# The most famous non-existent people on TV **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 24, 2007, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-famous-non-existent-people-on-tv/389340 "2007-01-24T23:53:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-famous-non-existent-people-on-tv/389340/21 "2007-01-25T03:38:54Z")
[QUOTE=Valteron] Pete Porter’s wife Gladys on December Bride (if you remember that you are really dating yourself). [/QUOTE] Gladys eventually showed up, not in _December Bride_, but in the spinoff _Pete and Gladys._ From roughly the same time period, Angela Valentine, Beaver Cleaver’s six-toed classmate, who several times brought the class to a halt by throwing up. On the other hand, you have characters like Chuck Cunningham on _Happy Days_ that somehow ceased to exist by the end of the show’s run (Mrs. C’s comment about her two wonderful children. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-famous-non-existent-people-on-tv/389340/22 "2007-01-25T03:46:22Z")
[QUOTE=kunilou] On the other hand, you have characters like Chuck Cunningham on _Happy Days_ that somehow ceased to exist by the end of the show’s run (Mrs. C’s comment about her two wonderful children. [/QUOTE] He didn’t cease to exist! He just got shipped off to prison! He wasn’t such a wonderful child. ---
**Author:** ![5\_time\_champ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/278dde/32.png) [@5\_time\_champ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5_time_champ)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-famous-non-existent-people-on-tv/389340/23 "2007-01-25T03:47:09Z")
On _Hill Street Blues_ Detective Mick Belker used to have a lot of phone conversations with his mother. I don’t think we ever saw her on camera. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-famous-non-existent-people-on-tv/389340/24 "2007-01-25T04:30:52Z")
[QUOTE=teela brown] Al Borland’s mom from _Home Improvement_. That is, _I_ never saw her appear in any episodes. [/QUOTE] I’m pretty sure we never saw her. She died in one of the last episodes, which finally allowed Al to be free of her and led to him marrying his girlfriend. The funeral featured a huge coffin, with about a dozen pallbearers 😃 BTW, we never saw Tim Taylor’s boss, Mr. Binford, either. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-famous-non-existent-people-on-tv/389340/25 "2007-01-25T04:42:19Z")
I don’t think we ever saw “Scary Naked Guy” who lived in an apartment with windows facing Monica & Rachel’s apartment in _Friends_. He is referenced many times, and Ross even got naked with him once. We sometimes hear (Waa-waawaa. Wa-waa) but don’t see any adults in the Peanuts cartoons. In Mork & Mindy, Mork ended each episode with a report to his boss, Orson, whom we hear but don’t see. ---
**Author:** ![PastAllReason](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f07891/32.png) [@PastAllReason](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastAllReason)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-famous-non-existent-people-on-tv/389340/26 "2007-01-25T04:59:59Z")
[QUOTE=Tangent] I don’t think we ever saw “Scary Naked Guy” who lived in an apartment with windows facing Monica & Rachel’s apartment in _Friends_. He is referenced many times, and Ross even got naked with him once. [/QUOTE] In the episode that Ross got naked with him, we saw “parts” of him. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-famous-non-existent-people-on-tv/389340/27 "2007-01-25T09:59:49Z")
A somewhat comprehensive list is on [wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unseen_character) . ---
**Author:** ![dbuzman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de0a6/32.png) [@dbuzman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dbuzman)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-famous-non-existent-people-on-tv/389340/28 "2007-01-25T10:48:05Z")
[QUOTE=Valteron] \ Norm’s wife Vera on Cheers \ [/QUOTE] Vera was shown. She either had an affair or Norm thought she was having one. But she did appear on the show. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Dumbest\_Guy\_in\_the\_Room](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5fc32e/32.png) [@The\_Dumbest\_Guy\_in\_the\_Room](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Dumbest_Guy_in_the_Room)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-famous-non-existent-people-on-tv/389340/29 "2007-01-25T11:20:02Z")
Is Mr Kim on _Gilmore Girls_ still supposed to exist, or are they just forgetting about early references to ‘parents’? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-famous-non-existent-people-on-tv/389340/30 "2007-01-25T11:47:21Z")
