History Main / ChuckCunninghamSyndrome

[[caption-width-right:350:[[Creator/{{Rare}} They]] were [[LampshadeHanging well aware of this]] and [[{{IncrediblyLamePun}} milked it]] for all it's worth.]]

The {{trope namer|s}} is Chuck, who was actually Richie Cunningham's older brother for two seasons on ''Series/HappyDays''. Remember him? No?

Generally, if writers want to remove a character from their ensemble, they will either [[CharacterDeath kill that]] [[DroppedaBridgeOnHim character off]] or [[PutOnABus put them on a bus]] ([[TakeAThirdOption or]] [[BusCrash both]]) to explain their absence. Sufferers of Chuck Cunningham Syndrome, on the other hand, simply disappear into limbo (and make some more snarky viewers wonder if they were affected by [[Film/AvengersEndgame the Thanos snap]] offscreen). They will often be {{retcon}}ned right out of the story's history, and everyone still left onscreen will simply carry on as if the character never existed or had any impact on the story. This is sometimes caused by the writers gradually losing interest in the character and, without making a conscious decision to remove them, eventually forgetting about them entirely. More often, complications behind the scenes drive the decision to remove a character.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[Creator/{{Rare}} They]] were [[LampshadeHanging well aware of this]] and [[{{Pun}} milked it]] for all it's worth.]]

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome/NewspaperComics

Generally, if writers want to remove a character from their ensemble, they will either [[CharacterDeath kill that]] [[DroppedaBridgeOnHim character off]] or [[PutOnABus put them on a bus]] ([[TakeAThirdOption or]] [[BusCrash both]]) to explain their absence. Sufferers of Chuck Cunningham Syndrome, on the other hand, simply disappear into limbo. They will often be {{retcon}}ned right out of the story's history, and everyone still left onscreen will simply carry on as if the character never existed or had any impact on the story. This is sometimes caused by the writers gradually losing interest in the character and, without making a conscious decision to remove them, eventually forgetting about them entirely. More often, complications behind the scenes drive the decision to remove a character.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[Creator/{{Rare}} They]] were [[LampshadeHanging well aware of this trope]] and [[{{Pun}} milked it]] for all it's worth.]]

-->-- '''Peter Griffin,''' ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy,'' "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Fonz"

Generally, if writers want to remove a character from their ensemble, they will either [[CharacterDeath kill that]] [[DroppedaBridgeOnHim character off]] or [[PutOnABus put him on a bus]] ([[TakeAThirdOption or]] [[BusCrash both]]) to explain their absence. Sufferers of Chuck Cunningham Syndrome, on the other hand, simply disappear into limbo. They will often be {{retcon}}ned right out of the story's history, and everyone still left on-screen will simply carry on as if the character never existed or had any impact on the story. This is sometimes caused by the writers gradually losing interest in the character and, without making a conscious decision to remove them, eventually forgetting about them entirely. More often, complications behind the scenes drive the decision to remove a character.

The [[TropeNamers Trope Namer]] is Chuck, who was actually Richie Cunningham's older brother for two seasons on ''Series/HappyDays''. Remember him? No?

In recent years, though, as media has become more meta, playful references to the ignominiously departed have become common, either as [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] within the series itself or in parodies or satires of it.

A subtrope of UnPerson, although this trope isn't necessarily intentional. Similar in spirit to TheOtherDarrin, wherein a character's actor or voice is replaced and nobody in-universe seems to notice or care. Also see OutOfFocus, when a character is gone but not ''quite'' forgotten; SequelNonEntity which is a subtrope that's concerned with a character not returning for a sequel in particular rather than vanishing from the series as a whole, and ShooOutTheNewGuy, who gets at least an excuse in the show for disappearing. Contrast with RememberTheNewGuy, where someone comes in out of nowhere sometime midway through and the series acts as though they've been there the whole time. For characters who are written out of the main story but are still hanging around in view, see DemotedToExtra. For characters who are specifically brought in for a one-shot purpose, see LongLostUncleAesop. For characters that are given a reason for their departure ''and'' an on-screen send-off, see PutOnABus. Compare ForgottenFallenFriend. If a character appears in the pilot or very early episode of a show and [[DroppedAfterThePilot then vanishes]] it may be a case of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness. See also AbsenteeActor. PresentAbsence is when this is averted and a character's absence is not only noticed in-story, but is often a major driver of the plot. WhatHappenedToTheMouse is this for minor aspects like side characters or subplots.

This trope is only applicable to genuine members of the ensemble who would otherwise seem to be a little more permanent, not characters who appear out of nowhere for one or two episodes and vanish just as swiftly.

When this trope happens in-universe, with the character having his existence literally erased, it's a {{Retgone}}.

%% '''Note:''' when adding examples, this trope is specifically about characters who disappear ''entirely'' without explanation. If they reappear even briefly, or if their absence is explained in-show even flimsily, it is more likely one of the alternate tropes listed.

Generally, if writers want to remove a character from their ensemble, they will either [[CharacterDeath kill that]] [[DroppedaBridgeOnHim character off]] or [[PutOnABus put him on a bus]] ([[TakeAThirdOption or]] [[BusCrash both]]) to explain their absence. Sufferers of Chuck Cunningham Syndrome, on the other hand, simply disappear into limbo. They will often be {{retcon}}ned right out of the story's history, and everyone still left on-screen will simply carry on as if the character never existed or had any impact on the story. This is sometimes caused by the writers gradually losing interest in the character and, without making a conscious decision to remove them, eventually forgeting about them entirely. More often, complications behind the scenes drive the decision to remove a character.

Generally, if writers want to remove a character from their ensemble, they will either [[CharacterDeath kill that]] [[DroppedaBridgeOnHim character off]] or [[PutOnABus put him on a bus]] ([[TakeAThirdOption or]] [[BusCrash both]]) to explain their absence. Sufferers of Chuck Cunningham Syndrome, on the other hand, simply disappear into limbo. They will often be {{retcon}}ned right out of the story's history, and everyone still left on-screen will simply carry on as if the character never existed or had any impact on the story. This is sometimes caused by the writers gradually losing interest in the character and, without making a conscious decision to remove them, eventually forget about them entirely. More often, complications behind the scenes drive the decision to remove a character.

A subtrope of UnPerson, although this trope isn't necessarily intentional. Similar in spirit to TheOtherDarrin, wherein a character's actor or voice is replaced and nobody in-universe seems to notice or care. Also see OutOfFocus, when a character is gone but not ''quite'' forgotten; SequelNonEntity which is a subtrope that's concerned with a character not returning for a sequel in particular rather than vanishing from the series as a whole, and ShooOutTheNewGuy, who gets at least an excuse in the show for disappearing. Contrast with RememberTheNewGuy, where someone comes in out of nowhere sometime midway through and the series acts as though they've been there the whole time. For characters who are written out of the main story but are still hanging around in view, see DemotedToExtra. For characters who are specifically brought in for a one-shot purpose, see LongLostUncleAesop. For characters that are given a reason for their departure ''and'' an on-screen send-off, see PutOnABus. Compare ForgottenFallenFriend and WhatHappenedToTheMouse. If a character appears in the pilot or very early episode of a show and [[DroppedAfterThePilot then vanishes]] it may be a case of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness. See also AbsenteeActor. PresentAbsence is when this is averted and a character's absence is not only noticed in-story, but is often a major driver of the plot.

This trope is only applicable to genuine members of the ensemble who would otherwise seem to be a little more permanent, not characters who appear out of nowhere for one or two episodes and vanish just as swiftly. When this trope happens in-universe, with the character having his existence literally erased, it's a {{Retgone}}.

This trope is only applicable to genuine members of the ensemble who would otherwise seem to be a little more permanent, not characters who appear out of nowhere for one or two episodes and vanish just as swiftly.

A subtrope of UnPerson. Similar in spirit to TheOtherDarrin. Also see OutOfFocus, when a character is gone but not ''quite'' forgotten; SequelNonEntity which is a subtrope that's concerned with a character not returning for a sequel in particular rather than vanishing from the series as a whole, and ShooOutTheNewGuy, who gets at least an excuse in the show for disappearing. Contrast with RememberTheNewGuy. For characters who are written out of the main story but are still hanging around in view, see DemotedToExtra. For characters who are specifically brought in for a one-shot purpose, see LongLostUncleAesop. For characters that are given a reason for their departure ''and'' an on-screen send-off, see PutOnABus. Compare ForgottenFallenFriend and WhatHappenedToTheMouse. If a character appears in the pilot or very early episode of a show and [[DroppedAfterThePilot then vanishes]] it may be a case of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness. See also AbsenteeActor. PresentAbsence is when this is averted and a character's absence is not only noticed in-story, but is often a major driver of the plot.

Generally, if writers want to remove a character from their ensemble, they will either [[CharacterDeath kill that]] [[DroppedaBridgeOnHim character off]] or [[PutOnABus put him on a bus]] ([[BusCrash or both]]) to explain their absence. Sufferers of Chuck Cunningham Syndrome, on the other hand, simply disappear into limbo. They will often be {{retcon}}ned right out of the story's history, and everyone still left on-screen will simply carry on as if the character never existed or had any impact on the story. This is sometimes caused by the writers gradually losing interest in the character and, without making a conscious decision to remove them, eventually forget about them entirely. More often, complications behind the scenes drive the decision to remove a character.

Generally, if writers want to remove a character from their ensemble, they will either [[CharacterDeath kill that character off]] or [[PutOnABus put him on a bus]] ([[BusCrash or both]]) to explain their absence. Sufferers of Chuck Cunningham Syndrome, on the other hand, simply disappear into limbo. They will often be {{retcon}}ned right out of the story's history, and everyone still left on-screen will simply carry on as if the character never existed or had any impact on the story. This is sometimes caused by the writers gradually losing interest in the character and, without making a conscious decision to remove them, eventually forget about them entirely. More often, complications behind the scenes drive the decision to remove a character.

A subtrope of UnPerson. Similar in spirit to TheOtherDarrin. Also see OutOfFocus, when a character is gone but not ''quite'' forgotten; SequelNonEntity which is a subtrope that's concerned with a character not returning for a sequel in particular rather than vanishing from the series as a whole, and ShooOutTheNewGuy, who gets at least an excuse in the show for disappearing. Contrast with RememberTheNewGuy. For characters who are written out of the main story but are still hanging around in view, see DemotedToExtra. For characters who are specifically brought in for a one-shot purpose, see LongLostUncleAesop. For characters that are given a reason for their departure ''and'' an on-screen send-off, see PutOnABus. Compare ForgottenFallenFriend and WhatHappenedToTheMouse. If a character appears in the pilot or very early episode of a show and [[DroppedAfterThePilot then vanishes]] it may be a case of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness. See also AbsenteeActor. PresentAbsence is when this is averted.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[Creator/{{Rare}} They]] are [[LampshadeHanging well aware of this trope]] and [[{{Pun}} milking it]] for all it's worth.]]

