# Name some "invisible" TV characters **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 18, 2005, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-invisible-tv-characters/299916 "2005-04-18T16:58:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**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:** [April 21, 2005, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-invisible-tv-characters/299916/121 "2005-04-21T01:03:25Z")
> [@RobuSensei](#): > > I was gonna say Don Pardo, but a) he’s an announcer, not a character, and b) during one of Jon Lovitz’s “Get Ta Know Me!” sketches, he actually made it on screen. “I’m on TV!!!” The audience loved it. Pardo also appeared in the final episode of the original SNL cast. At the end, they supposedly introduced the cast for the next season – probably people chosen at random from the audiend – and Pardo was one of them. There also were shots of him from time to time on Jeopardy. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-invisible-tv-characters/299916/122 "2005-04-21T06:19:58Z")
On the sitcom _One Day at a Time_, “Trish the Dish” was mentioned a few times, and was apparently the school slut. ---
**Author:** ![Draelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Draelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Draelin)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-invisible-tv-characters/299916/123 "2005-04-21T13:26:08Z")
> [@Tracy Lord](#): > > I’m pretty sure it was implied that that was the same guy as Agent Pendrell, the cute red-haired guy who had a crush on her. I could be misremembering, though. Actually, I checked last night–in the first season episode “Aubrey” (which is one of my favorites), Scully calls headquarters and asks for Danny Vallejo. ---
**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-invisible-tv-characters/299916/124 "2005-04-21T14:01:29Z")
The lowdown on the Divine/Uncle Otto/Peg’s mom from my friend Andreas’ site (he’s Swiss, so his English is a bit off, but he knows his Bundys): > [@](#): > > Divine (Harris Glenn Milstead) was booked to play Uncle Otto which was planned to be a recurring character. Usually Divine played as a drag queen, but this time he should have played as a man. His first episode would have been “All in the Family” (0222), but he didn’t show up on the set to take part in the rehearsals on March 7, 1988. His personal manager and biographer, Bernard Jay, discovered him dead in his hotel suite. This caused a gap of seven weeks between the premieres of episode 0221 and 0222. Uncle Otto was finally played by James “Gypsy” Haake. The end credits of episode 222 contain the following message: THIS EPISODE IS DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF DIVINE 1945-1988. Peg’s mom was never actually seen; however, she did show up as a big quilt-covered mound in 1988’s FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS (Al refused to pay the phone bill on principle only to have to endure a long visit from the MIL when she came over since she couldn’t talk to Peg every day) and was sitting unseen on one end of a bench in the tenth season, lifting her hapless skinny husband high in the air like on a seesaw. But she did have a voice in the last couple of seasons–and quite a famous one for theater people, that of the late Kathleen Freeman. She had a Broadway career for 76 years and performed in THE FULL MONTY (which she got a Tony nom for) days before her death in 2001. BTW, Christina Applegate made her Broadway debut in SWEET CHARITY on Monday night, David Garrison is getting raves as the Wizard in the first national tour of WICKED, and Janet Carroll (Gary) is on Broadway too in LITTLE WOMEN. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-invisible-tv-characters/299916/125 "2005-04-21T15:24:45Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > In all the talk of MASH, we’ve neglected to mention the biggest invisible character of them all – Hawkeye’s dad. Coulda sworn we did, but IMDB lists only one person not named Alan Alda playing a character with last name Pierce. That’s Oliver Clark, and he played Captain Ben Pierce in an episode whose name doesn’t match the ep. where I was almost sure we see Hawkeye’s father. Robert Alda, however, makes two appearances in the show (not the same ep. as Clark), including at least one as a surgeon, so perhaps that’s what I’m remembering. ---
**Author:** ![Dancer\_Flight](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dancer_flight/32/7601_2.png) [@Dancer\_Flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dancer_Flight)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-invisible-tv-characters/299916/126 "2005-04-21T18:05:40Z")
{mutter… Damn Hampsters…} Phantom Dennis was an invisible ghost haunting Cordelia’s Apartment in Angel the Series. The commentary on the Episode mentioned that when a Screen Writer introduces a recuring character, they receive a residual every time that character appears in any other episode. Being an invisible and non-vocal ghostly type, Dennis, never actually appears in any episode so Jane Espenson doesn’t receive those payments. She seems alright with the situation though. -DF ---
