It’s not unusual for a series to begin with a character who
disappears after a few episodes because the creators realized they have
no use for them. However, sometimes a character will be introduced
during the series run in the hopes of getting more viewers, or some
other silly reason. Sometimes its random kids who pop up, and sometimes its a supporting character who rose to fame
But other times it’s a brand new character suddenly jammed into a show to shake things up. Ok once in awhile that does work (Seven of Nine anyone?) but usually these characters don’t work. As hard as they try the character just doesn’t fit. The part that amuses me is when the characters just vanishe, no explanation or anything, despite the setup that indicated they were supposed to be around for awhile. Nope. They quietly fade into the background, never to be mentioned again. For instance when DS9 introduced The Defiant it also introduced a Romulan officer who was supposed to be on board as part of the exchange for the cloaking device. Her name was T’Rul and if you remember her than I give you credit!
There are plenty of these. We had The god awful Quizmaster on Sabrina who was around for a season, Tori on Saved By The Bell who was meant to fill the void for Jesse and Kelly (very long story there) who vanished as fast as he came, and of course Dr.Miller on Scrubs meant to be the anti-Dr.Cox and vanished pretty quick. Here are ten examples of characters introduced to be regulars who quietly disappeared without a trace. Now to be clear these are characters introduced later in the show’s run to shake things up. The case of characters who started with a series only to vanish without a trace is another subject altogether (so no Judy Winslow and Chuck Cunningham will be on here). Also the character has to have clearly been intended to stick around and appear more than once
Frankie on Benson
Here’s a trivia question for you, what was Jerry Seinfeld’s first sitcom appearance? Several years before “Seinfeld”, he appeared on Benson in a the role of Frankie the delivery boy. The gag was he was a wanne be comedian trying to also sell jokes to the governor. He didn’t last long. The funny thing is that I didn’t know this foe years as much as I adored Seinfeld the comedian and the show, because all of his scenes were cut in re-runs. Which makes sense since his scenes were pointless. Jerry Seinfeld had said he was fired rather unceremoniously also.
Jesse’s parents on Full House
When Full House revamped things for the second season, most of the changes made sense. Danny dumped the stupid sportscaster gig for a talk show. Rebecca was added to the cast, and Jesse lost the long hair and biker attitude. However one change that was lame, and thankfully didn’t last, was adding Jesse’s parents to the cast. Why were they there? I have no idea since we had four parental units we didn’t need these two! and except for a brief appearance when Jesse and Rebecca got married, they quickly vanished after appearing in a handful of episodes.
Billy on Who’s The Boss/Seven on Married with Children
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As noted sitcoms love to add children in to spice things up, and because the regular cast has become boring. However, some shows are smart enough to wise up and realize that it was a mistake. In the 8th season of Who’s The Boss we meet Billy, who gets to live with Tony and Angela while his grandmother recovers from a surgery. Several episodes were focused on Billy rather than what the show should be focused on, Tony and Angela, and thus was never seen or heard from again when the season concluded. As for Seven, he lasted about seven episode before creators realized what a mistake the kid was. Even though it was setup he was supposed to live with The Bundy’s he vanished without a trace, occasional in joke notwithstanding.
Billie on Night Court
When the got past its growing pains in the fist season, we started season 2 with a new public defender. Billie was played by Ellen Foley and was positive and upbeat..but just wasn’t what the producers were looking for. The relationship between Harry and Billie felt forced and she never really fit in. So he next year Markie Post was on board as Christine Sullivan, and Billie was never heard from or mentioned ever again. This also happened with a quirky couple named The Wheelers who were meant to be recurring characters, until Brent Spiner got cast on Star Trek TNG.
Willow on Home Improvement
Home Improvement had a few of these over the years. There was the hyper producer played by Vicki Lewis who was clearly meant to stick around to annoy Tim, but didn’t (probably thanks to NewsRadio). Then Binford got a new president who was clearly designed to be a nemesis for Tim. He disappeared (Al mentions in a quick line that the new owner of Binford fired him). Jill had a few friends come and then go for no real reason. But the big one is Willow. Who was Willow you may ask? She Wilson’s niece and after Jill locates her for Wilson’s birthday, she decides to stick around. The Taylor’s kind of look after her like a surrogate daughter. She’s a quirky free spirit which vanished after the season was over, even though they made a big deal about her living with Wilson, and no one ever spoke of her again.