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Advertising]]
* Wendell the Baker for Cinnamon Toast Crunch used to have two other bakers named Bob and Quello/Quienno by some, but they disappeared for reasons unknown around the early '90s, and were never featured again.
* [=McDonaldland=] and the vast cast of characters who once existed side-by-side with Ronald [=McDonald=] in [=McDonald=]'s commercials were steadily [[ImAHumanitarian eliminated]] from the 1970s onward, until only the "core cast" of Ronald, Grimace, Birdie, and Hamburglar remained. For awhile past 2000 now, [=McDonald=]'s ads have only featured Ronald, and lately even he hasn't been seen terribly often.
* The Burger King Kingdom was BK's answer to [=McDonaldland=], and featured a colorful cast of characters including the milkshake-craving knight Sir Shakes-a-Lot, the picture-framed Burger Thing, the robotic Wizard of Fries, the skeptic Duke of Doubt, and Advertising/TheBurgerKing himself. They were phased out in favor of the TotallyRadical BK Kids' Club in the late '80s, which itself disappeared shortly into the new millennium.
* Cookie Crisp cereal had in its early marketing campaigns a bobby who chases after a bandit-masked thief and his bandit-masked dog. Eventually the thief vanished, followed promptly by the bobby, leaving just the dog (still wearing his bandit mask, oddly enough). Now the dog has completely vanished, having been replaced by a wolf named Chip (ironically the same name as the dog that preceded him).
* Erin Esurance was a Cartoon Network-esque super spy who went on dangerous assignments while pitching for the insurance company that created her. Her commercials ran for several months then abruptly stopped without explanation, and she was reduced to a static icon next to the company's name before being dropped completely. Much has been written about the vast, ''vast'' quantity of Internet porn she's now in, but the simple truth is most likely that the campaign had run its course and the company couldn't think of any new adventures for her.
* Ned The Incompetent Loan Officer was ''the'' face of Ditech in the early-2000's. The commercials would usually show him with a client[[note]]in a few commercials, the client would be his mother - [[TalkingToHimself strangely played by the exact same actor that played him]][[/note]], attempting to give him/her a home equity loan. He would horribly botch the deal, and the client(s) would call Ditech instead for the loan, leaving him to moan "Lost another loan to Ditech." Around 2003, the character inexplicably disappeared from Ditech's commercials, most likely because the company ran out of ways to use him.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Anime And Manga]]
* ''Anime/SailorMoon'' started ditching the entire supporting cast of the anime (including Usagi's parents and brother) sometime after the second season. All except Usagi's mother completely disappeared in the fifth and final season. As well as her best friend Naru and classmate Umino, whose final appearances are in the direct to DVD special Ami-chan no Hatsukoi at the end of the 4th season. They actually never appear in the 5th season and were already relegated to extras by the 3rd. The [[Manga/SailorMoon manga]] actually ditches them ''even earlier''.
* Doctor Tofu from ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'', disappeared after the first third of the manga series because his role as MrExposition for weird martial arts was adequately filled by Cologne, one of the [[TricksterMentor Trickster Mentors]] in the series. {{Fanfic}} writers keep using him to provide a second opinion or comedy relief, though there was a joke in the fan community that he had fallen into an open sewer and died. This was only in the manga; he made minor appearances in the anime throughout the series.
* Rumiko Takahashi's earlier manga ''Manga/UruseiYatsura'' does this with Princess Kurama: after some time, she disappears altogether. She continues to get small cameos in the anime because of the crowd scenes.
** "Lum's Stormtroopers" disappeared from the manga after Shutaro Mendo showed up, as he more or less filled their roles of being the rival to Ataru. The four [[AscendedExtra became more significant in the anime]].
* Happens {{egregious}}ly in the ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'' novels, more so the ''Special'' series. The most notable example is a mercenary named Lantz, who helps with the fight against Copy Rezo in lieu of [[ThePollyanna Amelia]] in the third novel. He literally runs off, never to be heard of again. The only novel-exclusive character who is returned and remembered is the swordswoman Lemmy, who manages to make it to [[ADayInTheLimelight Amelia's side story]] and a radio drama. In the anime, similarly, Amelia's uncle, Christopher, doesn't get a single mention again after ''Slayers Next.''
* ''[[Anime/ElHazardTheMagnificentWorld El Hazard: The Alternative World]]'' introduced a (seemingly nameless) farmer as a love interest for princess Rune Venus. One episode ended, for him, on a LiteralCliffhanger, about to fall to his doom. However, the cliffhanger was never resolved and [[FridgeHorror the character was never seen (or even mentioned) again]]. Presumably one of the consequences of the series being [[CutShort half as long as originally planned]].
* The Steel Saints from ''SaintSeiya'', characters original to the anime's first season, completely disappeared before the 12 Zodiac Temples Arc. A common joke among the fandom was that they took the wrong plane from Japan to the Sanctuary.
** [[spoiler:''"They return in Omega with an explanation."'']]
* Shamal from ''Manga/KatekyoHitmanReborn''. He got a passing mention in the beginning of Future Arc and is never seen or mentioned anymore.
* Several major characters in ''Anime/{{Medabots}}'', such as Dr. Aki's niece Karin, never showed up in the second season. That said season was made specifically for the US market may have something to do with it.
* In ''Manga/OnaniMasterKurosawa'', the unnamed younger sister of the protagonist appears in some boxes trying to talk to Kurosawa, only to be solemnly ignored (even by the author, after some chapters).
* ''Manga/YuGiOh'' Manga:
** A character named Hanasaki appears. The characters become friends with him, he's around for some chapters, but after the Death-T arc, he disappears and is never mentioned again.
** Miho Nosaka. She was a very minor character and Honda's love interest in the manga. She gets promoted as a main character in the [[Anime/YuGiOhFirstAnimeSeries first anime series]], but is not in the second series ''[[Anime/YuGiOh Duel Monsters]]''. But she was referenced in [[Anime/YuGiOhGX GX]] when she was listed among the missing Domino residents who are sent to the World of Darkness.
* For a {{Hentai}} with so few characters, it's quite noticeable when Io Azuma in ''Anime/MoonlightLady'' simply vanishes.
* This happens a lot in car racing manga. In ''WanganMidnight'', literally ''dozens'' of minor characters, including Rumi Aikawa, Ma, Kochan, Yoshiaki Ishida, Harada, and Makoto Morishita, have been dropped without so much as a footnote.
* Kimi Toudou, {{Kawaiiko}} and shameless GoldDigger from ''FruitsBasket''. The last scene we see with her is her [[FalseStart interrupting a love confession]] between Yuki Sohma and Machi Kuragi while looking for her missing hair brush. She never appears again. This is somewhat surprising as virtually every other minor character in the series makes some sort of appearance for a CleaningUpRomanticLooseEnds chapter at the end. (Even Naohito Sakuragi, equal to Kimi in terms of importance, gets paired off with Motoko Minagawa [the Yuki Sohma Fan Club President] at the end.)
* Klaus in ''Manga/HayateTheCombatButler'' disappeared for around two hundred chapters with absolutely no explanation. Once or twice, it was helpfully noted that, yes, he's still alive.
* This happens to Yuuno Scrya in ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha''. He was basically DemotedToExtra in ''[[Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikerS StrikerS]]'', and then he vanished completely by the time of ''[[Manga/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaViVid ViVid]]'' and ''[[Manga/MagicalRecordLyricalNanohaFORCE FORCE]]''.
** TheBusCameBack - he reappears for a brief moment (one panel on one page) in chapter 47 in ''[=ViVid=]''.
* In MahouSenseiNegima, Jack recounts the story of how Nagi saved his love interest, Queen Arika, a few years before Negi was born. No one has mentioned her since, and Negi hasn't asked. This also leads to a touch of KarmaHoudini, since Arika has (evidently) never intervened to save her sister, her lover, or her 10-year-old son from fates worse than death.
* The main character, Tamotsu, from the first ''Boku No Pico'' OVA is never seen or mentioned in the second or third ones.
* Lin's puppy, Pel, from ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'' disappears some time during the Souther arc with no explanation[[note]]only in the anime; it never even shows up in the manga[[/note]]. It shows up one last time in a later episode, only to never be mentioned again.
* In From Eroica With Love, the first volume starts out with the main characters established as three psychic powered teens Sugar Plum, Leopard Solid and Caesar Gabriel. By the end of the first volume, they're no where to be seen and never heard from again, in favor of the actual interesting characters, Dorian Red Gloria and Klaus Heinz Von Dem Eberbach.
* Because the movies are made before the actual series are released, certain characters are left out of the ''Anime/PrettyCureAllStars'' movies. Among them, [[Anime/FreshPrettyCure Eas/Setsuna]] in ''DX 1'' and [[Anime/SuitePrettyCure Seiren/Ellen and Ako]] in ''DX 3''[[note]]It should be noted, though, that Setsuna and Ellen were ''evil'' at the time, while Ako hasn't been officially confirmed as Cure Muse, and was still busy keeping up with the silent protector disguise[[/note]]. Oddly enough, [[Anime/HeartcatchPrettyCure Itsuki and Yuri]] ''do'' show up in ''DX 2'' as [[EarlyBirdCameo brief cameos]], despite Yuri being introduced three episodes after the week the movie was released. [[note]]Although Yuri is noticeably more OOC, not acting like a cold fish she started out as in series proper.[[/note]]
* While most of the characters from ''Anime/{{Beyblade}}'s'' first season came back in season 3, a few players didn't. Steve from ''PPB All Starz'' is replaced by Rick who took Michael's place, and Ivan/Ian isn't a member of the new founded ''Blitzkrieg Boys'' (but he's shown in a flashback with the ''Demolition Boys''). ''Team WHO (the Dark Bladers)'' were never mentioned, and the ''Majestics'' were kicked out by the ''Barthez Battaillion'', and only Ralf/Robert and Johnny got the luck to appear at least in one episode. The teams from season 2 also never appeared in season 3.
* Lunch from ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', who disappears along with Tien's first death during the Saiyans' appearances. The author admitted he had forgotten about her. She makes a tiny cameo in the anime, during the Kid Buu Saga, almost ''[[TheBusCameBack 300]]'' episodes later.
** While not a specific character, the various kinds of animal people that were all over the place in the original DragonBall vanish without a trace after the Saiyan Saga except for Oolong and Puar. One World Tournament episode in the Buu saga, episode 209, did remember they exist, but then they're all gone again the very next episode even though the location didn't change any. The movies Bojack Unbound and Super Android 13 remembered they exist as well.
* ''Manga/SpaceBattleshipYamato'': The Next Generation characters Kitano and Sakamoto are introduced in ''Yamato The New Voyage''. It appears as if they're being groomed for the positions of Navigator and Cosmo Tiger Flight Leader respectively. Sakamoto is replaced by Shiro Kato (brother of the late Saburo Kato) in the next film ''Be Forever Yamato''. Kaoru Shintani, the ship's cook hasn't been seen since the first series. Hajime Hirata represents the ship's cooking division in ''Yamato III'' although it's not clear whether he is just veteran kitchen staff or the actual head cook.
* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' has an unusual case involving Mewtwo, who hadn't been seen or mentioned since ''The Mastermind of Mirage Pokemon''. Then [[PokemonGenesectAndTheLegendAwakened the sixteenth movie]] turned out to feature Mewtwo, except the Mewtwo in this movie turned out to be a [[SuspiciouslySImilarSubstitute different entity that the previous one]]. This resulted in some [[ReplacementScrappy very]] [[FanonDiscontinuity negative]] [[FandomBerserkButton repercussions]] from fans.
* Quite a few characters in ''Manga/OhMyGoddess'' drop out of the series over the course of forty-eight volumes, though some of them are justifiable. Many of the early characters are people who Keichii interacted with as a college student, so once he graduated, he was no longer anywhere that he'd be likely to run into Sayoko or Aoshima anymore, and the Motor Club similarly diminished in importance, though since Keichii got a job with a former member, they hung around longer.
* The anime adaptation of ''VisualNovel/Clannad'' completely eliminates [[Main/IllGirl Ill Boy]] Kappei Hiiraga, the love interest of [[spoiler:Ryou]]. He makes zero appearances in the first season, and only briefly appears in the closing for the second season.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Comic Books]]
* Atlee (aka Terra III) after the writer/artist switch during ComicBook/PowerGirl's solo series. She appeared in one panel of the first issue after the switch and was then never seen again. Especially noticeable as she had basically been Peeg's {{sidekick}} and was well liked by fans. She later made her return in the {{New 52}} ''Comicbook/{{Starfire}}'' series, done by the same writing team that introduced her in the first place.
* King Muskar XII of the fictional Balkan kingdom [[{{Ruritania}} Syldavia]] was a major character in the ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'' story ''Recap/TintinKingOttokarsSceptre'' (written in 1938), and ends up a close ally of Tintin. Yet he is completely absent for the post war stories dealing with Syldavia - in fact it is even unclear whether Syldavia is still a monarchy. Possibly a case of RealitySubtext: Muskar was based on King Leopold III of Belgium, who was forced to abdicate after UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo, and almost every Balkan kingdom except Greece was replaced by a republican form of government; although unlike the real-world Balkan states Syldavia did not become communist.
* The original Marsupilami (the one that was Spirou's pet, and the brother of the one who lives in the jungle) vanished from ''ComicBook/SpirouEtFantasio'' once André Franquin quit the job and Jean-Claude Fournier took over, as Franquin had created the Marsupilami himself and didn't want anyone else to write stories about him; he kept the rights to the characters and started an independent series starring a ReplacementGoldfish, a Marsupilami still living in the Palombian jungle. For forty years fans have sent letters and letters and letters to the editor of ''ComicBook/SpirouEtFantasio'' wanting to get the Marsupilami back, to the point that Fournier and later authors of the series often made jokes inside the stories about the Marsupilami.
** Fortunately, TheBusCameBack when the editor of ''Spirou et Fantasio'' bought back the society that produced the alternate ''Marsupilami'' series, and a canon explanation involving hypnotism and animal traffic was pulled by the authors currently working on ''Spirou et Fantasio''. Since this explanation was never Franquin or Fournier's intent, however, it still counts as an example.
* Surprisingly effective bad guy Doctor Strange easily defeated Iron Man and made a successful getaway when his too-honest daughter freed the hero. And he was never seen again! The name was later applied to Steve Ditko's unrelated magician. An explanation of what happened to him is long overdue by Marvel.
* Famously done to Rikki in the Belgian comic epic ''ComicBook/SuskeEnWiske'' (''Spike and Suzy''). Rikki was Wiske's brother, and a main character for the singular issue the comic was still called "Rikki En Wiske". He was never heard from again until after the author passed away, and the new writers decided to bring him back briefly after 254 (!) issues. The explanation? Rikki had gone out to ''buy shoes'' and somehow got stuck in {{Ruritania}}.
* What exactly happened to Toxin in MarvelComics is a topic that will likely never be resolved; even guys like Gravity and Sleepwalker get cameos now and then, but Toxin has plainly been abandoned entirely.
** Toxin isn't the first symbiote character to disappear either, joining fellow heroic symbiote Hybrid and the female symbiote Donna/Scream.
*** In the second Venom series, the Toxin symbiote has a new host and is a villain now. Patrick Mulligan, its original host, died off panel. Hybrid and Scream were also killed off in this series.
* In current SuperHero comics every time that either writer or status quo changes, most of the supporting cast and villains with exception of {{Ensemble Darkhorse}}s (and sometimes even them) are put at risk of suffering from thiis. If there's no place for them in the hero's new life situation it can be justified. If they are gone because the writer didn't have an idea what to do with them, not so much.
** When Creator/BrianMichaelBendis left ''ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}'', the titular character had been imprisoned in one cell block with Kingpin, Owl and Jigsaw. New writer Ed Brubaker removed Jigsaw without any explanation.
** Often happens to [[Franchise/SpiderMan Spider-Man's]] supporting cast after all bigger changes of status quo.
** Superman's post-''[[ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths Crisis]]'' supporting cast is notable because they were built up over such a long stretch of time, and then summarily jettisoned in 1999 when the Dan Jurgens/Louise Simonson era ended. Perry White's family, Bibbo and the other characters from Suicide Slum and the Bottle City characters introduced during the '90s all vanished abruptly never to return and characters like Emil Hamilton got thrust deep into the background overnight.
** One of the most popular features of Bill Messner-Loebs' run on ''Comicbook/TheFlash'' was the large supporting cast -- they even carried the book ''without Wally'' for a couple of issues. When Mark Waid took over, all of these characters except Linda Park faded into the distant background. Piper showed up sometimes, and Chunk got the occasional cameo, but the new "Flash family" that Waid proceeded to assemble replaced everyone else (including Wally's ''real'' family). Waid's run was [[MyRealDaddy wildly successful]], but longtime readers still regret the loss of those characters.
** In the 90s, ComicBook/LexLuthor was a prominent businessman who was ruthless but maintained occasional PetTheDog moments. Among these was the fact that he had an infant daughter named Lena Luthor, who he loved very deeply but nonetheless got roped into his life as a supervillain against his wishes. After 2004 though, Luthor became a MadScientist for a little while and with Dan Didio and Geoff Johns at the helm of the DC, his character was sent into a different direction. In the midst it all, Lena just disappeared and it was never explained what happened to her or where she is now, leaving ComicBook/{{Superboy}} as Lex Luthor's only biological child until ''ComicBook/{{Flashpoint}}''.
*** Her disappearance was eventually explained. As a result of the [[CosmicRetcon Cosmic Retcons]] that took place during ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'', Lena was {{Retcon}}ned into being Lex's younger sister (which she had been Pre-[[ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths COIE]]) rather than his child. Lena's daughter Lori subsequently became a prominent supporting character (and [[KissingCousins love interest]]) in ''ComicBook/{{Superboy}}'', at least until she was removed from existence in the ''next'' CosmicRetcon .
** Happens with ridiculous regularity in the ComicBook/XMen books, especially once Xavier's Institute became a full-fledged school with a student body beyond the active team members, only getting worse after the "Decimation" event reduced the mutant population to around 200 (prompting the X-Men to try to get literally every mutant on Earth to live at the X-Mansion and, later, Utopia). Whenever a new writer takes over, you can count on at least half the extended cast quietly vanishing. Sometimes a later writer will remember them and either mention where they got off to or reveal that they've been there all along never really doing anything.
** Dana Drake, the stepmother of Tim Drake, the third ComicBook/{{Robin}}, is a particularly {{egregious}} example. When Tim's father Jack was killed off in ''ComicBook/IdentityCrisis'', it was done so Tim could be tied more closely to Bruce, who would formally adopt him. The problem is, though, that Jack had remarried to Dana, who'd been a major supporting character all through Robin's own series. Dana would have a mental breakdown over Jack's death and be sent to a sanitarium to recover... In Bludhaven, which would soon be completely destroyed in ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis''. One could assume Dana died along with everybody else in Bludhaven, but it was never explicitly stated she did. Instead, she has simply never been mentioned again. Evidently, DC editors wanted to get rid of her, but realized having Tim {{Angst}} over losing both his father and stepmother in [[DeusAngstMachina 2 close together yet completely isolated incidents]] was too much [[EvenEvilHasStandards even for DC.]] She'd be a ForgottenFallenFriend except it was never confirmed she'd fallen. So instead, she's this trope.
** The Impulse supporting cast soon vanished after his book ended, most notably Bart Allen's best friend Preston and love interest Carol. Much to fans' displeasure, one line in Geoff Johns' ''Teen Titans'' had Bart suggest it was ComicBook/WonderGirl who got him to like girls, rather than mentioning Carol or even Arrowette (another crush of his). Bart's pet dog Dox was also never seen again or mentioned by any later writers.
** Holly Robinson was one of Comicbook/{{Catwoman}}'s prominent supporting cast members, even temporarily taking on the codename for an arc in the ''One Year Later'' era. However, after the "Countdown" event, Holly vanished and was never seen again in the Batman universe. A later throwaway line about the character suggests [[PutOnABus that she moved elsewhere after receiving a huge sum of stolen money from Hush's fortune]]. This is in no small part because of the sorry reputation her creator, Creator/FrankMiller, picked up over the years–the makers of ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'' even went so far as to create a similar character called Jen to avoid having to forward any money to Miller.
** In 2012, [[{{ComicBook/Batgirl2000}} Cassandra Cain]], [[{{ComicBook/Batgirl2009}} Stephanie Brown]], [[Franchise/TheFlash Wally West]] and [[ComicBook/WonderGirl Donna Troy]] [[http://www.theouthousers.com/index.php/news/20648-oped-the-toxicity-of-stephanie-brown.html were declared "toxic"]], subjecting them to this trope. The reasons? Wally's is the result of a LegacyImplosion, Donna had a ContinuitySnarl, and the higher-ups at DC [[ScrewedByTheNetwork just do not like]] Cassandra and Stephanie (not to mention the BrokenBase surrounding the two characters). This will probably last until PopularityPolynomial kicks in and a new group starts RunningTheAsylum.
* Due to his ContinuitySnarl, ComicBook/{{Hawkman}} was infamously declared "radioactive" in the late 90's and was subjected to this trope. Creator/GrantMorrison had to create a CaptainErsatz for his run on ''Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica''. Eventually he came back in ''ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica'' by Creator/GeoffJohns.
* Post-''Crisis'' ComicBook/WonderWoman's adoptive mother Julia Kapatelis. When GeorgePerez was removed from the series, she vanished for some time. Her daughter Vanessa would also disappear, until she was retooled as a new Silver Swan.
** This is pretty much true for most Wonder Woman characters not created by Perez or the original Golden Age creators. There are tons of love interests, supporting cast members and villains who simply never appeared again after their respective creator left the series. The few exceptions would be characters like Phillipus and Artemis, and even they seem to have been dropped as of the ComicBook/{{New 52}} revamp.
* A mid-story issue of the ''ComicBook/SuperMarioAdventures'' comic strip, which ran in Magazine/NintendoPower during 1992, featured this. Toad uses a Cape Feather to fly up to a pipe sticking out of a cloud (allegedly the one Mario and Luigi entered at the beginning of the story to unknowingly wind up in Dinosaur Land), and gets "help" - which is actually Bowser's Koopa Troop in disguise (the cloud was actually an airship of sorts in disguise). After the Princess gets kidnapped, Toad is shown being held hostage by two Koopas, delivers one line about the Koopas "taking control of the Mushroom Kingdom", and is then never seen or mentioned again for the remainder of the comic [[OffscreenInertia (So they just left Toad in the Koopa Castle dungeons?)]].
* In ''ComicBook/StrontiumDog'', as the series got progressively darker and more serious, [[PluckyComicRelief the Gronk]] just sort of faded away.
* In the ''Franchise/StarWars'': ''ComicBook/TalesOfTheJedi'' comics, main characters included Nomi and Vima Sunrider, the latter of which was going to be in ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic''. However, due to unclear trademark restrictions involving the name "Sunrider" (speculated to be from either a brand of convertible tops for Jeeps or some kind of corporation that makes herbal products, neither of which is very easy to mistake for a comic character), the characters stopped appearing at all in the Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse, aside from an accidental anecdote in the first KOTOR game and an item description that didn't mention the last name in the second. However, Lucasfilm Licensing has apparently gotten past the worst of it, and can now create products and media featuring the characters, provided the name "Sunrider" isn't mentioned on the external packaging, and a book about Nomi Sunrider was due out in 2011. (See [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Sunrider_naming_controversy Wookiepedia]].) For whatever reason, however, the book was cancelled.
* ''ComicBook/{{Blackhawk}}'': The early stories in the 1940s featured three squadron members named Zeg (Polish), Boris (Russian) and Baker (English). They all vanished without trace after their initial appearances.
** Boris DID return briefly in the short-lived mid-1970s revival.
* When the Franchise/{{Micronauts}} began appearing starting in 1996 issues of ''ComicBook/{{Cable}}'', not only was their reappearance due to a very apparent {{retcon}}, but no mention was made of Acroyear or Huntarr. Acroyear's absence is most likely due to the fact that Marvel no longer has the rights to any of the Micronaut characters derived from the old-school toyline. It doesn't explain why Huntarr is not there, as he was created by Marvel writer Creator/BillMantlo.
* Wayne's in Pain, a character put into The Bash Street Kids (a comic strip in the AnthologyComic ''ComicBook/TheBeano'') after a ''Series/BluePeter'' competition, disappeared after being in the strip for only a short while.
* One of the signs that ''ComicBook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesAdventures'' has dropped all pretense of being a RecursiveAdaptation of the [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987 original cartoon series]] was that Channel 6 and April's co-workers from the station disappeared without explanation; by the time April gets her own mini-series and we get an update on her job situation, she's being fired from her job at WRTL by her boss Murdoch Maxwell.
* ''ComicBook/TheMightyThor'': Remember Sigyn? Loki's ''wife'' (like in mythology)? Neither does anyone else, except as an AuthorAvatar in some Loki fanfics. Sigyn is presumed to have died in Ragnarok, but so did all the other Asgardians. Everybody else reincarnated, so the reincarnated Sigyn should be around somewhere. But nope, still no mention of her. See [[http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/sigynthor.htm here.]]
* A number of characters from the ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehog'' series have disappeared from the face of the Earth, especially if they weren't mainstream Sega-based characters or part of the Saturday Morning series. However, one bad example of this is Dulcy Dragon, a character from the second season of the Saturday Morning cartoon. She had a few roles up until issue 50 before appearing in a set of back stories along with Amy Rose. Beyond one last appearance in the early 100s, Dulcy has rarely, if ever, been seen again.
** However, Ian Flynn's run has revived a number of characters and pulled them out of this hole, including [[AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog Scratch, Grounder and Coconuts]], and obscure, early issue characters such as Larry Lynx and Harvey Who.
*** On the other hand, thanks to a heaping dose of ScrewedByTheLawyers, a large majority of the non-SEGA-approved characters (re: those created by former head writer Ken Penders) have disappeared due to CosmicRetcon. However, being what the comic is, the entire thing is lampshaded greatly.
* A side-effect of being such a LongRunner, ArchieComics have introduced several characters who never appeared after a few issues. Sometimes their absence is explainable, like the alien characters who have landed and vanished soon after. But then we have cases like Betty's older brother and sister, who have been recurring characters in ''Little Archie'' but are never mentioned in any of the teen or adult ''Archie'' stories.
* Wiccan of the YoungAvengers originally had two younger brothers, who have since fallen off the face of the earth.
** Marvel Boy ([[IHaveManynames formerly the Protector]]) had a girlfriend named Annie while he was a member of the Avengers. They had a very close relationship, and there were even some [[LeftHanging dangling plot threads]] concerning their relationship when [[Creator/BrianMichaelBendis Bendis]] left the book. Then came the second volume of ''Young Avengers'', where Marvel Boy was shown shacking up with Kate Bishop without even a single mention of Annie.
** This was eventually explained. Marvel Boy dumped Annie at some point between ''The Avengers'' and ''Young Avengers'', eventually leading to her [[spoiler:apparent]] return as an AxCrazy WomanScorned.
* DC attempted to retool the ''Hawk and Dove'' concept in the late '90s with a book starring two winged humans; an army brat named Sasha, and a laid-back rock musician named Wiley. Due to the InNameOnly nature of the characters and the lackluster reception, the two quickly vanished, not even to be brought out as cannon fodder in any events. For all intents and purposes, the two characters seemed to have never existed.
* Despite the fact that ''WesternAnimation/RobotechTheShadowChronicles'' occurs partially during the same timeframe as final episode of the original ''{{Anime/Robotech}}'' series, Rand, Rook, Lunk, Annie, and Lancer are not seen or mentioned at any time. In the ''Prelude to Shadow Chronicles'' prequel, several Sentinels characters are not mentioned at all, such as Burak and Invid defector Tesla, leaving both of their storylines unresolved (although they were resolved in the original Jack [=McKinney=] novelizations, they may have been retconned out given that Prelude presents a revised ending to ''The Sentinels'').
* ''ComicBook/{{Tomahawk}}'': After the ReTool that introduced the Rangers, Tomahawk's sidekick Dan Hunter popped up less and less frequently until he disappeared entirely without explanation.
* Echo, ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}'s former LoveInterest, was once a member of the ComicBook/NewAvengers briefly before disappearing, then briefly reappearing in ''ComicBook/SecretInvasion'', then disappearing again. This wasn't lost on writer Creator/BrianMichaelBendis, who had Spider-Man question where she was at one point and have her flip her shit at Luke Cage and Jessica Jones when she was poked to be Danielle Cage's babysitter.
-->"I was part of your $%&#$$* team, remember?!"
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Fan Works]]
* In Fanfic/PrisonIslandBreak, numerous unnecessary but otherwise interesting characters have died rather awesomely. But the author regretted the presence of Nate Morgan so much that she didn't even give him a last-day-on-the-job scene. Anybody remember Nate Morgan? Of course not.
* In Fanfic/{{the Calvinverse}}, we have Bob, Retro's CowardlySidekick who first appeared in ''Fanfic/TroubleIsland'' and gets a much larger role in ''Fanfic/RetroChill'', where he's shown to be an {{adorkable}} ShrinkingViolet who later [[HeelFaceTurn turns to the heroes' side]] after seeing how badly Retro and his companions treated him. Oddly, after this he ends up being forgotten, despite being a fairly interesting character.
* Inquerius seems to have disappeared completely after the first story in ''FanFic/MyLittleUnicorn''. Explained in the Website/DeviantART version that she retired after the end of Season 1.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Film]]
* Predating Chuck by nearly half a century, Joan Hardy (Julie Haydon) appears as a member of the Hardy family in the first Andy Hardy movie, ''Film/AFamilyAffair'' in 1937, and plays a bigger role in the plot than Andy. She disappears without explanation for the remainder of the long-running movie series.
* In the Disney movie ''WesternAnimation/AGoofyMovie'', Roxanne is shown to be Goofy's son Max's love interest. In the sequel, ''WesternAnimation/AnExtremelyGoofyMovie'', Roxanne and her best friend Stacey (Max's friend Bobby's love interest) never appear and are not mentioned, despite all the trouble Max went on that summer. Roxanne ''does'' appear in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/HouseOfMouse'', though. Meanwhile, ''WesternAnimation/AGoofyMovie'' itself removed Pete's wife, Peg and PJ's sister, Pistol along with both the family pets, Chainsaw and Waffles, from ''WesternAnimation/GoofTroop'', without even a passing mention of any of them in either movie, and with a line in the sequel that explicitly proves Pistol's not around anymore.
* In the sequel of the 2007 ''Film/{{Transformers}}'', ''Film/TransformersRevengeOfTheFallen'', the Autobot twins, Skids and Mudflap have this happen. After the fight with Devastator, you don't see them again for the rest of the film. They don't even return in ''Dark of the Moon''. This is because everyone, including Creator/MichaelBay [[CreatorBacklash himself]], hated them, considering them unfunny [[EthnicScrappy stereotypes of African Americans]].
** They do return in the comic adaptation and novelization for "Dark of the Moon"...and get killed alongside Ironhide.
* The original ''WesternAnimation/TransformersTheMovie'' does this to some of the surviving cast members up to that point, as nearly anyone who didn't die or was implicitly shown to have survived is never mentioned again.
** Shortly after Unicron transforms Megatron into Galvatron, Skywarp and Bombshell are transformed into the identical "Cyclonus and his Armada", however, the "Armada" (which is just one guy) is never seen or mentioned after this scene. It is disputed who got reformatted into Cyclonus and who into the Armada. Bombshell is the one shown in front and Skywarp further at the back so it is considered that Bombshell got formatted into Cyclonus however. Skywarp is the major character and much more loyal to Megatron (Bombshell and the other insecticons consider them seperate from the other Decepticons) and has the personality of becoming Galvatron's/Megatron's new NumberTwo.
** If you look closely, whenever Snarl is present, one of the other Dinobots is missing. And the script even refers to "the four Dinobots". It's like the entire production team thought there were only four of them and couldn't decide which four there were.
* ''Film/XMen'':
** Nightcrawler was a major character and love interest for Storm in ''Film/X2XMenUnited'', but didn't even appear in ''Film/XMenTheLastStand'' because actor Alan Cumming found the make-up and prosthetic process grueling and refused to return to it without Creator/BryanSinger. Cumming can be seen in the behind-the-scenes footage for ''X2'' already stating that he never wants to go through the ordeal again. The video game based on the films which takes place between the two movies explains that Nightcrawler, a peaceful man, went abroad to distance himself from the X-Men's violent lifestyle.
** Poor Riptide. He goes from NoNameGiven in [[Film/XMenFirstClass the previous film]] to not even earning a mention in ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast''. Particularly notable since Erik takes the time to list all the characters not in this movie because they died in between films. Though it can easily be assumed that Trask killed Riptide along with the others, he still goes unmentioned.
* In the MarvelCinematicUniverse, Betty Ross was Bruce Banner's love interest and a major character in ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk''. She hasn't been seen or mentioned since, and Bruce is instead shown dating Comicbook/BlackWidow in ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron''. Even her Dad's got [[TheBusCameBack a bus ticket back]] for ''CaptainAmericaCivilWar''.
* ''Film/DrDolittle'': Rodney the guinea pig is nowhere to be found come the sequel, probably because his voice actor, Creator/ChrisRock, declined to return. While Rodney may likely have died of age by ''Dr. Dolittle 2'', this is never addressed at any point.
* In the early ''Film/OlsenBanden'' movies, Kjeld and Yvonne had two children: A son Børge and a smaller daughter. As the series went on Børge became an important regular while his sister vanished into thin air.
** At least in the Norwegian versions, Kjell had two sons and a baby daughter in the first movie, and while the middle son Basse becomes a regular character, the other two have disappeared completely by the second one. Likewise, Benny ends up fathering a kid during the first movie, but both kid and fiance are never again referred to, and the only supporting cast member to reappear is Hansen the bartender. After movie 2, he's gone too.
* In the animated version of ''Literature/CharlottesWeb'' Jeffrey the gosling, Wilbur's best friend besides Charlotte, is never seen again after he attempts to join Wilbur, Charlotte, and Templeton in the crate and is taken out.
* Anamaria is never seen or heard from again after the first ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' movie. Interestingly, the cast was told in ''Dead Man's Chest'' that Anamaria ''would'' appear at the ending of the film, so the shock and surprise of [[BackFromTheDead Captain Barbossa]] greeting them was [[EnforcedMethodActing genuine]].
* John Tate and Molly Cartwell were last seen "driving down to the Becker's" at the end of ''Film/HalloweenH20TwentyYearsLater'', and are nowhere to be found or mentioned in ''Film/HalloweenResurrection''. And we will almost certainly never know, as the series producer suffered AuthorExistenceFailure, then Rob Zombie [[Film/{{Halloween 2007}} rebooted the series]].
* In Creator/JackieChan's ''MrNiceGuy'', whatever happened to Tara and Diana? The latter was last seen getting punched in the face by one of the bad guys, but we can't tell whether she was killed.
* Pyramid Head was a pretty major villain for the first half of the ''Film/SilentHill'' movie. Then he kills off a side character, goes away, and is never seen or mentioned again for the rest of the film. Interestingly, the originally planned ending [[WhatCouldHaveBeen had six Pyramid Heads come back at the end and butcher most of the characters]], but they ran out of money and just had the [[CreepyChild little girl]] do it.
* In ''Disney/PocahontasIIJourneyToANewWorld,'' Thomas and Wiggins do not appear
* In ''Film/TheNeverEndingStory III'', Atreyu -- who the co-protagonist of the first film and a major character as Bastian's best friend in the second -- is nowhere to be seen. The very noticeable actor changes for both Atreyu and Bastian between each film create a lot of dissonance anyway.
* ''Film/AmericanPie'' and ''Film/AmericanPie2'' center around four friends; Jim, Kevin, Finch, and Oz. In ''Film/AmericanWedding'', Oz is completely left out. You'd think they'd at least mention why one of Jim's best friends didn't attend his wedding. He returns for Reunion though.
* In ''Film/EddieAndTheCruisers'', Frank Ridgeway plays a key role in the band and the story. When the sequel comes out, there's no mention of Ridgeway at all. They even go so far as to replace Frank's image with Sal in recycled footage from the first film.
* At the end of ''Film/LegallyBlonde'', Elle becomes best friends with [[spoiler: Vivian Kensington, her rival for her boyfriend]]. However, in the sequel, [[spoiler: Vivian]] is never even mentioned.
* In ''Film/{{Halloweentown}},'' Luke was a fairly important character, and he became even more important in the first sequel. He disappears completely in the third and fourth films, just in time for Marnie to get a cuter, human LoveInterest instead.
* In ''Film/WeekendAtBernies II'', Catherine Mary Stewart's character disappears without a mention, even after one of the heroes spent the entire first movie romantically obsessing over her.
* ''Disney/TheLionKingIISimbasPride'':
** Sarabi, Simba's own mother, is never seen and no dialogue mentions her. Apparently, Sarabi's voice actress died before the sequel was made, [[TheCharacterDiedWithHim and it's possible a replacement could not be found.]]
** Shenzi, Banzai and Ed failed to appear as well, although they are mentioned to have fled from Pride Lands following the first film. They also made several appearences in the 1995 TimonAndPumbaa series.
* In the DirectToVideo sequels to ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail'', Bridget, the love interest of Fievel's older friend Tony Toponi, vanishes without even a mention and Tony starts lusting after other women. This could possibly be because Bridget's voice actress was terminally ill when the movies were made and died soon after (for their faults, the 3rd and 4th films did manage to get most of the original voice talents from the first two movies). It could also have been because the writers wanted Tony to be single so he could interact with Fievel more.
* In ''Film/BatmanReturns'', Catwoman, Batman's love interest and villain throughout most of the movie, is last seen on the roof of a building before the movie ends, and is never seen again in the two subsequent films (and is only mentioned once, and in a subtle way, when Chase Meridian says "Or do I need skintight vinyl and a whip?"). Michelle Pfeiffer was meant to get her own film as Catwoman, but the project fell into DevelopmentHell and eventually [[Film.{{Catwoman}} crawled out in 2004 with Halle Berry as the star]] and nothing to do with the Burton films.
** According to Batman Wikia, Catwoman was suppose to appear in the then planned second sequel directed by Tim Burton, but Warner Bros considered Burton’s dark toned-movies to be difficult to sell to young audiences, so the project was then passed to Schumacher. We know what happened.
* ''Film/HarryPotter''
** Crabbe disappears from ''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2'', when he always appeared alongside Goyle in all of the first six films. Although the filmmakers had a [[AbsenteeActor reason]] for cutting him out [[RoleEndingMisdemeanor (his actor was arrested for drug possession)]], no mention is given to him at all, Harry never asks where he is, and Malfoy doesn't seem to notice, as he specifically gets Goyle and Blaise Zabini (another Slytherin ally in the books) when he Apparates into the dungeons. [[spoiler: Crabbe was supposed to die in this movie too, but due to the character omission they killed off Goyle instead.]]
** Parvati Patil, who does not appear alongside Padma in the last film (who was seen less in the series than Parvati).
** Viktor Krum, Cornelius Fudge and Buckbeak, among others. While they're not exactly main characters in the books after their main plotlines end, they do appear in later books. In the films, on the other hand, they're not even mentioned after they've gone.
** Some of the Hogwarts ghosts didn't make it past the first film. Nearly Headless Nick managed to stick around a little bit longer and was last seen in the second film. Moaning Myrtle disappears after the fourth film. Colin Creevey has a sizable role in the second film and is then never seen again. He's sort-of replaced by CanonForeigner Nigel. Madam Hooch is only in the first movie (this was due to a conflict with the actor). The Fat Lady is never seen after the third movie and that appearance was a case of TheOtherDarrin.
*** What's particularly odd about the Colin/Nigel situation is that when there are pictures of Nigel in companion media, he's often referred to as 'Colin Creevey'.
*** The entirety of Slytherin house with the exception of Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle might as well be extras as far as the movies are concerned, Viktor Krum can be assumed to just be back home as far as the movies are concerned, Rita Skeeter was important in one scene and can be assumed to be getting on with her career. Played straight with Fudge and Buckbeak though.
** Barty Crouch Jr. who was SparedByTheAdaptation, yet never appears in any of the later movies. In the book, he got his soul sucked out by the Dementor's Kiss. The film merely states he will be sent back to Azkaban. In later movies, Voldemort frees all of the Death Eaters from Azkaban yet Crouch Jr. never appears alongside any of them. True ChuckCunninghamSyndrome indeed.
* ''Film/{{Blade}}'' gave us Karen Jenson, a haematologist who develops a biochemical weapon against vampires and even finds a freakin' cure for vampirism. The movie ends on the note that, if she wants to be useful, she'll have to make Blade a better serum to suppress his bloodthirst. She never shows up or is mentioned in the sequels, but Blade doesn't have any serum-related problems (so presumably she did make him a better one), and other characters are mentioned as being cured of vampirism.
* In the first ''Film/MenInBlack'' movie we're told that K was in love with his old girlfriend throughout his career and his original partner was D. In the third movie, J time travels back to the early years of K's career. K is shown to be romantically interested in O and there's no mention of his old girlfriend or D.
* In ''Film/HighSchoolMusical'', during the "Stick to the Status Quo" musical number, three characters decide to follow after Troy and confess their HiddenDepths: a member of the school's basketball team bakes, a smart girl dances hip-hop, and a skater boy plays the cello. While the first two, Zeke Baylor and Martha Cox, become major supporting characters, the skater boy is never seen or mentioned again once the song is done.
* ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'': Due to [[HeathLedger Heath Ledger's]] [[TheCharacterDiedWithHim death]], the Joker is not released by Bane with all of Gotham's other prisoners. People are [[LiesDamnedLiesAndStatistics 90%]] certain that he would have played Scarecrow's role in the plot, were the actor still alive.
** The {{Novelization}} explains that he is kept in the otherwise abandoned Arkham Asylum, its sole inmate, and Bane never got around to releasing him.
* The ''Film/PoliceAcademy'' franchise has a nasty case of the syndrome with characters disappearing between each of the sequels:
** ''Their First Assignment'': Cadet Leslie Barbara, Cadet Karen Thompson, and Cadet George Martín.
** ''Back in Training'': Capt. Pete Lassard and Sgt. Vinnie Schtulman.
** ''Citizens on Patrol'': Cmdnt. Mauser, Sgt. Kyle Blankes, Mrs. Fackler, Cadet Hedges, and Cadet Karen Adams.
** ''Assignment Miami Beach'': Sgt. Carey Mahoney, Officer Tomoko Nogata, Sgt. Chad Copeland, Officer Sweetchuck, Officer Zed, Officer Bud Kirkland, and Sgt. Kathleen Kirkland Tackleberry.
** ''City Under Siege'': Officer Tommy "House" Conklin.
** ''Mission to Moscow'': Sgt. Nick Lassard, Sgt. Laverne Hooks, Sgt. Douglas Fackler, Lt. Proctor, Lt. Moses Hightower, and Commissioner Henry Hurst.
* ''ScaryMovie'': Shorty and Ray are completely absent in the third film onwards, having prominently been there for the first two.
* Bernard is absent in ''Film/TheSantaClause 3'' and no one mentions him at all. This is particularly noticeable because he was in a high position of authority in the previous movies.
** David Krumholtzr was too busy with the TV show NUMB3RS and couldn't appear. He is in the Novelization, however.
* ''Film/OurDailyBread'' was Creator/KingVidor's sequel to his silent film masterpiece ''Film/TheCrowd''. John and Mary Sims return, but their son is nowhere to be seen.
* In ''Film/{{Shrek}}'', the second film introduces six dronkeys, one of which is red and doesn't breathe fire. Unlike the other five, this red dronkey does not appear in ''Shrek the Third'' or ''Shrek Forever After''.
* Lori from ''Film/{{Ted}}'' was built up as John's major love interest and motivation for him to grow up. In the sequel, they've apparently divorced after only 6 months of marriage and John is now chasing his attorney, who just so happens to be [[SatelliteLoveInterest an attractive young woman who doesn't try to change him]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Literature]]
* ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'': The wart-faced man from Count Olaf's troupe disappears after the 1st book and is never mentioned again. He also didn't reappear in the movie that was made 5 years later.
* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'': Hey, remember Mertil, the Andalite that had also survived Elfangor's ship's crash and had been living on Earth for the entire war? Remember how he was found by the kids and decided to remain in hiding? Or maybe you don't, because he was only in one book. Having another Andalite on board would've been very useful for the kids. ''Even if'' Mertil didn't join the kids for his own reasons, it would've been nice for him to get another mention, seeing as an Andalite war hero living on Earth is kind of a big deal.
* In "Cheaper By the Dozen", Mary, the second eldest child dies at age 6. This isn't mentioned in the book. She simply stops appearing.
* In ''Literature/TheBabySittersClub'', this was the eventual fate of most of the girls' non-club friends, fuelling speculation that the girls were disturbingly cult-like...The major exceptions are Laine Cummings, Stacey's on-again, off-again best friend from New York, and Sunny Winslow, Dawn's TroubledButCute best friend from California. But Sunny started her own baby-sitting club, anyway, so she doesn't really count.
* ''Literature/DonQuixote'': In Chapter I, Part I, Cervantes mentions the people who lived in Don Quixote’s house: his niece, his housekeeper and a lad who helps them with the field and the marketplace... we'll never see or hear anything about that lad again. Obviously, Cervantes had completely forgotten about this character, and didn't want to write him even in the Second Part of the novel, but in his defense, one of Don Quixote's themes is about how silly it is to detect errors of continuity in a silly fictional tale...
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
** In the early novels the Unseen University had a [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder different Archchancellor every book]], with the previous Archchancellor never getting a mention. As the position appears to be held for life and the KlingonPromotion nature of [[Characters/DiscworldWizards Discworld wizardry]] was established early on it can be safely assumed [[KillEmAll why they are missing]], but it is still a little strange and irritating that a major character like Cutangle (from ''Discworld/EqualRites'') vanishes without a word. This ceases to be an issue after the appointment of Mustrum Ridcully in ''Discworld/MovingPictures'', as he proves henceforth to be unremovable.
** Anges Nitt disappears after ''Discworld/CarpeJugulum''. When the Lancre coven appears at the end of ''Discworld/TheWeeFreeMen'', it's just Granny and Nanny, and even when later Tiffany books feature ''all the witches'' (the Trials in ''Discworld/AHatFullOfSky'', the Going Away Party in ''Discworld/{{Wintersmith}}'') she doesn't get a mention. ''Discworld/TheShepherdsCrown'' finally establishes that she returned to her musical career.
* Near the end of ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'' Victor notes that, with his wife, baby brother and best friend murdered and his father dead from grief, he has lost every important person left in his life. ...Except wait, didn't he have another brother named Ernest? Did the monster get him too?
* Rifleman, Stile's ally and mentor in the ways of Citizenship in the first ''Literature/ApprenticeAdept'' trilogy. When the second trilogy starts up, he's nowhere to be found or mentioned.
* Tobias Gregson, the only member of the main cast from the first Franchise/SherlockHolmes story, ''A Study in Scarlet'', to never become a regular. There are mentions of "Gregsons" in later stories, but they are very few, only sharp eyes will catch them, and there is no indication that any of them refer to Tobias.
* ''Literature/ArtemisFowl''
** Doodah Day. At the end of ''Lost Colony'', he is mentioned as having started working as a private detective along with Mulch Diggums. ''The Time Paradox'' takes place mostly in the past, so it's understandable that he wouldn't appear, but Mulch is actively involved in ''The Atlantis Complex'' and not only does he not seem to be working as a detective, there is absolutely ''no mention'' of what Doodah is doing.
** Minerva Paradizo. At the end of book 5, she is stated to have spent 3 years obsessing over Artemis, waiting for him to return, and she was set up as a very obvious LoveInterest. Two books later, and she hasn't been mentioned once since then.
* Footfall by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle: the character of Bob Anson, a thinly disguised avatar of Robert Heinlein, who was a member of the Threat Team (a group of SF authors including avatars of the authors of the work), vanishes without explanation from the team halfway through the novel.
* The 19th-century penny dreadful ''Literature/VarneyTheVampire'' began with three children in the Bannerworth family -- Henry, Flora, and George -- but George is never mentioned again after Chapter 36.
* The Literature/SisterhoodSeries by Creator/FernMichaels: This has happened to some characters. Private Detective (former FBI agent) Mark Lane seems to pretty much vanish off the face of the Earth by the book ''Final Justice''. It might be due to the fact that he acts as a source of information for Jack Emery, who by then is getting information before Lane does, and Jack doesn't really need him anymore!
* There were two sequels to ''Literature/HarrietTheSpy''. Sport and Janie, Harriet's best friends, get not a single mention in either of them.
* As the ''[[Literature/TheMoomins Moomintroll]]'' series progresses, the Moomins keep acquiring new house-guests, until the second-to-last novel ''Moominpappa at Sea'', where, with the exception of Little My, they all vanish without a word. Particularly jarring is the Snork Maiden, who up until this point has been Mooomintroll's G-rated love interest.
* Happens to the wizard Radagast the Brown in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''. Messengers are sent to his house mid-way through the first book, but find it deserted. His absence is never explained, and he is never mentioned again. When asked about this in a letter, Tolkien said that even he [[ShrugOfGod wasn't sure of Radagast's fate]].
* In ''{{Remnants}},'' D-Caf suffers a WhatHaveIDone moment after [[spoiler:[[AccidentalMurder accidentally killing]] Anamull]] in the fourth-to-last book and swears that he'll never [[spoiler:release his worms]] again. Well, it would have been hard for him to--he's never mentioned in the rest of the series, even in the DistantFinale when just about every surviving character got a throwaway reference.
* Happens a lot in Robert Jordan's ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'', even to major characters. Characters like Lan and Thom disappear for whole books at a time, or come back for no real purpose and don't get much page-time. Of course, with a series that has [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters so many characters]], this is not entirely unexpected.
* In ''Literature/TheGreatGatsby'', Tom and Daisy have a child, but most of the novel takes place with one or both of them outside of the house, and no mention of their daughter after she's been introduced. Brilliantly parodied in ''Webcomic/HarkAVagrant'':
-->'''Tom:''' "Daisy! Where is our daughter?"
-->'''Daisy:''' "Huh?"
-->'''Tom:''' "Our baby."
-->'''Daisy:''' "[[http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=259 What baby?]]"
* Clawface in ''Literature/WarriorCats'' is mentioned to have [[spoiler:gone to the Dark Forest after his death]], but is nowhere to be found during the plot with [[spoiler:The Dark Forest plotting to take over the Clans]] in ''Literature/WarriorCatsOmenOfTheStars''. He ''does'' appear in Tigerclaw's Fury, but he [[ContinuitySnarl isn't even supposed to be in that one]] considering [[spoiler: he died before Tigerclaw was exiled.]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action TV]]
* ''Series/TwentyFour'' generally has no qualms about having characters cease to exist once their purpose has been served, even though its high body count means you'd think someone could spare a ''bullet'' for any of them. Worse, many of them were last seen in situations where death is likely but not a given. In some circles, this is called "Behroozing," after Behrooz Araz, a character who vanished in such a manner.[[labelnote:*]]Two completely different scenes were filmed to wrap up his storyline, one right after his last episode and one in the season finale, but both were cut for time.[[/labelnote]] Most notably:
** The unnamed Eastern European assassin from the first half of season 1, who pretends to be an American photographer named Martin Belkin. The assassin plays a major role in the first half of the season, as he gets a face transplant and attempts to kill Palmer at a rally in downtown Los Angeles. After he is foiled by Jack Bauer, he flees and is never seen again (even though the other assassin hired to off Palmer, Mandy, is seen in several more episodes in different seasons afterwards).
** Lynne Kresge (an assistant to President Palmer) is pushed down a flight of stairs late in the second season. Even though she's badly injured, she doesn't seem to be in danger of dying (and she's loaded into an ambulance, knowing damaging information about Mike Novick). Strangely, she's never referenced again, even when Palmer returns to the White House and talks at length with Novick.
** John Keeler and Wayne Palmer both exited the show this way. While a reference to Wayne dying is made in a prop newspaper from ''Redemption'' (albeit, never shown on-screen), Keeler is never mentioned again after being listed in critical condition after Air Force One crashes. This actually has a justification--the writers were [[ExecutiveMeddling explicitly told that they weren't allowed]] to kill off a sitting president on-screen. Presumably since Daniels had already taken over and served out the rest of Wayne's term, it was okay for them to let it be known that Wayne was dead, and David Palmer's death happened long after he left office. [[spoiler:This may not have been restricted to United States presidents, either. In Season 8, Omar Hassan, the president of [[{{Qurac}} a fictional Middle Eastern nation]], is killed, but his death is not actually shown on screen; while CTU is trying to rescue him, the internet video feed that the terrorists have set up is shown, and then when Jack gets there and finds Hassan's dead body and realizes that the video was pre-taped, we aren't shown the conclusion.]]
** Karen Hayes, the wife of long running character Bill Buchanan, who is sort of put on a bus with her husband at the end of Season 6 as they are both forced to resign. However, Bill is a main character for most of Season 7 and his wife is never mentioned [[spoiler: not even after his death.]] Her not being mentioned is partly justified in that Bill spent most of his time in the field where there was less time for chit-chat than when he co-ordinated from CTU. This was due to actress Jayne Atkinson doing a play when the season was being filmed.
** Daniel Dae Kim played a field agent in the first few seasons that was one of Jack's earliest field partners over the course of the show. In the second half of season 3 he worked with Jack and Chase in their attempt to capture that season's BigBad Stephen Saunders, but after a botched attempt he completely disappeared and was never seen or heard from again, thanks in part to Kim moving over to ''Series/{{Lost}}'' right around the time those episodes aired.
* ''Series/TheFortyFourHundred'':
