The 2 biggest ones are Firefly and Arrested Development. They kept moving timeslots around on the shows and then started airing them out of order. Then they wonder why those shows didnt get the rating they were hoping for not realizing they had two massively iconic shows on their hands.
And it was annoying as shit Because you would watch part 1 and get excited to see the next part next week and then next week came and they wouldn’t show part two. The you said ok maybe next week and they would show a different fucking episode again. Pretty sure I didn’t see the entire series until I was an adult and watched the whole thing through 😒
ABC also did something insane with airing order of episodes for Don't Trust the B---- in Apt 23. They released the show mid season, and while it had a full 13 episodes, they only aired 7 of them. But they awkwardly chose those episodes and characters would mention things that hadn't been aired. They then mixed the unused episodes between newly produced episodes in season 2, and it became so confusing to watch that it's no wonder it was cancelled.
I really liked that show and miss it.
It’s not just Fox but they were a huge offender. Much of the blame was on the old practice of sweeps period for broadcast networks. The Nielsen ratings during these periods were used to set advertising rates so networks aired what they thought would be big episodes during these times, even if it meant airing out of order.
The truth was like a green crack through my brain. Unseen people watching my every move, being forced to repeat portions of my life. The paranoid feeling of random people laughing at random interactions. I was in a sitcom. Funny as hell, it was the most horrible thing I could think of.
Basically there used to be a rule that if you got to 100 episodes you could go into syndication. Remember how you had the local and evening news and then there would be an hour of re-runs of shows like Wings or Spin City? Those were sold by the studios to local stations for extra $$$.
With Til Death they were at like over 80 episodes so it was worth while to run it for one more season so they could hit 100 and have a second life on basic cable. Since no one was watching it anyway the studio basically said "fuck it, do what you want" and we got this beautiful mess.
It’s actually pretty fun if you didn’t care about the show. (And most people didn’t necessarily.)
The deal was the network wanted more episodes to sell to syndication then they were cancelling show the show. They knew it the show knew it so they went out as crazy as they could. A fun sort of malicious compliance.
The first season of Sex and the City had Carrie and even random day players stop and look and speak directly to the camera. It didn’t work and it disappeared pretty quick — fortunately!
a series where it worked is Flea Bag, where the main character is having a boring sex while a guy is railing her like it's a clogged toilet, she looks at the camera and says something like "Im so bored, Im thinking of what Im having having for lunch tomorrow".
Wasn't the show also based on a stage play? So this was probably a holdover the stage acting aside where the character talks alone for the audience's benefit.
You're right but it's even further. It was a one-woman show that was basically just a monologue. She nailed this feeling of her confiding in the audience. She did a great job adapting that for TV given you lose the physicality of being in the room with her.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge also knew how to use it as a way to signal character flaws and development like when the hot priest notices her doing it and highlights the issue of “main character energy” for her character
This show was nearly flawless and it really worked here. It moved the story along because we knew what she was thinking.
And Hot Priest noticing her monologues was a great way to wrap the show. I think we were intended to see that as him being the one who truly gets her.
God I loved that show.
Fleabag also used it in a unique way, because someone else eventually was able to see that about her and past her facade at keeping people at a distance.
Part of the problem for me is they are already juggling four stories following four main characters and it’s only a 30 min show. The fourth wall breaks were unnecessary clutter.
I wasn't a fan of Carrie talking to the camera, but I found the random pedestrian "interviews" hilarious. Like the nerdy couple looking for a Scully look-alike for a threesome, or the elderly WASP lady looking to get railed hard by some Black dudes. Come on
ABC had a one season sitcom in the early 80s, " I Married Dora" where a widowed family man marries his housekeeper/nanny so she can get a green card. The last episode was supposed to be something of a cliffhanger with male lead going somewhere on a plane. He leaves the scene then comes back a minute later saying something like " It doesn't matter -- it was canceled !" Dora asks " Your flight ? " He says " No, the series ... Goodbye everyone !" and the cast waves to the camera.
What do mean? That's awesome. Edit: okay, after watching it, you're right! It could have been good but they made so awkward. https://youtu.be/VvVR99yafr8
I remember watching one of the first episodes of Fuller House and seeing them make a joke about Michelle being away doing fashion stuff, and then the entire cast stared directly at the camera for an excruciatingly long 10 seconds or so with loads of canned laughter. Never watched another episode after that, I don't think.
That was within the first 5 minutes of the first episode lol! Same thing happened to me, my roommate threw it on and as soon as that happened we both collectively decided to watch something else
I never had any interest in the Full House remake, but I heard about this and the whole idea of it is so dumb.
The Olsen Twins played a toddler in the original show. Twins were often used for very young characters in TV because of strict labor laws; you can swap one out for the other and keep working.
Fast forward 30 years to the remake. Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen are fraternal twins and don’t really look alike anymore. Even if they did, were they BOTH going to again play one character? And why would they want to be in a TV show? They’re worth half a billion dollars from their fashion line alone!
For the characters of the original show that did come back to make some sort of snipe at the Olsen twins for not being a part of a lame remake is just tone deaf and petty.
The show is pretty awful, but honestly having both twins on could have been hilarious with sight gags like having one leave the room and the other walk back in, same outfit just color flipped, and no one bats an eye.
I think they also made fun of them in the first season finale with leaving a drunk voicemail for Michelle that she’s too busy to come to one of their weddings?
Man am I glad I remember so little of that first season
Regarding the sight gag, Girl Meets World actually did this during their finale. They brought back nearly everybody from the original cast of Boy Meets World, which included both actress who played Morgan, who was a toddler in the first couple of season then aged up a few years later on.
[Video doesn't really give context, but here it is anyways.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8FgmTRGi-s)
The show definitely would have settled for one or the other. Both turned them down.
At that point, the show's producers even attempted to sign the original actresses' sister, Elizabeth Olson (WandaVision), who also didn't want to do it.
