History Main / LongBusTrip

* Fer(r)etti in ''{{Stargate SG-1}}.'' Kawalsky's death in the first regular episode leaves him the only surviving member of the original {{Stargate}} team other than O'Neil(l) and Daniel, and he was shown to be leading an SG team of his own in his several-second cameo in the first season finale. He was mentioned once more in season three, then permanently and entirely forgotten, though as a team leader, you'd think he'd at least be seen or mentioned around the SGC every so often. (Meanwhile, via flashbacks, {{time travel}}, and {{parallel universe}}s, ''Kawalsky'' has returned ''plenty'' of times.)

* On TheWestWing, Sam Seaborn left the White House in order to run for Congress, which would have made him an excellent candidate for future cameos in the series. Although [[spoiler: it is finally revealed at the end of the series that he lost the race]] there seems to be little good in-universe reason for why he completely vanished.

* On ''Dallas'', Barbara Bel Geddes (who played the matriarch of the Ewing family, Mrs. Ellie) left the series in 1990 because she was quitting acting. The official reason in-show was that she was leaving to go on a tour of the Orient, and (off-screen) deeded the Southfork ranch to her son, Bobby. Despite her appearances in several of the Dallas reunion specials, she never appeared in either of the two television movies (J.R. Returns and War of the Ewings) made in the 90's.

* This was done to Brooke Smith's character Erica Hahn on GreysAnatomy for no apparent reason whatsoever: they spent several episodes building up her relationship with Callie, including an excellent scene where she tearfully declares that Callie "[[ComingOutStory is glasses]]," only to randomly fire her because the writers stopped liking their own story. Erica and Callie get in a fight about the Izzie LVAD-cutting debacle and about how Callie "[[NoBisexuals can't be ''kind of'' a lesbian]]," and she walked off into the parking lot...''forever.'' She was then more or less replaced with perky LipstickLesbian Arizona Robbins. Further proof of Shonda Rhimes' ridiculous and fickle casting habits.

** A real-world example has actors Frazier Hines and Wendy Padbury returning to voice their respective characters of Jamie and Zoe in a set of audio adventures by BigFinish. With the Sixth Doctor. Well over 25 years after playing their characters. In fact, the in-universe time seems to have been about the same for the companions as well to take advantage of the fact that their actors ''(and voices)'' have aged.

* This may belong under ItJustBugsMe, but, honestly, traveling or no, incommunicado or no, nobody managed to find a way to tell [[CriminalMinds Jason Gideon]] about [[spoiler: Haley Hotchner's]] funeral?

** Katy Manning, aka Jo Grant, returned to the Whoniverse (albeit not to ''DoctorWho'' proper) thirty-seven years after she left in ''TheSarahJaneAdventures'' two-parter "Death of the Doctor."

** Well he WAS suffering from Don Krieg's MH5 poison at the time... [[FridgeHorror and coughed up blood]][[BusCrash before he left..]]

** Well he WAS suffering from Don Krieg's MH5 poison at the time... [[FridgeHorror and coughed up blood before he left..]]

** Jonas Quinn, after being a regular cast member in Season 6, hasn't been even ''mentioned'' in the Stargate universe since Season 7, even when his planet was invaded by the Ori. Even an upcoming ''StargateUniverse'' episode involving said planet shows no sign of him.

* Elscol, a guerrilla leader who joined [[XWingSeries Rogue Squadron]] in the first arc of the comics, quit at the end of the arc following that. She knew that what she was doing was making a difference, but she knew any other good pilot could do as well, and she chafed under orders. She left without malice towards the squadron, hinting that she would try and talk [[HelpFaceTurn Sixtus Quinn]] into joining the Rebel Alliance. But although plenty of other allies showed up again during the series, including a commando leader from that same issue, Elscol and Sixtus didn't. Not until the novels, anyway.

* [[TheATeam The A-Team]]: Col. Lynch (Bill Lucking) is put on a long bus trip, after appearing in the first season. He's replaced by Col. Decker (Lance LeGault), who in turn was [[PutOnABus Put On A Bus]] and replaced by General "Bull" Fullbright (Jack Ging). Decker returned for the A-Team's court martial in Season 5.

** JonasQuinn, after being a regular cast member in Season 6, hasn't been even ''mentioned'' in the Stargate universe since Season 7, even when his planet was invaded by the Ori. Even an upcoming ''StargateUniverse'' episode involving said planet shows no sign of him.

* "[[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors The Five Doctors]]" notwithstanding, Sarah Jane from ''DoctorWho'' was left on Earth for 30([[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNIT_dating_controversy ish]]) years before [[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS2E3SchoolReunion resurfacing in 2006]] and getting her own [[TheSarahJaneAdventures spinoff show]]. The reason that it was a bus trip rather than simply been written out was that [[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E2TheHandOfFear Sarah Jane was forced to leave]] because [[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E3TheDeadlyAssassin the Doctor was summoned to Gallifrey]].

* The JasonAlaxander-voiced character Sal from AmericanDad.
* The chef, commercial director and Planton's grandma from SpongebobSquarpants.
* The Amazing Ray, Rotten Rabbit and the [[GrumbyBear cranky old lady]] [[spoiler:who dosn't want anymore newspapers]] from CatDog.

* [[OneSecenWonder Marine the Raccoon]] from SonicTheHedgehog is one of the few characters that's most likely tho come back. Yet as of 2011, we havn't heard from her since her [[SonicRushAdventure last game appearance]].

When this is done to a character in-story, it's ReleasedToElsewhere.

** Also Connor, who was either killed by Paul Robinson's [[EvilTwin crazy son]] or went on a LongBusTrip overseas.

* Largo LeGrande is [[MonkeyIsland LeChuck]]'s second in command and was last seen in LeChuck's Revenge in a blown-up evil lair that... wasn't even really that blown up. We never see him again despite LeChuck's constant appearances.

* Perhaps the ultimate example is on the series ''Becker,'' where the character "Reggie" (Terry Farrell) was put on a LongBusTrip when Farrell was booted from the series under suspicious circumstances (she has told interviewers that it came as a complete shock to her and that she is unsure of exactly why it happened, although she reportedly led a strike among the show's cast). Farrell was even fired before the episode was filmed, and thus never even ''appeared'' on the episode where she was placed on the long bus trip, but was dismissed in a rather unflattering way where Farrell herself herself vanished but Reggie's continued presence was inferred (i.e. it was simply ''related'' that she slept with Becker, and it made her realize that she needed a change ''immediately''). This was all done in a ''very'' implausibly slipshod way, obviously trumped up at the last minute: i.e. it was inferred that Reggie was popping in and out without Farrel ever being on-camera during the entire epsisode, and finally Reggie said good-bye to the cast in a phone-call that was ''dictated'' to them all by a complete stranger (don't ask-- I ''said'' it was implausibly slipshod).

** Of course, the really weird thing about this is that Ferretti was made leader of SG2 at the end of his last appearance, and SG2 is never shown or mentioned again. SG3 are recurring characters, and teams with numbers up to 25 are mentioned sometimes, but SG2 is never spoken of. It's almost as though the writers were planning to have him make an appearance at some point, but never got around to it.