# Episodes without the main character(s) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 22, 2015, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/episodes-without-the-main-character-s/723144 "2015-06-22T12:28:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/episodes-without-the-main-character-s/723144/1 "2015-06-22T12:28:37Z")
Which are episode(s) of a TV show in which the main character or characters do not appear (or only make very brief appearances and are not centrally involved in the main plot)? Examples: [ul] [li]_Roseanne_ Season 7, Episode 18 “Single Married Female” - only a few lines of Roseanne’s voice are heard.[/li] [li]_Orange Is the New Black_ Season 2, Episode 2 “Looks Blue, Tastes Red” - Piper does not appear at all.[/li] [li]_South Park_ Season 4, Episode 14 “Pip” - Cartman, Kyle, Stan, and Kenny do not appear at all.[/li][/ul] Main characters who have left the show don’t count (e.g. Zach Braff in the last season of _Scrubs_). ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/episodes-without-the-main-character-s/723144/2 "2015-06-22T12:32:31Z")
_Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ season 3 episode 13: “The Zeppo” sort of fits the bill. It focuses on Xander (who is one of the main characters) mostly doing his own thing. We briefly see the other main characters here and there, and they seem to be going through some really intense save-the-world stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/episodes-without-the-main-character-s/723144/3 "2015-06-22T12:33:14Z")
_Doctor Who_, the episode “Blink” which was broadcast on June 9, 2007. You don’t even have to know who Doctor Who is to understand it. It’s like a short movie that’s only loosely tied into the series. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/episodes-without-the-main-character-s/723144/4 "2015-06-22T13:24:16Z")
During the first season of _ **Mission: Impossible** _, Steven Hill, the nominal star of the show, was either missing or featured only briefly in a number of episodes because he was an Orthodox Jew who refused to work after sundown on Fridays (and filming almost always went way over schedule). This is why he was replaced with Peter Graves after the first season. I always thought that Rick Jason was slighted on _ **Combat!** _, but I once read an interview with him in which he pointed out that he and Vic Morrow were featured almost equally over the show’s five-year run. ---
**Author:** ![TCMF-2L](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tcmf-2l/32/16553_2.png) [@TCMF-2L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TCMF-2L)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/episodes-without-the-main-character-s/723144/5 "2015-06-22T13:27:04Z")
When **Lucy Lawless** broke her pelvis falling from a horse she could no longer play Xena in the show **Xena: Warrior Princess**. Rather than stop filming the show they continued by using stock footage, voice overs and most significantly changing a couple of scripts to include the idea Xena’s body is taken over by Calisto and within the context of the show is Callisto although the other characters are seeing her as Xena. Meanwhile the legendary Australian soap opera **Neighbours** has, like all soap operas, an ever changing ensemble cast. One episode - although also featuring the usual cast - heavily concentrated on Bouncer the Dog (to be clear - a dog) dreaming of marrying a sheep dog. TCMF-2L ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/episodes-without-the-main-character-s/723144/6 "2015-06-22T13:33:06Z")
One of the few good episodes in the fifth season of _Babylon 5_ followed a couple of random low-ranking maintenance workers on the station, as they went through their day. There was a standard Crisis of the Week going on in the background, and we got brief glimpses of the main characters dealing with it, but it was mostly these two who we’d never seen before dealing with things like “rats” chewing through wiring and discussing the lunch meats in their lunch sandwiches. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/episodes-without-the-main-character-s/723144/7 "2015-06-22T13:39:40Z")
> [@TCMF-2L](#): > > When **Lucy Lawless** broke her pelvis falling from a horse she could no longer play Xena in the show **Xena: Warrior Princess**. > > Rather than stop filming the show they continued by using stock footage, voice overs and most significantly changing a couple of scripts to include the idea Xena’s body is taken over by Calisto and within the context of the show is Callisto although the other characters are seeing her as Xena. I thought it was the other way around, that Xena was inhabiting Callisto’s body. So everybody saw Callisto, but it was still Xena. But then, it’s been years since I’ve seen an episode of _Xena_. Either way, the point is that Hudson Leick took over playing the lead for a few episodes, and Lucy Lawless did not appear. ---
