History Main / CommutingOnABus

* In the seventh series of ''Series/RedDwarf'', Arnold Rimmer only appeared in person in two episodes, then was relegated to flashbacks, dream sequences and - in one memorable case - a theme park ride based on his own diaries. The actor playing him, Creator/ChrisBarrie, had decided to leave the show and had a very limited schedule, so he agreed to appear in a handful of episodes (and sequences that could be filmed out of order, such as ADR or flashbacks).

* Pvt. Donut and Doc frequently flit in and out of ''Machinima/RedVsBlue''. In Donut's case, it's because his voice actor, Dan Godwin, notoriously refused to quit his day job and join [[Creator/RoosterTeeth Rooster Teeth Productions]], and only appears as Donut when it's convenient to his personal schedule (by comparison, the rest of ''Red Vs Blue'''s principal cast and crew either work at Rooster Teeth or are full-time actors). The result is that Donut can go from being a regular character to recurring to completely absent within the space of a few seasons.

* All the Digidestined from ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'' in ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'', except for Kari and T.K., appear only occasionally because for most of the season their Digimon couldn't evolve through natural means (the protagonists used Digi-Eggs to evolve). Mimi also moved to New York and Joe went through high school entrance exams. [[spoiler:Though Mimi's moving away became an important plot device as it helped introducing the foreign Digidestined.]]

* All the Digidestined from ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'' in ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'', except for Kari and T.K., appear only occasionally because for most of the season their Digimon couldn't evolve through natural means (the protagonists used Digimentals to evolve). Mimi also moved to New York and Joe went through high school entrance exams. [[spoiler:Though Mimi's moving away became an important plot device as it helped introducing the foreign Digidestined.]]

** Remember when Bulma was the ''co-lead'' in the original ''Manga/DragonBall''? Downplayed from the Namek to Cell sagas in ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' where she has a bigger part. She also plays a prominent role once Beerus and Whis show up in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'', functioning as their main supplier of delicious food and reason for not blowing up Earth. It works.

* ''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}'': Off the Hook have been all over the place, going from prominent supporting cast characters in ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'', to main characters in the Octo Expansion DLC, to bit parts bordering on DemotedToExtra in ''VideoGame/Splatoon3'', then back to main characters for its DLC. While the Squid Sisters and DJ Octavio are usually main characters, they are mostly absent from the Octo Expansion, appearing only in pictures and a text-only cameo from Marie after collecting every Mem Cake.

* All the Chosen Children from ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'' in ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'', except for Hikari and Takeru, appear only occasionally because for most of the season their Digimon couldn't evolve through natural means (the protagonists used Digimentals to evolve). Mimi also moved to New York and Jou went through high school entrance exams. [[spoiler:Though Mimi's moving away became an important plot device as it helped introducing the foreign Chosen.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/XMen'':

* During the second season of ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'', the ComicBook/IncredibleHulk gets arrested in the ninth episode, for a rampage actually caused by ComicBook/RedHulk. Hulk becomes pardoned 13 episodes later, but decides to sort some personal things out before becoming a full-time Avenger again. Despite this, the OpeningNarration [[WolverinePublicity still calls Hulk an Avenger during his absence]].

** After Jack Harkness left the TARDIS and subsequently joined Series/{{Torchwood}}, he made return appearances in the third and fourth series' season finales. Most recently [[spoiler:Jack appeared in the 2020 episode ''Fugitive of the Judoon'', a full fifteen years after his character ceased to be a full-time companion]]. Similarly, both Martha and Rose returned for the series 4 finale (along with Martha making prior guest appearances in both ''Doctor Who'' and ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'') after officially "leaving" their roles of companion.

** A similar thing happened to Creator/RogerDelgado's incarnation of the Master. In his first season of ''Doctor Who'', the character turned up in every single serial, from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS8E1TerrorOfTheAutons "Terror of the Autons"]] to [[Recap/DoctorWhoS8E5TheDaemons "The Dæmons"]]. Then, Delgado, while enjoying the show, became concerned that while officially a guest star, many casting directors considered him a ''de facto'' regular cast member of ''Doctor Who'' and therefore unavailable for other work. So in the next season dramatically scaled back his appearances, with an eye to making a splashy departure the following season. Due to his untimely death in Turkey, the character was quietly retired for a time.
** This also occurred with the gradual writing out of the UNIT characters in the transition from the "Earth Exile" period of the Letts/Dicks/Pertwee era to the Hinchcliffe/Holmes/Baker era. The stories set in historical or non-Earth/future settings gradually came to outnumber the contemporary Earth stories, and the appearances of the UNIT characters became increasingly perfunctory, until "The Seeds of Doom" became the first contemporary Earth story with no established characters reappearing. In the years since, UNIT has continued to exist in the background and still crosses paths with the Doctor occasionally, and the Brigadier himself reappeared several times over the years.
** After the second K-9 was written out of ''Series/DoctorWho'' in "Warriors' Gate", various models of K-9 (although this is played down to the point that non-fans probably don't realise that in-canon there is more than one version of the character) have intermittently appeared in different parts of the franchise, including a period as a regular character in ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'', and ''Series/{{K9}}'', a short-lived Australian series with little connection to the rest of the franchise due to rights issues.