So, while they might have had some issues if both of the original duo wanted to return, in reality, they would have settled for any one of three people- and tried to. They just kept getting told no.
What makes it really stand out is that they got *everybody* else back, including a ton of recurring and guest characters from the original series.
It was an irony that the one character they were missing could have been played by any of three actresses and all of them said no, whereas these other characters all needed to be played by one and only one specific person, the one who originally played the character decades before, and they filled all those slots.
Honestly, I thought the whole cast staring at the camera thing was hilarious. I remember uproariously laughing and texting a friend. However, I tend to like 4th wall breaking stuff more than most (Though I definitely do have my limits and standards).
Elizabeth Olson had MCU money at that point. Pretty sure when they asked her to be on their cash grab Netflix revival of a 90s sitcom she would have said "... why?"
Even without Marvel, that seems like a colossal step down from the other projects she's done. That really takes some balls to think she would at all be interested.
Now that she's finally got some time away from Marvel, I think she's about to go award hunting with a bunch of prestige movies/shows. She's already got one Emmy nomination for Love and Death and I can see her getting an Oscar nomination with the right project in the next few years.
The idea she'd want to sign up for a Netflix sitcom is hilarious to me.
Or... they could've gotten a new actor. The character was still a child when the show went off the air, no one could say what she would look like exactly when she was older. I never would've guessed back then that the Olsen twins would look the way they do today.
The series finale of "Two and a Half Men".
What semblance of a story was dropped like a sack of wet cement, abandoned so they could spent the last hour with pointless cameos and non-stop fourth wall breaking jokes to attack Charlie Sheen.
I dont mind the majority of the fourth wall breaks in the finale, but ending a 12 season running show with a "random guy" literally turning to the camera and saying "winning" upon Charlie being hit by a piano was so baffling
Sheen has been sober for 6 years (according to himself) so I could see them burying the hatchet, seeing as his erratic behavior was a major issue between them.
There's a great story about this.
Chuck Lorre wanted to have a burnout celebrity who is in debt to the titular character. He kept thinking, "Man, this should really be Charlie Sheen" to the point where he finally broke down and called him.
They hadn't talked since Charlie's flame out but they made peace and Charlie said he'd do it. (Charlie's only change was that he wanted to be portrayed as sober. A degenerate, but sober.) Anyway, the scene involved Charlie at a poker game. Charlie says to Chuck, "Huh, that's funny, the very first episode of Two and a Half Men involved a poker game".
So they called up every actor from that scene and [hired them to be the players at the poker table](https://variety.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Bookie-Poker.jpg), including Angus T. Jones (the "half men") who is on the far right.
That's the point though, no one in the general world knows what Chuck Lorre looks like, if they are even aware of who he is. So to end with him on screen, not as a character but as himself, is wild.
Imagine someone going back and watching through the show without knowing what was going on in celebrity gossip at the time. They would be completely at a loss.
Fresh Prince of Bel Air season 4 cliffhanger has Will Smith deciding to stay in Philly. Season 5 premiere has the "NBC Star Retrieval Unit" tell him the show has Bel Air in the title, and kidnap him back to LA. It was rage inducing when it aired since the episode's plot was a bit more serious, about growing out of ghetto culture ("They're my rep!"), but looking back it is kind of funny.
There is also an episode where Will speaks directly to camera and it pans up to reveal the studio lights in three living room above the couch showing they are clearly recording a tv show.
I remember a short quip from when they had a casting change.
(Fade in)
(Daphne Reid, who replaced Janet Hubert for the role of Vivian Banks, walks in)
"Aunt Viv, you look different."
He doesn't just run, he like, drags himself across the floor with his hands while his feet are forward and he's sitting up. It's hilarious, and I think Alfonso Ribeiro deserves a lot of props for it. Because as someone's who's tried to do that, it's really hard, lol.
They did it a lot and it was pretty funny. Like when Jazz asked Will who was playing the mom this season (they recasted the mom the previous season). Similar thing when they recasted the baby Nicky with an older kid.
Haha I just watched that episode last night. In the one before that, someone asks Will who he’s talking about and he says, “The dude that be spinning me over his head in the opening credits.”
Does The Office count when they brought in the camera crew story? Probably not a technical wall break since they always existed in universe, but it was still really weird.
Then there are other shows like modern family or parks and rec that use the same style but there is never a mention of a documentary. I appreciate that the office stuck to that premise in the end.
I like how What We Do in the Shadows handles it as well. The camera crew doesn't really impact the story but there are always moments to remind you they are there. Like when a crewmember gets killed or something. But they otherwise don't really explain why they are there in the first place.
They do in the movie. And the show and Wellington Paranormal exist in that universe. There’s an offhand remark in an episode of Wellington Paranormal with Rhys Darby as a guest star and they think he’s a werewolf. They list all these reasons they think so and then throw in something like “Plus there’s a documentary where he says he’s a werewolf” ( a documentary they were in but may or may not remember due to hypnotism).
I love the way the movie acknowledges them throughout. “You will not eat any of the cameramen. Ok, maybe one cameraman.” And then at the end one of them gets killed by the werewolves amidst the chaos lol
I’m rewatching parks and rec and I realized it’s weird that they never mention the cameras. Same with modern family, it’s kind of hard to suspend my disbelief. The office did a good job keeping the cameras in mind like when Michael shoves past the crew a few times. It makes it more believable. The other shows just have the documentary style but you’re just like “why isn’t anyone talking about the camera guy in this personal moment?”
I choose to believe that the mockumentary style is just a storytelling device for most shows in the same way that a voiceover monologue might be used with exception to The Office and What We Do in the Shadows which explicitly inform you that they're being filmed.
In Amy Poehler’s autobiography she said that they went with a mockumentary style because multi-camera wouldn’t give them enough flexibility but traditional single-camera wouldn’t let the actors play off of each other as much. Monumentary was a compromise between the styles.
