# Sitcom gimmicks. ex: You never saw Vera **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 23, 2002, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-gimmicks-ex-you-never-saw-vera/125303 "2002-08-23T22:10:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![gonzoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-gimmicks-ex-you-never-saw-vera/125303/81 "2002-08-27T14:20:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CalMeacham \* > \*\*There a similar bit now with **The Powerpuff Girls** – you never see the face of the buxom, red-haired Sara Bellum, the Mayor’s executive assistant. Even in the episode where she and Buttercup trade bodies, they hide her face. Cute touch. \*\* Nitpick: it was Blossom. Buttercup traded with the Professor. BTW, all **6** episodes of the Clerks series are on the (awesome) DVD. And they dropped the “previously on clerks” thing after 3 or 4. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-gimmicks-ex-you-never-saw-vera/125303/82 "2002-08-27T14:21:08Z")
> [@](#): > > But Kentucky is bordered by the Ohio River, where our submarines patrol day and night to prevent an invasion by troops from, um, Indiana. Hence the vital need for Dan Quayle to have served in the Indiana National Guard while other people were serving militarily in silly places such as Vietnam. Chaim Mattis Keller ---
**Author:** ![tritone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8e7dd6/32.png) [@tritone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tritone)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-gimmicks-ex-you-never-saw-vera/125303/83 "2002-08-27T15:53:43Z")
Back in my _Sesame Street_ days, noone except Big Bird ever got to see Mr Snufalupagus, and none of the other characters believed he existed. I even remember one episode in which Big Bird organised a party so that all his friends could meet Snuffy, but he forgot to invite Snuffy! I was terribly disressed a year or two back to find out that everyone can see Snuffy now [sub]youth of today gnrfnr… what is the world coming to gnrfnr…[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-gimmicks-ex-you-never-saw-vera/125303/84 "2002-08-27T16:02:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tritone \* > \*\*Back in my _Sesame Street_ days, noone except Big Bird ever got to see Mr Snufalupagus, and none of the other characters believed he existed. I even remember one episode in which Big Bird organised a party so that all his friends could meet Snuffy, but he forgot to invite Snuffy! > > I was terribly disressed a year or two back to find out that everyone can see Snuffy now [sub]youth of today gnrfnr… what is the world coming to gnrfnr…[/sub] \*\* In the book Sesame Street Unpaved (a GREAT book for all Sesame Street fans) they explain why they made the change. They were afraid that children would believe that if they told true stories of abuse by elders, no one would believe them, just like no one believed BB about Snuffy. Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![lurkernomore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@lurkernomore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lurkernomore)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-gimmicks-ex-you-never-saw-vera/125303/85 "2002-08-27T17:50:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by TheOnlySaneOne \* > \*\ ***Home Improvement** : You never saw all of Wilson’s face. \*\* Actually, in later seasons they dropped the ruse and we do see him. ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-gimmicks-ex-you-never-saw-vera/125303/86 "2002-08-27T19:17:29Z")
I was under the impression that only on the series’ finale that we got to see Wilson’s face… I missed it unfortunately, and I am still watching for it in reruns. ---
**Author:** ![Skeezix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/839c29/32.png) [@Skeezix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skeezix)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-gimmicks-ex-you-never-saw-vera/125303/87 "2002-08-27T19:41:14Z")
Aye, that’s the way I recalled it too, **Dolores**. As it was, when the cast returns to the stage _after_ the episode, for an on camera curtain call, Wilson’s got a bit of cardboard ‘fence’ on a stick that he holds up in front of his face. He did, as I recall, drop the thing and show his mug on camera, just that one time. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Green\_Fool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df788c/32.png) [@Mr.Green\_Fool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Green_Fool)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-gimmicks-ex-you-never-saw-vera/125303/88 "2002-08-27T21:46:33Z")
In later episodes when Wilson was made more of a “Let’s go over to Wilson’s for dinner” character you saw all of his face but not all at once. The shots would be framed to show onl his eyes of the lef side of his face. So you knew what Wilson looked like but you never saw him clearly. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Green\_Fool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df788c/32.png) [@Mr.Green\_Fool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Green_Fool)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-gimmicks-ex-you-never-saw-vera/125303/89 "2002-08-27T21:47:46Z")
wow… my keyboard is sticky. There’s quite a few missing letters in that post. ---
**Author:** ![Doubting\_Robert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e495f1/32.png) [@Doubting\_Robert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doubting_Robert)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-gimmicks-ex-you-never-saw-vera/125303/90 "2002-08-27T23:30:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CalMeacham \* > \*\*The things about not showing Allan Brady’s face on \*\*The Dick Van Dyke Show \*\* is just _wrong_ – Carl Reiner appeared several times, face and all, on TDVDS (not just the toupee episode). > \*\* To clarify a little here, in the first seasons, you never saw Alan Brady’s face. Carl Reiner appeared in a couple of episodes as other characters (notably as the painter in “October Eve”) and his voice was used for a couple of other off-screen characters. In later seasons, Carl stopped playing other characters and stopped hiding his face in the episodes in which he played Alan Brady. ---
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2002, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-gimmicks-ex-you-never-saw-vera/125303/91 "2002-08-28T06:38:50Z")
