What stuck out to me about The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show was its seamless breaking of the fourth wall. The action didn't freeze to call attention to the break from form a la Martin Scorsese, but rather George Burns would fray into and out of the action seemingly on a whim. The technique struck me so that I even watched part of another episode on YouTube with a nerdy friend.
However, more than the unique way the show incorporated self-reflection, I find myself fascinated by its presence so early on in the TV game. It reminds me that Hollywood (entertainment in general) has always been obsessed with itself, perpetually raising its stars up and making the crowd feel as if they're in on something more private than just a TV show. A show like Community appears groundbreaking in its use of meta material, but here is the same idea (though admittedly played out in a much simpler way) more than fifty years earlier. There's something magical about a medium than can sell itself over and over again to great applause.
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