# Plays (and movies) where an important character never appears

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plays-and-movies-where-an-important-character-never-appears/997022>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Tags:** movies\
**Created:** [February 2, 2024, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plays-and-movies-where-an-important-character-never-appears/997022 "2024-02-02T12:51:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 88

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**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:** [February 3, 2024, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plays-and-movies-where-an-important-character-never-appears/997022/88 "2024-02-03T15:36:11Z")

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> [@Railer13](#):
>
> IIRC, in the **Cheers** show, Norm’s wife, Vera, appears only once. And that’s at the end of the Thanksgiving dinner food fight, where she walks in the door just in time to receive a pie in the face.

There was another episode where she got a job in the restaurant upstairs, and her voice is heard calling down to Norm from above.

It’s up to the OP, but personally I think that voices from offscreen ought to count as an appearance.

The voice on the tannoy at MASH appeared  
Charlie speaking over the intercom appeared  
Carlton the doorman speaking over the entry phone appeared

In my opinion.

And by the way, there was a _Carlton Your Doorman_ animated pilot which is a definite appearance.

[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/uEdioxUKtCo/hqdefault.jpg "Carlton, Your Doorman (Animated Pilot)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEdioxUKtCo)

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