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1[[quoteright:304:[[Literature/TheRing https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_ring.jpg]]]]
2[[caption-width-right:304:Well, at least it's not a [[Platform/NintendoWii Wii Remote]].]]
3You're watching television when suddenly the screen turns to static. A face appears, dark and scary, but you're not worried. After all, it's only the television, [[TemptingFate nothing can happen]]. But then it moves closer and closer, so close that it starts ''reaching out'' from the TV screen. Now you're very, very scared.
4
5Welcome to the Television Portal. Most often a form of NightmareFuel ('cause who wouldn't be freaked out by a television image coming to life?) and ParanoiaFuel (do you know how many hours of television ''you'' watch?). Sometimes results in UpTheRealRabbitHole, TrappedInTVLand, RefugeeFromTVLand. May start when TheTelevisionTalksBack. A subtype and quite literal version of TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou.
6
7May extend to coming out or going into a television set or other electronic device with a screen (i.e. a computer). Also very commonly done with a StringyHairedGhostGirl as a [[StockShoutOuts Stock Shout-Out]] to ''Literature/TheRing''.
8
9Compare ReachingBetweenTheLines (the same effect, but used as comedy) and PortalBook (the low-tech version, less likely to be played for horror).
10
11----
12!!Examples:
13
14[[foldercontrol]]
15
16[[folder:Advertising]]
17* An ad ''VideoGame/MarioKartDS'' features various people throwing things into their TV sets, which are showing a live racing event, and creating trouble on the racetrack.
18-->"Now, you can affect the race from anywhere. Take on the world with ''Mario Kart DS'' and Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection."
19* In ''Advertising/TheChasePepsi'', Music/MichaelJackson is cornered in a museum by a hyperactive mob, [[spoiler:but escapes twice, using both this and a PortalPicture. Though, there was no obvious hints of magic use throughout the commercials, [[DeusExMachina so it makes you wonder]]...]]
20[[/folder]]
21
22[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
23* Urd from ''Manga/AhMyGoddess'' does this on a regular basis -- it's one of her modes of transit.
24* ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'': The [[TheChosenMany Digidestined/Chosen Children]] (predominantly in ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'') use computers to travel to and from the Digital World, [[ComputerEqualsMonitor generally through the monitor]].
25* ''Manga/VideoGirlAi'': This is how Ai first appears to Youta.
26[[/folder]]
27
28[[folder:Comic Books]]
29* In the [[ComicBook/TheSimpsons Bongo Comics]] crossover "When Bongos Collide!", Kang's and Kodos's ray zaps the Simpsons' TV, causing Itchy and Scratchy to emerge from the set and, through their constant fighting, wreak havoc in Springfield, culminating in a core meltdown of the nuclear plant.
30* ''Dark Entries'', a graphic novel about [[ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}} John Constantine]], features a storyline that takes place in a gameshow in Hell. One character, Jude, sticks his face in a television screen to see what's on the other side; it turns out it's a portal out of the aforementioned Hell.
31* Due to the way she died in ''Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet3DreamWarriors'', Jennifer in ''ComicBook/NightmaresOnElmStreet'' is a walking television, who can transport people through herself.
32* The infamous cover art for ''[[ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics Sonic Live]]'', which had a ''very'' off-looking Sonic reaching out of the TV to greet two actual children.
33* An issue of an Atlas anthology comic had a bumbling inventor develop a way to contact and transport items to a distant inhabited planet through his TV. Unfortunately, while demonstrating this to a friend, his nagging wife oblivously unplugged the set to save electricity, stranding them mid transit in the void of space.
34* One man in an anthology comic discovered a MiraculousMalfunction in his television that made the things projected on it become real. After using it to give himself many expensive items depicted in commercials and programs, he attempts to use it to bring a lovely woman to life. Unfortunately, she's coming from a horror movie, and the monster is right behind her.
35[[/folder]]
36
37[[folder:Fan Works]]
38* There are many fan stories where a girl [[TrappedInAnotherWorld falls into Middle-earth]]. One PlotDevice is to fall into a television playing the film version of ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings''.
