Oh, and the Dick van Dyke Show ep where Laura has her toe stuck in the bathtub drain the whole time.
Yes, people will complain you could hear her, so she’s in the episode, but I’m saying it anyway.
In the very early years when it was still filmed in Black & White, there would sometimes be episodes filmed without one or other of the main cast. This to give them a brief holiday, or because of illness/ injury. There was even a storywhere none of the regular cast appeared at all.
In *Moonlighting * there was an episode where the case was solved by secondary characters Bert & Agnes. Davis & Maddie only appeared in a typically 4th-wall breaking scene to complain about their lack of screen time.
There have been a couple of episodes of South Park focusing on Terrence & Philip, the four main kids didn’t appear at all.
I remember hearing Jason Alexander say something to that effect in the DVD extras, presumably for “The Pen.” To the best of my recollection, he told the producers something like “That’s not what I signed up for. I joined the cast with the understanding that I’d be a regular cast member, in every episode.”
Lol! George is getting upset!
That terrible “Married with Children” episode that was really a pilot for a Matt LeBlanc sit-com. Al Bundy made a walk-by appearance presumably so we’d pause before changing the channel and that was about it.
There were several episodes in season 6 of Murder, She Wrote where Jessica Fletcher only appeared at the beginning to introduce the mystery, to be solved by one her characters or friends.
That reminds me of the Saved by the Bell episodes that were really repurposed “Good Morning, Miss Bliss” episodes with only a younger Zach, Lisa and Screech but no Kelly, Jessie or Slater. “Modern” Zach would do a cold open each episode saying that it happened a long time ago.
Funny how it never occurred to me at the time (I was … what, six?) just how odd it was to have a dog as a policeman. :smack:
There were quite a few of those episodes. Late in this interview Curtis Armstrong (Bert) explains why that was and why it eventually wrecked the series.
What’s so odd about a police dog? 
Now, a police cat… that would be strange.
As the series switched to essentially an anthology in its later years, there were quite a few episodes where both Marshall Dillon and Miss Kitty are secondary characters or not seen at all.
In the first few episodes of one season of “All in the Family”, Archie Bunker has disappeared and doesn’t appear at all. Carroll O’Connor was in a major spat with showrunner Norman Lear and Lear was going to write Archie’s death into the script. When CBS heard of that, they said if Lear followed through the show would be cancelled immediately.
Speaking of Lear shows, Fred Sanford doesn’t appear at all in some episodes of “Sanford and Son”. He’s off on business, and best friend Grady moves in with Lamont. Not surprisingly, it was during a contract dispute.
Not a “police dog.” A policeman who is a dog! And he was British, as I recall! :smack:
As a cat owner, BTW, I find that comics cover hysterically funny for some reason! 
And then Lamont disappeared, never to be seen again, and was replaced by big Cal.
Believe it or not, there was actually a live action show where a police dog went on patrol with his partner. And it was Jack Webb’s last show!
“Bones” had one of those “backdoor pilots” for “The Finder” which only had brief airtime with the main charcters.
Nope. It did not take.
Although the animated series of Star Trek from the early 70s isn’t considered canon, one stand-out episode, The Slaver Weapon, is sometimes included. It was written by sci-fi legend Larry Niven and it is the only TOS-era episode or movie that doesn’t include Kirk…
LOST had a few episodes over the years with none of the crash survivors appearing, mostly flashback eps for villains or explaining the island.
There was an episode of House, M.D. which was completely from Wilson’s point of view (I think the ep was called Wilson). There was one very brief scene showing House and his team doing something stupid in the background, which was never explained.
PS - *The Finder *was a decent show. I think it failed because Michael Clarke Duncan up and died.
Actually, the animated series is now considered canon.
When Tracy Gold was suffering from anorexia during the final season of Growing Pains, she didn’t appear in a few episodes. She did make it back for the final episode, though.