History Main / AbsenteeActor

* ActorLeavesCharacterDies: An actor doesn't come back for a next episode or sequel, and the character portrayed by the actor is explained as having died.

* McLeaned: An actor doesn't come back for a next episode or sequel, and the character portrayed by the actor is explained as having died.

[[WMG:[[center:[[AC:This trope is [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1640644198054839600 under discussion]] in the Administrivia/TropeRepairShop.]]]]]]

* NotImportantToThisEpisodeCamp: The plot of the episode does not include kid characters who are important to the plot, so their absence is quickly explained.

If an internal link led you here, please correct the link to point to the right page.

* ADayInTheLimelight: A secondary character gets an featured in an episode where they are the main focus.

* NotImportantToThisEpisodeCamp: The plot of the episode does not include an important character, so their absence is quickly explained.

* RetGone: When all signs of a characters existence have been wiped out in-universe.

->'''Sprig:''' Do you ever think it's weird when the main characters aren't in an episode?\\
'''Anne:''' Eh, you don't miss 'em.
-->-- ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'', "[[Recap/AmphibiaS2E29MaddieAndMarcy Maddie & Marcy]]"[[note]]This scene is their only appearance in the episode.[[/note]]

So you're watching your favorite show, and it has LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters. This particular week's [[ADayInTheLimelight focus]] is on the BetaCouple, [[LowerDeckEpisode lower decks]], [[GeodesicCast an icosahedron]], or even the CastHerd. In any event, some people we haven't seen much of or in a while are taking center stage... but what's this? Why are some of the ''main'' characters completely absent? Did their actor get [[RealLifeWritesThePlot sick? Pregnant? Sacked?]] [[BreadEggsMilkSquick Killed?]]

For some reason, we have an Absentee Actor for a character (main or bit) whose presence would be either plot-relevant or at least plausible in the episode, and is completely absent for the episode. They don't even get a non-speaking cameo even though they should be involved with the plot at hand, or at least present in the location. It stretches belief for Bob and Alice to have a long chat in Mary's Bar and there be no Mary in sight (especially since it turns out she and Alice were just revealed to be fraternal twins separated at birth last episode).

The reason usually has something to do with RealLife. Maybe the actor ''is'' sick or otherwise unavailable — but not ''so'' unavailable that the writers have to [[DroppedABridgeOnHim drop a bridge on them]] or [[PutOnABus put them on a round trip bus]]. Maybe the producers need to save money and can't afford to pay them for the episode (hey, every dollar saved goes to pay for that big grand SeasonFinale!) — in fact, some actors' contracts restrict them to appearing in only a certain number of episodes each season. After all, ''you'' get days off work — sometimes actors do, too! Maybe there was just nothing for the character to do that episode. If it's a LowerDeckEpisode then it could easily be said the character was just doing something else that day, but usually explanations for the absence given in show are way too flimsy to explain a total absence — just how unavailable can bald, [[TheCaptain Captain]] [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Picard]] be if he's at the hair salon for this week's crisis?

See also FakeShemp. Compare WrittenInAbsence, where they at least write in a (flimsy) reason for the character not to be there. Contrast with PromotionToOpeningTitles, when an actor that has been present starts getting acknowledged in the credits.

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!!Examples:
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!!Works with their own pages:

[[index]]
* AbsenteeActor/EurovisionSongContest
[[/index]]
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[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Animation]]
* Not every episode of ''Animation/HappyHeroes'' features all five heroes; for example, Season 2 episode 37 features appearances from Careless S. and Smart S., but none of the others.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* ''Manga/TheDisastrousLifeOfSaikiK'' has one in Chapter 29, which instead focuses on Toritsuka being [[AccidentalPervert mistaken for a pervert]]. Saiki [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this at the end.
->[[quoteblock]] '''Saiki''': Why wasn't I in this episode? [[/quoteblock]]
* ''Anime/DigimonFusion'' can be pretty bad at this at times. Especially with Beelzebumon, who despite stating that he'll ''always'' be somewhere near Taiki to help out if he ever needs him, still has a tendency to be completely absent for several episodes straight with no explanation given. Gets even weirder when one considers that his voice actor Creator/DaisukeKishio [[TalkingToHimself voiced at least two other recurring characters in the show]], and even in episodes where Beelzebumon didn't appear, one of his other roles would often be there anyway.
* ''Anime/GalaxyAngel'' does this, along with [[WrittenInAbsence written-in absences]], every few episodes (and to varying degrees). Milfeulle, Forte, Ranpha, Mint, and Vanilla, all take turns disappearing from episodes, giving the audience a chance to focus on specific groupings and pairings such as Milfeulle/Forte/Ranpha only, or Mint/Vanilla. Taken to this trope's [[LogicalExtreme logical extreme]] in that over the run of all seasons collectively, every girl has at least [[ADayInTheLimelight one episode]] that ''solely'' depicts them with the absence of all four other girls. This all said, there's just as many episodes in which this trope isn't used at all, and all five Brigade members are present and active.
* An important plot point in ''Manga/SayonaraZetsubouSensei'', all of the main characters are never seen together, not even in the openings, when they stand side by side. And if you pay attention, you'll notice that the [[ThePollyanna optimistic, enthusiastic and energetic protagonist, Kafuka Fuura]], [[StepfordSmiler albeit, one whose smile is probably covering up her]] [[HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood traumatic past]], is almost never present during them, except for [[AnimationBump full openings, or specials]]. [[spoiler:It's because she died long before the series began, and began to inhabit her classmates' bodies after they each got her donor organs, in order to stop the entire class - and probably even the whole of Japan - from committing suicide. In the end, her entire class forget that she even existed, except from the teacher, Itoshiki Nozomu, who ends up marrying and divorcing his entire class - including Jun Kudou, the only male to be possessed by Kafuka - in order to find her. A very odd and sad end to a long running and darkly comic Gag Series.]]
* ''Manga/SgtFrog'': In several later episodes, Koyuki just disappears. When she doesn't have a speaking role, she often isn't even drawn among the students in Natsumi's class.
* Since the main character actually is two separate people in ''Manga/CaseClosed'', this happens a few times during the series VERY long run. But most notably, during one and a half of the Scarlet return episodes (Episode 779-783), Conan/Shinichi succeeds to be almost completely absent AND contribute to the plot at the same time. [[spoiler: Liar.]]
* ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'':
** Prior to the Best Wishes series, in which they started to appear less frequently, Team Rocket trio was absent only in a couple of episodes: "Pokémon - I Choose You!" (the very first episode) and "Ash and May! Heated Battles of Hoenn!!" (a clip show which recapped Ash's Gym Battles and May's Contests in the Hoenn region [[NoExportForYou that was never dubbed]]).
** There were a couple of ''Diamond & Pearl'' series episodes where Dawn's Piplup and/or Jessie's Wobbuffet don't appear such as "The Keystone Pops!".
** A number of episodes in the ''Sun & Moon'' series have only one of Ash's classmates appear alongside him, for example Sophocles is the only one appearing in "A Shocking Grocery Run!".
** The thirty-second episode of ''Pokémon Journeys'' is the first in the entire series to not feature Ash or Pikachu.
* The Garlic Jr. Saga from ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' is the only arc where Goku is completely absent from the story as he was lost in space following his battle with Frieza, making it the only time where he doesn't save the day in some way.
* ''Manga/MissKobayashisDragonMaid'':
** Chapter 61 is the only one to completely lack Kobayashi, Tohru, Kanna, and Ilulu.
** There are chapters taking place in Kobayashi's apartment in ''Kanna's Daily Life'' where Ilulu is completely absent, even when she should logically be present (or at least mentioned). This is lampshaded during her first appearance, with a caption that says "sometimes she's here, sometimes she isn't."
* ''Anime/EigaTamagotchiHimitsuNoOtodokeDaiSakusen'', the short film made to [[MilestoneCelebration celebrate the 20th anniversary]] of the ''Toys/{{Tamagotchi}}'' toys, features quite a few characters from throughout the series' history, including some from the original 90's toys that never appeared in the [[Anime/{{Tamagotchi}} TV show preceding the short]]. However, Himespetchi, the space princess character who is known for her crush on main character Mametchi, doesn't even appear as one of the background cameos, which seems strange as she's a notable character in the modern incarnations of the franchise and serves a major role in several episodes of the TV show.
* Max is inexplicably absent in episode 22 of ''Anime/InazumaEleven'' when he should normally be seen training with the others. This is the only season 1 episode where he doesn't appear, but in the next two seasons he's PutOnABus, first for being stuck in the hospital and next for failing to qualify for Japan's national team.
* Ataru one of the two leads from ''Anime/UruseiYatsura'' is completely absent from episode 113, the episode focuses on Ran running in fear of Oyuki, while Lum and Benten tag along to assure Ran that Okyuki isn't going to harm her for taking her lemming.
* ''Manga/BlackLagoon'': Benny and Dutch are absent for "Fujiyama Gangster Paradise" and all but the first quarter of "The Wired Red Wild Card". In the former, [[TheMafiya Balalaika]] hired Rock as a translator for her trip to Japan and Revy went with him as a bodyguard. In the latter, Rock and Revy stay behind in Roanapur and are the focus of the story, while the other two leave on an easy courier run, because Benny decided to bring his girlfriend Jane along for the ride and Rock and Revy [[TheImmodestOrgasm don't want to have to listen to them]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* Old Lace was conspicuously absent for much of Creator/TerryMoore's run on ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}''.
* ''ComicBook/SuskeEnWiske'': In some of the older ''Suske en Wiske'' stories Lambik or either Sidonia were sometimes absent, despite having been added to the main cast already. Vandersteen was still experimenting with his characters in those days and sometimes tried having Suske, Wiske and Lambik going alone on adventure, other times tried to have Sidonia and the children do the same, without Lambik.
* ''ComicBook/{{Tintin}}'': After being introduced to the main cast in the series Thomson and Thompson appear in all albums, except for ''Recap/TintinTintinInTibet'' and ''Recap/TintinFlight714''.
* ''ComicStrip/{{Nero}}'': A character named Jef Pedal was part of the main cast in the early albums, [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome then disappeared from the series without any explanation]]. He reappeared in some of the later color albums, but always for a quick cameo and it was never made clear why he had left the series.
* While Creator/HarveyComics had many junk food ads featuring its characters, Little Lotta was never included in any of them, for obvious reasons.
* As the ''ComicBook/{{Madballs}}'' comic book published by defunct Creator/MarvelComics subsidiary Star Comics started introducing the second series Madballs and the Super Madballs into the series, stories started only featuring a handful of the Madballs with no explanation given for why the other Madballs were absent. The first, second, third, fourth, and ninth issues were the only issues where every existing Madball was present in at least one story.
* All the heroes introduced so far in ComicBook/UltimateMarvel took part at some point or another during the ''ComicBook/UltimateGalactusTrilogy'', except for ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* ''Fanfic/CalvinAndHobbesTheSeries:''
** In the episode "Roughin' It," only the titular duo is present.
** Lampshaded in "Cyberboy", as Calvin and Hobbes argue over whether the peaceful beginning means a BreatherEpisode or an upcoming villain attack. Calvin believes that it can't be the former, since everyone is present - the series' Breather Episodes usually only have him and Hobbes.
* In ''Fanfic/IrrationalFear'', a fanfiction of ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'', Lincoln, his parents, and nine of his sisters are all mentioned at least in passing, but there isn't even an allusion to Leni.
* In the ''Fanfic/ThePrayerWarriors'' fic "[[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic The Prayer Ponies]]", Rarity is the only one of the Mane Six who does not appear, and no explanation is given. By contrast, the other ''Prayer Warriors'' fics made a token effort to include the entire main cast of their respective works, even if they weren't in character.
* [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/204995/where-was-spike This]] fanfic uses the trope as its premise, explaining what off-screen adventures Spike was having whenever he no-showed during an episode of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films — Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/PoohsGrandAdventure'':
** Kanga and Roo were the only characters did not appear in ''The Search for Christopher Robin''.
** Owl never appeared in ''A Very Merry Pooh Year'', and neither him nor Christopher Robin appeared in ''Springtime with Roo'' and ''Pooh's Heffalump Halloween Movie''.
* In ''WesternAnimation/RecessSchoolsOut'', Cornchip Girl and Menlo are the only minor supporting characters did not appear in the movie.
* Despite the first two being present from day one in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueWar'' and the latter joining in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueThroneOfAtlantis'', Green Lantern, Shazam, and Aquaman are nowhere to be seen in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueVsTeenTitans''; in fact, unlike GL and Shazam, Aquaman even isn't even mentioned, though it's likely his duties as Atlantis's king are why he's not helping the League in ''Vs. Teen Titans''.
* Gantu did not appear in ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch2StitchHasAGlitch''.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTheMovie2017'':
** Rarity's cat Opalescence did not appear. Applejack's dog Winonna did not appear either. Neither did Pinkie Pie's sister Maud Pie, but she can be seen in a picture Pinkie Pie was holding.
** The total lack of the Royal Guards when The Storm Kings' Army invades Canterlot, as Creator/JoshScorcher points out in his review of the movie.
--->'''[[TranquilFury Josh Scorcher]]''': Where... are... [[SuddenlyShouting THE GUARDS?!]] You know, the separate military battalions that have appeared during [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E25ACanterlotWeddingPart1 A Cante]][[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E26ACanterlotWeddingPart2 rlot Wedding]] ''and'' [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E1PrincessTwilightSparklePart1 Princess Twil]][[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E2PrincessTwilightSparklePart2 ight Sparkle]]? The ones whose ''Captain'' is married to one of the Princesses and ''Brother'' of the main character? The ones who are supposed to protect their country from all threats Foreign and Domestic? The ones who should probably be hanging around an important government-sanctioned festival to providing security '''BECAUSE IT'S THEIR F*CKING JOB?!''' [[TheGuardsMustBeCrazy We don't see a single one! Not even the aforementioned Shining Armor!]] Why is it that as the series progresses we're seeing the Royal Guards less-and-less?
** Immediately afterwards, Josh points out that the Movie itself takes place between Seasons 7 and 8, and points out that not only are the Royal Guards and Shining Armor absent from the film, but also characters like [[GooGooGodlike Princess Flurry Heart]] and [[PrecursorHero The Pillars of Virtue]] aren't even seen or mentioned to name a few of the LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters that were already part of the series up to that point.
--->'''Josh Scorcher''': It feels like a lot of stupidity has to go down in order for this movie to happen... [[TakeThat like]] ''[[Film/HomeAlone Home Alone]].''
* Everest and Tracker were completely absent in ''WesternAnimation/PawPatrolTheMovie''. Same thing with Robo-Pup and the Mighty Twins Tuck and Ella.
* Pearl did not appear in ''WesternAnimation/TheSpongeBobMovieSpongeOnTheRun''.
* Downplayed in the ''WesternAnimation/MortalKombatLegends'' duology in that while the actors mentioned ''did'' voice roles in them, they're also credited as voicing characters who didn't appear.
** ''WesternAnimation/MortalKombatLegendsScorpionsRevenge'' sees Creator/RobinAtkinDownes credited as the voice of Shinnok in addition to Kano. Granted, Downes ''did'' voice Shinnok in ''Battle of the Realms'', but the character was TheGhost in ''Scorpion's Revenge''.
** ''WesternAnimation/MortalKombatLegendsBattleOfTheRealms'' sees Creator/GreyDeLisle-Griffin credited as vocing Mileena, in addition to returning as Kitana and [[CrossDressingVoices Satoshi Hasashi]], and Emily O'Brien as voicing Skarlett, in addition to voicing Jade and Lin Kang -- and much like Shinnok in the prior film, Mileena and Skarlett are no-shows. In fact, Mileena and Skarlett aren't even TheGhost like Shinnok was.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]
* Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse:
** Daily Planet journalist Steve Lombard (Creator/MichaelKelly) from ''Film/ManOfSteel'' was not present in ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice''.
** ''Film/{{Birds of Prey|2020}}'':
*** Creator/JaredLeto did not return from ''Film/{{Suicide Squad|2016}}'', a FakeShemp was used for very short flashback appearances of ComicBook/TheJoker in his place.
*** Batman (Creator/BenAffleck) is nowhere to be seen despite the film being set in Gotham City. And neither are Commissioner Gordon (Creator/JKSimmons) and Detective Crispus Allen (Kobna Holdbrook-Smith).
** ''Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague'':
*** ComicBook/LoisLane hasn't worked at the Daily Planet for some time out of grief after Superman's death, so neither her boss nor her co-workers are seen (Creator/LaurenceFishburne's Perry White and Rebecca Buller's Jenny Jurwich mainly).
*** Creator/HarryLennix's Calvin Swanwick does appear [[spoiler:(revealing himself as the ComicBook/MartianManhunter)]], but not his aide Carrie Farris (Creator/ChristinaWren), also from ''Man of Steel'' and ''Batman v Superman''.
** ComicBook/{{Katana}} (Creator/KarenFukuhara), one of the overseers of Task Force X in the first ''Suicide Squad'' film, did not return for ''Film/TheSuicideSquad''.
* Throughout the ''Film/HarryPotter'' films, the teachers present at the staff table in the Great Hall correspond curiously with the teachers who have scenes elsewhere in that particular installment.
** So you'll only see Professor Trelawney at the staff table in the third and fifth films because they aren't going to hire Creator/EmmaThompson unless they have a real scene, however brief, for her to do. This is justified, however, because it was stated in [[Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban the third book]] that Trelawney joining the other Professors at the staff table is a rare thing to happen anyway. The remaining seats are filled by [[LivingProp extras who don't talk]] and even they change with each movie. The same goes for any scene which supposedly or should logically include ''all'' the teachers in the school.
** The actor who portrayed Vincent Crabbe in the movies wasn't available for the last movie, so Gregory Goyle replaced Crabbe [[spoiler:as the one to die [[HoistByHisOwnPetard from his own Fiendfyre]] and Blaise Zabini replaced Goyle as the Slytherin student other than Draco Malfoy who almost died from that]].
* Happened occasionally in ''Film/TheLittleRascals'' series, usually due to an actor taking ill or working on other assignments during production. A notable example is Buckwheat's absence from the film ''Feed 'Em and Weep'' (with a SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute in his place).
* Some of the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse films have done this.
** ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' has Creator/DonCheadle's Comicbook/WarMachine absent without explanation (a tie-in comic would later reveal that he was stopping a terrorist attack in China during the events of the movie), and Creator/NataliePortman's Jane Foster relegated to a cameo as a photograph since she was heavily pregnant when they wanted her to film a cameo.
** Jane is absent again in ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'', as is Creator/GwynethPaltrow's Pepper Potts, with a WrittenInAbsence explaining that Jane was on a lecture tour while Pepper was busy running Tony's company.
** Pepper is again absent in ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'' with the explanation that [[spoiler:she and Tony had an OffscreenBreakup]].
** Valkyrie, Korg, and Miek are absent in ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'', though they do appear in ''Film/AvengersEndgame''.
** Creator/EmilyVanCamp's Sharon Carter and Stellan Skarsgard's Erik Selvig are also absent from ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar''. ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' only reveals they were KilledOffScreen in the DownerEnding for that as the digital files of the two are shown briefly.
** Creator/MartinFreeman's Everett Ross is not only absent from both ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' and ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', but he's not even mentioned in either movie.
* ''Film/StarTrekGenerations''. They couldn't get Creator/LeonardNimoy or Creator/DeForestKelley (Kelley was in too poor health and he and Nimoy felt their characters had been given enough send off in the previous movie and the lines could be given to anyone else) so they got James Doohan and Walter Koenig instead. You can tell essentially no rewriting was done what with Chekov going off to Sickbay when the refugees are beamed aboard and administering a sedative to Dr. Soran. Scotty also delivered one of [=McCoy=]'s lines from a previous movie: "Would you like a tranquilizer?", likely written as a ContinuityNod for [=DeForest=] Kelley. Scotty also calls Kirk "Jim", something only Spock and [=McCoy=] called him.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* Creator/IsaacAsimov's "Literature/FirstLaw": This is the first story where Michael Donovan appears without Gregory Powell, something that never happens in reverse.
* ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKidTheLongHaul'': Rowley, aside from one flashback, is absent.
* ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'': Statius joins the main cast from the 22nd canto of ''Purgatorio'' to the 33rd, but despite his assumed presence, there is not a single indication in the texts of the 29th, 30th, and 31st cantos that Statius exists. Apparently, Statius remained completely silent as Dante lost his mentor to Hell and reunited with his angry, dead ex-girlfriend.
* Creator/GeorgeRRMartin: In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', the fourth and fifth book were conceived as one book that got too large, so Martin split it into two based on POV characters rather than chronology. Because of that, major characters like Daenerys, Tyrion, Davos and Bran are absent from the fourth book, ''Literature/AFeastForCrows'' (Jon Snow is also not a POV character in that book, but he does make a brief appearance.) Theon, a major character [[spoiler:in books two and five, is missing (and presumed dead) from both the third and fourth book.]]
* ''Literature/TheCatInTheStacksMysteries'':
** Charlie's boarder Justin Wardlaw is absent for the entirety of books 5 and 10. Unlike other cases, there's no reason given for his not being around these times. He's also off-screen for all of book 6, being mentioned all of once.
** Kanesha Berry is mentioned a few times in book 9, but is never heard from or seen in person.
* ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxyTrilogy'': After being main characters in the first three books of the [[NonIndicativeName "Trilogy"]], Zaphod and Trillian are only mentioned in ''Literature/SoLongAndThanksForAllTheFish''. Trillian returns in ''Literature/MostlyHarmless'', but Zaphod is still absent, as is Marvin [[spoiler:having been KilledOffForReal at the end of the previous book]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* Kaley Cuoco's fondness for horseback riding led her to unintentionally give new meaning to the saying "Break a leg" on both ''Series/EightSimpleRules'' and ''Series/TheBigBangTheory''. The former wrote her injury into the show; the latter led to one or two "Penniless" episodes (as an [[Creator/Channel4 E4]] continuity announcer put it).
* ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody'':
** Creator/BrendaSong is absent from 2 episodes: ("Have a Nice Trip" and "Birdman of Boston") in the second season.
** Music/AshleyTisdale is absent from one episode in the second season ("Loosely Ballroom") and 11 episodes in the third season ("The Summer of Our Discontent", "Baggage", "Sleepover Suite", "The Arwin That Came to Dinner", "First Day of High School", "Of Clocks and Contracts", "Arwinstein", "Orchestra", "A Tale of Two Houses", "Tiptonline" and "Benchwarmers"). Her absence in the third season became prevalent to the point that her character was written-out as studying in Antarctica, and ended up getting ''two'' semi-replacement characters.
* ''The Suite Life on Deck'': Dylan and Cole Sprouse and Brenda Song were the only 3 actors to appear in every episode of the series. Creator/DebbyRyan was absent from 9 episodes: "The Mommy and the Swami", "Mom and Dad on Deck", "The Wrong Stuff", "Splash & Trash", "Cruisin' for a Bruisin'", "Any Given Fantasy", "My Oh Maya", "Das Boots" and "Computer Date". Doc Shaw was absent from 4 episodes: "Seven Seas News", "The Silent Treatment", "Rat Tale" and "So You Think You Can Date?". Phill Lewis was absent from 16 episodes: "International Dateline", "Flowers and Chocolate", "Boo You", "Shipnotized", "The Wrong Stuff", "Kitchen Casanova", "Family Thais", "Goin' Bananas", "Can You Dig It?", "Marriage 101", "Seven Seas News", "The Silent Treatment", "Rat Tale", "Senior Ditch Day", "My Sister's Keeper" and "Frozen". This makes Dylan and Cole Sprouse the only cast members to appear in every episode across both shows.
* ''Series/HannahMontana'': Music/MileyCyrus was the only main character to appear in all episodes. Creator/EmilyOsment and Jason Earles were absent from 1 episode of Season 4, which was a ClipShow. Music/BillyRayCyrus was absent from 4 episodes. Mitchel Musso was absent from 12 episodes and Moises Arias was absent from 19 episodes.
* As well as starring in ''Series/ShakeItUp'', Creator/BellaThorne and Creator/{{Zendaya}} are the only cast members to appear in every episode.
* On ''Series/SonnyWithAChance'', only Music/DemiLovato (Sonny) and Tiffany Thornton (Tawni) appeared in every episode. Everyone else missed at least one, the worst of whom was Allisyn Ashley Arm (Zora) who missed 20 episodes. Doug Brochu's (Grady) only absence was a ClipShow, Brandon Mychal Smith (Nico) missed the Clip Show and one other episode in Season 2, and Sterling Knight missed three, including the pilot, but did appear in the original scenes of the Clip Show episode. Then the ShowWithinAShow ''Series/SoRandom'' was [[{{Defictionalization}} defictionalized]] due to Lovato leaving the show for rehab.
* ''Series/ANTFarm'': China Anne [=McClain=], Sierra [=McCormick=], and Jake Short appeared in every episode of the show. Carlon Jeffery missed many episodes of Season 1 and 2 before leaving the show. Stefanie Scott missed a few episodes as well. Aedin Micks missed three episodes during his tenure on the main cast in Season 3.
* ''Series/CoryInTheHouse'': Only Kyle Massey and Rondell Sheridan appeared in every episode. Madison Pettis and John D'Aquino missed eight episodes each. Maiara Walsh missed one and Jason Dolley missed four.
** ''Series/PairOfKings'': Doc Shaw and Ryan Ochoa appeared in every episode, as did both Mitchel Musso and Adam Hicks during their time on the show. Geno Segers missed many episodes, however, and Kelsey Chow missed a few back in the day.
* ''Series/ZekeAndLuther'': Hutch Dano and Adam Hicks appeared in every episode. Daniel Curtis Lee missed several, as did Ryan Newman before she left the cast after season 2.
* ''Series/KickinIt'': Olivia Holt was the one most likely to be absent, due to her other projects at the time. Alex Jones only missed one episode before he left the show, and Jason Earles was absent just one time as well. And if you count two episodes that Mateo Arias and Leo Howard (despite being the ''lead role'') appeared very briefly in (for Arias this was the same episode Earles was missing from), then Dylan Riley Snyder is the only cast member with fully perfect attendance!
* ''Series/LabRats'': Hal Sparks is the only main cast member who wasn't in every episode. He only had perfect attendance in Season 3.
** ''Series/MightyMed'': Bradley Steven Perry, Jake Short, and Paris Berelc appeared in every episode, but Devan Leos and Augie Isaac were absent frequently -- each of them had an episode where they played another character but not their regular role.
* ''Series/KCUndercover'': Impressively, the first season has all the regulars with the exception of Zendaya miss multiple episodes. While Veronica Dunne and Kamil [=McFadden=] were in almost every episode (and the latter has not missed any after Season 1), Trinitee Stokes, Tammy Townsend, and Kadeem Hardison were much more likely to be absent. Notably, there was one episode in Season 1 that did not feature Marisa, but had Veronica Dunne do a PSA announcement at the end. Marisa is also absent from "Bad, Bad Cleo Brown" in Season 2, but Dunne plays another character in the flashback sequences.
** ''Series/KirbyBuckets'': Jacob Bertrand, Mekai Curtis, Cade Sutton, and Olivia Stuck appear in every episode of the show, but Tiffany Espensen was frequently absent, and was not credited in her missing episodes.
*** Season 3 plays with this a bit due to the involvement of {{Alternate Universe}}s: the real Fish and Eli do not appear in "Forest Hill Blues", but alternate universe versions of them are shown, in which Fish is a police chief and Eli a criminal. Dawn is completely absent from "Commander Kirbo", but a slug version of her appears in the Kirbo universe.
** ''Series/BestFriendsWhenever'': While Creator/LandryBender, Lauren Taylor, Gus Kamp, and Ricky Garcia were always present, the Royer twins were often missing.
** ''Series/CrashAndBernstein'': Only the title characters have had perfect attendance, although Landry Bender at least made it through all of season 1 (caveat: Cleo did not appear in "Release the Crashen" but Bender did play Mel in flashbacks). Of note, Oana Gregory has never appeared in an episode that Landry Bender was absent from.
* ''Series/ThatsSoRaven'': Raven-Symoné and Kyle Massey are the only cast members to appear in every episode. Anneliese van der Pol was missing from three episodes in season one, and Orlando Brown was absent from one episode of season four. T'Keyah Crystal Keymah and Rondell Sheridan were absent from five episodes of season 1. Keymah was again absent from five episodes in season 2. In season 3, she only appeared in the first 29 episodes before her character was PutOnABus, and was absent from twelve of those episodes. Sheridan also missed seven episodes in season 4, including the last three of the series.
* ''Series/LizzieMcGuire'': Lalaine was absent from last few episodes of the series and the movie due to her music career and went on to star in ''You Wish!''.
* ''Series/SeventhHeaven'': The show's credits are somewhat odd; while they credit actors in the opening titles if they appear in the episode, this includes actors that have left the main cast [[note]] Creator/BarryWatson and Creator/JessicaBiel are never credited as guest stars despite having both having left the show in season 6 and making sporadic appearances afterwards. Also, the dog Happy is credited in every episode even if she doesn't appear onscreen.[[/note]] Though in a particularly odd case, in the season 8 episode "The Kid Is Out of the Picture", all of the original cast (even Jessica Biel and Barry Watson, who'd already left the main cast at this point) are credited though only David Gallagher (Simon) appears onscreen; everyone else appears in photos. This is because of a framing device where Simon is making a video essay in order to get admitted into a college. Also, Creator/CatherineHicks (Annie) is credited for several episodes where she's mentioned but doesn't appear in [[PostScriptSeason season 11]]. Barring that, only Stephen Collins (Eric) and Creator/BeverleyMitchell (Lucy) appear in every episode, while Hicks doesn't appear in three (as mentioned above) and Mackenzie Rosman (Ruthie) is absent from the first six episodes of season 11.
* Averted in ''Series/{{Alias}}'' with Creator/JenniferGarner's pregnancy. Sydney simply had a baby with her in-series boyfriend and [[WrittenInInfirmity worked it into the plot]], even. However, the writers did add several new women to the cast in order to pick up some of the ActionGirl slack, as Jennifer Garner could no longer film intricate fight scenes while pregnant.
* On ''Series/AllInTheFamily'':
** Creator/NormanLear wrote the character of George Jefferson with Sherman Hemsley in mind, but when the show began in 1971 Hemsley was unavailable due to his commitment to the Broadway show ''Purlie''. Lear promised to hold the role open for Hemsley, and got around this by a) making George an [[HeWhoMustNotBeSeen offscreen character]] for the first couple of seasons and b) creating a different character, George's brother Henry, to serve as a kind of pre-emptive SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute until Hemsley finally became available in season 4. (Once that happened, of course, Henry Jefferson was promptly PutOnABus and never heard from again.)
** Season 5 has a three-episode story arc focused on Archie disappearing on the way to an Army convention (turns out [[spoiler:[[AntiClimax he had taken the wrong bus]]]]). This was due to Carroll O'Connor having gone on strike over a salary dispute.
* ''Series/{{Andromeda}}'':
** Supporting characters would often be absent in first season episodes, given the relatively small cast they frequently had in-character explanations (Harper in a surfing competition, Rev Bem at a spiritual retreat...) in episode 12 their frequent absences was even lampshaded by Captain Hunt.
** The ship itself (and by extension the actor playing its avatar) is missing for most of the start of the final series. Sometimes she appears, but it's more like a glorified cameo to justify her name still appearing in the credits.
* Several black-and-white episodes of ''Series/TheAndyGriffithShow'' had Ronny Howard mentioned in the opening credits but not appearing in the episode itself.
* In ''Series/AreYouBeingServed'', after Young Mr. Grace had died and the replacement Old Mr. Grace had proved unacceptable, the writers decided to move the character permanently off-screen. The character was still around and at Grace Brothers, issuing orders via telephone or memo, but he was never seen nor heard. There was never any indication whether this "Mr. Grace" was the "Young" or the "Old" one.
* ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'':
** During the first season, there were a number of episodes in which Buster or Tobias were absent (fortunately, they've never been both been absent in one episode). Curiously, this may be why Tony Hale and David Cross were credited last aside from the "AndStarring" credits for Jeffrey Tambor and Jessica Walter. In fact, had he had perfect attendance, Cross might have been put right before Will Arnett or even Portia de Rossi, as he, aside from Jason Bateman, Tambor and Walter, was arguably the most established star going into the show.
** For the next two seasons, Buster and Tobias would have perfect attendance, as would the rest of the cast, even if only for a small part (i.e. Lindsay only appearing in one scene in "Queen for a Day"), or not coming in until the episode is past the halfway point (i.e. Lucille in "Righteous Brothers"). There was one exception: "For British Eyes Only" did not feature Maeby. Given that George Michael appeared in only a single scene that episode, it is assumed that there was a subplot involving the two that was scrapped because Alia Shawkat was unable to make it to the episode, and the episode was rewritten at the last minute with George Michael's scene only serving to squeeze him into the episode.
** For season 4, this was much more common. Michael was the only character to appear in every episode of the season. This was somewhat understandable, as [[Film/TheHangover the]] [[Film/ThisIsTheEnd actors]] [[WesternAnimation/{{Archer}} were]] [[Series/UpAllNight busy]] [[Series/{{Veep}} with]] other projects.
* ''Series/{{Arrow}}'': Of the 21 people who were credited as regulars at some point during its eight-season run, 19 of them missed an episode and [[Creator/LaMonicaGarrett one other]] was an Series/{{Arrowverse}}-wide guest star masquerading as a regular. The only legitimate regular to never miss an episode was Creator/EmilyBettRickards as Felicity, who was only a regular for six seasons but appeared in every episode during that span.
* So frequent on ''Series/Babylon5'', that wikis note which regulars ''appear'' in each episode, instead of which ones are missing as usual. It wasn't until a couple of seasons in that a normal episode featured every regular. On a more serious note, Michael O'Hare and his character Jeffrey Sinclair went AWOL after season one, and only appeared in tiny guest appearances, even when it would be appropriate to have him return. After O'Hare's death, it was revealed that the reason O'Hare left was an increasingly severe case of paranoid schizophrenia. O'Hare was offered to seek treatment before season one wrapped, but declined, saying that getting rid of the lead character mid-season one would kill the franchise before it got off the ground and that he would not be responsible for putting the rest of the cast and crew out of work, and chose to grit his teeth and bear it.
* Happens a lot on ''Series/{{Atlanta}}''. The only characters who are likely to be in every episode are Earn, Alfred or Darius, and it's not a guarantee that they'll be in the episode all together. In season 2 this is even more common, with several episodes only starring one of the main characters. The episode "FUBU" takes this to the extreme and contains none of the lead actors, being a WholeEpisodeFlashback to Earn and Al's childhood with {{time shifted actor}}s.
* ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'':
** The series has the Cylons, robots who after [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters rebelling]] designed twelve "models" of mass-produced ArtificialHuman bodies to [[TheMole infiltrate colonial society]]. A big part of the series' appeal was the the notion that [[TheyLookLikeUsNow anyone]] can be a Cylon, even [[TomatoInTheMirror main characters]] thanks to FakeMemories and [[SplitPersonality sleeper personalities]]. However, the writers hadn't decided who all was going to be a Cylon from the get-go[[note]](They instead chose to use SchrodingersGun by telling actors to keep in mind they could be playing a Cylon)[[/note]], so in scenes where the Cylons are away from humans and planning the downfall of humanity, or on Cylon-occupied Caprica, several of the twelve models would be completely absent. For a long time in the first and second season, the ''only'' models shown in pow-wows would be those previously revealed[[note]](though in 3's case, her appearance in one such pow-wow was the episode's shocker ending)[[/note]], usually a 6 and 8 with ''maybe'' a 2, 4 or 5 brought in for variety. There was also a monetary factor: only 6 and 8 were actually in the starring cast, with the others being SpecialGuest Stars who needed to be paid by episode; this is why the 1s and 3s, in particular, are almost completely absent unless the episodes are about them specifically.
** Another BSG example: the "webisodes" that were produced during several of the hiatuses primarily focused on supporting/minor characters.
** In "The Plan", many of the main characters appear only in stock footage. In one bizarre instance, they edited Laura Roslin out of a scene she previously appeared in and gave her line to Col. Tigh!
** Finally, there's the fact that the show had an EnsembleCast of LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters, resulting in {{Fake Guest Star}}s left and right. Some "guest stars" were absolutely ''central'' to the show's MythArc, and in some cases appeared in more episodes than actual stars.
* ''Series/BeverlyHills90210'' original and reboot series:
** In the original, none of the main characters appear in every episode. Of the four main cast members that are regularly featured in every season, Tori Spelling (Donna) appears in the most episodes; missing just two in season 1. Jennie Garth (Kelly) and Ian Ziering (Steve) miss three, while Brian Austin Green (David) is absent in four.
** In the reboot, Annie, Silver, and Naomi appear in every episode. Adrianna misses one episode, while Dixon doesn't show up in three. Liam appears in every episode from his introduction towards the end of the first season. Navid tends to miss between one and five episodes per season, while the teacher Ryan missed episodes regularly for his three-season run on the show (appearing in just half of season 3). Ethan appeared in every episode in season 1, and then PutOnABus at the start of season 2. The rest of the cast missed multiple episodes before departing the cast.
* In the fifth season of ''Series/{{Bewitched}}'', Creator/DickYork had gotten injured and could not stand during the filming of the show. So, the writers constantly had to either transform Darrin into different items like a monkey or have him out of town on business. [[TheOtherDarrin Darrin was recast in the following season.]]
* In one episode of ''Series/TheBill'', actor Andrew Macintosh (DS Alistair Grieg) was sick; whenever it was reasonable to expect that he'd be called on to take part in the investigation, DI Burnside would ask where he was and be told he was in the loo. Cue many sarcastic remarks from Burnside...
* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory:''
** The four main male leads all appeared in every episode. Penny missed a couple of episodes in Season 4 due to Creator/KaleyCuoco breaking her leg in a horse riding accident.
** After becoming series regulars in Season 4, Melissa Rauch (Bernadette) and Creator/MayimBialick (Amy) each missed a handful of episodes, with Season 6’s “The 43 Peculiarity” seeing both of them absent.
* In ''Series/TheBlacklist'', all the main characters (minus Red) are absent in "Cape May".
* The western ''Series/{{Bonanza}}'' theoretically centered on a father and his three sons. However, Pernell Roberts, who played the oldest son Adam, left the show in 1965, and Dan Blocker - the middle son Hoss - died in 1972 (his passing is widely considered a factor in the series' cancellation the following year). Therefore, there are entire seasons in which Adam is "away;" in his absence, various ranch hands, long-lost nephews, and adoptive sons join the family. Hoss is implied to have died offscreen: the father looks at a picture of him while trying to console another grieving character. However, the family does not visibly mourn for Hoss or refer to any of his past adventures, nor do they write to, visit, or talk about Adam. (Hoss's death does get clarified in a MadeForTVMovie, however.)
* ''Franchise/{{Buffyverse}}'':
** ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' was usually very good about ''not'' doing this, with regulars showing up in most episodes, even if it was just for a {{mandatory line}}. Despite that, every season but 4 contains at least one episode with a main character absent. None of these absences are explained on-screen.
*** Season 1: Cordelia is absent from "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS1E6ThePack The Pack]]" and "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS1E8IRobotYouJane I Robot, You Jane]]".
*** Season 2: Angel did not appear in "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS2E4IncaMummyGirl Inca Mummy Girl]]".
*** Season 3: Oz is absent from "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E15Consequences Consequences]]". Believed to be because Creator/SethGreen was filming ''Film/AustinPowersTheSpyWhoShaggedMe'' at the time.
*** Season 4 is technically an aversion. All four characters billed as regulars for the whole season appear in every episode. [[PutOnABus Oz]], [[PromotionToOpeningTitles Spike, and Riley]] are only regulars for part of the season, so their absences from certain episodes are justified.
*** Season 5: Spike did not appear in "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS5E16TheBody The Body]]".
*** Season 6: Anya is absent from "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS6E17NormalAgain Normal Again]]".
*** In an [[InvertedTrope inversion]], Buffy does not appear in "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS6E1BargainingPart1 Bargaining Part One]]" because ''she is dead'', and isn't seen until the very beginning of the second episode after she comes back to life. However, Creator/SarahMichelleGellar is still in the episode playing the Buffybot.
*** Season 7: Both Xander and Anya do not appear in "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS7E7ConversationsWithDeadPeople Conversations With Dead People]]", with Anya also missing "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS7E4Help Help]]" and "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS7E18DirtyGirls Dirty Girls]]". There were plans for Anya to talk to Hallie (who died earlier in the season) and Xander to talk with Jesse ([[ForgottenFallenFriend remember him? From waaay back in the first two episodes?]]), but they did not pan out. This is the only episode where Xander doesn't appear, leaving only Creator/SarahMichelleGellar (Buffy) and Creator/AlysonHannigan (Willow) with perfect attendance.
** ''Series/{{Angel}}'', unlike the parent show, tended to explain any absences among the main cast.
*** Season 1: Doyle is in the opening of "[[Recap/AngelS01E10PartingGifts Parting Gifts]]" despite having died in the previous episode. This was to avoid spoiling that Wesley becomes a regular from this point forward.
*** Season 3: Cordelia misses "[[Recap/AngelS03E15Loyalty Loyalty]]", "[[Recap/AngelS03E16SleepTight Sleep Tight]]", and "[[Recap/AngelS03E17Forgiving Forgiving]]", as she is on vacation with Groo. From this season, only Creator/DavidBoreanaz (Angel) appears in every episode.
*** Season 4: Lorne, though technically not a regular at that point, appears in every episode except "[[Recap/AngelS04E02GroundState Ground State]]". Also in "Ground State", Connor appears but doesn't speak.
*** Season 5: Wesley did not appear in "[[Recap/AngelS05E08Destiny Destiny]]", having taken time off due to the events of "[[Recap/AngelS05E07Lineage Lineage]]". This is because Creator/AlexisDenisof was on his honeymoon (with the aforementioned Creator/AlysonHannigan) during filming.
* ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'' had this occur during the tumultuous Season Eight due to budgetary constraints. Creator/BrianKrause's episode count was drastically slashed, leading to Leo Wyatt appearing in only the first ten episodes and returning for the final two episodes. The void in between was explained by a convoluted plot where Leo was supposed to die, but (via a deal the sisters make with an Angel of Destiny) is instead simply frozen in a block of ice. Bad as that might've been, Dorian Gregory fared worse: being cut altogether and it being stated that Darryl Morris moved back east with his family. Curiously, this trope is not invoked in the first few episodes of the season where the sisters cast a spell to make themselves and Leo look like different people. Other characters see them that way, but viewers see their true selves. This also happened during the previous seven seasons, though not for the exact same budgetary constraints. During their respective tenures, Cole, Andy, Chris and Dan missed a handful of episodes. Even after being promoted to main cast halfway through Season 2, Leo missed a few episodes over the next five years. Darryl had it even worse, though. He doesn't appear in half the episodes of seasons 3-7. Andy is an interesting example. While Ted King appears in all but one episode of the first season, his character technically does when the Charmed Ones encounter his younger self in the past.