39** In ''Fanfic/TheGameOfTheGods'', Anjara wants to visit Middle-earth inside her television. SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome, as Anjara crashes into the TV and suffers a fatal head injury.
40** ''Fanfic/MagnoliaCinderellaCupcake'' kissed a television during [[LightningCanDoAnything a lightning storm]]; she falls through into ''The Lord of the Rings''.
41* Played with in ''FanFic/YesterdayUponTheStair'' with the original character Rei, a Sadako lookalike, who enjoys interrupting Izuku when he's watching TV, or even playing on his 3DS, by crawling through the screen. She's not using it as a portal, or anything. She just climbs through screens for fun.
42[[/folder]]
43
44[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
45%% The following Administrivia/{{Zero Context Example}}s have been commented out and copied to Discussion. Please don't uncomment them without adding enough context to show how they fit the trope.
46%% * Parodied in ''Film/ScaryMovie 3'' with a Samara lookalike.
47* Late in ''Film/CasinoRoyale1967'', a film which had already started out deranged and, by its last half hour, has become completely unhinged, Le Chiffre (Orson Welles) is anxiously watching two of Doctor Noah's enforcers (who have come to kill him) over a security monitor. One of the men walks right up to the camera, reaches his gun hand up, and then smashes through the screen and shoots Le Chiffre dead. (Discussed with accompanying screencaps [[http://www.agonybooth.com/recaps/Casino_Royale_1967.aspx?Page=11 here]].)
48* ''Film/AChristmasCarol2000'' has Eddie Scrooge's father climb out of the TV to talk to him.
49* ''Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet'':
50** In ''Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet3DreamWarriors'', Freddy Krueger kills Jennifer by popping out of the television, although his head comes out of the top and his arms come out of the side, rather than out of the screen. She ends up with her head smashed into the screen.
51** Spencer is pulled into a video game by psychedelic tendrils that emerge from an old television in ''Film/FreddysDeadTheFinalNightmare''.
52* ''Film/Poltergeist1982'': While Carol-Anne is watching static on a TV, a ghostly hand comes out of the TV, waves around, and eventually dives into the wall.
53* ''Film/ThePurpleRoseOfCairo'': Occurs in a '30s movie theatre. The black-and-white character in the film-within-the-film turns to color as he approaches his admirer in the audience, and later vice-versa.
54* ''Literature/TheRing'': As shown in the page image, people who make the mistake of watching the cursed videotape may end up with Sadako/Samara climbing out of their TV to attack them.
55* ''Film/{{Shocker}}'': The electrocuted serial killer could travel through electrical lines into appliances, including television sets. Later in the movie, the protagonist uses the same ability to travel into and out of [=TVs=].
56* ''Film/{{Videodrome}}'': Here, though, the protagonist actually sticks his face ''into'' the television.
57[[/folder]]
58
59[[folder:Literature]]
60%% The following Administrivia/{{Zero Context Example}}s have been commented out and copied to Discussion. Please don't uncomment them without adding enough context to show how they fit the trope.
61%% * Happens twice in ''Literature/JohnDiesAtTheEnd''.
62%% * Inexplicably done by Jason in ''[[Franchise/FridayThe13th Friday the 13th: Hell Lake]]''.
63%% * Done a few times in the Dream World in ''[[Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet A Nightmare on Elm Street: Protege]]''.
64* ''Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'': Willy Wonka is in the planning stages of using this as a means of distributing Wonka bars, though the process requires using a giant chocolate bar due to how small the TV screens are. Mike Teavee impulsively tries testing this out on himself and gets shrunken to an inch high as a result.
65[[/folder]]
66
67[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
68%% The following Administrivia/{{Zero Context Example}}s have been commented out and copied to Discussion. Please don't uncomment them without adding enough context to show how they fit the trope.
69* ''Series/AreYouAfraidOfTheDark'': In the episode "Tale of the Crimson Clown" the titular clown doll is shown reaching out of a television when trying to attack a bad kid.
70* ''Series/DoctorWho'': The Weeping Angels are shown to be capable of this. In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E4TheTimeOfAngels The Time of Angels]]", River has a short video clip of the Angel in the hold of the ''Byzantium''. But as the Doctor and River shortly discover, [[spoiler:"That which holds the image of an Angel becomes itself an Angel"...]] just as Amy finds herself alone with the recording and the Angel begins ''moving'', eventually projecting itself out of the screen to attack her, with everyone else locked out of the DropShip... They do this again in Series 13.
