crazy things on this show that have rarely (if ever) been replicated:
** In the first two seasons of the series, the show looked like an odd hybrid of a radio show and a stage play. Because TV was still new and experimental -- not to mention live -- Burns and his production partners decided to broadcast the show from an actual theater where a mockup of a house had been built on stage. The house set looked like an artillery shell had hit it, wiping out the fourth wall and one corner of the house. Rather than watch scenes of the show on the TV set in his office -- that wouldn't start until the show was shot on film starting in the 1952-53 season -- George would lean against the proscenium arch and comment directly to the theater audience about the goings-on inside the house. See for yourself. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-QFnNxkgnU Here's a sample episode titled "Rumba Lessons" that aired on December 28, 1950.]
** In the first episode of the 1953-54 season -- in what may have been the most extreme breaking of the fourth wall in history -- Fred Clark (who played Harry Morton) left the series in part because he had demanded a higher salary. Literally! He left the series about twenty minutes into the episode. As Blanche was about to express her displeasure with a gift Harry had given her by hitting him with a vase, George stopped the action, turned to the audience and told them that Clark was leaving the series. Clark exited, replacement actor Harry Keating entered, and the action resumed.
* The sitcom ''Unhappily Ever After'' broke the fourth wall
* ''[[30
▲* The sitcom ''Unhappily Ever After'' broke the fourth wall regualarly. In fact, almost every episode they acknowledged that they were characters on a sitcom. They would address the audience, talk to the camera, mention what the subject of the episode was, etc.
▲* ''[[30 Rock|Thirty Rock]]'': In one instance, the characters of Jack and Liz are talking about cell phones, and Liz starts talking about [[Product Placement|how great Verizon phones are]], then breaks the fourth wall by asking the camera, "Can we get our money now, please?"
** On a recent episode, the crew of the [[Show Within a Show]] goes to Boston for plot reasons, and Jack gets an office that is nearly identical to his one in New York, leading to this exchange:
{{quote|
'''Jack''': Not quite. Seven items are different. See if you can spot which ones.
''[[Crowning Moment of Funny|Camera switches to a high-angle shot, and both characters turn to face the camera while a music sting plays in the background]]'' }}
** "Happy Valentine's Day, No One!"
* ''[[iCarly]]'': This dialogue about the 2009 Teen Choice Awards.
{{quote|
'''Baby Spencer:''' (played by Jerry Trainor) What?!
'''Freddie:''' Do you love Jerry Trainor?
'''Baby Spencer:''' Don't say that! You're [[Lampshade Hanging|breaking the fourth wall!]] Nooooo!
'''Freddie:''' Aw, sometimes it's OK to break the fourth wall.
'''Baby Spencer:''' No! It violates everything I believe in!
'''Freddie:''' Did you know Jerry Trainor is up in the Teen Choice Awards?
'''Baby Spencer:''' Hush! Don't talk about it!
'''Freddie:''' Don't you want everyone to go online and vote for Jerry Trainor?
'''Baby Spencer:''' Baby don't like shameless self-promotion!
'''Freddie:''' Don't you know ''iCarly'' is up for lots of Teen Choice Awards?
'''Baby Spencer:''' SHUT UP! I'm so uncomfortable with this in so many levels! }}
* ''[[Boy Meets World]]'' played numerous games with the fourth wall, culminating in the final episode, where Corey announces that he finally "gets" the meaning of the show's title.
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** In "The Shakespeare Code", a baddie speaks to the camera about how her species will return - this is reference to the soliloquies that Shakespeare used in his plays. From the same episode, when Shakespeare gets a bit flirty with the Doctor, the Doctor remarks, "57 academics just punched the air."
** In the Classic episode ''The Caves of Androzani'', the villain repeatedly turns to the camera and gives exposition soliloquies. [[Word of God]] says that this wasn't intended - the actor had misunderstood the stage directions in the script, but the [[Throw It In|director liked the effect it gave and had the actor continue doing the scenes in that manner]].
** This is the whole point of the Proms special short "Music of the Spheres".
** "Journey's End" includes a widely debated moment where Martha Jones appears to smile directly into the camera, though the context of the scene strongly implies that this is the point of view of the Doctor not the audience.
** In "The Big Bang" when {{spoiler|The Doctor is flying the Pandorica into the exploding TARDIS}}, for a moment Matt Smith looks right down the camera lens.