**Author:** ![TCMF-2L](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tcmf-2l/32/16553_2.png) [@TCMF-2L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TCMF-2L)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/episodes-without-the-main-character-s/723144/8 "2015-06-22T13:40:35Z")
Just remembered. Probably not what the OP wants but **Charlie’s Angels** never had much of Charlie - just his voice. In a similar way **Magnum** never showed Robin Masters - the actual owner of the house where Magnum lived. Moving increasingly away from the OP **Columbo** often referenced his wife but she was unseen (until the spin off series **Mrs Columbo** with a frighteningly young for Columbo Captain Janeway. in 1979 actress Kate Mulgrew was about 24, Peter Falk was 52 and even worse he had been playing the married Columbo since about 1971 when Kate would have been just 16.) TCMF-2L ---
**Author:** ![TCMF-2L](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tcmf-2l/32/16553_2.png) [@TCMF-2L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TCMF-2L)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/episodes-without-the-main-character-s/723144/9 "2015-06-22T13:45:53Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > I thought it was the other way around, that Xena was inhabiting Callisto’s body. So everybody saw Callisto, but it was still Xena. But then, it’s been years since I’ve seen an episode of _Xena_. > > Either way, the point is that Hudson Leick took over playing the lead for a few episodes, and Lucy Lawless did not appear. MrAtoz. It has been a while so I did a quick check and it looks like we are both correct: First Callisto took over Xena’s body and then Xena took over Callisto’s. > **[Callisto](https://hercules-xena.fandom.com/wiki/Callisto)** > > Callisto of Cirra was a major character and villain on Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. She was one of the most bloody and ruthless warlords of the time, due to witnessing the horrific deaths of her mother, father and... TCMF-2L ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/episodes-without-the-main-character-s/723144/10 "2015-06-22T14:09:48Z")
> [@TCMF-2L](#): > > Moving increasingly away from the OP **Columbo** often referenced his wife but she was unseen (until the spin off series **Mrs Columbo** with a frighteningly young for Columbo Captain Janeway. in 1979 actress Kate Mulgrew was about 24, Peter Falk was 52 and even worse he had been playing the married Columbo since about 1971 when Kate would have been just 16.) > > TCMF-2L IIRC, the series was one of the lamebrain creations of Fred “The Man with the Golden Gut” Silverman and was almost immediately disowned by just about everyone involved. From Wiki: \*Mrs. Columbo, a spin-off TV series starring Kate Mulgrew, aired in 1979 and was canceled after only thirteen episodes. Lt. Columbo was never seen on Mrs. Columbo; each episode featured the resourceful Mrs. Columbo solving a murder mystery she encountered in her work as a newspaper reporter. Connections with the original Columbo series were made obvious: the glaring presence of Columbo’s car in the driveway, Dog, and Mrs. Columbo emptying ashtrays containing the famous green cigar butts – all featured in the show’s opening sequence. References were also made to Kate’s husband being a police lieutenant. There were also notable discrepancies between the two shows. Most visibly, Kate Mulgrew was much younger than was plausible for the role of Columbo’s wife; only 24 when the Mrs. Columbo series aired, Mulgrew would have been 12 when we first saw Columbo talking about his wife in 1967’s Prescription: Murder. Other discrepancies involved Mrs. Columbo having different interests and hobbies than had been previously described by the lieutenant. Due to the negative critical and public reaction to the show, the producers made changes to Mrs. Columbo almost immediately. The spin-off was renamed Kate Columbo, followed by Kate the Detective, and finally Kate Loves a Mystery. The main character was likewise renamed “Kate Callahan”; all references to and ties with the original Columbo show were dropped. After this, a reference was made in the show to Kate’s divorce: the character was no longer Mrs. Columbo nor was she meant to have any connection with him at all.\* From TV Tropes: > **[Mrs. Columbo](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/MrsColumbo)** > > This is the short-lived Spin-Off of Mystery of the Week series Columbo. It is unusual for spinning off a character who hadn't appeared on-camera on the parent series. It starred Kate Mulgrew (later of Star Trek: Voyager) as Kate Columbo, the … ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/episodes-without-the-main-character-s/723144/11 "2015-06-22T14:10:13Z")
In the Rockford Files Jim was missing or made only cameo appearances in several episodes while he recovered from injuries. Also at least one episode of Perry Mason was missing Raymond Burr, IIRC Mike Connors (Mannix) filled in. ---
**Author:** ![Cartoonacy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/848f3c/32.png) [@Cartoonacy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartoonacy)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/episodes-without-the-main-character-s/723144/12 "2015-06-22T14:15:00Z")
In _The Prisoner_ episode entitled _Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling_, Number Six’s mind is transferred into another man’s body. I just looked it up, and this episode was written because series star Patrick McGoohan was away filming _Ice Station Zebra_. ---