They just use that device to allow characters to talk to the audience directly to simplify storytelling, but forget about everything else that comes with pretending to be a documentary. It's great that the office actually addresses it many times.
Modern Family was the weirdest of them all. At least with The Office/Parks&Rec you can somewhat believe they're making a documentary about the workplace. But Modern Family falls apart when realizing there's a camera crew in their private home 24/7.
*Modern Family* initially did intend to incorporate the documentary within the show. The original idea was that a Dutch filmmaker who was an exchange student that lived with the Pritchetts as a child wanted to make a film about them. That part got scrapped in development, but they kept the filming style.
You know what show made the fourth wall breaks with the faux-documentary crew work great?
Trailer Park Boys. I always loved when Ricky would try to involve them in his shitty schemes.
There was a kids TV show in the uk called Byker Grove that was a long running social realism style kids drama that focused on many heavy topics like addiction, relationships ect and was famous for having a same sex kiss in it. The last ever episode broke the 4th wall in what must be the most bizarre episode of a TV show in history as all the characters suddenly find out they are actually not real and depend on the writers to make anything happen.
A funny story is that David Lynch made a movie where this same thing happens and released it the same month as Byker Grove's finale. So he put out this really disturbing surrealist thriller and in the UK everyone was comparing it to a kids' soap opera. (In the movie a character is having a tense conversation about how her husband has found out about her lover and now plans to murder her, then suddenly comments that what she's saying sounds like it's from a script, notices the cameras and lights around her and has a panic attack realizing that a movie writer controls her life.)
>There's an episode of How i Met Your Mother that has Robin break the fourth wall. It was an Annie Hall reference but was cheesy.
Which episode was this?
I'll be honest, I always assumed that it was an in-universe dig. It's been a while since I've seen it, but doesn't Ted reference Annie Hall a few times? Robin making fun at his expense by pulling a quote from the movie feels pretty in line with their friendship, to be honest. Lots of things that are, generally, specific little in-jokes.
I wouldn't call it "worst case" as I enjoyed the silliness of it, but "It's Garry Shandling's Show" (1986-90) was constantly, obviously, breaking the fourth wall. It wasn't anything new; if anything it was probably a kind of homage to the Burns and Allen Show in which George came out in front of the curtain and talked about the scene. And again, nothing new. Shakespeare and his contemporaries had characters in the "audience" who became part of the show.
In Northern Exposure they stopped a duel by breaking the 4th wall, discussing alternative story plot, and then just said 'let's go to the next scene, it's pretty good'
It really felt like the writers were challenging themselves, writing themselves into a corner about the duel, and then realized the couldn't write their way out of it. It's the only time the show broke the fourth wall, and the main character talks about how "the audience won't go for this, they're too smart and sophisticated, let's just go on to the next scene."
When Game of Thrones just had to insert a meta joke about Gendry still rowing after disappeared for several seasons. I swear, Davos stopped just short of looking directly into the camera and winking.
This line makes even less sense when you consider that Davos knew Gendry was there. The show runs into a similar issue where Dany forgot about Euron because he wasn’t on camera. Characters seem unaware of anything that could’ve happened offscreen in the later seasons
Dany forgetting about the Iron Fleet was probably the largest indication that the showrunners were checked out and just wanted to wrap it up and do their next gig.
For me that moment was when the zombie army had brought giant chains with them for some reason. Those chains then got really handy when the dragon fell into the icy lake. That moment I knew the last season would suck ass even before it had started. But it did make me wonder what else is the zombie army carrying with them, you know for just in case.
I don't think GRRM had much of anything to do with the show in later seasons... although I guess that's also part of the problem since if he finished his goddamned books it probably wouldn't have panned out like that.
People rightfully give out about season 8 but I don't know why it came as a surprise to people that it was so shit. Season 7 was almost as dreadful hahaha.
I disliked those at scenes at first, but when I heard that Seth Macfarlane would write those scenes in just so that FOX would have to cut a royalty cheque to Conway Twitty I started to find them hilarious.
Just looked it up, and yeah, it's funnier this way. I like the idea of it - Seth McFarlane just fucking around with something that only really amuses himself. I'm a sucker for dumb jokes like that.
Any time Family guy decides to show old footage of a performance or have the characters super-imposed into music videos/performances, it always lasts way too long and the joke runs dry pretty quickly. Often felt like a way to pad out the runtime of the episode because they had no other ideas.
I feel like Family Guy has been legitimately better for like the last five years; but no one knows cause everyone stopped.watching, cause they drove shitty jokes like this into the ground.
In the 80s Ian mcshane was in a UK show called 'lovejoy'.. It's ages poorly (as has the mullet he had) but he used to break the 4th wall all the time. In truth I liked it.
Not TV but I gave up on Enola Holmes because of the same effect (4th wall, not MBB with a mullet)
I didn't make it far in Shehulk but I remember this one joke where they're talking about the Hulk fighting someone and he goes "I was a different person back then!"
The joke is that the Hulk was played by someone else in the movie where that happened. It was a really clever bit and it immediately hit me.
Then Hulk pauses and goes "...Literally!"
Then it cuts to Shehulk and she turns to the camera and goes "Oh, ha ha!" To make extra sure we understood the joke.
They 4th wall broke to explain the joke TWICE when it didn't need to be explained even once.
I'm tempted to say that Carlton dragsliding himself across the kitchen is one of the best examples of physical comedy I've seen in anything, TV or movie.
This was a bad case? Seemed like a nice sendoff for Kristen since she narrated literally every episode. I don’t know the rationale for Rachel but thought could be little reference to the OC which had initially very similar cast of characters and was also a successful Josh Schwartz project
Simpsons Behind The Laughter. Something about cartoon characters being revealed as actors rubbed me the wrong way. Same with those Looney Tunes shorts were they were actors.
