Out Of Focus / Western Animation

• Adventure Time: Lady Rainicorn gets hit with this hard. Originally intended to be a main character, Lady is a very relevant character in the original pilot and is a major character in the first season. Since then, she's all but disappeared from the show. "Lady Rainicorn of the Crystal Dimension" was her first major role since "Jake the Dad" two seasons prior, and in both episodes, she's not even the lead. In "Lady Rainicorn of the Crystal Dimension", her son, T.V. and her ex-boyfriend named Lee take up the majority of the episode, and "Jake the Dad" is mostly about Jake overcoming his overprotective nature and let his children be free.
• American Dad!
  • Hayley. Her and Stan were the first two characters created for the show, when said show was envisioned as a modern All in the Family and would involve the characters bickering over politics. As the show got off the ground, more character-driven plots arose and politics became much less of a focus, thereby giving Hayley less purpose since unlike most of the other characters, even Stan, she didn't really have much to her character aside from being a straw liberal to counter Stan's straw conservative. As a result, her airtime compared with Stan, Francine, Steve and Roger is increasingly minuscule; sometimes she doesn't appear for whole episodes, and other times she's lucky if she has similar screen time to Klaus (see below). This is noted in one episode, where in the final five seconds, both Klaus and then Hayley appear for the first time specifically to note that they now have an appearance in that episode and have therefore earned their paycheck. Interestingly, the change in focus from politics to more character-driven humor resulted in the show playing up Hayley's slacker/stoner tendencies while downplaying her activism. This eventually became subverted in later seasons (notably the TBS ones) where she ended up being used much more instead of other characters like Roger.
  • Subverted with Klaus the German fish; some claim Klaus should be in this category, and his lack of involvement (along with Hayley's) is lampshaded in one episode. But he has never been an important or significant character, existing only for one or two funny lines an episode pretty much since from the beginning—to the point where The Other Wiki deleted their article for him for a time. However, starting around season 10, he gets a little more focus, to the point of having more attention than Roger at times.
  • Greg Corbin and Terry Bates, ever since Mike Barker (co-creator, former showrunner and voice of Terry) left the series early into the 11th season. While they are both present in that season, they rarely appear, and when they do only Greg speaks. Terry was eventually written out of the show the following season by dumping Greg to follow a 311 tour, further diminishing the former's overall importance.
  • Many of the supporting characters from the show's first few seasons fell prey to this around the time the show phased out its political edge. Characters like Linda Memari and Chuck White haven't had any relevance or speaking parts in over half a decade. Justified however, as many of these characters were never really developed beyond having at least one or two identifiable traits.
• As Told by Ginger: Both Courtney and Miranda practically disappear in the second half of Season 3 once the gang starts high school. During this 10-episode span, both characters only appear in one episode each plus the series finale.
• The Amazing World of Gumball: After the first two seasons had a few episodes focusing on various classmates of Gumball. Later seasons would put some of them into the background, most notably Tina Rex. She only got two episodes focusing on her Hidden Depths, both in season 1. She does not speak at all in Season 3. Jamie seemed to have taken her spot as the school bully as she got more focus episodes than Tina did. Notably, there was a scrapped episode that would have introduced her father fully and would have been her 3rd major role.
• Arthur: Excluding the ones that he made an appearance in the introduction ("Poor Muffy" for example), Arthur does not appear in around 20 episodes^note This includes the ones where he only appears in the title cards, 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".
• Avatar: The Last Airbender:
  • The original series:
    • Though he did have his moments, Sokka lost quite a bit of the limelight in season 2 to compensate for the development of Prince Zuko as well as the inclusion of multiple new characters, being relegated primarily to comic relief and the occasional smart guy. Come Season 3 Sokka's doing better (gets A Day in the Limelight and costars in at least one episode), but Toph averages about four lines per episode with one Breather Episode centered on her, and by the end she's the only one in the main cast with a major part of her personal arc unresolved. This does end up lampshaded on at least two occasions. ("I'm going with Zuko! What? Everyone else went on a life-changing field trip with Zuko. Now it's my turn.")
    • 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.
    • "Zuko Alone" is the only episode that doesn't feature any member of the Gaang at all.
  • The Legend of Korra:
    • Bolin had a similar problem in Book 1. Out of the 12 episodes, he only really has development for 4 of them, and the last 7 episodes he doesn't contribute anything except a funny line or two an episode.
    • Asami has had this bad throughout the first two seasons. She started off as the other love interest for Mako, had one important moment in Book 1 where she turns against her dad and sides with Korra, and was it. After that almost all she did done was provide money and transport for the rest of Team Avatar. This changed for Book 3, where she is the one to pair off with Korra whenever the plot needs to split the party. In Book 4, she gets the most subplots compared to the other main characters. The reason for her rise in screentime and importance turns out to be that she ends up replacing Mako as Korra's love interest.
    • The surviving characters from the original series are also this. Katara is in the first episode (as one of Korra's former waterbending teachers) but only appears very occasionally after that, and doesn't get involved in any fighting. Zuko does not appear until the third season, and doesn't do much other than warn Korra about some dangerous prison escapees and give her a bit of advice. Toph doesn't appear until the final Season, though she gets a bit more involved than Katara or Zuko. She spars with Korra for an episode, gives her some advice, and temporarily comes out of retirement to help rescue her family from Kuvira before declaring that she's leaving the rest to the kids.. These are all justified, however, considering that the characters are too old to be doing much fighting at this point.