** This also occurred with the gradual writing out of the UNIT characters in the transition from the "Earth Exile" period of the Letts/Dicks/Pertwee era to the Hinchcliffe/Holmes/Baker era. The stories set in historical or non-Earth/future settings gradually came to outnumber the contemporary Earth stories, and the appearances of the UNIT characters became increasingly perfunctory, until "The Seeds of Doom" became the first contemporary Earth story with no established characters reappearing.

* ''Series/OnceUponATime'' has LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters who slip in and OutOfFocus. Due to the setting, their disappearances are explained as the main cast not seeing them. Archie was a regular in Season 1, but only makes a handful of appearances in other seasons. The Blue Fairy/Mother Superior is another, making a couple of minor appearances in Season 5. Ruby's absence during Season 4 was also explained as her having transported back to the Enchanted Forest offscreen during the events of the Season 3 finale.

* Most of the supporting cast from the ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' series has gotten this treatment. This trend began after the much-reviled ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'', after which Sega shifted from its LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters approach to having Sonic as the only playable character, with Tails as support and Dr. Eggman as the primary antagonist. The supporting cast eventually returned as [=NPCs=] in ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'' and ''VideoGame/SonicForces''. ''VideoGame/SonicBoom'' had a few series staples, it was still scaled back compared to the two ''Sonic Adventure'' games.
* The ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyo'' series has had three main protagonists so far -- Arle Nadja, Amitie, and Ringo Andou. Each time a new protagonist was introduced, the previous one engaged in this trope, losing prominence but still appearing in every game. Sega's reluctance to ''remove'' any of the LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters from the "core cast" has been a major factor in this -- Witch and Draco Centauros appear and are playable in ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyoTetris'' entirely because they're still part of this group, but have zero actual plot relevance.

* ''Series/LeverageRedemption'' sees Alec Hardison leave the main team after the second episode in order to focus on Leverage International's worldwide operations. Out of character, this is due to Creator/AldisHodge's career taking off after the first ''Series/{{Leverage}}'' series and his having other acting commitments.

* Similarly, on ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', Jake Sisko and Nog were temporarily demoted to recurring character status while Nog was at Starfleet Academy and Jake getting an English degree. Unlike Wesley, however, they eventually returned to the main cast at the end of the story arcs that took them elsewhere.

* The ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyo'' series has had three main protagonists so far -- Arle Nadja, Amitie, and Ringo Andou. Each time a new protagonist was introduced, the previous one engaged in this trope, losing prominence but still appearing in every game. Sega's reluctance to ''remove'' any of the LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters from the "core cast" has been a major factor in this -- Witch and Draco Centauros appear and are playable in ''Puyo Puyo {{VideoGame/Tetris}}'' entirely because they're still part of this group, but have zero actual plot relevance.

* ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters'' pushes the protagonist of the previous arc into this role for the following arc. Kyo's importance to the plot during the Orochi saga was downgraded to make room for K' in the NESTS saga and then K' himself moved down to make way for Ash Crimson in the Tales of Ash arc. After being demoted the character continues to add to the story (Kyo was used as a base for a series of clones in the NESTS arc and K' got to fight Mukai in ''2003'') but it's the current main character who gets the spotlight and wraps up the saga.
** [[spoiler:This has been instantly subverted with the end of the Tales of Ash arc in ''XIII'': Ash removed himself from time at the end of ''XIII'', meaning that there will be no commuting via bus for him.]]

* During the second season of ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'', the ComicBook/IncredibleHulk gets arrested in the ninth episode, for a rampage actually caused by ComicBook/RedHulk. Hulk becomes pardoned 13 episodes later, but decides to sort some personal things out before becoming a full-time Avenger again. Frustratingly, the OpeningNarration [[WolverinePublicity still calls Hulk an Avenger during his absence]].

* Despite being an anthology series, ''WesternAnimation/InfinityTrain'' has three characters that function under this trope: One-One, Amelia, and The Cat. One-One was a main character in Book 1, Amelia was [[spoiler:the main antagonist of Book 1]], and The Cat was a major supporting character in Book 1. All three of them would go on to make appearances in future seasons to varying degrees of importance, but The Cat is the only one to show up in every season, while the others have a season where they're only alluded to by the characters (Book 3 for One-One and Book 2 for Amelia).

* For most of the Eighties, [[Franchise/ScoobyDoo Fred and Velma]] were both largely absent from the gang's adventures--Velma had joined NASA while Fred had become a mystery novelist--only occasionally dropping by in a few episodes.

* Most of the supporting cast from the ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' series has gotten this treatment. This trend is most noticeable with ''VideoGame/SonicColors'' and ''VideoGame/SonicLostWorld'', as Sega shifted from its LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters approach to having Sonic as the only playable character, with Tails as support and Dr. Eggman as the primary antagonist in both games. The supporting cast returned in ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'' and ''VideoGame/SonicForces'' as [=NPCs=], and while ''VideoGame/SonicBoom'' had a few series staples, it was still scaled back compared to the two ''Sonic Adventure'' games.