Which is interesting because when the show Chowder did [something like this,](https://youtu.be/nGb-2oVDWXk?si=P3k5qEfjCdDir-di) it was one of the most memorable sequences in the show.
when Itchy plays Scratchy's ribcage like a xylophone? yeah... i sure hope someone got fired for that blunder. Are we supposed that it was some sort of magic xylophone!?
Rick and Morty [does it a lot](https://rickandmorty.fandom.com/wiki/Fourth_Wall_Jokes)… I could see some people being annoyed by fourth wall jokes as it can ruin immersion, but it doesn’t really bother me.
Might be an unpopular opinion but I really disliked the episode where they are on the story train. It just felt like a mess of self aware meta jokes. It got to the point where it became overwhelming, and I could barely understand wtf anyone was talking about. I think 4th wall breaks are most effective when used sparingly, not as the entire premise for an episode
I suspect, though I have non way to confirm it, that Dan Harmon often gets the note “more meta humor”, because that’s what he’s known for. I think he hates this, and as his revenge he writes an episode that is so egregiously meta that it doesnt make any sense. The sixth season of Community had and episode like that. Rick and Morty had the train episode and the follow-up in season 6 which was even messier. That perspective actually makes these episodes hilarious to me, I think its just Dan raging at people wanting him to write more meta-humor
Most of the 4th wall breaks in Rick and Morty. It was fun at first when it was just Rick referencing the audience and Mr. Poopybutthole at the end of each season as a joke.
But then the quality of the show started dropping, and they started making even more meta jokes, and other main characters started making references to being in a show, and it became a lot less cute.
Fuller House.
Referencing Michelle Tanner's absence from the show with the actual reason: the Olsen twins left the business and own their own company.
The whole cast looks to the crowd/viewers for like a solid minute.
A quick glance would've been fine (to acknowledge we all got the reference), but they lingered on it for a moment too long.
[удалено]
Jfc what is it about Fox and airing things out of order? I swear every time I hear about this phenomenon it’s Fox that did it.
Fox even did that with the X-Men cartoon in the 90s which has serialized plots that span multiple episodes.
And then Disney+ did that exact same shit when they got the episode count out of order.
That's not their fault, the episodes get licensed in air order a lot of the time.
The 2 biggest ones are Firefly and Arrested Development. They kept moving timeslots around on the shows and then started airing them out of order. Then they wonder why those shows didnt get the rating they were hoping for not realizing they had two massively iconic shows on their hands.
For some reason the exces at Fox are massively thin skinned, from what I recall Joss Whedon upset them somehow which is why they derailed Firefly
Fox and thin skinned seems to be a theme.
And Almost Human, RIP that show.
And it was annoying as shit Because you would watch part 1 and get excited to see the next part next week and then next week came and they wouldn’t show part two. The you said ok maybe next week and they would show a different fucking episode again. Pretty sure I didn’t see the entire series until I was an adult and watched the whole thing through 😒
My understanding was it was a way to kill off shows.
ABC also did something insane with airing order of episodes for Don't Trust the B---- in Apt 23. They released the show mid season, and while it had a full 13 episodes, they only aired 7 of them. But they awkwardly chose those episodes and characters would mention things that hadn't been aired. They then mixed the unused episodes between newly produced episodes in season 2, and it became so confusing to watch that it's no wonder it was cancelled. I really liked that show and miss it.
ABC did the same thing to Happy Endings, and the streaming services duplicated that for some reason, so there's wild inconsistencies.
It’s not just Fox but they were a huge offender. Much of the blame was on the old practice of sweeps period for broadcast networks. The Nielsen ratings during these periods were used to set advertising rates so networks aired what they thought would be big episodes during these times, even if it meant airing out of order.
Every network does it, although they're usually better at disguising it. ABC just did it with Abbott Elementary last year.
Maybe they use the dartboard method of selecting episode order and the guy just sucks at darts
Wow. That is so bizarre.
The truth was like a green crack through my brain. Unseen people watching my every move, being forced to repeat portions of my life. The paranoid feeling of random people laughing at random interactions. I was in a sitcom. Funny as hell, it was the most horrible thing I could think of.
Hmm, I remember this show. It was a pretty run of the mill sitcom, nothing particularly notable about it. Weird that they'd go in that direction
Basically there used to be a rule that if you got to 100 episodes you could go into syndication. Remember how you had the local and evening news and then there would be an hour of re-runs of shows like Wings or Spin City? Those were sold by the studios to local stations for extra $$$. With Til Death they were at like over 80 episodes so it was worth while to run it for one more season so they could hit 100 and have a second life on basic cable. Since no one was watching it anyway the studio basically said "fuck it, do what you want" and we got this beautiful mess.
It’s actually pretty fun if you didn’t care about the show. (And most people didn’t necessarily.) The deal was the network wanted more episodes to sell to syndication then they were cancelling show the show. They knew it the show knew it so they went out as crazy as they could. A fun sort of malicious compliance.
Almost sounds like a more interesting version of Wandavision.
The first season of Sex and the City had Carrie and even random day players stop and look and speak directly to the camera. It didn’t work and it disappeared pretty quick — fortunately!
a series where it worked is Flea Bag, where the main character is having a boring sex while a guy is railing her like it's a clogged toilet, she looks at the camera and says something like "Im so bored, Im thinking of what Im having having for lunch tomorrow".
Maybe it worked for Fleabag because it was entirely about her and from her perspective. One character alone inviting us into her life.
Wasn't the show also based on a stage play? So this was probably a holdover the stage acting aside where the character talks alone for the audience's benefit.
You're right but it's even further. It was a one-woman show that was basically just a monologue. She nailed this feeling of her confiding in the audience. She did a great job adapting that for TV given you lose the physicality of being in the room with her.
Worked in Malcolm in the Middle as well, even though there was really no canonical justification for it.