    • Mako, while still being a main character, gets a reduction in screen time and importance once he breaks up with Korra. In Book 1 he is the second most important character of the main cast, but by Book 4, he's stuck in a comedy subplot with Prince Wu.
    • Kai is all over Book 3, but by Book 4 he...exists, at least, but apart from a few references to his relationship with Jinora he mostly either isn't involved in significant matters or is a background figure in airbender group shots. But hey, at least the wingsuit uniform is nice.
    • After the original show heavily focused on the Fire Nation and its royal family, both are mostly absent in this show. Korra only briefly visits the country on her way to talk to Fire Lord Izumi but she gets ambushed and put in a coma for most of that and only visited a temple. Izumi herself only appears in two episodes (one being a brief cameo) and only speaks for probably thirty seconds. She’s brought up vaguely a couple of times and Korra talks to both Zuko and her son Iroh about her, but that’s about it. We don’t even know who her mother and husband are or if she’s a bender. She also has a daughter whom they couldn’t fit into the show and therefore had to be confirmed to exist via Word of God. Iroh appears in several episodes but his only important role is towards the end of season 1 when he helps Korra fight Amon. The family was originally supposed to play a bigger role in the fourth season but got the ax when the budget had an episode cut out at the last second.
• The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes:
  • Founding Avenger Ant-Man appeared once in the second season to let the viewers see the beginning of his Sanity Slippage, came back in a later episode as the mentally unstable Yellowjacket, and then mostly served as just extra assistance for battle scenes.
  • Thor and Captain America 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. 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 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 Iron Man, 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 The Wasp, Black Panther, Hawkeye, and Ms. Marvel, who all played major roles during the preceding story arc.
  • It feels arguable whether or not this happened to The Vision. He did play a major role in three of the final episodes preceding the retool, but that doesn't sound like much compared to the five Avengers listed above. He also played vital roles in some of the show's very last episodes.
• The Backyardigans:
  • 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 shy, even having a song about it in "Castaways".
  • As for the others, Tasha and Austin are 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.
• Batman Beyond: Dana Tan, Terry's girlfriend had fewer appearances and lines after the first season, and overall only had one episode about her. Mary and Matt McGinnis, Terry's mother and brother, never even got a focus episode.
• The Beatles: John and Paul do not appear in "Devil In Her Heart" while Paul, George and Ringo are absent from "If I Fell."
  • George and Ringo are relegated to crowd scenes in "I Saw Her Standing There."
  • In the first season bumpers with a storyline intertwined, Paul does not appear at all in three of them while John is absent from one. Season two and three bumpers were self-contained blackouts and centered primarily on Ringo.
• Ben 10
  • Ghostfreak is one of Ben's least used aliens, if not the most. In the original series, Ben only uses him six times before the episode where he escapes the Omnitrix and reveals himself as Z'Skayrr, gets temporarily killed by the sun and brought back to life by Frankenstrike one season later. Ben never uses him (in the first series at least) after escaping the Omnitrix, not even after he gets him back at the end of season 3, presumably due to being too scared of him.
  • Ripjaws is another infrequently used alien. Though, in his case, it's due to him being highly situational, completely limited to use in aquatic environments, and is virtually useless in all other situations.
• Big City Greens:
  • 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 Imagine Spot 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.
• Blaze and the Monster Machines: This has happened to any main character who isn't Blaze, AJ, Crusher, and Pickle. Newer seasons usually feature only the four of them, and it's become much rarer for Blaze's friends to appear, with episodes featuring them all together becoming extremely rare now.
• Bob's Burgers:
  • 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 Those Two Guys 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.
  • Teddy is technically a member of the main cast. However, because he was originally an extra (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.
• BoJack Horseman:
  • 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 Diane in the very last scene.
  • An in-universe example occurs in "Out to Sea"; BoJack discovers that during his two-month stay in Tesuque, New Mexico, 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 Day in the Limelight episode for Beatrice Horseman, and as such BoJack is the only main character present in the episode.
  • "A Quick One, While He's Away" one-ups all the other examples by featuring none of the main characters (aside from a brief mention of BoJack) and focusing on several female side characters and a new character.
• The Boondocks: This happens to Huey Freeman, which is odd considering he's meant to be the main protagonist. He got plenty of focus in the first season, but after that he only seems to be there just to comment on things happening around him, or to advise other characters against something, and his more outspoken attributes have been largely downplayed. The majority of episodes from season 2 onwards focus on Riley, Granddad, or even Ruckus of all people. This might have to do with Huey not being as flawed or comical as his comic strip version, making him harder to write into the show's plots.
• Despite Camp Lazlo 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, with him even being absent in a few, including "Spacemates" (which was about Squirrel Scout Nina and the Dung Beetles) and Miss Fru Fru (a Squirrel Scouts episode). However, this allowed the writers to better flesh out the secondary cast.
• 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 disappear into a poof:
    Chowder: No. You're not in this episode.
• Courage the Cowardly Dog: "Cajun Granny Stew" is the only episode not to feature Eustace Bagge.
• The Cuphead Show!: After having an entire episode to himself in Season 2, Bowlboy does not have any speaking roles in Season 3 outside of being heard in crowd shots in "Cupstaged", "A Very Devil Christmas" and "Down and Out".
