What regular TV characters have never actually appeared in the TV shows they were in? These generally fall into two categories:
Those whose face you never see, but you can see a body part, such as George Steinbrenner on Seinfeld.
Those who never appear at all, such as Maris (sp?) on Frasier.
Feel free to include characters who appeared in later episodes or in spinoffs. Bernice, for example, was never on Barney Miller but was on Fish.
And have any of these invisible characters ever been the star of the show? I’d cite Charlie on Charlie’s Angels, but let’s face it, the real stars of that show were Farrah’s nipples.
Bernice was on Barney Miller. They’ve got some old episodes playing on On Demand (Comcast cable), and she was in one I watched a few weeks ago.
We never saw Vera, Norm’s wife on Cheers. There was a Thanksgiving episode that took place at Carla’s house, the one with the food fight, and she showed up off-camera and took a pie in the face, and then walked on-camera with her face covered in pie goo.
Lars on Mary Tyler Moore/Phyllis (II)
I think Alan Brady on the first few seasons of Dick van Dyke (I)
Various “at-home” wives/lovers on MASH (II)
Mrs. Peterson on The Bob Newhart Show (II)
Ugly Naked Guy on Friends (II)
Carlton the doorman on Rhoda, I believe. Funniest character in an otherwise bleh series.
I always thought that a series was on its last legs when it finally showed an “invisible” character. Maris, for instance, was much funnier on Frazier because your imagination did a much better job of picturing her than any actor could. One of the funniest lines I remember was when Niles said something about her running across the snow and not leaving any footprints.
Home Improvement:
The next-door neighbor. You always saw his hat, a piece of his forehead, and his eyes, but the fence always covered the rest of his face. I rarely watched the show, but I think the only time they ever showed his full body, he was facing away from the camera, so all you could see was the back of his head.
MASH*:*
Col. Blake’s wife.
Col. Potter’s wife.
BJ Honeycutt’s wife.
Frank Burn’s wife.
Winchester’s sister (You did get to hear a recording of her voice, once. She had a serious stutter, which explained Winchester’s uncharacteristic sympathy for another character earlier in the episode.)
Radar’s mother.
Various relatives of Klinger.
Magnum, P.I. :
Robin Masters. Maybe he was really Higgins, maybe not.
Icepick. I think he may have appeared in one episode, but in 99% of the show, he was a mysterious offscreen presence.
Yes, but we only saw a brief shot of the back of his head when he answered the door. So, he’s still invisible in the (I) category.
My contributions -
The Powers That Be (Heavenly powers) or the Senior Partners (Hellish powers) of law firm Wolfram & Hart (otherwise known as “the Wolf, the Ram & the Hart”) on “Angel.”
The Village’s “No. 1” in “the Prisoner.” (The final episode jibberish notwithstanding.)
The news bulletin announcer over the camp loudspeakers on “M.A.S.H.”
“Mr. Hands” from Saturday Night Live’s “Mr. Bill” show sketch.
Actually, I specifically remember one episode where Radar’s mother mailed him a home movie of some family get-together (4th of July, maybe?), and everyone commented on the resemblance between Radar and his mother.
Not too surprising given that they were both played by the same actor.
Lt. Columbo’s wife, whom he refers to continuously. She was never seen until the spinoff, Mrs. Columbo, in which she was played by Captain Janeway. The show was so bad that they tried to distance it from the brilliant Columbo by changing the title to Kate Loves a Mystery and changing Kate Columbo’s name to “Kate Callahan.”