* ''{{Series/Chuck}}'':
** Anna is increasingly absent from episodes she has no large role in, culminating in her being PutOnABus in season 3.
** Due to budget cuts for season 3, the only characters that appear in all episodes are Chuck, Sarah and Casey. So there are episodes where Awesome, Ellie, Morgan, Buymorians and even the special guest star played by Brandon Routh are conspicuously absent. The one that disappeared the most seems to be Big Mike, who would sometimes vanish even when lots of action took place in the Buy More or all the other Buy More people appeared.
* For the first three seasons, every member of the study group appeared in every episode of ''Series/{{Community}}''. However, non-study-group series regulars Ken Jeong and (as of season three) Jim Rash were frequently absent, and Creator/ChevyChase does not appear in season four's "Intro To Knots" and "Heroic Origins." And then, of course, he left the show.
* The later seasons of ''Series/TheCosbyShow'' frequently had multiple cast members absent. Technically this started as early in the second season, when Sabrina [=LeBeauf=] was added to the opening credits, but it really became noticeable later on. In fact, some recurring characters (not in the opening credits) made more appearances in certain seasons than some regulars did.
* ''Series/{{CSI}}'':
** The 7th season had Gil Grissom go on a four-week sabbatical because Creator/WilliamPetersen took some time off to do theater. He was "replaced" by Michael Keppler (Creator/LievSchreiber) during his absence.
** There was also "Gum Drops" a bit earlier, which had Grissom absent due to William Petersen attending a funeral, with his absence explained by a throwaway line about him teaching a class at the body farm. That said, many eps have had missing characters without much explanation.
** Jorja Fox is the Absentee Actor quite a bit, counted as a regular but not appearing in every single ep.
* ''Series/Daredevil2015'' is pretty good about avoiding this regarding its three leads. That is until season 3 episode 10 "[[Recap/Daredevil2015S3E10Karen Karen]]", which is the only episode of the show in which Foggy does not appear, which means that Creator/CharlieCox (Matt) and Creator/DeborahAnnWoll (Karen) are the only actors who have been in all 39 episodes.
* ''Series/DawsonsCreek'' is named after the character played by Creator/JamesVanDerBeek; he does not, however, appear in all 128 episodes. In fact, the only actor who does is Creator/KatieHolmes as GirlNextDoor Joey Potter.
* ''Series/DesperateHousewives'' had Bree and Orson abruptly leave for a honeymoon in Switzerland in the middle of Season 3 - apparently months after the two were married - in order to explain away Marcia Cross's maternity leave.
* Pushed to extremes in season 8 of ''Series/DiagnosisMurder'' when either Jesse, Amanda or both were absent from nearly every episode. There are only 6 episodes of the entire season where all 4 main characters appear, and Jesse isn't even in the series finale.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** In the 1960s, filming was nearly year-round, so characters — including the Doctor — were often written out of episodes to give the actors a holiday.
*** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E6TheAztecs "The Aztecs"]], Susan has very little to do in the whole story (she's around for the setup, the ending, and a couple of scenes in a seminary) because Creator/CaroleAnnFord was having time off. (She does not, however, miss any episodes; she just appears in a few via pre-recorded inserts, allowing Ford to have a break from the studio recordings.)
*** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E2TheDalekInvasionOfEarth "The Dalek Invasion of Earth"]] has one episode where the Doctor is unconscious for the whole time (he only appears briefly at the start, shot from behind).
*** In the one-episode [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E2MissionToTheUnknown "Mission to the Unknown"]], the Doctor and his companions are completely missing, the story serving as a {{prequel}} to the 12-part "The Daleks' Master Plan". (Creator/WilliamHartnell is still credited, because of the terms of his contract.)
*** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E7TheCelestialToymaker "The Celestial Toymaker"]] pits the Doctor against a villain who turns him first invisible and intangible, and then mute, except for his hand. This meant he could be portrayed with a spot of {{ADR}} and a hand double for the effects shots, and get some much-needed time off.
*** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E2TheTenthPlanet "The Tenth Planet"]] has a whole episode where the Doctor is unconscious due to Hartnell being ill. This has the lucky effect of foreshadowing his regeneration at the end of the story.
*** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E4TheEnemyOfTheWorld "The Enemy of the World"]], both Creator/FrazerHines and Creator/DeborahWatling had vacations during the filming of episode 4, so Jamie and Victoria were unmasked as spies and arrested at the end of episode 3.
*** Creator/PatrickTroughton's vacation came a few weeks later, and so for all of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E5TheWebOfFear "The Web of Fear"]] episode 2 the Doctor is missing, presumed [by the characters] dead.
*** During the filming of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E2TheMindRobber "The Mind Robber"]], Frazer Hines took ill and was [[TheOtherDarrin replaced by a different Scottish actor]]. Since Hamish Wilson looked nothing like Hines, and because the story had such a surreal nature, Jamie ''lost his face'' twice, and the first time it was reconstructed wrong. (Hines's cousin Ian Hines also appeared in the same story as a life-sized toy soldier, so that it was later sometimes mistakenly said it was his cousin who replaced him.)
** Jamie spends most of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E6TheMoonbase "The Moonbase"]] unconscious because the script was written before his last-minute addition to the regular cast and it was hastily altered to fit him in. He gets one good scene about his clan history and is involved in a solid {{Cliffhanger}} scare but is mostly just a DistressedDude and shuffled off to the side while Ben and Polly manage the plot.
** During the Third Doctor's era, the semi-regular UNIT characters were often left out. The most blatant example is in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E1TheThreeDoctors "The Three Doctors"]], where, despite a massive attack on UNIT HQ, Captain Yates is nowhere to be seen (and a guest character, Corporal Palmer, takes charge when the Brigadier and Benton are indisposed).
** The Whomobile isn't in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E1Robot "Robot"]] because it was personally owned by Creator/JonPertwee, and his absence meant the car's absence. The result is that the Doctor is forced to confront a giant robot in Bessie even though his ''flying'' car would be a lot more useful for dogfighting a giant robot with.
** Creator/NicholasCourtney was unavailable due to prior commitments for [[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E4TheAndroidInvasion "The Android Invasion"]], and so the Brigadier is replaced with a SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute with a hilariously identical personality in the final two episodes. It ends up giving the impression that UNIT middle-management is made up of virtually identical Brigadier clones.
** K9 would frequently be left out of stories in the Creator/TomBaker era due to lack of anything for him to do (and the cast and crew disliking the character). K9's absence in one story in particular was because the writer of the script, Creator/TerryNation (who was also the creator of the Daleks), didn't want the robot dog to go up against his most famous creations. So K9 was given "laryngitis" for an episode, and was forced to stay behind in the TARDIS. K9 was also left out sometimes because they were filming in a location where K9 prop would have difficulty moving — e.g. a swamp, a [[BBCQuarry rock quarry]] etc. In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS16E5ThePowerOfKroll "The Power of Kroll"]], set mostly in a marsh, K9's voice actor was cast as a side character to give him something to do.
** Similarly to the Whomobile example above, it's often mocked that the Doctor's shoes turn from boots to brogue shoes upon the Fourth Doctor's regeneration into the Fifth Doctor. This is because the brogues were part of the original costume design, but Tom Baker disliked the look (they were paired with plus-fours and long argyle socks) and bought a pair of his own boots to wear with the outfit instead. No Baker, no boots.
** Nyssa was left out of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS19E3Kinda "Kinda"]] because originally she wasn't written into it and the writer did not want to change the plot to include her. She does appear briefly in the first and last episodes; her absence from the rest of the story is explained as being due to "mild mental disorientation" which means she needs forty-eight hours of undisturbed rest.
** This became premeditated for most of the Creator/RussellTDavies and Creator/StevenMoffat eras. To economize on both financial and actor resources, every series after the first was written to have a "Doctor-lite" and a "companion-lite" episode. These could be filmed simultaneously to shorten the overall production schedule.
** For an example where a character should logically have been there but wasn't, the Doctor's army in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E7AGoodManGoesToWar "A Good Man Goes to War"]] was supposed to include Captain Jack Harkness, but John Barrowman was unavailable. Madame Vastra was created to take his place and proved a compelling enough character that she ended up being a minor character in the next couple of series.
* Every character, apart from Carl Winslow, has been absent in ''Series/FamilyMatters'' at least once. Laura and Harriette didn't appear in "A-Camping We Will Go". Harriette was also absent from a few Season 9 episodes, due to Jo Marie Payton leaving the show shortly before its cancellation. Estelle and Richie don't appear in most episodes of the final two seasons. Eddie doesn't appear in "Fight the Good Fight," "Par for the Course" and a few other episodes. Steve Urkel is a downplayed example, because while he didn't appear in the show's first 11 episodes, he appeared in every episode since his introduction in the 12th episode "Laura's First Date", due to his BreakoutCharacter status, and was later even added to the cold opening in 4 of the first 11 episodes.
* This happened with Creator/MeredithBaxter on ''Series/FamilyTies'', but not with Phylicia Rashad on ''Series/TheCosbyShow''. Because an obstetrician/gynecologist and a lawyer who live in a two-story Manhattan brownstone and already have several children can't possibly afford another kid.
* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'':
** For most of Season 3, the cast was split into two groups with alternating episodes focusing on each group with Crichton being the only character that was in both sets of episodes.
** Season 4 experimented a little with this. For example, after the characters are largely separated at the end of Season 3, the first five episodes focus on the crew coming back together.
* Despite lasting merely 14 episodes (and a movie), ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' managed to have this happen:
** Ron Glass does not appear in one episode.
** Due to her one scene with dialogue being cut, Creator/SummerGlau appears in "Our Mrs. Reynolds" solely as a background extra.
* ''Series/TheFlyingNun'': "The Dumbest Kid In School" is the only episode in which Sally Field, as said aeronautical habit-wearer, does not show up.
* The TV series ''The Four Just Men'' starred Dan Dailey, Richard Conte, Jack Hawkins and Vittorio de Sica as four soldiers in WWII who following the war made a pact to fight for truth and justice. Except for the premiere, every episode [[ADayInTheLimelight concentrates on one of the four]], usually with one or more of the others making brief appearances; the only episodes in which all four leads appear are "The Battle of the Bridge" (the first episode) and "The Night of the Precious Stones" (a de Sica episode, with cameos by the other three).
* ''Series/{{Frasier}}'', which ran for 262 episodes over 11 years:
** Kelsey Grammer (Frasier), David Hyde Pierce (Niles) and John Mahoney (Martin) appeared in every episode. When Grammer missed taping in order to attend rehab, the main action was taken over by Pierce but framing scenes were taped later and added to the episode.
** Jane Leeves (Daphne) missed a couple of episodes in Season 8 due to her first pregnancy (Daphne was said to be at a fat camp after piling on the weight due to worrying about Niles saw her), and only appeared in a non-speaking cameo in a Season 11 episode due to her second pregnancy.
** Peri Gilpin (Roz) missed the second and fourth episodes of Season 11 but otherwise appeared in all episodes.
* Notably averted with ''Series/{{Friends}}'', which may well be the crowning example. All six main characters appear in every episode. What ''Firefly'' couldn't do for 14 episodes, ''Friends'' did for ''236'' over the course of 10 years. RealLifeWritesThePlot moments were worked around, such as Creator/LisaKudrow's pregnancy which meant she couldn't film in London (Phoebe contributed to the plot over the phone), and Creator/MatthewPerry's drug addiction (Chandler worked in Tulsa for several episodes, so his scenes could be shot separately).
* Since ''Series/GameOfThrones'' has LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters, no one makes it into every episode; the closest is Creator/PeterDinklage as {{Deuteragonist}} Tyrion Lannister, who appears in 67 of 72. (Creator/EmiliaClarke and Creator/KitHarington, playing {{Main Characters}}s Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow, and Creator/LenaHeadey playing BigBad Cersei Lannister, are tied for second with 62 episodes each.) However, of particular note is Creator/IsaacHempsteadWright, whose character Bran Stark appears in barely half of the first 50 episodes and is the only member of the original main cast to be completely absent from Season 5. (This is a reflection of the source material: Seasons 3, 4 and 5 adapt roughly 3,000 pages of novel, during which Bran has a grand total of ''seven'' chapters in his SwitchingPOV. During this time, Jon, Daenerys, Tyrion, Cersei, Jaime ''and'' Brienne each contrive to have more than seven chapters ''per book''.)
* "Opening Night", the seventeenth episode of season five of ''Series/{{Glee}}'', is the first episode in which Kevin [=McHale=] does not appear - he's the only cast member to appear in every episode up to that point. He does ''not'', however, appear in the most episodes of the show - that honour goes to Creator/LeaMichele, who throughout the run of the series is only MIA from three episodes, all in season four ("Dynamic Duets", "The Role You Were Born To Play" and "Shooting Star").
* On Season 1 of ''Series/GoodEats'', "W" appears only on a screen, because Vickie Eng was out of the country trying to adopt a child. In a later season, she is also temporarily replaced by "The Dungeonmaster" in Alton's basement.
* ''Series/GossipGirl'' roll call:
** Both Creator/EdWestwick (Chuck) and Both Creator/ChaceCrawford (Nate) are absent from "Dare Devil".
*** Ed also doesn't show up in "Blair Waldorf Must Pie!," "Roman Holiday" and "All About My Brother".
*** Chace, meanwhile, is similarly missing from "The Serena Also Rises," "Bonfire Of The Vanity" and "In The Realm Of The Basses".
** Creator/JessicaSzohr (Vanessa) was [[PromotedToOpeningTitles promoted to a series regular]] for season two, but she doesn't appear in the season two premiere "Summer, Kind Of Wonderful", and in fact is absent from several other shows throughout seasons two (she misses seven in all), three (five) ''and'' four (six). But she does turn up for the fourth season finale - when Vanessa was PutOnABus.
** Both Creator/TaylorMomsen (Jenny) and Creator/KellyRutherford (Lily) are AWOL from the season three premiere "The Freshmen".
*** Taylor is also missing from season one's "Bad News Blair", "School Lies" and "Woman on the Verge", and in the first half of season four she only appears in four episodes - "Gaslit" was her final episode before leaving - although she remains listed in the credits for the entire season [[spoiler: and like Jessica Szohr and Connor Paolo (and several other performers), she comes BackForTheFinale]].
*** Kelly, meanwhile is the only regular cast member to miss at least one episode of ''every'' season, including the premieres of seasons two, three as mentioned above (due to maternity leave and personal issues) and five.
** Matthew Settle (Rufus), on the other hand, is only absent from two episodes in the entire run - season five's "The Fugitives" and season six's "High Infidelity".
** Creator/KayleeDefer (Ivy) was added to the main cast in season five but was absent from seven episodes (including four consecutive episodes mid-season), as well as missing two episodes of season six ("High Infidelity" and "It's Really Complicated"). Which leaves Creator/BlakeLively, Creator/LeightonMeester, Creator/PennBadgley and the uncredited voice of Creator/KristenBell as the only cast members with a 100% attendance record.
* ''Series/{{Greek}}'' had an episode where the entire [=ZBZ=] sorority had to welcome back a former member to re-instate her. [=ZBZ=] member (and main character) Rebecca Logan did not appear in the episode. Nor did a few other extra [=ZBZ=] members that would've been seen in such a ceremony. (This might have been justified if it excused pledges if other recurring ''pledge'' characters weren't also seen in the ceremony.) Also, not surprisingly in a show about fraternities and sororities, there are many episodes without Rusty's non- and anti-Greek roommate Dale.
* In ''Series/GreysAnatomy'':
** The actress who played Lexie was absent a lot, having taking time off to spend time with family. [[spoiler: She was eventually killed off.]] Arizona broke up with Callie and [[PutOnABus went to Africa for a bit]] because of the actress's pregnancy. She came back soon. Meredith had surgery that required her to miss work for weeks because of the actress's pregnancy; she did make appearances, but was always shown in bed. Derek misses six consecutive episodes in season 11; he [[spoiler: dies later in the same season]].
** Even Meredith (the show's titular character) isn't above this; she is only heard in a voiceover in season 13's "You Can Look (But You'd Better Not Touch)" (which is set away from Seattle, and only features Arizona, Bailey, and Jo) and she is absent altogether from the same season's "Who Is He (And What Is He to You)?" the first episode which doesn't feature Meredith in anyway.
** In later seasons, there are several episodes which only a few characters appear, including the aforementioned episodes. Another prominent example is "How to Save a Life" in season 11, where only Meredith, Bailey, Owen, April, Amelia, and Derek appear; this is the same episode where [[spoiler: Derek dies]]. Side note: this is the first episode where Alex is completely absent.
* ''Series/HappyDays'':
** Later seasons had Anson Williams' Potsie pushed to being a side character, and he only appeared in ''six'' episodes of each of the last two seasons. And yet, he was ''still'' credited as a main cast member!
** Erin Moran (Joanie) and Donny Most (Ralph) are mysteriously absent in the season 6 episode "Chachi's Incredo-Wax".
* ''Series/HawaiiFive0'' isguaranteed to have Steve and Kono in every episode,[[note]]Except for a bit of the second season where Alex O'Loughlin (Steve) was out due to a shoulder injury and later rehab for pain med addiction from said injury as well as a bit of the fourth season where Grace Park (Kono) was on maternity leave[[/note]] but other characters may or may not appear. After their PromotionToOpeningTitles, Max, Jerry, and Grover are ''usually'' present, but the first two have plenty of non-appearing episodes.[[note]]Of these, Max seems more likely to be missing, and generally has the shortest scenes if it's not a LowerDeckEpisode; this may have something to due with Creator/MasiOka's schedule and the fact that he has projects in both California and Japan as well as Hawaii.[[/note]] If one of them is absent, other characters may mention they received information from them (particularly in the case of Max, who as the medical examiner ''should'' be present whenever they're dealing with a dead body; it's not AlwaysMurder, but it's More Often Than Not Murder). Starting with season 5, Danny is absent one out of every five or so episodes.
* ''Series/HerculesTheLegendaryJourneys'' had this occur more than once. Some episodes had Kevin Sorbo not appear in order to give Iolaus ADayInTheLimelight. During the fourth season, though, health issues sidelined Sorbo for many episodes. He still appeared often with the focus was on other characters, but he doesn't appear at all in "Men in Pink," a [[Creator/BruceCampbell Autolycus]]/Salmoneus comedic episode. (Iolaus does not appear in this episode either, but Michael Hirst still turns up in a major role. Playing a woman...)
* Throughout the run of ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', all the main cast members skipped at least one episode with many of them usually missing one per season; even Creator/HaydenPanettiere was absent from a couple, but skipped fewer than anyone else - Panettiere is both the only cast member to appear in every season one episode and the only ''original'' cast member[[note]] Robert Knepper, who was a regular in the final season, also appears in every instalment[[/note]] to be in every season four show. The trope is so prevalent on ''Heroes'' that Sendhil Ramamurthy is the only other cast member to take part in all episodes of one season (he narrates all 11 episodes of season two).
** In the fall of 2007, it was announced that Creator/ZacharyQuinto would be taking a break from the show in order to film ''Film/StarTrek2009'', which would have meant several episodes without Sylar. However, the writer's strike shut down production on ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', so there were no episodes for Quinto to be absent from. Volume three averted this by tossing in everyone into every episode, even when they had nothing to do. Played straight by the rest of the show, however.
** Sylar gaining [[spoiler:shapeshifting]] powers may also have been an attempt to avert this, allowing the character to be present even when Quinto was unavailable.
* In ''Series/{{Highlander}}: The Series'', Duncan [=MacLeod=] appears in only half the Season 6 episodes. Actor Adrian Paul may have been losing interest, but Duncan also steps aside so a series of Immortal females "auditioning" for a spin-off could be introduced. Sometimes Duncan only appears in an episode to bed one of the women, an "old friend".
* Lily was written out of four episodes of the fourth season of ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' to accommodate Alyson Hannigan's maternity leave. The excuse was very clever; she got so upset at a dirty joke that Barney told that she didn't hang out with him. Lampshaded as well since Future!Ted specifically states that she didn't talk to Barney for exactly four weeks when it happened.
* Sam Puckett in ''Series/{{iCarly}}'' during the episode ''iWon't Cancel The Show''. It was created due to Creator/JennetteMcCurdy being in the hospital for an operation, and InUniverse, she is in juvenile detention.
* ''Series/TheITCrowd'' gave the minor character Richmond scurvy when Noel Fielding was unavailable for filming due to the tour schedule with Series/TheMightyBoosh.
* On ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'':
** Dennis was absent from "The Gang Beats Boggs: Ladies Reboot" and "Mac Finds His Pride" despite being mentioned as well as the Super Bowl two-parter[[note]]"Charlie's Home Alone" and "The Gang Wins the Big Game"[[/note]], although granted as these four took place while he was in North Dakota; Dee was absent from "Mac's Banging the Waitress", and, after his introduction in the second season, Frank was absent from the aforementioned Season 4 episode as well as "Paddy's Pub: the Worst Bar in Philadelphia". As of 2018, Charlie and Mac are the only members of the Gang to appear in every episode, as they appear on [=FaceTime=] in the Ladies Reboot.
** As far as recurring characters go, Artemis was completely absent from the tenth, twelfth, and fourteenth seasons, and Cricket didn't appear in Season 15 after his introduction in Season 2.
** A location example: Paddy's Pub doesn't appear in "The Gang Gets Trapped", "The Gang Gets Analyzed", "The Gang Dines Out", "The Gang Beats Boggs" and its reboot, "The Gang Hits the Slopes", both parts of "The Gang Goes to Hell", "The Gang Goes to a Water Park", "Hero or Hate Crime?", "The Gang Beats Boggs: Ladies' Reboot", or the four-part Ireland arc in Season 15.
* This trope is why Mike Evans relinquished his role of Lionel on ''Series/TheJeffersons'' after the first season. He'd approached producer Creator/NormanLear with an ultimatum about appearing in more episodes or quitting, and was released from his contract. He was replaced by Damon Evans (no relation), who took over as Lionel for next 3 seasons. After which, he too was let go from the series. Lear rehired Mike Evans prior to season six, but once again left the show after season 8 for the same reasons. This time, his character was [[PutOnABus sent to work in Japan]], not appearing again until Mike Evans reprised the role for two final season episodes.
* ''Series/Jericho2006'' had this happen on occasion, presumably to save on cost. This got strange when Mary, owner of the local bar who did not appear to have a hired maid or waiter, would not show up in her own bar when the episode's focus characters showed up.
* In ''Series/TheKingOfQueens'', there were many occasions where Arthur Spooner (Jerry Stiller) might appear on the opening credits and be billed as a cast member, but did not appear in the actual episode.
* In ''Series/TheLastManOnEarth'', Phil and the other main survivors don't appear in "Pitch Black".
* In ''Series/LastManStanding'', the Baxter daughters have all missed at least one episode: Kristin in "The Ring", Mandy in "Tanks for the Memories", and Eve in "Papa Bear".
* Bill Owen, one of the stars of ''Series/LastOfTheSummerWine'', died after only partially completing three episodes for the 2000 series. In order to use what footage they had of Owen, the producers devised an excuse for his character, Compo, to leave for a while in each of the three episodes - in one, he goes to the betting shop to watch the races, and in another he goes to see his Thursday lady-friend, which becomes plot-relevant in his funeral episodes. Scenes which Owen couldn't complete were then rewritten without him. Once all Owen's footage had been used, the character of Compo died.
* The episode “Robbie’s Dream Team” (you know, the episode with [[SignatureScene We Are]] [[Memes/LazyTown Number One]]) is the only episode of ''Series/LazyTown'' to not feature Ziggy.
* ''Series/LogansRun'': Randy Powell, despite being credited in the opening of every episode, actually only appears in six out of fourteen episodes (and is absent from the final episode "Stargate").
* ''Series/LoisAndClark'' episode "Soul Mates" had the case [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by ComicBook/LoisLane stating she expected ComicBook/LexLuthor to be the villain of the problem she and Clark had to solve. It would have been Luthor but John Shea, the actor who portrayed him in that series, wasn't available when the episode was filmed.
* ''Series/{{Lost}}'':
** Only the first season featured any actors that were in every episode. From season 2 on, each actor misses at least ''one'' episode, if not more. Sometimes it's explained...but usually not. Worse than Miles's fate being left in the air [[spoiler:after getting a grenade stuck in his mouth]] for half the season, Jin holds the record for missing episodes-he's gone in six episodes in a row in season 3, not appearing even after his wife Sun begins to again.
** Even worse with fan favorite [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld Richard Alpert]], who appears greatly in season 3 and then drops off the face of the Earth (or the island) in season 4. The reason? Nestor Carbonell became a regular on a competing TV series, ''Cane''. Luckily, the writer's guild strike cancelled ''Cane'' and Richard was able to return.
** Claire Littleton was the first main character to miss an episode and appeared much less often than the other original characters and rarely had much to do when she did. She missed season 5 entirely before returning in season six.
** Desmond in season 5 beats Jin's; he's prominent in the first half of the season, then only appears in two more episodes...both brief, and both with almost no lines. Irritating, since while the series juggled the [[spoiler:1977 and 2007]] Island plotlines rather well, he's just left there. In fact, he's in less episodes than guest stars Richard & Phil and ties with Ilana and Radzinsky (...all four of which received more screen time than him).
** Henry Ian Cusick is listed in the credits on every episode of season six. He appeared in about 30 seconds of the premiere, reappears in episode ten, and appears in a grand six more episodes, some of them only as his flash-sideways counterpart.
** Ilana was made a regular, but only appears roughly every other episode until she's unceremoniously [[spoiler:blown up]]. One cameo after that, and she vanishes; not even in the finale. This is due to her ''entire storyline'' becoming an AbortedArc due to a lack of time.
** Frank Lapidus is notably [[spoiler: incapacitated near the end of "The Candidate" when he's struck by a door as the submarine begins to sink.]] For the next few episodes, he is absent and none of the other characters [[spoiler: (even the ones who were on the submarine with him)]] comment on his status, leaving one to assume he might have been KilledOffForReal. It's only [[spoiler: partway through the GrandFinale when Miles and Richard stumble across him while paddling across the ocean, revealing that he'd been floating there on his own the entire time.]]
* ''Series/{{MASH}}'':
** Around the fifth or sixth season, Gary Burghoff had his contract changed to limit his appearances as Radar to 13 episodes of each 24-episode season. During these episodes, Radar was frequently said to be "away on R&R".
** Everyone in the cast other than Alan Alda was missing for at least a couple of episodes.
** After Larry Linville (Frank Burns) left the show, the episode following his departure had him going AWOL. To resolve the plot of "what happened to Frank?" Hawkeye receives a call from him and finds out that he was arrested, put in a hospital, and promoted, all without the presence of the actor.
* Not every episode of ''Series/MissionImpossible'' contains the full complement of IMF regulars. In season one's "Elena", the only IMF member involved in the mission is Rollin (although Briggs appears in the first few scenes, he does not directly participate in the mission itself). And in "Action!", Briggs does not appear at all [[TroubledProduction thanks to Steven Hill's behind-the-scenes behaviour]]. In fact, no one appears in every episode of the original version (unlike in the revival, where the full team appears in each show).
* ''Series/ModernFamily'':
** Tends to happen to the Dunphy children frome time to time. Luke and Alex missed quite a lot of episodes in the early seasons. Some fans suspect that their respective portrayers, Nolan Gould and Ariel Winter, were subject to child labor laws since they were under fourteen at the time.
** So far {{Averted}} by all the adult family members, who have appeared in every episode.
** Understandably, none of the children appear in "Las Vegas".
** Manny is the only one of the kids to appear in "Valentine's Day 4: Twisted Sister".
* ''Series/{{Monk}}'':
** There are three episodes ("Mr. Monk Goes to the Asylum", "Mr. Monk and the Game Show", and "Mr. Monk Gets Stuck in Traffic") where Captain Stottlemeyer and Lieutenant Disher do not make on-screen appearances.
** There are a few episodes ("Mr. Monk Takes a Vacation", "Mr. Monk Gets Married", "Mr. Monk Is Underwater", among others) where Randy appears but Stottlemeyer does not appear.
** "Mr. Monk and the UFO" marks the only episode where Stottlemeyer still appears but Randy is absent.
** "Mr. Monk and the Game Show" is actually a unique case as it was a {{filler}} episode made during contract disputes with Bitty Schram, Ted Levine and Jason Gray-Stanford. Because of this, Sharona, Stottlemeyer and Disher do not appear on-screen at all (though Monk's first scene has him speaking on the phone with Sharona), and of the regular cast members, only Creator/TonyShalhoub appears. The assistant part ends up going to Monk's [[MotorMouth talkative]] upstairs neighbor Kevin Dorfman (Creator/JarradPaul).
* ''Series/TheMonkees'':
** Davy Jones was written out of one episode (“Alias Micky Dolenz”) in order to attend his sister’s wedding in England.
** Music/MichaelNesmith was also notably written out of a few episodes in the second season: He was absent due to both a tonsillectomy and the birth of his son, Jonathan.
* The first season of ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' suffered from this. Before the creative team behind the show got a budget and were moved to cable, they were just a local cable access show and they shot the movie segments live. Thus, if one of the crew had to be out of town for any reason, they'd do something in the host segments to explain it. For example, when Joel had to be in Hollywood for a meeting, his character was explained by the bots to have gone outside the ship to do routine maintenance, which they then quickly forget about. Later, they notice that he's not back yet and look out the window to see a Ken doll in a jumpsuit and space helmet floating outside, suggesting that Joel had lost his grip and was floating away. Similarly, there's an episode where both puppeteers were unavailable and Joel spent the entire episode alone in the theatre.
* On ''Series/TheNanny'', Creator/LaurenLane had to miss several episodes in the fifth season since she was giving birth. To cover this up, her character C.C. suffered a breakdown and spent those episodes in an asylum.
* Just before season three of ''Series/{{Nashville}}'' began, executive producer Dee Johnson said that a lot of the main cast wouldn't appear in every episode of said season - and indeed Chris Carmack, Will Chase, Oliver Hudson, Eric Close and Lennon & Maisy all miss at least one episode each (and often more than one). Creator/HaydenPanettiere's screen time was already reduced due to her real-life pregnancy, but a lot of material was shot before she took time off to have her baby, meaning "That's The Way Love Goes" is the first episode of the series in which she does not appear at all ([[WrittenInAbsence although her character Juliette is talked to on the phone]]). Unfortunately, it wouldn't be the last - the following season [[LifeImitatesArt both Juliette and Hayden came down with post-partum depression]], leading to the actress having to take medical leave from the show (she only appears in stock footage in "Unguarded Moments"). Aubrey Peeples also had to miss episodes due to filming of ''Film/JemAndTheHolograms2015''.
* ''Series/{{NCIS}}'': The series usually includes everyone in the main cast (minus whoever's playing the NCIS director) in every episode, so a non-appearance is quite rare.
** Ducky does not appear in the sixth season episode "Legend (2)" (the second part of the ''Series/NCISLosAngeles'' pilot episodes). Bonus points for the fact that this was first time a main character introduced in the ''Series/{{JAG}}'' back-door pilot episodes missed an NCIS episode (Thomas Morrow was never a main character and Vivian Blackadder never appeared in the series itself). Ducky would miss about half the season after Season 15 due to Creator/DavidMcCallum semi-retiring.
** After being promoted to the main cast in Season 10, Brian Dietzen (Jimmy Palmer) was still absent from about a third of episodes each season, usually with no explanation. This ended after Ducky retired as ME and Jimmy took over, with Dietzen appearing in every episode of the show from then on.
** [=DiNozzo=] was absent in [=13x22=] "Homefront" due to Creator/MichaelWeatherly filming the pilot of his new show, ''Series/{{Bull}}'', in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity. This is the second time a ''Series/{{JAG}}''-introduced character was absent. Weatherly left at the end of Season 13.
** Gibbs (Creator/MarkHarmon) was the only character to appear in every single episode until he left in Season 19, episode 4.
* ''Series/NCISLosAngeles'', like its parent show, will usually have all the main cast members, until Hetty's absence in "Home is Where the Heart is" and Eric's absence in most of season 11. Like Ducky, Eric was introduced in the PoorlyDisguisedPilot.
** Hetty missed more episodes than made appearances in Seasons 11 and 12 due to Creator/LindaHunt recovering from a serious car accident, and then due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
** Marty Deeks missed a couple of episodes when he was said to be giving evidence in court.
* ''Series/NCISNewOrleans'': Patton Plame and Sonja Percy frequently missed episodes during the show’s run.
* In ''Series/NedsDeclassifiedSchoolSurvivalGuide'', the main trio of Ned, Moze, and Cookie are the only characters to appear in every episode. Every other character on the show, even such key players as Gordy, Suzie Crabgrass, and Billy Loomer, didn’t appear whenever they were not needed.
* In the ''Series/NickyRickyDickyAndDawn'' episode "This Little Piggy Went to the Harpers", Aidan Gallagher (Nicky) was missing from all but the final few minutes. The reason in-universe was that Nicky went to a cooking camp.
* The ''Series/NinjaTurtlesTheNextMutation'' episode "Going Ape" noticeably does not feature Venus de Milo, Michelangelo, or Splinter, with no explanation given for their absence.
* In the later seasons of ''Series/NorthernExposure'', Joel doesn't appear in several episodes before leaving in the final season due to a contract dispute.
* ''Series/Numb3rs'': Don (Creator/RobMorrow) and Charlie (Creator/DavidKrumholtz) are the only ones to appear in every episode.
** It's particularly egregious in the last two seasons, where there are technically four other agents in addition to Don (David, Colby, Liz, and Nikki) but only a few episodes actually feature all four of them; in most episodes, only three agents appear while the fourth is entirely absent. In most cases, the absences are not explained or even noted, although one episode ("12:01 AM") does say that Colby, the absent character of the week for that one, is on a fishing trip.
** Creator/PeterMacNicol (Larry) and Creator/DianeFarr (Megan) also take long leaves in Season 3. In-universe, the explanations are that Larry is in space and Megan is on loan to the Department of Justice.
* In season one of ''Series/OnceUponATime'' Robert Carlyle is absent from only three episodes, whereas fellow regular Raphael Sbarge only appears in 10 out of 23 (one of which only has him as the voice of Jiminy Cricket) - which is significantly less than, say, Creator/MeghanOry[[note]] who plays Ruby/Red Riding Hood[[/note]] (there are only five episodes in season one where she doesn't turn up, which would explain her PromotionToOpeningTitles in season two - and Sbarge getting DemotedToExtra).
** In season two Carlyle missed three (again) but Ory is absent from ''10'' (in fact this trope affected all the regulars except Josh Dallas and Jared S. Gilmore, who appeared in all 22 episodes); ultimately Ory left the series, but the door's open for her return as a guest star.
** Going into season five the most frequently seen cast member is Jennifer Morrison, who to date has only missed season two's "The Crocodile."
* ''Series/PoliceCameraAction'': Gethin Jones, former ''Series/StrictlyComeDancing'' contestant hosted a VerySpecialEpisode entitled "Drink Driving Special", which aired on 17th December 2008. Alastair Stewart and Adrian Simpson did not appear.
* ''Franchise/PowerRangers'':
** In ''Series/PowerRangersDinoThunder,'' Jason Frank's limited availability led them to go to great lengths when it came to keeping his face offscreen: He's one of four rangers, TheMentor, the BigGood, and yet for entire arcs he's not actually ''there''. First, he was [[AndIMustScream trapped in amber]], while suited. When it was dissolved, found that he could no longer demorph, and remained this way for a ''very'' long time. ''Then'' he finally demorphed... but was now ''invisible'' (his civilian-mode power for that season.)
** And it happened to him again when his character appeared in ''Series/PowerRangersSPD''. To cover his absence, the character only appeared morphed and was voiced by [[TheOtherDarrin Jeffrey]] [[ActingForTwo Parazzo]].
** This was also why Ernie, the owner of the Angel Grove Juice Bar in [[Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers the original series]] through [[Series/PowerRangersZeo Zeo]] was written out of the show; Richard Genelle, who portrayed the character, retired due to weight-related health problems. Continuity wise, Ernie left to do volunteer work in South America. (Lt. Stone's actual quote was, ""Well, his foreign service unit recalled him and he had to suddenly leave. I don't know, something about building a bridge in the Amazon." (On another note, Genelle successfully lost forty pounds and later founded a company called Retail Logistics Solutions, Inc. in Cerritos, California, providing transportation services.)
** This was the reason for Kendrix's death via HeroicSacrifice on ''Series/PowerRangersLostGalaxy''. Valerie Vernon had to leave the show after being diagnosed with leukemia, and due to overwhelming positive response to this plot device in the previous series (where Zordon sacrificed himself to save the universe) the writers felt they were safe with it.
* If you are a cast member of ''Series/PrettyLittleLiars'' and your name is not Creator/TroianBellisario, Creator/AshleyBenson, Creator/LucyHale or Creator/ShayMitchell, you can count on having at least one (and sometimes more than one) episode off.
* ''Series/PrisonBreak'' did this to John Abuzzi who got his throat cut and disappeared for a while; the actor who portrays him, Creator/PeterStormare, was contractually obliged to go and film some bizarre Volkswagen commercials. He came back 6 episodes later with a haircut.
* Creator/PatrickMcGoohan was away filming ''Film/IceStationZebra'' for much of ''Series/ThePrisoner1967'' episode "[[Recap/ThePrisonerE13DoNotForsakeMeOhMyDarling Do Not Forsake Me Oh my Darling]]". This was justified by having the mind of Number 6 being put into a new body. The replacement also allowed them to have Number Six kiss a woman; [=McGoohan's=] contract stipulated that he would not appear in a love scene.
* In ''Series/{{Reba}}'', Kyra only appeared in the first four episodes for the fifth season due to actress Scarlett Pomers struggle with an eating disorder. She returned in the sixth and final season.
* In Season VIII of ''Series/RedDwarf'', the crew were suddenly returned to life. This meant Captain Hollister returned (as a regular), as did Lister's friends Selby and Chen (as guest stars). However Olaf Petersen, Lister's best friend and the character most often seen in flashbacks to before the accident, was mentioned twice but never appeared.
* ''Series/{{Roseanne}}'' blurs the line between this and WrittenInAbsence in one episode without the title character. The cast doesn't comment on her disappearance, but the RealLife Roseanne shows up during the credits to inform the audience she was gone due to her pregnancy. But don't worry--she still got paid.
* ''Series/{{Roswell}}'' does better but still the only characters to appear in every episode are Liz, Max and Michael. (Tess appears in every episode of Season 2, the only one where she's a regular.) Maria and Isobel miss an episode each in Season 3 (as does Jesse, who only appears in that season) and Isobel also misses one in Season 2, while Alex, Kyle and Valenti are frequently absent.
* ''Series/SanfordAndSon'':
** Foxx's salary-related departures derailed the show on several occasions, in one instance leading to [[RealLifeWritesThePlot Whitman Mayo's temporary elevation to lead actor]].
** Demond Wilson also missed an occasional episode here and there... and ''both'' Foxx and Wilson were absent for "[[PoorlyDisguisedPilot The Family Man]]", the Season Four finale.
** When Lamont is about to get married in a first-season episode, one guest is noticeably absent from the ceremony - his Aunt Esther. But that's because [=LaWanda=] Page (who played Aunt Esther) had yet to be added to the show at that point.
* The main cast of ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'' besides Sabrina herself, her aunts, Harvey and Salem, tend to miss a handful of episodes per season.
* ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'':
** The eighth season did this as a cost-cutting measure, in addition to a smaller-than-usual writing team. Certain main characters went missing, especially Carla; in one instance because she was 'out of town' but in another she was mentioned several times as being there but just didn't appear on screen.
** Every character is absent for at least one episode in the eighth season. It gets really noticeable when there are whole episodes without JD, the star of the show. One episode only featured his voice, as he talked to Turk and Elliot on the phone. One scene had Turk upset to find that JD has gone to Disneyland without him. Strangely, Turk appears in more episodes than JD, according to Website/IMDb, as a result of his actor being absent a number of times that season. He eventually leaves the show in season 9.
* ''Series/SeaQuestDSV'':