** Dennis Ryland was a prominent character for the first three seasons of the show (though he did experience a brief absence), first as the head of NTAC, then as a notably more antagonistic character in a higher level of government. However, he disappeared entirely, and without explanation, for the show's fourth and final season, with only a single, fleeting reference being made to him as one of the people who exploited Isabelle Tyler. This despite the fact that the project he was working on (the development of promicin-enhanced soldiers) was at its height at the end of the third season.
** Similarly, Nina Jarvis, the head of NTAC for the second and third seasons, disappeared with no further mention in the fourth season, her role being filled by new character Meghan Doyle. It can be presumed she quit, though no explanation is given.
** Then there's Diana's boyfriend, Ben, introduced near the end of the third season and disappearing mid-way through the fourth with no further mention. The implication is that they broke up, though this is quite surprising considering how well they'd been doing as a couple... and the fact that this contradicts one of [[spoiler:Maia]]'s infallible prophecies.
* In ''Series/AllMyChildren'', a teen named Bobby Martin went up to his family's attic to wax his skis in a 1970's episode. The actor was then abruptly fired and so Bobby was never seen again. Decades later, the show [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] this by having a character go into the same attic and find a skeleton with a pair of skis, wearing a ski hat with "Bobby" on it - a comedic example of a BusCrash.
* ''Series/TheAndyGriffithShow'' had Jack Burns' character of Warren Ferguson, who was brought in to replace Barney Fife as Mayberry's overzealous deputy. He lasted one season before being quietly dropped from the show and never mentioned again. (Even the '80s [[ReunionShow Reunion Movie]] forgot about him.) Another example would be Ellie Walker, the town pharmacist and Andy's first-season girlfriend.
* ''Series/{{Angel}}'' and Detective Kate Lockley, Angel's AgentMulder-esque contact with the LAPD. She made her last appearance fairly early in the series, when she hit a DespairEventHorizon and was barely saved from a suicide attempt by Angel, and completely vanished from the story after that (despite it being implied there was some larger importance to Angel saving her, since he was miraculously able to enter her home [[MustBeInvited uninvited]]), [[RealLifeWritesThePlot partly because the actress moved on]] to ''Series/LawAndOrder'' and partly because the show had already begun to drop the idea of Angel as an OccultDetective who'd need to work with the police in favor of a broader UrbanFantasy story. She did return, though, in the [[ComicBook/AngelIDW comic-book series]] that continued the storyline after the show ended.
* ''Series/AreYouBeingServed'' had a few regular characters vanish without mention, with the most memorable being [[ActorExistenceFailure Mr. Grainger]] and Mr. Lucas (actor left to pursue other interests).
* In ''Series/BabylonFive'', G'Kar's assistant Na'Toth only appeared twice in the second season (after an unsuccessful [[TheOtherDarrin recasting]] and didn't appear at all in that season's second half. A third season episode mentioned that she'd been on Narn when [[spoiler:the planet was bombed into submission by the Centauri]] and was presumed dead. Finally in an season 5 she [[CommutingOnABus reappeared for one episode]] as a P.O.W. on Centauri Prime and was sneaked onto a transport home. Interestingly, G'Kar's first assistant Ko'Dath also disappeared off-screen (though this was explicitly mentioned on screen as death due to an "[[BusCrash unfortunate airlock accident]]"). Is it any wonder why G'Kar becomes something of a loner for most of the series?
* ''Series/BarneyMiller'' dropped detectives with little or no explanation. One notable example was Eric Dorsey, the abrasive newcomer introduced in the last season. When they knew for certain it ''was'' the last season he was dropped in the buildup to the SeriesFinale.
* In ''Series/BattlestarGalactica1978'', Commander Adama's daughter/Apollo's sister Athena vanishes without explanation after the episode "Greetings from Earth: Part I."
* ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'':
** Boxey completely vanished without explanation after a relatively prominent role in the [[FiveEpisodePilot miniseries]] and a smaller scene in one regular episode. He was meant to be a kid that the pilots had adopted, but the writers couldn't come up with uses for his character. It could be justified as Commander Adama may have decided that a military ship in a time of war was no place for a child and [[PutOnABus sent him to live with a foster family in The Fleet]]. It should be noted that he was featured in several episodes in Season One, but all of his scenes were cut out due to timing constraints or pacing.
** His photo does appear on the Wall of Remembrance in later seasons, implying his death sometime between Ragnar Anchorage and Earth. It gets expanded upon in one of the tie-in novels, which has him living in fosterage in the fleet, and getting fatally shot helping Helo and Starbuck stop an attack by an apocalyptic religious cult in the fleet (the novel also pins down his death as occurring during Commander Fisk's tenure in command of the ''Pegasus'').
** Prominent Quorum members such as Marshall Bagot and Sarah Porter simply disappear after the Second Season. It is possible that they died during the explosion of Cloud Nine or the Cylon Occupation or were simply not voted back into office in the new administration and thus lost their relevance, but it is never addressed.
** Another character, Bulldog, was given an entire episode's focus when he was introduced, then was never heard from or mentioned again. The story is that he was intended to be a recurring character afterwards, but the actor playing him couldn't work out his schedule to fit the show. WordOfGod says in the podcast for Bulldog's lone episode, "Hero", that they decided to wrap up the character's arc within a single episode because Creator/CarlLumbly was an "expensive actor".
* ''Series/{{Becker}}'': Bob was said to be "on vacation" in the first episode of Season 6, and never returned.
* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'':
** New upstairs neighbor Alicia, the driving force behind a season two episode, was never seen or heard from again after that one episode. One assumes she still lives upstairs, though (unless Sheldon managed to get her evicted for being too noisy). It's noted in-show that Alicia gets a part on a TV show, so it's possible she moved on, as well.
** Similarly, Leonard gets a love interest, Dr. Stephanie Barnett (Sara Rue) in Season 2. Fearing they're moving too fast, he tries to break up, but she keeps luring him back with sex. At the end of their third episode, he heads off for another booty call. Presumably he grew a spine between that and the next episode, when she's just gone.
** In Season 6, the character Stuart disapears rather abruptly during a party at his comicbook shop, to be replaced by a new love interest for Raj. Stewert is not even mentioned again for the rest of the season, which is especially odd given he was living in Raj's spare bedroom. He reappears a few times after that as of season 7, but no mention is made of his and Raj's living arrangements. A better example is Leslie Winkle, who was more or less written off the show after season 3, when the writers couldn't give her enough to do and Sara Gilbert was committed to her own show.
* ''The Big Valley'', in addition to the four siblings who were series regulars (Audra, Heath, Jarrod, and Nick), had a fifth Barkley sibling in the first season, youngest brother Eugene (played by Charles Briles). Eugene only appeared in a few episodes and then went off to medical school. He returned home one time and then disappeared from the show.
* Percy, of ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'' fame, was completely excised from canon. Tim [=McInnerny=], who played Percy in the first two series, didn't want to be typecast playing a buffoon, so he played different characters (Topper in Series 3 and Darling for all other appearances) afterward, and Percy was subsequently replaced in the show's main ComicTrio by George. His lack of appearances after series two can be justified at least due to the fact that each series takes place in a different time period, and one can assume that the Percy of Series 2 never had any descendents. Not as much for specials that harken back to the timeline pre-Series 3 however, which don't have him get a single mention or appearance even though other returning characters have.
** It's likely that Percy of series 2 became infertile, when he unsuccessfully tried to create gold, thus explaining why he didn't have any future kin. It's still a mystery why he didn't appear in the specials though, given that series 2 was incredibly popular, and Queenie, Melchett and Nursie are there.
* ''Series/TheBobNewhartShow'' had Margaret Hoover, a neighbor in the Hartleys' apartment building and friend of Emily's. She appeared in a handful of first-season episodes before being quietly dropped.
* ''Series/{{Bones}}'':
** During the first season, Jonathan Adams plays Dr. Goodman, the head of the Jeffersonian Institute, who is Bones's direct superior and takes an active role in many of the cases. In the first episode of season two, Cam is head of forensics, and Goodman is said to be on a "two month sabbatical"; four years later, he's yet to be seen or mentioned again. (WordOfGod is that he may eventually pop up in guest appearances, however.)
** This trope was even applied retroactively, as Dr. Goodman is never even mentioned during a flashback episode set before the pilot.
** This also happens with a restaurant owner, including ''the restaurant''. In the first season, the main characters frequent a restaurant where the quirky owner knows better than you want you want/need, so it's better to not order and just let him bring you whatever he feels is best, but in season 2 they suddenly start going to a diner instead and the restaurant is never mentioned again. Of course, they could have just decided they liked the diner better, but the switch is never explained in any way, even though Booth seemed to be on quite friendly terms with the owner of the restaurant.
*** Early episodes offer a possible explanation: the owner complained about the Squints bringing photos of crime scenes and bodies to the restaurant with the threat of not allowing them back if they kept it up. However, there was nothing confirming this as the reason they stopped going.
* ''Series/BoyMeetsWorld'':
** In one early episode, we see Topanga's older sister, Nebula. She is never referred to again and indeed Topanga is later stated to be an only child. However, this is back when Topanga was going through her CloudCuckoolander phase, and this makes her word a bit unreliable. Nebula could be anything from a "soul sister" in the hippie sense or just a friend she calls a sister.
** In earlier seasons, Shawn had at least two siblings before Jack came into the picture. There was an older brother who Cory caught stealing or something on video, and an older sister he called after Cory had him help straighten his hair. However, because these people are rather scummy, it makes sense that they would not appear again. Then comes the matter of [[spoiler: Shawn's mother revealing she did not give birth to him]] and one wonders if they were his brothers in the first place.
** Minkus, a recurring character from the first season, also disappears without a trace. Later, when the show became more meta, they had him return for their high school graduation, pointing off-stage and saying that all his classes had been [[TwoTeacherSchool down the other hallway]]. The kids wave down the hall, shouting hello to their old teacher Mr. Turner, who had ''also'' been Chucked. (Ironically, the actor playing Minkus was one of the three ''Torkelsons'' to survive the ReTool into ''Almost Home''). None of this stopped Minkus's son from getting into GirlMeetsWorld, though.
** Cory's sister, Morgan, almost got the Chuck treatment. She disappears entirely at the end of season 2. Her character is brought back in the middle of season 3 (as a different actress), and remarks, on her first appearance, "That was the longest time out I've ever had!"
* ''Series/TheBradyBunch'':
** Tiger, the family dog. This got a LampshadeHanging in ''[[TheFilmOfTheSeries The Brady Bunch Movie]]''. (A case of Actor Existence Failure according to Barry Williams; the dog was run over by a car early in the first season.)
** For that matter, the girls' cat, Fluffy, didn't make it past the pilot episode.
* When ''Series/BreakingIn'' was ([[ShortRunners briefly]]) UnCancelled, team member [[MasterOfDisguise Josh]] vanished without explanation. There was a minor handwave for another major character who was ''not'' technically a team member, [[RomanticFalseLead Dutch]], disappearing at the same time.
* ''Series/TheBrittasEmpire'':
** The first series features pretty secretary Angie as a main character in all episodes. She vanishes without a trace from series 2 onwards, replaced with a brand new secretary, Julie, who is merrily treated as if she's been there since the beginning by all the other staff.
** Of course, the whole thing did [[spoiler: turn out to be a dream]], so...
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':
** The First Evil wasn't destroyed or trapped or anything like that, and is presumably still around, doing...whatever it does when it's not tormenting the good guys. Justified as it only had a very small window of becoming corporeal due to Buffy's resurrection and other events, and its army of "uber-vamps" were all killed. It's alive but not as much of a (direct) threat, since the most it can do is act as the evil version of a SpiritAdvisor.
** General Voll was dropped and never mentioned or seen. WordOfGod states that the writers forgot about him when replacing him with the second General.
* British [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters ensemble dramas]] are rather notorious for this, with regular characters vanishing in between seasons. ''{{Series/Casualty}}'' and ''Series/HolbyCity'' were noted for it in the days before they were on all year round. (Between the eighth and ninth seasons, a massive cull saw ''Casualty'' lose seven main characters, one of whom had been on the show four seasons.) But perhaps one of the most prominent cases was in ITV's military drama ''Soldier Soldier'': Dave Tucker, played by Robson Green, was the only remaining original cast member and practically synonymous with the series. The last scene of the fifth season has him and his wife breaking up. He is never seen or mentioned again. (Neither is his wife.)
* ''Series/TheClass'':
** Holly Ellenbogen was a main character who is last seen in the twelfth episode receiving a threat from Richie's wife Fern, who is also never seen again. There is no explanation given for her disappearance, leading to the unfortunate possibility that she may have been hurt in some way by Fern.
** A later episode, made to calm fan worries that Holly was killed offscreen, features her husband [[CampStraight Perry]] working as an interior decorator for some of the other characters, and referring to his wife as very much alive, and even having a phone conversation with her.
* ''Series/TheColbertReport'': [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness During the show's first season]], Creator/StephenColbert had a SitcomArchNemesis in the form of fellow comedian Creator/DavidCross, who played fictional liberal talking head "Russ Lieber", before the character was written out of the series.
* ''Series/{{Community}}'':
** Professor Slater. A recurring love interest for Jeff throughout the first season, she was involved in a competition with Britta for Jeff's affections in the season finale and hasn't been sighted since. Lampshaded in the second season episode "Intro to Political Science": one of the news ticker headlines on Troy and Abed's election coverage reads "Professor Slater still missing".
** Not to mention Ian Duncan of the same show. You'd think a character taking off to [[INeedToGoIronMyDog "get something in his car"]] would have him back by the end of the episode or the beginning of the next, but nope. This was due to John Oliver's commitment to ''Series/TheDailyShow''.
*** This is actually {{Lampshaded}} in the fourth season. During the balloon episode, Troy asks if anyone else has noticed that Professor Duncan hasn't been around in a long time.
*** Duncan returned in Season 5.
** Buzz Hickey (Jonathan Banks) essentially replaced Pierce as the "old man" in the group in Season 5. He does not appear at all in Season 6 (due to Banks' commitment to Better Call Saul), and this is not mentioned. This despite the fact that Shirley Bennett, who had also disappeared from the group in Season 6 (due to Yvette Nicole Brown's needing to take time off to look after her ill father), receiving her own explanation and "spinoff" at the end of the first episode of the season.
*** Hickey's disappearance is finally very briefly lampshaded by Ben Chang in the season (and series) finale: "...Shirley, Elroy, Troy, Hickey, living in the past."
* ''Series/TheCosbyShow'': Theo's best friend Walter "Cockroach" Bradley appeared frequently during the first half of the series, was very close to the family, and even started to get some individual development ("An Early Spring"), then abruptly stopped appearing without explanation. The episode after his final appearance is even focused on Theo and Cockroach's gang of friends' locker room antics, which Cockroach would normally have been present for. Word still has it that his actor, Carl Anthony Payne II, refused to cut his hair as per Bill Cosby's wishes (the kids all changed hairstyles regularly throughout the series) and was eventually fired or left the show as a result. And the haircut in question, that was apparently worth leaving the cast of what was currently the most beloved and popular show on television? [[http://greatestblogeverhulad.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/cockroach-cosby.png?w=300&h=233 Snip]].
** In the last episode Cockroach appears in, he and Theo have a falling out over Cockroach getting to dance on a show over him just because he was the first one in. Since Cockroach disappears after this, it's not hard to assume he and Theo's friendship did not survive after this. Probably not what the writers had originally planned, but those things happen occasionally in real life.
** There also was an inversion of the usual trope. In the pilot episode, it is explicitly mentioned that the Huxtables only have 4 kids, Denise, Theo, Vanessa and Rudy. However, sometime in the first season they add their oldest daughter Sondra.
* ''Series/{{Crossroads}}'' gives us a weird and infamous example in the handyman Benny. He climbed up a ladder to fix the lights on a Christmas tree, and was never seen again.
* ''Series/{{CSI}}'':
** From the first season up to the eighth season, there was a ballistics expert named Bobby Dawson. However, he disappeared about halfway through the eighth season with no explanation.
** Catherine's sister appears at the very beginning of the pilot... only to never be mentioned or appear again. Later episodes that concern her family history imply that Catherine is an only child.
** Season 8 brought us CSI Veronica "Ronnie" Lake for a few episodes leading up to Sara's departure. After "Goodbye and Good Luck", Ronnie is never seen again, without any explanation or mention of her since.
** Former CSI and detective Sofia Curtis stuck with the crew for nearly 3 seasons, even making it into the opening credits briefly. However, after the season 8 premiere, she completely vanishes without a word. She does return briefly late in season 11, however, having been promoted to Deputy Chief of the LVPD.
* ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' had this happen with two characters: Det. Kaile Maka (who appeared in season 1 and 2) and coroner Evan Zao (who appeared in season 2).
* ''Series/CurbYourEnthusiasm'' had the main character as a father in the pilot episode. The kids were never mentioned again.
* ''Series/DadsArmy'':
** Miss King, a sexy female clerk at Mainwaring's bank whom the writers admit was introduced solely for the purpose of being MsFanservice. She disappears after series two and is never heard from again, although she did play a very small role in TheMovie.
** A couple of platoon members also disappeared with no explanation: Private Bracewell, who appears in the first episode only (WordOfGod states he was cut because the writers felt his character was too much like Godfrey's) and Private Desmond, an AscendedExtra who goes on a mission with the main cast in the episode "Sons of the Sea", then is never heard from again.
** Private Cheeseman appeared for one series and then disappeared entirely, with no explanation. WordOfGod states this was a case of ShooOutTheNewGuy since neither the audience nor the rest of the cast liked him. Cheeseman's storyline was that he was a reporter who temporarily joined the platoon in order to write news stories on them, thus, it can be assumed he left at the end of his assignment; but there is no mention of this in the show, he doesn't get a goodbye and is never referenced again.
* ''Series/{{Dallas}}'':
** Bizarrely, recurring character Dusty Farlow suffered this fate by accident: He appeared in a few episodes at the end of the 7th Season, then left town a few episodes into the 8th. Unfortunately the 8th Season was also the infamous [[AllJustADream Dream Season]] and the producers apparently forgot about Dusty (despite his father being a main character), so that per canon he simply vanishes without explanation.
** If a house counts, ''Dallas'' also did this with Southfork itself. In the pilot miniseries, Southfork is a huge mansion with two smaller houses attached by a breezeway. It is discussed in great detail in the first episode that J.R. and Sue Ellen live in their own little house, and the other house was built for Gary and Valene, and that that is where Bobby and Pam will live. After the first season, they switched to a different real life ranch for the exterior sets, and suddenly the Ewings were all living under one roof in a much smaller house.
*** This was actually an example of RealLifeWritesThePlot (or setting, in this case): When the second season began filming, the owner of the ranch used in the first season had been indicted for insider trading, was preparing for his trial, and did not want film crews around. So the producers switched to a different ranch that didn't have separate houses. Also, having everyone under one roof (as unrealistic as it may be) made for a lot more dramatic tension.
* ''Series/DaysOfOurLives'': Don Craig went to the mail to post a letter and hasn't been seen since.
* ''Series/{{Degrassi}}'':
** This is so common that [[FanNickname the fandom refers to it as]] the "Degrassi Black Hole" or "Degrassi Bermuda Triangle":
** Kendra was a recurring character in many second and third season episodes but vanished without a trace in the fourth season. This was particularly strange because her brother and (ex-)boyfriend were still on the show. One wonders why she wasn't there to react when her brother got expelled and re-admitted, found religion and abandoned it, got married, etc.
*** Some sources have it that Kendra was planned to have sex with Toby; the [[StageMom actress' parents]] disapproved and yanked her off the show.
** To a lesser extent, Chester, who was introduced as a new main character and vanished after about three episodes.
** Chris Sharpe, Emma's love interest in season 3; Derek Haig, a notable character until season 9 when he mysteriously disappears; Terri Mcgregor, whose sendoff is only explained in a deleted scene; and Principal Shepherd, former Lakehurst principal becomes acting principal of Degrassi after the merger, is fired due to an outburst at Clare, returns briefly after attending anger management classes, but is suddenly written off and replaced without explanation by old Degrassi principal Ms. Hatzilakos.
** Ms. H herself vanishes without a word the following season, with Mr. Simpson, the Media Immersion teacher, being bumped up to the top spot.
** Mrs. Kwan, who became one of the most prominent recurring characters, played this trope very well. She was the English teacher and a RecurringCharacter who appeared in several episodes from Seasons 1 to 9, but hasn't been seen in any of the episodes in Season 10. During that exact same season, Mrs. Dawes, the former art teacher, is now taking her place as the new English teacher with no word of Mrs. Kwan's disappearance. It's unknown whether she's no longer teaching at Degrassi or if she's simply teaching English class periods that the main characters aren't in.
** This happens in Season 12 to Wesley. [[WordOfGod His actor]] revealed the writers ran out of ideas for the character.
** This was also common in the original series too. For instance, a character named Susie Rivera was sexually assaulted before she disappeared. Another character named Scooter Williams did the same thing. Another example is Melanie Brodie. Stephanie Kaye was a major character in the first two seasons; at the beginning of the third, her brother mentions that she is now in private school.
** When Degrassi returned on Netflix and F2N, now titled Degrassi: Next Class, three characters were noticeably absent: Jack, Arlene and Principal Pill. Jack's absence could at least be explained away as her no longer being apart of Power Cheer and Imogen (her former girlfriend) having graduated the previous season. But Arlene was both Hunter's only friend and potential love interest while Principal Pill took the place of Principal Simpson. The end of season 14 hints that Principal Simpson's firing is permanent and he's stated to be headed for Africa to build houses. By the time Next Class begins, Hunter now has THREE friends, one of which is a potential love interest and Arlene is never mentioned again. Meanwhile, Principal Simpson has quietly returned and Ms. Pill isn't mentioned.
** In the original series, and the early seasons of the current series, could be considered {{Truth in Television}}. Children and teenagers do move away without notice, and they seldom have any say in the decision.
%%* ''Series/DiagnosisMurder'' had Delores Mitchell and Norman Briggs.
* ''Series/ADifferentWorld'': When Lisa Bonet left, several characters disappeared with her: most notably Marissa Tomei's Maggie and Whitley's [[PerkyFemaleMinion Girl Friday]] Millie.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** In "The Time Monster", the Doctor recounts a story about his childhood on Gallifrey, about how he lived halfway up a mountain beside a hermit who helped give him his first understanding of the beauty of life. In "Planet of the Spiders", this character is revealed to be K'anpo, who helps the Doctor regenerate after his radiation poisoning. Despite K'anpo presumably being a very important figure in his life with a fairly profound and familial relationship with him, he is only mentioned once again after "Planet of the Spiders", in an off-hand reference by the Fourth Doctor [[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E4StateOfDecay seven years later]]. This may be because the revelations about what life on Gallifrey is actually like in "The Deadly Assassin" do not jar particularly well with this origin story.
** Brendan Richards from early Eighties spin-off ''K-9 and Company'' is the teenaged ward of Sarah Jane Smith's Aunt Lavinia and it seems likely that he was intended to be a recurring character; indeed, he features prominently in the pilot. However, not only was a full series of ''K-9 and Company'' never commissioned, there is no further mention of Brendan in either ''Doctor Who'' or ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures''.
** In the classic series, Kameleon boards the TARDIS and promptly vanishes for a long time, because the one crewmember actually capable of operating the robot died, leaving no one any clues how to program it. Kameleon eventually returned (by way of an actor covered in silver paint) and was destroyed, rather than try to mess around with his character anymore.
* In ''Series/DrakeAndJosh'', Drake's original band members, Scottie, Rina and Paul, are never seen after the 1st season.
* ''Series/TheDrewCareyShow'':
** The first season had Drew's Wacky Neighbors, who vanished when it became more of a workplace sitcom and focused on Drew's Wacky Friends. Occasionally, Drew got new neighbors--sometimes being written out, sometimes getting Chucked.
* ''Series/{{ER}}'':
** Bob the receptionist, to the extent that some people now call this trope "being Bobbed". The thing about "being Bobbed" is the character has to have just become interesting when they vanished. In Bob's case [[spoiler: the County staff had recently discovered the "simple" foreign janitor rather patronizingly nicknamed "Bob" because Doug couldn't be bothered to learn to pronounce her real name was actually a vascular surgeon in her native Poland]]. Also Maggie Doyle, who would disappear for long periods of time before ''reappearing'', to the extent that ''this'' trend was called "being Doyled". Ironically, Doyle herself was eventually "Bobbed".
** Speaking of Doug, on two separate occasions in Season 1, he mentions having a son. Aside from the fact that the boy is 8 and that he's never met him, the audience is told nothing else. This is never mentioned again, not even during storylines where it would make sense--his abusive DisappearedDad resurfacing, his and Carol's efforts to have a baby, etc. At one point in a later season, when asked if he has any children, he says "no".
** A huge number of characters were "Bobbed" over the years, with a scant few of them reappearing, in some cases with a decade having passed, just to let us know they still worked at the hospital. One of those who never reappeared, and whose disappearance wasn't even briefly mentioned, was Dr. Hicks, played by CCH Pounder. She was major enough that despite only being a recurring character, managed to be nominated for an Emmy as Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, rather than Guest Actress.
* ''Series/{{Ellen}}'' and Ellen's friend Anita, who was abruptly dropped after the first seven episodes were produced. Holly was never seen or mentioned again beginning with season 2. Paige Clark was introduced at the start of season 2 as if she'd always been there, and an establishing shot of her apartment was the same building used for Anita's apartment in season 1!
* ''ElChavoDelOcho'': several ReplacementScrappy s disappear without explanation or further mentioning, like Don Román (Don Ramón’s cousin) and Doña Eduviges (Doña Clotilde’s SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute), but probably the most evident example of ChuckCunninghamSyndrome is Malicha, Don Ramon’s goddaughter and Chilindrina’s replacement, who disappear after three episodes and is never mentioned again.
* ''Series/{{Eureka}}'':
** Whatever happened to Spenser, Henry's assistant? (Possibly he was fired for hijacking an experimental satellite to watch pirated movies.)
** Greg Germann's character from the pilot, who suddenly vanishes in the second episode even though his obnoxious assistant, Fargo, remains. Turns out, he was ReassignedToAntarctica - and returns for a single episode - for nearly ending the world, though this is hardly exceptional behavior for characters on ''this'' show.
** Callie Curie, an apparent love interest for Carter toward the end of Season 2, doesn't come back, is never mentioned and never addressed as to what may have happened to her.
** Let's face it, half the scientists of the week. Which is probably for the better, surely at some point someone would have just realized ten minutes into an episode that some guy from two seasons back could probably just save the day.
* In the first episode of ''Series/{{Everybody Loves Raymond}}'' a character called Leo is presented as one of Raymond's close friends. Leo was instantly dropped from the show, likely because he wasn't considered funny enough.
* ''Series/FamilyMatters'' had Judy Winslow, the youngest daughter, who simply vanished after the fourth season due to a "budget consideration" for the series (they mean "the actress and her parents [[SmallNameBigEgo wanted a salary raise]]"). WordOfGod says she would have returned for the originally planned GrandFinale of the series if it had lasted to show the marriage between [[spoiler: Steve Urkel and Laura Winslow]]. Several minor characters also disappeared with no on-screen explanation: Laura's best friend Penny, Eddie's sleazy best friend Rodney, and Carl's boss Murtaugh.
* ''Fire by Nite'' had a serial sitcom embedded, entitled ''Family First.'' The family originally had two boys and a girl. When the actor who played the younger son moved, and the parents were replaced by a different couple, the younger son, Robert, disappears. They refer to him as if he's off camera for a couple of episodes, but eventually, through the 3-year run of the show after that, he is never mentioned again.
* In ''Series/{{Frasier}}'', many characters who were prominent in Seasons 8-10 vanished after the writing staff for those seasons was fired en masse at the end of Season 10. Probably the highest-profile example was Julia Wilcox, who appeared prominently throughout Season 10 and rather improbably got into a relationship with Frasier at the end of the season. The new Season 11 writing staff had Frasier quickly remember just how much of an insufferable bitch she was and break up with her two episodes later, after which she was never seen or mentioned again.
* ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir'' had Jackie appear at one point as a friend of Will's from back in Philadelphia. Throughout the season, she is built up as a potential love interest for Will, until an episode where Will gets into a drinking game with her date, during which Jackie disgustedly asks Carlton to drive her home. The rest of the episode is about Will's dream, delivering AnAesop about drunk driving and Jackie is never mentioned again in the show's run.
** A more egregious example is Will's relationship with Lisa Wilkes, he dated her throughout season five and she was the most important relationship he ever had. They became engaged but on the day of their wedding they decided they weren't ready to get married and called off the wedding. Lisa was never seen or even mentioned in season six.
** Will had a close friend named Tyriq who appeared in the first couple of seasons, but completely vanished once Will and Carlton began attending college after season 3. Will's other friend, Jazz, stuck around at least.
* ''Series/FridayNightLights'': Santiago just seems to have disappeared from existence between season 2 and 3. Ditto Waverly from season 1.
* ''Series/{{Friends}}'': Phoebe's biological mother, played by Teri Garr. Discovering and reconciling with her down had been a major point of development in Phoebe's life, but after a few appearances, she never came up again.
** The exact same thing happened with her biological father Frank Buffay after his one-shot appearance. Phoebe spent literally years trying to track down over the course of multiple seasons. Whole subplots of certain episodes basically revolved around it. Then they finally meet, and after an emotional (if awkward) reunion, he never appears again.
** After Emma was born, Ross seems to forget he has a son and Ben is last seen in Season Eight, and even then with Phoebe rather than Ross. Carol is last seen in Season Seven, and Susan disappears in Season Six. Ben's disappearance was {{lampshade|Hanging}}d in 'The One Where No One Proposes': Ross' father, Jack, is looking at Emma and says "look at her, my first grandchild", when Ross asks about Ben, he says "Well of course Ben, I meant my first grand''daughter''!" then turn to Monica making a "I totally forgot about him!" face. The fact that they never show or address Ben meeting his new sister is pretty JustForFun/{{egregious}}.
** Terry, the original manager of Central Perk. He appears in one episode each of the first and second seasons, and after that Gunther (who had appeared earlier as a barrista) was the manager and Terry was never mentioned again.
* ''Series/{{Fringe}}'': Agent Amy Jessup appeared in the first two episodes of season two, and hasn’t been seen or mentioned since. This could be attributed to fan anxiety that Jessup would [[ReplacementScrappy replace]] Olivia Dunham, who started the season comatose.
* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Despite being one of Robb Stark's key supporters (and the first to declare him King in the North in the season one finale), Greatjon Umber is conspicuously absent from seasons two and three because the actor portraying him was unable to appear due to scheduling conflicts.
** Ser Ilyn Payne was removed from Arya's list of people to kill and never mentioned again when his actor Wilko Johnson was diagnosed with terminal cancer. No explanation is given for why Arya forgave his character even though he was the one who beheaded her father.
** Gendry was a major character in seasons 2 and 3. Davos smuggled him out of Dragonstone in season 3, he got on a rowboat, and for all anyone knows he's still paddling.
** Lord Beric Dondarrion and the Brotherhood Without Banners have similarly been missing since partway through season 3. It appears unlikely that they'll be able to follow their storyline from the books, so maybe the writers just didn't know what to do with them anymore.
* ''Series/TheGeorgeLopezShow'':
** This fate befell many characters including their dog Mr. Needles, Accident Amy, Randy, and George's long lost sister Linda.
** Linda most likely stayed away from George due to the revelations of how she was put up for adoption and how her birth family is, mixed with George's father-in-law's failed attempt at romancing her.
** Randy, Benny's love interest played by Nick Offerman, first appeared in the first episode of season 3, and continued to appear regularly until he broke off his marriage with Benny. Randy only appears once more after this, in season 4, and is never seen again.
** Possibly a JustifiedTrope with Amy, since she was played by Sandra Bullock, who possibly wouldn't have had time to appear consistently. Amy only appears periodically anyway.
* ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'': If you happened to see the pilot episode, you may recall that the roommates had a live-in cook, a flamboyantly gay man named Coco. The character of Sophia, who was only supposed to have appeared periodically throughout the series, turned out to be so popular with test audiences that she was moved into the house to be a permanent part of the cast, and Coco got [[IncrediblyLamePun puffed]]. Arguably justified, since he was merely a live-in cook as opposed to a relative, it's likely he was simply fired or let go.
* ''Series/GoodTimes'': Esther Rolle left (temporarily) the series at the end of the 1976-1977 season, with her final storyline being her character Florida's wedding to Carl Dixon, an avowed atheist, and the new couple moving to Arizona (to allow Carl to tend to his failing health). Rolle -- already upset about the perceived over-emphasis on Jimmie Walker's J.J. character, strongly objected to the storyline, contending that Florida was an affirmed Christian was now being expected to live with someone with whom her religious beliefs would conflict. When Rolle agreed to return to the show in 1978, one of her demands was that there would be no mention of Carl or her ever marrying or even meeting him, period. The writers agreed.
* ''Series/GossipGirl'':
** Aaron, Serena's boyfriend and Cyrus's son. Aaron and Serena were heading off on holiday to Argentina, but you find out the next episode that they ''broke up on the flight'' so that Serena and Dan could get back together.
** Pretty glaring, considering that he's Blair's stepbrother and appears to be close with his father, yet he never shows up for family events.
* ''Series/TheGreatestAmericanHero'': Ralph's son Kevin disappears after the first season. He is mentioned in the the second season episode "Operation: Spoilsport", but not seen.
* ''Series/GroundedForLife'': The dog was tied to a fence in the first episode and then seemed to vanish.
* ''Series/H2OJustAddWater'': A few characters from season 1 disappeared with no explanation in season 2, such as [[AlphaBitch Miriam]] and Emma's love interest Byron.
* ''Series/HannahMontana'':
** Mikayla's (Music/SelenaGomez) last full appearance has her becoming friends with Miley despite her hatred of Miley's alter ego Hannah Montana which she was unaware of. This could have easily been played with after Miley outs herself as Hannah Montana. Mikayla is last referred to on a TV show using (likely) archive footage from her earlier 2 appearances and is never mentioned again. Behind the scenes, Selena Gomez had been cast as Alex in ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace''.
** Her role as Mikayla could explain why Alex and Hannah/Miley are never really seen together on The SS Tipton during the ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOnDeck'' ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'' and ''HannahMontana'' crossover episodes.
** ''Series/HannahMontana'' was filled with this trope. In addition to Mikayla, there were also these characters:
*** Roxy, Miley/Hannah's bodyguard, who disappeared after season 2.
*** Traci van Horn, Hannah's very nasal sounding heiress friend, who did not appear and was not mentioned in season 4, despite the fact that she would have had a very comedic reaction to TheReveal.
*** Jackson's best friend Cooper, who was gone after season 1.
*** The Stewart's obnoxious neighbor, Dontzig, who stopped appearing after season 1, except for one episode in season 3.
*** Thor, the transfer student from Minnesota who was begrudgingly befriended by Jackson, who stopped being mentioned after season 2.
*** Johnny Collins, Miley's crush in the pilot who was set up to be in the main cast, but then never appeared again, except for one late season 2 episode.
*** Trey, who was set up to be a major love interest for Miley in a late season 2 episode but never appeared again.
* ''Series/HappyDays'':
** In addition to being the Trope Namer, also {{lampshade|Hanging}}d this trope in an [[HilariousOuttakes outtake]] from the finale:
-->'''Howard Cunningham:''' "...[[BreakingTheFourthWall So thank you all for being part of our family]]. To ''[[TitleDrop Happy Days]]''." (SpitTake) "Wait, where's Chuck?!"
** Also {{lampshade|Hanging}}d in commercials run by Nick at Nite after they started airing ''Happy Days''. The commercials featured the narrator talking about Chuck's disappearance and treating it as a great mystery/conspiracy, showing a clip of Chuck's last appearance followed by a clip from a much later episode of Howard saying, "I have a lovely daughter and a loudmouth son."
** There was a commercial bump on the Hub warning viewers and 'forgotten loved ones' of the dangers of coming down with Chuck Cunningham Syndrome, stating the only cure is to find Chuck Cunningham himself.
** A funny thing about Chuck, his last episode was a ChristmasEpisode in the second season, where he was home from college for the holidays. This was a very popular episode, since it also involved [[BreakoutCharacter the Fonz]] getting invited to the Cunninghams' Christmas dinner since he had no family to spend the holiday with. This episode was so popular that ABC rebroadcast it in prime time every year at Christmas for the remainder of the show's long run. So even though Chuck was never seen or mentioned again after this episode, prime time viewers were given an annual reminder of his existence every Christmas. It was probably due to this annual reminder that Chuck became such an infamous Trope Namer.
* ''Series/TheHardyBoysNancyDrewMysteries'': The Hardy Boys' best friend Chet Morton & their gal friday Callie never appear again after the first season. Nothing's mentioned, nothing's said....
* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'':
** No one's seen, heard of or even mentioned Monica since the season 2 finale. Doesn't look like anyone's missing her either. Although [[spoiler:what she did during season 3 is being revealed in some graphic novels following Micah]].
** Let's not forget Hana Gitelman - though the [[AllThereInTheManual graphic novels]] are doing their best to explain what happened to her.
** Zach, Claire's friend in Season 1, also caught this syndrome. Admittedly, Claire permanently left his town 4 episodes after his last appearance, and his actor had [[TheSarahConnorChronicles other commitments]], but it's still a little jarring how he's never even mentioned again.
** There's also Caitlin, who is never mentioned again past season 2.
** Anyone remember Lyle, Claire's brother? Don't worry, neither do her parents. When Claire's in college, her mother, mother's boyfriend, and HRG, and HRG's sort of mistress, all have a Thanksgiving with Claire, but there's no Lyle in sight. Lampshaded later on in this exchange where Sylar remembers the name of Claire's dog over Lyle:
-->'''Sylar''': "Everybody dies. Well, almost everybody. Papa Petrelli, Mama Bennet, Mr. Muggles. What's your brother's name, Larry?"
-->'''Claire''': "Lyle."
-->'''Sylar''': "Lyle, right. He's gonna die too."
* ''Series/HeyDad'': Nudge's disappearance from the series was never explained. So much for being Simon's best friend.
* ''Series/HogansHeroes'': In the last season, Sgt. Kinchloe abruptly disappears. His role as radio man is taken over by Sgt. Baker (who previously had been one of many prisoners who basically loitered around in the background during scenes to show that there were more than five people in the whole camp) and no one even mentions him again. (Given the context of the series, however, it is very possible that Kinchloe could have escaped, been killed, transferred to another camp, or possibly even released by Klink.)
* ''Series/HomeImprovement'': During the first two seasons Jill had a friend named Karen, an outspoken feminist who enjoyed antagonizing Tim. She vanished without a trace after her actress, Betsy Randle, landed the role of Cory's mom on ''Series/BoyMeetsWorld''. The role of Jill's best friend was taken over by a new neighbour character named Marie who herself disappeared a few seasons later.
* ''Series/HouseOfAnubis'':
** Jason Winkler is the most notorious example, as he was given good development, had some romantic subtext with one of the main characters, and was pretty handsome- but after season 1 he was never mentioned again. The fans haven't forgotten him, however, and constantly wait for his return.
** Mick Campbell, too. He was a main character in season 1 then got demoted in season 2, but was still pretty important. Come season 3 he was never mentioned, though his actor DID get a cameo in the finale, delighting fans enormously.
** Other characters who have gotten this treatment, but AREN'T as missed by the fans, are Vera Devinish, Amelia Pinches, The character's family members, among others. It is in fact very rare for a character who isn't a secondary character to make a return or get a mention in this show.
* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'': Ted's sister Heather visits because she is interested in moving to NYC. The ending scene of the episode is Ted presenting her with a briefcase and a lease for her new apartment that he co-signed. And, yet, she is never seen again, though her presence at her mother's wedding is acknowledged by Barney. We also see Barney's half-sister Carly once and never hear about her again.
* ''Series/{{Hustle}}'': Billy vanishes between seasons 4 and 5.
* In the first season of ''Series/ImInTheBand'' Tripp's best friend was Jared, who was never seen or mentioned in the second season while his role as Tripp's best friend was given to Ash.
* ''Series/ICarly'':
** Many minor characters from the first season have never come back again like the mean popular girl from Nevel's intro episode and "Germy" Jeremy.
** Not just first season characters either. Wendy, a popular minor EnsembleDarkHorse character simply vanished as well after her last appearance in the final episode of Season 2.
** Tasha, Gibby's recurring girlfriend from a handful of episodes in Season 3, appears to have suffered this fate along with a breakup, only in the 8th episode did a reference to her come, and it was that Gibby and her were no longer 'exclusive' in his words.
** Brad, who was implied to have transferred to Ridgeway school with Carly, Sam and Freddie wasn't referenced in the first episode of the second half of season 4, despite it taking place in-universe only three days after ''iOMG'' which was the last episode of the 1st half. He doesn't show up in the second episode either, despite them doing a webshow in their usual time and place, which he was explicitly recruited to help with. In the third episode, Carly has to cancel a webshow broadcast specifically because Freddie and Sam aren't there. This is the exact thing Brad would be useful for, and specifically what he was hired for. So he's gone.
** Basically, if your name is not Carly, Sam, Freddie, Spencer, Mrs. Benson or Gibby, you will not be coming back, especially if you aren't a villain. Only a handful of characters have even made ''second'' appearances, and three of them are Nevel, Nora and Chuck, who are all villains. The only other prominent one to come back was Griffin, who showed up in a second episode, {{Justified|Trope}} because he lives in the same building, and vanished again.
* ''Series/ImaginationMovers'':
** Nina's very boring (but oh so funny and entertaining) uncle Knit Knots: a beloved character who owned a business next door to the Imagination Movers' "Idea Warehouse" that created boring items and services for “boring” people. He appeared in every episode in the first season of the show, but completely disappeared, with no explanation for seasons 2 and 3.
** He did make one other appearance in the Imagination Movers' concert special, which aired on Disney during season 3, however, this was a live event, which was not intended to be canon with the series.
* ''Series/TheInvisibleMan'' was [[ExecutiveMeddling forced by the network]] in Season Two to add a new, attractive-to-males character played by BrandyLedford. The fans [[TheScrappy didn't like her very much]], and there were numerous complaints about how she ruined the Fawkes and Hobbes dynamic. So when the show's cancellation was announced, the writers took advantage of the fact that they had nothing to lose anyway, and just left the character out of the last few episodes with no explanation.
* ''Jesse'' shows the title character and her son living with her two brothers in the first season, while she works at her father's bar. However, for the second season, the network retooled the series. While Jesse is shown getting a new job, her father and brothers are treated as if they had never been there.
* ''Series/JustShootMe'': Wally, Maya's roommate in the first season.
* ''Series/KickinIt'': Eddie, one of the main cast, disappered without a trace in season 3 and hasn't been mentioned since then.
* ''Series/KidsIncorporated'' references missing characters from previous seasons through season 5 -- Mickey moves away after season 1, Gloria goes to music school after season 3, Renee and The Kid become exchange students after season 4. Even the characters dropped after the original pilot episode are said to have moved away in a scene added at the end of the VHS release. On top of that, each new character is introduced and has to audition for the band. However, when season 6 begins, Ryan and Connie have been replaced by Robin and no one mentions their absence or where Robin came from, then Stacy, Richie, and Devyn are replaced by Eric, Ana, and [[TheScrappy Haylie]] for season 7. At this point, more than half the cast is new this season, and only one of them has been on the show for more than a season. And yet we have not a word about this (they do mention, several episodes later, that Ana had only recently moved in with Robin's family after her parents' divorce). As Stacy was the last of the original cast, that her departure doesn't even get a mention is a little grating [[HilariousInHindsight especially considering who she'd]] [[BlackEyedPeas grow up to become]] -- the departure of Mario Lopez got more notice, and he didn't even have a speaking part. Strangely, Riley, a secondary character, also leaves in season 6, and his departure is a plot point.
* ''Series/TheKingOfQueens'':
** Sara Spooner, the younger sister of Carrie, only appeared in about five episodes of season one and disappeared from the show without an explanation. It was later revealed in an interview with show star Kevin James that the writers had no idea how to develop her character so they just decided to write her out.
** Doug's sister Stephanie and his friend Richie, both of them vanished without a trace. Doug and Carrie also had two dogs in the first few episodes which disappeared without an explanation.
** Doug and Carrie also adopt Stanley, a dog that belonged to one of their neighbors towards the end of season 1. He was shown in the background for the rest of the season, but suddenly disappears for several seasons without any mention, only to suddenly reappear in an episode which featured him prominently in the fourth season, where he was again a background character....only to vanish once again without mention.
* ''Series/KyleXY'': More often than not, this became an AvertedTrope in favour of [[PutOnABus putting people on a bus]] or killing them off-screen. In the second season, however, there is a glaring example of this trope. After the Madacorp plot is defeated, Julian Ballantine is demoted and replaced by TheDragon, Emily Hollander. The scene in which this happens has suitably ominous overtones, suggesting that the viewer hasn't seen the last of Madacorp. And then Hollander appears in one further episode, attending her company's stand at Kyle's school, and is never seen again.
* ''Series/LastOfTheSummerWine'':
** While most characters are given at least passing mention when they depart, there have been a few notable exceptions:
** Billy Hardcastle, who [[AscendedExtra ascended from minor character to a member of the trio]], disappeared after the 27th series without explanation or mention.
** Eli Duckett, a popular recurring character for 15 years, was never mentioned again after the actor playing him, Danny O'Dea, died.
** Ros was never mentioned again after her actress left following the 26th series.
** When Tom first arrives in town, he is accompanied by Mrs. Avery, a potential love interest and foil for Nora Batty, and her niece, Babs. Both characters were unpopular, and Babs disappeared after only three episodes, while Mrs. Avery was around for a series. Neither character has been mentioned since their departure despite their former relationship with Tom.
** Earlier on, the librarians, Mr. Wainwright and Mrs Partridge, were regulars during the first series but disappeared completely during the second series without mention or explanation. Mr. Wainwright would return for a few episodes during the third season but disappeared completely following the third series and was never mentioned again.
* ''Series/LasVegas'': Sarasvati had been built up in Season 3 as a potential love interest for Mike. The last we see of her is the final episode of the season at Delinda's bachelorette party, where she asks Mike to come to her room. Mike never makes it, and the next we hear Sarasvati had gone home with ''all'' of the male strippers. She appears for about five seconds in one episode of Season 4, but other than that is never heard or seen from again.
* ''Series/LaverneAndShirley'': Edna De Fazio, the girls' landlady and later Laverne's stepmom vanished sometime after the characters all moved to California.
* ''Series/LawAndOrder'':
** A few characters:
** Donald Cragen (though he later resurfaced in a TV movie and then ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'').
** Paul Robinette. A deleted scene has Stone telling Van Buren that Robinette quit and joined a private firm, but this scene wasn't aired. Robinette resurfaces for a few guest appearances, though.
** Nina Cassidy. Considering her performance/Van Buren's reaction to her through the entire season, including her final episode, it's heavily implied she was transferred if not fired. Unlike the others, though, she never shows up again after her disappearance.
** Alfred Wentworth, the DA in the pilot, "Everybody's Favorite Bagman," which was the ''sixth'' episode aired.
** Interim D.A. Nora Lewin after the end of season 12, although this is a slightly complicated one: she left right when there would presumably have been an election for DA, meaning that either she did not run or was defeated by Arthur Branch.
* ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'':
** Two of Elliot's daughters haven't been seen since season eight, with a picture reference in season ten. All the more jarring because one of them has a twin brother who had a DayInTheLimelight episode.
** In the episode 'Totems', Elliot said he has five kids, so they still exist. The other two apparently have normal, uneventful lives.
* ''Series/LieToMe'': Torres' boyfriend served his part in her character development, then faded from the cast's collective memory.
* ''Series/LifeWithBonnie'': Samantha Molloy flat-out vanished between Season 1 and Season 2. Especially disconcerting since she was the main character's 12-year-old daughter in a show that had many, many "family at home" scenes.
* ''Series/LifeWithDerek'': Where Noel only had three appearances that were rather influential [[spoiler: (i.e. he was partially the reason why Casey broke up with Max in the episode "Allergy Season")]]. It was even set up in the episode "Just Friends" where Casey and Noel would become a couple... except not, apparently.
* ''Series/LoisAndClark'':
** Cat Grant disappears without a trace after the first season, ostensibly because the network thought she was too risque. Increasingly important character Jack, who'd been the focus of some serious character development over the course of the season, showing Clark's positive influence on people, disappeared with Cat. Disappointing to say the least.
** Lucy Lane felt like this - a regular in the first three episodes, then vanished without a trace. She would make a few more appearances, though, by a different actress and with a very different relationship with Lois, as if they'd ''forgotten'' about Lucy's earlier days.
* ''Series/TheLoop'' is a particularly bad example of this. Between the first and second season, both female leads simply disappeared without a trace. The reason this is so unnerving is one of the female leads was the main character's love interest, and their relationship was left completely unresolved.
* ''Series/{{Lost}}'':
** The character Isabel is introduced as "the sheriff" of The Others in a season 3 episode. She investigates Juliet after Danny's death, and seems to be a high-ranking member of The Others' hierarchy. She is never seen or mentioned again, and producer Damon Lindelof said that she was killed offscreen when the Others attacked the beach in the Season 3 finale.
** In a bizarrely large-scale example of the trope, the Others themselves disappear completely after the season 6 episode "The Last Recruit" and are never seen or heard from again. They are last seen getting pulverized by mortars, making it unclear if any of them survived. The arguably canon Lost Encyclopedia claims at least three Others--kidnapped flight attendant Cindy and children Zach and Emma--survived the bombing, but the fates of the rest of the Others are never known.
* ''Series/MadAboutYou'' had Paul's friend Selby vanish, last seen at the end of season 1 ([[LampshadeHanging Lampshade hung]] in one episode when Paul, complaining about their lack of friends, yelled, "Like Selby, what the hell happened to him?").
* ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'':
** Cynthia, a recurring character, originally has a one-sided crush towards Malcolm. She goes to Europe and when she comes back, is [[SheIsAllGrownUp all grown up]]. Malcolm eventually re-considers her as a potential love interest. In her final episode, she loudly proclaims in front of the whole school that they had previously been intimate. And then, without explanation, she never appears again.
** Some of the Krelboynes that appear early in series aren't seen again later, though a few of Malcolm's closer circle (Stevie, Dabney, etc.) remain.
* ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'': Seven, a CousinOliver introduced in Season 7, was written out without explanation when he proved unpopular with the fans. {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in one episode when his [[FaceOnAMilkCarton face was seen on a milk carton]] and no one in the Bundy family noticed or cared. Another episode, "Kelly Knows Something", showed that Kelly ''could'' learn things, but for every new fact she learned, another fact would be forgotten. While cramming for a quiz show, a visual gag shows new facts going into her head as old ones exit... including the existence of Seven, apparently.
* ''TheMaryTylerMooreShow'':
** Rhoda has a sister Debbie who is not seen at all when Rhoda got her own series. Debbie appears on an episode where Rhoda and Mary go to New York for Debbie's wedding. Furthermore, Rhoda's sister Brenda is nowhere to be seen.
** Rhoda also mentions once, on ''The MTM Show'', that she has a brother, and therefore does not need to have the purpose of a bar mitzvah explained to her. It's one line, but her brother is never mentioned again. This ''could'' be explained as Rhoda lying, just so a person who tends to ramble on, doesn't go on and on explaining bar mitzvahs, but it doesn't sound that way.
** Likewise, ''The MTM Show'' has possibly TV's first [[spoiler:blatant, non-judgmental, declaration of a character as "gay," using that exact word]]; it's a punch-line that is built through an entire episode, in that Phyllis is horrified that her wonderful brother is spending time with Rhoda, whom she can't stand, and not with Mary, in spite of Phyllis's efforts to set up Mary with her brother. At the the end Rhoda tells Phyllis she isn't interested in her brother because [[spoiler:"He's gay," and Phyllis says "Thank God!"]] When Chloris Leachman gets her spin-off, ''Phyllis'', the brother is never mentioned.
* ''Series/{{MASH}}'': What ever happened to Spearchucker Jones or Ugly John?[[note]]The RealLife explanation is that Spearchucker was dropped when the writers were informed that there was no record of any African-American doctors serving in the Korean War. (There is now a [[http://www.koreanwar-educator.org/memoirs/secor_harold/index.htm#LifeMash Web memoir]] that mentions an African-American surgeon at a MASH unit.) Ugly John has no explanation, real life or in-universe. (Though curiously enough, the actor who played him later showed up playing a different character in the season 8 episode "Captains Outrageous"[[/note]]
