Breaking the Fourth Wall/Live Action TV

• 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, 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. 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 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.
• Thirty Rock: In one instance, the characters of Jack and Liz are talking about cell phones, and Liz starts talking about 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:

Liz: Is it identical?
Jack: Not quite. Seven items are different. See if you can spot which ones.
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.

Freddie: Does Baby Spencer love Jerry Trainor?
Baby Spencer: (played by Jerry Trainor) What?!
Freddie: Do you love Jerry Trainor?
Baby Spencer: Don't say that! You're 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.
  • It also had an episode in which a character joined a soap opera called 'Kid Gets Acquainted With the Universe' and meets the cast, playing themselves (and also their usual characters in the B-plots.)
• The State had a sketch which subverted this, purporting to be a revolutionary new Sitcom that showed the fourth wall. A wall was moved in front of the set, blocking the audience's view of the scene.
• Doctor Who has a long history of breaking the Fourth Wall.
  • Part 7 of the First Doctor story The Daleks' Master Plan, titled "The Feast of Steven", featured The Doctor turning to the camera and wishing the viewers a Merry Christmas.
  • An advert featuring The Second Doctor had him advising children to "hold mummy's hand if she's frightened" during an upcoming episode. It ended with him hearing shouting off-camera and rushing off to help.
  • The Fourth Doctor spoke to the camera in The Invasion of Time and The Face of Evil. And in the Fourth Doctor story Genesis of the Daleks, a Dalek shouts into the camera about how its species will conquer the universe.
  • The Armageddon Factor has an unabashed fourth wall-breaking moment where the Doctor says right to the camera, "Even the sonic screwdriver won't get me out of this one."
  • In the Eighth Doctor Made for TV Movie, Grace shoots an Aside Glance at the camera after the Doctor acts confusing.
  • In the Ninth Doctor story "The End of the World", one of the (CGI-animated) spiders "accidentally" collides with the camera.
  • A special 2005 interactive episode available to digital TV viewers had the Tenth Doctor inviting the viewer aboard the TARDIS to help solve a mystery using their remote controls. The episode was shot from the viewer's POV, with The Doctor talking into camera, though this "episode" is generally not considered Canon.
  • 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 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 The Doctor is flying the Pandorica into the exploding TARDIS, for a moment Matt Smith looks right down the camera lens.
  • At the very end of "Blink", the Doctor looks directly at the camera and tells the audience, "Don't blink. Blink and you're dead. Don't turn your back. Don't look away. And don't blink. Good Luck." The affect can cause the viewer to never go near a statue again.
    • This episode also breaks the fourth wall in a way that will manage to terrify the viewers even more. There are times when the Weeping Angels are on screen but none of the characters are looking at them. You, the audience, are looking at them.
  • The 2011 Children in Need scene has Matt Smith shattering the fourth wall into pieces.
• The Basil Brush Show refers to the 'viewers' frequently, and occasionally shows the studio outside the set and camera crew.
• 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."
  • And then there's Willow's line; "I think this line's mostly filler."
  • Again in the song "Something to Sing About", Giles calls out "She needs backup! Tara! Anya! Go!" Tara and Anya immediately run to Buffy's side and... start dancing as backup dancers. (Made even funnier by the fact that those two have less combat skills than anybody else on their team, even Xander.)
    • And the fact that Amber Benson (Tara) proceeds to accidentally dance straight into a pillar, breaking character in the process. And they keep it in the final cut.
    • Give them their due! They also sang backing vocals.
• Done a few times on Monty Python's Flying Circus. At the end of the "Crunchy Frog" sketch, for example, Mr. Praline turns to the audience and says "It's a fair cop," as he's being led away by the police, and the officer leading him away admonishes him with "And stop talking to the camera!"
  • A recurring Python joke, it was even used in the movie, after the witch is balanced with a duck.
  • You could say that Monty Python's Fourth Wall consists of nothing but holes.
  • 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 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 "Trapped By The Writer" skit. It goes from being funny when the characters realize that everything they say or do is scripted, to hilarious when the writer realizes that he can make the characters do anything he desires them to, and consequently 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 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."
  • In the Grand Finale, after getting his own Humongous Mecha and ripping apart both the Rangers and the countryside, he yells, "This is the most fun I've had all season!"
  • PR's fourth wall was actually broken long before Ninja Storm, actually. In an episode of Power Rangers Zeo, when the Rangers were faced by Rita's Impursonator monster, Prince Sprocket commented "A purse monster? That's SO last season!" This, of course, referred to Zedd and Rita's habit of making monsters out of ordinary items.
  • This is not explicitly an example, because "so last season" is a common phrase to describe something as being out of style.
  • 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 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!" O'Neill casually responds, "No, but he plays one on TV." This is perfectly in character for O'Neill.
