Breaking the Fourth Wall/Live-Action TV: Difference between revisions

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* 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.]