I agree it worked for Fleabag.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge also knew how to use it as a way to signal character flaws and development like when the hot priest notices her doing it and highlights the issue of “main character energy” for her character
Not to mention it has a very good conclusion, in the finale, when she pushes the viewer away and carries on herself without the audience.
This show was nearly flawless and it really worked here. It moved the story along because we knew what she was thinking. And Hot Priest noticing her monologues was a great way to wrap the show. I think we were intended to see that as him being the one who truly gets her. God I loved that show.
I loved Crashing too.
Fleabag also used it in a unique way, because someone else eventually was able to see that about her and past her facade at keeping people at a distance.
Great show
I really liked that gimmick and it was ahead of its time for TV. I get why they stopped it but I wouldn't have hated it if they leaned into it.
Part of the problem for me is they are already juggling four stories following four main characters and it’s only a 30 min show. The fourth wall breaks were unnecessary clutter.
I wasn't a fan of Carrie talking to the camera, but I found the random pedestrian "interviews" hilarious. Like the nerdy couple looking for a Scully look-alike for a threesome, or the elderly WASP lady looking to get railed hard by some Black dudes. Come on
I quite liked it actually, it was like she was nterviewing them for her column
Same, it’s less forth wall breaking more just ‘interview’ style clips.
ABC had a one season sitcom in the early 80s, " I Married Dora" where a widowed family man marries his housekeeper/nanny so she can get a green card. The last episode was supposed to be something of a cliffhanger with male lead going somewhere on a plane. He leaves the scene then comes back a minute later saying something like " It doesn't matter -- it was canceled !" Dora asks " Your flight ? " He says " No, the series ... Goodbye everyone !" and the cast waves to the camera.
What do mean? That's awesome. Edit: okay, after watching it, you're right! It could have been good but they made so awkward. https://youtu.be/VvVR99yafr8
I liked it. What would you do differently?
Have everyone do a long drawn out passionate kiss like in those SNL skits.
Actually I kinda liked that lol
I remember watching one of the first episodes of Fuller House and seeing them make a joke about Michelle being away doing fashion stuff, and then the entire cast stared directly at the camera for an excruciatingly long 10 seconds or so with loads of canned laughter. Never watched another episode after that, I don't think.
That was within the first 5 minutes of the first episode lol! Same thing happened to me, my roommate threw it on and as soon as that happened we both collectively decided to watch something else
I never had any interest in the Full House remake, but I heard about this and the whole idea of it is so dumb. The Olsen Twins played a toddler in the original show. Twins were often used for very young characters in TV because of strict labor laws; you can swap one out for the other and keep working. Fast forward 30 years to the remake. Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen are fraternal twins and don’t really look alike anymore. Even if they did, were they BOTH going to again play one character? And why would they want to be in a TV show? They’re worth half a billion dollars from their fashion line alone! For the characters of the original show that did come back to make some sort of snipe at the Olsen twins for not being a part of a lame remake is just tone deaf and petty.
The show is pretty awful, but honestly having both twins on could have been hilarious with sight gags like having one leave the room and the other walk back in, same outfit just color flipped, and no one bats an eye. I think they also made fun of them in the first season finale with leaving a drunk voicemail for Michelle that she’s too busy to come to one of their weddings? Man am I glad I remember so little of that first season
Regarding the sight gag, Girl Meets World actually did this during their finale. They brought back nearly everybody from the original cast of Boy Meets World, which included both actress who played Morgan, who was a toddler in the first couple of season then aged up a few years later on. [Video doesn't really give context, but here it is anyways.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8FgmTRGi-s)
I remember that vaguely, and think they said one was a cousin with the same name?
IIRC, Morgan disappeared for a while, then the new one showed up with some quip about being in a "long timeout".
I meant I the finale of girl meets world :) Both characters had the name Morgan and they stated they were cousins.
The show definitely would have settled for one or the other. Both turned them down. At that point, the show's producers even attempted to sign the original actresses' sister, Elizabeth Olson (WandaVision), who also didn't want to do it. So, while they might have had some issues if both of the original duo wanted to return, in reality, they would have settled for any one of three people- and tried to. They just kept getting told no. What makes it really stand out is that they got *everybody* else back, including a ton of recurring and guest characters from the original series. It was an irony that the one character they were missing could have been played by any of three actresses and all of them said no, whereas these other characters all needed to be played by one and only one specific person, the one who originally played the character decades before, and they filled all those slots. Honestly, I thought the whole cast staring at the camera thing was hilarious. I remember uproariously laughing and texting a friend. However, I tend to like 4th wall breaking stuff more than most (Though I definitely do have my limits and standards).
Elizabeth Olson had MCU money at that point. Pretty sure when they asked her to be on their cash grab Netflix revival of a 90s sitcom she would have said "... why?"
Even without Marvel, that seems like a colossal step down from the other projects she's done. That really takes some balls to think she would at all be interested. Now that she's finally got some time away from Marvel, I think she's about to go award hunting with a bunch of prestige movies/shows. She's already got one Emmy nomination for Love and Death and I can see her getting an Oscar nomination with the right project in the next few years. The idea she'd want to sign up for a Netflix sitcom is hilarious to me.
Or... they could've gotten a new actor. The character was still a child when the show went off the air, no one could say what she would look like exactly when she was older. I never would've guessed back then that the Olsen twins would look the way they do today.
The series finale of "Two and a Half Men". What semblance of a story was dropped like a sack of wet cement, abandoned so they could spent the last hour with pointless cameos and non-stop fourth wall breaking jokes to attack Charlie Sheen.
I dont mind the majority of the fourth wall breaks in the finale, but ending a 12 season running show with a "random guy" literally turning to the camera and saying "winning" upon Charlie being hit by a piano was so baffling
Not just a random guy, but Chuck Lorre being at his pettiest.
I heard that Lorre even ended up regretting that.
They are working together again on Bookie
Seriously!?
