Characters we've never actually seen

Emelee

Emelee

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I am re-watching Frasier and one of the characters is never seen in any episode, but often referred to. Niles' wife, later ex-wife, Maris Crane. We know a lot about her delicate self, but she never appears on screen.

So I started to think about other characters that the viewers never got to see. JR's daughter on TNT's Dallas for example. Jonny's girlfriend Alison that he sort of shared with another man on Friday Night Dinner. Ugly Naked Man on Friends. Peggy's mum on Married... with Children. Howard's mum on The Big Bang Theory.

Can you remember more characters that we've never actually seen?
 
tommie

tommie

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I think on sitcoms the gag of an "unseen" character works well because they can let the audience build up a gag that's better than anything than they could do on screen (Peggy's mom on MWC is a good example - and no Divine was never supposed to portray her before he died, he was set up to play her uncle I believe). Whenever soaps frequently starts mentioning a character you sort of end up expecting them to turn up at one point, even if only in flashbacks. I can't think of a good example of soap character that was often mentioned, but never seen on screen.
 
tommie

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TJames03 said:
Correct. DIVINE was never supposed to be Peg’s mother, but I’m sure that, if asked, he would have.
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Of course he would've agreed no matter what part they threw at him - it's a shame he went and died just as his big mainstream break was happening.

With that said, I don't think even Divine would've been able to do justice to Peg's off-screen mom. It was always just funnier to keep her appearance in the minds of the audience rather than showing it.

I thought of one soap character that we never got to see - Iris Grant, Sammy Jo's mom and Krystle's sister. It felt like they mentioned her a bit in at least season 2 and during the Daniel Reece storyline, but she never surfaced even in flashbacks.
 
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Daniel Avery

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On Soap they had a running gag about the Kirbys, long-suffering neighbors of the Tates. The Major (Jessica and Mary's father who had PTSD and was still fighting World War II) became convinced they were German spies and blew up their garage. Chester and Jessica were often having to go over to smooth things over.

Peg's off-screen mom on MWC was a better gag without seeing her on screen.

Similarly, I can't imagine how any actor could have done justice to the basket case that was Sheridan Bucket of Keeping Up Appearances.
 
Mel O'Drama

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Miss Cathcart, who made Peggy Ollerenshaw's life hell.

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And Joe Maplin, whose coarse letters - as read verbatim by posh Jeffrey Fairbrother - were the highlight of many an episode (but I think we saw his statue once).
 
Sarah

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I’m not a big enough EastEnders fan to know for sure but I used to watch it.

Did we ever see Mr Popadopalus??
 
Mel O'Drama

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Last Of The Summer Wine had a few. My favourite two being Truly's much-despised ex, "the former Mrs Truelove" and Nelly's henpecked husband Travis.
 
Emelee

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Daniel Avery said:
Peg's off-screen mom on MWC was a better gag without seeing her on screen.

Similarly, I can't imagine how any actor could have done justice to the basket case that was Sheridan Bucket of Keeping Up Appearances.
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I very much agree. Sometimes it's better to keep it to the viewers's own imaginations. They can make up something absolutely iconic up on their own.

I can't even come up with actor suggestions for many of these never seen characters. I don't think any actor/actress could do them justice after all the on-screen talk about them.
 
Daniel Avery

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I don't think they ever showed Vera, Norm's wife on Cheers, did they? (I stopped watching it about 2/3 of the way through).

Consuela, Suzanne's Latina maid, on Designing Women was a constant source of strange stories in the same vein as Karen Walker's maid Rosario on Will and Grace years later. The closest we ever got to seeing Consuela was when Suzanne coerced Anthony into impersonating her to the INS to get her a Green Card. One can only hope Consuela did not look like Meshach Taylor in drag.

"Carlton the Doorman" on Rhoda was never seen but was voiced by Lorenzo Music, who also voiced Garfield in the 1980s cartoons.

"Charlie" of Charlie's Angels was voiced by John Forsythe but I don't think they ever addressed why they kept his identity secret.

Original Magnum PI had the mystery surrounding Robin Masters, but I can't recall if they ever showed him or explained. I think they had Orson Welles voice him at one point?
 
Emelee

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A few more:
  • Mrs Columbo on Columbo
  • George's boss on Seinfeld, only seen from the back
  • Bob Sacamano, Kramer's iconic friend, on Seinfeld
  • Cousin Jeffrey on Seinfeld
  • Diane, the mysterious secretary who Agent Cooper tapes messages to on Twin Peaks
  • Norm's wife Vera on Cheers
  • POTUS on Veep (before Selina took over the title)
  • Jim's brother on Friday Night Dinner, but we did get to meet his cat Watson
  • Charlie on Charlie's Angels, but of course since we all know the voice so well, I think most of us pictured a man looking a lot like Blake Carrington on the other line
 
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GillesDenver

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tommie said:
I thought of one soap character that we never got to see - Iris Grant, Sammy Jo's mom and Krystle's sister. It felt like they mentioned her a bit in at least season 2 and during the Daniel Reece storyline, but she never surfaced even in flashbacks.
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But she was dead back then, just like Kirby's mother.

Alexis' mother was mentioned a few times (at least Alexis quoted her) but we did not know if she was dead or not.
Marin Dexter was mentioned once by her brother Dex but she never showed up.
 
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