**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-invisible-tv-characters/299916/127 "2005-04-21T18:15:04Z")
Weeeelll, no, by definition you never Phantom Dennis, but you do see Live Dennis in ‘Rm w/ a Vu’, episode 5. You see him briefly as he’s walled into the house by his insane mother; and actually, the poor slob you see in a button-down shirt, teary-eyed, in the credits, is him. Can’t find the actor’s name. Worst way to go I can think of–shudder. Turns out the effort of plastering up her son was too much for the mom’s heart and she dies on the floor; her ghost inhabits the apartment and drives away/kills everybody who rents it until the MoG show up and exorcised her. Dennis’ ghost is free to emerge and take care of Cordy. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-invisible-tv-characters/299916/128 "2005-04-21T18:28:17Z")
Monty Python Rimbaldi on _Alias_ The guy that left the tapes for Jim Phelps ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-invisible-tv-characters/299916/129 "2005-04-21T18:32:01Z")
What about the guy whose voice comes over the speaker on **M_A_S\*H**? You _never_ see his face. In fact, he doesn’t even have a name, and no one ever refers to him. Wouldn’t he be in Radar’s office all the time? Similarly, did Magic Voice on **MST3K** have a body? Or was she supposed to be a computer or something? Carlton the Doorman from **Rhoda** has been mentioned, buty what I love about him was the way they sometimes teased you with the possibility of his appearance. He came to the apartment to pick something up once, but it obscured his face, so you didn’t actually see it. (Did Lorenzo Music do the body work?) And in a similar way, you see the va-va-voom Jessica-Rabbitesque body of Ms. Bellum on **Power Puff Girls** , but never her face. Even when someone else is inhabiting the body. We had a thread many months back about **The Dick Van Dyke Show** , in which (as I had not realized) you did not see the face of Carl Reiner’s Allan Brady for the first couple of seasons. In the old **Captain Marvel** comic, long before I (or most Dopers) were born, one of his long-running villains was Mr. Mind, who you never saw. Eventually, Mr. Mind was revealed to be (I kid you not) a tiny worm with a big radio loudspeaker. For many years in the **Spiderman** comic you never saw the real face of The Green Goblin. When they finally revealed who it was, it turned out to be someone who wasn’t even in the series when they came up with the character, so it’s clear that they came up with an identity-less character at the start, and fit the story in later. ---
**Author:** ![42fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/b487fb/32.png) [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-invisible-tv-characters/299916/130 "2005-04-21T18:44:15Z")
> [@iampunha](#): > > Coulda sworn we did, but IMDB lists only one person not named Alan Alda playing a character with last name Pierce. That’s Oliver Clark, and he played Captain Ben Pierce in an episode whose name doesn’t match the ep. where I was almost sure we see Hawkeye’s father. Robert Alda, however, makes two appearances in the show (not the same ep. as Clark), including at least one as a surgeon, so perhaps that’s what I’m remembering. I believe that the other Pierce you’re refering to shows up in an episode where a mail snafu causes Hawkeye to receive love letters addressed to a different Ben Pierce. The other Ben Pierce shows up at the end to exchange their mail. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-invisible-tv-characters/299916/131 "2005-04-21T19:50:24Z")
> [@Peter Morris](#): > > Monty Python What do you mean? ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-invisible-tv-characters/299916/132 "2005-04-21T20:06:04Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > Edina’s son in _Absolutely Fabulous_. Actually, there was an “Ab Fab” tv movie a year or two ago in which Eddy finally tracks down Serge (her son) in NYC. Eddy, Patsy & Saffy swing over the pond for a visit. Serge turns out to be gay (no surprise really), but Eddy is disappointed that he just isn’t “fabulous” enough and goes on a mission to “queer him up.” Unfortunately, the tele-movie just wasn’t up to the standards of the original series. It just wasn’t very funny. It’s better off forgotten. And since the Bond films have been repeated on TNT ad naseum, I suppose they count as being “tv.” So, how about Blofeld? For most of the Bond series, we only see the back of his head. (Yes, he appeared in “On Her Majesties’ Secret Service”, but apart from being bald, Telly Savalas seemed so unlike what Blofeld was established to be like, that I write him off as an imposter Blofeld.) ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-invisible-tv-characters/299916/133 "2005-04-21T20:13:04Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > What do you mean? It was Monty Python’s Flying Circus, and Monty Python & the holy Grail, but did Monty ever appear on screen? I think not. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-invisible-tv-characters/299916/134 "2005-04-21T20:16:27Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > What about the guy whose voice comes over the speaker on **M_A_S\*H**? You _never_ see his face. In fact, he doesn’t even have a name, and no one ever refers to him. He does have a name, and was referred to by that name by Henry in “A Full Rich Day”–that’s the one with the missing Luxembourg soldier. Can’t remember what that name is at the moment. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-invisible-tv-characters/299916/135 "2005-04-21T20:22:45Z")
