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Invisible, Nonexistant Characters

R

RicoGregg

I couldn't help but notice that the producers of both Cheers and Frasier used an invisible wife character, Norm Peterson's wife Vera, and Niles Crane's first wife Maris, who were never actually seen or heard, but yet had some kind of presence on their respective shows.

Charlie's Angels had Charlie, who was never seen, but could be heard on the phone.

Deal or No Deal had "The Banker", who only made the phone buzz.

Are there others?
 
After Gracie Allen retired in 1958, the new "The George Burns Show" continued to refer to Gracie even though she was never seen. In fact, her presence was still strong. Some episodes had Bea Benaderet's character "Blanche Morton" making sure that George did not stray when confronted by starlets who graced George's show buisness job.
 
The perpetually sitting John Beresford Tipton, Jr., on "The Millionaire" pretty much only had his arm shown on camera.

Gladys Porter (Pete's wife) wasn't shown on "December Bride"--but was a title character on the spinoff ("Pete and Gladys").

On "Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad", Sam Collins' sister (Elizabeth) was only heard.

White Fang and Black Tooth (of Soupy Sales fame) only had their paws visible.

On "Richard Diamond, Private Detective", his secretary (Sam) only had her legs visible.
 
Vera actually was on the Thanksgiving food fight episode of Cheers with a pie in her face.

Several characters from The Red Green Show:
Red's wife Berniece
Old Man Sedgwick
Stinky Peterson
Moose Thompson
Buster Hatfield

Would George Steinbrenner on Seinfeld count since he was only seen from the back? Also, would he be the only unseen character based on a real person?
 
Can we count Wilson in Home Improvement? IIRC, you could see him from the eyes up, but the rest of him was behind that fence.
 
johnbasalla said:
After Gracie Allen retired in 1958, the new "The George Burns Show" continued to refer to Gracie even though she was never seen. In fact, her presence was still strong. Some episodes had Bea Benaderet's character "Blanche Morton" making sure that George did not stray when confronted by starlets who graced George's show buisness job.
Click to expand...

While I can understand this as a plot device, it was well known how much George loved Gracie in real life. Keeping George away from the "Starlets" should never be an issue.
 
firepoint525 said:
Howie's mom on Big Bang Theory, heard (loudly!) but as far as I know, never seen
Jenny Piccolo on Happy Days, at least until the later seasons
The little red-haired girl on most Peanuts specials
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There was one Peanuts special where Charlie Brown finally meets the Little Red Haired Girl, but I can't remember which one.

Grownups on most if not all Peanuts specials were only heard with the WAH WAH WAH trombone sound.

From MASH:
Hawkeye's dad
BJ's wife Peg, although she was in a home movie for their wedding anniversary in one episode
Col. Potter's wife Mildred
Charles's sister Honoria, although she was heard on tape on one episode
Klinger's wife (and later ex-wife) Laverne
Radar's mother, although once there was a home movie with Gary Burghoff fixed up to look like her.
Sparky, the company clerk from another unit that Radar talked to at times, was only seen once.
 
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LKellerIII said:
Can we count Wilson in Home Improvement? IIRC, you could see him from the eyes up, but the rest of him was behind that fence.
Click to expand...
I meant to mention him, but I hardly ever watched that show, so he was not one of the first ones to cross my mind. I believe that you could definitely count him for this thread.

As for Jenny Piccolo, who I mentioned earlier, you could say that her introduction into the show was yet another indication that Happy Days had jumped the shark. But at the same, Richie, Potsie, and Ralph were sort of "aging out" of the show, and had maybe even been written out of the show by then, hence more focus on Joanie, who was getting older herself by then, along with Chachi, so maybe the introduction of a "real" Jenny was just a natural progression in the show. Prior to that, Jenny was only mentioned by Joanie, who was sort of a brat in the show's early years, and not really the focus of any episodes.
 
anotherguy said:
There was one Peanuts special where Charlie Brown finally meets the Little Red Haired Girl, but I can't remember which one.
Grownups on most if not all Peanuts specials were only heard with the WAH WAH WAH trombone sound.
Click to expand...
Heather actually appears (albeit briefly) in the New Year's special in which Charlie lugs around War and Peace for most of the episode, which was as big as a dictionary or a family Bible! She also made a brief appearance in another Peanuts special (drawn completely differently), but I don't remember which one that it was.
 
The Mary Tyler Moore Show had a non-existent character, Lars, Phyllis's husband. He was always talked about, but was never seen or heard. When Chloris Leachman got her own show, Phyllis was made a widow, rather than bringing in someone to play Lars. That would have been one character I would have liked to see in the Mary Tyler Show, or Phyllis.
 
Mama's Family did a flashback scene to a time, years earlier, when Thelma's husband was still alive. However, he was not ever seen in that scene (that I recall, anyway). He was only represented by a toilet flushing, as he was hiding out in the bathroom.
 
"Mork & Mindy": Orson, Mork's contact back on Ork; Mork reported to him the lesson he'd learned that week at the end of the episode (Garry Marshall's concession to adding some educational value to the
show). Orson was voiced by Ralph James, who sounded a bit like Orson Welles, or at least enough that some viewers thought it was Orson Welles.

Another is Mr. Dunahy in the Joe the Bartender sketches on "The Jackie Gleason Show." Joe would talk to him, then bring out Crazy Guggenheim,who always said, "Hello, Joe. Hello, Mr. Dunahy. A-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-UH! Hee, hee, hee!"

And for a little soap trivia: the character of Holly on "Guiding Light" was once married to a man named Lindsey, yet we never saw or learned anything about him (I presume she was married to him during a period when Maureen Garrett, who played Holly, was off the show, because when she came back, Holly was linking up with Roger Thorpe again).
 
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anotherguy said:
From MASH:
Hawkeye's dad
BJ's wife Peg, although she was in a home movie for their wedding anniversary in one episode
Col. Potter's wife Mildred
Charles's sister Honoria, although she was heard on tape on one episode
Klinger's wife (and later ex-wife) Laverne
Radar's mother, although once there was a home movie with Gary Burghoff fixed up to look like her.
Sparky, the company clerk from another unit that Radar talked to at times, was only seen once.
Click to expand...

While all true, I think these characters fall outside of the intent of this subject. I think 'Invisible Nonexistent Characters' would be people who could/should be a part of the program but never seen. Family members of the 4077th would've had to come to Korea.

A better MASH example is the Giant Voice Announcer usually spoken by Sal Viscuso.
 
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