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* [[Joss Whedon]] did a [[Lampshade Hanging]] in the musical episode of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' "Once More With Feeling". Anya complains that during her musical number with Xander, it felt like their apartment had only three walls, not a fourth, and that it felt like they were being watched. Also near the end of the same episode the song "Something to Sing About" features the line "And you can sing along" which Buffy sings while looking directly at the camera.
** The only other time Buffy looks directly at the camera in a close-up is in the second episode of season 4.
*** In the season 2 premiere where after she saves Wiloow & Xander, Buffy looks at the camera and asks "Missed me?"
** And the same episode has Buffy's line, "Dawn's in trouble. Must be Tuesday." (At the time, ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' aired on Tuesdays.)
*** There's a version of this as early as the Season 3 episode "Revelations". Buffy: "Some demon looking for some all-powerful thingamabob, and I gotta stop him before he unleashes unholy havoc, and it's another Tuesday night in Sunnydale."
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** Surely the most common and well known Python example is John Cleese sat at the news desk saying "..and now for something completely different"
** We mustn't forget the Dirty Fork skit, which is even set up by a black cue-card stating "And now, the punch line."
** "Gentlemen, I have shocking news! This room is [[Video Inside, Film Outside|surrounded by film!"]]
* ''[[Rutland Weekend Television]]'', by ''Monty Python'''s own Eric Idle, had many examples of this, mostly making itself evident through [[Lampshade Hanging]], [[Medium Awareness]] and a lot of [[Leaning on the Fourth Wall]], but it turned this into a joke with the "[[Rage Against the Author|Trapped By The Writer]]" skit. It goes from being funny when the characters realize that everything they say or do is scripted, to [[Hilarity Ensues|hilarious]] when the writer realizes that he can make the characters do anything he desires them to, and consequently [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|goes mad with power]].
* At the end of the ''[[Just Shoot Me]]'' episode "Erlene and Boo", Dennis goes to bed with Nina's half-sister Erlene, played by [[Brooke Shields]]. Halfway through the scene, Shields breaks character and questions why her character would sleep with him. Laura San Giacomo (Maya) informs her that David Spade had paid off the writers to have his character end up with beautiful women.
* ''[[Power Rangers Ninja Storm]]'' often [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] and outright parodied various PR conventions. Only Lothor (who wasn't [[Genre Savvy]] but certainly had a sense of humor) ever actually broke the fourth wall, however.
** Once, after making the monster grow, he turned to the camera and asked, "What'd you expect? It wasn't going to get smaller."
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** ''[[Power Rangers Samurai]]'' has Antonio, the Gold Samurai Ranger, who's Barracuda Blade attack is too fast to actually see. After he quickly defeats some [[Mooks|Moogers]], he ''turns to the camera and gives an instant replay of what happened, with the fight slowed down so the audience can see what happened.''
* One ''[[Farscape]]'' episode had Crichton humming along with the show's music while on a bad trip.
** There tends to be a fair amount of leaning on the fourth wall with ''[[Farscape]]''. Usually it's fairly subtle. Then again sometimes (I'm thinking of a very specific episode in season 4... John's in a coma? Trippy visions? Cartoons? yeah, you'll find it...) it's not so subtle.
*** Then again that could be John-in-the-dream addressing the "real" John, who's watching.
* Similarly, one ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' episode had Carter whistling the show's music after meeting Pete.
** In the episode "Fallen", upon seeing Teal'c, one of the villagers from the planet of the week fearfully said, "H-He is Jaffa!" [[Deadpan Snarker|O'Neill]] casually responds, "No, but he plays one on TV." This is perfectly in character for O'Neill.
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* ''[[Boston Legal]]'' is chock-full of Fourth Wall breakage. Denny Crane has done this so often that he has earned himself a place on the [[No Fourth Wall]] page.
** A rare non-Denny example:
{{quote|
** In the final episode, Alan points out that the show has [[Jumped the Shark]].
* Another show that did this was ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'', where for most of Season 3 Chase would refer to once a week reminding Cameron that he loved her. He said that he did this every Tuesday, which (not-so-)coincidentally is when FOX airs new episodes of ''[[House (TV series)|House]]''.
** The first episode of season three also had Cuddy yelling at House about how he comes storming into her office "24 times a year". This is the standard length of a TV season.