** Jonathon Brandis is the only cast member to appear in every episode.
** Brody doesn't appear in the second season's "Alone" because actor Ed Kerr didn't like what the episode did with the character and, unable to get any significant changes in the script, walked off the set early in that week's shooting.
* The ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' episode "The Pen", when Jerry and Elaine visit Jerry's parents in Florida, does not have Kramer and George. However, this had nothing to do with actor availability; the show at this point was simply not being written with the mindset that all four characters would appear in every episode. Jason Alexander, who played George, let it be known that he was not happy about being excluded, and that he would quit if he were ever written out of an episode again. Kramer is also absent from "The Chinese Restaurant", but "The Pen" would be the only Costanza-free episode of the series. [[Creator/JuliaLouisDreyfus Julia Louis-Dreyfus]] isn't in "The Seinfeld Chronicles" (the pilot), which was shot before she was cast, and due to her pregnancy midway through the series is also absent from both parts of "The Trip". In fact, only one cast member appears in every episode-- no prizes for guessing who).
* Due to each generation of ''Series/{{Skins}}'' containing a large cast compared to its [[Main/BritishBrevity limited episode count]], each season features at least one or two episodes wherein one or more cast members are absent.
** Tony, Michelle and Sid are the only characters to appear in every episode of the first generation.
** JJ is the only character to appear in every episode of the second generation.
** Franky, Mini, Liv, and Alo are the only characters to appear in every episode of the third generation.
* ''{{Series/Smallville}}'' has tons of this: Clark is the only character to appear in every episode and Lex the only other character to appear in every episode he's credited on (the first 7 seasons plus a guest appearance in Season 10). Whitney, Pete, Lionel, Jason, Jimmy, Oliver, Kara, Tess, Davis and Zod never appeared in every episode of a season despite being on the opening credits at various points (Lionel was a regular on Seasons 2 to 7, the others for between one and three seasons). Chloe misses episodes in Seasons 2 and 4 and hardly appears in Season 10. Lana misses episodes of Seasons 5, 6 and 7. Jonathan misses episodes in Seasons 3, 4 and 5. Martha misses episodes in Seasons 4, 5 and 6. (All three leave the show after that, only managing occasional guest appearances.) Lois doesn't manage a whole season until Season 10, despite being on the show since Season 4 and the opening titles since Season 5.
* ''Series/SonsOfAnarchy'': Jax Teller (Creator/CharlieHunnam) and his mother Gemma (Creator/KateySagal) are the only characters to appear in every episode of the series, with Tig Trager (Creator/KimCoates) appearing in all but one episode and Tara Knowles (Creator/MaggieSiff) being featured in every episode [[spoiler:until her death]].
* ''Series/StargateSG1'' tended to do this a lot in its later seasons. Hell, Jack O'Neill did this for almost the entirety of the eighth season.
** And then there was one episode "Nemesis", where Daniel Jackson has only a minor part in the beginning, when he was out of action due to appendicitis. The real Michael Shanks had been unable to feature in this episode for the same reason, so they added that first scene in later while he was still recovering.
** Notably, as of season six, only one main cast member didn't miss an episode: Creator/ChristopherJudge. He missed his first one that season, but he's still the SG-1 member with the most episodes under his belt.
** Aside from a brief video appearance, Amanda Tapping was absent for the opening five episodes of Season 9 due to being in the final stages of pregnancy at the time. In order to avoid carrying an all-male cast for that stretch, they reintroduced Claudia Black's guest character, Vala Mal Doran, from Season 8 for those episodes, who eventually also then became a [[EnsembleDarkhorse series regular]] for Season 10.
* ''Franchise/StarTrek'' (particularly the [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Next Generation]] era) did this on occasion, and those shows had only seven or eight characters in the main cast. Most episodes could easily work in all of them, but sometimes, one would go missing; we can only assume they were [[NobodyPoops in the toilet]].
** ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'': Creator/GeorgeTakei was missing from a string of Season 2 episodes because he went off to film ''The Green Berets''. The plan coming in that season was for Takei and Creator/WalterKoenig to alternate due to budgetary reasons; Sulu and Chekov rarely appear together until Season 3.
** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'':
*** The worst offender in the final season was Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko), who appeared in fewer than half of the episodes. Even in earlier seasons, Jake would often go missing for 4 or 5 episodes at a time. In the end, the ascended extra Morn appeared in more episodes than Jake. [[http://memory-alpha.org/ Memory Alpha]] mentions in the notes for several episodes that the original, Jake-centric plot of the episode was scrapped because the actor was unavailable due to his education commitments.
*** Creator/ColmMeaney did not want to give up his film work, so the writers allowed him to be absent for a few episodes, then return for a heavily character-centric "O'Brien must suffer" episode each season.
** ''Series/StarTrekPicard'': Among the regular cast members, only Creator/PatrickStewart and Creator/AlisonPill appear in every episode of Season 1. The others are missing for at least one, as listed below.
*** Creator/IsaBriones ("Stardust City Rag")
*** Creator/MichelleHurd ("Remembrance")
*** Creator/SantiagoCabrera ("Remembrance", "Maps and Legends")
*** Harry Treadaway ("Stardust City Rag", "Broken Pieces")
*** Evan Evagora ("Remembrance", "Maps and Legends", "The End Is the Beginning")
* The first episode of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' which does not have the Impala in it is [[Recap/SupernaturalS02E18HollywoodBabylon "Hollywood Babylon" (S02, Ep18)]]. Creator/MishaCollins' Castiel and Creator/MarkSheppard's Crowley, despite eventually being upgraded from guest stars to series regulars, are often absent from multiple episodes every season.
* Contestants on the show ''Series/{{Survivor}}'' appear at least on screen at some point in every single episode until they are voted out, however, due to there being many contestants on the show, it is nearly impossible to focus on every single on in an hour-long episode. As a result, some contestants are often relegated to background roles for one or more episodes, having no on-screen interviews (called "confessionals") and are completely irrelevant to the plot of the episode. In extreme cases of this, they are considered by fans to be "invisible" in the episode, indicating that they were all but completely absent from the episode. Often times, contestants are so "invisible" throughout the entire season that their invisibility actually becomes a running gag with fans. Examples include Mary in season 16, Brett in season 19, Kelly S. in season 21, and Rick in season 23.
* The original version of ''{{Series/Survivors}}'' had this throughout Season Two, with various characters "off gathering salt".
* Due to the terms of his contract, Creator/AndyKaufman (Latka) didn't appear in every episode of ''Series/{{Taxi}}''. Also, Judd Hirsch (Alex) was absent from the episode "What Price Bobby" while away filming ''Literature/OrdinaryPeople'', only appearing via phone call during the closing minutes of the show.
* William Shatner's ''[=TekWar=]'' did this, funnily enough, with William Shatner. Shatner played the mysterious Bascom in the original miniseries and appeared in the opening credits for all of the series episodes even with the character not appearing in most of them. Bascom was still referenced several times throughout the show, once being said to be out of the country and unreachable. His absence was even lampshaded in "Skin Deep" when the Police Commissioner complains that he hasn't seen Bascom for months and Sam (Jake's second partner and not present in the miniseries) admits that she's never seen him. Finally, in the episode after "Skin Deep", Bascom made a return appearance.
* [[Creator/PeterCapaldi Malcolm Tucker]] doesn't appear in the first and third episodes of ''Series/TheThickOfIt'''s fourth season, despite him practically being the main character at that point.
* Summer Glau is the only actor to appear in every episode of ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles'', especially season 2.
* There was an episode of ''Series/ThirdWatch'' where a paramedic appears. Not any of the regular paramedic cast though, none of whom appear in the episode at all.
* ''Series/ThreesCompany'':
** In season 4, Suzanne Somers was involved in bitter contract negotiations with the show's producers, and was absent for the taping of numerous episodes (citing suspiciously vague health issues). It got to the point where the writers were forced to write two versions of each episode's script: one WITH Chrissy, and one WITHOUT Chrissy, depending on if Suzanne showed up or not. She was consequentially fired, but her role still appeared on the show in a greatly reduced role to burn off her contract, with her character "[[PutOnABus moving to Fresno to take care of her sick aunt]]" and essentially reduced to a cameo appearance at the end of each episode (with Chrissy shown talking on the telephone with Jack and/or Janet). A new character, Chrissy's cousin Cindy, was brought in to serve as a SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute of sorts, Somers' contract ran out, and the character was hardly mentioned again, being permanently replaced with another replacement character: Terry. [[FirstGirlWins That said, to this day Chrissy is still the one most associated with the show.]]
** Also, Janet doesn't appear in the Season 3 episode "Stanley's Hotline," leaving Jack as the only character to appear in every episode.
* Notably averted with ''Series/TheThundermans'', with the six main cast members all appearing in every episode.[[note]]Addison Riecke (Nora) was absent from the episode "Can't Hardly Date" because she was busy with the premiere of her movie, "The Beguiled".[[/note]]
* ''Series/{{Ultraman}}'': There is only episode in the entirety of the original series where not all members of Science Patrol appear, and that would be episode 30 "The Phantom Snow Mountain", in which Captain Muramatsu and Fuji are absent.
* ''Series/UltraSeven'': Anne does not appear in either episode 11 "Fly to the Mountain of Evil" or episode 13 "The Man from V3", while both Soga and Amagi are absent from episode 19 "Project Blue" (although they are mentioned).
* ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'': Tyler disappears for one reason or another for large chunks of each season.
* ''Series/{{Velvet}}'': Due to other commitments, Miguel Ángel Silvestre was absent for the last quarter of season 3 and almost all of season 4. However, he remained the second billed actor in the credits the whole time.
* Every lead character except Veronica and Keith would be absent from episodes of ''Series/VeronicaMars'' across all three seasons. Only their actors had full season contracts. Everyone else was contracted for smaller numbers of episodes because of budget constraints.
* ''Series/{{Victorious}}''. Most of the cast appears in every episode with the exceptions of:
** Cat doesn't appear in season 1 episodes "Jade Dumps Beck" and "The Wood".
** Beck is absent in four episodes: "The Birthweek Song" (season 1), "Tori Gets Stuck" (season 2), "Prom Wrecker" (season 2) and "Who Did It to Trina" (season 2).
** Trina is missing from the most episodes of the cast. She is absent from four season 1 episodes ("Robarazzi", "Beck's Big Break", "The Great Ping-Pong Scam", and "Sleepover at Sikowitz's"), two season 2 episodes ("Beck Falls for Tori" and "Jade Gets Crushed"), and three season 3 episodes ("Opposite Date", "Cell Block" and "One Thousand Berry Balls").
* ''Series/TheWalkingDead'' does this fairly regularly, with numerous episodes doing a deeper focus on a few characters and everyone else absent or reduced to a cameo. No one's immune; even series lead Andrew Lincoln has missed several episodes.
* The final seasons of ''Series/TheWestWing'' rotated the cast on a frequent basis to save on costs, to the point where all the main cast appearing in the credits of an episode ([[spoiler:for Leo [=McGarry=]'s funeral episode]]) was something of a noteworthy event.
* ''Series/WheelOfFortune'' host Pat Sajak had to miss three weeks of tapings due to emergency intestinal surgery. As a result, LovelyAssistant Vanna White hosted in his place. The first two weeks had costumed Disney characters taking Vanna's usual place at the puzzle board, while the third week had Pat's daughter Maggie take that role.
* A strange example in ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace''. In season 4, Max (Jake T. Austin) has been turned into a girl through magic (and thus played by a female actress) for most of it due to Jake T. Austin having to go work on the movie ''WesternAnimation/{{Rio}}''. Also, David [=DeLuise=] would miss a few episodes every season, usually with a reference to Jerry being out of town. Sometimes this was because [=DeLuise=] would be directing an episode.
** Actually, only Alex (Selena Gomez) and Justin (David Henrie) appeared in every episode during the series, with Theresa (Maria Canals Barrera) missing the most episodes of the cast. However, only Gomez appeared in all the show's episodes as well as both the movie and the aftershow special episode (where Henrie doesn't appear).
* During the second season of ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'', Lucy Lawless had to sit out an episode due to breaking her pelvis in a ''Series/TheTonightShow'' stunt. In an episode completed just before Lucy's injury, Xena's ArchEnemy Callisto [[FreakyFridayFlip had swapped minds with Xena]]. Rather than resolve the body-swap at the end of the episode, the producers allowed Callisto's actress Hudson Leick to continue to play Xena for the following episode, and had her body-swap reversed at the end of that ep.
* ''Series/TheXFiles'':
** Dana Scully's actor Creator/GillianAnderson got pregnant in late season 1, inspiring the famous UFO abduction plot in season 2.
** Season 5 episodes' absenteeisms are explained because of the filming of [[Film/TheXFilesFightTheFuture the first movie]].
** Other reasons included commitments to unrelated projects. Episode "Hungry" of season 7 was the first one narrated from the monster's point of view, and the episode even played with shots of the leads' doubles. The stars were both unavailable, shooting other films.
** When one of the lead actors directed and/or wrote an episode, they almost invariably focused entirely on their own character, leaving the partner character either barely there or literally absent (e.g. Duchovny's "The Unnatural" or Anderson's "all things").
** Creator/DavidDuchovny did not want to stay in the production after season 7, so Mulder disappeared for more than half episodes of season 8. He was also absent for whole season 9 and returned only for the series finale.
* On ''Series/TheYoungAndTheRestless'':
** There was a big storyline involving Drucilla learning that her daughter Lily was not fathered by her husband Neil, but her brother-in-law Malcolm whom she mistook for Neil due to being doped up on cough medicine. However, by the time this storyline kicked into high gear, the actor playing Malcolm left the show and they never recast the character.
** Absenteeism is a fact of life on soaps, especially when you have octogenarian actors who have been on the show for decades. ''Series/AllMyChildren,'' ''Series/AsTheWorldTurns,'' and ''Series/DaysOfOurLives'' all had/have actors in their late eighties who are kept on minimal contracts as a courtesy, even though they may go years--literally--between appearances.
** This often happens on the soaps, for a variety of reasons. It is most often due to an actress' maternity leave (particularly if her pregnancy was not written into the show. It can also happen because of contract negotiations (the reason that the aforementioned Drucilla disappeared for a time), or if a late-teens actor is heading off to college, the character is sent off as well.
* ''Series/{{Zoey 101}}'': Creator/JamieLynnSpears was the only cast member to appear in all 65 episodes. Everyone else missed at least one, the worst was Dustin Brooks, portrayed by Paul Butcher, who appears in only 24 episodes despite ostensibly being a regular.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* Music/{{Alabama}} drummer Mark Herndon rarely played on their studio recordings to begin with, but due to a series of disputes with the band over the years, he stopped playing on their studio recordings entirely beginning with ''In Pictures'' in 1995. He continued to be a nominal member of the band until the early 2000s. Randy Owen later revealed that Herndon was never "officially" a member of the band to begin with, and was only counted as one by their label due to ExecutiveMeddling.
* Music/TheBeatles:
** "Yesterday" from ''Music/{{Help}}'' has Music/PaulMcCartney singing and playing by himself.
** On ''Music/{{Revolver|Beatles Album}}'', Music/JohnLennon doesn't appear on "Love You To", Paul doesn't appear on "She Said She Said", and "For No One" has only Paul, Music/RingoStarr and French horn player Alan Civil.
** ''Music/TheWhiteAlbum'' is remembered partly for being the start of the dissension that led to the break-up of the band. That's partly reflected in the track list being, to a certain extent at least, the product of four solo artists. Only 15 of the 30 songs on the album feature all four Beatles playing.
*** "Back in the U.S.S.R." and "Dear Prudence" had Paul playing drums after Ringo temporarily quit the band.
*** [=McCartney=] recorded four "solo" songs on the album in which no other Beatle appears: "Wild Honey Pie", "Martha My Dear", "Blackbird", and "Mother Nature's Son". John Lennon, who hated it when Paul recorded by himself, appears all by himself on "Julia", the only Beatles song which Lennon did solo.
*** Ringo's "Don't Pass Me By" features Ringo, Paul on bass and piano, and a session violinist. Paul's "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?" also features only Paul and Ringo.
*** Music/GeorgeHarrison does not play on "I Will". John doesn't play on three of George's four songs, "Piggies", "Long, Long, Long", and "Savoy Truffle", although he did contribute backing vocals to "Piggies".
*** The sound collage "Revolution 9" features studio chatter from John and George, as well as Yoko and others, but nothing from Paul or Ringo.
*** "Good Night" features ''none'' of the Beatles playing, but instead is Ringo singing with a 26-piece orchestra and a choir.
** "The Ballad of John and Yoko" was recorded by John and Paul entirely, with Paul filling in for Ringo on drums and John playing lead and rhythm guitar.
** John doesn't appear on "I Me Mine" from ''Music/LetItBe''. They hadn't recorded a completed version in January 1969, but a scene showing the band rehearsing the song was included in the film, so they decided to do a polished version from scratch for the album, scheduling the session for the 3rd of January in 1970. John was visiting Denmark with Yoko at the time, and thus was not available, leaving George, Paul and Ringo to complete the song, the final one the group would record before the breakup.[[note]]Since John had informally declared himself finished with The Beatles after they completed ''Music/AbbeyRoad'', odds are he wouldn't have participated even if he'd been in England[[/note]]
** On ''Music/AbbeyRoad'', John Lennon does not appear on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", "Here Comes the Sun", or "Golden Slumbers". Additionally, Paul is the only Beatle to play on "Her Majesty".
* Music/DaYoopers' ''We're Still Rockin''', the first album recorded after Jim Bellmore replaced Joe Potila as guitarist, also has Bellmore playing all of the bass parts. This is because previous bassist Doc Bradbury had just left, and the band had yet to replace him due to a touring hiatus at the time. While Reggie Lusardi later became their touring bassist, all subsequent albums had Bellmore playing guitar and bass in-studio (except "One More Beer", the only track to feature Lusardi playing).
* Music/KingGizzardAndTheLizardWizard's second drummer Eric Moore doesn't play on ''Paper Mache Dream Balloon'', ''Murder of the Universe'' or ''Polygondwanaland'', and is only credited on those albums in his role as the band's manager. Additionally, bassist Lucas Skinner doesn't appear at all on ''Infest the Rats' Nest''.
* ''Music/{{KISS}}'': Ace Frehley, during much of ''Music From The Elder'' and the entirety of ''Creatures Of The Night'', leading to his replacement by Vinnie Vincent. Also Peter Criss during much of ''Dynasty'' and the entirety of ''Unmasked'', leading to his replacement by Eric Carr. And finally, both Frehley and Criss were absent for most of ''Psycho Circus'', with Frehley playing guitar only on two songs (three if you include the bonus track on the Japanese version) and Criss playing drums on only one song.
* Music/TheNewPornographers:
** Kathryn Calder was originally a touring member who would fill in for Neko Case when Neko herself was promoting her solo work and wasn't able to tour with the group. She was officially promoted to a full-time member in 2006, and regularly appears on studio albums alongside Neko Case, usually contributing backing vocals and keyboards.
** In 2017, ''Whiteout Conditions'' was their first album not to feature singer/songwriter Dan Bejar or drummer Kurt Dahle. Dahle formally left the group, while Bejar was unavailable for the album due to working on a new album by his band Destroyer. Bejar was also absent from the band's followup, 2019's ''In the Morse Code of Brake Lights'', but has not officially left the band.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Podcasts]]
* ''Podcast/TheThrillingAdventureHour'' "Beyond Belief" segments feature Frank and Sadie Doyle, a HappilyMarried pair of mediums who always work together. Despite that, there are a few episodes where one or the other does not appear. Frank is absent from "She Blinded Me with Seance" and "Rosemary's Baby Shower", having locked himself in their walk-in liquor cabinet in a fit of pique in the former and simply not going along when Sadie visits a friend in the latter. Sadie is absent for "Nuns the Word" and "Molar Express", where respectively she is at a spa and Frank is going to a dentist appointment alone.
* Most ''Podcast/WelcomeToNightVale'' episodes are narrated entirely by Cecil, the local radio host, with other characters appearing on occasion. However, there are several episodes where Cecil is absent or has very few lines. 19B takes place in the neighboring city of Desert Bluffs, and is narrated by their own radio host named Kevin, although Cecil does have a few lines about halfway through. Episode 47 does not even mention Cecil, as [[spoiler:[=StrexCorp=] has taken over Night Vale and the whole episode is done by Kevin and Lauren Mallard]]. Episode 65 has a recording of Cecil's voice at the beginning, but the rest of the episode consists of other characters leaving messages on his voicemail. Episode 70A is again hosted by Kevin, with [[ScienceHero Carlos]] reporting in every few minutes.
* ''Podcast/KakosIndustries'': During "The Woman", the announcements aren't at all provided by Corin and instead a very much random yet beautiful woman.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
* "Cry UFO" in the series ''{{Series/Terrahawks}}'' is notable as the only episode in which [[BigBad Zelda]] never appears.
* ''Series/{{Oobi}}'': Kako, played by Noel [=MacNeal=], was frequently absent in later episodes. Kako's absences were never explained on the show, but they were due to [=MacNeal=] being hired as Sesame Workshop's production consultant during ''Oobi''[='s=] last year in production.
* ''Series/TheMuppetShow'' episode with guest star Dizzy Gillespie is the only episode where Statler doesn't appear, being sick (of the show.) Waldorf is accompanied by his wife, Astoria, who happens to look like Statler in drag.
** Interestingly, there are variations of this in both the last episode filmed (Gene Kelly, in which Fozzie Bear only appears in the background of the closing number) and the last episode aired (save for the opening trumpet note, Gonzo doesn't appear in the episode).
* Several ''Series/SesameStreet'' skits try to explain the absence of main characters. One "Ask Oscar" segment has Bob fill in for Telly, who is said to be at the dentist. Another features a grouchy Linda filling in for Oscar.
--> Telly Monster: "I know, I know. You're not Oscar, you're Linda. (to viewers) You see, Oscar could not be here today. But Linda asked if she can ''pretend'' to be Oscar."
** It wasn't uncommon from the late '70s through the late '90s for most of the major characters played by either Frank Oz or Jim Henson to be absent from the episodes' street stories, as Oz and Henson were typically busy with a variety of other projects. While they would return for weeks at a time to perform their characters for inserts, it was rare for them to appear in street stories. If their characters appeared, they typically either made silent background appearances or had pre-recorded dialogue. Although Steve Whitmire assumed the roles of Ernie and Kermit the Frog following Henson's passing, he was also quite busy with Muppet-related commitments and likewise usually only appeared in inserts (save for major street stories like Slimey's trip to the moon, which saw Kermit return as a reporter); Oz's work as a film director also kept him from appearing in more than just inserts, and the period between Henson's passing and Whitmire's taking over as Ernie also meant Bert was mostly relegated to the background.
*** The tide began to turn in the early '00s when Whitmire appeared as Ernie in a number of street stories, but seeing as Oz was still the primary performer of Bert, Grover, and Cookie Monster and his successors (Eric Jacobson for Bert and Grover, David Rudman for Cookie Monster) were still getting acclimated to the characters, they still seldom appeared. It wasn't until around 2002 that Oz passed the reigns more or less fully on to his successors, save for a few guest appearances, and from that point on all three characters made much more frequent appearances...only for ''Whitmire'' to suddenly have scheduling issues, which prevented more appearances from Ernie in street stories until Whitmire was replaced by Billy Barkhurst in 2014 and finally Peter Linz in 2017.
** Speaking of Whitmire: while the majority of the Muppet characters he inherited from other performers were passed on to others in the wake of his firing (Matt Vogel took over Kermit, David Rudman took over Beaker, Eric Jacobson took over the Newsman, and Peter Linz took over Statler and Link Hogthrob), it was more complicated for the characters he originated. While his ''Fraggle Rock'' character Wembley was recast with Frankie Cordero for ''Fraggle Rock: Rock On!'', his major original Muppet character, Rizzo the Rat, has been either absent or relegated to TheVoiceless.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Radio]]
* Believe it or not, this was the reason why [[WeaksauceWeakness kryptonite]], one of the biggest threats to Franchise/{{Superman}}, was conceived. In ''Radio/TheAdventuresOfSuperman'', the actor providing his voice became sick, and couldn't perform. So the writers became clever, concocted a substance called kryptonite that weakened the Man of Steel, and had a gang of criminals use it to hold the hero hostage. For most of the storyline, the hero didn't need any dialogue, the fans only heard groans coming from the weakened captive, provided by someone else, until the actor recovered and the story was resolved. And as you know, this clever idea turned into something ''very'' big.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]
* On the ''Theatre/SeventeenSeventySix'' original Broadway cast recording, Howard Da Silva is replaced by his understudy Rex Everhart. This is because Da Silva suffered a massive heart attack just before the opening of the show. [[TheShowMustGoOn He still played the opening nights, mind]], but spent a month in the hospital after that.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theme Parks]]
* At the Ride/UniversalStudios parks:
** Elliot is nowhere to be seen in ''Ride/ETAdventure'', though it can be argued that he is "spiritually" there, since the guests are essentially assuming his role.
** Most of the Hogwarts staff doesn't appear in ''Ride/HarryPotterAndTheForbiddenJourney'', including most notably Professor Snape, as Alan Rickman didn't want to be in the ride.
** Sheen, despite being one of the main characters in the [[WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius series]], is completely absent in ''Ride/JimmyNeutronsNicktoonBlast''.
** Timmy Turner was absent from ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' scene, but he did appear in a Cosmo and Wanda clip in the post show room.
** Plankton wasn't in the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' scene, despite The Chum Bucket appearing in the background.
** In ''Ride/TransformersTheRide'', all of the human characters are absent except for General Morshower.
** In ''Ride/TheSimpsonsRide'', because Creator/HarryShearer chose to not be part of the ride, many of his characters either have no dialogue or are completely absent.
** Fred, Daphne, and Velma were all absent in the ''Scooby-Doo'' scene from the former attraction, ''Ride/TheFuntasticWorldOfHannaBarbera''. In the same attraction, despite the Jetsons playing a major role, Judy is nowhere to be seen.
** Janine was the only major character from the series to not appear in the former ''Theatre/GhostbustersSpooktacular'' show.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLegoMovie4DANewAdventure'' at Ride/{{Legoland}}, Franchise/{{Batman}} doesn't appear due to licensing issues.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* In video games based on anime with LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters, a lot of major characters are missing for no good reason. The ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' video game developers apparently have forgotten that Squad 8 exists (but then again, they aren't usually given the best developers). It is averted in the Xbox 360 games, though generally not anywhere else.
* Bill doesn't get any new lines in the [[http://left4dead.wikia.com/wiki/Crash_Course Crash Course DLC]] for ''VideoGame/Left4Dead''. The reason was because the voice actor [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_French_%28radio%29 Jim French]] couldn't be contacted. Likewise, in The Passing, [[spoiler:Bill was dead, so]] he got no lines there, either. They made darn well sure to avert this for The Sacrifice, however.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfKorra'' game focuses heavily on Korra, to the point that you barely see anyone else from the cast. Mako and Bolin only get a short cutscene appearance both in the beginning and end of the game. Asami is not given even that, making her the only one of the main cast to remain completely absent.
* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'':
** Bowser is absent in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'', ''VideoGame/SuperMarioLand'' and ''VideoGame/SuperMarioLand2SixGoldenCoins''. His role is filled respectively in those games by Wart, Tatanga, and Wario. In the NES game, all members of the Koopa Troop are absent as well due to Wart coming along with his own recruited bestiary (the 8-Bits). In a reversal, all Subcon enemies except Bob-Ombs are absent in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'', but more of them return in subsequent games (whether mainline or SpinOff).
** Luigi isn't even mentioned in ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' or ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine''.
** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'' is one of the very few games where Bowser appears, but Goombas are absent.
** In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'', Toad is the only major character in the series that does not appear in any capacity, which is notable as he does appear in all other console ''Mario'' platformers (the only other platformer games overall where he doesn't appear are the two ''Land'' games).
** Yoshi's House appears in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorldPiranhaIsland'', but Yoshi himself doesn't even make an appearance at all. The Koopa Kingdom (other than the basic Koopa Troopa) and Princess Peach also don't show up at all.
** ''VideoGame/MarioKart'': Waluigi and Bowser Jr. used to have a perfect-attendance record since their debut in ''VideoGame/MarioKartDoubleDash'', but were nowhere to be found in ''VideoGame/MarioKart7''. Waluigi returned in ''VideoGame/MarioKart8'', and while Bowser Jr. was still absent in the original version of the game, he returned in ''8 Deluxe''.
* Diddy Kong doesn't appear at any point in ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongJungleBeat''. A particularly odd case, as he's appeared in every other ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'' game since his debut.
* ''Franchise/{{Kirby}}'':
** King Dedede never appears in ''VideoGame/KirbyAndTheAmazingMirror'' or ''VideoGame/KirbyAndTheRainbowCurse'', though he appears in the latter as a figurine and a terrible drawing in Elline's diary.
** Meta Knight is also absent from a good amount of games after his debut in ''VideoGame/KirbysAdventure'', said games being ''Kirby's Dream Course'', the [[FanNickname Dark Matter trilogy]][[note]]''VideoGame/KirbysDreamLand2'', ''VideoGame/KirbysDreamLand3'', and ''VideoGame/Kirby64TheCrystalShards''[[/note]], ''Kirby's Block Ball'', ''Kirby's Star Stacker'', ''VideoGame/KirbyTiltNTumble'', ''VideoGame/KirbyTripleDeluxe'', and ''VideoGame/KirbyAndTheRainbowCurse''.
* ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' resident helper character, nicknamed "Phone Guy" by the community, has only appeared in the [[VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys1 first]] [[VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys2 three]] [[VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys3 games]] (and even then his third appearance was as a number of audio tapes). ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys4'' has him entirely absent outside of an EasterEgg, ''[[VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddysWorld World]]'' instead has [[spoiler:Scott himself]] cameo in the game and ''[[VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddysSisterLocation Sister Location]]'' replaces him entirely with the [=HandUnit=] AI.
* In ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'', RecurringExtra Stephen appears in every numbered game except [[VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne the third]], where he is absent and not even mentioned. Somewhat justified as most games are standalone and ''III'' is the only numbered game without another game in the same continuity.
* The first ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot'' portable game, ''The Huge Adventure'', features every character from [[VideoGame/CrashBandicoot3Warped the third game]] with the exception of Doctor Nefarious Tropy and JokeCharacter Fake Crash. What makes this notable is that in the sequel, ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot2NTranced'', Uka Uka decides to get rid of the four other villains and has Tropy replace Cortex because of his absence in the previous game, and as an indirect result, Fake Crash gains plot importance and becomes the third boss.
* Bebop is nowhere to be found, even separately from Rocksteady, in ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles: The Hyperstone Heist''.
* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'' is particularly guilty of this in its expansions and [=DLCs=], especially since the game had such a small cast to begin with.
** There are no female Nords, Orcs, or Redguards anywhere in the Shivering Isles, since Lynda Carter (voice actress of the female Nords/Orcs) and Gayle Jessup (female Redguards) were apparently unavailable.
** While the male members of nine of the ten playable races (the exception being the Bretons) all have new dialogue in ''Knights of the Nine'', only the female Imperials have new dialogue. This is unusual, since they share the same voice actress and voice type as the Bretons.
** Some of the minor plug-ins have to resort to recycling voice clips from pre-existing [=NPCs=] when their voice actor is unavailable to record new dialogue. While the developers were sometimes clever enough to re-use lines of dialogue that had been [[DummiedOut cut from the main game]] for the plug-in characters, it especially becomes noticeable in the ''Vile Lair'' plug-in, where the Breton merchant Rowley Eardwulf uses the exact same greeting as another Breton named Shady Sam, whose location is very close to the inn where Rowley is staying.
* ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'':
** Starting with the time after they joined the series, the VideoGame/{{Ice Climber}}s, [[VideoGame/MetalGear Snake]], [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Squirtle, Ivysaur]], and [[Franchise/StarFox Wolf]] did not appear in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DSAndWiiU''. VideoGame/DrMario, [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Mewtwo]], and [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade Roy]] were absent in ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl Brawl]]'', while [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Pichu]] and [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Young Link]] didn't appear in either of the two. Mewtwo, Roy and ''Brawl'' newcomer [[VideoGame/Mother3 Lucas]] were initially absent in the Wii U and [=3DS=] versions, but added later as DownloadableContent. All of these fighters return in ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate Ultimate]]''.
** For non-fighter examples, the Bumper item and Meowth as a Poke Ball Pokémon didn't show up in ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosMelee Melee]]''.
* This happens often in ''VideoGame/EnsembleStars'' stories - each member of the enormous cast needs to rotate into focus at least somewhat regularly, and the writers really love to build up heaps of relationships for each character and draw together characters who haven't interacted much yet, so it's pretty common for a character's best friend or beloved teammate to just not show up in a story to make room for someone else. This happens especially often in gacha stories, as only four cards appear for each (and while characters not form the cards can appear, the card characters are meant to be the focus), but it can occur in event stories as well - Autumn Trip revolves around the second years going on a [[ClassTrip school trip]], but there were two too many characters, so it's mentioned [[WrittenInAbsence off-handedly]] that Adonis and Kouga weren't able to come due to Undead being busy.
* ''VideoGame/MortalKombat3'': Several beloved characters from previous games are absent in this one due to drama with the actors. After the release of ''VideoGame/MortalKombatII'', Daniel Pesina (who played Johnny Cage and all the male ninjas), his brother Carlos Pasina (Raiden), and Katalin Zamiar (the female ninjas) left Midway and sued the company for unpaid royalties after the game was ported to home consoles. As a result, their characters were written out of ''MK 3''. However, fan backlash at their absence led to all the ninja characters returning to the series (albeit with [[TheOtherDarrin different actors]]) in ''[[UpdatedRerelease Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3]]'', and later ''Mortal Kombat Trilogy'' which saw the return of all previous characters, again with different actors if the originals were still in litigation.
* ''VideoGame/SonicAndTheBlackKnight'' doesn't feature Dr. Eggman at all.
* ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'':
** Kazuya Mishima, Lee Chaolan, and Marshall Law did not appear in ''Tekken 3'', and the latter also failed to make it into ''Tekken Tag Tournament'' as he was replaced by his son Forest.
** Anna Williams was not in ''Tekken 4'', nor was any Jack robot.
** Because she took on the identity of Jaycee in ''Tekken Tag Tournament 2'', Julia Chang in was not in the game as herself.
** Yoshimitsu was absent for the free-to-play game ''Tekken Revolution''. And while Heihachi was in the game, he was not playable.
** Jin Kazama, Yoshimitsu, and Nina Williams were not in the initial roster for ''Tekken 7''. The former two were added post-release, and Nina in the ''Fated Retribution'' update. Lei Wulong, Anna Williams, and Julia Chang, meanwhile, only got in as DLC.
* ''Franchise/TheKingOfFighters'':
** Kim Kaphwan was absent from the first ''[[TheKingOfFightersMaximumImpact Maximum Impact]]'' title, ''KOF EX Neo Blood'', and ''The King of Fighters Neowave''.
** ''2003'' left out key characters like Andy Bogard, Chin Gentsai, and Sie Kensou, the former two of whom would miss ''XI'' as well.
** Mai Shiranui and Robert Garcia were console-exclusive characters in ''XI'', while King, Leona, Joe Higashi and Goro Daimon were absent completely.
** Mai and King were missing again in ''XII'', and so was Yuri. Also missing was the core NESTS trio of K', Maxima, and Kula.
* Chun-Li did not appear in the first two iterations of the ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIII'' series.
* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'':
** Despite being the title character of the franchise, Princess Zelda makes no appearance in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening'' whatsoever and only gets a passing mention at the beginning of the game.
** She also doesn't appear in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTriForceHeroes''.
* Richard, Anna Gray's DeadpanSnarker father and SpiritAdvisor, is conspicuously absent from the fourth ''VideoGame/DetectivesUnited'' game. It's particularly jarring because no one ever mentions it or asks where he is, even though the previous installments make it pretty clear that she never goes anywhere without his enchanted skull. (ItMakesSenseInContext, as much as such a thing can.)
* Despite the former being a major character in the original ''VideoGame/Persona5'' and the latter gaining a fairly prominent role during the third semester of ''[[UpdatedReRelease Royal]]'', Goro Akechi and Kasumi[[spoiler:/Sumire]] Yoshizawa are completely absent from ''VideoGame/Persona5Strikers'' with no mention whatsoever. {{Justified}} for the latter in that development for ''Strikers'' predated ''Royal''.
* ''VideoGame/WWEVideoGames'':
** The original ''WWE [=SmackDown=] vs. Raw'' saw [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson The Rock]] move over to the Legends roster for the first time. Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin, on the other hand? He did not join the Legends roster until ''2006'', and thus was completely absent from the game.
** ''[=SmackDown=] vs. Raw 2009'' is so far the only game in the entire series not to feature The Rock, and Stone Cold's only other absence besides the original ''[=SvR=]''. Even their signature moves —- the Rock Bottom, the People’s Elbow, even the long-since genericized Stunner —- were renamed just for that one game. This was largely due to the fact that WWE had a special game called ''Legends of Wrestlemania'' to coincide with the pay-per-view’s 25th edition, and because of that the entire Legends roster was left out. The Legends roster, Rock and Austin included, came back in ''2010'' and both have been in every WWE game since then.
** ''WWE ‘12'' was Wrestling/ShawnMichaels' first game as a legend, but he missed the initial roster and only was available as a DLC character.
** ''WWE 2K15'' had a very small roster and thus, also a tiny legends roster. The biggest surprise, however, was that Wrestling/{{Edge}} failed to make the initial roster. Instead, he was saved for the ''One More Match'' DLC pack.
* ''VideoGame/NickelodeonAllStarBrawl'' contains several members of the the Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles cast among its roster of playable characters... and is the very first fighting game to not have all four of the titular Turtles, as neither Donatello nor Raphael are playable.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* In ''WebAnimation/TheAnnoyingOrange'', Orange doesn't appear in "The Weenies" [[WolverinePublicity despite him appearing in the video thumbnail]].
* In the ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' email "anything", Strong Bad doesn't appear in email despite them being his email. Instead, it's answered by Homestar. Ironic, since all of the characters (except Marzipan) are voiced by the ''same person''.
* Poor Donut. Misses an entire season of ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'', and reappears only to seemingly be shot to death because the voice actor had other priorities. Thankfully, the writers were able to pop him back in for a few episodes of seasons 9 and 10, and it looks like he's back for good in season 11.
* ''[[Machinima/Supermarioglitchy4sSuperMario64Bloopers SMG4]]'': Mario doesn't appear at all in "The Battletoads Justice Crew" and "The Japan Trip"[[note]]excluding the opening advertisement[[/note]].