**Author:** ![Cartoonacy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/848f3c/32.png) [@Cartoonacy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartoonacy)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/episodes-without-the-main-character-s/723144/13 "2015-06-22T14:18:19Z")
While Kaley Cuoco was recuperating from a broken leg, Penny was written out of two episodes of _The Big Bang Theory_: _The Desperation Emanation_ and _The Irish Pub Formulation_. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/episodes-without-the-main-character-s/723144/14 "2015-06-22T14:20:13Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > In the Rockford Files Jim was missing or made only cameo appearances in several episodes while he recovered from injuries. Also at least one episode of Perry Mason was missing Raymond Burr, IIRC Mike Connors (Mannix) filled in. There were a number of guest lawyers: > **[Perry Mason (TV Series 1957–1966) - Trivia - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050051/trivia/)** > > Perry Mason (TV Series 1957–1966) - Trivia on IMDb: Cameos, Mistakes, Spoilers and more... ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/episodes-without-the-main-character-s/723144/15 "2015-06-22T14:22:25Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > _Doctor Who_, the episode “Blink” which was broadcast on June 9, 2007. You don’t even have to know who Doctor Who is to understand it. It’s like a short movie that’s only loosely tied into the series. _Doctor Who_ did the same thing for “Turn Left” and “Love and Monsters.” Both were written to give David Tennant a break after a couple of strenuous episodes where he was in nearly every scene. _Gunsmoke_ had episodes where Matt Dillon was out of town during the show and didn’t appear. _Babylon 5_ had “A View from the Gallery,” which showed events from the point of view of a couple of maintenance workers. The leads only have cameos. _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ had “The Zeppo,” where Buffy only appears peripherally. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/episodes-without-the-main-character-s/723144/16 "2015-06-22T14:27:56Z")
After suffering a heart attack, Ross Martin was temporarily replaced by several actors on _ **Wild, Wild West** _: Charles Aidman (four episodes), Alan Hale, Jr., and William Schallert. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/episodes-without-the-main-character-s/723144/17 "2015-06-22T14:55:46Z")
Kramer is missing from The Chinese Restaurant. Many many series have Back Door pilots where the main characters step in to introduce new characters and then the rest of the episode is the new characters. Usually these pilots never land and you are left with just a weird episode. Valerie Harper left the show that was named after her and they continued on under a new name for several seasons. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/episodes-without-the-main-character-s/723144/18 "2015-06-22T14:56:23Z")
Coincidentally, I watched an old Hawaii 5-0 (Cloth of Gold) where McGarrett, while not absent, was not in a lot of the episode, and Danno was giving all the snark lines that Steve usually got. We wondered what was going on. Jack Lord didn’t direct or anything. He just didn’t do much of anything. Bonus in that episode: parts were filmed at the Anderson Estate, aka Robin’s Nest. > [@TCMF-2L](#): > > Moving increasingly away from the OP **Columbo** often referenced his wife but she was unseen (until the spin off series **Mrs Columbo** with a frighteningly young for Columbo Captain Janeway. Maybe it’s just me, but I always figured Columbo was never really married - “the wife” was just another tool he used to confound the suspect. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/episodes-without-the-main-character-s/723144/19 "2015-06-22T15:07:22Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Coincidentally, I watched an old Hawaii 5-0 (Cloth of Gold) where McGarrett, while not absent, was not in a lot of the episode, and Danno was giving all the snark lines that Steve usually got. We wondered what was going on. Jack Lord didn’t direct or anything. He just didn’t do much of anything. > > Bonus in that episode: parts were filmed at the Anderson Estate, aka Robin’s Nest. Is that the episode where Steve was shot during his morning jog on the beach? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/episodes-without-the-main-character-s/723144/20 "2015-06-22T15:09:19Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > After suffering a heart attack, Ross Martin was temporarily replaced by several actors on _ **Wild, Wild West** _: Charles Aidman (four episodes), Alan Hale, Jr., and William Schallert. I’ll be damned! There was also a Martin-less episode with John Williams (the second Mr French) as Sir Nigel Scott! I had completely forgotten about this one: > **["The Wild Wild West" The Night of the Bleak Island (TV Episode 1969) ⭐ 7.7 |...](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0748497/)** > > 1h | TV-PG [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/episodes-without-the-main-character-s/723144.md?page=2)