71* ''Series/EerieIndiana'': In "Scariest Home Videos", Simon's younger brother Harley bites the remote control while watching ''Bloody Revenge of the Mummy's Curse''. As Marshall and Simon had hooked a video camera up to the television, Harley switches place with the film's star Sir Boris von Orloff. Harley becomes trapped in the film while Sir Boris enters the real world.
72* ''Series/{{Fringe}}'': Sort of used in the episode "[[Recap/FringeS01E12TheNoBrainer The No-Brainer]]", in which a video on the web that melts people's brains causes them to first hallucinate a hand that reaches out from their computer screen.
73* ''Series/MyWifeAndKids'': In one episode, after a yoga instructor on a video misled Mike with her talks about "ultimate intimacy" (him thinking sex) which really meant a state of concentration, he threatened to reach through the television and choke the woman if Jay didn't turn the tape off.
74* ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'': PlayedForLaughs in the teaser of one episode. Salem starts yelling at a TV news anchor, who, [[AWizardDidIt it being a house of witches]], starts arguing back.
75-->'''Anchor:''' We interrupt this program to beat you up. ''[crawls through the TV screen and starts chasing Salem]''
76* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1963'': In the episode "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1963S1E1TheGalaxyBeing The Galaxy Being]]", radio engineer Alan Maxwell sets up an interstellar scanner in his station's transmitter shed, hoping to make FirstContact -- which he does, with a humanoid {{Energy Being|s}} from the Andromeda galaxy. While talking with the alien, Alan is forced to leave the station, but warns the substitute DJ (who doesn't know what's going on) not to tamper with the power settings. However, as soon as Alan leaves, the DJ [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom boosts the station's signal anyway]]. This also increases the power of Alan's telescreen, which has the unexpected side effect of teleporting the Andromedan across space and right into the transmitter shed!
77[[/folder]]
78
79[[folder:Music]]
80* Music/DavidBowie's "[=TVC15=]" from ''Music/StationToStation'' has the protagonist's girlfriend crawl into a TV set and never come back: by the end of the song he's wondering whether to follow her or not. Yes, this is from his "cocaine madness" era.
81[[/folder]]
82
83[[folder:Theme Parks]]
84* In the pre-show of the former ''Ride/TheFuntasticWorldOfHannaBarbera'' at Ride/UniversalStudios, Muttley shoots out a toilet plunger gun out of the screen of the computer-animating machine, hits Elroy, and pulls him into the machine.
85[[/folder]]
86
87[[folder:Video Games]]
88* ''VideoGame/AlteredDestiny'': The unlikely hero gets portaled to another planet through the screen of his loaner TV set. That actually belonged to the Conan lookalike leaving the place as he drove up.
89* ''VideoGame/{{Battletoads}} in Battlemaniacs'': The intro shows a DamselInDistress and Zitz being kidnapped by villains bursting through the screen of a virtual-reality system.
90* ''VideoGame/CoolCoolToon'' begins with a pink rabbit named Yusa appearing from the main character's TV to drag them to Cool Cool Town. Her own TV set is broken, so the journey is one-way until enough money can be earned to fix it.
91* ''VideoGame/DreamfallTheLongestJourney'': Toyed with. Faith definitely gives off a [[Literature/TheRing Samara/Sadako]] vibe when she appears on TV screens after it is briefly obscured by static. However, she never actually comes out of said screen, only talks through it. Also, in ''VideoGame/TheLongestJourney'', there is an optional scene where Fiona's TV screen acts as a portal to {{Arcadia}}, bringing magical creatures from it into the room. However, they quickly disappear, and everybody thinks they saw a weird dream.