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Videos]]
* It's not uncommon for certain Creator/AchievementHunter videos not to include the entire main six. However, since late 2015, Creator/GavinFree tends to be absent in most of the videos especially geared towards ''[[LetsPlay/AchievementHunterMinecraftSeries Minecraft]]'' and ''[[LetsPlay/AchievementHunterGrandTheftAutoSeries Grand Theft Auto V]]''. This is because his new position allows him to travel more.
* In ''WebVideo/AitorMolinaVs'', sometimes Lugosi or Ganchito appear, other times they don't.
* It is a RunningGag on the ''LetsPlay/DreamSMP'' that LetsPlay/{{GeorgeNotFound}} seems to be always absent for lore events (plot-heavy episodes), which has become a MemeticMutation both in- and out-of-universe. After the L'Manburg War for Independence, he was DemotedToExtra and slept through both the L'Manburg Elections and the Manburg Festival; during the final battle between Pogtopia and Manburg, he was away from the action, building a house; and during the Doomsday War, he just chose not to show up. [[spoiler:This is at least partially explained in Quackity's [[TheBusCameBack "George Lore" stream]], where it is revealed that George didn't show up to the elections because he was terribly wounded and had to rest; and the reason he was absent from so many plot-relevant events is supposedly because his father, Lore Man, had a sword which put anyone it struck to [[AsleepForDays sleep for days at a time]]. Eventually, this trope is ''finally'' {{averted}} when George appears during the [[WhamEpisode Red Banquet]] stream, after approximately six months of continuously not showing up to plot-relevant events.]]
* ''WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic'':
** In the reboot, occasionally Tamara won't appear because she's either sick or on tour with her boyfriend.
** Santa Christ is always there for the December videos, however he was absent from 2018's. This gets {{Lampshaded}} in the ''VideoGame/ElfBowling the Movie'' review when Santa Christ mentions his absence off-screen during the credits.
* In Creator/PhilthonJones, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1xQRmTNNAA Emergency Appeal]]" was caused by Jones not turning up to a recording session.
* In a mid-season episode of ''WebVideo/PrettyDudes'', only half of the lead characters appear (Zario, Ellington, and Jay). As the entire episode takes place in the middle of the night and away from the main house, the absences of Alexander, Sunji, and Eagle don't need to be explained as it's likely the characters are asleep.
* WebVideo/{{Sidemen}}:
** An example involving a convention, when the Sidemen (then still known as the Ultimate Sidemen) went to EGX 2014 (the event formerly known as Eurogamer Expo), they didn't have their most famous member Creator/{{KSI}} with them. This was due to his [[RoleEndingMisdemeanor history with the organisers that led to him being banned from future Eurogamer events for life]]. The following year, they decided not to attend EGX 2015 as they did not want to leave him behind again, and warned their fans to not expect any of them there.
** Ever since the inception of Sidemen Sunday, every member of the group would appear in the videos. However, on two separate ocassions in 2021, two members were notably absent, after being tested positive for [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic COVID-19]]:
*** In January, when the Sidemen did a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OchWt4TBhLw&ab_channel=Sidemen hide and seek in a castle]] video, Josh was absent, so one of their regular guests, WebVideo/{{Calfreezy}}, took his place.
*** In July, when it was filmed, but unpublished until August, the group did a video where [[https://youtu.be/WSKAIKqXYqE they would buy and wear one colour for 24 hours,]] Tobi was absent for this exact reason.
* LetsPlay/SimonLane has been missing from most of videos on his and LetsPlay/LewisBrindley's joint channel from March 2015, because of his falling ill and going into hospital for surgery. He has since been released, but is still unwell and absent.
* While LetsPlay/{{Turpster}} regularly appears with LetsPlay/{{Sips}} for ''VideoGame/GarrysMod'', and has done for a year, he took a break due to the birth of his daughter in January and February 2015, requiring him to divert his attention elsewhere from time to time. Thus videos mostly consist of Sips and LetsPlay/HatFilms, with Turps appearing for the odd video in between.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/AaahhRealMonsters'', Oblina and Krumm were absent in "The Great Escape" and "Showdown", which makes Ickis the only character of the series to appear in every episode.
* The ''[[WesternAnimation/SuperMarioBros The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3]]'' episode "Life's Ruff" is notable as the only episode of the Mario cartoon trilogy where Mario himself doesn't appear, leaving Luigi as the only character to appear in every episode of all three shows. Even then, he is completely silent in the ''Super Mario World'' episode "A Little Learning", the second-to-last episode of the series. Even again, Hip and Hop both have speaking roles in those episodes.
* Most episodes of ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGalaxyRangers'' have at least one Ranger absent, and a mid-season run of episodes focusing on Doc and Niko. Some of this was likely due to Creator/JerryOrbach (Zachary) filming ''Film/DirtyDancing'' at the time, as well as giving Doug Preis (Goose) room to voice roles on ''WesternAnimation/{{ThunderCats|1985}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Silverhawks}}'' but most of this was deliberate on the part of the writers, who placed much more emphasis on character development than most animated series from TheEighties.
* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' seemed to be [[AvertedTrope trying to avoid this]] in regards to Finn and Jake for whatever reason, as they have appeared in ''every'' episode for the first four seasons regardless of how important they are to its plot. Even if they're not the central characters, they have been given some sort of in-person appearance, even if it's very brief.
** Finn and Jake don't appear at all in "Bad Little Boy", which was a Fionna and Cake episode, and the only central characters to appear were Ice King and Marceline.
** They don't appear in "The Prince Who Wanted Everything" (another Fionna and Cake episode), "Princess Day", "Evergreen", "Friends Forever", "Be Sweet", "Orgalorg" and "Varmints".
** Jake has been absent in season 5 episodes "Rattleballs", "The Red Throne" and the Lemonhope two-parter episode.
** Finn is absent in "The Diary".
** A very strange example is the episode "Food Chain", the only one where [[RecurringExtra the Snail]] doesn't appear. It was made by a guest animator who was apparently unaware of the joke!
* ''WesternAnimation/AllGrownUp'': Tommy and Dil are the only Rugrats present in the final episode "The Golden Child", making it the only time Chuckie is absent in the series. Phil and Lil are also absent from "Saving Cynthia".
* In ''WesternAnimation/AllHailKingJulien'', Clover appears in all of the episodes except for the ''Exiled'' episode, "For Whom The Bell Gods Toll".
** "Out of the Foosa Pen and Into the Fire" is the only episode in which Maurice does not appear, leaving King Julien and Mort to appear in every episode.
* "The Apprentice" and "The Awkwardness" are the only episodes of ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'' in which Darwin doesn't appear, and Gumball doesn't appear in "The Sucker". Neither of them appear in "The Singing", "The Spinoffs", or "The Buddy" either, despite being mentioned.
* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'':
** Hayley and Klaus are absent in a number of episodes, to the point where it was lampshaded in "Ricky Spanish".
--->'''Klaus:''' "Ha ha ha, I made it into the episode. Pay me, bitches!"\\
'''Hayley:''' "Ha ha, me too!"
** Steve is absent in "Stan's Night Out" and "Lost in Space," the latter of which has Francine and Stan appear in the recap for but are otherwise completely absent. Roger appears in every episode, but in "Escape from Pearl Bailey" he is only present for one short scene and has no dialogue.
** And speaking of "Escape from Pearl Bailey", that episode almost explicitly references this, with all main characters besides Steve not appearing in any part of the episode except a brief segment[[note]]There were plans for a subplot involving Roger & Francine but it was cut for time[[/note]]. Steve briefly greets the Smith family, to which Stan responds, "It was nice of Steve to acknowledge us this week, even if it was only this once."
* In ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDragonJakeLong'':
** Spud and Trixie were absent in "Adventures in Troll-Sitting", "Fu Dog Takes a Walk", “Dragon Summit”, "Eye of the Beholder", "Fu and Tell", "Hero of the Hourglass", and "Feeding Frenzy" (although they make a cameo in TheStinger).
** Lao Shi does not appear in "Ski Trip", "Fu and Tell", "Flight of the Unicorn", and "A Ghost Story" at all.
** Fu Dog doesn't show up in "Ski Trip", “Flight of the Unicorn”, and "A Ghost Story", thus leaving Jake the only character to appear in every episode. Jake did make a cameo appearance in the beginning of "Fu and Tell", but that is all.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'':
** Anne and the main Plantar family do not appear in episodes focusing on Sasha and Grime ("Prison Break", "Toadcatcher", "Barrel's Warhammer"). They appear ''very'' briefly at the beginning of "Turning Point", though Anne's voice is heard later in the episode.
** The Plantars don't appear in "Olivia & Yunan" either, but Anne does appear in a simulation.
** Averted and {{Lampshaded}} in "Maddie and Marcy", which is ADayInTheLimelight episode for the titular supporting characters. Hop Pop gets mistaken for a corpse at one point, Polly appears but does not speak in an angry mob, and Anne and Sprig are watching an episode of a series where its respective main characters do not appear, delivering only one line each.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'':
** Wakko is the only Warner sibling appearing the shorts "Ups and Downs" and "10 Short Films About Wakko Warner".
** Skippy doesn't appear in "Guardin' the Garden", though Nate Ruegger does have a role in the episode as a cameo appearance by [[WesternAnimation/{{TinyToonAdventures}} Baby Plucky]].
** The 63rd episode is the only one of the entire series in which the Warner siblings do not appear at all (outside of the opening sequence).
* ''WesternAnimation/Animaniacs2020'':
** Wakko and Dot don't appear in "Yakko Amakko", though Yakko's voice briefly switches to theirs.
** Episode 26 is the first episode in which Pinky and the Brain don't appear outside of the opening sequence.
* Lana does not appear in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'' episode [[Recap/ArcherS8E4Ladyfingers "Ladyfingers"]], the first episode of the entire show in which that is the case.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'':
** Excluding the ones that he made an appearance in the introduction ("Poor Muffy" for example), Arthur does not appear [[https://arthur.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_episodes_in_which_Arthur_does_not_appear in several episodes]][[note]]This includes the ones where he only appears in the title cards[[/note]], which includes "Prunella Sees the Light", "Fern Fern and the Secret of Moose Mountain", "Thanks a Lot, Binky!", "Big Horns George", "My Fair Tommy", and "World Girls".
** In the episodes "Sue Ellen Gets Her Goose Cooked" and "Best of the Nest", Jane and David Read do not appear.
* ''Franchise/AvatarTheLastAirbender'':
** The ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' episode "Zuko Alone" is the only episode that doesn't feature any member of the Gaang at all.
** In the sequel series ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' Asami Sato tends to disappear for a while and then reappear with no explanation, especially bad in the second season, though in the last two seasons, the number of episodes she was absent decreased.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Babar}}'' had his family absent from Object D'Arthur and What's Mine is Mine.
* Each of Tasha and Austin from ''WesternAnimation/TheBackyardigans'' is absent from at least 40% of all episodes. Tyrone is missing from five episodes, and Pablo is missing from one. Uniqua is the only character to appear in all eighty episodes.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheBeatles'': John is the only Beatle appearing in "If I Fell," while only George and Ringo appear in "Devil In Her Heart."
* ''WesternAnimation/BigCityGreens'':
** The only character to appear in every episode is Cricket; Bill and Gramma tend to be absent. Gramma was absent from "Gargoyle Gals"/"Supermarket Scandal", while neither she nor Bill appeared in "Ding Dongers"/"Animation Abomination", aside from caricatures of their voice actors in the latter and a brief non-speaking role in the former. Tilly was absent in "Date Night", whereas she only appears as an adult in an ImagineSpot in "Time Crisis". Cricket does not appear in all the shorts, however.
** For the supporting roles, "Uncaged" is the only double-length episode where Gloria does not appear. "Blood Moon" and "Green Christmas" are also the only double-length episodes not to feature Officer Keys. Phoenix also does not appear in the former aformentioned episode.
* ''WesternAnimation/BobTheBuilder'' tends to do this. As there are a bunch of episodes where Pilchard, Bird, Travis and Spud all don't appear, There are also some where some of the Machines are absent and one where Wendy is not present. This also happens in the reboot.
* Teddy is technically a member of the main cast of ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers''. However, because he was originally an extra ([[PromotedToOpeningCredits he received the promotion in Season 3]]) and also because he isn't a member of the Belcher family (meaning he's not included in family-exclusive activities), he's the only main cast member to be absent from an episode--in fact, he's often absent from multiple episodes per season (with the exception of Season 2, where he appears in every episode, and Season 6, where he's only absent once). That said, it'd be easier to list the episodes he ''doesn't'' appear in than the ones he did.
* ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman'':
** No main characters other than [=BoJack=] and Todd appear in the Christmas special.
** "Say Anything" features Diane at the very end, but she doesn't have any lines. Mr. Peanutbutter doesn't appear at all.
** "Escape From LA" only features [=BoJack=], aside from a brief scene with Princess Carolyn and [[spoiler: Diane in the very last scene.]]
** An in-universe example occurs in "Out to Sea"; [[spoiler:[=BoJack=] discovers that during his two-month stay in Tesuque, UsefulNotes/NewMexico, Turteltaub had the Secretariat film finished by replacing [=BoJack=] with the 'Computer [=BoJack=]' created in the first episode of Season 2.]]
** "See Mr. Peanutbutter Run" (the fourth season premiere) is notable because it doesn't feature [=BoJack=] ''at all'' (similarly, the season 4 trailer only features him at the end), although he is mentioned a few times. Conversely, "Free Churro" from the following season features ''only'' [=BoJack=].
** "The Old Sugarman Place" only has [=BoJack=] and Diane, the latter of whom doesn't have much of a role during the episode.
** "Time's Arrow" is a DayInTheLimelight episode for [[spoiler: Beatrice Horseman]], and as such [[spoiler: [=BoJack=] ]] is the only main character present in the episode.
** "A Quick One, While He's Away" one-ups all the other examples by [[spoiler: featuring ''none'' of the main characters (aside from a brief mention of [=BoJack=]) and focusing on several female side characters and a new character.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'':
** Huey makes a ''very'' brief appearance at the end of "Bitches To Rags", and even then he has no lines at all.
** Neither Huey or Riley appear in "Freedom Ride or Die".
* Amanda is in no way involved in the ''WesternAnimation/BunsenIsABeast'' episode "Split Decision".
* The titular character of ''WesternAnimation/CampLazlo'' [[note]] as well as his two friends Raj and Clam logically [[/note]] is completely absent in some episodes (or at least DemotedToExtra). These include "Spacemates" (which was about Squirrel Scout Nina and the Dung Beetles) and Miss Fru Fru (a Squirrel Scouts episode).
* "Uptown Funk" is the first episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheCasagrandes'' where Ronnie Anne doesn't appear.
** A number of episodes that don't feature the whole family will focus on a specific set of characters, meaning there's no one character to appear in every episode. For example, the aforementioned "Uptown Funk" doesn't have an appearance from Adelaide's older sister Sid.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Centurions}}'', Max Ray is the only member of the original PowerTrio to miss an episode; he doesn't appear in "Ghost Warrior", although his teammates mention him a few times.
* ''WesternAnimation/ChalkZone'':
** Penny is absent from several episodes [[note]]not counting "Rudy's First Adventure", as she hadn't been introduced in the show yet, or any of the three-minute Snap shorts[[/note]], the episodes being "Chalk Rain"[[note]]one of the shorts that wasn't repackaged in the series[[/note]], "Rudus Tabootus"[[note]]justified as Rudy was on vacation with his parents[[/note]], "Madcap Snap", "Battle Of The Hands", "Asleep at the Chalk"[[note]]also justified as the episode took place late at night- the plot was kicked off because Rudy didn't want to go to sleep that night[[/note]], "Legend of the Golden Worms", "My Big Fat Chalk Wedding", "Skrawl's Brain" [[note]]though the portal Rudy goes through to get into [=ChalkZone=] was shown to be in her room[[/note]], and "Vampire Cannibals Of New York". And in "That Thing You Drew", "Attack of the Rudosaurus", "Teacher's Lounge", and "Calling Dr. Memory", she only has nonspeaking cameos.
** Snap doesn't appear in "Water, Water Everywhere". Other than that, he appears in every episode of the series.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Chowder}}'':
** Mung Daal doesn't appear at all in the episode "The Apprentice Scouts".
** Mung's absence is lampshaded in "A Faire to Remember", then subverted as he appears with a couple of lines just before the episode ends.
** Parodied in one episode when Truffles pops up out of nowhere asking if she can help solve a problem, Chowder's response below causes her [[PuffOfLogic disappear into a poof]]:
--->'''Chowder''': ''No. You're not in this episode.''
* ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'': "Cajun Granny Stew" is the only episode not to feature Eustace Bagge.
* ''WesternAnimation/CraigOfTheCreek'':
** There are only four episodes where Kelsey and JP don't appear: "Jessica's Trail"[[note]]aside from flashbacks[[/note]], "King of Camping", "Breaking the Ice", and "Dream Team". Thus, Craig himself is the only character to appear in every episode.
** There are nine episodes where Kelsey appears, but Mortimor doesn't: "Sparkle Cadet", "Craig of the Beach", "I Don't Need a Hat", "Winter Break", "Snow Place Like Home", "Winter Creeklympics"[[note]]aside from flashbacks[[/note]], "Welcome to Creek Street", "Fan or Foe"[[note]]aside from a photo[[/note]], and "The New Jersey".
* On ''WesternAnimation/DanielTigersNeighborhood'', the ''Tiger Family Trip'' special is truly that. None of Daniel's friends are seen or heard, in fact, he doesn't even really mention them during the trip. The only characters are Daniel, Margaret, their parents and Grandpere Tiger.
* ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'':
** Valerie, a ghost hunter FallenPrincess who, in the previous episode, revealed that she worked a job to save money for college, doesn't appear in the episode where a million-dollar bounty is placed on Danny's head.
** Also, Tucker and Sam do not appear in "Bitter Reunions", leaving Danny as the only character to appear in every episode.
* There are several episodes of ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' in which Gosalyn doesn't appear. Even more episodes lack any appearance or even mention Honker, despite him being a member of the main cast as well.
* ''WesternAnimation/DefendersOfTheEarth'' has several episodes where one or more of the regular characters are absent. Only Rick appears in all sixty-five episodes, though he is relegated to a cameo role on a couple of occasions.
* In ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'' Dexter doesn't appear in "Paper Route Bout" and "Surf, Sun and Science", which instead [[ADayInTheLimelight focus on Dee Dee and Mandark, respectively]].
* The final ''WesternAnimation/{{Dogfather}}'' cartoon doesn't feature Pug at all.
* In ''WesternAnimation/DragonTales'',
** Ord does not appear in 2 episodes: "Zak and the Beanstalk" and "Out With the Garbage".
** Cassie does not appear in 7 episodes: "Snow Dragons", "Zak and the Beanstalk", "A Tall Tale", "Wheezie's Last Laugh", "My Emmy or Bust", "Ord Sees the Light" and "Out With the Garbage".
** Zak and Weezie do not appear in 9 episodes: "Snow Dragons", "A Liking to Biking", "Blowin' In the Wind", "Get Offa My Cloud", "Frog Prints", "Max and the Magic Carpet", "Ord Sees the Light", "Dragon Scouts" and "Room For Change".
* In ''WesternAnimation/DocMcStuffins'', Hallie was absent in 6 episodes, and Chilly was absent in 13 episodes.
* Although all the housemates of ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'' appeared in every episode, there were several where Ling-Ling had no dialogue, including one where he ''dies twice''.
** There were a couple episodes where Princess Clara and Toot don't appear, leading to this quote in "Captain Hero's Marriage Pact":
->'''Princess Clara:''' Have you noticed we haven't been getting any screen time this week?\\
'''Toot:''' Well, uh, duh! That's because we've been in the basement all week making this awesome potato gun!
* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'': No character has appeared in every episode.
** During the first season only Dewey appeared in every episode, and one episode featured him in a silent cameo. Huey, Louie and Scrooge each missed 2 episodes, Webby missed 3, Launchpad missed 6, Donald missed 12 and Mrs. Beakley missed 13. The episode "The Great Dime Chase!" features Dewey and Louie, but not Huey, making it the first time that not all of the triplets have appeared in the same episode.
** During the second season episode "What Ever Happened to Della Duck?!", ''none'' of the main cast appeared with the exception of a small cameo by Scrooge at the beginning. "Friendship Hates Magic!" in the same season is notable for (apart from a small cameo by Mrs Quackfaster) featuring no characters from the original cartoons or comics, featuring just Webby, Launchpad and Mrs Beakley who were all created for the original ''[[WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987 [=DuckTales=]]]''. Louie also missed five episodes in a row, and Donald was absent for most of the second half of the season due to [[spoiler:being stranded on first the Moon and then a desert island]].
** Huey and Launchpad (the latter in only a small cameo) are the only main characters to appear in the third season episode "Astro BOYD!". The later third season episode "Beaks in the Shell!" featured just Huey and Louie, again the latter in only a small cameo. Launchpad has also missed much of the latter half of the third season after "Let's Get Dangerous!"
* ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'':
** Although they don't appear in every episode, Nazz, Rolf, Jonny, Kevin, Sarah and Jimmy were not seen or mentioned in "Nagged to Ed" and "O-Ed Eleven", which were the only episodes where all of the kids don't appear.
** In an inversion, the Eds themselves didn't appear in "See No Ed" until the end of the episode, with the plot revolving around the other kids not knowing how to react to their appearent disapperance.
** Parodied in one episode, where Double D remarks that "Kevin wasn't in this episode" when Eddy tries to blame him for their current dilemma.
* Yzma is absent in several episodes of ''WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewSchool'', mostly Malina-centered episodes such as "Working Girl” and “Auction Action". Conversely, Malina was absent from “Cool Summer”, “Father O’Mine”, “Yzbot”, and “Kronk the Magnificent”.
* Poof didn't appear in most ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' episodes from Season 9 and Season 10 in favor of Sparky and Chloe, and the writers have a difficulty of writing plots with too many main characters. Heck, most of the supporting cast such as Chester, AJ, Tootie, and even Vicky stopped appearing since Season 9. In regards to the movies, ''WesternAnimation/ChannelChasers'' is the only one where Jorgen doesn't appear, and ''Fairly Odd Baby'' is the only one where Mr. Crocker doesn't appear.
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'':
** As of now, every character has been absent for at least one episode: Chris in "I Take Thee Quagmire"[[note]]although [[WhatCouldHaveBeen a deleted scene]] showed that he was meant to appear in a CutawayGag[[/note]], "Three Kings", "The Hand That Rocks the Wheelchair", "Brian's a Bad Father", and "Scammed Yankees" [[note]]In addition, he is heard off-screen but not seen in "Mr. and Mrs. Stewie"[[/note]], Meg in "Believe It or Not, Joe's Walking on Air", "Stewie is Enceinte", and "Brokeback Swanson", Peter and Lois in "Brian and Stewie", Brian in "Into Harmony's Way" [[note]] he ''is'' featured in the alternate canon version of this episode, but not in the original, as [[DeathIsCheap it was at the time of his death]][[/note]], " Dr. C & The Women" and "Candy Quahog Marshmallow!", and Stewie in "Welcome Back, Carter" and the aforementioned "Candy Quahog Marshmallow!".
** Peter, Lois, Meg, and Chris are all absent from "Send in Stewie, Please".
** Meg, Chris, Stewie, and Brian are absent in "Tales Of Former Sports Glory".
* In the ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'' episode, "Pranks for Nothing", Mac doesn't appear ''at all'', and it's also one of the few episodes Madame Foster does not appear in. Either the events at the beginning occurred after he left for the day, or he got sick and couldn't visit Bloo. It also could have been ''before'' he visited. But the InUniverse explanation is that there was a fumigation due to termite infestation.
** {{Lampshaded}} in the TV movie ''WesternAnimation/DestinationImagination'', where Madame Foster is nowhere to be seen in the main story and doesn't appear until the end credits scene, where it's revealed she was on vacation.
* In ''WesternAnimation/FiremanSam'', Steele was absent in Lost Ring[[note]]the titular fireman said that Steele's got the flu[[/note]] and Lost in The Fog. So were Sarah and James in All in A Good Cause.
* The only characters who appear in every single ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode and comic are Fry, Leela, and Bender, so all other characters have these moments:
** Professor Farnsworth is only absent from two episodes - "The Why of Fry" and "Where No Fan Has Gone Before" (the latter being right after the former in production order).
** Dr. Zoidberg is not seen in three episodes - "Space Pilot 3000" (as he wasn't introduced yet), "Mars University", and "Brannigan Begin Again".
** Amy does not appear in "Fear of a Bot Planet", "Brannigan Begin Again", "The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz", and "Roswell That Ends Well", while Hermes is not in "Mars University", "The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz", "Roswell That Ends Well", "The Why of Fry", and "Where No Fan Has Gone Before". Both are also absent from "Space Pilot 3000" for the same reason as Zoidberg.
** Creator/MauriceLaMarche is listed in the credits for [[Recap/FuturamaS4E9TeenageMutantLeelasHurdles "Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles]]" even though none of his characters appear in the episode. When he points this out on the DVDCommentary, Creator/JohnDiMaggio asks if it means he still got paid for the episode (a producer quickly confirms he did not).
* During the need-to-be-plotline of ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' (the journeys after Avalon), there are several episodes without the main crew.
** In the last season (''The Goliath Chronicles''), Demona was rarely seen. This gets pretty annoying when the final episode states several times that Angela is the last of her kind. With Demona being Angela's biological mother and not being in the explosion that [[spoiler:not]] killed the main cast, this just screams for her appearing. Of course, this is just a minor detail being wrong about the final episode or the final season.
** In multiple episodes of the Goliath Chronicles, Angela is missing (including the intro).
* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': Dipper is the only character to both appear and speak in every episode.
** The episode "Irrational Treasure" is notable for being the first episode without Soos. Stan mentions him early on though. Wendy is also frequently absent in earlier episodes.
** Soos, Stan and Wendy don't appear in "Northwest Mansion Mystery".
** Soos does not appear physically in "The Last Mabelcorn".
** "Roadside Attraction" is the only episode in which Ford is absent after his introduction in "Not What He Seems".
** Part 1 of "Weirdmageddon" is the only episode where Mabel appears, but does not speak.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Grojband}}'', Mina doesn't appear in the episodes "Myme Disease" and "The Pirate Lounge for Me". The show also parodied the trope with her in the episode "Cloudy with a Chance of Malt Balls".
-->'''Trina:''' That extra pass is staying with me.\\
'''Mina:''' Can I have it?\\
'''Trina:''' You're not in this episode.\\
''(Mina sadly walks away)''\\
''[[BrickJoke (later, near the end of the episode)]]''\\
'''Trina:''' Mina! Here! Now!\\
'''Mina:''' Bu-but, I'm not in this episode.
* In ''WesternAnimation/HarveyBeaks'', Harvey doesn't appear in "Buds Before Studs" and "Repo Fee".
* In ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'', Helga was absent in "Ransom", "Big Gino" and "Jamie O in Love". Arnold himself appeared without any lines in "Ms. Perfect"
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Hilda}}'', the Great Raven is absent for the ''whole second season'', barring a cameo as a portrait in Alfur's room. [[WhatCouldHaveBeen There was originally a scene explaining his disappearance]] (he left town, promising to be back for the next Bird Parade), but it was cut for time.
* In ''WesternAnimation/HomeMovies'', Coach [=McGuirk=] is absent from the episode "Brendon Gets Rabies" from the original UPN run, even though his voice actor is still in the episode voicing Jason and the veterinarian. [=McGuirk=] will appear in every single episode afterwards.
* Excluding the [=MouseWorks=] shorts, Pete didn't appear in ''the entire second season'' of ''WesternAnimation/HouseOfMouse''.
* ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'':
** Zim doesn't appear in "Battle-Dib" [[note]]though a hologram of him can be seen in a flashback[[/note]], "Game Slave 2", and "The Sad, Sad Tale of Chickenfoot".
** GIR doesn't appear in "Dark Harvest", "Career Day", "Battle-Dib", "Bolognius Maximus", "Game Slave 2", "Lice" and "The Sad, Sad Tale of Chickenfoot".
** Dib doesn't appear in "Walk of Doom", "Germs", "Attack of the Saucer Morons", "Plague of Babies", "FBI Warning of Doom", "Hobo 13" and "GIR Goes Crazy and Stuff", and appears but doesn't speak in "Abducted".
* Goddard and Jorgen don't appear in the third installment of ''WesternAnimation/TheJimmyTimmyPowerHour''.
* "Meet the Gnomans" is the only episode of ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes'' where Heloise doesn't appear. Lucius, on the other hand, is absent from a number of episodes, the most prominent being Episode 21 of Season 1 ([[TwoShorts "Fused Together" and "Bus Driving B.F.F."]]).
* "Quantum of Johnny" and "Future Johnny" are the only episodes of ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyTest'' where Susan and Mary do not appear at all.
* In ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'', having all of the Big 7 appear in one episode meant a comparable threat. Smaller scale threats meant small combinations of different characters - with the ones left out rarely accounted for, but always at least implied to be busy elsewhere. Powerhouses like Franchise/{{Superman}} and/or Franchise/WonderWoman, for example, would be conveniently absent when their SuperStrength would easily solve the problem. Meanwhile, Franchise/TheFlash never appeared in an ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} episode as his speed would be of little use in those plots. When the League later expanded to HeroesUnlimited, whenever anyone in the Big 7 didn't appear became even more noticeable - with some episodes focusing more on guest characters like the Question or ComicBook/GreenArrow. Often justified in Unlimited by having various heroes visible on the view screens in the watch tower, or a character casually mentioning they are helping with X crisis, Y bank robbery, or having their day off. Only three times in Unlimited do we see all of the League fighting in the same place, mass alien invasions, and one [[TheGreatestStoryNeverTold were the fighting the threat was the main focus of the plot]].
* Dennis from ''WesternAnimation/KidVsKat'' is not seen or mentioned in "Let The Games Begin", "Me-Oh Me-Oh Meow", "Flu the Coop", "One Big Happy Family", "Fishy Frisky Business", "Fat Kat", "Kat Whisperer", "Under Destruction", "Hit The Road", "You Kat See Me", "Mind Games", and "Strange Kat On A Train".
* On ''WesternAnimation/LittlestPetShop2012'' , Blythe is the only character to appear in every episode, making it common for some episodes to focus on a specific combination of pets. For example, "Terriers And Tiaras" has only Russell and Zoe both appear and have dialogue, while Sunil, Pepper, and Minka only make silent cameos at the beginning.
* Understandably, no single WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes character appears in every short, due to its format and their LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters nature. However, WesternAnimation/BugsBunny notably doesn't appear in any shorts released from [[UsefulNotes/LooneyTunesInTheSixties 1965 to 1969]]. In fact, after 1965, the shorts almost exclusively featured only WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck, WesternAnimation/SpeedyGonzales, WesternAnimation/WileECoyoteAndTheRoadRunner, and nobody else.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'':
** None of Lincoln's sisters appear in "The Old and the Restless", "Back Out There", the crossover with ''Series/LegendsOfTheHiddenTemple'', "Snow Way Down", "Pasture Bedtime", and "What Wood Lincoln Do?".
** As for Lincoln, he was absent from "Net Gains", "Fandom Pains", and "Missed Connection" despite appearing on the title cards and being mentioned in the first.
** Neither him nor ''any'' of sisters were shown in most of the Casagrandes episodes at the start of season. 4.
* The 2013 ''WesternAnimation/{{Mickey Mouse|2013}}'' cartoon made a notable first with the episode "[[Recap/MickeyMouseS2E12Clogged Clogged]]", which has Minnie Mouse as the main character, but is the first short to completely omit Mickey, who doesn't even have a cameo appearance as he did in "[[Recap/MickeyMouseS2E3EauDeMinnie Eau de Minnie]]". The second Mickey-free short is "No Reservations".
* ''WesternAnimation/MikeLuAndOg'': Lu and Og don't appear in "Queeks, Queeks, Who's Got the Queeks?"; and Og is also absent from "To Serve Lu".
* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug:''
** Alya: She has appeared in every episode of the first season. Beginning in season 2, she would start gaining several absences. Those inculde "Riposte", "Reverser", and "Sandboy". In season 3, she is absent in "Weredad", "Silencer", and "Heart Hunter". So far in season 4 she is absent in "Furious Fu" and "Kuro Neko".
** Chloé: In season 1, she is completly absent in 5 episodes, "Stormy Weather", "The Pharaoh", "The Mime", "Animan", and "Simon Says". In season 2, she does not appear in "Riposte", "Befana", "Gorizilla", "Sapotis", "Syren", "Captain Hardrock", "Frozer", "Anasi", and "Sandboy". In season 3, she does not appear in "Backwarder", "Reflekdoll", "Weredad", "Silencer", "Onichan", "Desparada", "Christmaster", "Feast", "Ikari Gozen", and "Timetagger". So far in season 4 she does not appear in "Truth", "Mr. Pigeon 72", "Psycomedian", "Furious Fu", "Crocoduel", "Sentibubbler", "Glaciator 2", "Hack-San", "Rocketear", "Simpleman", and "Kuro Neko".
** Nino: In season 1, he does not appear in the episodes, "Stormy Weather", "The Pharaoh", "The Mime", "Guitar Villain", "Kung Food", and "The Puppeteer". In season 2, he does not appear in "Prime Queen", "Gigantitan", "Riposte", "Gorizilla", "Sapotis", "Reverser", and "Sandboy". In season 3, he does not appear in "Animaestro", "Backwarder", "Weredad", "Silencer", "Desparada", "Feast", "Ikari Gozen", and "Heart Hunter". So far in season 4, he does not appear in "Gang of Secrets", "Mr. Pigeon 72", "Furious Fu", and "Gabriel Agreste".
** Plagg: Like Alya, he appears in every episode of season 1. He does not appear in 3 episodes of season 2, "Prime Queen", "Despair Bear", and "Malediktator". He is only absent in 2 episodes of season 3 which are "Animaestro" and "Christmaster". So far in season 4 he is absent in "Truth", "Furious Fu", and "Guiltrip".
** Tikki is present in every episode except the season 4 episode "Guiltrip".
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic:''
** In episodes focused on the Apples, such as "Family Appreciation Day", it's not uncommon for some or all of the main characters except for Applejack to be absent or make only a token appearance. However, this is inverted with the LowerDeckEpisode "Hearts and Hooves Day." Twilight is the ''only'' Mane Six member to appear, and only for a few lines. Applejack never appears, despite the episode prominently featuring two other members of the Apple family (Apple Bloom and Big [=McIntosh=]).
** Zig Zagged with Starlight Glimmer. She got her first big episode in [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS6E6NoSecondPrances No Second Prances]], in the very [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS6E7NewbieDash next episode]] she mysteriously disappears from the scene without a trace. She then reappears again in [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS6E8AHearthsWarmingTail A Hearth's Warming Tail]].
** ''None'' of the Mane 6 appear in the following episodes: "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS6E4OnYourMarks On Your Marks]]", "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E8HardToSayAnything Hard To Say Anything]]", "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E19ToChangeAChangeling To Change a Changeling]]", "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E22MarksAndRecreation Marks and Recreation]]", "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS8E10TheBreakUpBreakdown The Break Up Breakdown]]", "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS9E8Frenemies Frenemies]]"[[note]]Although Chrysalis turns into Twilight in one scene to mock her.[[/note]] and "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS9E11StudentCounsel Student Counsel]]".
* ''WesternAnimation/OggyAndTheCockroaches'': Marky and Joey don't appear in "Happy Campers" and "Safari, So Good", Joey and Dee Dee don't appear in "Hip Hip Hip Hypnoses", Dee Dee and Marky don't appear in "Perpetual Motion" and no cockroaches appear in "The Pumpkin that Pretended to be a Ferrari".
* In ''WesternAnimation/OKKOLetsBeHeroes'':
** Radicles doesn't appear in "The So-Bad-Ical" and episodes where Red Action is the main focus[[note]]"Back in Red Action" and "Red Action to the Future"[[/note]].
** Neither Radicles nor Enid appear in "One Last Score", "Glory Days", "Lad & Logic", "The Perfect Meal", "Crossover Nexus", and most episodes where Dendy is the main focus[[note]]"I Am Dendy", "No More Pow Cards", and "Mystery Science Fair 201X"[[/note]].
* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'':
** Eda doesn't appear in "Through the Looking Glass Ruins". King doesn't ''physically'' appear in that episode either, but he does appear in a prerecorded message.
** "Covention", "The First Day", "Young Blood, Old Souls" and "Through the Looking Glass Ruins" are the only episodes where Hooty did not appear, while he does not speak in "Escape of the Palisman" and "Hunting Palismen".
* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'':
** "Isabella and the Temple of Sap" and "Ferb TV" are the only episodes where Dr. Doofenshmirtz makes absolutely no physical appearances (although his voice is heard during TheStinger for the latter).
** Candace did not appear at all in "Phineas and Ferb Musical Cliptastic Countdown" (Not counting any of the songs), "Bully Bromance Breakup", "Road to Danville", "Doof 101", and "Bee Story". Interestingly, "Isabella and the Temple of Sap" and "Bee Story" are both episodes centered on Pinky the Chihuahua and Professor Poofenplotz.
** Not counting the songs, "Phineas and Ferb Musical Cliptastic Countdown Hosted by Kelly Osbourne" is the only episode to not feature Phineas and Ferb at all, which makes Perry the only character to appear in every episode.
** Phineas and Ferb don't technically appear in "Tales from the Resistance: Back to the 2nd Dimension", as their AlternateUniverse counterparts appear in their place.
* Very prominent in ''WesternAnimation/{{Pingu}}''. In many occasions, most notably "Pingu Runs Away" and "Pingu and Pinga Stay Up", only one of Pingu's family members do not appear. Also not appearing in the birthday episode is Pingg, one of Pingu's closest friends (identified with the sharp, pointed beak).
* The Brain never appeared in ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'''s "Cheese Roll Call" musical number.
* ''WesternAnimation/PostmanPat'' had an episode where he was in a muddle and despite being mentioned in the opening credits of said episode, Jess was absent.
* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'': The girls are completely absent in 'Custody Battle' which is ADayInTheLimelight for the Rowdyruff Boys, although they are mentioned a few times. They also don't technically appear in "West in Pieces" as their colonial counterparts appear instead.
* ''WesternAnimation/PuppyDogPals'':
** Bingo and Rolly were the only main characters to appear in every episode.
** Bob was absent for 2 episodes in Season 2.
** Keia doesn't appear in some episodes of Season 2.
** Hissy doesn't appear in most episodes taking place outside of Bingo and Rolly's house.
* ''WesternAnimation/ReadyJetGo'':
** Mindy was absent in "Beep has the Blues", " A Visit to the Planetarium", "Asteroids, Meteors, and Meteorites", "Tiny Blue Dot", "Earth Camping", "What's a Satellite?", "Space Junk", "Beep and Boop's Game", "Sunday Drive", "Whole Lotta Shakin'", "My Fair Jet", "Space Race", "Sean's Neptune Tune", "Castaway Carrot", and "Not a Sound"
** Sean and Sydney were both absent in "Earth Camping", "Sunday Drive", and "Castaway Carrot"
** Celery was absent in "Backyard Moon Base", "Mindy's Moon Bounce House", "Visit to Mom's Office", "A Visit to the Planetarium", "What Goes Up...", "Asteroid Patrol", "Treehouse Space Station", "Earth Camping", "Satellite Selfie", "Scientific Sean", "Beep and Boop's Game", "Constellation Prize", "Total Eclipse of the Sunspot", "Sean's Year in Space", "Lone Star", and "Jet's Time Machine"
** Carrot was absent in "Mindy's Moon Bounce House", "Beep Has the Blues", "Visit to Mom's Office", "Mission to Mars", "A Visit to the Planetarium", "Ice Moon Enceladus", "What Goes Up...", "Asteroid Patrol", "Face on the Fritz", "Sunspot and the Great Red Spot", "Detective Mindy", "Satellite Selfie", "Beep and Boop's Game", "Total Eclipse of the Sunspot", "Sean's Year in Space", "Whole Lotta Shakin'", "The Mindysphere", "Lone Star", "Space Race", "Sean's Neptune Tune", and "Not a Sound".
* Gus is completely absent from the ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'' episode "The Great Jungle Gym Standoff". It's possible that the episode could've taken place before he moved to town, or due to the EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, it's speculated that the episode was produced ''extremely'' early in the show's run, before he was added to the gang. He was written into the story when the picture book adaptation was released two years later.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'': the two titular characters don't appear in "A Hard Day's Luck", "Powdered Toast Man vs. Waffle Woman", and "Feud for Sale".
* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'':
** Summer never appeared in "Mortynight Run".
** Jerry didn't appear in almost half of the third season following his divorce[[note]]"Pickle Rick", "Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender", "Rest and Ricklaxation", and "The Ricklantis Mix-Up"[[/note]] as well as "One Crew over the Crewcoo's Morty". Neither him nor Beth appeared in "The Ricks Must Be Crazy".
** Summer and Jerry don't appear in "The Ricklantis Mix-Up", while Beth only makes a brief cameo.
* In ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'', Rocko doesn't appear at all in "Frog's Best Friend" and "Magic Meatball". In addition he only makes non-speaking cameos in "She's the Toad" and "Teed Off" (Rocko screams in the latter, but that's it).
* ''Roland and Rattfink'': Roland doesn't appear in "A Taste of Money".
* ''WesternAnimation/RubyGloom'':
** There are several episodes where one of the main characters is absent without explanation. A particular example is when Scaredy Bat is mysteriously absent in the episode where Boo-Boo needs to scare someone to become a full-fledged ghost, because of course if he was there the story would be over in a few minutes.
** Often a character who missed the main story of an episode will appear in one of the sketches before and after that episode. For example, Skull Boy and Scaredy Bat miss the main story in "Bad Hare Day", but star in the sketch right before it.
* ''WesternAnimation/RoliePolieOlie'' did not have the titular protagonist in "Little Bot Zoo".
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' revolves its babies depending on which Rugrat the episode focuses on.
** Tommy doesn't appear in "Cuffed", "The Unfair Pair", "Pickles vs. Pickles" and "Tell-Tale Cell Phone".
** Chuckie is completely absent from episodes such as "Baby Commercial". Phil, Lil, and Angelica stand out the most, though.
** Many Season 1 episodes feature Tommy as the only Rugrat to appear in them. By Season 2, the solo-Tommy episodes were greatly reduced, and by Season 3, they were abandoned altogether.
** For some reason in “The Gold Rush”, in which Chuckie finds a nickel that the other Rugrats fight over, none of the adults are present throughout the episode, not even Grandpa Lou.
** In one pair of episodes, Phil and Lil were absent from the A-story and Chuckie and Kimi were absent from the B-story.
** Dil was absent for 2 episodes in Season 6, 13 episodes in Season 7, and 6 episodes in Seasons 8 and 9.
** This also applies to spinoff series ''WesternAnimation/AllGrownUp''.
* Of the four main ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'' characters, Adora is the only one present in all 52 episodes. Bow is absent from "Promise", "Remember", and "Protocol", Glimmer is absent from those three as well as "Hero", and Catra is absent from "System Failure", "Huntara", "Hero", "Beast Island", and "Stranded".
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** Marge appears but doesn't get a single line in season 4 finale "Krusty Gets Kancelled", although Julie Kavner still gets a credit. Both she and Harry Shearer objected to what they saw as an episode heavily built around guest stars, thus explaining their characters' absence.
** "Four Great Women And A Manicure" has the distinction of being the first (and so far only) Bart-free episode, but it's not the only episode where Bart doesn't speak, as he appears in "My Fare Lady" and "The Incredible Lightness Of Being A Baby" but doesn't have any lines.
** Also, "Chief of Hearts" is the first episode in which Lisa has no dialogue (although as with "Krusty Gets Kancelled" above, Yeardley Smith is still credited), leaving Homer the only talking character who appears in all episodes of this show. "Moho House" is the second episode where Lisa has no lines, and just like before, Yeardley Smith is still credited.
** Maggie also appears in ''nearly'' every episode, but [[https://simpsons.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Episodes_in_which_Maggie_Speaks with exceptions]] including "Lisa's First Word," "Bart vs. Thanksgiving", "Friends and Family", "Coming to Homerica", a dream sequence in "Every Man's Dream", several "Treehouse Of Horror" episodes and the aforementioned "Four Great Women And A Manicure" (speaking with a different voice on almost each occasion), she has no dialogue. However in later seasons, Maggie has been absent from episodes such as "The Mook, The Chef, The Wife And Her Homer", "Stealing First Base", "American History X-cellent", "Flaming Moe", "A Midsummer's Nice Dream", and "Bart Stops to Smell the Roosevelts", due to being a baby and having little free-range in episodes that focus in secondary characters, locations that are usually exclusive to Homer, Bart, and Lisa, or when no subplots revolving around Marge or the Simpson house are present.
* ''WesternAnimation/SofiaTheFirst'': Sofia is the only character to appear in all of the episodes.
** In "The Little Witch," none of the regulars except for the titular character appear; Minimus is the other regular to appear in "The Secret Library: Olaf And The Tale Of Miss Nettle," which outside the first scene, doesn't take place in Enchancia at all.
** Besides Sofia herself, Amber is the only character to appear in all of the show's movies. They usually show the whole family, but only she and Sofia appear in "The Mystic Isles".
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'':
** None of the main boys appear at all in "Not Without My Anus", "Pip", "A Million Little Fibers", and "Handicar". There have also been a few episodes were one or some of the boys are absent throughout.
** Kyle, Kenny, and Cartman don't appear in "More Crap".
** Kenny didn't appear in "[=#HappyHolograms=]". He didn't appear at all in most of the sixth season either, as he "permanently" died in the second-to-last episode of season 5. Being that he's [[TheyKilledKennyAgain Kenny McCormick]], he eventually came back for the very end of the sixth season's final episode.
** "You're Not Yelping" is the only season 19 episode where [=PC=] Principal doesn't appear.
* ''WesternAnimation/SpaceRacers'': Eagle, Hawk and Robyn were completely absent in at least one episode[[note]] This first occured in Season 2[[/note]]. Eagle and Robyn don't appear in "Return to Sender", Robyn and Hawk don't appear in "Double-O Dodo"[[note]]However, they made an appearance later in the episode, but with no dialogue[[/note]], Robyn doesn't appear in "Ships in a Bottle"[[note]]However, she did make an appearance in the flashbacks from the previous episodes[[/note]], and Eagle and Hawk don't appear in "Space Girl Explorers".
* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' tends to revolve its main cast depending on the setting and situation.
** Squidward doesn't appear in "The Secret Box", but his Easter Island Head house does.
** "Just One Bite" has scenes at the Krusty Krab, yet Mr. Krabs doesn't appear.
** Sandy is usually absent from episodes that primarily take place at the Krusty Krab. Conversely, Squidward and Mr. Krabs are absent from episodes that primarily focus on Sandy.
** [=SpongeBob=] himself has never been absent from any episodes, but he did not appear in all the shorts. "The Algae's Always Greener" features alternate-universe [=SpongeBob=], but not the main-universe one, thereby technically making it the only episode where he doesn't appear. [=SpongeBob=] plays a role in the plot of "Whale Watching", but does not have any dialogue, only laughing. In "Lockdown for Love", [=SpongeBob=] makes a brief silent cameo. He is also regularly absent in the spin-off ''WesternAnimation/ThePatrickStarShow'', due to being focused on, well, Patrick.
* ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries''.
** Interestingly, the episode "The Slaver Weapon" features the only example in any 'canonical' ''The Original Series'' work (aside from the original pilot episode) where Captain James T. Kirk does not appear at all. The episode instead focuses entirely on the landing party of Spock, Uhura and Sulu, something which was actually impossible on the live-action ''Star Trek''. After all, Creator/WilliamShatner was the star, and had a contractual guarantee that his character would always be front and center in every episode.
** Creator/WalterKoenig (Chekov) was missing from the entire series because they couldn't afford to pay him. Instead, he worked as a writer on the show.
** An aversion also occurred: originally, ''only'' William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, [=DeForest=] Kelley, James Doohan, and Majel Barrett were going to be hired as voice actors. But Nimoy balked and said he wouldn't work on the show unless George Takei and Nichelle Nichols were also hired, keenly aware of the ramifications of jettisoning two groundbreaking minority characters. Luckily, Doohan and Barrett were both able to voice [[ManOfAThousandVoices far more characters than just Scotty and Nurse Chapel]].
* ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'':
** The series has neither Star Butterfly or Marco Diaz in the episodes "[[Recap/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilS2E20IsMystery Is Mystery]]", "[[Recap/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilS2E35TheHardWay The Hard Way]]", "[[Recap/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilS3E2MoonTheUndaunted Moon the Undaunted]]", "[[Recap/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilS3E3BookBeGone Book Be Gone]]", "[[Recap/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilS3E30LudoWhereArtThou Ludo, Where Art Thou]]", "[[Recap/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilS3E33Skooled Skooled]]", "[[Recap/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilS3E36ToughLove Tough Love]]", "[[Recap/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilS4E8DownByTheRiver Down by the River]]", "[[Recap/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilS4E14PrincessQuasarCaterpillarNTheMagicBell Princess Quasar Caterpillar and the Magic Bell]]", "[[Recap/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilS4E15GhostOfButterflyCastle Ghost of Butterly Castle]]", "[[Recap/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilS4E17MeteorasLesson Meteora's Lesson]]", and "[[Recap/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilS4E21ASpellWithNoName A Spell With No Name]]". These episodes follow important supporting characters or villains like Queen Moon or Ludo.
** Marco doesn't appear in "[[Recap/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilS3E5PuddleDefender Puddle Defender]]", "[[Recap/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilS3E10ClubSnubbed Club Snubbed]]", "[[Recap/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilS3E11StrangerDanger Stranger Danger]]", "[[Recap/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilS3E12Demoncism Demoncism]]", "[[Recap/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilS3E17Starfari Starfari]]", "[[Recap/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilS3E21Ponymonium Ponymonium]]", "[[Recap/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilS3E27TheBogbeastOfBoggabah The Bogbeast of Boggabah]]", "[[Recap/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilS3E28TotalEclipsaTheMoon Total Eclipsa The Moon]]", "[[Recap/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilS3E29ButterflyTrap Butterfly Trap]]", "[[Recap/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilS3E35BamUiPati Bam Ui Pati]]", "[[Recap/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilS4E6LakeHouseFever Lake House Fever]]", "[[Recap/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilS4E20JunkinJanna Junkin' Janna]]", and "[[Recap/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilS4E23TheMonsterAndTheQueen The Monster and the Queen]]".
** Star doesn't appear in "[[Recap/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilS3E4MarcoAndTheKing Marco and the King]]", "[[Recap/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilS3E6KingLudo King Ludo]]", [[Recap/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilS3E13SophomoreSlump Sophomore Slump]]", "[[Recap/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilS3E26HolidaySpellcial Holiday Spellcial]]" (Marco has a speaking cameo), "[[Recap/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilS4E12KellysWorld Kelly's World]]", and "[[Recap/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilS4E22ABoyAndHisDC700XE A Boy and His DC-700XE]]".
* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'':
** Ezra and Chopper were the only main characters to appear and be [[CharacterAsHimself credited]] in every episode.
** [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS2E06BloodSisters "Blood Sisters"]]: Kanan and Zeb are nowhere to be seen.
** [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS2E08TheFutureOfTheForce "The Future of the Force"]]: It's Hera and Sabine's turn to be absent.
** [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS3E14LegacyOfMandalore "Legacy of Mandalore"]]: Hera and Zeb are completely absent.
** [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS3E16SecretCargo "Secret Cargo"]]: Sabine's still gone. Agent Kallus is also nowhere to be seen, notable considering he had a major role last episode.
** [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS3E17DoubleAgentDroid "Double Agent Droid"]]: Kanan is absent for the second episode in a row, and Sabine's still gone.
* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'':
** The only piece of official media that excludes the titular character himself is the storybook adaptation of [[Recap/StevenUniverseS2E25TheAnswer "The Answer"]], since the show is meant to be from his point of view. He also technically doesn't appear in [[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E12JungleMoon "Jungle Moon"]], or at least his voice actor isn't present, as [[FusionDance Stevonnie]] stays fused throughout the whole episode.
** The Crystal Gems[[labelnote:*]]Specifically Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl[[/labelnote]] make no appearances in [[Recap/StevenUniverseS1E41HorrorClub "Horror Club"]], [[Recap/StevenUniverseS2E2OpenBook "Open Book"]], [[Recap/StevenUniverseS2E19NightmareHospital "Nightmare Hospital"]], [[Recap/StevenUniverseS2E20SadiesSong "Sadie's Song"]], [[Recap/StevenUniverseS3E7DropBeatDad "Drop Beat Dad"]], [[Recap/StevenUniverseS3E10TheNewLars "The New Lars"]], [[Recap/StevenUniverseS3E11BeachCityDrift "Beach City Drift"]], [[Recap/StevenUniverseS3E13KikisPizzaDeliveryService "Kiki's Pizza Delivery Service"]], [[Recap/StevenUniverseS3E15AloneAtSea "Alone at Sea"]], [[Recap/StevenUniverseS4E7OnionGang "Onion Gang"]], [[Recap/StevenUniverseS4E13TheZoo "The Zoo"]], [[Recap/StevenUniverseS4E20Lion4AlternateEnding "Lion 4: Alternate Ending"]], [[Recap/StevenUniverseS4E21DougOut "Doug Out"]], [[Recap/StevenUniverseS4E22TheGoodLars "The Good Lars"]], [[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E1StuckTogether "Stuck Together"]], [[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E2TheTrial "The Trial"]], [[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E3OffColors "Off-Colors"]], [[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E7RaisingTheBarn "Raising the Barn"]], [[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E9SadieKiller "Sadie Killer"]], [[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E10KevinParty "Kevin Party"]], [[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E11LarsOfTheStars "Lars of the Stars"]], [[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E12JungleMoon "Jungle Moon"]], [[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E14TheBigShow "The Big Show"]], and [[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E27Escapism "Escapism"]].
** Amethyst and Garnet are absent in [[Recap/StevenUniverseS1E5Frybo "Frybo"]], [[Recap/StevenUniverseS2E17HistoricalFriction "Historical Friction"]], [[Recap/StevenUniverseS3E8MrGreg "Mr. Greg"]], and [[Recap/StevenUniverseS3E17GemHunt "Gem Hunt"]].
** Garnet and Pearl aren't in [[Recap/StevenUniverseS1E21JokingVictim "Joking Victim"]], [[Recap/StevenUniverseS2E16OnionFriend "Onion Friend"]], [[Recap/StevenUniverseS3E9TooShortToRide "Too Short to Ride"]], [[Recap/StevenUniverseS3E21Beta "Beta"]], [[Recap/StevenUniverseS4E18TigerPhilanthropist "Tiger Philanthropist"]], and [[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E8BackToTheKindergarten "Back to the Kindergarten"]].
** Pearl and Amethyst don't appear in [[Recap/StevenUniverseS1E33GarnetsUniverse "Garnet's Universe"]], [[Recap/StevenUniverseS2E7LoveLetters "Love Letters"]], [[Recap/StevenUniverseS4E5FutureBoyZoltron "Future Boy Zoltron"]], [[Recap/StevenUniverseS4E19RoomForRuby "Room for Ruby"]], and [[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E15PoolHopping "Pool Hopping"]].
** Amethyst is completely absent in [[Recap/StevenUniverseS2E25TheAnswer "The Answer"]], [[Recap/StevenUniverseS4E4MindfulEducation "Mindful Education"]], and [[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E13YourMotherAndMine "Your Mother and Mine"]].
** Garnet is completely absent in [[Recap/StevenUniverseS4E6LastOneOutOfBeachCity "Last One Out of Beach City"]]. She also doesn't appear in [[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E20WhatsYourProblem "What's Your Problem?"]], [[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E21TheQuestion "The Question"]], and [[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E22MadeOfHonor "Made of Honor"]] [[spoiler: because she's unfused]].
** Some episodes will lack the characters, but still have their respective voice actresses perform a role. [[Recap/StevenUniverseS1E33GarnetsUniverse "Garnet's Universe"]] has Amethyst and Pearl's voice actresses play Hoppy the bunny and Hopper the frog, respectively. [[Recap/StevenUniverseS4E13TheZoo "The Zoo"]] has Amethyst's voice actress voicing [[spoiler:multiple Amethysts]], while [[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E2TheTrial "The Trial"]] has Pearl's voice actress voice [[spoiler: Yellow and Blue Diamond's Pearls]].
** This is continued in ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseFuture''. Garnet and Pearl are absent in [[Recap/StevenUniverseFutureS1E2Guidance "Guidance"]], Amethyst and Garnet are absent in [[Recap/StevenUniverseFutureS1E4Volleyball "Volleyball"]] and [[Recap/StevenUniverseFutureS1E12BismuthCasual "Bismuth Casual"]], Amethyst and Pearl are absent in [[Recap/StevenUniverseFutureS1E13TogetherForever "Together Forever"]], and all three are absent in [[Recap/StevenUniverseFutureS1E8WhySoBlue "Why So Blue?"]], [[Recap/StevenUniverseFutureS1E14GrowingPains "Growing Pains"]], and [[Recap/StevenUniverseFutureS1E15MrUniverse "Mr Universe"]]. They also have a non-speaking cameo in[[Recap/StevenUniverseFutureS1E9LittleGraduation "Little Graduation"]]. Peridot is now part of the main cast in the closing credits, but this is likely because of her line at the end of the show's opening credits.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Superjail}}'':
** The Twins do not appear at all in the "Mr. Grumpy-Pants" episode, as they could not be fit into the plot. Season 2 was a bit more egregious of an example, as they vanished for three episodes in a row. The third season had them missing from the first two episodes and relegated to silent cameos for other early ones, until the crew managed to fit them more into the later part of the season.
** Lord Stingray, who was hyped as a new main cast member for season 2, vanishes for a while in season 3 (after his role in "Stingstress") up until the last two episodes.
** The episode "Superfail" features all of the recurring inmates (named and unnamed), with the notable exceptions of Jean and Paul.
** Jacknife is absent from "The Budding of the Warbuxx", "Stingstress" (that features his female counterpart) and "Last Pack".
* In ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'', Babs Bunny doesn't appear in "Test Stress", "Here's Hamton", "Kon Ducki", "Flea For Your Life", or "Toons from the Crypt". Neither her nor Buster appear in "Sepulveda Boulevard" [[note]]although Babs' face can be seen on a billboard in the WB studio[[/note]] or "Grandma's Dead".
* There are a lot of ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends'' episodes where Thomas does not appear. There are also some episodes where none of the Steam Team appear.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'', actors would generally get paid for every three characters, so if they wanted to play six characters, they'd need to be paid an additional amount, so on, so forth. Unfortunately, ''Transformers'' has LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters. For actors with only one or two regular characters (such as Peter Cullen, Dan Gilvezan, etc.), this wasn't a problem. But for actors with [[TalkingToHimself a large number of roles]] (such as Michael Bell, Corey Burton, and ''especially'' Creator/FrankWelker), it meant that many of their characters would either be absent or have no lines. This is somewhat conspicuous in the movie; Michael Bell provides the voices for Scrapper, Swoop, and Junkion, but Bombshell and Prowl have no lines. In addition, another one of his characters (Sideswipe) is absent. Frank Welker has 9 roles (Megatron, Soundwave, Wheelie, Junkion, and Soundwave's five cassettes), and three of his other characters appear without a single word (Skywarp, Sludge, and Mixmaster), two (Mirage and Trailbreaker) are nowhere to be seen. Another one, which is not related to his voice actor being unavailable (since he also voices Shrapnel, who speaks in the movie), is Snarl, who does not appear for most of the movie, only showing up for a few short scenes.
* The ''WesternAnimation/TwoStupidDogs'' episode "Substitute Teacher" had Big Dog and Little Dog be absent until the very end of the episode, and even then only Little Dog had one line of dialogue.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Unikitty}}'': Puppycorn, Dr. Fox, Hawkodile, and Richard are entirely absent from the episode "Stuck Together".
* ''WesternAnimation/VictorAndHugo'':
** Count Duckula, Igor and Nanny guest star in the episode 'Treasure Haunt', but Igor is not given any lines due to Jack May not being cast in this series. It's explained away as the butler sulking with his master and 'he's not speaking to you until (we're home)!'. The bunglers pet parrot Interpoll is also silent in his brief appearance in this episode despite David Jason still being present to voice his other characters.
** Hawkeye Soammes, a character also voiced by Jack May in his appearence in ''WesternAnimation/CountDuckula'', guests in several episodes in this series, voiced now by Brian Trueman. As a supporting character though, it's far less noticeable than if one of the other actors had filled in for Igor.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Visionaries}}'' has the following examples:
** Merklynn is absent from "The Dark Hand of Treachery", "The Price of Freedom" and "Feryl Steps Out".
** Cryotek, Ectar and Witterquick are absent from "Feryl Steps Out".
** Though all fifteen members of the regular cast are seen in "The Overthrow of Merklynn", Galadria, Arzon and Feryl only appear in non-speaking roles.
** Cravex, Darkstorm, Mortdredd, Reekon and Virulina are absent from "Horn of Unicorn, Claw of Dragon", the implication being that they were all affected by the [[MysticalPlague Magical Plague]] which sweeps Prysmos in the episode, though this is only confirmed with Darkstorm and Mortdredd.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Wakfu}}'': Towards the end of the first season, Yugo and Az leave with Adamaï to look for [[spoiler:Grougaloragran's Dofus]], while Ruel, Sadlygrove, Amalia and Evangelyne head to the Saddida Kingdom to warn them about [[BigBad Nox]] and the former two end up separately running away. Yugo is completely absent in "The Saddida Kingdom", and in "The Tree of Life" he and Sadlygrove do appear [[spoiler:but only as part of a dream]]. Then there are two episodes ("Igole" and "The Quest for the Dofus") that focus solely on Yugo, Az, and Adamaï, with the rest of the group being absent, and another episode in between them ("Rubilax") that follows Sadlygrove (although the other characters do appear in an unvoiced flashback, and Evangelyne briefly appears at two points in an ImagineSpot). Ruel is also absent in "Reunion" while the rest of the group reunite, and he doesn't appear until the following episode.
* ''WesternAnimation/WanderOverYonder'' has a large number of episodes where either Wander and Sylvia or Hater and Peepers do not appear. These episodes are usually either about Hater and Peepers doing something on their ship or Wander and Sylvia on an adventure irrelevant to Hater.
* ''WesternAnimation/WeBareBears'':
** Ice Bear and Panda don't appear in "Anger Management", "Poppy Rangers", "Ranger Games", "Vacation", and "Lord of the Poppies".
** Panda and Grizz are absent in "The Demon".
** Grizz and Ice Bear don't appear in "Summer Love".
** "Yuri and the Bear", "Panda 2", and "Family Troubles" all take place before the bears met each other, and so they only feature Ice Bear, Panda, and Grizzly respectively. "Band of Outsiders" takes place right after "Yuri and the Bear," so Grizz and Panda are absent there too.
** All three of the main bears don't appear in "Kyle" and "El Oso", which focus on Nom Nom and Charlie respectively.
* ''WesternAnimation/WowWowWubbzy'': While Wubbzy has been appearing in all episode since season one, Widget and Walden do not appear in three main segments, all of which are from season two: "Who's That Girl?," "New Kid on the Block," and "What a Card". Some of the minor segments throughout both seasons only contained one of the two while they were both others in a couple of others. Daizy, the character introduced at the start of the second season, appears in every main segment of season two, but is only absent in a few shorts.
* Jack Spicer appears in all of ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'' episodes except ''The Return of Master Monk Guan'' where only Hannibal Roy Bean appears instead.
* Very noticeable in ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'', which according [[WordOfGod the creators]], was usually intentional. The show was insanely expensive to produce, so oftentimes episodes would omit certain members of the team [[EconomyCast in order to minimize the number of speaking parts]]. This became even more apparent when the team expanded into more of a HeroesUnlimited roster in the second season.
[[/folder]]
----