  • In "Homecoming", upon hearing the news that Anubis has just appropriated Jonas' planet's entire supply of Naquadriah, O'Niell starts humming some ominous music which is immediately followed by the exact same piece being played as the show fades into a commercial break.
  • And in "200" Martin Lloyd complains about budget cuts that shortened the third act of his film and says that now it 'just ends.' The third act of the episode promptly ends.
• Happens in an early episode of How I Met Your Mother - usually Future Ted just narrates, but in one scene he describes the attractiveness of a girl at a party, and she thanks him for the compliment.
  • In the episode "History vs. Mystery", Ted talks about how "Annie Hall" was Woody at his prime and how people have been ripping off his breaking of the fourth wall ever since. Robin then looks directly at the camera and says, "Can you believe this guy?"
• In a Scrubs episode, JD shows up in an Italian suit, and he asks Carla what she thinks of it. She says something derogatory, and JD goes "Well it doesn't really matter what you think, it's what you think what counts," as he turns to the camera. Scene change, and Elliot's standing there, commenting on that he doesn't really fill it out. Once again, JD brushes this off and goes "Well it doesn't matter what you think either, it's whether or not America likes it as he looks into the camera again. Scene change and an Italian tailor is standing there going "Of course I like it, I made it! And it's Amerigo!"!
  • They did this because there was a home viewer contest going on, with on-screen promos in that very scene.
  • And at the end of the opening sequence, again. JD walks away from the scene, looks at the camera and goes "We'll be right back." scene change, Carla and Nurse Roberts. Carla: "Was he talking to us?", Roberts: "Hmmm hmmm?"
  • In the very first episode of the eighth season, which had been shown on NBC since the first season and had recently been moved to ABC, there is a scene where JD appears, points at where the ABC logo is on the screen and goes "Hmm, that's new." Apparently, he's just pointing at the Janitor's new watch. The joke is completely ruined on other channels, especially because JD has to point in a very odd way in order to point at the ABC logo.
• In a rather bizarre episode of The Twilight Zone, a playwright with the ability to bring his characters to life and destroy them if they get unruly erases Rod Serling during Serling's trademark epilogue (though Serling topped and tailed every episode of the first season and all but one episode of the entire run^[1], this is the first episode where he actually appears on screen).
  • The episode is "A World of His Own" (1960). Keenan Wynn plays the playwright. The producers felt they could do something like this as it was the (first) season finale and they could lighten up a bit.
• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air broke the fourth wall on a number of occasions:
  • In the fourth season finale, Will's character decides to move back to Philadelphia. In the 5th season premiere, he is forcibly abducted by network executives (the door on the van said NBC Star Retrieval, complete with the peacock logo), tossed in a van, driven back to Bel-Air, and the show returned as it was in a no-fourth-wall instance of the Reset Button. Why? Because the series is "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air", not "The Fresh Prince of Philadelphia".
    • In the very next scene, Jazz asks who would be playing Vivian that season, to which an inexplicably 5-year-old Nicky tells him it's the same person as the last season. When Jazz asks why Nicky is five now when he was a toddler in the previous episode, Will just shrugs, to which Jazz says he's going back on the streets where things make sense.
  • In said fourth season finale, ("The Philadelphia Story"), Will decides to confront a bully named Omar. Will describes Omar as "the dude who be spinning me over his head in the opening credits".
  • In one episode, after getting an 85 on a chemistry test by cheating on the person next to him, Carlton questions Will on whether he's really gonna leave the viewers with that. Will proceeds to leave and re-greet Carlton, stating that while he failed the test, he learned his lesson about last-minute cramming and plans on going to the library right then to start making up. Will then smiles at the camera and walks away.
  • In one episode ("Will's Misery"), Will was lured into a cabin by a sorority member, who was out to teach him a lesson. When she revealed that it was Carlton's idea, Will convinced Carlton that he actually killed the girl, which caused Carlton to freak out. He then started to run through all the sets used for that episode and through the studio audience, to the laughter of many.
  • A throwaway gag at the beginning of one episode showed Will sitting on the couch reading as several family members walk in arguing over finances. Will's uncle stops the argument saying "What are you all so worried about? We're rich." That settles things for everyone as they walk out of frame. Will waits until they're gone, then looks at the camera and comments "If we're so rich" -- here he looks up, prompting the camera to pan up to a view of the studio lights -- "how come we can't afford no ceiling?"
  • Also, when lying to Carlton over the phone, Will turns to the camera and asks "I can't see him. You can. Is he buying it?"
  • In an episode where Will gets jealous when Geoffory dates a hot young British nanny, at the end when Geoffrey bows out and gives Will the nanny's number, Will looks at the camera with a big grin and gives the audience a tongue-in-cheek speech about what he learned over the course of the episode.
  • One episode dealing with poetry ends with Will turning to the camera with a serious expression on his face and saying "If you'd like to learn more about poetry...nah, I'm just kidding. Good night!"
  • In one episode Will's uncle is talking to him about something. It annoys him so he points the remote at him, presses a button, and his uncle disappears. Will then turns to the fourth wall and says something along the lines of "Ain't that fly? Don't you wish you lived on TV?".
• 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:

Carl: The only show that currently hires actors over 50 is B- [gets weird looks from everyone] Oh sorry, can't say it. [points at camera] It would break the wall.

• • In the final episode, Alan points out that the show has Jumped the Shark.
• Another show that did this was 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.
  • 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 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 a riff of the Xena theme song.
  • And in the episode "The Play's The Thing" Joxer, as the producer of a particularly horrendious play, is left hanging from the ceiling as the main characters walk off to watch Buffus, the Bacchae Slayer, yells 'Hello?! You guys?! Hey! I'm the producer! Anybody?! Hello?! I'm gonna tell my brother!!!'. Now, the character does have two brothers, but neither of them would be very useful here, nor is he very close to them. The actor's brother, on the other hand, is Sam Raimi, the executive producer (with Robert Tapert) of Xena: Warrior Princess (Joxer's final line coincides with the credit for Raimi and Tapert coming on screen).
  • In one of the Hercules: The Legendary Journeys AU episodes, three of the male characters start whistling the Hercules theme song while peeing at the urinals. (Yes, urinals... it's set in the present day. Long story.)
  • 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. 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.
• Occurs several times, to a mild degree, in Blackadder.
  • In "Bells," Queenie turns to the camera and says "I've got SUCH a crush on him!" after Lord Flasheart says she looks sexy.
  • The ending theme of "Beer": "Blackadder, Blackadder, I heard that he had died. Blackadder, Blackadder, the writers must have lied!"
  • And, of course, this:

Blackadder: I want to be remembered when I'm dead. I want books written about me. I want songs sung about me. And then, hundreds of years from now, I want episodes of my life to be played out weekly at half past nine by some great heroic actor of the age.
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'
  • In the second series episode "Chains" (the season finale), at the end, Ludwig, disguised as Queenie, stands over the dead bodies of the other main characters. He turns to the camera, laughs, and says in his deep, male, German accent, "Now this is a disguise I'm really going to enjoy. If I can just get the voice right..."
• Happy Days: At the end of the final episode, Howard is giving a wedding toast. At one point he turns to the camera and thanks the viewers for "being a part of our family".
• In Magnum, P.I., often after some event, Thomas Magnum (played by Tom Selleck) would look directly at the camera and grin.
• In one episode of The Mighty Boosh, when Howard is being taken to gorilla Hell, he gets to haunt someone as a ghost as a present from the grim reaper for taking him to the wrong hell. He haunts his friend, Vince, who tries to put his hand through him, only to find out he's still solid and can't be passed through. When Vince asks why not, Gost!Howard says "because we spent all the show's budget on your hair style!" The friend then turns and smiles at the camera.
• On Family Matters, Steve Urkel once literally broke the fourth wall by putting a cannonball through it. The screen shattered to reveal a bunch of electronic components reminiscent of the inside of a TV, then Urkel popped up and asked the viewer if they've seen the cannonball he lost. (The episode was originally broadcast in 3D, and viewers who wore special 3D glasses saw Urkel "reach through the TV screen" as though to grope for the lost cannonball.)
  • In another episode, Carl and Harriet are attempting to enjoy a romantic moment when incidental "romantic" music begins to play. Both characters begin looking around, trying to find the source of the music.
• The Monkees did this frequently. One episode had a story where the band needs a great idea to get out of a bad situation, and Micky Dolenz literally walks out of the set, past the production crew, and leaves the studio to go to the writers' room. The writers (who are all stereotypical old Asian men) quickly come up with something for Micky, who returns to the set and suddenly throws the page away as terrible.
  • 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.
  • In the "Guide to Extra Credit", when Moze shows Ned and Cookie her extra credit project, a volcano, Ned says "But it's just so played out, and it's been like on every TV show ever," after which all three of them turn to the camera and back.
• 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