• The Cleveland Show: Roberta has such a minor role in the series you'll often forget she's even on the show, despite technically being one of the five main characters. Meg and Hayley, who both qualify for this trope in their shows, are like Brian and Stewie compared to her.
• Code Lyoko: Sissi is dropped out of focus in Season 3 and the first half of Season 4, but returned with a vengeance during the second half.
• Craig of the Creek:
  • There are only four episodes where Kelsey and JP don't appear: "Jessica's Trail"^note aside from flashbacks, "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  again, aside from flashbacks, "Welcome to Creek Street", "Fan or Foe"note aside from a photo, and "The New Jersey".
• Danny Phantom: All too prominent with Butt-Monkey Tucker. By season three, he's either ignored, downplayed, or disappears to make room for Sam and her growing romance with Danny.
• Classic Disney Shorts:
  • The calmer, more genteel Mickey Mouse gradually lost top billing to hot-tempered Jerkass Donald Duck and dimwitted klutz Goofy. Mickey appeared in barely any cartoons during World War II, and eventually had to wait 30 years from his last classic appearance in The Simple Things until Mickey's Christmas Carol.
  • In MAD's parody story from issue 19, Darnold Duck keeps complaining that Mickey Rodent is still around while Darnold himself is more popular. At the end of the story, Mickey traps Darnold in a realistic zoo, an act he planned for years to regain his popularity. This is particularly ironic because the reason that Donald was created is that Mickey was originally quite a Jerkass, and when he started to become a really popular character, they decided that he needed to be nicer. All of Mickey's more negative qualities were passed on to Donald so that he could be a foil to the now nicer Mickey. This was done specifically so that Mickey would remain their most popular character.
• There are several episodes of Darkwing Duck 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.
• Defenders of the Earth 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 Dexter's Laboratory, Dexter doesn't appear in "Paper Route Bout" and "Surf, Sun and Science", which instead focus on Dee Dee and Mandark, respectively.
• Doc McStuffins:
  • 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" (the former with no lines, and the latter with one line and her giggle).
  • For Chilly, he was absent for 11 episodes of Season 1 as compared to only 1 absence in both Seasons 2 and 3. He also didn't play a larger role in some episodes such as "Engine Nine Feelin' Fine", "One Note Wonder", "Doc to the Rescue", "Spritzy Mitzi", "Lambie Stuffy Switcharoo" and "On Call Ball". Also, he can only be seen in Robot Ray's bubble thought in "Out in the Wild".
• The final Dogfather cartoon doesn't feature Pug at all.
• Dragon Booster: In the third and last season, the plot centered more on Artha and Moordryd, and the other characters were essentially there to fill time or get defeated by the pair. Mostly because the unmade Academy seasons were supposed to focus on their studies there.
• Dragon Tales:
  • 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".
• Drawn Together: As the show came to focus more and more on Captain Hero, formerly important characters such as Foxxy Love and Princess Clara were reduced almost to background roles while supporting characters such as Ling-Ling seemed to barely be in the show at all anymore.
• The Dreamstone
  • The pilot episode gives an unusual amount of Sympathetic P.O.V. to the Urpneys, but is still focused more primarily on Rufus' Character Development. The following episodes have more of a Villain Protagonist dynamic, with the Urpneys' antics being the larger focus of each episode and the heroes lucky to get a role outside of reactions to their schemes. During the later half of the series, Rufus and Amberley gradually regain some focus and the odd attempt at a side plot, though are still fairly underplayed for standard hero characters.
  • Zordrak himself, despite being the Big Bad, also becomes more and more irrelevant to the plot outside a menacing driving force to the Urpneys' plans.
• DuckTales (2017): No character has been focused on all the time:
  • 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 DuckTales (1987). Louie also missed five episodes in a row, and Donald was absent for most of the second half of the season due to 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!"
• Ed, Edd n Eddy:
  • 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.
  • 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. Both involve the Eds and the Kankers.
  • 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 The Emperor's New School, 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”.
• The Fairly OddParents!
  • In Season 9 Timmy Turner has become a supporting character in many episodes, losing protagonism in relation with Mr. Crocker, his dad, Cosmo, and Sparky, ESPECIALLY the two former, and to a lesser extent, Poof and Foop. In Season 10, he has been forced to share the series' limelight with Chloe.
  • Most of the supporting cast of earlier seasons (AJ, Chester McBadbatt, Trixie Tang, Veronica, Tad and Chad, Francis, Principal Waxelplax, etc) have been largely absent or demoted to background characters since Season 7 onward. Even Vicky, who was the main antagonist of the series for most of the time, has suffered the same fate.
  • Poof, despite his Promotion to Opening Titles in Season 9, he eventually started to appear less and less, while Sparky appeared more and more. Even after Sparky disappeared from the show, he is completely absent from Season 10 following Chloe's debut, where he eventually reappears in the episode "Certifiable Super Sitter", his only appearance in this season.
  • While Mr. Turner became a more prominent character in the series and has more amount of screentime, his wife, on the other hand, has become since Season 9 a less prominent character and she has been relegated to a background character or gets a minimal role in several episodes in Seasons 9 and 10.
  • In regards to the movies, "Channel Chasers" is the only one where Jorgen doesn't appear, and "Fairly OddBaby" is the only one where Mr. Crocker doesn't appear.