** Chloé: In season 1, she is completly absent in 5 episodes, "Stormy Weather", "The Pharaoh", "The Mime", "Animan", and "Simon Says". In season 2, she does not appear in "Riposte", "Befana", "Gorizilla", "Sapotis", "Syren", "Captain Hardrock", "Frozer", "Anasi", and "Sandboy". In season 3, she does not appear in "Backwarder", "Reflekdoll", "Weredad", "Silencer", "Onichan", "Desparada", "Christmaster", "Feast", "Ikari Gozen", and "Timetagger". So far in season 4 she does not appear in "Truth", "Mr. Pigeon 72", "Furious Fu", "Crocoduel", "Sentibubbler", "Glaciator 2", "Hack-San", "Rocketear", "Simpleman", and "Kuro Neko".

** [=SpongeBob=] himself has never been absent from any episodes, but he did not appear in all the shorts. "The Algae's Always Greener" features alternate-universe [=SpongeBob=], but not the main-universe one. [=SpongeBob=] plays a role in the plot of "Whale Watching", but does not have any dialogue, only laughing. In "Lockdown for Love", [=SpongeBob=] makes a brief silent cameo. He is also regularly absent in the spin-off ''WesternAnimation/ThePatrickStarShow'', due to being focused on, well, Patrick.

