Favorite character in TV/ Movie character never to appear on screen.

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

You can also include books... Characters who are talked about but are never themselves in any scenes.

It could be a character like Tom Cruise's father in films like Rain Man, A Few Good Men, and Top Gun. Someone who is important to the story and/or the characters but never actually appears.

One of mine is Judge Aaron Satie from TNG's The Drumhead. Not only are his words relevant, today more than ever, h felt like a real person.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Re: Favorite character in TV/ Movie character never to appear on scree

I was going to say Audrey in Fawlty Towers, but then remembered she does actually appear in one episode...

 

[Satyrquaze]

Re: Favorite character in TV/ Movie character never to appear on scree

Vera, Norm's wife on Cheers?

 

[1001001]

Re: Favorite character in TV/ Movie character never to appear on scree

Maris, Niles' wife on Frasier.

The stuff she did, and what they said about her was hilarious.

 

[od0_ital]

Re: Favorite character in TV/ Movie character never to appear on scree

Vera, Norm's wife on Cheers?

Vera was seen, though!

The Thanksgiving episode where the gang gathered at Carla's, Vera showed up & got a pie in the face. She even had dialogue as the credits came up.

 

[Mysterion]

Re: Favorite character in TV/ Movie character never to appear on scree

Carlton (the Doorman) from Rhoda. We heard him, but IIRC, we never saw him. Very funny, and later was the voice for Garfield, IIRC.

 

[Skellington]

Re: Favorite character in TV/ Movie character never to appear on scree

'Er Indoors - Minder.
Godot - Waiting For Godot.
Charlie - Charlie's Angels.

Honorary mention to Sauron, the titular Lord Of The Rings, who doesn't appear in the main narrative (and in the book neither appears nor has any dialogue).

 

[auntiehill]

Re: Favorite character in TV/ Movie character never to appear on scree

Godot!

Maris, Niles' wife on Frasier.

The stuff she did, and what they said about her was hilarious.

Maris is definitely on the top of my list.

Columbo's wife was never seen on screen, but they did eventually give her a spin off

 

[1001001]

Re: Favorite character in TV/ Movie character never to appear on scree

Godot!

Maris, Niles' wife on Frasier.

The stuff she did, and what they said about her was hilarious.

Maris is definitely on the top of my list.

Columbo's wife was never seen on screen, but they did eventually give her a spin off

Yes, starring Kate Mulgrew!

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Re: Favorite character in TV/ Movie character never to appear on scree

Maris, Niles' wife on Frasier.

The stuff she did, and what they said about her was hilarious.

It's ironic that they originally planned on her eventually appearing on screen at some point, just not in the early episodes. But as it went on, they found that the descriptions of her just kept getting more and more implausible, to the point where they just didn't feel like they could ever find an actress who could embody all of those qualities.

The closest we ever came to seeing her was in a few scenes where she was in the next room or on the other side of the room and the other characters could see her but we couldn't. There was one episode on a cruise ship where Frasier & Roz were hiding in the bathroom of Maris' cabin and Roz was spying through the keyhole to make sure the coast was clear.
Roz: "I don't see her. All I see is her coat on a coat rack."
Frasier: "Look closer. Is the coat rack moving?"
Roz: "Oh my god!"

Rimmer on Red Dwarf seemed fairly thoroughly warped by his family, defining his twisted psyche for the entire series, but we never really saw them. I don't think we ever saw his father or any of his brothers. His mother appeared twice only very briefly (as a version of the Polymorph making out with Lister in "Polymorph" and in a brief flashback at the beginning of "Dimension Jump"). We did see a whole bunch of his distant cousins when the mutated photo developing fluid brought an old wedding photo to life in "Time Slides," but I don't think they count.

I don't think we ever met any of Lenny Briscoe's ex-wives on Law & Order or John Munch's oft-complained-about ex-wives & girlfriends on Homicide: Life on the Street. However, we did finally meet Gwen Munch (John Munch's ex-wife who also, incidentally, slept with Lenny Briscoe) on a later episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Speaking of Homicide ex-wives, I don't think we ever saw the ex-wives of Giardello, Bolander, or Crosetti either.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Re: Favorite character in TV/ Movie character never to appear on scree

^ Rimmer's father appeared in "Better than Life." And one of his brothers was the groom in the wedding photo in "Timeslides."