• Family Guy
  • Since the show was Un-Canceled, Lois, Meg, and Chris only get one (sometimes two) episodes per season focused on them, while the rest of the season being focused on Brian and Stewie, and to a lesser extent, Peter. Season 7 featured the first chapter in which Meg and Chris don't even appear ("Love Blactually").
    • 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.
  • Lois mother, Barbara. Compared to her husband she has really little screentime.
  • Cleveland's family ever since they moved to Quahog. While Cleveland Jr. and Donna occasionally get some focus, Rallo rarely talks, and has become completely silent after Mike Henry retired from voicing Cleveland post-George Floyd and Roberta's become The Quiet One.
  • Many characters who used to have major parts in many episodes (or at least appeared more often) are Out of Focus in the recent seasons. Bonnie, Carter, Kevin, Connie, Neil, Mort, Herbert, Consuela, Bruce, Seamus, Jerome, Donna, Ollie, Opie, Tricia, Susie, Cleveland Jr., and Joyce all either rarely appear, or appear frequently but have reduced screentime.
  • 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 Alpha Bitch friend), and many others. Usually these characters are very minor or only used for gags, though.
• Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends
  • Coco is absent for almost all of Season 5 of the show, most likely due to her being the The Unintelligible, and therefore very difficult to characterise.
  • Goo as well. Though this probably had more to do with the fact that she is a Sixth Ranger in a show that is already overcrowded with characters.
  • Mac's brother Terrence also appears much less after the series premiere, showing up in a total of just 11 out of 79 episodes.
  • "Pranks for Nothing" has Mac not 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 In-Universe explanation is that there was a fumigation due to termite infestation.
  • Lampshaded in the TV movie Destination: Imagination, 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.
• Futurama
  • Cubert Farnsworth. Well, he's never really in focus, but he went from appearing several times per season to only showing up for a few seconds in Season 7 as part of a fake PSA.
  • Nibbler. He wasn't a major character to begin with but, once the crew found out he could talk, he started appearing even less in the series than he had beforehand.
• Garfield and Friends:
  • "Truckin' Odie" is a country song by Garfield, who appears in the framing device. He has a very minor impact on the plot, and he even gets a verse of the song about sleeping at home while Odie's off on an adventure.
    Garfield: If you're wondering what became of me,
    I was nowhere near the road.
    I can't rescue Odie.
    I'm not in this episode.
  • Subverted in "Flat Tired", where Garfield is too tired to do an episode of the show, so he gives it to Odie. Odie gets his own story about him encountering a witch, but when he gets into trouble, it's up to Garfield to retake control of the cartoon and rescue him.
  • Lampshaded in "Change of Mind", where one of the people Garfield threatens to sue at the end is "the guy who produces this show for giving me such a lousy part in this episode."
  • "The Floyd Story" focuses on Floyd the Mouse trying to get a part on the show more than once a season at his wife April's insistence, as she's tired of seeing the same few episodes he's in over and over. Floyd tells April that he's lucky, as Garfield hasn't had Binky the Clown on his show for three years.
• This is a natural consequence of the numerous characters in Merchandise-Driven cartoons, such as G.I. Joe and Transformers. As new characters (toys) are being introduced, others are forced to the wayside (so to speak) to allow the newcomers to get maximum advertising opportunities. In particular, if you're part of a Combining Mecha in any given Transformers series, don't expect much characterization. Most combiner teams border on being The Dividual, all moving as part of the same group and often having similar personalities, and that's when they're separated - when they're combined, their role basically becomes "the giant robot's leg."
• Gravity Falls: 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 the object of Dipper’s affections. She was allowed more adventure in Season 2, 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.
• He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2002): When the Horde is introduced during the final season, noticeably absent from the line-up was Imp. And Hordak's little buddy never made an appearance in any issues of the comic book adaptation of the series, either.
• Hey Arnold!: 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 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.
• It seems the writers of Jelly Jamm all but forgot Ongo existed, as there's exactly one episode where he serves a major role (in "White Dodo", he forms a special bond with the eponymous white dodo when it visits). Usually he serves a supporting role at most, and a majority of times when he does appear don't have him doing much.
• Jem:
  • Aja and Raya are this compared to the other Hologram members. Aja doesn't have any focus episodes and Raya is big in her first two episodes but then literally does nothing special for the rest of the series.
  • Jetta is the Sixth Ranger of The Misfits. She has an episode that revolves around her ("Britrock") but overall gets the least spotlight. She and Roxy get along poorly because they both play similar roles.
  • Several of the Starlight Girls are bit characters or were demoted to extras. The one used the most by far is Ba Nee. Ashley is introduced as the main Starlight Girl in the five-part pilot, but she is eventually phased out for Ba Nee to get more focus.
  • Season 3 introduces a new band, The Stingers. The Misfits barely appear aside from The Stingers intro episode. They inexplicably appear in the series finale and make a temporary truce with Jem for reasons not explained.
  • Of The Stingers members, Rapture gets the least amount of development. This was due to the series being cancelled early. Rapture just sort of exists to be a con woman and sing backup to Riot.
• Jimmy Two-Shoes: Beezy's girlfriend Saffi showed up only semi-regularly in Season 1, but still got some very memorable appearances. However, in Season 2, she falls off hard, with pretty much no major roles in except Beezy breaking off with her to chase a Girl of the Week in "She Loves Me" for laughs.