** Knocked on in the eleventh episode of the fourth season, "Frozen," Cuddy cuts off cable access to the room of a coma patient that House had been using. She tells him that he'll have to get by with the broadcast networks, to which he replies, "I'll be fine on Tuesdays." Tuesdays are, of course, when ''House'' airs on FOX.
** The episode "Three Stories" features a plot line that is told from House's point of view through a series of flashbacks to different time periods. At one point House suddenly decides to move onto a different time and asks his team "What about snake-bite guy?" They look at him in confusion, whereupon he realises that they have no idea of the alternate timelines taking place. He says "Oh, that's right, you guys don't know about him yet. He doesn't get bitten until three months after we treat the volleyball player." He then turns to the camera and says, "It's already been well established that time is not a fixed construct." When the camera pans back around a few seconds later, the symptoms on the whiteboard have changed to match the new case and Chase, Cameron and Foreman are wearing different clothes and sitting/standing in different positions; thereby humorously referencing the habit of TV shows never following a plausible, linear timeline.
* In the first broadcast episode of ''[[The Muppet Show]]'', Kermit the Frog (a puppet) is shown sipping milk from a glass with a straw; he takes a moment to say to the audience, "Think about this, friends."
* ''[[Malcolm in the Middle]]'' did this on a regular basis, as it was part of the show. Several times in every episode, Malcolm would turn to the audience and speak to them as if they were a diary, explaining his feelings about what was going on in the show.
* During the 2003 MTV Music Awards, Gollum wins the then-newly-created Best Virtual Performance award. Things start off normally enough, with Andy Serkis shown in the motion-capture studio giving a standard acceptance speech. Then Gollum steps in, swipes the award from Serkis' hands, and begins ranting about the awful conditions during the making of ''The Two Towers'', verbally discharging both barrels at several key people and organizations involved in the movie's creation, including Andy Serkis himself. You can see it [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuUGdXGhurQ here]; just make sure you're not eating or drinking anything, lest you cover your monitor with it from laughing.
* Done in ''[[Xena: Warrior Princess]]'' in the episode "Lyre Lyre Hearts on Fire", when Xena starts her electric guitar solo (don't ask) with [[Diegetic Theme
** And in the episode "The Play's The Thing" Joxer, as the producer of a particularly
** In one of the ''[[Hercules: The Legendary Journeys]]'' AU episodes, three of the male characters start [[Diegetic Theme
** At the end of the episode "Callisto" as Xena and Gabrielle walk pass by a captured Callisto and her army in chains, Gabrielle tells Xena 'I'm glad you saved Callisto' Xena replies 'It was the right thing to do'. After they're off screen, Callisto repeats to herself 'The right thing to do...' then looks up to the camera and adds 'That's what they think.' with a smile.
* ''[[Northern Exposure]]'' does this in the episode "War and Peace," when Maurice gets into a duel with the visiting Russian chess player. {{spoiler|Just before the shooting starts, Joel holds up his hands, silences everyone, and announces that the show "play[s] to a very sophisticated audience" unlikely to buy the story that Maurice would kill his opponent in a duel or be killed himself. The rest of the characters then chime in about the implausibility of the plotline.}}
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** The ending theme of "Beer": "Blackadder, Blackadder, I heard that he had died. Blackadder, Blackadder, the writers must have lied!"
** And, of course, this:
{{quote|
'''Baldrick''': Yeah, and I could be played by some tit in a beard.... }}
** In the ''Blackadder the Third'' episode "Amy And Amiability", Blackadder comments on how he has been left tied up on 'an unrealistic grassy knoll'
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** Another episode had a hooker approach Micky, who hissed at her, "Not now; this is a ''family'' show!"
** An episode parodying Robinson Crusoe had a native character repeatedly popping up in the middle of the action to say "Who writes this stuff?"
** Too many examples to name here (watch any episode, and there's bound to be at least one...or ten). The Monkees' wacky sitcom universe literally had [[No Fourth Wall]].
* In an episode of ''[[Green Acres]]'', Lisa's lemonade causes a giant beanstalk to grow in the Douglas' backyard. Eb climbs it and claims a "Green Giant" lives on top, which drops canned vegetables on command. When Mr. Douglas' asks Mr. Kimball how this could have happened, he replies "You're in a TV commercial!", then picks up a can and smiles at the camera. It was [[All Just a Dream]] though.
** It's not just a dream in the rest of the episodes, though. In one, Lisa refers to the opening credits by asking Oliver about the words and names suddenly appearing on things (which he fails to notice), and characters often comment on the musical theme that accompanies every soapbox speech that Oliver gives.