** Ho-Jon, presumably, went to college off-screen.
* ''Series/{{Matlock}}'': Ben has a daughter, Charlene, played by Linda Purl, during the first season, who leaves to marry some prosecutor. He occasionally refers to "my daughter." Later in the series, Brynn Thayer comes on as his daughter, [=LeAnn=], who just divorced a prosecutor she was married to whom Ben didn't approve of.
* ''Series/{{Merlin}}'' had Geoffrey of Monmouth, the court geneologist and librarian who was often used for exposition purposes. A RecurringCharacter throughout the first four seasons, he was completely absent from season five without explanation.
* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': DS Scott, who is mentioned as calling in sick in one episode (Barnaby ropes in a random police sergeant as a temporary replacement). That was the character's last mention, with the 'temporary' replacement suddenly being permanent with no explanation. Especially jarring since both of the other replacements, including the one that got Scott the job, was explained simply as the predecessor being promoted and hence moving to another position within the police.
* ''Series/MissionImpossible'': All cast changes on Mission Impossible occurred without explanation, except for [[spoiler: the switch from Terry Markwell's Casey Randall to Jane Badler's Shannon Reed in the revival, when poor Casey is caught and killed. (Needless to say, the Secretary disavows all knowledge of her actions.)]] But only Dan Briggs, the original IMF leader, is a genuine Chuck Cunningham (replaced by Jim Phelps because Steven Hill refused to work on the Jewish sabbath). Other changes are explained by the way the leader chooses the rest of the team after he gets the assignment. The fact that he chooses the same people over and over is actually a kind of reverse Chuck Cunningham.
* The first half of ''Series/MurderSheWrote'' season one had the recurring character of Ethan, a Cabot Cove handyman who served as TheWatson to Jessica. He disappears from the second half of the season, and season two introduces Doc Hazlitt in much the same role.
* ''Series/MyFamily'': Alfie disappears after series nine and is never mentioned again.
* ''Series/MyThreeSons'':
** One of the early television masters of this art. It happened more than once, and in a deliberate fashion. First, William Frawley, veteran comedic actor (ILoveLucy's Fred Mertz) played Fred [=MacMurray's=] father-in-law, Bub O'Casey, the boys' grandfather and housekeeper. When Frawley (very begrudgingly) left the show when his poor health meant he could no longer be insured, that was when William Demarest's Uncle Charlie was brought on, with Bub sent home to Ireland. Eventually, any and all references to Bub simply vanished. When the show moved from ABC to CBS and started color episodes, eldest son Mike married his sweetheart and moved away. Orphaned neighbor Ernie was adopted after some wackiness - and again eventually both Mike and the fact of the adoption vanished from mention. Steve's new wife and her daughter joined late in the show's run - but the signs were already there and references to a pre-Douglas life dried up for the two. So: Uncle Charlie was ''always'' their housemaid/gruff mentor, Ernie was ''always'' the third of three sons and no more, and the new Mrs. Douglas and child had ''always'' been there as well. This is the word of Fred [=MacMurray=].
** It was established long before that episode that Chip didn't remember his mother. One episode (from the black and white era when Chip was still quite young) centers on him admiring a photograph of her and asking lots of questions about her.
** There was, in fact, a single line, when Steve was adopting his new wife's daughter. Ernie says at the breakfast table, "You know, I was adopted, too," and it drops right there.
*** Mike's vanishing was slower than all that - on one ep, when it seemed Steve might end up in a circumstance where he couldn't have them around, the younger boys discussed possibly living with Mike. As to Ernie in that later sequence, it could be a nod to his adoption, or it could be a way of saying, 'If the older Chip doesn't recall their mother, then Ernie has no chance at all'. No one ever states that Bub/Mike/the adoption never happened. They just avoid all instances in which it might be brought up, to the point where certain Bub flashbacks now have Uncle Charlie edited in.
* ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'': The actor who played Dr. Erhardt left the show after the first nationally broadcast season over creative differences. His disappearance was simply explained with his replacement, TV's Frank, holding up a milk carton and stating "He's missing." His disappearance was the butt of a joke in ''Film/EarthVsTheSpider'', when a policeman who looked similar to the missing Erhardt was eaten by the titular spider. Joel and the Bots joked that this was the true fate of their former captor.
* ''Series/NaturallySadie'': Tad, a friend of Ron Yuma and Rain is a recurring character during season 1; he's never seen or heard from after the ReTool.
* ''Series/NightCourt'':
** During the first two seasons, this happened several times - starting with the second episode. The original public defender, Sheila, vanished from the show and even failed to make the listing for the show on IMDB!
** Also happened to a popular pair of [[RecurringCharacter recurring characters]], Bob and June Wheeler, a married couple of [[TheChewToy hard luck]] hicks. What made their disappearance feel especially abrupt is that in their last episode, it was implied they were about to have a semi-regular presence on the show, since they just bought and began running the Court cafeteria. And to make their departure all the more jarring, their last episode was a SeasonFinale that ended on a CliffHanger. In the next season premiere, the Cliffhanger is resolved, but with no sign or mention of the Wheelers. The RealLife reason for their disappearance is that the actor who played Bob, Brent Spiner, was cast as Data on ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' in between seasons.
*** Also happens to their little girl Caroline. She's with them in their first appearance, but not present or mentioned in their second. Given the Wheelers' role on the show as TheChewToy, it's probably best if we don't inquire too closely as to what happened to their daughter.
* ''Series/{{NUMB3RS}}'', as often happens with pilots which are picked up. Originally, the Rob Morrow character wasn't Charlie's brother, nor was he Rob Morrow.
* ''Series/NYPDBlue'': Det. Lesniak just stopped appearing after season 3. No explanation was ever given. The series lost quite a few leading characters, but usually they were [[PutOnABus described as moving on to other jobs]], or were killed of outright.
* ''Series/{{The Office|US}}'':
** A few extras from the pilot of disappeared after the cast began to fill out the workplace....
** Erin's foster brother is introduced in one episode, and promptly drops from the face of the Earth afterwards.
* Jevon from ''Series/OnlyFoolsAndHorses'', who was Mickey Pearce's trading partner in the sixth season, vanished without a trace after "The Jolly Boys' Outing". Unlike most of the other semi-regular characters that left the series, he was never mentioned again after his disappearance.
* ''Series/OnceUponATime'': Due to the "closed campus" nature of the Storybrooke setting, the series is prone to this trope whenever a recurring character suddenly disappears without having been killed off or sent to another world (due usually to an actor being cast in another series or only contracted for guest appearances), and situations later emerge where the absence of that character is very noticeable.
** A very borderline case, but one nonetheless. The character of Sidney Glass (aka the Magic Mirror) is established as a major supporting character throughout Season 1, established as being a confidante of Regina in both worlds (and also in love with her). However, in real life actor Giancarlo Esposito became committed to a series on another network, ''Revolution'', for the 2012-13 season. As a result, Sidney is last seen [[spoiler:incarcerated in Regina's private asylum, prior to the curse being broken]], and is conspicuous by his absence in post-curse Storybrooke and flashbacks rarely feature the Mirror. Of course, given Esposito's return as soon as ''Revolution'' bit it, it might be argued that this is closer to PutOnABus. Sidney returns eventually in Season 4 (both as human and mirror).
** Kathryn Nolan is absent in Season 2 as her actress (Anastasia Griffith) is now in the Copper series. After disappearing for about the length of two seasons, she reappears in the season 3 finale.
** The character of Ruby/Red disappears from the series suddenly, several episodes prior to the Season 2 finale. Due to the creators deciding to drop the character and the actress (whose role had been reduced substantially since [[spoiler: completing a major character backstory arc midway through the season]]) being cast in [[Series/{{Intelligence2014}} another series.]] The absence of Ruby is particularly noticeable in the closing episodes of Season 2 when Emma and the others are frantically searching for the kidnapped Regina, yet for some reason do not employ Ruby's previously and well-established ability to track people. She's reappeared during the second half of the third season, but only as cameo and disappears AGAIN in fourth season.
** Mulan joins the Merry Men early in season 3. When the company returns in the second half of that season, Mulan is nowhere to be seen or heard. As with Meghan Ory's case, Jamie Chung was also cast in [[Series/{{Believe}} another series]] at the time. Incidentally, both series lasted only one season.
** The ex-giant Anton disappears after Season 2, despite joining the dwarves. His actor Jorge Garcia was cast as a recurring character for the 2013-14 season of ''Series/HawaiiFive0'', and became a regular the following season.
* ''Series/OneTreeHill'':
** Jimmy Edwards is one of the guys Lucas hangs out with at the River Court, and creates [=RavenHoops.com=] with Mouth, but vanishes with no explanation, even being missing Season 2's "[[AllJustADream Lifetime Piling Up]]" which retold the events of the pilot with Lucas & Nathan's roles flipped. [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]] in Season 3's "[[WhamEpisode With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept]]" when Jimmy takes a gun to school, utterly devastated by all of his friends abandoning him over the past year.
** Tim Smith is Nathan's best friend at the start of the series, and the only named Raven who isn't a major character, growing in prominence after Jake was PutOnABus & becoming the show's resident ButtMonkey, before vanishing halfway through Season 3. It's later revealed during Season 4 that Tim transferred to a school for slow students. He returned in Season 5, commenting that he misses high school since no-one's kept in touch with him.
* ''The Paper Chase'': In the pilot, the study group included a woman (Linda O'Connor, played by Katharine Dunfee Clarke) who never appeared again. In the second episode, she was replaced without explanation by a different woman, Logan, a major character throughout Season One. When, after cancellation on its original network, the series returned for Season Two on a cable network, Logan had inexplicably vanished, never to be mentioned again.
* ''Series/TheParkers'':
** Desiree (Mari Marrow), Nikki's best friend, simply vanished about halfway through the first season and is never mentioned again. A few episodes later, she is replaced by Andell, a character from parent series ''Series/{{Moesha}}.'' This is especially jarring considering that Desiree lives next door to the Parkers. Her disappearance from the show can later be justified as Nikki eventually moved into Kim's apartment...but that still didn't happen until a season after she disappeared.
** Symone, the fourth member of Freestyle Unity. Curiously, she disappears once the group achieves a comfortable level of success.
* ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'':
** Mark Brendanowicz, who was written out of the show after the second season. While his character is given a valid reason not to be in the spotlight anymore (he was switching career paths to the private sector), he is literally never mentioned again, even when by all rights he should have been. When Ann sells things she bought while dating people, there is notably no "Mark" box, and later on, Leslie and Ben are apparently desperate for someone to design the park that would eventually become Pawnee Commons, despite a plan for the park being the last thing Mark gave to Leslie before he left.
** The show also has a straight example in Nadia, a short-term girlfriend of Tom's who only appeared in two episodes because she left to participate in Doctors Without Borders in Africa. Despite the timeskip occurring before season seven, she is never once mentioned despite the implication that she would get back together with Tom once she returned to the U.S., and his storyline instead revolves around him getting back together with (and then marrying) previous girlfriend Lucy.
* ''Series/{{Poirot}}'': Chief Inspector Japp, Captain Hastings and Miss Lemon, who had previously been the show regulars, disappeared at the time of [[Literature/HerculePoirot Poirot]]'s TenMinuteRetirement at the start of Season Nine. Since these characters were often used for comic relief, that was a sign that [[CerebusSyndrome the show started to take itself more seriously]].
* ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' had a couple of these during the early years:
** Scorpina double subverts this trope, disappearing the moment Lord Zedd shows up, only to appear in one episode fighting the Rangers, surviving and never being seen or heard from again. Behind the scenes, she had been scripted to return, but Saban could not get the American actress back and the plot line was dropped instead.
** Angela, Zack's love interest, disappeared after the first season. Richie, Trini's love interest, and Curtis, Zack's cousin, both disappeared after Trini and Zack were written off the show.
** During the transition between ''Series/PowerRangersTurbo'' and ''Series/PowerRangersInSpace'', Lt. Jerome Stone, as well as the Angel Grove Youth Center and Juice Bar, disappeared and was replaced with Adelle and the Surf Spot.
*** It was previously averted with the previous [[YouthCenter Juice Bar]] owner Ernie whose absence was explained as a trip to the Amazon.
** Sometimes, [[ThoseTwoGuys Bulk and Skull]] would occasionally be seen with various nameless thugs, as part of what we are led to presume is their 'gang'. They only appeared for certain early season 1 episodes, and then seemed to disappear forever.
** When Jason returned in Zeo, he met Emily who became his love interest. He departed at the end of Zeo, going off with Emily, and appearing again in the Turbo movie but without her. He then disappears until the tenth anniversary special.
** That's not even the true mystery. It's Emily that's the mystery. She has one more on-screen and named appearance in Turbo, which lasts for a few seconds and without Jason, then she's never seen again at all.
** Squatt and Baboo, where are they in Zeo? They used to cling onto Rita, and yet when she, Zedd, Finster, Rito and Goldar are forced out of their home, and made to travel around in their caravan, it seems Squatt and Baboo just kinda...vanished.
*** They went to stay with Master Vile to regroup; maybe they stayed with him when the others went back to the moon.
* ''Series/{{Reaper}}'': Sam's brother appears in the first two episodes and then is never seen or mentioned again for the rest of the show's two-year run.
* ''Series/TheRedGreenShow'':
** The second season introduced a host of new characters, none of whom were ever seen again afterwards, save for the odd reference here and there.
** There were also Glen Brachston, the lazy marina owner; Garth Harble, the first animal control officer before Ed Frid; Earl Battersby, the bait shop owner; Dwight Cardiff, the ''other'' lazy marina owner; Dougie Franklin's brother, Benjamin; Bob Stuyvesant, golfer/ministry of natural resources worker; Arnie Dogan, accident-prone roofer/aspiring country singer; Young Walter, who substituted for Bill in the later Adventures With Bill segments; Dale, a teenaged boy who worked at a local gas station; Kevin Black, a Yuppie cottager; Brian Jacobs, funeral parlor owner; etc. At least one was justified, as Red mentions in one segment that Garth got bit by a toad and "lost his nerve," and thus was replaced by Ed.
* ''Series/{{Revolution}}'': A number of minor characters like [[Creator/RicReitz Colonel John Faber]], [[Creator/TarekAlame Billings]], Major David Kipling, [[Creator/MichaelMosley Private Richards]], and [[Creator/JeffFahey Ken 'Hutch' Hutchinson]] appeared...and their fates afterward are never revealed. Given that the setting is violent and a lot of characters die on-screen, it's very possible that a number of them ended up dead off-screen.
* ''Series/RetroGameMaster'': The original Assistant Director. AD Yamada was only in the very first episode and never appeared again. In fact, Toujima is referred to by the show as the first AD.
* ''{{Series/Roseanne}}'':
** This happened repeatedly over the course of the series with family friends and neighbours. The most egregious example was easily Roseanne and Jackie's best friend Crystal Anderson, whom they'd known since childhood and was an official main character for the first few seasons, appearing in the opening credits and everything (a rank never even granted to the Healy brothers, despite them living with the Conners and appearing prominently in almost every episode in the second half of the series). After she marries Dan's father Ed (a recurring character played by Ned Beatty) and bears two children with him, they all vanish for a season or two before prominently appearing again in a two-episode arc about Dan reconciling with his father. After that, Dan's father did not appear again and Crystal returned for one last appearance at Roseanne's baby shower at the beginning of the 8th season. Neither of them appeared after that, even at extremely notable events such as Darlene's wedding, or in the final season when the Conners[[spoiler: won a hundred and eight million dollars in the lottery]].
** One neighbouring family introduced a few seasons into the series got tons of episodes and development, including one daughter pursuing main character David Healy and her overweight wallflower sister catching Roseanne's attention as somebody who needed support and guidance. The Conners even all traveled to California with them in an RV at one point. Unlike their previous sets of neighbours who'd had proper send-offs, they eventually just stopped appearing.
** Jackie's husband/ex-husband Fred stopped appearing altogether a couple episodes after they divorced, although was occasionally referenced as taking care of their infant son in various episodes. Like other characters, his absence in the face of the Conners [[spoiler: winning the lottery]] (including his best friend and boss Dan, his ex-wife Jackie and his infant *son* Andy) is nigh-inexplicable.
** There's also the absence of Bonnie, the waitress from Rodbell's with whom Roseanne worked. Somewhast justified in that everyone seemed to have gone their separate ways after the Rodbell's diner closed down - Leon, her boss, vanished for a while before resurfacing after Roseanne and Jackie opened their own diner, and stuck with the show afterward. Bonnie, meanwhile? Just gone.
** Anne-Marie and Chuck also vanished. Anne-Marie was a friend of Roseanne's from high school, while Chuck became friends with Dan through their wives and regularly participated in the men's poker games.
** Damn near everyone from the plastics factory disappeared after the mass walkout. Vonda stuck around for a little bit into the second season, even having a singing part in the musical episode and setting Roseanne up for a job interview. Then she was replaced by Anne-Marie as the Token Black Friend.
** The salon crew got plenty of screentime and development during Roseanne's tenure, and the whole setting felt like a possible test for a spinoff launch. But, after Roseanne getting into an accident with one of the regular customers, she's never shown working at the salon ever again, and no mention is made of why. (Presumably, her job was filled while she recovered.)
*** Apparently she did keep working that salon job offscreen, because in early Season3 when she got the Rodbell's job, Dan mentions something to the effect of she won't have to sweep hair anymore.
* ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'':
** Two characters at the end of season 1 disappear without explanation: Sabrina's supposed "best friend" Jenny (who might have been referred to in passing as "Jennifer" in a later episode) and Mr. Poole, the science teacher.
** Mr. Poole may have a bit of an excuse, as he wouldn't be Sabrina's teacher due to her moving up in the grades.
** It's also never mentioned what happened to Dreama, the girl Sabrina was supposed to be coaching for her Witches' License.
** The character of Miles also vanishes quite suddenly.
* ''Series/SavedByTheBell: The New Class'':
** Too many students to be named.
** It happened in the original ''SavedByTheBell'' too, but to a lesser extent. The most egregious example was the replacement of Jessie and Kelly with Tori for the last season. That is, until the graduation finale, where the process was reversed. Neither was given any explanation. What really happened was after the series finished production, the network ordered more episodes. The actresses declined to return for them, thus necessitating Tori. The finale was filmed before this happened.
** ''Saved by the Bell'' is actually one of very few shows where the MAIN CHARACTER got Chucked. In its first season, the show focused on the kids' teacher, Miss Bliss, and the school faculty in general; the kids were meant to be supporting characters. This setup was quickly abandoned once it became obvious that the students had a lot more potential for comedy and stories than the teachers. Miss Bliss vanished from the show between seasons one and two. Even the SCHOOL ITSELF fell victim to this trope -- in season one, it's a junior high school in Indiana. From season two on, the same cast is attending a high school in California. No explanation is ever given.
*** ''Saved by the Bell'' is sort of an re-imagining of a different show, ''Good Morning, Miss Bliss'', which was then shown in later syndication as though it were the first season of ''Saved'', despite the resulting oddities in continuity.
* ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'': Dr. Grace Miller was introduced with much fanfare in season 3, then promptly vanished off the face of the earth. Series creator Bill Lawrence later explained that this was because Miller had been a failed attempt to create a female Dr. Cox character. This didn't work because A) it was redundant, as Jordan more than adequately fulfils that role, and B) Dr. Miller was an unfunny, unlikeable shrew.
* ''Series/SecretDiaryOfACallGirl'': In one of the earlier episodes Hannah goes to the hospital to visit her sister Jackie who just had a baby boy. Later she goes to her new nephew's christening. But when Jackie separates from her husband and stays for awhile with Hannah, the baby is not only nowhere to be seen - he isn't even mentioned once.
* ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'':
** Kramer's pet dog is never seen or spoken of after the original pilot.
** Also, their friend the saucy waitress at Monk's, intended to be a main character.
* ''Series/SesameStreet'':
** Oddly enough, given the show's notable sensitivity to such subjects, when Northern Calloway (David, then owner of Hooper's Store) left due to illness and died a few months later, no explanation for the character's absence was ever given on-screen then or since. He seems to simply have been deleted from Street memory.
** WordOfGod has it that it was too soon after the death of Mr. Hooper (in a memorable TearJerker, the adults had to tell Big Bird Mr. Hooper had died, some time after his actor Will Lee died) for there to be another death. And apparently they didn't really feel like coming up with some other explanation for David's departure, so his disappearance was never explained and the show just moved on.
** Another explanation that has appeared in published accounts was that Calloway had become involved with drugs and was involved in several instances of inappropriate behavior, run-ins with the law, and repeated conflicts with the production staff and cast. These accounts sometime contend that David simply had (off-screen) moved to Florida to care for his grandmother, with no other explanation or reference given; David's grandmother had appeared several times from the late 1970s through mid-1980s.
*** In addition to problems with cocaine, Calloway also suffered from severe bipolar disorder. Although this was initially treated with lithium and he returned to the show for a number of years, his health both physical and mental suffered as time went on, directly resulting in his cardiac arrest from "exhaustive psychosis."
** David's successor as owner of Hooper's Store, Mr. Handford, similarly disappeared with no explanation. Sesame Workshop's website hand waves it by saying he simply sold the store to Alan.
** Additionally, numerous Muppet characters have come and gone for various reasons and are now no longer on the show. One was Don Music, a piano player who bangs his head against the piano in frustration, who was dropped from the show when kids at home started doing the same thing. Another was Harvey Kneeslapper, who was let go because his signature laugh was too much of a strain on Frank Oz's vocal cords. Then there was Roosevelt Franklin, who was arguably one of the first breakthrough Sesame Street Muppets, but who was dropped since he was considered to be a negative cultural stereotype (he was the only African-American Muppet at the time and was seen mostly in detention after school). Lefty the Salesman may have vanished due to his criminal nature, something that was probably later deemed inappropriate for a childrens show. Finally, Professor Hastings, a teacher whose lectures were so dull that he would put himself to sleep while giving them, was discontinued because he was too dull.
*** These characters were all officially retired by Sesame Workshop; many others have disappeared over the years but are not technically retired, per se. For example, many of Richard Hunt's characters (such as Forgetful Jones and Placido Flamingo) disappeared upon his death in 1992. Similarly, a good number of Jerry Nelson's characters were phased out as his health problems started to worsen and forced him to limit himself to mostly just performing The Count.
* ''Series/SleepyHollow'' has Luke Morales, a semi-regular character in the first season and ex-boyfriend of Abbie Mills, who is knocked unconscious by a demon in the second to last episode. His fate has yet to be accounted for.
* ''Series/SonOfTheBeach'': The Mayor Anita Massengil character had to be dropped when Jaime Bergman became pregnant. There was even a LampshadeHanging moment in one of the episodes showing the character on posters as a [[FaceOnAMilkCarton missing person]].
* ''Series/{{Space 1999}}'' had quite a few characters disappear between its first and second season. From the regular cast, Paul Morrow, David Kano and Victor Bergman were suddenly gone without explanation. The ''Moonbase Alpha Technical Notebook'' explains that all three died... and apparently lines of dialogue were written to that effect but never used, making their absence all the more glaring as there was nowhere they could have gone (Not quite. Morrow and Kano's absences are never explained, but the Season 2 opener "The Metamorph" confirms in dialogue between Verdeschi and Sandra Benes that Victor Bergman died due to a malfunctioning spacesuit). A recurring character, Tanya Alexander, also went missing. Dr. Robert Mathias, Helena's assistant in the medical center, was briefly used in a much smaller role but then disappeared (again, the tech notebook "explains" that he changed sections). This was compounded when Tony Verdeschi [[RememberTheNewGuy started in like he'd always been there]] in their place at the beginning of the season.
* ''Series/SpinCity'' was well known for this -- of all the characters who left, only Mike (Michael J Fox) actually had an exit storyline. This meant that, over the course of the series, Stacy, James, Nikki, Janelle and Angie all disappeared without trace, often with only the barest of mentions ('''Catlin''': I fired James.).
* ''Series/StElsewhere'':
** Dr. Ben Samuels was a major character in the first season who simply stopped appearing. His plot arc was never resolved, and none of the other characters mention him again. This makes sense, considering he only existed [[AllJustADream in the mind of Tommy Westphall]].
** Dr. Hugh Beale suffered this fate as well.
* ''Series/StargateAtlantis'': Has Hermiod, a recurring Asgard on the Daedalus introduced in Series 2. He later vanishes without explanation, though WordOfGod claims that he died in the Asgard mass-suicide in the SG-1 finale.
* ''Series/StargateSG1'':
** Several character meet this fate:
** Re'tu Charlie is never seen after going to live with the Tok'ra in "Show and Tell", despite his closeness to Jack and despite many further Tok'ra episodes.
** Nyan is never seen after being becoming Daniel's research assistant in "New Ground".
** Teal'c's love interest, Ishta vanishes after season 8 and is never mentioned again.
** And of course, Jonas Quinn, a member of SG-1 for a whole season, completely vanishes after season seven's "Fallout". He isn't mentioned when when his homeworld Langara is said to have been conquered by the Ori, nor does he reappear when they actually show Langara in ''Series/StargateUniverse''.
** The Tok'ra Anise was introduced to 'sexy up' SG-1 for ratings, but was removed without any fanfare after a few episodes when the show runners decided the ratings were fine as they were.
* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
** Two ''very'' prominent characters were Brother Chucked from ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': Guinan and Ensign Ro. Guinan appeared numerous times per season, starting with Season Two, but was completely absent from Season 7 despite numerous scenes set in Ten-Forward (where she was the bartender/proprietor) and many scenes where the characters might have sought her age-old wisdom had them instead going to some other character. Ensign Ro only appeared in 6 episodes of Season 5, but was a major character in all of them and most thought she was going to be added to the main cast in Season 6. She only appeared once, and then didn't appear again until the penultimate episode of the entire series, and that was just to write her out.
*** Guinan was, of course, played by Creator/WhoopiGoldberg, who was a very busy film actress during TNG's run. Her absence in the final season could possibly be explained by filming schedules for ''Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit'' and ''Made in America'' as well as numerous voice-roles she was working on. She only appeared in three episodes of the sixth season, after all. ''Film/StarTrekGenerations'' showed that she hadn't left.
*** In the case of Ensign Ro, the background explanation is that she was being prepped as a central character on ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''. Actress Michelle Forbes did not want to be tied to a TV series as she had a burgeoning film career at the time. She declined the ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine [=DS9=]]]'' job but since her character arc was more-or-less finished on TNG, she was never written back in, and her absence wasn't noted until her reappearance in the penultimate episode, where it turned out she had left the ship in order to take "advanced tactical training".
** The Andorians can be seen as an entire Chuck Cunningham ''species'' in this universe - ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' set them up as an important member of the Federation... by ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration The Next Generation]]'', they're all gone. The WordOfGod explanation was that they were just too silly-looking (blue skin and antennae...).
** In "The Offspring", Data's TrulySingleParent daughter, while choosing an appearance, narrows down the list to a few choices, one of which is an Andorian female. It's mentioned that if that appearance, she would be the only Andorian on the ''Enterprise''. And that was the only Andorian appearance in the 24th century shows... they got a few other off-screen mentions, mostly in ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]'' since some they seem to have done trade there. But ''off-screen''.
** The Tellarites were also important in ''TOS'', but don't appear in the 24th century--unless you count background appearances from recycled footage.
*** The fun thing is, ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' (a prequel series) set these two up as the third and fourth most important species in the Federation. On one hand, it compensates for their non-appearances. On the other hand, it makes their apparent disappearance all the more puzzling.
** The EU explains that the Andorian's apparent disappearance is because they are having a genetic collapse of the Andorian species and aren't even able to maintaining their current population. This is not helped by the fact they have four genders and require all of them to reproduce. Thus, every able-bodied young Andorian is expected to be on Andor attempting to raise a family, not be running around the galaxy in Starfleet. Then the ''Enterprise'' writers complicated things again; probably not even being aware of the Star Trek EU, they treated the Andorians like any other two-gendered species (with two different on-screen romances), leaving the EU novelists scrambling to reconcile these depictions. There's still no explanation for the lack of Tellarites, although it's possible they simply aren't well suited to Starfleet.
** Also the Orions, the race the ''original'' GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe belonged to. ([[spoiler:Well, it was an illusion, but anyway...]]) Like the Andorians and Tellarites, ''Deep Space Nine'' had a lot of fun with keeping them a just-offscreen big deal. In fact, an episode had Ezri's family involved with the Orion Syndicate. All dealings with them are through their non-Orion enforcers. Also like the Andorians and Tellarites, ''Enterprise'' brought them back in full.
** Both the Andorians and the Orions also play very large roles in the MMO, ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline''.
** In [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries the Original Series]], Yeoman Rand was set up in the first dozen or so episodes as a regular love interest for Kirk and then disappeared without explanation. No one seems to be quite sure of the reason (several seemingly contradictory explanations have been given by people involved in the show), but it's usually claimed either that the writers decided Kirk shouldn't be held down by a steady girlfriend and should have [[GirlOfTheWeek Girls of The Week]] instead. She did, however, return in the films, ending up as Sulu's first officer on the ''Excelsior''.
** An odd case from ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': Samantha Wildman, whose daughter Naomi remained on the show with Seven of Nine basically taking over the mother role for her. WordOfGod is that the writers somehow got the idea that they'd killed Samantha in an episode where she almost dies but pulls through.
*** Another similar case on ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' was Lt. Joe Carey, an assistant engineer who appears in four first season episodes... and then not again till the fifth season, and in a flashback at that! One wonders if here again the writers thought they killed him off at some point, since his presence is used ''twice'' to indicate an earlier time. He then reappears exactly twice in the remainder of the series, and gets killed in the fifth to last episode of the series. A run of bad luck.
*** He's actually the last person explicitly [[BackForTheDead killed in the series]].
*** Also, the Borg Baby, overlapping with WhatHappenedToTheMouse. WordOfGod is that the baby was returned to its family offscreen shortly after its introduction.
** Sonya Gomez, an enthusiastic engineer in ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration The Next Generation]]'' who clearly seemed to be featured prominently for ''some'' kind of recurring role... [[WeHardlyKnewYe for all of two episodes]]. Then her actress, Lycia Naff, took a role as the triple-breasted hooker in ''Film/TotalRecall1990'', and the Sonya Gomez [[RoleEndingMisdemeanor vanished without a trace]]. Well, vanished into the Literature/StarfleetCorpsOfEngineers ExpandedUniverse, anyway.
** When Gates [=McFadden=] reprised the role of Dr. Crusher in the third season of ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration The Next Generation]]'', her [[ReplacementScrappy second-season replacement, Dr. Pulaski]], simply vanished with no explanation given.
** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': Remember T'Rul, the Romulan who was part of the command staff of the ''Defiant'' as a stipulation of the Romulan Empire's agreement to let Starfleet use one of their cloaking devices? No? No surprise. This was in part due to the actress who played her, Martha Hackett, getting cast in a recurring role on ''Voyager'' shortly afterwards, and the ''Deep Space Nine'' staff simply not feeling like replacing her. While it would've been technically possible to have her play both roles simultaneously (each character [[RubberForeheadAliens had a different rubber forehead]] which would've kept it from being too glaringly obvious), for whatever reason they didn't want to do that. (The rules T'Rul was there to enforce also conveniently disappeared without a comment, other than one episode where they simply remembered one of the rules, then broke it. Why the notoriously secretive Romulans no longer felt a need to keep watch over their cloaking device was never explained.)
** Shakaar Edon, Kira's love interest and the Prime Minister of Bajor, also disappears; at various points afterward, Bajor is represented by Kai Winn at various conferences and such (e.g. the abortive signing of Bajor's admission to the Federation in "Rapture") where it would make more sense for the civil government to be involved. The real life reason was scheduling problems for the actor, Duncan Regehr, who lived in Canada.
* ''Series/StepByStep'':
** Used when Frank's youngest son was completely written out, replaced by the new baby (who [[SoapOperaRapidAgingSyndrome became a talking youngster within one season]].
** Carol's sister and mother likewise disappeared after the first season. Cody also went missing in the sixth season due to real-life issues with the actor's wife, but managed to return for the final season.
*** Though Cody's absence was handwaived by saying that he was off wandering the world on his bike.
* ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody'': The old maid Muriel appeared a lot in season one...and disappeared in the next two seasons. It was revealed in the series finale that she retired two years earlier...and Zack and Cody brought her back due to fact that Mr. Tipton was planning on firing somebody and who better to fire than someone who's already retired?
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'':
** The writers managed to do this in the span of a ''single episode'' in season 5. It introduced Jesse Turner, a young boy explicitly identified as the Anti-Christ. This resulted from a union between a demon and a human, which somehow imbued him with high-level RealityWarper powers, an ability neither species displayed in any way. Possibly realizing how little sense it made that this would result in the most powerful character depicted in the show up to that point (with the possible exception of God) and the StoryBreakerPower it entailed, the writers immediately sent the character off to nowhere, and he's never mentioned afterwards. It's technically also PutOnABus, but it goes straight past even LongBusTrip because everyone immediately forgets he ever existed at all.
** Never to be forgotten, of course, is the infamous Adam Milligan. Introduced in Season 4 as the Winchester's long-lost half-brother, Adam was only in a few episodes himself, but still managed to become a beloved character in that time. At the end of Season 5, he was dragged into The Pit by Sam, locking the two of them up for supposed eternity with the archangels possessing them. And then Sam got out. Sorta. Admittedly, Adam was mentioned a grad total of once following his dramatic and highly involuntary fall: when Death told Dean he could only rescue one soul from The Pit and made him choose between Adam's and Sam's. Adam Milligan has not been mentioned or heard from again, to the point where his being forgotten has actually become a fandom-wide meme. So, once again, never forget: Adam Milligan...Still In Hell.
*** This has become an ascended meme as of a recent season 10 episode, where Sam and Dean run into a school production of Supernatural, and Dean asks who the character dressed up as Adam is supposed to be... only for the director to tell him that he's Sam and Dean's brother, Adam, who's still trapped in hell. Sam and Dean can only share a "oh, right, forgot about that" look with each other. ([[InformedAbility proving how much they really care about family]])
* ''Series/{{Taxi}}'': In which John Burns disappears after the first season without on-screen explanation (though he may have been fired for crashing the beloved Cab 804 beyond repair; WordOfGod is that he was just too boring a character.)
* ''Series/{{Teachers}}'':
** Between seasons 2 and 3, Jenny, JP and Susan just evaporate without explanation.
* "Series/TeenWolf":
** Danny, a beloved character of the series, recurred for the first three seasons of the show and played an important role during several episodes. He is cut from the show and never mentioned again right after revealing that he knows about werewolves.
* ''Series/That70sShow'':
** In the fifth episode, Donna's sister Tina is introduced... only to never be seen again. Later in the series Donna is referred to as being an only child. Tina's disappearance is {{lampshade|Hanging}}d at the end of a season two episode called "Vanstock." A narrator announces a bunch of character questions in a dramatic fashion, such as "Will Donna and Eric ever consummate their relationship?" The final question is "And whatever happened to Midge's other daughter, Tina? Find out next time on ''That 70s Show''!" However, this is the last time Tina is ever mentioned.
** Donna's older sister Valerie was mentioned as being at college, and then was never mentioned again. Considering ''That '70s Show'' gave many nods to ''Series/HappyDays'', Tina and Valerie may have been intentionally introduced ''just to have this happen''.
** The most prominent semi-example is Laurie, Eric's older sister. She was a recurring character in season one, and then a regular in season two and three. Her actress then left the show, and Laurie wasn't mentioned at all.(At least not by name, though Red mentioned having "kids"). Laurie came back (played by a different actress) for recurring appearances in season five and six before disappearing again, though she was mentioned in passing several times. When Kitty considers Donna part of the family at the end of the series, they lampshade on Laurie's disappearance, wondering where she is.
* ''Series/TilDeath'':
** Jeff and Steph Woodcock (Eddie Kaye Thomas and Kat Foster) were lead characters, on equal footing with Eddie and Joy Stark (Brad Garrett and Joely Fisher), and the whole basis of the show seemed to be about contrasting a newly-wed couple and a long-time married couple. After the first 2 seasons, however, they vanished without a trace, and Jeff's sidekick role was taken by [[BlackBestFriend Kenny]], played by J.B. Smoove. This was further confused when unaired episodes from Season 2 aired in the middle of Season 3.
** Kenny disappeared himself at the beginning of the fourth and final season. His place was taken by their daughter Ally and her fiancé/husband Doug. Like the season before the episodes were aired out of order and had some leftovers thrown in. Since Ally was recast three times during the show it was especially confusing.
** This gets a lampshade when Doug remembers all of the above, plus a random guest arc by Gilbert Gottfried, late in the fourth season, due to him getting MediumAwareness as a form of mental illness. Don't worry, it MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext. At any rate, none of the other characters have any idea who he's talking about when he brings them up.
* ''Series/TheTomorrowPeople'':
** Stephen, one of the original cast members, just disappeared from the series without explanation after the fourth season. According to some sources, ExecutiveMeddling was the reason for his departure, and writer Roger Price didn't feel like writing the character out... so Stephen is gone from the series without any sort of explanation or acknowledgement that he ever existed. Very jarring, considering he was one of the first people we were introduced to, and was one of the two longest-serving cast members up to that point.
** Tyso disappeared at the same time as Stephen (also with no explanation). However, during the fourth season Tyso had been DemotedToExtra due to confusion over whether he'd be returning to the series.
*** In the remake, Lisa disappeared after the first season and Kevin vanished after the second, with no mention made of either of them by anyone.
* ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' had Detective Kathy Swanson, whom the team reach out to when locked in their ElaborateUndergroundBase. She disappears after the first series and is never mentioned again, even in episodes that involve the police or take place in the police station (although she does make it into the {{Tie In Novel}}s.)
* ''Series/TheTorkelsons'' was completely retooled as ''Almost Home'' for its second season, famously losing two of the family's five children in the process.
* ''Series/TrailerParkBoys'': Treena Lahey (Ellen Page) appears in the second season. She and her mom, Barb were staying with Lahey over the summer. Barb became a RecurringCharacter, but Treena vanished after the season's end and was never referenced again.
* ''Series/TheTudors'' actually had a rampant problem with this, resulting in an extensive rewriting of history. Among the important characters who disappear without a trace (and often have their historical roles delegated to someone else) are the Duke of Norfolk, Sir Anthony Knivert, Archbishop Cranmer, Pope Paul III, and Sir Francis Bryan.
* ''Series/WarOfTheWorlds'':
** Harrison's girlfriend appears in the pilot episode, and expresses doubts over why he's bothering to investigate an urban legend (the radiated Martians). After he kisses her and heads out on assignment, she's never seen again, and Harrison never mentions her any time afterwards.
** Mrs. Pennyworth, whose estate Harrison, Ironhorse and the others stay at through the first season. Although her partner, Tom Kensington, dies in the episode "Among the Philistines", she is still alive at the end of the episode. She disappears without explanation between the two seasons, and isn't present when the estate is breached and destroyed in the second-season premiere.
** Katara, an android from the planet Synth, who helps the Blackwood team repel a large Mortaxian force, heals their critical injuries and tells them she is leaving the planet to get help from her own people. She never appears in the series again.
* ''Series/WelcomeBackKotter'': Gabe's wife was pregnant, but then it was suddenly forgotten; apparently they were trying to write the actress's pregnancy into the script, and it became a running gag for some time -- until the actress had a miscarriage. A year later however, they repeated the same gag, and she had twins.
* ''Series/TheWestWing'': Mandy was a publicity relations manager for the first season, who disappeared after it. According to Rob Lowe, the writers referred to any character who had disappeared and not been used when they seemed they'd be more important as having 'gone to Mandyville.' Not only did she disappear between season one and two (despite the opener of season two following directly on from the end of the first) but she does not appear in any flashbacks to Bartlett's initial campaign, despite having been established as both working on it and being involved with Josh at the time. Even during [[spoiler: Leo's funeral]], when a number of old characters showed up, she was neither seen nor mentioned.
* ''Series/WhiteCollar'':
** A bizarre case. The pilot features Diana, a lesbian FBI agent who works with Neal and Peter. She vanishes for the rest of the series, [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute replaced by another female FBI agent, Lauren Cruz]]. Then, it becomes a SubvertedTrope in the first season finale, when she reappears, [[PutOnABus having been transferred to Washington]], and provides Peter with crucial information. Then, the BigBad catches her and is about to kill her when Peter shoots him. Diana joins the cast full time in Season 2, and NOW Lauren Cruz is nowhere to be found.
** They did it again with Agent Garrett Fowler. He was a major villain in Season 1 and the first half of Season 2. He and Neal face off in the mid-season finale, he gives them all the information he has, Peter brings him back to the Bureau, and... nothing. Absolutely nothing. We never find out what happened to him. He gets a passing reference at the beginning of Season 3, but it's only a mention of his and Neal's confrontation. WordOfGod doesn't even seem to know. When asked, Jeff Eastin replied, "Peter killed him and buried him in the backyard." Needless to say, this inspired a lot of fan fiction...
* ''Series/{{Wings}}'': After Thomas Haden Church left, Brian Haley was brought in to play Budd Bronski, the [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute replacement character]] for Church's Lowell. However, Budd's personality was neither as memorable nor as well-defined as Lowell's had been, so after a few appearances, he disappeared from the series without explanation, and the writers decided to build up the show's other supporting characters (chiefly Antonio and Casey) instead.
* ''Series/TheWire'' is one of the few where Brother Chucking actually makes sense, as each season has the characters working a different case, focusing on different people. For example, in the second season, Sydnor is nowhere to be seen or even mentioned. Likely he simply returned to the Auto Squad and wasn't detailed for the Sobatka case. When Daniels is granted his own unit (Major Crimes), and his pick of officers, he picks Sydnor. Sydnor later lampshades his absence from the second season. Someone mentions the Sobatka case, and he says "I didn't work that case with you."
** Almost anyone from the criminal enterprises whose disappearance from the show isn't explained can be explained as the focus of the show isn't on their enterprise anymore. For that matter, many of them do make return appearances, just so we can see what happened to them.
* ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'':
** Anyone remember Alex's rival [[AlphaBitch Gigi?]] Because neither her nor her GirlPosse are seen or mentioned again after season two.
** Also, Dragon. Last time he was mentioned was in an episode where Max says he told his girlfriend everything except the dog-dragon, as he didn't know WHAT happened with that.
** Also Brad, who said he'd find out why the Russos were so weird then was never mentioned again.
* ''Series/TheXFiles'':
** We are given the example of Scully's invisible brother, Charlie. He is seen once in a flashback to when they were children, mentioned perhaps twice, and then never again. And though we see Scully's other siblings: older sister Melissa and older brother Bill who have a moderate impact on the plot, Charlie is never seen as an adult in the show's nine year run. (At least not definitively: He ''may'' be one of the [[TheVoiceless silent mourners]] at their father's funeral.)
** There's also Senator Matheson, who's set up in ''Little Green Men'' as a replacement for Deep Throat. He appears only twice, and is mentioned a few times, in Seasons 2-3 before disappearing. He reappeared for a single episode in Season Six then vanished completely.
* ''Series/NedsDeclassifiedSchoolSurvivalGuide'': A good few characters fell victim. You can possibly view it as [[TruthInTelevision Truth In Television]], as in grade school classmates and teachers you see one year you may see less frequently the following year, due to schedule changes and making new friends to replace the old.
** Bitsy, Suzy Crabgrass's best friend disappears after season 1, with the introduction of [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute Missy Meany]].
** All members of the Huge Crew are never mentioned after season 3.
** The Scoop after season 1.
** Shandra Taylor, Moze's friend after season 1.
** This nearly happens to Mr. Monroe. He was in the opening credits in season 1, replaced with Gordy in season 2, and starts appearing less and less until he disappears. However, [[TheBusCameBack he finally returns in a late season 3 episode.]] and was promptly re-added to the opening credits.
* ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'' has Jamie, who was taken in by Bonnie's mother and started a romantic relationship with her. Last time we saw him, he and Bonnie were asleep together when Esther compels her to [[spoiler: complete Alaric's transition into a vampire hunter to destroy her children.]] He hasn't been seen since.
** Before Jamie, there was Lucy, a distant cousin of Bonnie, who was last seen in season two, telling Bonnie she'd see her again, and implying it be soon.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Music]]
* Upgrade, the female robot of SteamPoweredGiraffe, was [[{{retcon}} retconned]] out of the band's backstory when performer Erin Burke left the band in 2011.
* Slymenstra Hymen's disappearance from the {{GWAR}} stage shows and band storyline was never explained. Then again, the Danielle Stamp (Who plays her) makes occasional appearance in character in shows, also without explanation. Same goes for Sleazy P. Martini, their manager, who is similary gone from the regular show and storyline, but will occasionally pompadour for a show or two.
** Techno Destructo at least gets a little story of his drop in/drop out nature; Flattus officially "went back to his home world" when guitarist Corey Smoot who played him at the time died (instead of the new band member playing the character as they had in the past).
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Newspaper Comics]]
* In ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'', [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Garfield_characters#Lyman Lyman]] was a black-haired guy with a bushy moustache who was Odie's original owner. He later disappeared from the strip with no explanation. His dog Odie remained a regular, and is ostensibly owned by Jon.
** [[WordOfGod Rumor has it]] that you really don't want to look in Jon's basement ([[FlipFlopOfGod either that or Lyman died in the Peace Corps]]). The ''actual'' explanation is that Jim Davis created Lyman so that Jon would have a human friend, a sort of sounding board. As Garfield evolved into a more human-like character and began taking over that role, Lyman became redundant.
** ''[[http://www.garfield.com/fungames/scavengerhunt/scavengerhunt.html Garfield's Scary Scavenger Hunt]]'' on the official Web site features Lyman trapped in the dungeon, and in the shower (the sequel replaces him with Jon) of a HauntedHouse. After Lyman is fed a muffin, he mysteriously vanishes. He also runs the bookstore on the site.
** ''Garfield'' has, in fact, become steadily less reliant on its supporting cast overall, a far cry from the days of the 1980s and '90s when Jon and Garfield were depicted as having fairly active lives outside of the home. Characters such as Jon's family, Irma at the diner, and Garfield's girlfriend, Arlene, have all steadily phased into near-obscurity. Even Odie's appearances are now noteworthy events. The spiders Garfield harasses (and vice versa) have strangely emerged as the strip's most dominant supporting characters in the 2000s.
** The mystery was ''finally'' solved on a four-part episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheGarfieldShow'', called "Long Lost Lyman"! However, due to the fact that the show is not really linked to the comics themselves, this probably is not canon to the strip.
* The eponymous character of ''ComicStrip/{{Cathy}}'' originally had a doggedly determined boyfriend, Emerson, who pursued Cathy with the same hopeless determination as she gave to Irving. He faded away after the first year or so.
* In ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'', Peter's girlfriend, Denise Russo, whom he met in the first year of the comic strip, suddenly disappeared in the middle of the 2000s (a couple of years before it went Sundays-only), but he didn't seem to break up with her (one could say it happened off screen, but at the same time we never see Peter trying to date any other girls).
** And once the strip became Sundays-only in 2007, pretty much all of the supporting cast either disappeared or made smaller appearances, leaving just the titular Fox family and Jason's friend Marcus.
* Considering ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' ran continuously for nearly half a century, it was inevitable this would happen many times.
** Shermy was the first character to have a speaking line in the strip, and was Charlie Brown's best friend early on, but he vanished without a trace in late 1969.
*** ''Magazine/{{MAD}}'' pointed out Shermy's disappearance with "Will Success Spoil Charlie Brown?", a feature they ran several years later in which he comes back to the strip and finds everyone in it has let stardom go to their heads.
** Several other ''Peanuts'' characters from the first decade disappeared for the exact same reason Shermy did, a reason creator Charles Schulz was never shy about admitting – they just weren't that interesting. The roster of eventually-missing also includes Violet[[labelnote:†]] (fun fact: ''she'' began the infamous football gag, months before Lucy's introduction to the series)[[/labelnote]] and Patty[[labelnote:†]] (''not'' to be confused with "Peppermint" Patty, the far more popular character who was introduced years later and remained a core cast member until the strip's end)[[/labelnote]], the two Mean Girls in the early strips — in other words, ''ALL of the initial characters'' except Charlie Brown and Snoopy. Also getting the axe were one-note types like Frieda [[InsistentTerminology (with the naturally curly hair)]] and Pig-Pen. Shermy was explicitly replaced by Franklin, the strip's first Black kid.
** Schulz also did this to a lot of "experimental" characters that never quite worked out. He once introduced a boy who was named 5, who claimed his family had changed their names to numbers, claiming that numbers were becoming more important than names these days. Unfortunately, he was sort of a one-joke character, so he eventually disappeared and was forgotten about. He's best known today for being "that guy who moves his head from side to side while dancing" in A Charlie Brown Christmas.
** Roy debuted in the strip's first summer camp arc in 1965, where he was befriended by Charlie Brown. From there he would appear periodically, usually in other summer camp strips, before being written out in 1984. His most lasing contribution to the strip came when he introduced his neighbor Peppermint Patty to Charlie Brown in 1966, setting her up as a main character and establishing a second neighborhood "on the other side of town" (which was also home to Franklin and Marcie) that the other characters would occasionally visit.
** After appearing in nine strips from late November 1954 to early February 1955, Charlotte vanished due to all the criticism she got for going too far in her cruelty. Unlike Shermy, Patty, and Violet – who at least were DemotedToExtra for a while – Charlotte never appeared again at all. Charlotte had a lot of potential, too; her full name was "Charlotte Braun", and, as that might suggest, she was created as a [[DistaffCounterpart female counterpoint]] to Charlie Brown. She was basically the opposite of him: abrasive instead of timid, over-confident instead of self-loathing, convinced the world owed her instead of convinced the world hated her. Schulz quickly learned that people liked Charlie Brown for the same reasons they hated Charlotte. He replied to one letter writer who asked him to take her out of the comic, "[[YouBastard I will remove her, but how do you feel about causing the death of an innocent child?]]" (the letter included a picture of Charlotte with an axe in her head). Ouch.
** Tapioca Pudding was a sort-of attempt to bring back a Charlotte-style character in 1986. During her incredibly short time in the strip – September to December of that year – she would brag about how her father worked in licensing and how he was going to make her famous by putting her image on lunch boxes and T-shirts, and implored her new "friends" in the strip to jump on the bandwagon before her star took off. Some have theorized that Tapioca was a parody of ''WesternAnimation/StrawberryShortcake'' and the mid-1980s licensing craze in general, where every new TV cartoon character was created with the intention of [[MerchandiseDriven selling merchandise]]. Kind of ironic [-and maybe a bit hypocritical-] considering the CashCowFranchise that ''Peanuts'' is (and had long been by that point), but when Charles Schulz of all people is complaining about it…
** The "Shut Up and Leave Me Alone" kid was introduced in the same 1971 summer camp arc that Marcie debuted in, but ultimately didn't become a recurring character like her because of how incredibly one-note he was: his entire gimmick was to tell people to, well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin shut up and leave him alone]]. And this from a strip that usually brought back its one-joke characters at least once or twice later on, and how easy it could have been to slip him into any social situation.
** Frieda (apart from being an example herself) also had a cat named Faron, who was featured prominently for a few months and then disappeared forever. [[WordOfGod Schulz said]] this was because it wouldn't make any sense for her and Snoopy to interact as they could only communicate through thought bubbles. He apparently got over this as Snoopy's siblings made later appearances, and he communicated with them through thought bubbles.
** Eudora was the last major character to be added to the strip, and also the first to be written out in the comic's final years. Introduced as a friend of Sally's in 1978, she eventually took over Frieda's position in the strip, including her spot on Charlie Brown's baseball team. She was mostly known for being even more of a ditz than Sally, and also as one of the few characters to treat Charlie Brown nicely (as well as one of the two girls to call him "Charles", the other being Marcie). Her last appearance was in 1987, nine years to the day (June 13) from when she first appeared.
** Royanne Hobbs first appeared in 1993, where she pitched the ball that won Charlie Brown his first game in the strip. That summer she appeared again and he won his second game off of her… and then later that summer she admitted that she has a crush on him and let him win the two games, which devastates him. She appeared one more time in the strip trying to sell off a bat owned by her "grandfather" [[Film/TheNatural Roy Hobbs]], which Lucy buys… then when Lucy finds out that Roy Hobbs wasn't real, she flips out. Royanne offers to join Charlie Brown's team, but because of this transaction refuses to play with Lucy. And that was the last anyone saw of her.
** Truffles appeared in two story lines (one from 1975 and another from 1977). Her purpose in the strip seemed to be as a love interest for Linus, and her second appearance had her and Sally fighting over his affections. She disappeared after that.
** Almost all of these characters are featured in the iOS app ''Snoopy's Street Fair'', along with some of the more obscure ones, such as Thibault, Lydia, and Joe Agate.
* Just about every other character in the ''ComicStrip/PricklyCity'' strip besides Carmen and Winslow was a victim of this.