• KaBlam!: In the fourth season of the Life With Loopy shorts, Larry falls out of focus after being the show's deuteragonist for the first three seasons, with only one episode centering on him. While his role as Narrator is kept, he only ends up with one line at the beginning of the short and sometimes one more towards the end. When he shows up in the episode's main stories themselves, he usually only has one to a few lines or none at all.
• Kim Possible. The comic stories in Disney Adventures tend to focus more on lame Rufus-centric gags than Kim saving the world.
• King of the Hill: Luanne, largely due to voice actress Brittany Murphy 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, having moved out of the Hill house. In later seasons she becomes more prominent again as she returns to the Hill house, meets her husband, and gives birth to a baby.
  • Connie's appearances become less frequent after she and Bobby break up.
• Littlest Pet Shop (2012): Despite being the one carry-over from previous iterations, Penny Ling has very few significant things to do ever since her two consecutive episodes focused on her early on in Season 1. Most likely, this is because her distinguishing characteristics are timidity and emotional sensitivity, two traits that fellow main character Sunil has. Because their personalities are so similar, one of them would've had to be shoved into the background, and it was Penny. That being said, Minka is hit even harder with this, but that's a different story.
• Looney Tunes:
  • Tweety became less active in later Sylvester the Cat and Tweety Bird shorts, as the main bulk of which revolved more around a bodyguard or alternate adversary guarding him from Sylvester (usually Granny or Hector). In fact, there were some shorts in which Tweety doesn't even speak a single word.
  • While he was the studio's headlining star for several years, Porky Pig began to lose much of his former prominence once the studio transitioned out of black-and-white and more abrasive characters like Daffy Duck and especially Bugs Bunny rose in popularity. By the 1950s, his solo series was over and he was relegated to a sidekick to Daffy (and, on occasion, Sylvester). This is largely because many people at the studio didn't like him being he was more inflexible compared to Bugs and Daffy.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: features some examples, due to its large ensemble cast.
  • The 100th episode focused on many side characters in Ponyville, often given minor or even background roles, trying to get ready for a wedding that was scheduled later in the day instead of the next day, while Twilight Sparkle and her friends (the main characters of the show) dealt with its recent monster attack; there are only a few glimpses of the battle against the monster, but we never know exactly how they defeated it or drove it away.
  • Every season after the first one does this to at least one character.
    • Applejack got hit with this in season 2; she has only two episodes focused on her. Of those, one is shared with the rest of her family. In the other, she's MIA for a good chunk of the time, and the episode is told from the POV of the rest of the cast, who get as much screentime as she does (and is more famous for being "the one where Derpy talks" anyway).
    • Season 3 hits Rarity with this; despite appearing in all 13 episodes of that season, she's the only mane cast member not to get A Day in the Limelight episode (Word of God states this is intentional however, since "Spike at Your Service" was her intended episode, but it was rewritten completely as a second Applejack story after "Apple Family Reunion" due to conflict over the usage of the character in the original script. Season Four subverts this with more than one Rarity episode). What makes it even worse is that her focus episodes in S2 came relatively early in the season, meaning that she went for over a year in real time without ever getting a focus episode.
    • With the exception of Fluttershy's rabbit Angel, the pets of the Mane Six became increasingly subject to this to this after their featured episode "Just for Sidekicks" aired near the end of Season 3. Applejack's dog Winona gets the worst of it, being relegated to cameos after the first three seasons. Twilight's owl Owlowiscious isn't that much better off, appearing only once since the Season 4 finale.
    • Princess Celestia is mostly absent for Season 4, only appearing for the Season 4 premiere two-parter and the Season 4 finale two-parter. In both instances, she ends up being put out of commission as Twilight Sparkle and the rest of the Mane 6 save the day. Even Princess Luna and Cadence have more screen-time. This carried over into Season 5, where Princess Celestia isn't even so much as mentioned let alone given an appearance until the seventh episode.
    • Every season after 5 is known for treating Fluttershy like this. Every season, she only gets one or two episodes shared with somepony else or playing a supporting role, plus maybe an episode all to herself. It definitely seems like the writers have no idea what to do with her now that she's assertive.
    • In season 7, it isn't usual for a Mane 6 Pony to not appear for several episodes in a row (Fluttershy and Rarity each go through five in a row without appearing, and even the alleged main character Twilight misses four in a row). In addition, there are several episodes where none of the Mane 6 appear at all, including one where the only season 1-era character to appear is Trixie. This is also currently happening in Season 9 as well.
    • Beginning with season 6, Applejack started appearing in episodes a lot less. Like with Fluttershy, it seems like the writers didn't know what to do with her since she's the most normal of the Mane Six. Hasbro wasn't been kind to her merchandise-wise either; sometimes the only member of the Mane Six that's absent.
    • Even Pinkie Pie suffered this as well in Season 8.
    • After three straight seasons of being a prominent member of the supporting cast, including a major role in "Made in Manehattan", Coco/Miss Pommel doesn't make any physical appearances at all in Season 7 and is only mentioned once in the episode "Honest Apple" (to provide an outfit for Applejack to make fun of), much to her fans' disappointment. The movie, like the rest of Rarity's companions barring the new character Capper, only gives her a scant handful of brief, unvoiced cameos. This continues into Season 8, with "Fake It 'til you Make It" being the first Coco-free Manehattan episode since her appearance.