92* ''VideoGame/GameAndWario'': In Gamer, this is one of 5-Volt's preferred methods of checking on 9-Volt to make sure he's sleeping and not playing his game. On lower difficulties she'll just peek out of the TV, while on higher difficulties she'll leap out, sit and watch TV for a bit, ''abruptly scurry over and stare at him while he sleeps'', and then finally leave through the bedroom door. Seriously, Mom does ''not'' screw around. This also applies to the Gamer stage from the ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' series ([[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DSAndWiiU the fourth game]] and [[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate the fifth game]]): if 5-Volt appears from the TV, she'll scan one end of the stage and move from one side to the other quickly, then back again. It's the hardest stage hazard to avoid, and if you get caught, you get sent flying.
93* ''VideoGame/GarfieldCaughtInTheAct'': Garfield the Cat does this. The plot starts when Odie surprises Garfield, causing him to crash into and break the TV. Garfield tries to fix it; however, the "extra parts" he tosses away become [[CreateYourOwnVillain The Glitch]], whose first action is to transport him ''into'' the TV, where he ends up in worlds based on different genres (Hammer Horror, caveman movies, film noir, etc.) The game concerns itself with his trying to get out.
94* The Gex series is known for this trope in all the games in the series, Mostly as teleportation between levels.
95* ''VideoGame/LittleNightmaresII'': Mono, the protagonist, is able to tune TV signals to enter them as portals to reach a hallway he's been trying to get to the end of. When he finally reaches the end of the hall, he unleashes an entity known as the Thin Man, who comes out of the television to pursue him and is partially made of TV signals. After this, Mono uses linked TV sets as portals to navigate the city, controlling which ones connect by using a remote to turn them on and off. [[spoiler: Mono and the Thin Man are implied to be alternate forms of each other caught in a time loop, explaining their similar abilities.]]
96* ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion3'': Used to solve a puzzle on the film studio floor of the hotel, as solving the puzzle requires moving items that Luigi can't take with him through doors, or reaching places he cannot otherwise reach.
97* ''VideoGame/{{Obsidian}}'': Played for laughs in a bureaucratic dream world containing [[TvHeadRobot TV-Head robots]] that show live-action people. One of them at the end picks up a pair of CG glasses, puts them on by pushing them through the screen, and seamlessly transitions to the on-screen actor wearing real glasses.
98* ''VideoGame/Persona4'': The cornerstone of the plot is that there's a world inside the TV, but only the protagonist is capable of opening the portals. Yet it soon turns out that someone else has the ability and is murdering people by throwing them into the other world; after the second death, the protagonist and his friends (who gain the power when they gain their Personas) use their power to enter the world to start rescuing would-be victims while trying to find out who's doing it. [[spoiler:But there were actually ''three'' people who had the power to open the portals; the one who was throwing people into [=TVs=] was trying to save them from the murderer of the first two victims.]]
99* ''VideoGame/SunsetOverdrive'': As a ''Literature/TheRing'' ShoutOut: One respawn animation has the player crawl out of a CRT TV.
100* ''VideoGame/TotalDistortion'' has a satanic-looking TV in the Distortion Dimension, which, when turned on with a remote, leads into a [[EpilepticFlashingLights seizure-inducing]] maze of cable channels connecting the front side of the dimension with the ending.
101[[/folder]]
102
103[[folder:Webcomics]]
104* ''Webcomic/{{Erma}}'' and her mother Emiko, as {{Stringy Haired Ghost Girl}}s, can do this with any screen, including [[https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/erma/erma-hey-listen/viewer?title_no=170650&episode_no=19 those of hand-held gaming systems]]. They mostly use it for transportation purposes, though it can be quite annoying when one does it [[https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/erma/erma-what-a-twist/viewer?title_no=170650&episode_no=35 right at the big twist of another's favorite show]].
105* ''Webcomic/TawawaOnMonday'': Like the [[Literature/TheRing character]] she's based on, Sada-chan uses her latest victim's television as a portal. However, [[DCupDistress her ample bosom blocks the rest of her from fitting through the screen]], so she regularly bugs him to buy a bigger one.
106[[/folder]]
107
108[[folder:Web Original]]
109* It's become something of a meme to show a StringyHairedGhostGirl emerging from a screen... [[TechnologyMarchesOn a smartphone screen]], that is. [[{{Lilliputians}} The resulting mini]]-[[Literature/TheRing Sadako]] usually becomes a CuteGhostGirl instead.