Mr.Turner on Boy Meets World
This one is almost legendary! Mr.Turner was Cory’s teacher and role mode. He appeared in several episodes for almost two seasons. He was the opposite of Mr.Feeney and even let Shawn live with him for awhile. In the middle of the fourth season he and suffered near fatal injuries in a motorcycle accident. After that? He vanished after that, except for a brief mention in the graduation episode he was never seen on the show again! Wow. It’s truly remarkable because this wasn’t some minor character, he was a big focus of the show! However, sometimes spin-off’s can fill voids like this and Mr.Turner returned, alive and well, on Girl Meets World.
Will’s Philly Pals on Fresh Prince
Will was of course from Philadelphia so I guess sense to try to get some of his friends out there. First we have the annoying Tyriq who competed with Jazz and thankfully didn’t last. Then we had Will’s old girlfriend Jackie. They reunited when Will entered college. It was clear they had a history and even though it seemed like she would be around for awhile, she actually didn’t last long. She was played by Tyra Banks, I’ve heard that name somewhere…
Stephanie on King of Queens
King of Queens had its turbulent cast issues. I talked before about how the show started with a sister for Carrie, who vanished after about five episodes. Doug’s friend Richie also disappeared. But the one I wonder about is Ricki Lake as Doug’s sister Stephanie. She was only in about six episodes, and even though they established she had moved to Queens and was going to be around for awhile she basically vanished without a trace.
Stephanie on Big Bang Theory (um, different Stephanie)
This is cheating a bit since for all I know this character was never intended to be around more than a few episode. Early in the series Stephanie is introduced as Leonard’s girlfriend. And while she sticks around of about three episode, she just up and disappears after the third episode. The signs were that he and Stephanie were going to break up, but when? This is a problem with Leonard and his girlfriends (except Penny) as Priya was around for most of a season before going to home India and never beings seen again. And of course there was Leslie Winkle who was on and off with Leonard early on before she disappeared right around the same time Amy and Bernadette were starting to come around. Though Leslie did return for the 200th episode.
I’m sure there are more, did I miss your favorite? Comment and let me know.
But other times it’s a brand new character suddenly jammed into a show to shake things up. Ok once in awhile that does work (Seven of Nine anyone?) but usually these characters don’t work. As hard as they try the character just doesn’t fit. The part that amuses me is when the characters just vanishe, no explanation or anything, despite the setup that indicated they were supposed to be around for awhile. Nope. They quietly fade into the background, never to be mentioned again. For instance when DS9 introduced The Defiant it also introduced a Romulan officer who was supposed to be on board as part of the exchange for the cloaking device. Her name was T’Rul and if you remember her than I give you credit!
There are plenty of these. We had The god awful Quizmaster on Sabrina who was around for a season, Tori on Saved By The Bell who was meant to fill the void for Jesse and Kelly (very long story there) who vanished as fast as he came, and of course Dr.Miller on Scrubs meant to be the anti-Dr.Cox and vanished pretty quick. Here are ten examples of characters introduced to be regulars who quietly disappeared without a trace. Now to be clear these are characters introduced later in the show’s run to shake things up. The case of characters who started with a series only to vanish without a trace is another subject altogether (so no Judy Winslow and Chuck Cunningham will be on here). Also the character has to have clearly been intended to stick around and appear more than once
Frankie on Benson
Here’s a trivia question for you, what was Jerry Seinfeld’s first sitcom appearance? Several years before “Seinfeld”, he appeared on Benson in a the role of Frankie the delivery boy. The gag was he was a wanne be comedian trying to also sell jokes to the governor. He didn’t last long. The funny thing is that I didn’t know this foe years as much as I adored Seinfeld the comedian and the show, because all of his scenes were cut in re-runs. Which makes sense since his scenes were pointless. Jerry Seinfeld had said he was fired rather unceremoniously also.