    • The Cutie Mark Crusaders started having smaller roles in Season 8, with only three episodes that focused on them, and disappearing in the second half of the season, with "The Washouts" being the only episode that focused on Scootaloo. It was only until the Season 8 finale two-parter that she and the other Crusaders returned, only to be pushed to the side again. The reason for their fewer appearances may have been due to the focus on the Young Six. The CMC also have really small background parts in The Movie, and no dialogue as well along with Starlight Glimmer.
• Oscar's Orchestra: Depending on the episode, Sylvia, Louis, and Jan and Stan might be there doing things, might be sighted in the background, or they might just be completely gone. Even more major characters like Eric have these moments, for example in “Black Keys” where he seemingly drops off the face of the Earth after Chordelia shows up.
• The Patrick Star Show:
  • Despite being the namesake of the show and playing a major role in many episodes, there are a few where Patrick doesn't actually get much of a role. These include "Backpay Payback" (he gets three lines), "Blorpsgiving" (his scenes are brief and have no relevance to the main conflict), and "Get Off My Lawnie" (he only appears at the beginning and very end).
  • The Deuteragonist, Squidina, usually has major or supporting roles in every episode of the show. However, there are a few where her appearances are kept brief. These include "Backpay Payback" (she only appears at the very end) and "Now Museum, Now You Don't" (she makes a silent cameo at the beginning), and "Dr. Smart Science" (she gets one line at the start of the episode).
  • "Super Sitters" and "Fun & Done!" don't have any main characters besides Patrick and SpongeBob.
  • Despite being a prominent supporting character, Squidward disappears after "Backpay Payback" and is absent for the rest of the season. He only returns in the tenth episode of the second season, "Dr. Smart Science".
  • The Star family pet, Ouchie, mostly disappears after the crew shift and only makes small cameos in "The Patrick Show Sells Out" and "10 & 1 Toilets".
• Pet Alien:
  • Swanky was fairly prominent in the first season, appearing in every episode and getting multiple focus episodes revolving around him. In the second season, he is far less prominent and is outright absent from numerous episodes.
  • For the most part, Flip is exclusively used for comic relief and doesn't play a major role frequently. He only got two focus episodes: "Beast Who Stole My Heart" and "The Day That Flip Stood Still", and he spends most of the latter episode as a Living MacGuffin.
  • Scruffy is by far the alien with the least focus. He is frequently absent and has little plot relevance whenever he does appear, with "Attack of the Werescruffy" and "A Pirate and his Dog" being the only episodes to focus on him.
  • Tommy's mom was heard in several episodes in the first season, but her relevance took a major cut in Season 2 to the point where she's only heard in one episode: "She Came from Conforma!"
• Phineas and Ferb:
  • Vanessa. Not as much in regular episodes, but she doesn't appear at all or has fairly minor roles in most of the special episodes, "Summer Belongs to You!" and "Night of the Living Pharmacists" being notable exceptions. She also doesn't make an appearance in the movie, though she and her alternate universe counterpart were originally planned to have each had a brief scene.
  • Ferb. True to his nature, he mostly serves in a supporting role not just in regular episodes, but also most of the long specials and the movie. However, he does get his own subplot in "Summer Belongs to You!" and is Temporarily a Villain in "Phineas and Ferb: Star Wars".
  • The title characters themselves. Near the end of the series' run, there were a handful of episodes that focused more on the Doof and Perry plot lines while the other characters just made a cameo.
• Puppy Dog Pals: 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", "Pop's Promise", "Return of the Go-Long Retriever" and "Fixing Santa's Sleigh".
  • Keia was introduced in the Season 2 premiere. Although, she was absent for 33 segments of the same season.
• Ready Jet Go!:
  • Face 9000 gets the least focus episodes of the main cast.
  • It went up to eleven in season 2, where Face has minimal screen-time (alongside other main cast members Sydney, Carrot, and Celery) and almost all of the supporting cast (especially Dr. Rafferty, Dr. Bergs, Mitchell, and Lillian) are relegated to minor roles.
• Regular Show
  • 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. In the Season 6 episode "The Real Thomas", which revealed him as a Russian spy, when Thomas/Nikolai explains his assignment, he brings up past episodes where he seemingly wasn't important.
  • 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 A Day in the Limelight. The aforementioned Thomas has at least been important to the plot of a couple episodes, and he is considered a minor character. That is until Thomas was later revealed to be a Russian spy in "The Real Thomas".
• The Simpsons:
  • Barney used to be Homer's best friend in early seasons; later, he drifted away and Lenny and Carl became Homer's main friends.
  • The twins Sherri and Terri were two annoying classmates of Bart's whose father was Homer's supervisor at the plant in one season one episode. Since then, they have never received a single spotlight episode or any characterization that sets them apart from each other, their main role in most episodes being as a tormenter to Lisa.
  • Apu Nahasapeemapetilon was one of the show's biggest recurring characters, even serving as the only non-Simpson protagonist of The Simpsons Hit & Run, but has gradually been relegated to the role of a background character from season 27 onward in response to growing complaints directed to his character for being a stereotype of Indian people, coming to a head with the 2017 documentary "The Problem with Apu".