* ''[[Angel]]'' has the episode "Spin the Bottle", in which Lorne speaks directly to the audience, narrating the plot, and even going as far as to say "Well, those were some exciting products. Am I right?" after one of the act breaks.
* ''[[News Radio]]'' did this in the Titanic [[Parody Episode]] where Dave and Mr. James comment about the lack of peril around them as the "ship" sinks. They say it was probably due to the production team blowing the special effects budget on the previous breakroom scene.
* Greek Live Action series ''S1ngles'' breaks the 4th Wall constantly via various means but in the second season (S1ngles 2) the main characters go as far as taking the Director and the Script Writer as hostages, requesting changes in the plot.
* ''[[Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide]]'' earned its namesake from Ned giving the audience advice in every single episode.
** One occasion where someone other than Ned broke the fourth wall was in "Guide to Girls". After Moze finishes writing tips, Ned adds the final thing she must do: face the camera and elaborate on the tips while the theme music plays from a boom box.
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* ''[[UFO]]'' ("Mindbender"). [[Green Rocks]] make Commander Straker start to hallucinate that he's an actor in a sci-fi television series. As he remembers being Straker, but can clearly see the cameras and backstage crew around him, he naturally starts to go insane.
* ''[[Kenan and Kel]]'' had a subtle one. In an episode where an X-Ray reveals that Kel's chest is orange in the inside, Kenan remarks something like
{{quote|
* The ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'' episode "Journey to Babel" ends with Kirk, Spock, Sarek, Amanda and Nurse Chapel all starting to argue about something. One by one, McCoy gets them all to shut up, then when he finally has silence he turns to face the camera and says "Well, what do you know? I finally got the last word."
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtGSXMuWMR4&feature=player_embedded This television news segment] on the visual language and structure of television news segments.
* Israeli Soap Opera "Hashir Shelanu" ("Our Song") went on for two seasons of the star-crossed male and female lead going through hell until they finally got together, with a proper saccharine ending of them taking their marriage vows. But, apparently, the show sort of got tired of its set of characters by that time. You can tell because the first episode of season 3 starts with the director yelling "cut" and the newlyweds coming off the set- ''everything'' that has happened up until that point was just a [[Soap Opera]]. In real life, they are [[Platonic Life Partners]] with acting careers. ''Now'' we get to explore the [[Darker and Edgier]] [[This Is Reality|reality]]. [[Your Head Asplode]].
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*** Is there a term for watching a third party perspective of a different character breaking the fourth wall?
* The BBC series ''Lovejoy''. During the first five minutes of each episode, Ian McShane's character Lovejoy, an antiques dealer/con artist/detective, talks directly to the camera, explaining a key plot point in the episode or an obscure fact about the antiques trade. One episode, where he was scamming a crooked dealer with a forged Russian church icon, his junior partner and a friend dress as Russian sailors to complete the scam. Lovejoy turns to the camera and comments, "They look about as Russian as Stevie Wonder."
* Francis Urquart of ''[[House of Cards (British series)]]'' speaks to the camera as a confidant -- after all, we're right there to see his machinations. Towards the end, it backs away from him during his narration, and he tells us it's far too late to start getting squeamish.
* After dealing with the [[Holodeck Malfunction|holodeck-generated Moriarty]] in the ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' episode "Elementary, Dear Data", Picard muses that perhaps his reality is simply a simulation being played out on a box on someone's table.
** It goes beyond that. Barclay, who is left in the meeting room alone after Picard makes that statement, is visibly disturbed. As if to test the theory, he says aloud, "Computer, End program." Seemingly pleased that nothing happens, he relaxes and leaves the room. [[Double Subversion|Then the credits roll]].
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** The finale episode, "Fall Out", contains more straightforward examples of fourth-wall breaking. No. 48 on two occasions looks directly into the camera (the second time basically saluting it as the actor's name appeared on screen), and No. 2 says "Be seeing you" directly at the camera in another scene.
* ''It's Garry Shandling's Show'' based its entire premise around this trope. Over the course of each episode, Garry would comment on the action to the audience, introduce new characters and occasionally even invite the studio audience to participate in the show's action. All the other characters were aware they were in a TV show as well. The meta extended right up through the show's unforgettable theme song:
{{quote|
* In one episode of the 80s Canadian mystery show ''[[Seeing Things]]'', Louis Ciccone responds to a question with "I don't know. We'll probably find out before the next commercial break."