> [@iampunha](#): > > Coulda sworn we did, but IMDB lists only one person not named Alan Alda playing a character with last name Pierce. That’s Oliver Clark, and he played Captain Ben Pierce in an episode whose name doesn’t match the ep. where I was almost sure we see Hawkeye’s father. Robert Alda, however, makes two appearances in the show (not the same ep. as Clark), including at least one as a surgeon, so perhaps that’s what I’m remembering. Robert Alda made two appearances as Dr. Borelli, an Army medical advisor who got on Hawkeye’s nerves. The second appearance also featured Alan’s brother Antony as a medic. Hawkeye’s dad was never shown, not even in a photograph. ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-invisible-tv-characters/299916/136 "2005-04-21T20:25:15Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > For many years in the **Spiderman** comic you never saw the real face of The Green Goblin. When they finally revealed who it was, it turned out to be someone who wasn’t even in the series when they came up with the character, so it’s clear that they came up with an identity-less character at the start, and fit the story in later. Are you sure you don’t mean the Hobgoblin? I thought Green Goblin had always been Norman Osborn, but Hobgoblin’s identity was quite the ongoing mystery in the mid-'80s. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-invisible-tv-characters/299916/137 "2005-04-21T20:34:19Z")
> [@](#): > > Are you sure you don’t mean the Hobgoblin? I thought Green Goblin had always been Norman Osborn, but Hobgoblin’s identity was quite the ongoing mystery in the mid-'80s. Nope. When the GG first showed up circa issue #18 in the early 1960s they didn’t tell you who he was, and the mystery was kept up in subsequent appearances. The Hobgoblin was just repeating history. > [@](#): > > And since the Bond films have been repeated on TNT ad naseum, I suppose they count as being “tv.” So, how about Blofeld? For most of the Bond series, we only see the back of his head. (Yes, he appeared in “On Her Majesties’ Secret Service”, but apart from being bald, Telly Savalas seemed so unlike what Blofeld was established to be like, that I write him off as an imposter Blofeld.) > Today 03:50 PM Actually, Blofeld’s face was first shown in **You Only Live Twice** , and they made a big deal about it at the time. It was a bald Donald Pleasance, with a nasty scar. He’s shorter than Bond. In **On Her Majesty’s Secret Service** It’s a bald Telly Savalas, with no scar, no earlobes, and taller than Bond. (Well, in the book he’s different enough that Bond wasn’t sure it was him. But adding height?). Then in **[Diamonds are Forever** Blofeld is Charles Grey (who, confusingly, had played “Mr. Henderson”, a British agent who gets killed, in **You Only Live Twice** , looking exactly the same), who is _not_ bald, has no scar, has earlobes, a British accent, and is about Bond’s height. Someone who is obviously Blofeld shows up in **For Your Eyes Only**. He’s bald again, and you don’t see his face. He seems to have earlobes. He’s in a wheelchair, presumably because of injuries received at the end of DAF. He’s not consistent, but, heck, look at how varied the guys playing Felix Leiter have been in the Bond series. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-invisible-tv-characters/299916/138 "2005-04-22T11:54:58Z")
> [@Peter Morris](#): > > It was Monty Python’s Flying Circus, and Monty Python & the holy Grail, but did Monty ever appear on screen? I think not. You’re joking, right? “Monty Python” is the name of the troupe. There was never any suggestion that there was a person or character by that name. ---
**Author:** ![davmilasav](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@davmilasav](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davmilasav)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-invisible-tv-characters/299916/139 "2005-04-22T12:29:36Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Then in **[Diamonds are Forever** Blofeld is Charles Grey (who, confusingly, had played “Mr. Henderson”, a British agent who gets killed, in **You Only Live Twice** , looking exactly the same), who is _not_ bald, has no scar, has earlobes, a British accent, and is about Bond’s height. You forgot the most important thing: This man has no neck! But he can do the Time Warp on top of a desk. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-invisible-tv-characters/299916/140 "2005-04-22T12:43:01Z")
An old one – Although the 16th century artist Pieter Brueghel the Elder \* could draw perfectly good faces: [http://www.artnet.com/artwork/423842091/\_Pieter\_Brueghel\_the\_Elder\_The\_Peasant\_Wedding\_Dance\_2nd\_State.html](http://www.artnet.com/artwork/423842091/_Pieter_Brueghel_the_Elder_The_Peasant_Wedding_Dance_2nd_State.html) He very often put a lot of people in his engravings and paintings with their faces apparently purposely hidden. Here’s only one example: [http://search.famsf.org:8080/view.shtml?record=6631&=list&=1&=&=And](http://search.famsf.org:8080/view.shtml?record=6631&=list&=1&=&=And) Nobody’s come up with a finally convincing reason. I think he just liked screwing with the viewers’ heads. - Yes, I know that’s not the currently preferred spelling. But it’s the way it is in my art books. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-invisible-tv-characters/299916.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-invisible-tv-characters/299916.md?page=8)