• Solar Opposites: Despite the title, "Terry and Korvo Steal A Bear" is actually about the people living in The Wall, and how they are planning to take down The Duke once and for all.
• South Park
  • Some time around season five, many of the oldest supporting characters either became rarely seen, or just shoved into the background. Many of the small-town stereotypes (Officer Barbrady, the mayor, Jimbo and Ned) have faded away as South Park has apparently become larger, gaining a whole police force. Dr Mephesto (who was written off because Trey and Matt didn't find him funny anymore), Pip (later killed), Ms. Crabtree (killed), the 'Visitors', and Chef (also dead) also disappeared.
  • Ever since coming back from the dead for supposedly the last time ^note which originally was supposed to be his last appearance, but meddling from Comedy Central said otherwise; Trey Parker and Matt Stone retaliated by reducing his involvement, Kenny rarely has anything to do — he either just stands there and doesn't say anything, or he doesn't appear at all. This is lampshaded quite a few times, and occasionally he will have his time in the spotlight. In later seasons Kenny gets more and more screen time exactly for the sake of averting this trope, rather than any practical reason.
    • Lampshaded in "The Jeffersons"
    Stan: Alright, dude, get in [Blanket's] bed.
    Kenny: Alright, but you guys owe me for this.
    Stan: Dude, whatever, at least you finally get to do something.
  • When Wendy broke up with Stan, her screen time took a sharp drop. She only had two major roles ("Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset" and "Follow That Egg!") and after "Cartoon Wars Part 1" never spoke again until Season 11's "The List" where she and Stan got back together. She has come back into the spotlight since then and, much like Kenny, has gotten more screen time, though it appears to be for good reasons rather than averting this trope.
    • Her prominence takes a second dive after her breakup with Stan in season 20. While she still has roles and speaks nowadays, she never interacts with Stan and the majority of her speaking roles are brief minor appearances during scenes involving the girls as a whole.
  • Speaking of Wendy, the girls of South Park Elementary rarely get much focus, and any episode featuring them is heavily focused on their relationship with the boys.
  • To make matters even worse, Big Sister Bully Shelly Marsh started to appear less and less in the modern seasons of the show. She only makes small appearances in a couple of modern episodes, but at some points, she also doesn't speak in the modern episodes too.
• SpongeBob SquarePants: The show officially has ten main characters, but out of them, only five (SpongeBob, Patrick, Squidward, Plankton, and Mr. Krabs) have had consistent importance throughout the seasons.
  • 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.
  • Out of the original main characters, Pearl has been hit the hardest by this. She still has her own A Day in the Limelight 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 season 13, Pearl only gets one focus episode and very few appearances, cameos or otherwise.
  • If Gary shows up, it's almost always a cameo role or just a handful of lines (not that he has much to say, anyway).
  • SpongeBob himself started getting a few minor roles after the second movie; he only has three short cameos in "Mall Girl Pearl" and "Whale Watching" as those focus exclusively on Pearl, with only one line in the first and no dialogue in the second aside from his trademark laugh.
  • SpongeBob also has very minor cameos in "Shell Games" and "Lockdown with Love", the latter having no dialogue at all aside from huffing and panting from jogging. His cameo in "Shell Games" was actually lampshaded by Patrick referring to him as "that little yellow guy."
  • One early example of SpongeBob having a minor role was "Plankton's Army", in which he's absent throughout the majority of the plot due to a Brick Joke of being sent to clean the men's room. He's also absent for the entire second half of "New Leaf".
  • "Rise and Shine", "The Executive Treatment", "Patrick's Coupon", and "Swamp Mates" all focus majorly on Patrick, having SpongeBob appear in one to three scenes.
  • In "Komputer Overload", "Growth Spout", and "The Ghost of Plankton", SpongeBob doesn't appear until the final 2-3 minutes.
  • SpongeBob only gets six lines in "A Place for Pets". Most of the episode focuses on Krabs versus the Bikini Bottom residents.
  • In "Upturn Girls", SpongeBob disappears halfway through the episode, only reappearing for a Something We Forgot joke.
  • SpongeBob's role in "Karen's Baby" is basically a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment. He shows up inside the Chum Bucket out of nowhere, briefly coos at Chip, then shows off a present: a can of compressed air. He doesn't even end up giving it to them, he uses it to burst out of the Chum Bucket. SpongeBob isn't in the rest of the episode and the compressed air doesn't appear again.
  • SpongeBob's role is downplayed for about 50% of episodes focusing generally on Mr. Krabs and Plankton, specifically "Best Frenemies", "Enemy in Law" and "One Coarse Meal", the latter for being one of the series' darker episodes. In the middle, Mr. Krabs at one point shoos SpongeBob away from the table when he catches Plankton on a date with his mother.
  • "BassWard" marks the first episode where SpongeBob does not appear in any way, shape, or form. Rather, the plot focuses on Bubble Bass and Squidward as they take a disastrous vacation to conventions in Jetsam City.
• Steven Universe:
  • Peedee is a rather heavily featured character in the first season of the show, before becoming an almost speechless background character in the second and third seasons. He was likely intended to be Steven's best friend before the show's creators gave that role to Connie.
  • Lars is another heavily featured character on the show in its first season, but he only makes four appearances for all of Season 2 (half of them being in holdover episodes from the first season) and most of which are brief cameos. However, hecame into major prominence in late season four, which ended with him and Steven getting kidnapped into space together.
