Notable Absences (who may or may not eventually show up)
Submitted by buddy on Tue, 02/20/2001 - 09:18
Tags:
- The Usual Suspects - Kaiser Soze
- Cheers - Vera
- Frasier - Merris
- Drew Carey - Mr. Bell
- Waiting for Godot - Godot
- Muppet Babies - Adult heads
- Peanuts - Any adult
- Big Night - Louis Prima
- Psycho - Mother
- Will and Grace - Stan
- Tom and Jerry - Housewife's head
- Home Improvement - Wilson's mouth
Author Comments:
Okay, only one of these is a movie, but I didn't know where else to put this list. It just occurred to me out of the blue. Kind of a useless list, but fun to think about.
In response to lbangs' comment about whether or not these people can really be considered absent - All this list requires is that the person be absent for the bulk of their existence in the work. I won't spoil it for anyone who eventually shows up and who doesn't.
Waiting for Guffman - Guffman
Muppet Babies - Any adult's head
Peanuts - The teacher
I've not seen waiting for Guffman. Thanks for the reminder on MB and Peanuts (all adults in the Peanuts, actually).
Uh, are you sure about number one?
Gee, perhaps you should warn everybody in your title that this entire list may be spoiler material!
Off the top of my head - Rebecca in Rebecca; Louis Prima in Big Night; mother in Psycho (sorta).
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
I'm not really saying that any of these characters never show, it's just that for the better part of their existence in these movies/books/shows, their presence is notably missed. For example Kaiser Soze we do eventually see, and Mr. Bell in Drew Carey made an appearance right before he left the show.
So...by this criteria I will add Louis Prima and the mother in Psycho, but I've not seen Rebecca.
Friends..Emma, lol. Rachel had a baby, then, wow, its gone! lol ok thats a bit harsh but they hardly took much notice after she was born.
Yeah, I guess she didn't make for very interesting viewing. If only real babies were that conveniently tucked away! Raise themselves and we can get on with our coffee-drinking lives, inane-chattering lives. ;)
Another missing person is Stan on Will & Grace.
Oh yeah. I wonder why so many shows do that?
Chuck Cunningham on Happy Days. He was played by two different actors from 1974-1975, then phased out of the show completely and never mentioned again and in later episodes of the show it was stated that the Cunninghams only had two children instead of three.
I think I'll leave this one off, as it seems more an afterthought than a conscious decision to have someone present in the show, but not shown. Thanks, though. Keep 'em coming.
In Tom and Jerry, you can never see the housewife's head.
And in Home Improvement, you never saw neighbour Wilson's mouth. (except for the last episode) and Al's Mom (except her hands once).
No idea if the absence of a body part qualifies as notable absence...
I suppose if I can include missing heads (a la Charlie Brown), I can include someone's mouth. I think it was done in the same spirit as leaving out whole people or their heads.