Characters whose whole names are deliberately kept obscure, and never revealed or revealed only once. Gilligan The Skipper (actual name Jonas Grundy) The Professor Mrs. Howell Columbo Spenser Quincy (first initial R.) Wilson (full name Wilson Wilson Jr.) MacGyver (first name Angus) And we did get to see Robin Masters in fact: We get to see him in every episode. On _Newhart_, the Darryls never talked or used any facial expression of any kind, but everyone except Dick could understand them perfectly. Their only words in the entire series: “Shut Up!” To their newly married wives in the final episode. It was all a dream/fantasy, used for entire season of one series, and for the entire run of two different tv series, and most of a third: _St. Elsewhere_ was revealed to be the fantasy of an autistic boy who imagined his laborer father as the head of the hospital, and _Newhart_ was revealed to be a bad dream of Bob Hartly from _The Bob Newhart Show_. The Season following Bobby’s death on Dallas was revealed to be a dream by his wife. The final episode of _Roseanne_ revealed that most of the series (from the episode in which Dan remodels the basement into a writing room for Roseanne in season 1 or 2) were actually stories Roseanne wrote about her family in which she rearranged the facts to make the stories more interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2002, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-gimmicks-ex-you-never-saw-vera/125303/92 "2002-08-28T06:41:42Z")
One more Simpsons: The opening scene seldom has anything to do with the main plot of the episode. ---
**Author:** ![BraheSilver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@BraheSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BraheSilver)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2002, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-gimmicks-ex-you-never-saw-vera/125303/93 "2002-08-28T08:05:16Z")
On Just Shoot Me, you always heard about but never see Nina’s friend Vinny (only once, but she was wearing a full face wrap from cosmetic surgery). Opinion on the twist for Rosanne’s last season: good that it turned out the way it did. It was crap. ---
**Author:** ![Kantalooppi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a5b964/32.png) [@Kantalooppi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kantalooppi)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2002, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-gimmicks-ex-you-never-saw-vera/125303/94 "2002-08-28T12:25:48Z")
In **That 70’s Show** we never get to know Fez’s real name or the country he comes from. ---
**Author:** ![Iguana\_Boy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@Iguana\_Boy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iguana_Boy)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2002, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-gimmicks-ex-you-never-saw-vera/125303/95 "2002-08-28T12:31:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kantalooppi \* > \*\*In **That 70’s Show** we never get to know Fez’s real name or the country he comes from. \*\* I suspect that’s more to avoid charges of racism than it is to provide a running gag. ---
**Author:** ![lurkernomore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@lurkernomore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lurkernomore)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2002, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-gimmicks-ex-you-never-saw-vera/125303/96 "2002-08-28T12:36:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Number Six \* > \*\*Characters whose whole names are deliberately kept obscure, and never revealed or revealed only once. > > Gilligan > The Skipper (actual name Jonas Grundy) > The Professor > Mrs. Howell > > \*\* Think it was GrumBy… The Professor was Roy Hinkley. That may have been a movie. I think Lovey Howell was a Wentworth, but they DID give her maiden name in one ep - probably the one where the legitimacy of the minister who married them was in doubt. Other name we never got - 99 in Get Smart. Just when it seemed we got it (Susan Hilton) she admits at the end it was an alias. ---
**Author:** ![elf6c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c57346/32.png) [@elf6c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elf6c)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2002, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-gimmicks-ex-you-never-saw-vera/125303/97 "2002-08-28T12:53:04Z")
> [@](#): > > And we did get to see Robin Masters in fact: That Sir, is a matter of great debate. The series finale still played at that question. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2002, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-gimmicks-ex-you-never-saw-vera/125303/98 "2002-08-28T13:16:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kantalooppi \* > \*\*In **That 70’s Show** we never get to know Fez’s real name or the country he comes from. \*\* I had heard that they didn’t even know his real name. FES was just short for “Foreign Exchange Student”. Are you sure it was supposed to be spelled with a ‘z’? ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2002, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-gimmicks-ex-you-never-saw-vera/125303/99 "2002-08-28T14:22:42Z")
In **Leave it to Beaver** , they never actually said what Ward did for a living. He had clients, accounts, and an office, but they never said what he did. I’m guessing he was a pimp. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2002, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-gimmicks-ex-you-never-saw-vera/125303/100 "2002-08-28T14:58:33Z")
> [@](#): > > I had heard that they didn’t even know his real name. FES was just short for “Foreign Exchange Student”. Are you sure it was supposed to be spelled with a ‘z’? The IMDB lists the name as “Fez” while the episode guide at [TVTome.com](http://TVTome.com) lists it as “Fes”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-gimmicks-ex-you-never-saw-vera/125303.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-gimmicks-ex-you-never-saw-vera/125303.md?page=6)