[QUOTE=dbuzman] Vera was shown. She either had an affair or Norm thought she was having one. But she did appear on the show. [/QUOTE] The only time I remember her appearing was when they had a Thanksgiving episode where a food fight broke out, and Vera’s only appearance has her covered in whipped cream. I think she was played by George Wendt’s real wife. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-famous-non-existent-people-on-tv/389340/31 "2007-01-25T13:20:51Z")
Bob Kelso’s wife on _Scrubs_. The Senior Partners of Wolfram & Hart on _Angel_. (OK, one of them, once. But he was taking the shape of a lesser demon, and was wearing a hood, so we never actually SAW him.) ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-famous-non-existent-people-on-tv/389340/32 "2007-01-25T13:23:17Z")
The parents of every Disney child character. They all have uncles but never seem to have a mom or a dad ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-famous-non-existent-people-on-tv/389340/33 "2007-01-25T13:51:03Z")
Another unseen M_A_S\*H character was Sparky. All the grownups on any Peanuts special ---
**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:** [January 25, 2007, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-famous-non-existent-people-on-tv/389340/34 "2007-01-25T14:00:56Z")
> [@](#): > > Carlton the Doorman from Rhoda. More than heard, Carlton was actually _seen_ (except for his head) while carrying something out of the apartment. I’ve always wondered if it was really Lorenzo Music we saw. As for **M_A_S\*H** , what I wanna know is who was the voice on the loudspeaker supposed to be? The mike was in the CO’s tent, but it wasn’t Blake, Potter, Radar, or Klinger. It was always the samer, unidentified voice, and in no episode did we see someone who had a voice like that. So who was it? ---
**Author:** ![Bewildebeest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@Bewildebeest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bewildebeest)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-famous-non-existent-people-on-tv/389340/35 "2007-01-25T14:01:36Z")
Did we ever see “Mad Uncle Eimar” from the original “The Addams Family” TV show? ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-famous-non-existent-people-on-tv/389340/36 "2007-01-25T14:24:03Z")
I always thought the voice annoucing incoming wounded was Radar, who in the movie and at the beginning of the series was more than a little psychic, and knew when the choppers were coming (or the phone would ring) before anyone else. StG ---
**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:** [January 25, 2007, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-famous-non-existent-people-on-tv/389340/37 "2007-01-25T14:29:35Z")
> [@](#): > > I always thought the voice annoucing incoming wounded was Radar, who in the movie and at the beginning of the series was more than a little psychic, and knew when the choppers were coming (or the phone would ring) before anyone else. > > StG But it doesn’t sound like Radar, and after Radar left, the same voice continued over the Speaker. Plus, you heard it even when you saw Radar outside. The voice was Someone Else. The Magic Voice of the 2077th. ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-famous-non-existent-people-on-tv/389340/38 "2007-01-25T15:37:58Z")
Joanie’s best friend Jenny Piccalo wasn’t seen on Happy Days until Cathy Silvers played her in Season 8. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Prize](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d2c977/32.png) [@Sir\_Prize](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Prize)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-famous-non-existent-people-on-tv/389340/39 "2007-01-25T16:00:29Z")
> [@](#): > > Who made the “incoming wounded” announcements over the P.A. system? > > Two actors, Todd Susman and Sal Viscuso, primarily did them. Coincidentally, they also appeared as characters in various episodes. Gary Burghoff + Jamie Farr were the only regular cast members to occasionally make the “incoming wounded” announcement. –From IMDB [http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt0068098/faq](http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt0068098/faq) ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-famous-non-existent-people-on-tv/389340/40 "2007-01-25T16:01:10Z")
Two characters we originally weren’t going to see when the shows were developed, but did, were the President in “The West Wing” and Alan Brady in “The Dick Van Dyke Show”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-famous-non-existent-people-on-tv/389340.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-famous-non-existent-people-on-tv/389340.md?page=3)