Kenan: "Oh, come on! It's more orange than the Nickelodeon's logo.

• 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."
• 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 reality. Your Head Asplode.
• Made in Canada: Almost every episode begins with Richard speaking to the camera in the cold opener, giving some insight into the lives of producers and executive, corporate life and almost every episode features one of the story's primary characters (occasionally a guest star) saying to the camera either "I think that went well," or "This is not good."
  • • In one episode where each of three characters is telling their story à la Whole-Episode Flashback, Richard walks into the office of Veronica and is seen speaking to an unseen entity "I think that went well," where Veronica responds confusedly "Get out of my office!"
    • 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-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. Then the credits roll.
• In The Adventures of Superman George Reeves as Clark Kent would wink to the audience at the end of most episodes.
• One episode of Growing Pains had Ben dream he was a character on a TV series; he suddenly found himself interacting with the actors instead of his family, even calling them by the actors' real names.
• One episode of Wizards of Waverly Place ended with the cast inviting guest star Moises Arias to take their picture. They then showed him their album containing pictures taken by all their guest stars. Of course, since the guest stars took the pictures, they didn't appear in any of them. Then everyone leaves except David Henrie, who says he likes to stay behind after shooting to play with the props.
• The Prisoner has a variation in the episode "A, B, and C", where Number Six is drugged so that his dreams can be manipulated to discover why he resigned. Eventually he catches on and retains control of his last dream, and when it seems the answer will finally be revealed he states "We mustn't disappoint the people watching," referring equally well to the actual characters and the audience.
  • 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:

Garry called me up and asked if I could write his theme song / It's almost halfway finished / How do you like it so far?

• 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.
• At the end of an episode of Yes, Dear has Jimmy saying "How hot is that?" while looking straight into the camera.
• 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...

Mr. Farrell: It's been cancelled.
Dora: The flight?
Mr. Farrell: No... OUR 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".

Castiel: Let me tell you everything.

• 1960s 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?"
  • "King Tut's Coup". Commissioner Gordon calls Bruce Wayne and they realize that King Tut has returned. When Gordon calls Batman, Batman tells him that he knows that Tut has returned even before Gordon can tell him. Gordon looks into the camera and says "You'd think the man could read my mind!"
  • "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 episode promo.

Piper: Keep your clothes on, this is a family show.

• German comedy series Harald und Eddi uses this as a Running Gag: Each episode starts with Harald Juhnke as an old-fashioned TV announcer:

Harald: "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, I'm happy to announce a new episode of our sketch show Harald & Eddi -"\

(cut to Eddi, who's preoccupied with something, like food or handicraft, with the TV running in the background, with Harald on screen)

Harald (louder): "a new episode of our sketch show Harald & Eddi!"
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 diffrent screen, and scrolling text appears, along with a voice, possibly the Old Sage. Then Gheos once again breaks the fourth wall, asking us that it could be us, and the animation ends.
• 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, "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.

Lois: So will you come to Hawaii with me, Jerry?
Jerry: Maybe I will, Lois. Maybe I will. (winks at camera)

• Chyna on A.N.T. Farm does this in the episode " you're the one that I wANT. After Olive explains what theatrical asides are.

Chyna Can you believe she is pitching an idea where characters breaks the reality of the play and speaks directly to the viewer, it makes no sense.

• 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, Steed and Tara are in a rocket heading into outer space...

Mother (Steed's boss): (to camera) They'll be back; you can rely on that. (glancing upward) They're unchaperoned up there...

1. ↑ season four's "Jess-Belle" is the only episode with no closing narration by the great man