Single Serving Friend

Hey look, guys, it's my Childhood Friend... For this episode, anyway.

A subtrope of One-Shot Character, the Single-Serving Friend is a character who is apparently good friends with one or more of the main characters, but only makes a lone appearance. The level of friendship and involvement in the story varies widely: the character may be an Old Friend passing through town, or someone the protagonist meets offscreen (which often leads to Remember the New Guy?). The defining feature of the trope is that the friend must only appear once, likely never to be mentioned again (and usually not mentioned before, either). Can also overlap with Long-Lost Uncle Aesop and Cousin Oliver.

May lead to the character being Put on a Bus. Compare Social Circle Filler, minor friend characters who become irrelevant once the plot gets into gear, and Early-Installment Weirdness, which can lead to characters being dropped quickly. Contrast with Chuck Cunningham Syndrome (where an established character vanishes without explanation).

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Examples include:

Anime

• Sailor Moon: In one episode, Makoto has a friend, Shinozaki, who is presented as almost closer to her than a lover (he's shown comforting her after she's abandoned by her boyfriend in a flashback). Makoto even volunteers to be a blood donor when he's injured. After he leaves the hospital he never appears again.

Comic Books

• Tintin: In The Shooting Star, Tintin and Haddock are stuck when the local fuel company, which is owned by their adversaries, refuses to supply them. Fortunately, they happen to run into Haddock's old friend Captain Chester, whom he describes as "a shipmate for more than twenty years", but later on he's only ever mentioned in passing, like in The Castafiore Emerald (when Haddock is falsely announced to be engaged to the diva, he's among the first to send a telegram to congratulate him).

Comic Strips

• An early Calvin and Hobbes arc introduced Max, Calvin's uncle on his father's side, visiting from out-of-state. He gets along with Calvin better than any other adult, but after he gets on the plane back home, he's never even mentioned again. (Bill Watterson had wanted to make Uncle Max a recurring character, but changed his mind after writing this one story arc: he felt that Max didn't have much personality, didn't bring out any new sides of Calvin, and required some awkward writing to avoid mentioning Calvin's parents by name.)

Films — Live-Action

• Blade: Early in the film Blade visits Kam, an herbalist who supplies the serum that inhibits Blade's bloodthirst. Kam shows concern that the serum is becoming less effective, and the two part with a Man Hug; despite obviously being an ally against the vampires, Kam never reappears.
• Fight Club: The Trope Namer. The Narrator refers to people he meets on planes as Single-Serving Friends; "Between takeoff and landing we have our time together. That's it." He's seen explaining his company's recall procedures to one such friend.
  • Ironically subverted by the man the Narrator calls "By far the most interesting Single-Serving Friend I've ever met": Tyler Durden. Though they part ways after their flight, the Narrator soon finds his life inexplicably (and inescapably) entwined with Tyler's.
• Indiana Jones:
  • Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: Indy is kidnapped at the beginning alongside his "old friend" Mac. Despite Mac never appearing in the franchise before, he and Indy apparently have a long history, including serving together as double agents in Berlin. His death at the climax means he won't be coming back, either.
  • Wu Han (David Yip) in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is onscreen for about two minutes, establishes that he's been on many adventures with Indy, and promptly dies. He gets a lot more time in several novels, and the movie's novelization fleshes out his backstory, but this is his only screen appearance.
• Licence to Kill features James Bond's longtime friend Felix Leiter... and Sharkey, a fishing buddy of theirs who helps Bond investigate Leiter's maiming at the hands of drug kingpin Franz Sanchez. It's the character's only appearance in the Bond films, as he's Killed Offscreen by Sanchez's goons.
• The Mummy (1999): Halfway through the film we meet Winston, a drunken pilot and friend of Rick O'Connell. In the third act, he flies Rick to Hamunaptra to save Evie from Imhotep and dies in a crash, marking his only appearance in the films (a bittersweet moment, as he was a Death Seeker wanting to go out in a blaze of glory).
  • In The Mummy Returns Rick is friends with another pilot, Izzy, who was previously unmentioned and doesn't return in the third film.
• The Rise of Skywalker: The heroes are aided by Zorii Bliss, a (previously unmentioned) Old Friend of Poe Dameron.
• In Transformers (2007), Sam Witwicky is seen with a friend in an early scene when he visits a party, but the friend isn't seen at all afterwards, his role in the story largely taken up by Mikaela.