* This was the case with the '''main characters''' in ''ComicStrip/OutOfTheGenePool''. The strip was originally about Rufus and his friends and families. Later in the run, the cartoonist switched focus to Rufus's brother-in-law and changed the title to ''ComicStrip/SingleAndLooking''. Rufus was never heard of again until a year later, when he appeared in the very last strip, snarking about how he never had a proper closure.
* In the comic strip ''ComicStrip/{{Robotman}}'', the titular character got abducted by aliens, and was never mentioned again. Eventually, the comic strip got renamed to ''ComicStrip/{{Monty}}'', one of the other characters who became the new main character.
** Also, the strip was first about him staying with a traditional family, and much of the comedy was based on "weird urban alien hijinks" similar to E.T. or ALF. They vanished with no explanation. This was later {{lampshade|Hanging}}d.
* Calvin of ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' was introduced to an Uncle Max, his father's younger brother, fairly early in the comic strip's run. Max's single visit to Calvin's home was also his last, and [[WordOfGod as Watterson put it]], "Max is gone." He's said that he thought inventing Max would offer new story opportunities, but realized that introducing an extra adult just intruded upon the strip's childhood setting; it'd be difficult to have Max and Calvin's parents interact without branching them off into more grown-up stories, and having Max [[UnnamedParent never refer to Calvin's parents by name]] (a cardinal rule for the strip) felt too contrived.
* Chip Dunham's ''ComicStrip/{{Overboard}}'' had several pirate characters early on that just sort of disappeared over time. To replace them, he's increasingly relied on TalkingAnimal characters (dogs, mice, and rabbits) to serve as foils to lead character Captain Crow and remaining shipmates Charley and Nate.
* Cindy, the DumbBlonde NaiveNewcomer from the early days of ''ComicStrip/TheBoondocks'', disappeared with no explanation almost a decade ago, and was never mentioned again. She did pop up in [[PragmaticAdaptation the TV series]], however.
* Pretty much every character from the early days of ''ComicStrip/BloomCounty''. Milo was the only character to last the entire run, and before it was over, even he was DemotedToExtra. Notable vanishings were Milo's grandfather and Cutter John's girlfriend [[HotLibrarian Bobbi Harlow]].
** Which is weird because Bobbi was already well established as a foil for Steve Dallas when Cutter John was introduced to be her boyfriend.
** The original premise of the strip was about Milo living in a large boarding house full of quirky residents. '''All''' of these people ended up vanishing, and eventually, so did the house itself.
*** Berke Breathed admitted that he hadn't found the strip's "center" in early comics; when [[BreakoutCharacter Opus]] emerged as that center, he took focus and there was no longer a need to "try people out".
* SatelliteLoveInterest Sylvia was written out of ''ComicStrip/{{Baldo}}'' when the titular character started dating a GirlNextDoor named Smiley... who later broke up with Baldo and was never heard from again herself.
* In ''ComicStrip/BeetleBailey'', Beetle had a steady girlfriend named Bunny, and they had been together as the comic progressed all the way up until the turn of the century, when Bunny vanished without any explanation. It took a few years but Beetle got a new girlfriend, the famous Miss Buxley.
** Before he joined the Army, Beetle's girlfriend was Buzz. In 2010, a strip revealed that she was now dating his old friend Bill, another character who disappeared when it switched from college humor to military humor.
* There was a homeless match seller who appeared in a number of early ''ComicStrip/{{Alex}}'' strips. He vanished a few years into the run without explanation.
* ''[[ComicStrip/SnuffySmith Barney Google]]''. The star of his own comic strip from its creation in 1919, he gradually faded out in the 1950s and hasn't been seen in over half a century… but STILL gets top billing in the ArtifactTitle of the strip, ''Barney Google and Snuffy Smith''. Most people just know the strip as ''Snuffy Smith'' nowadays, as newspapers don't print the full title (it only appears in the drop-panel for Sunday strips). Oddly, the comic also went through a stretch where it was titled ''Barney Google and Spark Plug'', the latter being a racehorse who was ''also'' dropped in the transition to Snuffy Smith. Though Barney Google did return in 2012 as a short cameo.
* In ''ComicStrip/{{The Amazing Spider-Man}}'', Maria Lopez was a professional rival and potential romantic interest for J. Jonah Jameson. After a reboot storyline that was later retconned into a dream sequence, Maria had vanished without explanation and has never been seen since.
* Early in ''ComicStrip/PearlsBeforeSwine'', Pig and Rat got a new roommate, Leonard. The creator of the strip was hoping he'd make for some good material, but it didn't work out and he was rarely seen. Eventually he '''was''' killed off screen, getting his head stuck in the toilet and drowning.
* In ''ComicStrip/PiranhaClub'' Ernie was going to Doris Husselmeyer's house to meet her for the first time. Another man was there too, and Ernie asked whether he was going to meet Doris as well. The man said that he wouldn't, and that he was going to meet "the pretty sister," who, at the end of the strip, turned out to be horribly ugly. She was never seen again.
* There was once a strip called ''Thimble Theater'', about a woman named Olive Oyl, her equally [[PunnyName punny named]] family, and her boyfriend Harold Hamgravy. Ten years in, it introduced a sailor named ComicStrip/{{Popeye}} who proved to be an EnsembleDarkHorse, and shortly after that most of Olive's original supporting cast disappeared.
* In the comic ''[[ComicStrip/SallyForthHoward Sally Forth]]'', Alice [[LampshadeHanging points out]] every character who has [[UnPerson vanished suddenly from their lives]], further noting how they're replaced by [[RedShirt nameless, forgettable co-workers]]. Alice then goes to say how she stays near Sally to [[GenreSavvy avoid being replaced by a younger frenemy, work spouse, or robot]].
* Alison Bechdel has frequently noted just how tough making ''ComicStrip/DykesToWatchOutFor'' was, so it's not surprising that she just plain gave up on a number of characters:
** Harriet - Originally Mo's long-suffering girlfriend, Bechdel liked her enough to keep her around long after the breakup, and she transitioned to a viable secondary character. However, new characters (particularly Stuart, Jiao Raizel, Jonas, and Cynthia) and their storylines eventually took top billing, and Harriet was gradually phased out.
** Naomi - Apparently, Bechdel intended her to be part of the main cast and just could never find her niche. She did a few minor things (most notably the Passover strip), was revealed to be bisexual, and finally had one or two throwaway cameos before never being mentioned again.
** Thea - Handicapped (but doesn't want to make a big deal out of it), femmey, somewhat rough personality, used to be with Sydney, now with Maxine (apparently the longest-lasting, most stable couple of all), Jewish. That's it. Bechdel even stated that Thea's an artist but could just never work it into the strip. Vanishes almost immediately after Madwimmin Books closes. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in the "strike" strip:
---> "I thought I would be a nice two-dimensional character like the rest of you. But noooo, I just show up on my crutches every tenth episode like a damn poster child!"
** Jezanna - One of the integral characters for much of the strip's run; unfortunately, she lost all relevance after the bookstore closed. Got a handful of strips and then vanished.
** June - Much like Thea, she simply got lost in the shuffle (Bechdel admitted that she felt like dead weight). She left the strip immediately after breaking up with Sparrow and only appeared in a few cameos afterward.
** Yoshiko - Ginger's artistically minded student (and apparently a longtime friend of Lois as well). Yoshiko was actually listed as a main character in one of the books. She never did anything of note and disappeared after a few strips.
** Sophie - Madwimmin Books intern who had a couple of witty verbal jousts with Mo. She was another victim of the bookstore's closing.
* Early on, Mother Goose in ''ComicStrip/MotherGooseAndGrimm'' lived with a male pig named Ham. He appeared in the TV series (voiced by Eddie Deezen), but after a while he was quietly dropped.
* Several early ''ComicStrip/OverTheHedge'' strips had characters who were never seen again. Among them were Verne's nephew, Plushie ([[SpellMyNameWithAnS also spelled "Plushy" in a few strips]]); a dog named Dotty, on whom RJ had a crush; Velma and Luby, who were {{Distaff Counterpart}}s to Verne and RJ; a beaver named Howard, and a paranoid mole named Carl.
* British comic strip ''ComicStrip/ThePerishers'' has an interesting story. One recurring character, Kilroy the tortoise, believed himself to be the reincarnation of UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler, wore a swastika around his neck, and spoke with a mangled German accent. In 1984, the newspaper that carried the strip, the ''Daily Mirror'', was purchased by Robert Maxwell - a Czech from a Jewish family, who lost loved ones to Auschwitz. For obvious reasons, Kilroy was never seen again.
* In early ''Oor Wullie'' strips, Wullie had a baby brother, and stories often involved him trying to get out of babysitting. The brother disappears at some point in the 1940s and is never mentioned again.
* ''ComicStrip/ForBetterOrForWorse'' was really bad about characters disappearing once Lynn Johnston was no longer interested in using them. A common example cited is the case of Connie's stepdaughters, Molly and Gayle, who just one day inexplicably vanished after their two year spanning story arc about adjusting to Connie and a new town ended. The most egregious example though is the one character that she was forced to bring ''back'' after she tried dropping him. Why? Because his final appearance was of him ''attempting to sexually assault Elizabeth''. Somehow it never occurred to her that her readers might have ''wanted'' to see him get his comeuppance, especially since she was ''finally'' [[StrangledByTheRedString getting Elizabeth and Anthony together]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Other]]
* This is what happened to Dreamfinder as a result of ExecutiveMeddling on ''Journey Into Imagination'' at [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks EPCOT]].
** The bus has come back a couple of times since then, though. He made a cameo at D23 in 2011, leading the audience in a rousing rendition of the ride's song, "One Little Spark," and got his own prequel comic via Disney/Marvel's {{ComicBook/Disney Kingdoms}}.
* In Jon Buck's Paradise setting CM is mentioned by the cast of sequel series "Paradise:Veil" and is seen in the story Tall Tales, however his best friend Robert Hallman seemingly vanishes after the 9th "CM and Rob" story.
* Many toy-driven franchises that go on for multiple incarnations would often find many characters dropped from later series. The most notable case is ''Franchise/GIJoe'''s Zarana: Mostly seen as an attempt to add a second female to Cobra, but she never made a screen appearance since the DiC-produced episodes. While she DID receive an expanded role in the DDP Joe comics, she is the only 1982-94-originated female character to never even get a mention in any of IDW's new Joe comics! Even Cover Girl and Pythona get odd appearances every now and then! She doesn't appear in the LarryHama-penned IDW continuation of ''G.I.Joe: A Real American Hero'' AT ALL!
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Professional Wrestling]]
* This happens regularly. Wrestlers leave the company, which is very rarely acknowledged on the air; the sole reference will generally be in a short corporate press release stating that they and the company have come to terms on their departure and that Wrestling/{{WWE}} "wishes them the best in their future endeavors" -- leading to the popular FanSpeak term for a wrestler being fired: being 'future-endeavored'. They may be taken off the air prior to leaving, to lower their 'drawing' value. Usually this happens to guys who work the lower matches, and so flies under the radar, but occasionally even a big name will simply vanish. For example, Wrestling/{{Sable}}, who was extremely popular in the late '90s, abruptly vanished from programming -- because she sued the company. Similarly, Wrestling/EricBischoff was taken off the air in Wrestling/{{WCW}} for his inept management, and his on-air departure was never acknowledged, which made it even less understandable when he returned in April 2000.
* A particularly egregious example was when 1980s megastar Wrestling/HulkHogan left the WWF in 1993. After losing the WWF title to Wrestling/{{Yokozuna}} at King of Ring, Hogan was never mentioned again until wrestling started taking on more 'realistic' angles.
** This appears to have once again happened with the Hulkster in 2015. He was a host on Tough Enough and appeared sporadically on other WWE programs but was abruptly fired for making racially offensive comments. WWE even went to the point of erasing him from the Hall of Fame and its upcoming WWE '16 game where he would have figured prominently.
* One of the worst examples of this happening was the managers of [[Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin "Stunning" Steve Austin]] after he first entered WCW in 1991. When he debuted, he was accompanied by a brunette named Vivacious Veronica, however after a few weeks she was replaced without explanation by a blond called Lady Blossom (who was Austin's then wife and former WCCW valet, Jeannie Clark), about a year later she disappeared and Paul E. Dangerously (AKA Wrestling/PaulHeyman) took over the job of managing Austin. Wrestling/{{Madusa}} and Col. Robert Parker both fit in there somewhere too.
* When Berlyn (WCW mainstay Alex Wright, repackaged) debuted, he originally came out accompanied by three bodyguards and a pretty female interpreter named Uta who was getting surprisingly popular fairly quickly. Then Uta and two of the bodyguards disappeared about a month into the character's run with absolutely no acknowledgement.
* In late 2010, after his FaceHeelTurn, Tyson Kidd appeared on RAW with a new bodyguard, 7-foot developmental talent Jackson Andrews. Andrews, for all of his size and intimidation, was as green as grass, and after about 4 weeks, following Kidd losing a match to Wrestling/MarkHenry, Andrews sustained a World's Strongest Slam from Henry and returned to developmental limbo, where he would be released soon after, never to be mentioned or talked about again.
** Happens a lot with valets, for instance, Wrestling/{{Carlito|Colon}}'s temporary bodyguard-or-something, Jesús (as in "Hey-suess"), who, in {{Kayfabe}}, stabbed Wrestling/JohnCena in a night club. He then faced Cena in a street fight at a PPV, which resulted in Jesús getting beaten within an inch of his life and never being mentioned afterwards.
* If not for Wrestling/CMPunk's throwaway lamentations, those who don't check WWE corporate statements would probably be ignorant about guys like Festus/Luke Gallows, Mike Knox and Wrestling/VladimirKozlov getting 'future endeavored'. Nor would they be aware of Wrestling/JohnMorrison, Wrestling/{{Melina}} Perez, Wrestling/GailKim or the Wrestling/BellaTwins just up and leaving.
** Or, in the case, of the Bellas, returning out of nowhere either.
* Possibly justified example in Wrestling/ChrisBenoit after it was discovered he had killed his wife and son before committing suicide. [=DVDs=] prominently featuring him were discontinued (some permanently, such as his biographical release), commentary for certain matches featuring him were edited, and his name was removed from many pages on WWE's website. As of late, they've steadily begun reversing this course, but never so far as to even indirectly mention him on TV.
* Remember the guy who won Tough Enough? Andy Leavine? A few videos aired for hyping him up, however they stopped and he was quietly released months later, never to be mentioned again.
* Since walking out in January 2014, CM Punk has become one of these. His first mention on WWE television since then was the March 2014 episode of Raw where Paul Heyman came out to his music. Later on, however, at Payback 2014 when the crowd was chanting Punk's name, Stephanie [=McMahon=] told Daniel Bryan, who was in the ring with her, that they wanted Bryan to quit as CM Punk had.
* Kozo Urita aka Tiger Shark, a Japanese professional wrestler and UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts fighter known as part of Wrestling/SatoruSayama's entourage, was a mainstay on Real Japan Pro Wrestling from its foundation year until October 2013, moment in which he vanished for no explanation.
* A similar example is Hisamaru Tajima, who was set to become the ace of Toryumon X. However, after only two matches in Mexico, he disappeared completely, and Taiji Ishimori took his role as the next Toryumon ace. The reasons behind his exit are unknown, and the only information about him after it is that he opened a restaurant in Nakano, Tokyo. From 2006 to 2012, Tajima returned to pro wrestling, popping up in several promotions and becoming a regular in Dradition, before he disappeared again.
** This seems to be recurrent in post-Wrestling/DragonGate Toryumon aces, as Hiromi Horiguchi, the ace of the last Mexico class, faded in the darkness as well in 2009.
* Wrestling/AdamRose had a guy in a bunny costume accompany him to the ring, and eventually The Bunny became a full-fledged wrestler who began to steal the spotlight from Rose, forming a mini-feud. When Justin Gabriel (the guy in the costume) quit, nobody replaced him and The Bunny disappeared without explanation. It was rumored that the man behind The Bunny would be Wrestling/DarrenYoung when he returned from injury to feud with former tag partner Wrestling/TitusONeil (the two instead reunited and won the Tag Team Championship within 6 months of Gabriel's departure). Gabriel said in an interview that he had many ideas for The Bunny character, including a gritty character who would eventually turn out to be Wrestling/VinceMcMahon, but most of these ideas were shot down by Wrestling/TripleH.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Radio]]
* ''Radio/AdventuresInOdyssey'': After the fairly recent "Best Small Town" StoryArc closed, the series went on a hiatus and, when it came back, nearly all of the current characters except for Whit, Connie, Eugene, and Wooten had suddenly disappeared, including major characters such as Tom Riley, Bernard Walton, the Washingtons[[note]] At least in this case, we can chalk it up to the kids of the family, Marvin and Tamika, aging out of the series, a normal practice for this series[[/note]] and the Rathbones. And, considering that the [=VOs=] for Tom Riley, Bart Rathbone, and Bernard, Walker Edmiston and Dave Madden respectively, have since [[AuthorExistenceFailure passed away]], the chances of those characters in particular returning seem rather slim.
* In ''Radio/TheMenFromTheMinistry's'' first series, the General Assistance Department had a second secretary named April Adams. For whatever reason she disappeared without a word afterwards, and was even completely AdaptedOut in the 1980 re-recordings and the Finnish version.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' has races that silently disappear between editions. What happened to the Fimir?
** They made a recent appearance in the Creator/GrahamMcNeill Sigmar-era novel ''Empire''. The 'mist daemons' are never definitively labelled as Fimir but it is very clear what they are supposed to be.
** The Chaos Dwarfs in the Warhammer Fantasy world have also simply disappeared. To the point that even though they are still included in the last official Blood Bowl rulebook, they are the only official race not in the computer game.
*** They were mentioned, repeatedly, in the second edition of the role-playing game.
*** They are still mentioned quite a bit, both as a source of equipment for the other chaos factions and Ogres and as the origin story of the Black Orcs.
*** It seems likely, in-universe anyway, that there's simply too few Chaos Dwarfs to make a full army out of them, even with Hobgoblin and Orc slaves supplementing them, as the scarcity of their race was something mentioned repeatedly.
*** Chaos Dwarfs have seen a resurgence as of late 2011, given that Forge World has started producing a line of them in Warhammer Forge. Whether or not they'll return to being a mainstream army is yet to be seen.
*** Chaos Dwarfs were added to the Blood Bowl video game in its second expansion in 2012.
** Bull Centaurs have it even worse. Chaos Dwarfs have three models being consistently produced as Hellcannon crew (admittedly without the [[NiceHat stylish headgear]] of the classic Chaos Dwarf range). Bull Centaurs have vanished entirely.
** Malal, the fifth Chaos god, was dropped around the 3rd edition of Warhammer Fantasy. This happened because the people who held the Copyright left Games Workshop. An entity called ''Malice'', a SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute, has since appeared in Warhammer 40000, however. In addition, Be'lakor the Daemon Prince in Warhammer Fantasy share's many attributes with Malal.
* In TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} the [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame Squats]] vanished as well, partly for low sales but mostly because they were too silly/campy in a setting that was becoming DarkerAndEdgier. WordOfGod has usually been "the Tyranids ate them all" (supported by the "Abhuman" section in the 6th edition rulebook) but they have occasionally tried to claim "they never existed". Blame Chaos, perhaps.
** The same happened earlier on to several models in the 40k range with the simplification that happened in the 3rd and 4th editions. However some of them have been making a comeback in recent editions, most notably Bjorn the Fell-handed and the infamous Jokaero.
** Also, there used to be a substantial number of Eldar Exodite units, including the CrazyAwesome [[http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/mediawiki/images/a/a5/Exodite.jpg dragon knights]].
** Another prominent example are the Illuminati (possessed psykers who manage to overcome the Daemon that possessed them, eventually recycled as the Exorcists chapter of {{Space Marine}}s), the Star Child (a Warp entity that supposedly represents the Emperor's soul, today laughed off as a delusion of the Eldar) and the Sensei (supposedly the "sons" or descendants of the Emperor).
** 7th edition ended up reversing much of the sufferers of Chuck Cunningham Syndrome, by bringing back some elements of the fluff that was largely forgotten. The most prominent of these are the return of the Imperial Knights and the Kastellan Combat Automata, the former of which was quietly dropped in the latest (and last) edition of Epic 40k and the latter hasn't even been mentioned since 3rd edition of normal 40k.
** The Warlord titan got a lot of flak during it's teaser for looking too much like "an Imperial Knight on steroids". Many old beards were quick to point out that it was in fact based on the first Warlord Titan model released for Epic 40k, which many people have long since forgotten even existed due to the ubiquity of the "Lucius" pattern warlord everyone's so used to now.
** The loss of squats and Eldar exodites was not because they were too silly, but because 40k was distancing itself from its roots as simply Warhammer InSpace! Squats were obviously just space dwarfs while exodites were wood elves, and neither really had a place in the game or lore other than as ersatz versions of their fantasy counterparts.
* Despite being featured in a couple of cards when the Gravekeeper theme first kicked off in the ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh TCG'', Cobraman Sakuzy and any references to him completely vanished in later expansions, most likely due to not being useful at all in any deck and being an ill-fit for the theme.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Theatre]]
* Creator/WilliamShakespeare's ''RomeoAndJuliet'': Benvolio is an important character up until the end of act III. After that he's never seen or mentioned again. In some versions of the story he shows up at the very last scene but in most he just disappears. What happened to him? Did he decide to leave Verona? Or did Shakespeare just forget/ignore him?
* Reynaldo, in {{Hamlet}}, appears in one scene being given detailed instructions to watch Laertes and report his habits and misdeeds. He leaves and is never heard from again, even after Laertes comes back.
* In ''KingLear,'' The Fool is Lear's loyal companion when he is abandoned by everyone else, even braving the storm with him. He vanishes without a trace or mention after the third act. Some commentators regard the Fool as a functional replacement for Lear's loyal daughter Cordelia, who is banished in the first act and is reunited with her father in the fourth.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games]]
* While Mario and VideoGame/DonkeyKong have both ascended to stardom since their debut game, Pauline, the girl they fought each other for the first place faded into obscurity as Princess Peach took over her role as DistressedDamsel in the ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' games. She did reappear in ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong94'', only to disappear for another decade until ''Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2'', in which Pauline's relationship status to Mario was demoted from "girlfriend" to "friend". However, she does appear (instead of Peach) in the ''VideoGame/MarioVsDonkeyKong'' games ''March of The Minis'', ''Minis March Again'', and ''Mini-Land Mayhem''.
** Donkey Kong Junior hasn't appeared since ''Game & Watch Gallery Advance''.
*** Though, this depends on which continuity you subscribe to. According to Rare, the Donkey Kong seen from ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'' on forth ''is'' DK Jr., while SelfDemonstrating/CrankyKong is the previous DK. ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryReturns'' retcons it, however, to current DK being Cranky's grandson, meaning that DK Jr. really has been MIA ever since.
** Stanley, from ''Donkey Kong 3'' also vanished from the series appearing only in some cameos like ''VideoGame/WarioWare'' or ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros''. It's unclear, but it's said he's also the protagonist from the Game & Watch ''Greenhouse'' and it's also rumored that he is Mario's cousin.
** [[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2 Wart]] similarly disappeared.
*** This one actually makes sense. Wart was nothing but Mario's dream... Except [[FridgeLogic so were several enemies]] who [[OrWasItADream made appearances in later games.]]
*** This could, however, be explained as Mario dreaming about creatures that actually exist, but which players had simply not yet seen.
** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioLand'': Tatanga seems to have ceased to exist. He kidnapped Princess Daisy in ''Super Mario Land'', appeared as a boss in ''Super Mario Land 2'', and was never heard from again.
** Chronologically, [[VideoGame/YoshisIsland Shy Guys appeared as enemies for Yoshi]] before the events of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2''.
** Poochy had an entire level designed around him in ''VideoGame/YoshisIsland'', but was absent from new titles after ''VideoGame/YoshisStory'' and before ''VideoGame/YoshisNewIsland''. He comes back in ''VideoGame/YoshisWoollyWorld'' finally.
** Plum, Charlie, Sonny, Harry, and Maple, human characters who are playable in ''VideoGame/MarioGolf'' for the Nintendo 64. They have not made a single appearance in any game since, unless you count Plum's cameos in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Melee'' and ''Brawl'' as a trophy and sticker respectively. Not to mention that that's ''five out of fourteen'' playable characters.
** Toadette also seems to be a short-lived character, first appearing in ''VideoGame/MarioKart: Double Dash!!'', then making periodic appearances in Mario games until ''Super Mario Sluggers'' nearly five years later, then never appearing again. After another five years, she reappeared in ''Mario Kart 8'' and ''Mario Party 10'', then got a co-starring role in ''Treasure Tracker'' and a prominent supporting role in ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPaperJam''.
** Bowser's Koopalings have a long and convoluted history of being PutOnABus. They first appeared as recurring antagonists in ''Super Mario Bros. 3'', ''Super Mario World'', and ''Yoshi's Safari'', then vanished without mention for over a decade before reappearing in ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga'', then vanished again, then reappeared a second time in ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosWii'' (with their original relationship to Bowser having been {{retcon}}ned away) and have been making fairly regular appearances since.
** All the original characters from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'' like Geno or Mallow [[ExiledFromContinuity are property of Square-Enix, therefore they simply vanished]] from all the subsequent Mario games except from a brief cameo of Geno in ''[[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga Superstar Saga]]''.
*** On a related note, Mario RPG characters in general rarely reappear in other Mario titles. Exceptions include Goomba King, Baby Peach, and the Star Spirits, although in Baby Peach's case her debut in ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPartnersInTime'' was likely coincidental. ''VideoGame/PaperMarioStickerStar'' is notable for not returning any previous ''Paper Mario'' characters and only using characters from the main series, introducing only Kersti as a new character.
** Even Luigi went through a low hiatus for almost ten years. Eventually he came back though. Similarly, Mario rescued Daisy in an old Game Boy title and she didn't appear again for years. Now she's a standard of spin-off party games.
* Zhuzhen and Halley from the original ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts'' are unmentioned in the sequels. This may be somewhat justified, though, in that the former returned to China while the later left for America. The Valentine family gleefully subvert this.
* Dynamo in ''VideoGame/MegaManX5'' and ''[[VideoGame/MegaManX6 X6]]''. The only antagonist in the series to remain alive and intact (that is, not coming BackFromTheDead), he worked for Sigma in ''X5'', returned in an arbitrary cameo in ''X6'', and vanished off the face of the earth.
** Similarly, Douglas only appears in ''X5'' and ''X6'', then disappears after that. Lifesaver only appears in ''X5'' (granted, he wasn't very popular due to his NiceJobBreakingItHero action). Dr. Cain was last seen in ''[[VideoGame/MegaManX3 X3]]'', last mentioned in ''[[VideoGame/MegaManX4 X4]]'', and gone after that.
*** The UpdatedRerelease ''Maverick Hunter X'' has Dr. Cain dying in an attack on the Hunters' headquarters; whether this is a {{retcon}} or not remains unclear.
** In the ''VideoGame/MegaManStarForce'' series, Pat Sprigs is a major character in the first game, cameos in the second, and vanishes in the third. What's frustrating is that the game itself acknowledges that it still has plot points to wrap up regarding him. Pat also disappears from the anime as well, only to make a very minor cameo at the end of the final episode.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'', Billy's dad Jessiah disappears (much like most of the game) when Disc 2 starts. At least, from the storyline, technically he is still around as he is is the gun/bullet in one of Billy's gear's special moves. Oh, and Kaiser Sigmund too - despite the fact that an early Disc 2 plot point would probably have him heavily involved. Disc 2 has a much tighter story focus than the first disc, playing more like an interactive novel than a standard RPG, and the planned storylines for both characters may have gotten lost in the same budgetary constraints that are rumored to have caused the gameplay shift.
** Yui, Citan's wife, also vanished from Disc 2 onwards, although it's implied that [[spoiler:[[FridgeHorror she may have become a Wels like most of the other ordinary people]].]]
* Parodied in ''[[VideoGame/BanjoKazooie Banjo-Tooie]]'', where the face of Tooty, DistressedDamsel of the first game and kid sister of Banjo, appears on [[FaceOnAMilkCarton a milk carton]] in CloudCuckooland, one of only two appearances of Tooty in the game (the picture of her in Banjo's house from the previous game is still there; in fact it's one of the few things in the house that is not significantly damaged or destroyed). Rare obviously never saw her as anything more than a [[FlatCharacter walking plot device]] for the first game, and thus hand-waved her absence circa ''Nuts and Bolts'', saying she was hauled off by the "Rubbish Video Game Characters Police".
** Brentilda completely vanished as well. Her only appearance is in a portrait in Pawno's Emporium in Jolly Roger's Lagoon.
* Every surviving character from ''VideoGame/{{Metal Gear|1}}'' and ''VideoGame/MetalGear2SolidSnake'' that didn't make the transition into the ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' series was forgotten by default: Ellen Madnar, Diane, Jennifer, Holly White, [[strike:Yozef Norden]] Johan Jacobsen, and George Kasler.
** Subverted with Meryl, who vanished without explanation, except for an implied reference an optional conversation in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'' in which Snake says he's had enough of tomboys. Players were left to assume that the ending of ''[=MGS1=]'' in which she died was canon, until she showed up in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots''.
** Surprisingly enough, this is Averted with Dr. Pettrovich Madnar in ''[=MGS4=]''. While he doesn't make an actual appearance, it's explained that he saved Raiden's life behind the scenes, even though he hadn't been mentioned at all in the previous games (nor is it mentioned that Snake killed him by firing remote-control rockets into his back to hit Madnar, but that's probably for the best), and him being the original creator of the first Metal Gear had long since been retconned.
* Many ''{{Franchise/Sonic|TheHedgehog}}'' characters like Ray the Flying Squirrel, Mighty the Armadillo, Bean the Dynamite, Bark the Polar Bear, Nack the Weasel (a.k.a. Fang the Sniper), Mecha Sonic, Tails Doll, Gemerl, and Metal Knuckles have been subject to this.
** Several of these characters got [[TheCameo cameos]] on "Wanted" and "Missing" posters in ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations''. Mighty and Ray are listed as [[LampshadeHanging "Missing since 1993"]] (even through Mighty was last seen in 1995's ''Knuckles Chaotix'').
** Since about the time of ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed'', more recent and/or once-major characters have been set aside in favor of simply having Eggman, Tails, and Sonic. This may be in response to the criticisms for the series' LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters.
** As of June 2012, the infamous Big the Cat [[http://youtu.be/l_fL0NRDYjw?t=2h2s has also been retired from the series]]. He was already being slowly phased out of the series by that point anyway--his only noteworthy appearances after 2003's ''VideoGame/SonicHeroes'' being in ''VideoGame/SonicChronicles'' and the first ''[[VideoGame/SegaSuperstars Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing]]'' (and even then, he was removed from the roster in the sequel).
** Several of these characters have remained as recurring characters in the comics, with Mighty being a main/semi-regular cast member since the Chaotix tie-in mini-series and Knuckles' own spin-off, and Nack being a recurring villain as far back as (or even further back as) the "Mecha Madness" super special. [[BrokenBase Fans of the comics are just as outspoken when criticizing these absences from the games that they rival the critics of the series']] LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters.
* ''[[Franchise/SoulSeries Soul Calibur V]]'' is notable for having a lot of new characters at the expense of losing some old faces, including, rather infamously, popular faces Talim and Zasalamel as well as Rock, who have literally disappeared without a trace. At least Cassandra had her fate told in an artbook and the fate of Seong Mi-Na, Yun-seong and Setsuka were mentioned later on (With Setsuka having been Patroklos' teacher at one point) but Talim, Zasalamel and Rock have seemingly vanished off the face of the earth with no mention whatsoever from artbooks or WordOfGod as to what happened to them, almost as if they never existed. This has contributed to SCV's status as a BaseBreaker amongst the fans.
* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'''s transition from PC-98 to Windows is either a ContinuityReboot or the single largest case of this ever. Only four characters ultimately survived the changeover out of forty or so, losing fairly major characters like [[ArchEnemy Mima]] and [[TalkingAnimal Genji]], though they're still canonally considered the mentors to Marisa and Reimu, respectively.
* ''VideoGame/PacMan'':
** Ms. Pac-Man and just about the entirety of the Pac Family[[note]]which include Pac-Man Jr., Baby Pac-Man, Professor Pac, and the two pets Chomp-Chomp and Sourpuss[[/note]] have been missing for years. With [[WesternAnimation/PacManAndTheGhostlyAdventures the reboot]] they might have been retconned out of existence.
** Any of the ghosts outside of the main four from the original game [[note]]Sue, Funky/Common, Spunky/Grey Common, Kinky, and Orson. Tim from ''Jr. Pac-Man'' is excluded since his game is not considered official.[[/note]] also seemed to vanish.
* In ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'', General Warhaft. Leader of the Imperial Legion, wrote two of the in-game books on armour and fighting, imprisoned along with the Emperor by Jagar Tharn... but he never is mentioned after ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsArena Arena]]'', except for in the aforementioned books. He goes unheard of in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall Daggerfall]]'', ''Battlespire'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'', and when the player visits the Legion headquarters in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'', he's replaced by Commander Adamus Phillida, with no word on what happened to him or where he is now.
** In a large-scale Chucking, the cities of Sutch, Artemon, and Mir Corrup were mentioned as being in Cyrodiil in several prior games. When ''Oblivion'' comes around, and we actually get to visit Cyrodiil, ''the entire cities are gone''. The developers admitted they never had time to add them into the game (a semi-canonical explanation ''was'' made for Sutch, though - apparently, the city was ceded to Hammerfell as part of the peace settlement following the events of ''Redguard''. Which only left the problem of why Sutch had been implied to have been a part of Cyrodiil after that point, of course).
** The protagonist characters have a semi-enforced and downplayed variant: the following games do acknowledge what happened in the last one, and they do touch upon the character you played, insofar as it would be known to the public, but details that would vary from play-through to play-through are, for the most part, strenuously avoided, presumably to avoid invalidating people's play-throughs.
*** WordOfGod on the events of Skyrim tries to explain this by saying "all the quest chains present in the game happen, but not all are necessarily done by the Dragonborn." This could also be taken as their attitude towards the protagonists in previous games.
* Almost half the kids in the ''VideoGame/BackyardSports'' series. But the series never explains why ''anything'' happens anyway.
* This is, unfortunately, common in ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'':
** Both Barry Burton and Rebecca Chambers in [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil the first game]], discounting both Rebecca being the protagonist of [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil0 the prequel to that game]] and their playable appearances in the Mercenary Reunion mode of ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil5''. Worse yet, Barry is the protagonist of a GaidenGame for the Game Boy Color...which is [[CanonDiscontinuity non-canon]]...
*** [[spoiler:Barry does appear in the ending for ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil3'', as the helicopter pilot rescuing Carlos and Jill.]]
*** Barry is now one of the playable characters, with his own story, in ''[[VideoGame/ResidentEvilRevelations2 Revelations 2]]''. Rebecca, however... [[spoiler: [[FridgeHorror may have been the first victim of Nemesis, since Brad had to know that it was targetting S.T.A.R.S. members]].]]
** Sherry Birkin was originally this in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2'', but she now averts this by being a new player character in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil6''.
** Carlos Olivera in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil3Nemesis''
** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'': [[MemeticMutation WHERE'S THE]] [[EnsembleDarkhorse MERCHANT?!]]
** Sheva Alomar in the fifth game could become this.
** Anybody in the spinoff games, with ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilOperationRaccoonCity'' taking the cake.
* ''VideoGame/SimonTheSorcerer 3D'' has a strange character called Jar Nin whom you accidentally kill at the beginning of the game. Towards the end of the game it turns out that you have to resurrect him because you need him on your team. But when you do, he does exactly nothing and even vanishes shortly after, never to be seen or mentioned again.
* Not characters ''per se'', but every creature from the Xen borderworld in the first ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'' - apart from the standard headcrabs (and zombies), the barnacles, the Vortigaunts (now as an ally), an ichthyosaur as a cameo, and the leeches ([[BorderPatrol who are now invincible barriers to the ocean]]) - somehow vanished from the cast list before the start of ''VideoGame/HalfLife2''.
** Stranger still, Barney Calhoun seems to be suffering from this as of ''Episode 2''.
** For that matter, with the exclusion of Barney, pretty much every major character from the first game's expansions (Shephard from ''Opposing Force'', Gina and Colette from ''Decay'', and Rosenberg from ''Blue Shift'') disappeared entirely between the first and second game. Considering the circumstances, this could be justified.
* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' has Agatha, who disappears without a trace in ''[[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver Gold/Silver/Crystal]] / [[VideoGameRemake HeartGold/SoulSilver]]''. This wouldn't be a problem, since you would think that Agatha could have retired, but the games don't make any further reference to her past in ''[[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Red and Blue/FireRed and LeafGreen]]''.
* Most characters in the ''VideoGame/WarioLand'' series just vanished without a trace after the original games they were in. Captain Syrup returned in ''The Shake Dimension'', after a ten odd year gap between appearances, but God knows what happened to Rudy the Clown after he returned in ''VideoGame/DrMario 64''...
* ''Franchise/JakAndDaxter'':
** Gol and Maia are the duo's first major baddies, and after their defeat in the first game a return is hinted at by the Green Sage. However, the series decided to go DarkerAndEdgier and thus the rogue Sages were [[{{Pun}} "chucked"]] out.
** [[VideoGame/JakIIRenegade The second game]] introduces us to Brutter, the leader of the local Lurkers who befriends Jak and Daxter. At the end of the game, he seems to be working for Ashelin as captain of the New Krimzon Guard, but he is nowhere to be seen in ''[[VideoGame/Jak3Wastelander Jak 3]]''. Admittedly, Brutter does make a short appearance in the ''Daxter'' spin-off, but since that game is set before ''Jak II'' it doesn't explain what happened to him between ''Jak II'' and ''3''.
** The second game also had the Crocadog, a [[MixAndMatchCritters Mix-and-Match Critter]] that Jak seemingly adopts as his pet in the end. He is never seen or referenced after ''Jak II''.
** Jak's uncle in the first game. While [[spoiler:Jak was born in the future and thus he can't be his real uncle]] it feels a bit weird how after delivering the orbs to him he is never mentioned again. You'd think that he'd care a bit more about Jak's adventuring since he probably raised him.
** [[spoiler:Ottsel Veger]] is adopted by Kleiver as a sidekick, yet vanishes entirely by ''Jak X'' and is never mentioned again. His fate is unknown, but [[MoralEventHorizon hopefully]] [[YouKilledMyFather very]] [[KnightTemplar unpleasant]].
* More or less every single non-Swordian user from ''VideoGame/TalesOfDestiny'' is completely absent from ''Tales of Destiny 2'', except for a brief reference to Mary in one of the first few skits. This was, in retrospect, [[OutOfFocus just a side-effect from what happened to them in the last third of the first game, though]].
* ''VideoGame/{{Ys}}'': Lilia, after being DemotedToExtra, disappears from the series after ''IV'', as well as several other major characters from ''I and II''. Subverted with Dogi, who is oddly absent from ''V'', but returns in ''VI'', as does old man Raba. Also, what happened to Terra between ''VI'' and ''Seven''?
* A handful of the characters from the very first ''VideoGame/{{Street Fighter|I}}'' are nowhere to be found. At first Ryu, Ken, and Sagat were the only ones to return, then the ''[[VideoGame/StreetFighterAlpha Alpha]]'' series brought back Birdie, Gen, and Adon. Eagle made an appearance in ''VideoGame/CapcomVsSNK2MarkOfTheMillennium''. To this day, however, Geki, Retsu, Lee, Mike, and Joe are all but disowned from the series (well, maybe not Mike, who is widely hypothesized to be "[[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Mike Bison]]"/[[DubNameChange Balrog]]).
** The comics have had some fun with these. Lee reappears in the ''SakuraGanbaru'' manga as an opponent for Sakura, and in UDON's comics, reappears to challenge Fei Long and is stated to be the uncle of Yun and Yang. Also in UDON's comics, Geki attempts to assassinate Gen, and in the Ibuki miniseries, "Geki" is retconned to be the name of a ninja clan, not an individual, which has a rivalry with Ibuki's clan.
** Most of the ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIII'' cast would qualify, too. The popular ones would go on to appear in other ''Street Fighter'' games (Yun, Ibuki, Makoto, Dudley) and crossovers (Alex, Yun, Urien, and Hugo--who is technically not from ''SF III'', but still counts) but most of them were lucky to even appear as cameos or passing mentions in character storylines. Part of the problem, it should be said, is the long lull in Capcom fighting game releases prior to ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIV''.
** The characters who debuted in ''VideoGame/StreetFighterEX'' belong have never appeared in another Street Fighter game outside of the EX series. The fact that the characters are joint-owned by Capcom and developer Arika may have something to do with it (though a few have made the occasional cameo in other Arika games, and the company started work on a game featuring the EX-only cast.)
*** One of the most unusual cases within the EX series was a character called Hayate, a young Japanese swordsman. He appeared as a newcomer in ''EX 2'', but was mysteriously removed from the updated version of the game. The [=PS1=] port returned him to the roster as a secret character, but after that, he never appeared again (and was the only character from ''EX 2'' to not return for ''EX 3''). There was [[UrbanLegendOfZelda a persistent rumour]] that he had been killed off between the two games, but no, he simply vanished entirely without a trace.
*** A potential explanation for Hayate is that Capcom removed the character because they couldn't sell ''EX 2'' in Korea due to that country's hatred of samurai[[note]]The same reason Namco created Arthur, a blond British [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial totally-not-a-samurai]], to replace Mitsurugi in certain versions of ''Soul Calibur''[[/note]]; he does stay around in another way, as his Super Combos were given to [[AnimatedArmor Garuda]] as his Meteor Combo.
* In ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'', where did all of Phoenix's friends go in the past seven years? The only characters from the first three games that show up are Phoenix, Ema, Payne, and the Judge (and, in flashback, Gumshoe and Mike Meekins).
** Maya is mentioned, as is Mia, just not by name. Phoenix at one point refers to a "kid" he knows who sends him Samurai series videos tapes and he again mentions a "Girl" he once know who Trucy reminds him of. Guy Eldoon, the noodle saleman, even refers to Maya at one point saying that Phoenix used to frequent his noodle stand with "That assisant girl" back when he was an attorney. Examining "Charley" in the office, prompts Apollo into talking about how Phoenix mentioned his "Chief" once.
** Ema also references Edgeworth when informing Apollo that prosecutors should be "simmerous" rather than "glimmerous."
** This is probably done to not spoil any cases from previous games.
* Continuing from that last example, ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies'' brings back some characters from the VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightTrilogy and Apollo's game, but plenty of characters are still no-shows: Maya has yet to return, Gumshoe is still nowhere to be seen, Ema is inexplicably absent despite her role in ''Apollo Justice'' (which chronologically takes place the year before ''Dual Destinies''), and even Payne's gone in favor of his newly-introduced younger brother.
** Phoenix does read a letter from Maya (which was delivered by Pearl) in Case 5.
* ''Franchise/MortalKombat'': All of the characters from ''Special Forces'' and ''Mythologies: Sub-Zero'' who haven't appeared in a FightingGame before (Sareena had a playable appearance in a portable version of ''Deadly Alliance'' called ''Tournament Edition'') didn't made the cut for ''Armageddon''.
** Except Sareena's two partners in ''Mythologies''; they appear in Konquest Mode of ''Armageddon'' as minibosses.
** Tremor later resurfaced in playable for the PS Vita release of ''Mortal Kombat (2011)'' due to immense fan demand, however.
* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', Calia Menethil, ''heir to the throne of Lordaeron'', disappeared without trace shortly before ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII''. It is speculated that she has taken the name of Calia Hastings and is currently working for the Stormwind SI:7 spy agency, but this is based solely on the OneSteveLimit.
** If Calia Hastings was the missing Princess of Lordaeron, she's either dead, or double-dipping in this trope since the destruction of Theramore just prior to ''Mists of Pandaria''.
** A Q&A with ''Warcraft'''s [[WordOfGod creative devs]] had them answer all "where are they now" questions with a general "we have plans and don't want to spoil them" answer.
** In the RPG books, Brann Bronzebeard lampshades this, briefly mentioning that he's not sure where Calia is and that he'll have to look into it.
** Also a large number of [=NPCs=] in ''World of Warcraft: Cataclysm''. Overlaps with NeverFoundTheBody in some cases.
** The black dragon Sabellian, as the only one of his race who doesn't seem to have a problem with the player races, is conspicuously absent from all the events surrounding the return of his father Deathwing, the destruction of the rest of the black dragonflight as incurably corrupted, and the birth of his uncorrupted brother Wrathion. Possibly he decided he wanted no part of the whole thing and just stayed in Outland. It was later confirmed that Sabellian is still alive and Wrathion simply doesn't know about him.
* Kaya Daidouji is a pretty important character in ''VideoGame/RaidouKuzunohaVsTheSoullessArmy''. In the sequel, ''VideoGame/RaidouKuzunohaVsKingAbaddon'', she isn't mentioned once.
** Believed to have moved away from the family mansion in 'King Abaddon'. It is inhabited by ghosts as a side mission.
* Magma is the point-of-view character and saves the planet in ''VideoGame/XMenLegends'' but isn't even mentioned in its sequel.
* Happens to quite a few characters in ''VideoGame/VanguardBandits'' due to the branching paths in the game. A important ally in one path can disappear into the ether on the next.
* ''Franchise/CrashBandicoot'': Crash's girlfriend Tawna is axed after [[VideoGame/CrashBandicoot1996 the first game]], replaced instead by hacker sister Coco. Yes, [[LampshadeHanging apparently, Crash has a little sister that he was never told about]].
** Though Tawna does reappear as a playable character in the DS game ''Crash Boom Bang!''. The game manual states that she's dumped Crash for Pinstripe Potoroo.
* ''VideoGame/LegoIsland'' was hit with this hard. Let's see, we had Captain D. Rom, Enter and Return, the Funbergs, Polly Gone, Studs Linkin, all of the flying Legondos (excluding Jack O'Trades), and the two workers.
* ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors 6'' was notorious for cutting some of the roster and relegating twenty-four of the remaining forty-one characters to "Free Mode only" (having no Musou Mode storyline and cutscenes, though its [=PS2=] re-release converted six of them to Musou Mode, for a total of twenty-three Musou Mode characters and eighteen Free Mode only), but in ''Dynasty Warriors 7'' when all of them were brought back except Zuo Ci and Pang De. The former was an inconsequential Daoist mystic, but the latter a notable warrior who'd participated in several key battles ''and'' brought his own coffin to his final military campaign ("win or die," literally), only to not be mentioned ''at all'' in the game, which KOEI explained was due to "certain storyline constraints" (namely, that they didn't have room for him in the direction they were taking the story). In a subversion, however, Pang De reappears in ''Xtreme Legends'', which made it look like the trope was a harbinger for his eventual return.
** ''VideoGame/SamuraiWarriors'' has an JustForFun/{{egregious}} example with Goemon Ishikawa, who has never been seen again after the first game. And after the second game, Musashi Miyamoto and Kojiro Sasaki never appeared either. However, along with Zuo Ci, the three are still present in ''VideoGame/WarriorsOrochi''.
* The heroes of ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic 3'' disappeared without the games ever quite explaining how they went off-course, or even if they did. They just... didn't arrive on XEEN, and when they next showed up (in ''Might and Magic 7''), all they said was that they'd been looking for the Ancients for some time. Of course, they ''did'' return, so it isn't a clear-cut example of Chuck Cunningham Syndrome.
* General Vladimir, who was an important supporting character in ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2'', is nowhere to be seen in ''Yuri's Revenge'', the game's expansion pack.
* Dragon halfling Halfas in ''VideoGame/DragonValor'' is nowhere to seen chapter five, despite the fact that his actions drive the plot of chapter four (either killing the SacrificialLion or cursing the character to die in a month).
* The ''VideoGame/WaveRace'' series has the four races from ''Wave Race 64'' appear... except for Miles Jeter, who just didn't come back without an explanation.
* In ''[[VideoGame/NintendoWars Advance Wars: Dual Strike]]'', Flak and Adder are completely absent from the story, though they are playable after you beat the campaign. This may have been because of how similar they are to newcomers Jugger and Koal, who have actual bearing on the story.
* Loading the first pre-made neighbourhood included in ''VideoGame/TheSims 2'', the player is greeted with a short slide show which informs them that this particular neighbourhood's story picks up twenty-five years after that of the default neighbourhood in the first game. Members or descendants of four of the five original base game families are there (as well as one or two of the families from later expansion packs). But Chris Jones and Melissa Smith (a.k.a. Chris and Melissa Roomies), who were at least as important and popular with the fans as the other characters - they're simply not there, nor do they even turn up in later expansions as some others eventually did.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'': Most of the first half of the game is spent working with the Returners, including the old man Arvis who's the first non-Imperial you speak to and Banon, their leader. [[spoiler: You last see the two of them in the ruins of the Imperial capital, Vector. Kefka's ascension and the destruction of the world might have killed them, but they're simply never seen or mentioned again.]]
* In the ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' series, we've got a whole world that is permanently retconned out of series: [[{{Disney/Tarzan}} Deep Jungle]]. This is justified, as Disney could no longer secure the rights to the franchise. In the dreams at the beginning of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'', when [[{{Disney/Aladdin}} Jafar]] mentions that Sora's found a Keyhole, the following scene is Sora sealing the one for Agrabah ([[PlotHole after Jafar's defeat]]), when he actually said it after the one for Deep Jungle was sealed.
* Elora from ''Franchise/SpyroTheDragon'' was a major character in ''VideoGame/Spyro2RiptosRage'' but only got a cameo at the end of ''VideoGame/SpyroYearOfTheDragon''. After that she's suspiciously left out of every other title in the "classic" line, aside from popping up on a trading card in ''Spyro Orange'', despite the fact the others (even Bianca) became {{Ascended Extra}}s. There were plans on include her in two games but she was excluded.
* In the ending of the Decepticon version of the DS game for the 2007 ''Film/{{Transformers}}'' movie, the player's last words imply that Megatron is the only Transformer still alive. While all of the Autobots and most of the Decepticons are killed on screen, Brawl is never seen again after he kills Ironhide.