The reason usually has something to do with RealLife. Maybe the actor ''is'' sick or otherwise unavailable — but not ''so'' unavailable that the writers have to [[DroppedABridgeOnHim drop a bridge on them]] or [[PutOnABus put them on a round trip bus]]. Maybe the producers need to save money and can't afford to pay them for the episode (hey, every dollar saved goes to pay for that big grand SeasonFinale!) — in fact, some actors' contracts restrict them to appearing in only a certain number of episodes each season. After all, ''you'' get days off work — sometimes actors do, too! Maybe there was just nothing for the character to do that episode. If it's a LowerDeckEpisode then it could easily be said the character was just doing something else that day, but usually explanations for the absence given in show are way too flimsy to explain a total absence — just how unavailable can [[TheCaptain Captain]] [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Picard]] be if [[BaldOfAwesome he's at the hair salon]] for this week's crisis?

** Excluding the ones that he made an appearance in the introduction ("Poor Muffy" for example), Arthur does not appear [[https://arthur.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_episodes_in_which_Arthur_does_not_appear in around 20 episodes]][[note]]This includes the ones where he only appears in the title cards[[/note]], which includes "Prunella Sees the Light", "Fern Fern and the Secret of Moose Mountain", "Thanks a Lot, Binky!", "Big Horns George", "My Fair Tommy", and "World Girls".