110* Done for humor in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r88ajYd2scg this]] Website/{{Vine}}: A man googles a burning question: shouldn't more than one Cheez-It be called Cheez-Thems? However, he quickly deletes his search as a hand pops out of his monitor and grabs him by the throat, presumably to stop him from digging further into this forbidden knowledge.
111* ''ARG/TheNoedolekcinArchives'': This is Kirk Odd's main method of entering our world. According to Seismo in [[https://twitter.com/MK70016/status/1645968887316373507 a tweet]], Kirk is able to crawl out of the TV screen and kill whoever is watching him.
112[[/folder]]
113
114[[folder:Western Animation]]
115* In Creator/HannaBarbera's 1966 ''Alice in Wonderland'' animated special, Alice chases her dog through the family TV set and into Wonderland.
116* ''WesternAnimation/CaptainNTheGameMaster'': This is how the title character first enters Videoland. While he's playing ''VideoGame/PunchOut'' in the real world, the Ultimate Warp Zone activates in Videoland and sucks him and his dog into the TV.
117* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'': The episode "Channel Chasers" turns television into a world of flying television, each leading to a different channel.
118* ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'': In one episode, in annoyance at a television show, Fred turns off the TV, only for the show's host to reach through the screen and turn it back on.
119-->'''Barney:''' Well, that's one way of keeping up their ratings.
120* ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'': Two variants happen in the episode "T.V. of Tomorrow", where Jon, Garfield, and Odie look at various futuristic TV models. One includes a "Taste-O-Vision" feeding tube mask meant to allow the viewer to experience what people are eating on TV shows. Unfortunately for Garfield, the interactivity isn't limited to food, as mud from an on-TV mudslide pours through the tube as well. Likewise, the 3-D TV Garfield and Odie try out next is a little ''too'' real, allowing Binky the Clown to hit Odie with a custard pie, both pets to be splashed by a surfing show's wave, and an octopus tentacle to reach through the TV and pull Odie in. A remote control from the outside sets him free.
121* ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'': In "Aren't You Chupacabra To See Me?", Billy puts a cursed VHS tape into his VCR and causes a chupacabra to come out of the screen.
122-->'''Billy:''' Wow, I didn't know this movie was in 3D!
123* ''WesternAnimation/IAmWeasel'':
124** A variation occurs in the short "I.R. in Wrong Cartoon", in which WesternAnimation/{{Cow|AndChicken}} gets Weasel out of her TV by fishing him out of the top of the TV rather than the tube.
125** Another variation occurs in "Ping Pong at Sea", where Baboon travels to the ping-pong game by going into his small TV and coming out through a camera on the ship.
126* ''WesternAnimation/TheImpossibles'' had a villain named Televisatron, who used television sets to commit thefts.
127* ''WesternAnimation/TheJetsons'': This was an occasional gag with the "visiphones" (video telephones) on the original show, where George might be talking to Mr. Spaceley on the visiphone, and Spaceley's arm would reach through the screen to poke him in the nose to make a point. These incidents were only treated as gags, though, and the visiphones were never treated as any kind of [[CoolGate teleporting portal]].
128* ''[[http://www.toontracker.net/teleland/teleland.htm Jim and Judy in Teleland]]'' is an early animated series first broadcast in 1949 with this as the premise. Two children go on adventures by entering their home TV set. Children watching should have been told, "DontTryThisAtHome."
129* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'': The akumatized villain Prime Queen has the ability to use any TV as a portal to any other as her main power.
130* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS10E4TreehouseOfHorrorIX Treehouse of Horror IX]]" Happens (of course) when Itchy and Scratchy smash the Simpsons' TV screen with axes and climb through the hole.
131* ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'': The short "WesternAnimation/PecosPest" is about Jerry's Uncle Pecos practicing for a televised performance, and every time he broke a guitar string, he would pluck a whisker from Tom as a replacement. In the end, as Tom and Jerry watch Pecos on TV, his guitar string breaks. Tom laughs at the ironic turn of events until Pecos reaches through the screen and plucks out Tom's one remaining whisker.
132[[/folder]]

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