* The last we see of Connor in [[AssassinsCreed Assassin's Creed 3]] is a melancholy postscript with Davy Crockett. None of the games since have ever explained what became of him since. (One of them hints that he had a turbulent marriage and suffered a brutal death, but there are no specifics.) As he's one of [=UbiSoft's=] least popular characters and there are no plans to develop him any further, it's likely we'll never know.
* Tristan and Duke Devlin don't appear in ''VideoGame/YuGiOhNightmareTroubadour'', even though everyone else from the first three seasons does.
* ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros.'' has a few of these.
** Pichu and Young Link are gone completely. One of Pichu's costumes was integrated into Pikachu's available costume set while Young Link was replaced with Toon Link. Other clones remained, and [[DivergentCharacterEvolution started getting differentiated]].
** Brawl added Snake and Wolf who are also both completely gone. This may make sense for the former, whose series is almost exclusively on competitor platforms and it may have been difficult to secure the rights for him.
** Due to hardware limitations on the 3DS version, the Ice Climbers are gone from ''4'', even for the Wii U version.
** Averted in the case of Mewtwo, Roy, and Lucas. Not only did Mewtwo and Lucas get trophies when they were cut from the initial roster in ''4'' (the former of which also got one in Brawl where he was also missing from) which is more than other cut characters can say, they also were both announced to be DLC characters due to popular demand. As for Roy, although he didn't receive a trophy in the vanilla game, he returned as a DLC character as well despite his relative unpopularity in [[Franchise/FireEmblem his home series]] due to being a fan favorite in ''Smash''. Doctor Mario also averts this, having been missing from Brawl but being back to be included in ''4'' from the start.
** [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] by TrollingCreator Creator/MasahiroSakurai and [[DefiedTrope Defied]] when he stated that Zero Suit Samus wouldn't be making the cut in ''4'', only to show footage of her in-game immediately afterwards.
** The Wii U and 3DS games make almost no mention of [[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl Tabuu]] whatsoever. The most he gets is the return of his boss battle music as a selectable track for Final Destination, and even that doesn't reference him by name.
* ''Franchise/{{Kirby}}''
** The Animal Friends and Gooey were prominently featured in ''Kirby Dreamland 2'' and ''Kirby Dreamland 3'' with Gooey even being referred to as Kirby's best friend in the third. ''Kirby 64'' also gave us Adeline, Ribbon, and an unnamed Waddle Dee ally. However, ever since Sakurai left the series, all these characters have effectively vanished from the main cast and are only acknowledged through trophies in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' or in-game references. Ribbon and the Waddle Dee could [[JustifiedTrope be justified]] in that Ribbon is supposed to be one-off in a way similar to Prince Fluff and Elline while the unnamed Waddle Dee's role has effectively been filled by [[BreakoutCharacter Bandana Waddle Dee]] with many [[{{Fanon}} theorizing that they are in fact the same character.]] Nevertheless, there are a lot Kirby fans who would love [[TheBusCameBack to see them return as mainstays]] due to the series's MinimalistCast.
** Meta Knight is strangely absent from every Kirby game since Kirby's Return To Dream Land, despite being one of the most recurring characters in the series otherwise. Though it could be somewhat averted in that the Mirror Dimension version of Meta Knight is an extra boss in Kirby Triple Deluxe.
* An interesting variation happens in PapaLouieArcade game Burgeria with Robby and Allan. They were given explanation for their disappearance in that game only to return the next game with a new design to explain it.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Comics]]
* Euchre from ''Webcomic/TwoKinds'' just seemed to be forgotten about. After Trace's battle with a Neutal possessed Flora, he is never mentioned again, despite being a rather important and seemingly powerful character who was in league with the Master Spy. He might simply be Master Strategist in a magical disguise. [[spoiler:In truth, he IS a Keidran that can disguise into a human down to the genes and with what seems to be some kind of double personality syndrome, since he helps Keidran while undisguised while leading the persecution in disguise. He has a half-human/keidran changeling daughter.]]
* ''Webcomic/QuestionableContent'':
** Sara was a barista at the Coffee of Doom who had a crush on Marten for the first few strips. She seemingly disappeared early on, when the focus shifted to Faye and Marten. This has been subject to a LampshadeHanging on more than one occasion. The 'official' explanation for her disappearance is that she was eaten by an allosaurus, but really she was just a boring character.
** The trope is often [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] and [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] in this comic. Members of the supporting cast regularly disappear -- often for extended periods of time -- without warning, and are later given explanations when another character wonders why they are gone. Most (with Sara being one of the only exceptions) will turn up again up to 500 pages later.
** Even the infamous [[http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=399 Pizza]] [[http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1932 Girl]] reappears after a long absence.
* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', some of the side characters have fallen into this. And of course, let's not forget Lord Tedd, hinted in the past to be the BigBad of the entire strip, has not been seen in years real-time. Dan Shive said he introduced the character too soon, which is why it vanished. However, it looks like Lord Tedd may be [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2011-10-07 coming back.]]
* Queen Jane from ''[[Webcomic/EightBitTheater 8-Bit Theater]]''. An OnlySaneMan to contrast with her husband King Steve (a combination of CloudCuckooLander, TheCaligula and TheDitz), she was replaced in this role by Princess Sara in Steve's later appearances.
* ''Webcomic/WapsiSquare'' lost a few characters in its CerebusSyndrome, but after a year or two brought back one of them and wrote a concluding plotline for another. Why can't everyone be this diligent?
* Lie-Bot in ''Webcomic/{{Achewood}}'' has been pretty much replaced by Vlad, although he returns on occasion to do another "What is the saddest thing?" strip.
** Same story with Chucklebot. Basically Vlad is the only robot seen much anymore.
*** [[WordOfGod According to the hardcover version of "Worst Song, Played on Ugliest Guitar,"]] the robots beside Vlad didn't have a whole lot of character beyond one-note jokes, thus why they only show up every once in a long while.
* Early in ''Webcomic/KevinAndKell'', Lyndesfarne was friends with a turtle and an armadillo, the gag being that they were the only three herbivores who could hang out at the mall food court. Conina the armadillo is also at the school dance, and then we never see either of them again.
** Their apparent removal from history is now an [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2012/kk0710.html in-universe mystery]].
* Now that ''Webcomic/DresdenCodak'' has gone from Kim being a teenage MadScientist living in a big house just outside a city on the Pacific coast to being a penniless mad scientist in her early twenties living in a small room in a VastBureaucracy, it looks like we won't be seeing anything more from Alina, Dimitri and Tiny Carl Jung for the forseeable future.
* ''Webcomic/PvP'' does it so much it should be called Kurtzing. The entire cast from Samwise except for Skull, Francis' gaming troupe, Skull's gaming persona who later became his own character, Jade's former staff from when she created a feminist magazine, Jade's High School best friend, Robbie's former best friend Jase, Reggie who was Miranda's blind boyfriend, Miranda who was Reggie's hot girlfriend (redacted, though she was brought back by a guest strip so Kurtz wouldn't have brought her back if not for that strip so it doesn't count so HA), Miranda's big dumb boyfriend (whom she presumably left because he wasn't dumb any more), a talking arcade machine, Newt-boy, a funny talking rat, Francis's robot, Skull's cousin Sheckie, Sheckie's girlfriend, a divorced woman who was implied to be a recurring character, Cole's entire family (though a divorce was mentioned in passing), the game-store witch, and the giant Panda. That's more than 20 characters that fit this trope. Gwen almost fitted, too, until she became an expy in Kurtz' other strip, "The Trenches".
* ''Webcomic/{{Sonichu}}'' has this all over the place, as new characters were created to be analogues of people who tormented the creator in RealLife. Most characters just disappear, getting squeezed by the KudzuPlot.
* Shauna from ''Webcomic/BadMachinery'' had an older brother; the only explanation of his disappearance is, in an answer from John Allison to a question on Tumblr, "Chuck Cunningham’d"
* ''Webcomic/MenageA3'' occasionally introduces plot elements that just don't come to anything. Some are simply one-shot characters, but others might have been expected to reappear.
** In the early days, two such elements were Eulice the terrifying landlady and Rob the agoraphobic neighbor. Presumably the writers couldn't think of much more than one joke each for them. Eulice did reappear briefly in 2014, however.
** Junghan the comics shop manager (best friend of lead character Gary and boss of other lead character Zii) also seemed to be a Syndrome sufferer, but made at least a brief return after a couple of years' absence from the comic, and even showed up for a brief but effective crossover appearance in spin-off ''Webcomic/StickyDillyBuns.''
** Takeru Oyama, famous manga artist and father of the fairly major character Yuki, made one appearance in a few strips in March 2012. He was subsequently reported to have been mentoring lead character Gary for a week after that, but then he dropped off the face of the comic. He presumably flew home to Japan, which would excuse his vanishing, but when last seen he apparently believed that Gary and Yuki were all but engaged.
* Characters regularly come and go as Agatha the eponymous ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' travels about Europa, but Klaus Wulfenbach's second in command Boris Dolokhov notably has vanished from his position without explanation following Agatha's in-universe two-year time-skip.
* ''Webcomic/AwkwardZombie'' [[http://awkwardzombie.com/index.php?page=0&comic=102714 repeatedly]] [[http://awkwardzombie.com/index.php?page=0&comic=110314 lampshaded]] [[http://awkwardzombie.com/index.php?page=0&comic=040615 this trope]] with Roy's mysterious disappearance from ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros.''. Every time a new character was announced for ''Smash Bros. WiiU'', the comic would lampshade just how much he was left behind. In [[http://awkwardzombie.com/index.php?page=0&comic=062215 this]] comic arc, made after Roy was confirmed for DLC, we realise that he's been gone so long that only Marth and Pit seem to remember him.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Original]]
* ''WebSeries/ShinyObjectsVideos'': Erik, Wesley, and Guido all just disappear. [[EnforcedTrope Enforced]], as their actors moved away for various reasons.
* ''WebSeries/EpicMealTime'': [[AwesomeMcCoolName Muscles Glasses]] and [[CloudCuckooLander Tyler]] both disappeared [[http://newmediarockstars.com/2013/08/former-members-of-epic-meal-time-cite-poor-treatment-and-broken-promises-as-reasons-for-leaving/ after falling out with Harley.]]
* In ''Roleplay/TheGamersAlliance'', players coming and going means their characters are often left hanging if they don't resolve their plots or put them on the bus before disappearing. This can lead to characters fading into the background never to be mentioned again although an effort is usually made to at least acknowledge in-universe what happened to the now missing characters, particularly if they played a major role in the plot beforehand.
* ''Roleplay/TheMassiveMultiFandomRPG'': Many players left the roleplay in mid-game; sometimes it was handwaved by having them stay in the location or die or something, but often, they just... stop appearing and none of the other characters seem to notice.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDragonJakeLong'', Rose was separated at birth from both her parents and her twin sister to be raised by the Huntsclan. After the Huntsclan is erased from existence (long story) we catch up with Rose who in the revised timeline lives a normal life with her parents...and no twin sister. Apparently the sister's whereabouts would have been a plot point had the series been given another season.
* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'', where Rita and Runt are advertised as "Missing" [[FaceOnAMilkCarton on a milk carton]] (the "Rita and Runt" segments having been dropped in the latter half of the series' run, after which the characters themselves put in the occasional cameo appearance, but gradually disappeared - though they continued to feature in the opening credits, and were eventually restored for the direct-to-video movie "Film/WakkosWish").
** Minerva Mink's disappearance was more justified. Her cartoons were too risque, even by ''Animaniacs'' standards -- of the two that actually aired, one had a nerdy werewolf who turned into a hunk under the full moon; the other had Minerva using her sex appeal to dispatch a dachshund named Newt -- and the [[RuleThirtyFourCreatorReactions executives were afraid she'd be used in a lot of sexually unsavory fan art and fanfiction online]]. This ended up being a fool's errand, as this became Minerva Mink's fate anyway, thanks to those two episodes. It would have been easier to not have made Minerva a character in the first place.
* In a couple of episodes of ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'', George has a sister who is around his age; she last appeared in the [[ChristmasSpecial Christmas special]] and so far has not appeared again.
** There's also D.W.'s pet toad "Toady" from season 1. When she reappeared in season 7, it is implied that she has simply been living in the yard. She's gone again until 7 seasons later, but this time her disappearance is justified in-universe because [[spoiler:she is now married to another toad]].
** Mrs. Fink and Miss Sweetwater (the other 3rd grade teachers) and their respective students, were occasionally featured in the early seasons, mostly to act as a {{foil}} to Mr. Ratburn and his students. They have consistently shown up as background characters, though.
** While not ''truly'' ChuckCunninghamSyndrome, Jenna the cat was much more of a major character in the earlier seasons (even receiving [[ADayInTheLimelight her own episode]] at one point), only to fade away as the series went on; she almost never even appears as a ''background character'' now.
* In the TV series for ''WesternAnimation/{{Barnyard}}'', titled ''WesternAnimation/BackAtTheBarnyard'', Otis' wife, Daisy, and their son Ben Jr. are completely absent from the show, Daisy's been replaced by a new female cow named Abby; the strange part is Daisy's best friend Bessie continues to appear on the show.
** Why does everyone always forget [[OnlySaneMan the donkey]] from the movie?
* Max Gibson, the third most prominent character in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'', behind the two Batmen, is not present or mentioned in [[WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyondReturnOfTheJoker the movie]] ''or'' the FullyAbsorbedFinale.
* Bimbo the Dog from the ''WesternAnimation/BettyBoop'' cartoons. In the early shorts he was meant to be Betty's boyfriend, but come 1934, and the Hays Office objected to an interspecies relationship, forcing FleischerStudios to abruptly drop Bimbo. He would never be seen again in the series.
* In the 2006 revival of ''WesternAnimation/BikerMiceFromMars'', pretty much all major characters from the original 1993 cartoon are accounted for. Lawrence Limburger, Dr. Karbunkle, and Greasepit even appear a couple of times in spite of the Catatonians and Ronaldo Rump replacing them as the main villains. The one character who doesn't return, however, is Karbunkle's deformed and masochistic assistant Fred the Mutant, though he does have a brief cameo in the three-part episode "Once Upon a Time on Earth".
* In ''WesternAnimation/BlazingDragons'', Sir Galahot and Sir Hotbreath, two of the Knights of the Square Table, never appeared in Season 2, in which the main focus was on Flicker, Loungelot, Blaze, and Burnevere, but Allfire, Griddle, Flame, and Count Geoffrey and his minions all had some appearances.
* Officers Julia and Cliffany from ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'' suddenly disappeared after Season 1, [[spoiler:but they did make a few non-speaking background appearances in some episodes.]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/ChipNDaleRescueRangers'' there was one episode where Dale falls in love with a bat named Foxglove, who loves him back. Chip is also happy because he gets Gadget all to himself. Foxglove was never seen again, though she seems to appear in more FanFiction than not.
** ''[[WesternAnimation/TheDisneyAfternoon Disney Afternoon]]'' shows regularly only had a small number of recurring characters while most other characters, even main characters [[OneSceneWonder are limited to one episode]]. These one-shot characters, however, sometimes gained [[EnsembleDarkhorse a lot of popularity and fans of their own]], sometimes more than some main characters. ''WesternAnimation/ChipNDaleRescueRangers'' had some more popular one-shots including the squirrel Tammy, the lab rat Sparky, Gadget's EvilDoppelganger Lahwhinie and Gadget's father Geegaw who is only ever seen in a picture. This popularity mostly rose long after the show was produced in a time when there was neither a vocal fandom nor an appropriate means of communicating the popularity of a character to the makers, so none of them ever returned. Both Foxglove and Geegaw eventually returned in [[Comicbook/ChipNDaleRescueRangers the Boom! comics]].
* Laura Limpin aka the Big Badolescent from ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'' made 2 appearances in season 1 and vanished until a cameo in the finale (5 seasons later).
** Numbuh 12 joins Cree, Chad and the other teenagers in her debut episode, however she never appears with them in any later episodes.
** Numbuh 206 escapes from decommissioning however it is never revealed whether he was captured, joined the KND's enemies, or otherwise escaped.
* Eustace's Mother from ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'' hasn't shown up in any episode after the coral reef episode.
** Semi-justified because her actress, Billie Lou Watt, died around that time.
* Several characters from the ''WesternAnimation/CuriousGeorge'' movie who played fairly big parts like Maggie, Mr. Blooms berry, and Junior are nowhere to be seen in the TV series.
* SixthRanger Hsien-Ko from the ''WesternAnimation/{{Darkstalkers}}'' cartoon vanishes in the final episode.
* After the ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'' episode "Trick or Treehouse", Mimi and Lee Lee were no longer seen or mentioned (although they were generally carbon non-white copies of Dee-Dee anyway).
** Mandark's sister Lalavava, was never seen or mentioned after her appearance.
** Action Hank and The Pony Puffs (Dexter and Dee Dee's heroes, respectivly) also seemed to have taken their leave after Season 2.
** Then there's Douglas P. Mordechai III, Dexter's friend from the schoolbus. He only appeared in three episodes. Justified in that few episodes from Dexter's Lab took place at school.
* ''WesternAnimation/DoraTheExplorer'' showed that Diego had an older sister named Daisy. She was replaced with Alicia once he got his show, even though the episode she was in revolved around her birthday.
** In ''WesternAnimation/GoDiegoGo'', she's said to be in college, though she's [[TeenGenius only 15.]]
* The second episode of Nickelodeon's ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'', "Doug Can't Dance", had Roger leading a different group of thugs than usual. These thugs appeared only in that episode.
* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales'' notably had quite a few recurring characters disappear without any explanation during its second season, including Doofus, three of the Beagle Boys (Bankjob, Babyface, and Bugle), and ''Donald Duck'' and Admiral Grimmitz.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Ewoks}}'' There's Paploo, a prominent character in the first season. In the second season, he was reduced to a non-speaking cameo and the leading four do not even seem to notice his absence from their adventures.
* Remy Buxaplenty, [[RichBitch rich bastard]] and Juandissimo's godchild on ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddparents'', is an odd example of this in that he is written out of the show at the end of his first appearance. Three seasons later, apparently due to viewer demand (and because he was one of [[WordOfGod the creator's personal favorite characters]]), he returns as a recurring antagonist to Timmy for three more episodes. After the third one, though, he's not mentioned again, not even in Juandissimo's subsequent appearances.
** He actually appeared in a much later episode called "Country Clubbed", [[YouDontLookLikeYou except with a redesign]] and a minimal role.
** Also, back when [[AlienAmongUs Mark Chang]] was Timmy's [[HeelFaceTurn enemy]] he had two friends on Yugopotamia named Jeff and Eric. They haven't appeared recently, not even in an episode that had Mark going back to his planet temporarily.
** This might be the fate of Trixie Tang & her "friend" Veronica as of recent seasons.
** Although not a straight-up example, after the first [[AFairlyOddMovieGrowUpTimmyTurner live-action movie]], Tootie stopped appearing in the series proper and became regulated to the live-action movies only.
** For some reason, neither Poof nor Sparky appear in either episode of the tenth season premiere. Given that the main plot of the first episode is Timmy sharing his fairies with a girl named Chloe, you'd think he would tell her about his godparents' baby and his magical pet, but apparently not.
* Even outside of the ''many'' incidental cutaway characters, ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' has a few.
** The trope is directly [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in the episode "The Father, the Son and the Holy Fonz", in which Peter starts a religion based on ''Series/HappyDays''.
-->'''Peter (preaching):''' Let us contemplate the mystery of Richie’s older brother Chuck, who ascended the stairs with his basketball in season one, and never came down again.
** Brian's gay cousin Jasper, who used to appear a couple of times per season, disappeared after the gay marriage episode.
*** Jasper appeared in the episode "Brian's Play" talking with Brian on Skype and the episode "Life of Brian" [[spoiler:at Brian's funeral]].
** Joe Swanson's own children seem to disappear without a trace. Kevin Swanson appeared in the first 3 seasons, then just disappeared for years, though he had a few non speaking cameos. Years later after his last speaking role Peter questioned about his disappearance out of curiosity. Joe explained Kevin died as a soldier in Iraq with hardly any emotion. Seth [=MacFarlane=] felt Kevin was not a very interesting character to write for. Kevin is brought back as MIA in "Thanksgiving".
** Parodied in "Spies Reminiscent of Us" when Chris enters in an exchange program to be replaced for an Elephant (don't ask). at the end of the episode Brian stated that it was a joke for the episode.
** In Carol Pewetershmidt's first appearance she had just given birth to a baby boy, in her recent appearance he is nowhere to be seen.
** Chris was set up to be with a girl named Anna in "Long John Peter" but, after that episode, she's never mentioned again and Chris is seen trying to get with other girls after that. That also happened with Herbert's niece in the Valentine's Day episode.
** Knowing who voiced Anna (Amanda Bynes) there is no way she will return to the series!
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Franklin}}'' is rather bad for this, but perhaps the worst example is the character of Moose. An entire story in the first season of the program, based on of the books, was dedicated to introducing this character and his acceptance within the close-knit community. In the episode, he finally joined Franklin's class and became his good buddy, but he was never again seen on the series and no explanation whatsoever was provided for his absence.
* {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in the second season of ''WesternAnimation/{{Freakazoid}}''. Lord Bravery, Fanboy, and the Huntsman are upset about their sequences being trimmed down to nothing in the second season and want something to do. Freakazoid makes them wash his car and that's the last we ever see of them.
** Ironically, Freakazoid's alter ego, Dexter Douglas is only seen twice in the second season and never shows up again.
* The DiC seasons of ''Franchise/GIJoe'' quietly wrote out the Crimson Twins (Tomax and Xamot), with no word what happened to them after the movie, other than that their business was shut down.
* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' had a few. Anybody remember Ruth P. [=McDougal=] (the sixth-grade girl Arnold had a crush on, though she could have graduated. She wasn't seen much after the Valentine's Day episode where Arnold tries to go on two dates at once and finds that Ruth isn't the dream girl he thought she was, as she was very boring, very shallow, and not very bright) or Mr. Smith?
** The first episode with Coach Wittenberg mostly revolved around his son, Tucker, and Arnold helping him get his father's approval. Tucker vanished after that, even though Coach Wittenberg continued to appear, along with the introduction of his [[DivorceIsTemporary (ex-)wife]] Trish (presumably Tucker's mother?) Tucker didn't even show up when the two remarried.
** Speaking of Mr. Smith, there was Lana, a woman who lived at the boarding house. The writers originally planned for her to [[MrsRobinson have a crush on Arnold]], but since she was a woman in her mid-20s at the youngest, this didn't go over too well with Nickelodeon, so her character disappeared after the first season. However, this could have been HandWaved by saying she moved out... [[TheBusCameBack Until for whatever reason, she shows up in the finale, apparently still living there this whole time.]] There was also Mr. Purdy, a man Arnold mentions to Gerald, but he never appeared and [[WordOfGod the writers confirmed that he moved out]] [[TheGhost before ever making a physical appearance.]]
** Harvey the mailman is pretty much one. He appeared regularly from 1996 to 1999, but by the TurnOfTheMillennium, he hardly ever appeared on the show, making only background appearances here and there. For unknown reasons, Harvey's voice actor Lou Rawls stopped doing voice work for the show after the Season 4 episode "Chocolate Turtles."
** Ludwig, a bully who competed with Wolfgang in his single episode never appeared again, despite him becoming friends with Wolfgang at the end of the episode.
** Torvald disappears after only three episodes (the last of which is only a brief silent cameo.
* WesternAnimation/IAmWeasel's sexy nurse, Loulabelle, made her debut in the season 2 premiere, but was not seen or mentioned since the season 3 premiere. It was already implied in one episode that she didn't like Weasel, so that's one reason . The more likely reason was Cartoon Network didn't approve of the dumb blonde stereotype she perpetuated.
** Odd since one of the main characters in Ed, Edd n Eddy was one (Nazz), though she doesn't show up as frequently as the other characters.
* ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo'' had Jungle Boy, a character who appeared in several episodes of the first season (and may have been intended to star in a backup feature like ''TheJusticeFriends'' or ''WesternAnimation/IAmWeasel''), but who vanished come the second season and the retool the show underwent. Not even the fourth season, which brought Van Partible back, had him featured at all.
** Similarly, Pops disappeared when Van Partible returned. Carl met a luckier fate, demoted to occasional cameos.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Jumanji}}'' cartoon, the villainous "Stalker" character was introduced in the sixth episode, who looked somewhat like the Grim Reaper. The other villains feared and worked for him, which seemed to be setting him up as the main villain of the series. Unfortunately, he only appeared in two episodes and never reappeared, despite the ending of both episodes hinting at a reappearance.
* In the second season of ''WesternAnimation/JungleJunction'', Carla the koala vanished completely.
* ''WesternAnimation/KaBlam'' had a number of these. Sniz and Fondue's room mates, Bill the Lab Guy's daughter Quirky from Action League and Grubby Groo from The Off-Beats (The only adult in that entire short!).
* Star quarterback Brick Flagg from ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' showed up here and there, but he sort of vanished after a while. Although his no longer appearing was ''eventually'' justified at least for the last season, he graduated by then. He wasn't exactly the brightest bulb when off the football field, and it was mentioned that he'd ''finally'' graduated after being held back a few years. (He even votes for one of his opponents during the school election. Not that it mattered much.)
** Zita, a Ron's love interest, disappear after her second appaerence without no mention of her by the main characters. She return in the series final as Felix's girlfriend.
* Several recurring characters in ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' just disappeared over time like Eustace and his geeky son Randy, who were rivals to Hank, Bobby and their friends in the earlier episodes but they vanished over time too. Bill's iguana Lenore only makes a one-episode appearance, and his girlfriend Laoma, who was Kahn's mother. A season finale episode ends with her living with Kahn and her and Bill in a relationship, but come the new season she's inexplicably gone. The writers apparently wanted to keep Bill alone and miserable.
** In the episode in which Bobby breaks up with Connie, he meets a new girl named Debbie at the mall. They get along fine and are set up to be a couple; come next season she is never seen nor mentioned again and Bobby is back to being single. This happened quite a few times, actually: Bobby would meet a new girl who clearly liked him and they are seen together at the end of an episode. Invariably the girl is never seen or mentioned again.
** Theres also the blonde kid Garth, who appears in the Straight Arrow episode and is implied to be Boomhauer's illegitimate son.
** In the second episode, "Square Peg", Peggy is seen talking to several other women on a bench at a Little League game. Come the next episode, they have vanished and Peggy's only friend is Nancy. This may have been a retcon for later episodes that had Peggy worried that she didn't have enough female friends.
** Those women do appear in the episode in which Khan and his family move in three episodes later but as mentioned previously they don't appear again after that.
*** Those women appear again rather infrequently and at times not all together, one episode in season 2, Peggy's Turtle Song features them delivering a very bizarre LaughingMad moment.
* Almost all of the original Pre-WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes stars (i.e. [[WesternAnimation/BoskoTheTalkInkKid Bosko, Buddy]], WesternAnimation/PorkyPig's friends) have been missing from the series for ''decades''.
** ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' brought Bosko, Honey, Foxy, Foxy's girlfriend and Goopy Geer back for cameos, in which they were hailed as talented veteran cartoon stars. Later, an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' had Buddy make an appearance, but it was a lot less complimentary toward the character in question (turns out Yakko, Wakko and Dot were created just to spice up his notoriously boring cartoons).
** Bosko, the original WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes star, very rarely makes appearances in modern Looney Tunes artwork, and hasn't appeared in any cartoons since his redesigned cameo in Tiny Toons. Understandably, this is due to his roots as a blackface character making him an unacceptable character to put into the mainstream today. It dosen't help that his esoteric nature compared to the mainstream Looney Tunes (due to his cartoons being off the air since the 1980s), not to mention his [[FlatCharacter vague personality]], do not make him a popular character among fans.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
** Twist is shown as Apple Bloom's best friend in "Call of the Cutie". They have a bit of fallout when Twist gains her cutie mark while Apple Bloom doesn't (Twist even says "We can still be friends, right?"), and for the rest of the show Apple Bloom is spending all her time with her new friends, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. She does appear in the background, but has not had a speaking role since. And since her voice actress moved sometime after the episode, this is not likely to change.
** Averted with Princess Luna. After her release from her SuperpoweredEvilSide (hinted at DemonicPossession) Nightmare Moon, in the second episode, Celestia says they will rule Equestria together. However, Luna does not appear or is even referenced in any later episodes of Season 1. In Season 2, however, she is mentioned in the two-part premier, and only two episodes later returns in an episode that ''revolves around her'', and has appearances in the finale, and even more appearances in Season 3, so for Season 1 we can say she was PutOnABus instead.
** Slightly averted with Queen Chrysalis. She has not returned since [[spoiler: falling over the edge of Canterlot in the Season 2 finale]], except in the comics. While the reason for her absence can easily be guessed by those willing to accept it, she is not referenced again in the show, unlike the other villains (many references to Nightmare Moon are made, Discord returns and does a HeelFaceTurn, Rainbow Dash makes reference to King Sombra while Twilight uses his dark magic, and the Season 5 premiere has Rainbow Dash mention Tirek). However, the Journal of the Two Sisters shows that Twilight's full friendship report for [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E11ThreesACrowd Three's A Crowd]] mentions Chrysalis during the part about the fate of Equestria hanging in the balance the last few times Twilight saw Princess Cadance. [[spoiler:She reappears in [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E26TheCutieRemarkPart2 The Cutie Re-Mark Part 2]] in an alternate timeline.]]
** Princess Celestia's pet [[ThePhoenix pheonix]] Philomena is a more straight example, having never been seen or mentioned since [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E22ABirdInTheHoof her first appearance.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyAndFriends'' had an ever-changing cast, as they tried to market as many ponies as possible. There were some characters that never faded like Wind Whistler or Fizzy but others disappeared without a trace. Notoriously ''none'' of the ponies from the [[MyLittlePonyTVSpecials first special]] ever pop up again. You'd think they'd have a close bond to Megan or would at least pop up more, considering they saved the entire kingdom. Whenever the ponies go snatch Megan, she never says "Where's Firefly? Or ''anybody'' who was here last time?"
** It's most notable with the "baby" versions of several ponies. It's not 'til the TV series gets underway that they're treated like the toyline treats them (as daughters of the adult ponies they're named and designed for, existing alongside them.) This introduces a ''serious'' hole to the second special: it has has baby versions of two characters from the first special and two who will appear in future installments. If those are their daughters, then how come they're never, ''ever'' seen alongside their mothers? (Of course, ''maybe'' the ones whose adult versions were yet to appear are the same characters grown up; at least, that's how the fandom treats it.)
* ''ComicStrip/{{Popeye}}'' had four nephews introduced around 1940 - as the series went on it was knocked down to three, then two. This was probably due to animation cost restraints, but it comes off as pretty creepy.
** Hanna-Barbera's take on Popeye in 1978 brings back three of the nephews. But in 1987's ''Popeye & Son," the nephews and even Swee' Pea are egregiously left out in favor of Popeye and Olive having a son.
* After the first episode of season six of ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'' (the events in said episode were non-canon anyway), Miss Grotke was dropped from the show for unknown reasons. She comes back in ''WesternAnimation/RecessTakingTheFifthGrade'', but she ends up being DemotedToExtra.
* In ''WesternAnimation/RocketPower'', the Rocket's neighbors, the Stimpletons, appear a lot less in Season 3, almost to the point of cameos, actually. Also, how often do you see Mackenzie during that season, either?
* In the original run (1991-94) of ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'', two slacker teenagers named Larry and Steve were seen from time to time with a different job in every appearance. After the show's hiatus, they disappeared; in a later episode, Larry appeared as a doughnut salesman - after that, he was never seen again.
* ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' features multiple examples
** Scooby Dumb appeared in four Scooby Doo show episodes and as a regular in the WesternAnimation/LaffALympics and that was it
** Fred, Daphne and Velma disappeared in the 80s without explanation, but for those that did keep watching all three were told of where they went
** Scrappy Doo was last seen in ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheReluctantWerewolf''. In Which Shaggy had a girlfriend Googie, who's never been seen again.
* Lisa Rental, from ''WesternAnimation/SheepInTheBigCity''. [[spoiler:She did make a cameo in the series finale, however.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''
** Tweek was removed from the classroom scenes in season 15. Pip had preceded him in nearly being completely written out, although [[BackForTheDead he was brought out for one last brief cameo]] in "201". He was brought back as a focus character for "TweekxCraig" in Season 19, and he was the focus of a sidequest in ''The Stick of Truth'', so it looks like the writer's haven't forgotten about him ''outright.''
** Nurse Gollum from season 2 (other than a voiceless cameo in "Freak Strike"). However, there's a good explanation for why [[AuthorExistenceFailure she was removed from the show]].
** Dr. Mephesto and Kevin. They were main characters in the first 3 seasons, but disappeared early on in the fourth. One of them DID, in fact make, a one-off apperance in 201 but has not been seen since. Parker and Stone have stated, however, that they grew tired of Mephesto and had wished they'd written him off completely in season 4.
** Some of the children's parents that aren't Stan, Kyle, Kenny, Cartman, Butters, Token, Wendy, etc, have been replaced with different people.
** Midget Wearing Bikini and other joke news reporters seen in the earlier seasons were phased out in favor of just using "Tom" or parodies of actual reporters.
** Mephesto's son Terrance was introduced as TheRival to the four boys, along with his sidekicks Bill and Fosse. Terrance quickly faded into the background, as did the other two (barring a cameo in the Season Seven episode "Li'l Crime Stoppers"). The three are still occasionally seen as background characters, but lack their signature thick eyebrows. Craig, Clyde, and assorted other boys now play the part of the rivals to the main four.
** Mr. Wyland, the substitute teacher.
** Officer Barbrady: Effectively replaced by a full police force around season 7, though he is still brought back for small appearances every now and again.
** LampshadeHanging in "Cartman's Incredible Gift" when Ms. Crabtree is murdered by a serial killer.
--> '''Lou:''' "I owe it to that victim over there! I know she hadn't been in any recent episodes, but DAMMIT, she deserved better than this!"
** Damien hasn't reappeared in years (aside from background cameos in the gymnasium at times, or being seen on a TV in "Tsst!") despite his father making numerous reappearances.
** Nurse Goodly (the nurse with no arms from "Cartman's Mom Is Still a Dirty Slut") hasn't made a reappearance in scenes taking place in Hell's Pass Hospital.
** Fluffy, Cartman's pet pig, hasn't been seen since the episode "Cherokee Hair Tampons" all the way back in season 4.
* On ''WesternAnimation/SpaceGhostCoastToCoast'', much of the Council of Doom disappeared without a trace. The most obvious examples are [[TheUnintelligible Metallus]] and Black Widow. Lokar disappeared after "Waiting for Edward", and after "King Dead", Tansut was never seen again.
** The Creature King suffered this the worst. He was closest thing the [[WesternAnimation/SpaceGhost sixties series]] had to a BigBad. He was the main head of the [[LegionOfDoom Council of Doom]] and fought Space Ghost more times than any other villain. Yet he never appears in ''Coast to Coast'', unless you count stock footage from "Jacksonville".
* Stereo was written out of the second season of ''WesternAnimation/SpaceGoofs''. [[spoiler: Only to reappear in two episodes.]]
* In some of the earlier episodes of ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'', [=SpongeBob=] had a pet scallop in a bird cage above his bed. He was never seen interacting with it, though, and during the middle of the second season it vanished. This was referred to in one of the video games when in [=SpongeBob=]'s room when you click on the cage, he says something along the lines of "That's where I kept my pet scallop, I think he ran away".
** Which is weird, in that it has been seen in later seasons, too.
** Bubble Bass, who appeared in a couple episodes back in season 1 but has never been seen or mentioned since.
*** Apparently Bubble Bass was placed on a [[PutOnABus very long bus ride]], because he had an appearance in the Season 8 episode "Plankton's Good Eye".
*** And now he's made a cameo in the second movie!
** Flatts the Flounder, who was the bully at Mrs. Puff's Boating School. He only appeared in three episodes, (one of them where he made a major role) and never appeared after that.
** Squilliam Fancyson hasn't made a single appearance since Season 7.
* In ''WesternAnimation/SWATKats'', we have a couple of examples. In all cases, the characters are likely still ''there'', somewhere in Megakat City, but just never focused on.
** Feral's second-in-command Steel. He is last seen being chewed by Feral in "Enter the Madkat", and never reappears in the second season. It's been argued that Feral's niece, Felina, replaced Steel as her uncle's second in command, however they have different ranks and uniforms - Felina is only a lieutenant and Steel was a lieutenant ''commander''.
** Burke and Murray. Last seen briefly in "Metal Urgency", they are never seen or mentioned again. The main reason for this seems to be the lack of any scenes focusing on Chance and Jake's civilian lives in the second season, and since Burke and Murray were created to antagonize the two in those scenes, when they went, so did Burke and Murray. The two were slated to appear in an episode that never got made, though.
** Al the Kat's Eye News helicopter pilot. He's last glimpsed in a non-speaking role flying the copter in season one's ''Chaos in Crystal'', and although the helicopter itself appears multiple times in many other episodes, Al himself is never seen again. However, considering ''someone'' has to be flying the aircraft, he is probably still there.
** Dr. Street is last seen getting knocked out of a window in ''The Ci-Kat-A''. He presumably could've saved himself by using his wings to fly to safety, and, indeed, this was what the writers had in mind, as they wanted him to return in another episode and team up with Dr. Viper, but the series was cancelled before the episode was finished.
** Dr. Viper himself. After turning himself into a giant monster in ''Mutation City'', he gets doused with anti-mutagens and disappears from both the episode and the series. His final appearance is in ''The Origin of Dr. Viper'', but that's told entirely in flashback. As mentioned above, though, he was scheduled to reappear in an episode alongside Dr. Street, but then the show was cancelled.
** Bizarrely, the SWAT Kats' own arch-enemy Dark Kat. He gets away at the end of ''Razor's Edge'' in season two, vowing to return, but apart from an alternate universe version of him in ''The Dark Side of the SWAT Kats'' and a cameo as a cardboard cutout in ''The Origin of Dr. Viper'', he never reappears, nor do any of the known unfinished episodes involve him.
** In an example of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, there are a lot of reporters besides Ann Gora seen in ''The Giant Bacteria'', including two male reporters from Kat's Eye News and two from a different news channel called Inside Megakat City. Both male Kat's Eye News reporters get to interview Feral in two different scenes, but after this episode, neither they nor the other reporters appear again. Inside Megakat City vanishes and Kat's Eye News is apparently the only news channel of any importance in town, and, aside from one brief appearance by Tab Mouser (who vaguely resembles one of the reporters from ''The Giant Bacteria'') in ''Unlikely Alloys'', Ann Gora appears to be its only reporter!
* In the final season of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' the Brotherhood of Evil recruits nearly every villain that ever appeared in the series. While the appearance of some in the initial lineup is a {{Snapback}} from the last time they fought the Titans, some such as the Nufu Source didn't appear in the final battle while Kitten wasn't seen after her encounter with Starfire.
** Both of which can be easily explained - Kitten was just a spoiled brat, and Cyborg ATE the Nufu Source. However, some of the villains that the Brain called were actually killed somehow.
*** Speaking of the Brotherhood of Evil; the Doom Patrol, who were the Brotherhood of Evil's original enemies in the first place, are basically written out after "Homecoming Part 2". What happened after the Titans intervened? The Brotherhood of Evil basically focused on getting rid of the Titans. The Doom Patrol weren't even there to help, nor they were mentioned.
** In the first episode, arch-villain Slade is always seen with a silent butler standing at attendance - possibly Wintergreen, Slade's butler in the original Teen Titans comics. He was not used again after this episode.
** The H.I.V.E. Academy Headmistress was a bizarre example, as her first (and until the series finale, ONLY) appearance, she seemed to be set up as a BigBad in charge of training teen supervillains. When the H.I.V.E. organization resurfaced in later seasons, she had been usurped by Brother Blood with no real mention of what happened to her. She returned in the series finale as part of the big final showdown but was quickly dispatched. She later appeared in the comic alongside a new trio of teen villains, but was quickly BoundAndGagged by Robin and presumably arrested. In all of this, it was never explained exactly what had happened that lead to her being booted from her position at the academy.
* In the original ''[[WesternAnimation/TMNT1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' cartoon there was an episode involving a female lizard mutant named Mona Lisa. She serves as a potential girlfriend for Raphael and helps him fight off hijackers who were responsible for her mutation (she was originally a human); at the end they say their goodbyes and she secretly follows Raphael and April to the turtle's lair and introduces herself to the rest of them. Despite this being a setup for her being a recurring character and being a fan favorite she is never seen or mentioned again.
** That cartoon used to pull the same schtick all the time. They'd have an episode that seemed to set up a new cool character, then they'd usually disappear forever. Remember Metalhead? And Muckman and Joe Eyeball?
** Several notable recurring characters, some of which had been on the show from the beginning, just disappeared during the show's 7th and 8th seasons. Season 7 saw the final appearances of the friendly teenage aliens the Neutrinos and the Turtles' young friend Zach. In season 8, Irma, Vernon, Mr. Thompson, and Casey Jones made their last appearances and then vanished without explanation. Bebop and Rocksteady disappeared after season 8, even failing to appear when Shredder and Krang returned for a story arc in the final season with no explanation for the bumbling duo's absence.
* Rachel Wilson from ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'' was a major character in the first season episode "The Party", then only appeared in some background shots in the second season. Eventually, she stopped appearing at all even in scenes that feature her other family members. Reportedly, several of the show's staff (including the show's creator) disliked her and her character design.
** Molly Collins appeared in background scenes in the first season, before disappearing halfway through the second. Eventually, it was revealed that [[spoiler: she had been taken to a nightmarish void in reality because [[GeniusLoci the world itself]] thought she was boring, and was rescued by Gumball and Darwin]]. Afterwards, she made several more appearances, subverting the trope.
** Likewise, Rob suddenly stopped appearing in the second season because of the same reasons as Molly. However, [[spoiler: he wasn't rescued like her, and escaped by himself, [[BodyHorror horrifically disfiguring himself]] in the process]]. He then made several more appearances [[spoiler: as a vengeful villain]].
* Several characters in ''WesternAnimation/TheAnimalsOfFarthingWood'' who weren't killed off, but simply disappeared in Season 3. this includes Fox and Vixen's son Friendly, Kestrel, and the surviving blue foxes aside from Ranger.
** Friendly made a brief appearance in the second episode of Season 3, then was absent for the rest of the series without explanation. Word has it that the show's producers didn't like him and [[ExecutiveMeddling requested that he be dropped from the show]]. Kestrel's disappearance is actually consistent with the original novels, in which the character simply stops appearing around the fifth book in the series, with no specific departure arc.
* In Creator/WalterLantz's ''WesternAnimation/TheBearyFamily'', the family originally consisted of Charlie (father), Bessie (mother), Junior (son), Suzy (daughter), and their pet goose, Goose. Early into the series, Goose disappeared, then eventually Suzy was dropped without explanation.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheBlueRacer'', the main character chased after a racially insensitive Japanese Beetle (yes, a racist Japanese caricature depicted as a beetle). The Beetle character was dropped halfway through the series. Gee, I wonder why...
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheCritic'' webisodes, ''ALL'' the characters from the TV series have disappeared (save Jay Sherman and a brief appearance by Vlada). The worst of all this is that Jay's girlfriend Alice Tompkins is replaced with a ReplacementScrappy named Jennifer.
* Due to the changing nature of the franchise ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'' offers some changes
** Upon the aging up for The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm show, Dino, Hoppy and the Great Gazoo were gone, new pets in their place.
** During that shows new episodes the new pets are gone but Dino is back
** In The New Fred and Barney Show, all the pets are back. Gazoo was still gone.
* In the 1980's ''WesternAnimation/TheJetsons'' revival shortly into the run Elroy got a pet alien named Orbity who he hatched from an egg and was the last of his species, he made regular appearances throughout the series until the season 2 finale "A Jetsons Christmas Carol'', after that he was dropped from the series and was never seen again not even in the movie.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfZelda'' was based chiefly on the [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaI original game]] in the series, with bits of ''VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink''. Despite being a prominent part of the backstory for both games (indeed, she was the reason Link took up his famous quest in the ''first'' place), Zelda's nursemaid Impa is not included in the cast. She did, however, feature prominently in the [[ComicBook/TheLegendOfZelda comic book series]] which launched at approximately the same time.
** Also, the Triforce of Courage is never mentioned in the animated series either (the Triforces of Power and Wisdom can count as characters; they even have voices!). As with Impa, Courage is mentioned in the comics and other books (though never seen; it is said to be "in Link's heart") that were otherwise similar to the cartoon.
* The humans and Sophia Tutu on ''WesternAnimation/TheRaccoons''.
* Citrocette has a "[[EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys Gorilla Friend]]" in ''WesternAnimation/TheRippingFriends''. He wasn't that much of a main character anyway.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': After TheMovie and a brief appearance in the opening of the 19th season premiere, Colin was never seen again and [[StatusQuoIsGod Lisa is back to being single]]. Yeardley Smith actually voiced her annoyance at this, arguing that Lisa deserves "to keep this one."
** Lionel Hutz and Troy [=McClure=] were both retired after their voice actor Phil Hartman's untimely death. Since 1998, they've disappeared from ''Simpsons'' canon (with the very occasional exception of a crowd scene). Hutz's role as the Simpsons' incompetent family lawyer was taken by 'Old' Gil Gunderson.
** Dr. Marvin Monroe, who appeared as a recurring character in the first six seasons of the show. In reality, his character was officially retired by the seventh season due to his voice being murder on Harry Schearer's throat. The in-universe explanation given was that Monroe had died. He returns in the episode "Diatribe of a Mad Housewife" at Marge's book signing, where Marge is shocked to see he's alive. This trope is lampshaded, with Dr. Monroe giving the explanation "Oh, I've been very sick".
** Early episodes had two - almost identical - characters called the Weasels do Nelson Muntz's bidding. Sometime around the third season, they disappeared and Nelson became friends with the Jimbo, Dolph and Kearney trio. The producers explained on the [=DVDs=] that six bullies felt like too many.
*** They make their first appearance in years in "The Winter of His Content" where it's revealed they moved to Shelbyville.
** Homer's half-brother Herb seems to be this as well. He made appearances in two early episodes, then never appeared again. The series occasionally will quip about this, such as once when Homer makes a passing reference to "my seldom-seen half brother Herb."
*** Herb makes a speaking cameo on Homer's answering machine in Season 24's "Changing of the Guardian" in which he reveals that he is poor again.
** The secondary Channel 6 newscaster Scott Christian was quietly phased out after Kent Brockman became recognised as the much funnier character. Ironically, a running gag was suggested that Christian would always be covering for a perpetually absent Brockman, despite the Action News show being named after the latter. One instance of this was trialled in season 1's "Krusty Gets Busted", but was soon rejected, and Brockman does actually appear later in the same episode.
** Serak was in the first Treehouse Of Horror along with Kang and Kodos, who appeared in all subsequent Treehouse Of Horror episodes, but Serak didn't. This is because "he costs money," being voiced by James Earl Jones.
** Herman, first seen in Bart The General, was supposed to be a recurring character, his gimmick being that each time he showed up [[MultipleChoicePast he'd give a different story of how he lost his arm]]. Aside from a few cameos, he's never been seen again, and how he lost his arm was resolved in a flashback episode.
** Sideshow Bob's Italian wife and son disappeared after their second appearance in "Funeral for a Fiend" with no mention of where they went (for the record, Bob has appeared several times since).
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'', we have [[OurMermaidsAreDifferent Marina the mermaid]], Handy's love interest, [[OurGeniesAreDifferent Gourdy the genie]] who's master is Farmer and the [[OurFairiesAreDifferent Pussywillow Pixies]] . . .
* After the rights to ''WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine'' were acquired by HIT Entertainment, and some of the original producers left the show, several semi-regular characters, such as Duck, Oliver, Boco and Daisy, were dropped in order to focus on the [[SpotlightStealingSquad Steam Team]]. This also happened to several one-off and recurring original characters due to a need of merchandising. Season 17 and onwards however, seems to be slowly reinstating them back into the series, with Duck, Bill & Ben, and Harvey re-appearing in season 17, Oliver and Toad in season 18, and Daisy and Donald & Douglas in ''Sodor's Legends of the Lost Treasure''. This trope can now be said to apply to the Logging Locos, whose main entrance way into Sodor was purportedly seen boarded up in several episodes without any explanation. WordOfGod later confirmed the tunnel wasn't boarded up, yet the Logging Locos still have yet to make a re-appearance outside a single eighteenth season cameo and several learning segments, and they might as well remain gone since they were universally-panned for their one-note personalities, reckless actions, living on an island that is a veritable death trap, and, for many American fans, being offensive redneck stereotypes.
* Though most of the characters from the movie made at the very least a cameo in the series once (even Scar did at one point under the name "Claudius"), Nala, the other lionesses, and young Simba (surprisingly) weren't in a single episode of ''WesternAnimation/TimonAndPumbaa'', though they did return in the sequels.
* Happens frequently in ''[[WesternAnimation/TransformersGenerationOne Transformers G1]]''; over time several characters from the 1st and 2nd season stop appearing after the movie and later seasons in order to focus more on the new characters. Having LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters and the show being MerchandiseDriven its easy to forget and lose track on who's who. This meant characters who actually ''survived'' the film, such as Grapple, Sunstreaker, Hound, Jazz, and Cliffjumper, disappeared into thin air and reappeared in the realm of fanfiction forever. There is a bit of an explanation behind Jazz and Cliffjumper, though: Jazz's voice actor, Scatman Crothers, died shortly before the film was released, and Cliffjumper's voice actor, Casey Kasem, left the show due to disgust over the fictional nation of Carbombya (Kasem was of Lebanese descent). If your toy wasn't on the shelves at the time you were liable to simply cease to exist without a word. The third season was even more confusing to Japanese viewers, because ''WesternAnimation/TransformersTheMovie'' wasn't released in Japan until 1989 (by comparison, it was released in the United States and Europe in 1986). This meant that characters who died in the movie such as Ironhide, Prowl, and Wheeljack were alive and well in the Japanese-exclusive series. Other dead characters such as Huffer, Brawn, and Windcharger also appeared via animation errors in the third season, though Brawn's death is frequently disputed in the fanbase, meaning he may not have died and his appearance in "Carnage in C-Minor" wasn't an accident.
* This may be the fate of Vehicle Voltron in all ''{{Voltron}}'' shows post the original 1984 series. They don't get so much as a shoutout in either ''The Third Dimension'' or ''Voltron Force''. Possibly it's a reflection of the lack of popularity of the ''Anime/DairuggerXV'' derived segment and World Events Productions reluctance to spend money retaining the rights to it.
* ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'': After the rise of Apocalypse, Sabretooth just disappears from the show. While its given a small HandWave courtesy of Pyro (claiming he was 'playing with a ball of yarn somewhere'), it's more of just Pyro rambling and doesn't mean a thing. Similarly, Destiny disapears in season 3 without any mention. When she last appeared she tells Mystique that she'll be involved in a plot to bring back an ancient mutant, but by Mystique's next appearence, she's working with Mesmero to bring back Apocalypse without any mention or reason.
* On the British animated sketch show ''Planet Sketch'' there was a character named June Spume whose gimmick was that she could transform her body parts into musical instruments and play them. She didn't return for the second season, possibly because the writers ran out of ideas for her.
* On ''[[WesternAnimation/TheBusyWorldOfRichardScarry Hurray for Huckle]]'' / ''WesternAnimation/BusyTown Mysteries'', the Hilda Hippo character appears in the opening credits and appears in one or two stories as part of the mystery-solving team, but is absent from all other episodes.
[[/folder]]