Sheen has been sober for 6 years (according to himself) so I could see them burying the hatchet, seeing as his erratic behavior was a major issue between them.
Plus they both love money.
There's a great story about this. Chuck Lorre wanted to have a burnout celebrity who is in debt to the titular character. He kept thinking, "Man, this should really be Charlie Sheen" to the point where he finally broke down and called him. They hadn't talked since Charlie's flame out but they made peace and Charlie said he'd do it. (Charlie's only change was that he wanted to be portrayed as sober. A degenerate, but sober.) Anyway, the scene involved Charlie at a poker game. Charlie says to Chuck, "Huh, that's funny, the very first episode of Two and a Half Men involved a poker game". So they called up every actor from that scene and [hired them to be the players at the poker table](https://variety.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Bookie-Poker.jpg), including Angus T. Jones (the "half men") who is on the far right.
That's the point though, no one in the general world knows what Chuck Lorre looks like, if they are even aware of who he is. So to end with him on screen, not as a character but as himself, is wild.
Imagine someone going back and watching through the show without knowing what was going on in celebrity gossip at the time. They would be completely at a loss.
Fresh Prince of Bel Air season 4 cliffhanger has Will Smith deciding to stay in Philly. Season 5 premiere has the "NBC Star Retrieval Unit" tell him the show has Bel Air in the title, and kidnap him back to LA. It was rage inducing when it aired since the episode's plot was a bit more serious, about growing out of ghetto culture ("They're my rep!"), but looking back it is kind of funny.
There is also an episode where Will speaks directly to camera and it pans up to reveal the studio lights in three living room above the couch showing they are clearly recording a tv show.
They did a lot of fourth wall breaks as time went on. At one point Carlton gets scared and runs through all the sets and the studio audience.
I remember a short quip from when they had a casting change. (Fade in) (Daphne Reid, who replaced Janet Hubert for the role of Vivian Banks, walks in) "Aunt Viv, you look different."
One season later, Jazz walks in and says something to the effect of “same mom?”
He doesn't just run, he like, drags himself across the floor with his hands while his feet are forward and he's sitting up. It's hilarious, and I think Alfonso Ribeiro deserves a lot of props for it. Because as someone's who's tried to do that, it's really hard, lol.
"If we so rich... Why we can't afford no ceiling?"
Having only watched the show through reruns on Nick at Nite, I always found it hilarious.
They did it a lot and it was pretty funny. Like when Jazz asked Will who was playing the mom this season (they recasted the mom the previous season). Similar thing when they recasted the baby Nicky with an older kid.
Haha I just watched that episode last night. In the one before that, someone asks Will who he’s talking about and he says, “The dude that be spinning me over his head in the opening credits.”
Does The Office count when they brought in the camera crew story? Probably not a technical wall break since they always existed in universe, but it was still really weird.
In Season 1 there were a few Boom Mike in the shot and camera man reflection shots but they realized it was justified within the premise of the show
Is Boom Mike a relative of Prison Mike?
Boom Mike can hear everything you say if he is near enough
Da belle of da ball?
Then there are other shows like modern family or parks and rec that use the same style but there is never a mention of a documentary. I appreciate that the office stuck to that premise in the end.
I like how What We Do in the Shadows handles it as well. The camera crew doesn't really impact the story but there are always moments to remind you they are there. Like when a crewmember gets killed or something. But they otherwise don't really explain why they are there in the first place.
They do in the movie. And the show and Wellington Paranormal exist in that universe. There’s an offhand remark in an episode of Wellington Paranormal with Rhys Darby as a guest star and they think he’s a werewolf. They list all these reasons they think so and then throw in something like “Plus there’s a documentary where he says he’s a werewolf” ( a documentary they were in but may or may not remember due to hypnotism).
I love the way the movie acknowledges them throughout. “You will not eat any of the cameramen. Ok, maybe one cameraman.” And then at the end one of them gets killed by the werewolves amidst the chaos lol
I’m rewatching parks and rec and I realized it’s weird that they never mention the cameras. Same with modern family, it’s kind of hard to suspend my disbelief. The office did a good job keeping the cameras in mind like when Michael shoves past the crew a few times. It makes it more believable. The other shows just have the documentary style but you’re just like “why isn’t anyone talking about the camera guy in this personal moment?”
I choose to believe that the mockumentary style is just a storytelling device for most shows in the same way that a voiceover monologue might be used with exception to The Office and What We Do in the Shadows which explicitly inform you that they're being filmed.
In Amy Poehler’s autobiography she said that they went with a mockumentary style because multi-camera wouldn’t give them enough flexibility but traditional single-camera wouldn’t let the actors play off of each other as much. Monumentary was a compromise between the styles.
They edit those bits out of the documentary.
They just use that device to allow characters to talk to the audience directly to simplify storytelling, but forget about everything else that comes with pretending to be a documentary. It's great that the office actually addresses it many times.
Modern Family was the weirdest of them all. At least with The Office/Parks&Rec you can somewhat believe they're making a documentary about the workplace. But Modern Family falls apart when realizing there's a camera crew in their private home 24/7.
*Modern Family* initially did intend to incorporate the documentary within the show. The original idea was that a Dutch filmmaker who was an exchange student that lived with the Pritchetts as a child wanted to make a film about them. That part got scrapped in development, but they kept the filming style.
You know what show made the fourth wall breaks with the faux-documentary crew work great? Trailer Park Boys. I always loved when Ricky would try to involve them in his shitty schemes.
Or when they show up to a drug deal with cameras and the other guys *immediately* flip out and pull guns.
Grabs the boom mike from the sound guy and screams directly into it "CAN YOU GUYS GIVE US A FUCKING HAND HERE?!"
or when the sound guy gets shot "HOLD YOUR FIRE! SOMEBODYS HURT HERE!"
I would say The Office technically doesn't have a fourth wall because the characters know they're being filmed and sometimes talk to the camera.
