History OutOfFocus / WesternAnimation

* ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'': Unlike the other kids who all get several spotlight episodes depending on the story, Nazz is just there to be the token chick and is rarely involved in the plot. She plays a major role in only three episodes, "To Sir with Ed", "High Heeled Ed" (both in season 2) and "Boys Will Be Eds" (season 3), but this never happens in season 4 and 5. Even ''Plank'' gets more plotlines revolving around him.

** Meg has been hit with this the most. It's to the point that, even in an episode where Meg is the driving force of the plot, she disappears entirely after the first five minutes, does not reappear until five minutes before the end and spends three of those being entirely silent.

*** Even that one episode in season 3 split the time with Katara and actually focused more on Katara loosening up than it did Toph reigning herself in.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'': After the first two seasons had a few episodes focusing on various classmates of Gumball. Later seasons would put them into the background.
** Tina the T-rex got two episodes focusing on her HiddenDepths, both in season 1. She does not speak at all in Season 3. Jammie seemed to have taken her spot as the school bully as she got more focus episodes than Tina did. Notably, there was [[WhatCouldHaveBeen a scrapped episode that would have introduced her father fully and would have been her 3rd major role]].

*** Even that one episode in season 3 split the time with Katara and actually focused more on Katara loosening up than it did Toph reigning herself in.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheBackyardigans'' gives us Austin the kangaroo. He appears in 52 of the 80 episodes of the series, but only has a major role in them once in a blue moon. This is somewhat justified, however, since he is rather [[ShrinkingViolet shy]], even having a song about it in "Castaways".

* ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'': Mort. He and his mortuary business play a crucial role in the first episode of the series, and he even has his own episode titled "Weekend at Mort's" in the first season. He is considered one of the Belchers' best customers and a friend of the family. Together, Mort and Teddy are a straight example of ThoseTwoGuys in the first three seasons or so. After that point, Mort's appearances are heavily reduced, and several of his appearances have little to no lines, though Teddy continues to appear in almost every episode. In the Season 4 episode "Easy Com-mercial, Easy Go-mercial", Mort is seen in the restaurant in two scenes and is even acknowledged by Teddy at one point, but still does not have any lines at all. In Season 7, he only has a speaking role in two out of 22 episodes and has a brief non-speaking cameo in a third.

* Despite ''WesternAnimation/CampLazlo'' being named for its title character, Lazlo himself got less focus over the course of the show, either playing second fiddle to the plotline or barely showing up at all. [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools However, this allowed the writers to better flesh out the secondary cast.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/PuppyDogPals'': Altough Hissy is a main character, she was absent for 27 segments of Season 2 and 28 segments of Season 3, as compared to only 3 absences in Season 1. For example in Season 2, Hissy took an 8 episode break from appearing after "Fantastic Pet Force" and didn't return until "Slumber Paw-ty". In Season 3, after "Firefighter Pups", she took an 11 episode break from appearing and didn't return until "Puppies and Pandas". She even made cameo appearances with no lines in "The Last Pup-icorn", "Keia's New Doghouse", "A Light for the Lighthouse", "Music City Mishap", "ARF's Robot Wish" and "Pop's Promise".

** Season Three also leaves some characters out of the game, though most of the season two rejects got in, and some of the "bigger" characters from past seasons (like [[SassyBlackWoman Leshawna]], [[{{Geek}} Harold]], and [[DumbBlonde Lindsay]]) are voted off fairly early. With the exception of Cody however, all of the minors still get voted off pretty early (like Ezekiel, who gets eliminated first ''again'' [[spoiler:That is until he clung onto one of the Jumbo Jet's claiming he's still gonna win no matter what, and eventually became feral over it]].) or got shoved out of the way to make room for the controversial [[WellExcuseMePrincess Courtney]]/Duncan/[[RelationshipUpgrade Gwen]] LoveTriangle (as was the case with Noah and [[LovableJock Tyler]]).

** Season Three also leaves some characters out of the game, though most of the season two rejects got in, and some of the "bigger" characters from past seasons (like [[SassyBlackWoman Leshawna]], [[{{Geek}} Harold]], and [[DumbBlonde Lindsay]]) are voted off fairly early. With the exception of Cody however, all of the minors still get voted off pretty early (like Ezekiel, who gets eliminated first ''again'') or got shoved out of the way to make room for the controversial [[WellExcuseMePrincess Courtney]]/Duncan/[[RelationshipUpgrade Gwen]] LoveTriangle (as was the case with Noah and [[LovableJock Tyler]]).