* After the rights to ''WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine'' were acquired by HIT Entertainment, and some of the original producers left the show, several semi-regular characters, such as Duck, Oliver, Boco and Daisy, were dropped. This also happened to several one-off and recurring original characters due to a need of merchandising. Season 17 and onwards however, seems to be slowly reinstating them back into the series. This trope can now be said to apply to the Logging Locos, whose main entrance way into Sodor was seen boarded up in several episodes without any explanation.
* Though most of the characters from the movie made at the very least a cameo in the series once (even Scar did at one point), Nala, the other lionesses, and young Simba (surprisingly) weren't in a single episode of ''WesternAnimation/TimonAndPumbaa'', though they did return in the sequels.
* Happens frequently in ''[[WesternAnimation/TransformersGenerationOne Transformers G1]]''; over time several characters from the 1st and 2nd season stop appearing after the movie and later seasons in order to focus more on the new characters. Having LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters and the show being MerchandiseDriven its easy to forget and lose track on who's who. This meant characters who actually ''survived'', such as Grapple and Sunstreaker, disappeared into thin air and reappeared in the realm of fanfiction forever. If your toy wasn't on the shelves at the time you were liable to simply cease to exist without a word. The third season was even more confusing to Japanese viewers, because ''WesternAnimation/TransformersTheMovie'' wasn't shown in Japan until later.