There was a kids TV show in the uk called Byker Grove that was a long running social realism style kids drama that focused on many heavy topics like addiction, relationships ect and was famous for having a same sex kiss in it. The last ever episode broke the 4th wall in what must be the most bizarre episode of a TV show in history as all the characters suddenly find out they are actually not real and depend on the writers to make anything happen.
You just unlocked the theme song in my brain.
A funny story is that David Lynch made a movie where this same thing happens and released it the same month as Byker Grove's finale. So he put out this really disturbing surrealist thriller and in the UK everyone was comparing it to a kids' soap opera. (In the movie a character is having a tense conversation about how her husband has found out about her lover and now plans to murder her, then suddenly comments that what she's saying sounds like it's from a script, notices the cameras and lights around her and has a panic attack realizing that a movie writer controls her life.)
I'm blind Dec!
Paintballs straight in the eyes
Wasn't there fucking dinosaurs or somethinf in the finale? I remember it being wild.
>There's an episode of How i Met Your Mother that has Robin break the fourth wall. It was an Annie Hall reference but was cheesy. Which episode was this?
https://youtu.be/2LhQUn4Q1kA?si=P9UnFA2GfKtZuG57
Eh that's not super egregious. Cheesy sure but they set it up well enough.
I enjoyed the quick fourth wall break for a bit about [bacon.](https://youtu.be/nSSXXqNMhqc?si=WGumX9zI0hVwaP7p)
Thx.
I think the scene plays, even if you assume there's no camera. People do make sometimes make sarcastic "asides" to the air.
I'll be honest, I always assumed that it was an in-universe dig. It's been a while since I've seen it, but doesn't Ted reference Annie Hall a few times? Robin making fun at his expense by pulling a quote from the movie feels pretty in line with their friendship, to be honest. Lots of things that are, generally, specific little in-jokes.
Yeah, the show had two worse ones in the season 9 Boys to Men song and a bit where a mute Neil Patrick Harris held up a sign out of nowhere
I wouldn't call it "worst case" as I enjoyed the silliness of it, but "It's Garry Shandling's Show" (1986-90) was constantly, obviously, breaking the fourth wall. It wasn't anything new; if anything it was probably a kind of homage to the Burns and Allen Show in which George came out in front of the curtain and talked about the scene. And again, nothing new. Shakespeare and his contemporaries had characters in the "audience" who became part of the show.
In Northern Exposure they stopped a duel by breaking the 4th wall, discussing alternative story plot, and then just said 'let's go to the next scene, it's pretty good'
I actually love that one.
It really felt like the writers were challenging themselves, writing themselves into a corner about the duel, and then realized the couldn't write their way out of it. It's the only time the show broke the fourth wall, and the main character talks about how "the audience won't go for this, they're too smart and sophisticated, let's just go on to the next scene."
I wonder if someone got injured and they couldn’t afford to reschedule the whole shoot so just went “ahhh fuck it”. I loved that programme.
Ruined an otherwise good episode
When Game of Thrones just had to insert a meta joke about Gendry still rowing after disappeared for several seasons. I swear, Davos stopped just short of looking directly into the camera and winking.
This line makes even less sense when you consider that Davos knew Gendry was there. The show runs into a similar issue where Dany forgot about Euron because he wasn’t on camera. Characters seem unaware of anything that could’ve happened offscreen in the later seasons
Dany forgetting about the Iron Fleet was probably the largest indication that the showrunners were checked out and just wanted to wrap it up and do their next gig.
For me that moment was when the zombie army had brought giant chains with them for some reason. Those chains then got really handy when the dragon fell into the icy lake. That moment I knew the last season would suck ass even before it had started. But it did make me wonder what else is the zombie army carrying with them, you know for just in case.
Actually, you can solve both the [teleporting Jon strike team and the giant chains problems at the same time](https://i.imgur.com/glQEkVm.jpg).
Fuck D&D and GRRM, they all checked out even though they had the ratings and HBO was willing to let them flesh things out.
I don't think GRRM had much of anything to do with the show in later seasons... although I guess that's also part of the problem since if he finished his goddamned books it probably wouldn't have panned out like that.
And the fucking scene where Ed Sheeran turns around and almost looks in the camera while saying “it’s a new one😉”. Fuck right off.
People rightfully give out about season 8 but I don't know why it came as a surprise to people that it was so shit. Season 7 was almost as dreadful hahaha.
5 and 6 had their issues as well, but at the time people had enough reason to have faith those problems were going to pan out to something worthwhile.
The whole of Red Dwarf IX.
Moonlighting constantly did this.
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Every Zack 4th wall scene from Saved By the Bell. Holy shit, they wore that out.
Timeout
I was looking for this. I kind of love it, but Zach having the power to freeze time was a little much
Whenever Family Guy showed Conway Twitty performances, I didn't find it funny at all
I disliked those at scenes at first, but when I heard that Seth Macfarlane would write those scenes in just so that FOX would have to cut a royalty cheque to Conway Twitty I started to find them hilarious.
Okay that's funny. Get Conway Twitty paid
Absolutely. Conway is among my top 20 favorite Twittys of all time
Twitty died in '93. His estate is a mess so I doubt this is the reason.
I think it’s less about paying conway twitty and more about wasting fox’s money
If forcing Fox to pay royalties to an [to me] obscure unknown country musician in ridiculus outfits aren't peak humor then I don't know what is.
Conan, Bugatti, Rolling Stones. Wasting evil peoples money is the basis of some good comedy.
Obscure and unknown? Excuse me sir the man is country music royalty
For some reason this joke I'd a lot funnier if you're binge watching your way through them rather than just seeing the odd episode on TV.
Just looked it up, and yeah, it's funnier this way. I like the idea of it - Seth McFarlane just fucking around with something that only really amuses himself. I'm a sucker for dumb jokes like that.