Live-Action TV

• Atlanta: In "Barbershop," Alfred goes to his regular barber, Bibby, for a cut. Cue a daylong Humiliation Conga as Bibby drags him through various misadventures, including stealing lumber from a construction site, a fight with Bibby's girlfriend, and a car accident, all punctuated by Bibby's Motor Mouth (Alfred is forced to tag along because his haircut is only half-finished). At the end, Alfred ends up dumping him for another barber, and so far Bibby hasn't reappeared.
• The Brittas Empire: The final episode of the Series has Brittas dealing with the death of Harold (who was his only friend) to cursed biscuits. It should be noted that this is the first time that Harold is even mentioned.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The episode "Lie To Me" features Ford, a friend of Buffy's from Los Angeles who claims to be finishing his senior year at Sunnydale; he's actually running a cult of vampire wannabes, plotting to get bitten before he dies of brain tumors. He gets his wish, only for Buffy to immediately stake him.
• Exaggerated in Cheers in the episode "Rebecca Redux": After Rebecca leaves Cheers, Sam replaces her with a retired bartender named Earl who INSTANTLY becomes a best friend and father figure to everyone at the bar. When Sam learns Rebecca is stuck as a mistreated model at an auto show he hires her back out of pity... As long as she's the one who fires Earl. He takes it well, bids everyone goodbye, and sets off like a wandering hero, never to be seen again.
• CSI: NY: During Mac's speech aphasia arc in Season 9, he meets his friend, Dr. Kevin Phillips, for coffee to ask for some medical advice. Kevin tells him that out of respect for their friendship, he won't sugar-coat his answers. Not liking what he hears, Mac walks off saying, "I'll call you later." Dr. Phillips had never even been mentioned before, and is never seen or heard from again.
• Family Ties: The Very Special Episode "My Name is Alex" has Alex dealing with the sudden death of his best friend Greg in a car accident. We have never heard of Greg before this episode. Alex's best friend has always been Skippy, but since the writers didn't want to actually kill off a major character, they introduced the friend Greg solely for the purpose of creating A Death in the Limelight.
• Frasier in "The One Where Woody Shows Up"; Woody Boyd comes to visit Frasier in Seattle, and their reunion has a bittersweet ending when they realize how far they've grown apart since their Cheers days. Notably Woody doesn't appear in a later episode that reunites Frasier with his other Cheers buddies.
• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air:
  • Will's Philadelphia friend Ice Tray (played by Don Cheadle) appears in one episode in the first season and never again after, even for events like Will's wedding.
  • Same thing happens in "Ain't No Business Like Show Business" where his friend Keith visits.
  • When the Banks famy visit Philadelphia, Will and Carlton reconnect with his old gang of friends with no mention of Ice Tray or Keith.
• Friends:
  • "The One With Rachel's Big Kiss" features Melissa (played by Winona Ryder) who used to have a Pseudo-Romantic Friendship with Rachel in college and was also secretly in love with her. After this episode, she's never seen again.
  • The episode "The One with the Rumor" features Will (played by Brad Pitt), an old friend of Ross and Monica from high school. He is never seen or mentioned in any other episode.
  • Amanda, an old friend of Monica and Phoebe, who was seen by both as The Friend Nobody Likes and used to live in the building with them. She only appears in "The One With Ross' Tan", coming to visit her old "friends" from England apparently.
• In the Happy Days episode "Fonzie's New Friend", Fonzie has a friend named Sticks, who appears to teach a moral about racism since he's black, but then never appears again.
• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Psycho Pete. First mentioned in "The High School Reunion," Psycho Pete was a childhood friend of Mac And Charlie who (purportedly) went insane and ate his family. When he finally appears in "Psycho Pete Returns," we learn he's a mild, shy man who spent time in a mental institution because of the rumors about him. The Gang have no interest in Pete being normal and send him on a train out of Philly.
• Midsomer Murders: Joyce's friend Elizabeth is introduced in "Things That Go Bump in the Night" and they are seemingly good friends but Elizabeth was not mentioned before or after this episode.
• NUMB3RS: Billy Cooper, who Don worked with in Fugitive Recovery before the start of the series, only appears in the first season finale, "Manhunt".
• Power Rangers Dino Charge: "Besties 4Eva!" introduces Shelby's "bestie" Erin, who had never been mentioned before, and vanished after the episode ended.
• Roseanne: Although Dan mentions his friends Freddy and Dwight a number of times in Season One, Freddy only appears in the episode "Saturday," helping Dan and Dwight fix Dan's truck. Dwight manages to be a Double-Serving friend, appearing in one other episode.
• The Seinfeld episode "Male Unbonding" features Joel Horneck, an old childhood friend of Jerry's the latter has grown to dislike and tries to avoid these days. Jerry's attempts to end their interactions fail miserably because Horneck takes it badly. This is the only episode in which Horneck appears.
• Victorious: In the pilot, Tori is seen doing a science project with a friend from her school. He disappears once Tori gets accepted to Hollywood Arts. In fact, the only time someone from Tori's old school shows up is when she finds out her ex-boyfriend is dating Cat.
• The X-Files:
  • In "Squeeze," Scully becomes involved in a hunt for a serial killer at the behest of FBI Special Agent Tom Colton, who was her classmate at the Academy. It's the only case they work together, mostly because of his testy relationship with Agent Fox "Spooky" Mulder.
  • A few episodes later in "Ghost In The Machine," Mulder's old partner Jerry Lamana asks for his help investigating deaths tied to a computer firm (secretly the work of the AI controlling their office building). He turns out to be a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, passing off Mulder's profile as his own to rebuild his damaged reputation, before the AI kills him in an elevator, marking his sole appearance in the show.