  • Mr. Smiley and Mr. Maheswaran (Connie's dad) have no speaking roles in the fifth season, despite being present in several episodes. The most egregious example is in "Legs From Here to Homeworld". Before Connie leaves for space, her dad says absolutely nothing while her mom gives her an encouraging sendoff, but she still reacts as though both her parents spoke to her.
• Teen Titans (2003): Starfire is an interesting variation. While she's a main character and tons of episodes do focus on her, she's the only member of the core team who never had a season revolving around her.
• Thomas & Friends suffered from this in its later seasons, largely due to the fact that several new characters are introduced per series and Thomas remains the Spotlight-Stealing Squad. As a result, formerly major characters like Duck, Donald and Douglas, Oliver, Bill and Ben, Daisy and Terence didn't appear for many years. This didn't stop them appearing in multiple toy ranges, though.
• Fifi LaFume from Tiny Toon Adventures, who appears semi-regularly in Season 1 and gets a major role in the movie, appears quite rarely in Seasons 2 & 3. Much to the disappointment of fans, she only gets four shorts of her own in the series.
• Total Drama
  • One of the reasons (but hardly the only one) that fans dislike the 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 Character Development even though some of them (nerdy Cody, Noah and Ezekiel, for example) have surprisingly large fanbases.
  • 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 Leshawna, Harold, and 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. 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 Courtney/Duncan/Gwen Love Triangle (as was the case with Noah and Tyler).
  • Several characters who got a lot of focus in the first season were completely pushed to the side in the seasons afterwards. DJ, Bridgette, Geoff, and Trent got quite a lot of screentime in the first season, and the latter three were all involved in the main romances of the season. Afterwards though, they are either all eliminated early in the competition or don't even compete. However, Bridgette and Geoff do get a bit of focus as the hosts of the Aftermath, and Geoff also returned in the spinoff Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race.
  • Of the 22 original cast members, Eva, Katie, and Sadie are the least focused characters in the series, not competing in any of the later seasons. Eva at least gets a chance to compete twice in the same season, although she remains the least frequently appearing out of the original 22 contestants (even Ezekiel, who was booted first in both of his competing seasons appears in more episodes, due to his feralization turning him into a minor Running Gag).
• Despite using only half of the original 22 contestants, Total DramaRama is still guilty of leaving certain characters out of focus (and this also despite there being more episodes a season). Bridgette and Noah in particular 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 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).
  • Lampshaded in the last episode of the series, where Bridgette realizes she has not had a focus episode for the entire third season and desperately tries to get one.
• The Transformers: This happens to Optimus Prime during the second season. Several episodes have him stay behind at the base, and he’s completely absent from four episodes.
  • Due to the Merchandise-Driven nature of the show, it’s not uncommon for older characters to get less focus while newer characters get more attention.
• The Venture Brothers
  • Starting in season 3, this started to happen to the titular Venture family more often. According to the writers, it was sometimes hard to write an episode because they have to find something to do for each of the four main characters while the main story is happening, quite to the point where they just said "to hell with it" and left them out almost entirely of a few episodes.
  • Brock Samson in the fourth season, at least until near the halfway mark. Even Billy Quizboy gets more airtime.
  • Dr. Orpheus is a major supporting character throughout the first three seasons, getting nearly as much screen time as anyone outside of the Venture family. He is out of focus to the point of absence throughout most of the first half of season 4, and then again in the first half of season 5, having only one minor appearance outside of the Halloween special.
• Voltron: Legendary Defender: This happened to Keith. Out of the 5 Paladins (plus Allura), he is the sole character to not get Character Focus in no point of the show during season 1. Early on, Shiro is the focus, then Pidge and her backstory of doing a Sweet Polly Oliver to try to find his missing family members, Lance gets some Hidden Depths 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 Hidden Depths, but are subject to Alternative Character Interpretation. Averted in season 2, in which Keith, 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 Put on a Bus and doesn't appear in several episodes (although this was mainly because 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 as comic relief, with Hunk largely forgetting the Character Development he went through in the previous season.
• Of the Winx Club, Tecna easily gets the least focus and development, especially in later seasons. Sometimes it feels like she's a minor character rather than one of the main ones.
• Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!: Despite being front-and-center of almost every episode and song, the title character didn't play a larger role in "Goo Goo Grief" since he was absent in the first half of that episode. He also only appeared in two scenes of the "Mr. Cool" song.
• Clay from Xiaolin Showdown gets the least spotlight episodes out of all the monks and is absent for most of the third season, when he gets no spotlight episodes.
• Young Justice (2010) has a lot of characters, so naturally this winds up happening. Rocket and Zatanna are especially notable, since they joined the team 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 Time Skip.
  • While season two did a fair job giving at least a little focus to all of the new characters, Batgirl really doesn't get any sort of character development. However the tie-in comic, which is a canonical supplement to show, does give her a lot of focus in the one Invasion arc before it got canceled.
  • Kid Flash is another notable one. He is a main character in season one, but in season two he's semi-retired from being a superhero and doesn't appear much. Then Retirony strikes.
  • Red Tornado and Captain Marvel were both important characters in season one. In season two, the former gets one voiceless cameo while the other gets to talk in one episode (half of which he spends in a psychic coma).