 

[ClayinCA]

Re: Favorite character in TV/ Movie character never to appear on scree

My current favorite Person You Never See is Howard Wolowitz' mother on The Big Bang Theory. The voice actress who plays her is brilliant, so good that no visual representation could ever match it.

For all-time favorites, though, it has to be the families on M*A*S*H:

Hawkeye's father
BJ's wife and daughter
Charles' sister
Burns' wife
Mulcahy's sister (the Sister)
Radar's Uncle Ed (with honorable mention to Radar's mother, played by Gary Burghoff in drag in some home movies)
Klinger's family
And another honorable mention to Mildred Potter, who was "played" by a photo of Harry Morgan's real-life wife and by Barbara Townsend in AfterMASH (which doesn't count ).

 

[Owain Taggart]

Re: Favorite character in TV/ Movie character never to appear on scree

Al's Mom in Home Improvement Often mentioned, but never seen.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Re: Favorite character in TV/ Movie character never to appear on scree

Bob Sacamano, from Seinfeld. The stories Kramer told about him made him sound hilarious.

 

[od0_ital]

Re: Favorite character in TV/ Movie character never to appear on scree

BJ's wife and daughter

Who were both seen in the episode about BJ's anniversary, through a home movie.

Pretty sure Uncle Ed was in Radar's home movie, too.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Re: Favorite character in TV/ Movie character never to appear on scree

Two characters from The Red Green Show:

- Bernice (Red's wife). The only thing we ever see is her arm reaching around to close the front door of their house in one episode.

- Ann-Marie (Dalton's wife). Only time we ever see HER is in the final episode where she and Dalton renew their wedding vows. The veil is covering her face.

Oh, and not sure if this counts as a character, but I'd say Anthony Anthony. He's a self-help guru that Winston Rothschild is obsessed with. Author of books such as Don't Have A Crappy Life and If Your Life Stinks, Don't Inhale.

 

[auntiehill]

Re: Favorite character in TV/ Movie character never to appear on scree

My current favorite Person You Never See is Howard Wolowitz' mother on The Big Bang Theory. The voice actress who plays her is brilliant, so good that no visual representation could ever match it.

For all-time favorites, though, it has to be the families on M*A*S*H:

Hawkeye's father
BJ's wife and daughter
Charles' sister
Burns' wife
Mulcahy's sister (the Sister)
Radar's Uncle Ed (with honorable mention to Radar's mother, played by Gary Burghoff in drag in some home movies)
Klinger's family
And another honorable mention to Mildred Potter, who was "played" by a photo of Harry Morgan's real-life wife and by Barbara Townsend in AfterMASH (which doesn't count ).

BJ's wife and daughter

Who were both seen in the episode about BJ's anniversary, through a home movie.

Pretty sure Uncle Ed was in Radar's home movie, too.

Also Frank Burns' wife, Louise, was seen in season 3's "There Is Nothing Like a Nurse" (in a home movie). She was played by Jeanne Schulherr, who showed up later as a nurse.

 

[Christopher]

Re: Favorite character in TV/ Movie character never to appear on scree

Columbo's wife was never seen on screen, but they did eventually give her a spin off

No, the character who was claimed to be Mrs. Columbo in the show that started out with that name was completely unlike the character described in the original show. Even the show itself quickly abandoned the conceit that its lead character had any connection with Lt. Columbo, changing the title to Kate Loves a Mystery and turning her into a divorcee who went by her maiden name. And when Columbo returned to the airwaves in the '80s-'90s, he was still married to the genuine Mrs. Columbo. Although I think there was a gag in one installment of the new series where Columbo passed off a photo of Mulgrew (?) as his wife, but it then turned out to be a ruse and it was actually a picture of her cousin Kate. (Or something like that. It's in "Rest in Peace, Mrs. Columbo," if anyone wants to check and see if I've totally misremembered that.)

 

[Kirby]

Re: Favorite character in TV/ Movie character never to appear on scree

Maris from Frasier was the first one to come to mind. I love the bit about when she was in jail and just walked out between the bars of her cell.

 

[Bob Karo]

Re: Favorite character in TV/ Movie character never to appear on scree

BILL BRASKY!