# First TV show to break the fourth wall? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 5, 2010, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-tv-show-to-break-the-fourth-wall/545580 "2010-07-05T03:30:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![wwworldclique](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bcef8e/32.png) [@wwworldclique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wwworldclique)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2010, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-tv-show-to-break-the-fourth-wall/545580/21 "2010-07-05T18:04:27Z")
> [@Sir\_T-Cups](#): > > As I am watching Family Guy break the fourth wall (for those who don’t know it’s when a character makes a self reference or talks to the audience) Sorry, but I really beg to differ. Breaking the 4th wall is not when a character references itself. It’s an instance in which a performance _gives away_ the fact that is, after all, _just_ a movie or a show. Classic examples: 1. Anything that reveals that the performance is being filmed, videoed, or performed on a stage (For example, Blazing Saddles-- the scene when the camera suddenly pans out during the showdown at Rock Ridge, to reveal that it’s all on a Hollywood backlot) 2. Actors breaking character or talking to the audience (as someone else pointed out, the Crosby and Hope movies did this a lot, as did Groucho Marx) It’s not necessarily characters “referencing themselves” or even acknowledging who they’re being played by; that to me more is like an inside joke. I couldn’t really tell you which was the first show to actually break the 4th wall, but I do remember that the first TV show that became well known for doing this was \*\*The Garry Shandling Show \*\*back in the '80s. However, I think those who mentioned Jack Benny and The George Burns Show from the '50s are on the mark. Those were probably the 1st. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2010, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-tv-show-to-break-the-fourth-wall/545580/22 "2010-07-05T18:07:40Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Bonus points for the first person to cite an instance in Shakespeare. Extra bonus points if you can find an example from ancient Greece. Well, the ancient Greeks were fond of the chorus, which came out and explained to the audience the prologue or intervening time spans during the play. However, they didn’t recognize the concept of the 4th wall. Neither did Shakespeare. A Midsummer Night’s Dream would probably be the most notable 4th wall breaker if he had the concept. ---
**Author:** ![Reno\_Nevada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Reno\_Nevada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reno_Nevada)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2010, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-tv-show-to-break-the-fourth-wall/545580/23 "2010-07-05T18:26:00Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Bonus points for the first person to cite an instance in Shakespeare. Extra bonus points if you can find an example from ancient Greece. Midsummer Night’s Dream: If we shadows have offended, Think but this, and all is mended, That you have but slumber’d here While these visions did appear. And this weak and idle theme, No more yielding but a dream, ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2010, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-tv-show-to-break-the-fourth-wall/545580/24 "2010-07-05T18:54:14Z")
In the beginning of Henry V, Shakespeare directly addresses the problem of putting Agincourt on stage. > [@](#): > > But pardon, and gentles all, > The flat unraised spirits that have dared > On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth > So great an object: can this cockpit hold > The vasty fields of France? or may we cram > Within this wooden O the very casques > That did affright the air at Agincourt? > O, pardon! since a crooked figure may > Attest in little place a million; > And let us, ciphers to this great accompt, > On your imaginary forces work. > Suppose within the girdle of these walls > Are now confined two mighty monarchies, > Whose high upreared and abutting fronts > The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder: > Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts; > Into a thousand parts divide on man, > And make imaginary puissance; > Think when we talk of horses, that you see them > Printing their proud hoofs i’ the receiving earth; ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2010, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-tv-show-to-break-the-fourth-wall/545580/25 "2010-07-05T19:01:14Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Extra bonus points if you can find an example from ancient Greece. [The Frogs](http://classics.mit.edu/Aristophanes/frogs.html) (405 BC) by Aristophanes starts off with a character acknowledging the presence of the audience, and later refers to other playwrights: > [@](#): > > XANTHIAS: > Shall I crack any of those old jokes, master, > At which the audience never fail to laugh? > [@](#): > > XANTHIAS > What! must I bear these burdens, and not make > One of the jokes Ameipsias and Lycis > And Phrynichus, in every play they write, > Put in the mouths of their burden-bearers? > > DIONYSUS > Don’t make them; no! I tell you when I see > Their plays, and hear those jokes, I come away > More than a twelvemonth older than I went. > > XANTHIAS > O thrice unlucky neck of mine, which now > Is getting crushed, yet must not crack its joke! Also: > [@](#): > > DIONYSUS > But tell me, did you see the parricides > And perjured folk he mentioned? > > XANTHIAS > Didn’t you? > > DIONYSUS > Poseidon, yes. Why look! > [pointing to the audience] > I see them now. > What’s the next step? > [@](#): > > AEACUS > Not he: the populace clamoured out to try > Which of the twain was wiser in his art. > > XANTHIAS > You mean the rascals? > > AEACUS > Aye, as high as heaven! > > XANTHIAS > But were there none to side with Aeschylus? > > AEACUS > Scanty and sparse the good, > [regards the audience] > the same as here. So, yeah, the technique predates the Simpsons by just a little bit. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2010, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-tv-show-to-break-the-fourth-wall/545580/26 "2010-07-05T21:57:26Z")
Ok honestly I was by no means saying Simpsons was the first…it was just the first that I knew of. Realizing they weren’t was why I started the thread. ---
**Author:** ![VarlosZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@VarlosZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VarlosZ)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2010, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-tv-show-to-break-the-fourth-wall/545580/27 "2010-07-05T23:03:46Z")
Breaking the fourth was was pretty much the raison d’être of [It’s Garry Shandling’s Show](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ac8cQuEzDCQ). ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-tv-show-to-break-the-fourth-wall/545580/28 "2010-07-06T05:38:34Z")
> [@Sir\_T-Cups](#): > > Ok honestly I was by no means saying Simpsons was the first…it was just the first that I knew of. Realizing they weren’t was why I started the thread. Be quite honest, though. You were expecting something like St. Elsewhere (which revealed that every major television series since Father Knows Best was in the shared universe of a little boy’s dream, but did not, AFAIK, break the fourth wall), right? Not Burns and Allen and certainly not Aristophanes! (To be fair, I knew about Burns and Allen, but not Aristophanes!) ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-tv-show-to-break-the-fourth-wall/545580/29 "2010-07-06T07:36:29Z")
On further thought, the ad-libbing was probably done much more in the radio shows, as the surprise wasn’t so obvious to the home audience. Then the Carol Burnett Show cast made a career of it. ---
**Author:** ![ministryman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@ministryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ministryman)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-tv-show-to-break-the-fourth-wall/545580/30 "2010-07-06T18:07:00Z")
Don’t forget the Bugs Bunny cartoons! “Ain’t I a stinker?” ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-tv-show-to-break-the-fourth-wall/545580/31 "2010-07-06T18:43:45Z")
Perhaps it would be more to the point to inquire when, exactly, the fourth wall gained something resembling solidity? If anything, breaches in the wall have become less common over the years–for most of the history of acting, no one thought anything of it when an actor directly addressed an audience, or otherwise demonstrated awareness that they were acting. Now, it stands out. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-tv-show-to-break-the-fourth-wall/545580/32 "2010-07-06T22:03:30Z")
> [@](#): > > Well, technically, don’t Shakespeare plays often start and end with someone talking directly to the audience, basically to bring them up to speed, in the 16th-century equivalent of the opening text crawl in Star Wars? The first example that comes to mind for me is the ending of _The Tempest_, with Prospero begging the audience to free him with their applause. Of course, that was one of Shakespeare’s last plays, so the other examples (and, of course, the ancient Greek ones) would predate it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-tv-show-to-break-the-fourth-wall/545580.md?page=1)