Theatre

• In Tsukiuta, Yoru and You's childhood friend Mattsun is so stunned that he's not this that he makes a fourth-wall-breaking speech about it.
  Mattsun: "I've been in the drama CD, the anime, and now I'm in the stage play — I'm almost a semi-regular!"

Visual Novels

• Heidi from Daughter for Dessert has a whole slew of them. Justified, as they were all Heidi’s high school classmates, and their sole appearance is at their high school reunion.
• In a bonus scene of Double Homework, Lauren invites one of her friends to have some fun with the protagonist and herself. This friend is never seen again afterwards.
• A couple in Melody:
  • Melody’s friend Daphne only properly appears in one scene, and is pretty much an unseen wallflower the entire time.
  • The protagonist's friend Dash appears once; he and his girlfriend, Jade, appear with their bandmate, Liam. Dash’s relapse into drug use soon takes out his band and the relationship all at once, and while Jade and Liam return to play in Melody’s band, Dash does not make another appearance.

Western Animation

• Batman: The Animated Series: In "The Mechanic" we meet Earl Cooper, Batman's personal mechanic for the Batmobile, and even explore his backstory; he was an auto engineer turned whistleblower, who Batman saved from hired thugs. The story follows Penguin forcing Earl to rig the Batmobile into a deathtrap by taking Earl's daughter hostage. Despite the battle damage the Batmobile receives before and after this episode, this is the only time Earl appears.
• Ben 10: Omniverse: The Full Episode Flashback "From Hedorium to Eternity" features a character named Jonesy who was apparently friends with Ben and co around the time of the original series, but he was never mentioned or seen before this and doesn't appear again, though the latter is somewhat justified seeing as this is the last flashback episode in the series.
• Jackie Chan Adventures: Jade had a few of these throughout the series; Maynard from "Bullies", Simone Magus from "Return of the Pussycat", Larry from "Antler Action" and Jimmy from "J2 Revisited".
• The Looney Tunes Show: The episode "Best Friends Redux" is about Daffy being jealous of Bugs's longtime friend Rodney. It's one of the last episodes and Rodney's only appearance on the show.
• Steven Universe: "Onion Gang" introduces Onion's friends, a group of children around his age (and a baby) that are just as weird as he is. While the episode mentions they live in Beach City during the summer, they have never appeared before despite the show going through summer twice, and the episode ends with them leaving at the start of fall. They never show up again.
• Steven Universe: Future: "Bismuth Casual" is the debut of both Connie's cram school friends and some humans Pearl befriended. All of them are mostly there for the plot, Pearl's to show her Character Development and Connie's to make Steven self-conscious about his relationship with her and his inability to relate to their completely normal, mundane lives. Once the episode ends, they aren't mentioned again.
• We Bare Bears: many of the episodes featuring the Baby Bears involve the trio making a new friend and helping them with a problem before moving on. Eventually lampshaded by Grizz, who tells a girl named Darla they'll never see her again, like everyone else they meet.