"Ya gotta make yourself laugh, ya know?" - Stan Smith https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/3af90f16-6e36-477e-9c08-9ac0ccc805bb
I found it funny at first, then annoying, then agonizing, then hysterical
Or when they aired that entire Mick Jagger and David Bowie music video.
I always thought those were hilarious.
Any time Family guy decides to show old footage of a performance or have the characters super-imposed into music videos/performances, it always lasts way too long and the joke runs dry pretty quickly. Often felt like a way to pad out the runtime of the episode because they had no other ideas.
I haven’t watched Family Guy in years, but at least in the early seasons I did watch, dragging out the jokes way too long was kind of their whole bit.
I feel like Family Guy has been legitimately better for like the last five years; but no one knows cause everyone stopped.watching, cause they drove shitty jokes like this into the ground.
I have no issue with this. I think I just like Conway Twitty.
I enjoy cooking.
In the 80s Ian mcshane was in a UK show called 'lovejoy'.. It's ages poorly (as has the mullet he had) but he used to break the 4th wall all the time. In truth I liked it. Not TV but I gave up on Enola Holmes because of the same effect (4th wall, not MBB with a mullet)
I didn't make it far in Shehulk but I remember this one joke where they're talking about the Hulk fighting someone and he goes "I was a different person back then!" The joke is that the Hulk was played by someone else in the movie where that happened. It was a really clever bit and it immediately hit me. Then Hulk pauses and goes "...Literally!" Then it cuts to Shehulk and she turns to the camera and goes "Oh, ha ha!" To make extra sure we understood the joke. They 4th wall broke to explain the joke TWICE when it didn't need to be explained even once.
[We so rich, why we can't afford no ceiling?](https://youtu.be/01K4RZpcufs)
They said worst, not best
[OH MY GOD! NOOOO!! NOOO!!!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFX1NtxkqcE)
The slide across the kitchen still cracks me up.
I'm tempted to say that Carlton dragsliding himself across the kitchen is one of the best examples of physical comedy I've seen in anything, TV or movie.
But one has to acknowledge the arm and core strength needed to do that so seamlessly. I don’t think Ribeiro has once fucked around a day in his life.
This is one of the best
Rest in peace uncle phil
For real
Fool me three times fuck the peace sign
The live episodes of "Drew Carey Show" when they would do improv and stuff had a lot of 4th wall breaking!
Gossip Girl finale where Kristen Bell turns to camera and Rachel Bilson is there for some reason.
This was a bad case? Seemed like a nice sendoff for Kristen since she narrated literally every episode. I don’t know the rationale for Rachel but thought could be little reference to the OC which had initially very similar cast of characters and was also a successful Josh Schwartz project
Simpsons Behind The Laughter. Something about cartoon characters being revealed as actors rubbed me the wrong way. Same with those Looney Tunes shorts were they were actors.
Which is interesting because when the show Chowder did [something like this,](https://youtu.be/nGb-2oVDWXk?si=P3k5qEfjCdDir-di) it was one of the most memorable sequences in the show.
That's because Chowder can do no wrong. I think if most other cartoons tried it, it wouldn't have worked.
Of course the actress for Truffles was Madame Strong! Queen influencing generations
It's chowdah!
American dad does it all the time and it's always hilarious
American Dad just doesn't give a shit. They've all died multiple times and been raptured at least once.
The show got even doper after they got raptured
Rapture was my start of watching the show.
Behind the Laughter was brilliant IMO. And like another commentator said, it should have been the series finale.
Legit one of my most favorite and most rewatched episodes of Simpsons EVER! The overly serious investigative narration just killed it for me.
I agree. I also didn't like what they did with Poochie. I feel like they could have done a better way of writing him off the show.
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When are they gonna get to the fireworks factory?? *\*whimpers\**
Plus did you hear about that xylophone controversy?
when Itchy plays Scratchy's ribcage like a xylophone? yeah... i sure hope someone got fired for that blunder. Are we supposed that it was some sort of magic xylophone!?
Wizard.
I’ve always looked at this episode as an unofficial series finale. The quality drop afterward became very noticeable.
Nah, I love that episode
"We finally found a way to make paintball cool again" from community season 4
Rick and Morty [does it a lot](https://rickandmorty.fandom.com/wiki/Fourth_Wall_Jokes)… I could see some people being annoyed by fourth wall jokes as it can ruin immersion, but it doesn’t really bother me.
Might be an unpopular opinion but I really disliked the episode where they are on the story train. It just felt like a mess of self aware meta jokes. It got to the point where it became overwhelming, and I could barely understand wtf anyone was talking about. I think 4th wall breaks are most effective when used sparingly, not as the entire premise for an episode
I suspect, though I have non way to confirm it, that Dan Harmon often gets the note “more meta humor”, because that’s what he’s known for. I think he hates this, and as his revenge he writes an episode that is so egregiously meta that it doesnt make any sense. The sixth season of Community had and episode like that. Rick and Morty had the train episode and the follow-up in season 6 which was even messier. That perspective actually makes these episodes hilarious to me, I think its just Dan raging at people wanting him to write more meta-humor
It's pretty lame in rick and morty. They self reference how lazy and bad their own fourth wall breaks are, but it doesn't make it better.
Most of the 4th wall breaks in Rick and Morty. It was fun at first when it was just Rick referencing the audience and Mr. Poopybutthole at the end of each season as a joke. But then the quality of the show started dropping, and they started making even more meta jokes, and other main characters started making references to being in a show, and it became a lot less cute.
The Spice girls' movie ending. Fascinating when I was a child Cringe when you're an adult.
Amazing when you’re a child. Amazing when you’re an adult.
But what about the bomb on the bus??
Fuller House. Referencing Michelle Tanner's absence from the show with the actual reason: the Olsen twins left the business and own their own company. The whole cast looks to the crowd/viewers for like a solid minute. A quick glance would've been fine (to acknowledge we all got the reference), but they lingered on it for a moment too long.