* Just about everything with Frankie Howerd: ''Whoops, Baghdad'', ''Up, Pompeii'', ''Carry On Laughing'', etc.
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* ''[[Space: 1999]]'' has one in the episode "Black Sun." After a series of miraculous events result in a feelgood ending, Professor Victor Bergman starts to walk up a corridor, then turns and salutes the camera with his cigar.
* The final episode of the short-lived sitcom ''I Married Dora'' concluded at an airport where the husband, Mr. Farrell, is saying goodbye to his wife Dora and the rest of the family on his way to a new job overseas. But he suddenly returns seconds later...
{{quote|
'''Dora''': The flight?
'''Mr. Farrell''': No... [[That's All Folks|OUR SERIES!!!]] }}
* ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' broke the fourth wall plenty of times, especially in the episode ''The French Mistake'', when Sam and Dean crash through a window and land in an Alternate Reality where they're actors ''[[Jared Padalecki]]'' and ''[[Jensen Ackles]]'' for the show Supernatural. When they look for Castiel, the end up finding ''[[Misha Collins]]'', the Twitter addicted actor who plays Castiel.
** Castiel breaks the fourth wall by directly looking at the camera in "The Man Who Would Be King".
{{quote|
* 1960s ''[[Batman (TV series)|Batman]]'' series episodes
** In one episode, Batman and Robin are climbing up the Batrope, when Santa Claus sticks his head out of the window. Santa offers to bring them a present, if they'll tell him the location of the Batcave. Batman looks at the camera and says, "If you can't trust Santa Claus, who can you trust?"
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** "That Darn Catwoman". After Batman realizes that Robin is under Catwoman's control, he turns to the audience and says "What a dastardly development this is!"
* In the ''[[Charmed]]'' episode "The Bare Witch Project", Piper tells Godiva to keep her clothes on. It was even featured in the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RW4craxcr1s episode promo].
{{quote|
* German comedy series ''Harald und Eddi'' uses this as a [[Running Gag]]: Each episode starts with Harald Juhnke as an old-fashioned TV announcer:
{{quote|
(cut to Eddi, who's preoccupied with something, like food or handicraft, with the TV running in the background, with Harald on screen)
{{quote|
Harald (even louder): "'''''Harald & Eddi''!!'''"
Harald: "Eddi!" (breaks the fourth wall and takes away whatever Eddi is occupied with, leaving Eddi flabbergasted) }}
* In the Gormiti DVD "The Legend Begins," at the end, Gheos breaks the fourth wall, first turned away from the camera, giving info about the Great War that begun, and then turning to the camera, asking us that must this be their destiny. Then, the DVD goes to a
* On ''[[Are You Being Served?]]'', Mr. Humphries addresses the audience every so often. For example, in the one where they give Mrs. Slocombe her birthday present, he says to the camera, [[The Un-Reveal|"We're not going to tell you what it is, it's a secret."]]
* In the episode "What a Lovely Landing Strip" on ''[[Two and A Half Men]]'' Walden's ex-wife literally breaks the fourth wall of the sitcom's main stage, which we've never seen before and was specially constructed for the scene, by driving through it with her car.
* Zack Morris on [[Saved by the Bell]] had the power to freeze a scene and then turn and address the viewers directly. He would also usually make little asides to the audience as a closing gag for an episode.
* In ''[[Gilligan's Island]]'', the Skipper often looked at the camera in response to Gilligan doing something stupid.
* One episode of ''[[Seinfeld]]'' did this as a homage to all the times Superman pulled it off. After winning a race to impress the [[Girl of the Week]] (named Lois), to the uproaring tune of the John Williams Superman score, we get this exchange.
{{quote|
'''Jerry:''' Maybe I will, Lois. Maybe I will. ''(winks at camera)'' }}
* Chyna on [[
{{quote|
* It's fair to say that ''[[Moonlighting]]'' did not break the fourth wall as it never had a fourth wall to begin with. It was the show that ended with a scene in which an ABC suit walks on stage to inform the characters that they have been canceled and will cease to exist in six minutes while stagehands are tearing down the set around them.
* In the final episode of ''[[The Avengers (TV series)|The Avengers]]'', Steed and Tara are in a rocket heading into outer space...
{{quote|
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