History Main / SplitScreen

* Used for dramatic effect in the fourth season premiere of "WesternAnimation/InfinityTrain" to drive home how the lives of season's protagonists, Min-Gi and Ryan, drift apart, with the former focusing on entering college to please his parents while the latter unsuccessfully trying to become a rock star. Eventually it becomes one screen again as they reconnect in the present.

%%* ''WesternAnimation/VoltronLegendaryDefender'' utilises this for the main cast, with a combination of SplitScreenReaction and SplitScreenPhoneCall. The "Panels" slide into the scene at different times, sometimes with another one sliding in between them whenever a character who was previously quiet suddenly talks.
%%* ''WesternAnimation/InfinityTrain'' uses this in the first episode of the fourth season to show how two characters lives have diverged.

SuperTrope of SplitScreenReaction and SplitScreenPhoneCall.

It's also a very common device in multiplayer console video games, particularly first or third-person shooters, allowing each player to get their own view. ''VideoGame/GoldenEye1997'' on the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64 was one of the earlier and most successful implementations of this in a genre that, up to then, had relied mostly on linked systems for multiplayer.

Oftentimes, a director or writer will have a scene in mind, say a dialog, or a big event, where there's two or more important points he wants to get across at the same time, but unfortunately, are happening in two different places, or at such an angle that you can't get both at once. One solution is to just alternate between showing the two, while another is simply to use a Split Screen to show both at the same time.

It's also a very common device in multiplayer console video games, particularly first or third person shooters, allowing each player to get their own view. ''VideoGame/GoldenEye1997'' on the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64 was one of the earlier and most successful implementations of this in a genre which, up to then, had relied mostly on linked systems for multiplayer.

See also: SplitScreenReaction, SplitScreenPhoneCall

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4'':

* ''The WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda Holiday Special'' has a sequence where Po and his father are working in the kitchen for the holidays where the screen is progressively diced into smaller squares like a vegetable until it is seemingly swept into the pot.

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* Used several times in ''[[Film/Napoleon1927 Napoléon]]'' (1927), such as the pillow fight scene when the screen splits in ''nine'', but most notably in the famous Triptych sequence.

%%* Used several times in ''Film/{{Napoleon}}'', such as the pillow fight scene when the screen splits in ''nine'', but most notably in the famous Triptych sequence.

* ''Series/InterviewWithTheVampire2022'': The third episode features a brief [[https://64.media.tumblr.com/7da92383b4b13950f382c3355a4b479d/9e984a36ecc1b1f1-28/s540x810/875e890df13529baa28b73dbc629e72f4209ef90.gif split screen]] where the left side is Lestat de Lioncourt playing the piano onstage at the Azalea, while the right side is Louis de Pointe du Lac watching him from where he's seated among the audience.

* ''WesternAnimation/WorkItOutWombats'': Utilized in the episode "Me Time" when Malik and Zadie go their separate ways.

* ''Series/UniversityChallenge'' sits the teams next to each other, but shows them one above the other in the broadcast via split-screen so both can be seen on screen at once (though from 1985-87 they were actually seated one on top of another). A few teams have played with this, such as an all-male team at the bottom who kept looking up at the all-female team on top as if they could see up their skirts, or a team at the top who threw paper balls from their desks which would "disappear" into thin air on TV.
* ''Series/TheYoungOnes'' episode "Bambi" lampooned ''Series/UniversityChallenge'''s use of split screens by seating the teams one on top of another, which Vyvyan exploited by kicking the contestant's head below him.

* ''Series/ThePriceIsRight''
** From when the hour-long format became permanent in November 1975 to sometime in 1996, when a contestant spun the Showcase Showdown wheel, a split screen would show as the wheel slowed down with a headshot of the contestant inside of an arrow graphic that pointed to the wheel on the left side, and the wheel on the right.
** During Game Show Marathon in June 2006, R. Brian [=DiPirro=] brought the arrow graphic back, but it wasn't a true split screen. It was an arrow-shaped picture-in-picture shot. When he became Price's permanent director in March 2009, he brought this shot back for bonus spins.
** The split screen returned in November 2007, but it's just a generic one now. However, since Season 38 began, if there's a spinoff, they do a triple split, with the spinning contestant on the left, the wheel in the middle, and the contestant in the lead on the right.

* The ''Series/ModernFamily'' episode "The Late Show" opens with a three-way split-screen
* On the ''Series/{{MASH}}'' episode, "There's Nothing Like A Nurse", Frank and Margaret have a phone conversation shown in split-screen.
* ''Series/NineNineTimeTravels'' is about a guy who acquires magic time-travel incense sticks, and uses them to go back in time to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong. Each stick sends him back in time exactly 20 years, down to the minute, and for only 30 minutes, until the stick burns down and he travels forward exactly 20 years, down to the minute. Events in the present-day (2012-13) timeline often mirror the past (1992-93) timeline, with split screens used to show what is happening in the present along with what is happening 20 years in the past.
* This has always been used during the "Speed-Up" round on ''Series/WheelOfFortune'': contestants in the top half, puzzle on the bottom half (although early on, the reverse was true). Toss-Up puzzles use an identical split-screen, although they did not in their first season of use.
* Parodied in ''Series/SledgeHammer'', when Hammer calls a pipe-smoking British cop for information; the cloud of smoke spills into the American half of the split screen from six thousand miles away. This leads to Hammer and Doreau coughing and spluttering uncontrollably.
* ''Series/RunOn'' uses a long split screen in its pilot episode to show the contrasting levels of order in each main character's life.
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': Used twice in "The Girl With The Dungeons And Dragons Tattoo" when Charlie Bradbury turns up for work, showing both her and the security guard watching her arrive. The first time, she's happily listening to the music on her headphones, the second time she's tense because she's infiltrating the BigBad's office, so there's SinisterSurveillance involved in the security guard's attentions (it's also used to show Sam and Dean [[SpiesInAVan waiting in a van]] as MissionControl).

* On ''Series/PressYourLuck'', when it was down to the final spin of the final player with spins still remaining, a split screen on the big board would show both that player and the player who would either be the winner if they whammied out, or who was in the lead if the player taking the spin wasn't in the lead. If they picked up an additional spin, then the split screen would continue into the next spin. Otherwise, the split screen would slide away to show only the contestant who had won. Also, if the spinning contestant whammied, no whammy animation would be played; they would just clear away the split screen and go directly to the winner.
* ''Series/TrialAndRetribution'' is a rare show that uses split screen throughout the entire series, showing different characters during the same scene. It was less frequently used as time went on, but remained in use throughout.

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