** Alya: She has appeared in every episode of the first season. Beginning in season 2, she would start gaining several absences. Those inculde "Riposte", "Reverser", and "Sandboy". In season 3, she is absent in "Weredad", "Silencer", and "Heart Hunter". So far in season 4 she is absent in "Furious Fu."
** Chloé: In season 1, she is completly absent in 5 episodes, "Stormy Weather", "The Pharaoh", "The Mime", "Animan", and "Simon Says". In season 2, she does not appear in "Riposte", "Befana", "Gorizilla", "Sapotis", "Syren", "Captain Hardrock", "Frozer", "Anasi", and "Sandboy". In season 3, she does not appear in "Backwarder", "Reflekdoll", "Weredad", "Silencer", "Onichan", "Desparada", "Christmaster", "Feast", "Ikari Gozen", and "Timetagger". So far in season 4 she does not appear in "Truth", "Mr. Pigeon 72", "Furious Fu", "Crocoduel", "Sentibubbler", "Glaciator 2", "Hack-San", "Rocketear", and "Simpleman".

** "See Mr. Peanutbutter Run" (the fourth season premiere) is notable because it doesn't feature [=BoJack=] ''at all'' (similarly, the season 4 trailer only features him at the end). Conversely, "Free Churro" from the following season features ''only'' [=BoJack=].

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'': The girls are completely absent in 'Custody Battle' which is ADayInTheLimelight for the Rowdyruff Boys. They also don't technically appear in "West in Pieces" as their colonial counterparts appear instead.

** There are only three episodes where Kelsey and JP don't appear: "Jessica's Trail"[[note]]aside from flashbacks[[/note]], "King of Camping", and "Breaking the Ice". Thus, Craig himself is the only character to appear in every episode.

-->-- ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'', "[[Recap/AmphibiaS2E29MaddieAndMarcy Maddie and Marcy]]"[[note]]This scene is their only appearance in the episode.[[/note]]

!!!'''By Creator:'''

!!!'''By Network:'''
* Fairly prevalent for Creator/DisneyChannel shows:
** ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody'':
*** Creator/BrendaSong is absent from 2 episodes: ("Have a Nice Trip" and "Birdman of Boston") in the second season.
*** Music/AshleyTisdale is absent from one episode in the second season ("Loosely Ballroom") and 11 episodes in the third season ("The Summer of Our Discontent", "Baggage", "Sleepover Suite", "The Arwin That Came to Dinner", "First Day of High School", "Of Clocks and Contracts", "Arwinstein", "Orchestra", "A Tale of Two Houses", "Tiptonline" and "Benchwarmers"). Her absence in the third season became prevalent to the point that her character was written-out as studying in Antarctica, and ended up getting ''two'' semi-replacement characters.
** ''The Suite Life on Deck'': Dylan and Cole Sprouse and Brenda Song were the only 3 actors to appear in every episode of the series. Creator/DebbyRyan was absent from 9 episodes: "The Mommy and the Swami", "Mom and Dad on Deck", "The Wrong Stuff", "Splash & Trash", "Cruisin' for a Bruisin'", "Any Given Fantasy", "My Oh Maya", "Das Boots" and "Computer Date". Doc Shaw was absent from 4 episodes: "Seven Seas News", "The Silent Treatment", "Rat Tale" and "So You Think You Can Date?". Phill Lewis was absent from 16 episodes: "International Dateline", "Flowers and Chocolate", "Boo You", "Shipnotized", "The Wrong Stuff", "Kitchen Casanova", "Family Thais", "Goin' Bananas", "Can You Dig It?", "Marriage 101", "Seven Seas News", "The Silent Treatment", "Rat Tale", "Senior Ditch Day", "My Sister's Keeper" and "Frozen". This makes Dylan and Cole Sprouse the only cast members to appear in every episode across both shows.
** ''Series/HannahMontana'': Music/MileyCyrus was the only main character to appear in all episodes. Creator/EmilyOsment and Jason Earles were absent from 1 episode of Season 4, which was a ClipShow. Music/BillyRayCyrus was absent from 4 episodes. Mitchel Musso was absent from 12 episodes and Moises Arias was absent from 19 episodes.
** As well as starring in ''Series/ShakeItUp'', Creator/BellaThorne and Creator/{{Zendaya}} are the only cast members to appear in every episode.
** On ''Series/SonnyWithAChance'', only Music/DemiLovato (Sonny) and Tiffany Thornton (Tawni) appeared in every episode. Everyone else missed at least one, the worst of whom was Allisyn Ashley Arm (Zora) who missed 20 episodes. Doug Brochu's (Grady) only absence was a ClipShow, Brandon Mychal Smith (Nico) missed the Clip Show and one other episode in Season 2, and Sterling Knight missed three, including the pilot, but did appear in the original scenes of the Clip Show episode. Then the ShowWithinAShow ''Series/SoRandom'' was [[{{Defictionalization}} defictionalized]] due to Lovato leaving the show for rehab.
** ''Series/ANTFarm'': China Anne [=McClain=], Sierra [=McCormick=], and Jake Short appeared in every episode of the show. Carlon Jeffery missed many episodes of Season 1 and 2 before leaving the show. Stefanie Scott missed a few episodes as well. Aedin Micks missed three episodes during his tenure on the main cast in Season 3.
** ''Series/AustinAndAlly'': Averted: all four main cast members have appeared in every episode of the show.
** ''Series/CoryInTheHouse'': Only Kyle Massey and Rondell Sheridan appeared in every episode. Madison Pettis and John D'Aquino missed eight episodes each. Maiara Walsh missed one and Jason Dolley missed four.

** ''Series/ZekeAndLuther'': Hutch Dano and Adam Hicks appeared in every episode. Daniel Curtis Lee missed several, as did Ryan Newman before she left the cast after season 2.
** ''Series/KickinIt'': Olivia Holt was the one most likely to be absent, due to her other projects at the time. Alex Jones only missed one episode before he left the show, and Jason Earles was absent just one time as well. And if you count two episodes that Mateo Arias and Leo Howard (despite being the ''lead role'') appeared very briefly in (for Arias this was the same episode Earles was missing from), then Dylan Riley Snyder is the only cast member with fully perfect attendance!
** ''Series/LabRats'': Hal Sparks is the only main cast member who wasn't in every episode. He only had perfect attendance in Season 3.

** ''Series/KCUndercover'': Impressively, the first season has all the regulars with the exception of Zendaya miss multiple episodes. While Veronica Dunne and Kamil [=McFadden=] were in almost every episode (and the latter has not missed any after Season 1), Trinitee Stokes, Tammy Townsend, and Kadeem Hardison were much more likely to be absent. Notably, there was one episode in Season 1 that did not feature Marisa, but had Veronica Dunne do a PSA announcement at the end. Marisa is also absent from "Bad, Bad Cleo Brown" in Season 2, but Dunne plays another character in the flashback sequences.

** ''Series/BestFriendsWhenever'': While Creator/LandryBender, Lauren Taylor, Gus Kamp, and Ricky Garcia were always present, the Royer twins were often missing.

** ''Series/ThatsSoRaven'': Raven-Symoné and Kyle Massey are the only cast members to appear in every episode. Anneliese van der Pol was missing from three episodes in season one, and Orlando Brown was absent from one episode of season four. T'Keyah Crystal Keymah and Rondell Sheridan were absent from five episodes of season 1. Keymah was again absent from five episodes in season 2. In season 3, she only appeared in the first 29 episodes before her character was PutOnABus, and was absent from twelve of those episodes. Sheridan also missed seven episodes in season 4, including the last three of the series.
** ''Series/LizzieMcGuire'': Lalaine was absent from last few episodes of the series and the movie due to her music career and went on to star in ''You Wish!''.

!!!'''By Series:'''

* ''Anime/EigaTamagotchiHimitsuNoOtodokeDaiSakusen'', the short film made to [[MilestoneCelebration celebrate the 20th anniversary]] of the ''VideoGame/{{Tamagotchi}}'' toys, features quite a few characters from throughout the series' history, including some from the original 90's toys that never appeared in the [[Anime/{{Tamagotchi}} TV show preceding the short]]. However, Himespetchi, the space princess character who is known for her crush on main character Mametchi, doesn't even appear as one of the background cameos, which seems strange as she's a notable character in the modern incarnations of the franchise and serves a major role in several episodes of the TV show.

* Music/TearsForFears: Besides a brief shot of a framed photo of the band, Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith are completely absent from the "I Love You But I'm Lost" music video.