** Chris Sharpe, Emma's love interest in season 3; Derek Haig, a notable character until season 9 when he mysteriously disappears; Terri Mcgregor, whose sendoff is only explained in a deleted scene; and Principal Shepherd, former Lakehurst principal becomes acting principal of Degrassi after the merger, is fired due to an outburst at Claire, returns briefly after attending anger management classes, but is suddenly written off and replaced without explanation by old Degrassi principal Ms. Hatzilakos.

A subtrope of UnPerson. Similar in spirit to TheOtherDarrin. Also see OutOfFocus, when a character is gone but not ''quite'' forgotten; and ShooOutTheNewGuy, who gets at least an excuse in the show for disappearing. Contrast with RememberTheNewGuy. For characters who are written out of the main story but are still hanging around in view, see DemotedToExtra. For characters who are specifically brought in for a one-shot purpose, see LongLostUncleAesop. For characters that are given a reason for their departure ''and'' an on-screen send-off, see PutOnABus. Compare ForgottenFallenFriend and WhatHappenedToTheMouse. If a character appears in the pilot or very early episode of a show and [[DroppedAfterThePilot then vanishes]] it may be a case of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness. See also AbsenteeActor. PresentAbsence is when this is averted.

[[index]]
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome/{{Advertising}}
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome/AnimeAndManga
[[/index]]

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome/ComicBooks

[[folder: Comic Books]]
[[/folder]]

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome/FanWorks

** According to Batman Wikia, Catwoman was suppose to appear in the then planned second sequel directed by Tim Burton, but Warner Bros considered Burton’s dark toned-movies to be difficult to sell to young audiences, so the project was then passed to Schumacher. We know what happened.