Jesse’s parents on Full House
When Full House revamped things for the second season, most of the changes made sense. Danny dumped the stupid sportscaster gig for a talk show. Rebecca was added to the cast, and Jesse lost the long hair and biker attitude. However one change that was lame, and thankfully didn’t last, was adding Jesse’s parents to the cast. Why were they there? I have no idea since we had four parental units we didn’t need these two! and except for a brief appearance when Jesse and Rebecca got married, they quickly vanished after appearing in a handful of episodes.
Billy on Who’s The Boss/Seven on Married with Children
\
As noted sitcoms love to add children in to spice things up, and because the regular cast has become boring. However, some shows are smart enough to wise up and realize that it was a mistake. In the 8th season of Who’s The Boss we meet Billy, who gets to live with Tony and Angela while his grandmother recovers from a surgery. Several episodes were focused on Billy rather than what the show should be focused on, Tony and Angela, and thus was never seen or heard from again when the season concluded. As for Seven, he lasted about seven episode before creators realized what a mistake the kid was. Even though it was setup he was supposed to live with The Bundy’s he vanished without a trace, occasional in joke notwithstanding.
Billie on Night Court
When the got past its growing pains in the fist season, we started season 2 with a new public defender. Billie was played by Ellen Foley and was positive and upbeat..but just wasn’t what the producers were looking for. The relationship between Harry and Billie felt forced and she never really fit in. So he next year Markie Post was on board as Christine Sullivan, and Billie was never heard from or mentioned ever again. This also happened with a quirky couple named The Wheelers who were meant to be recurring characters, until Brent Spiner got cast on Star Trek TNG.
Willow on Home Improvement
Home Improvement had a few of these over the years. There was the hyper producer played by Vicki Lewis who was clearly meant to stick around to annoy Tim, but didn’t (probably thanks to NewsRadio). Then Binford got a new president who was clearly designed to be a nemesis for Tim. He disappeared (Al mentions in a quick line that the new owner of Binford fired him). Jill had a few friends come and then go for no real reason. But the big one is Willow. Who was Willow you may ask? She Wilson’s niece and after Jill locates her for Wilson’s birthday, she decides to stick around. The Taylor’s kind of look after her like a surrogate daughter. She’s a quirky free spirit which vanished after the season was over, even though they made a big deal about her living with Wilson, and no one ever spoke of her again.
Mr.Turner on Boy Meets World
This one is almost legendary! Mr.Turner was Cory’s teacher and role mode. He appeared in several episodes for almost two seasons. He was the opposite of Mr.Feeney and even let Shawn live with him for awhile. In the middle of the fourth season he and suffered near fatal injuries in a motorcycle accident. After that? He vanished after that, except for a brief mention in the graduation episode he was never seen on the show again! Wow. It’s truly remarkable because this wasn’t some minor character, he was a big focus of the show! However, sometimes spin-off’s can fill voids like this and Mr.Turner returned, alive and well, on Girl Meets World.
Will’s Philly Pals on Fresh Prince
Will was of course from Philadelphia so I guess sense to try to get some of his friends out there. First we have the annoying Tyriq who competed with Jazz and thankfully didn’t last. Then we had Will’s old girlfriend Jackie. They reunited when Will entered college. It was clear they had a history and even though it seemed like she would be around for awhile, she actually didn’t last long. She was played by Tyra Banks, I’ve heard that name somewhere…
Stephanie on King of Queens
King of Queens had its turbulent cast issues. I talked before about how the show started with a sister for Carrie, who vanished after about five episodes. Doug’s friend Richie also disappeared. But the one I wonder about is Ricki Lake as Doug’s sister Stephanie. She was only in about six episodes, and even though they established she had moved to Queens and was going to be around for awhile she basically vanished without a trace.
Stephanie on Big Bang Theory (um, different Stephanie)
This is cheating a bit since for all I know this character was never intended to be around more than a few episode. Early in the series Stephanie is introduced as Leonard’s girlfriend. And while she sticks around of about three episode, she just up and disappears after the third episode. The signs were that he and Stephanie were going to break up, but when? This is a problem with Leonard and his girlfriends (except Penny) as Priya was around for most of a season before going to home India and never beings seen again. And of course there was Leslie Winkle who was on and off with Leonard early on before she disappeared right around the same time Amy and Bernadette were starting to come around. Though Leslie did return for the 200th episode.
I’m sure there are more, did I miss your favorite? Comment and let me know.
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