** The first episode of Season 4 introduces the new character Thomas the goat, only to virtually ignore his existence a few episodes in. He's basically passed off as another friend to Muscle Man and an occasional servant for him and the other characters.
** High Five Ghost gets hit with this hard. Despite being a supposed main character, it took him until "The Postcard" in Season 5 to get ADayInTheLimelight. The aforementioned Thomas has at least been important to the plot of a couple episodes, and he is considered a minor character.

** Out of the original main characters, Pearl has been hit the hardest by this. She still has her own ADayInTheLimelight episodes, but she has been increasingly left out of "group" episodes. This is particularly sad when you realize Pearl was the second main character Stephen Hillenburg created for the show, and that Hillenburg himself felt that Pearl was never used as much as he wanted. In the season 13, Pearl only gets one focus episode and very few appearances, cameos or otherwise.

** Mrs. Puff and Sandy get at least one major role per season, which is more consistent than Pearl or Gary, but most fans feel that it still isn't enough. Mrs. Puff has actually appeared more than Sandy in three seasons (3, 10, and 12). Sandy's dwindling importance got so bad that in "[=SpongeBob's=] Last Stand," Sandy Cheeks' full name is given as Sandy Squirrel. That's right, ''the writers literally forgot her name.'' In the first eighteen segments of season 13, Sandy only has two speaking roles and two cameos.
** Out of the original main characters, Pearl has been hit the hardest by this. She still has her own ADayInTheLimelight episodes, but she has been increasingly left out of "group" episodes. This is particularly sad when you realize Pearl was the second main character Stephen Hillenburg created for the show, and that Hillenburg himself felt that Pearl was never used as much as he wanted. In the first eighteen segments of season 13, Pearl only has two speaking roles (and one cameo).

* ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'': Optimus Prime suffers from this during the second season. Several episodes have him stay behind at the base, and he’s also absent from four episodes.

** One of the reasons (but hardly the only one) that fans dislike the [[SeasonalRot Season Two]] is that almost half the contestants from Season One are cut out. What makes it worse is that the neglected campers are mostly the ones who hadn't gotten very far originally, and thus missed a chance for greater CharacterDevelopment even though some of them ([[ExtravertedNerd Cody]], [[DeadpanSnarker Noah]] and [[HomeschooledKids Ezekiel]], for example) have [[EnsembleDarkhorse surprisingly large fanbases]].

* Despite using only half of the original 22 contestants, ''WesternAnimation/TotalDramaRama'' is still guilty of leaving certain characters out of focus (and this also despite there being more episodes a season). Cody rarely gets Limelight episodes, and Bridgette and Noah have the least appearances out of all the kids. Similarly, some heavily focused characters from the parent show are totally absent or get less focus compared to their teenage selves, such as [[AlphaBitch Heather]] (who doesn't appear at all despite being the most frequently appearing character in the original show alongside Duncan) and Gwen (who had the third largest episode count in the parent series but is one of the less frequently appearing kids in ''[=DramaRama=]'').

* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': Wendy Corduroy is the Mystery Shack employee who shows up the least by far, and some of her appearances are only for a few seconds. In Season 1, she would basically only be in a large role as [[SatelliteLoveInterest the object of Dipper’s affections.]] She was allowed more adventure in Season Two, but ultimately became the only main character to never have their own story. Even the behind-the-scenes world seemed to stiff her-the show’s Vinylmations exclude her in favor of Waddles, Gideon, and ''the barfing gnome.''

** For Lambie, she didn't play a larger role in "Mole Money, Mole Problems". And also in two episode shorts "Turbo Train" and "Sled Ahead" with no lines (despite her giggling in "Sled Ahead").

* ''WesternAnimation/TheCupheadShow'': After having an entire episode to himself in Season 2, Bowlboy does not have any speaking roles in Season 3 outside of
crowd shots.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheCupheadShow'': After having an entire episode to himself in Season 2, Bowlboy does not have any speaking roles in Season 3 outside of speaking with other characters in crowd shots.

** The twins Sherri and Terri. In +20 seasons, they have never received a single day in the limelight episode where they are the protagonists.
** Apu Nahasapeemapetilon has gradually been relegated to the role of a background character from season 27 onward, presumably in response to growing complaints directed to his character for being an unflattering stereotype of Indian people, coming to a head with the 2017 documentary "The Problem with Apu". This eventually resulted in the producer's decision to drop Apu altogether in 2018.

* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'': Luanne, largely due to voice actress Creator/BrittanyMurphy wanting more time to pursue her movie career. For many seasons Luanne only makes a brief cameo or even doesn't appear at all in episodes not specifically focusing on her. In later seasons she does become more prominent again. Similarly, Connie's appearances become less and less frequent after she and Bobby break up.

* ''WesternAnimation/VoltronLegendaryDefender'': This happened to Keith. Out of the 5 Paladins (plus Allura), he is the sole character to not get CharacterFocus in no point of the show during season 1. Early on, Shiro is the focus, then Pidge and [[spoiler:her backstory of doing a SweetPollyOliver to try to find his missing family members]], Lance gets some HiddenDepths and Hunk gets focus during their mission to help Shay and save the Balmera, with Allura becoming the focus after that. Keith, in comparison, gets nothing but some moments that imply HiddenDepths, but are subject to AlternativeCharacterInterpretation. Averted in season 2, in which Keith, [[spoiler:his Galra heritage]] and his relationship with Allura after she finding out about it become major plot points. And then in seasons 4 and 5, he is PutOnABus and doesn't appear in several episodes (although this was mainly because [[RealLifeWritesThePlot his voice actor was too busy]]). Shiro and Pidge both receive a good amount of screen time, but Hunk and Lance both get a bit of {{Flanderization}}, being mostly used to ComicRelief, with Hunk largely forgetting the CharacterDevelopment he went through in the previous season.

** Speaking of Wendy, the girls of South Park Elementary rarely gets much focus, and any episode featuring them is heavily focused on their [[SatelliteCharacter relationship with the boys]].

** Some characters sometimes go whole ''seasons'' without appearing. Some of them are Judge Dignified Q. Blackman, Kool Aid Man, Greased Up Deaf Guy, Al Harrington, R.J., Foaud, Stella, Tomik and Bellgarde, Phinneas and Barnaby, Tammy (Stewie's teacher), Gina (Connie's AlphaBitch) friend, and many others. Usually these characters are very minor or only used for gags, though.

** [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]] and [[spoiler: Comicbook/CaptainAmerica]] got this when the second season began. Thor had to help repair Asgard after the defeat of Loki, and spent 12 episodes away from the other Avengers as a result. Although, two of those episodes did show some of his Asgardian exploits. [[spoiler: Cap]] vanished for 10 episodes because Skrulls captured him. The numbers become more confusing when watching in production order, upheld by Disney's [=DVDs=]. The "first" eight episodes of the second season have both of those heroes separated from the rest of the Avengers, yet the "ninth" episode has them inexplicably fighting with the team again, yet they don't work with the Avengers again until four episodes later (when they officially reunite).
** After the [[Comicbook/TheIncredibleHulk Hulk]] got framed for attacking SHIELD, he spent several episodes imprisoned from crimefighting. He eventually became free, but decided to end his full-time membership with the Avengers to sort things out.
** The show underwent a retool near the end of its run to put the so-called "Big Three" of Comicbook/IronMan, Captain America, and Thor into the spotlight more often. This reduced the other members to extra firepower at best, and victims of the antagonist at worst. This seems especially drastic for ComicBook/TheWasp, ComicBook/BlackPanther, ComicBook/{{Hawkeye}}, and Comicbook/MsMarvel, who all played major roles during the preceding story arc.

* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'': Towards the end of the series, the main character himself gets this. Many stories in the last couple seasons have some random character face a problem, and at some point, Arnold casually walks up to them, gives them a piece of advice, and disappears for the rest of the episode. Ironic, as a common complaint with ''Hey Arnold! The Movie'' is the fact that, while the series gives many background characters their [[ADayInTheLimelight day in the limelight]] (one of its notable strengths), only Arnold, Gerald and Helga get much screentime in the movie. None of the background students get any lines, and Phoebe (a regular student) gets only one line. Heck, the movie is pretty much only the three main characters and the adults against the villain. Arnold's grandparents, Helga's dad, and the Sunset Arms boarders get more time than all of the kids combined.

*** Lampshaded in [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/SouthParkS8E6TheJeffersons "The Jeffersons"]]

* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' has a lot of characters, so naturally this winds up happening. Rocket and ComicBook/{{Zatanna}} are especially notable, since they joined the team [[EleventhHourRanger very late into the run of the first season]], only to get pushed aside in favor of the new kids who joined the Team during the TimeSkip.