History Main / TeaserOnlyCharacter

* ''Film/TheGravedancers'' opens with a young woman being attacked by an invisible assailant and then hanged, dropping a mysterious black envelope. Then the screen goes black and a 'One Year Later' appears before the screen fades in on Crescent View Cemetery. The woman is never referenced again. The black envelope does appear, however.

At the beginning of many shows -- most commonly in PoliceProcedural or {{Monster of the Week}} shows -- a nameless generic character or two will wander around some deserted location, frequently either on a date or up to hijinks, and then one of three things will happen:

* In the beginning of ''ComicBook/TheBraveAndTheBold: The Lords of Luck'', several dozens of identical corpses are found by different parties all across the globe, which prompts Franchise/{{Batman}} and Franchise/GreenLantern to investigate.

* [[ComicBook/Supergirl2005 "Song of the Silver Banshee"]] opens with ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'s foe [[MakeMeWannaShout Silver Banshee]] murdering an innocent, unnamed woman.

[[folder:Fanfic]]

[[folder:Live-Action Film]]

* In a rare literary example, every narrator of the various prologues and epilogues in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' have ended up dead by the end of that book, often by the end of the scene. But then, [[AnyoneCanDie so does almost everybody else]].

[[folder:Roleplay]]
* Aramir from ''Roleplay/ElementalDoom''. On his second night he found a sickly red substance that he gave a taste test to, and later he exploded into a red sludge.
[[/folder]]

* Favored by the ''Franchise/LawAndOrder'' shows, ''Series/{{CSI}}'', ''Series/TheXFiles'', ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' and ''Series/{{Buffy the Vampire Slayer}}''. ''Buffy'' actually subverted this trope in its first episode; the opening sequence featured a good-looking teenage girl intruding on school property after hours with a date (making it both a date ''and'' hijinks). We think she's a generic soon-dead girl, but then she reveals herself as a vampire and kills and eats her date, who was the real generic victim. She then goes on to be a main RecurringCharacter throughout the history of ''[=BtVS=]'' and ''Series/{{Angel}}''.

* ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' does this a lot. As did ''Series/{{JAG}}'' too.
* Steve Urkel from ''Series/FamilyMatters'' used to be one of these.
* Years later, Jaleel White would appear in a teaser opening of ''Series/{{NCIS}}''.
* ''Series/{{House}}'' has them almost every episode, with the audience spending most of the teasers guessing who will be the patient and who will be this.
* Most of the characters at the begining of most episodes of ''Series/NewYorkUndercover''.

* Nearly ubiquitous in the revived ''Series/DoctorWho''. If the episode isn't part of a multi-part serial, this ''will'' happen (and the character almost always dies horribly).
* Almost every episode of ''Series/{{Bones}}'' starts with this character stumbling over a corpse.
* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': The show's sole ColdOpen in the pilot episode features three rangers of the Night's Watch, Will, Gared and Waymar Royce, heading out beyond the great wall of ice that seperates the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros from the lands beyond. Two of them are soon killed by undead monsters and the third flees, who is later caught by Eddard Stark's men and executed as a deserter.

** Amusingly played with in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' which begins with a team of workers on an oil rig in the desert, then there's an explosion... and the frame freezes and zooms out, revealed to be a presentation put on by a CorruptCorporateExecutive.

* In ''Fanfic/{{Reunions}}'', the old man who brings the cart full of wildfire to Harrenhal gets murdered at the beginning of the chapter.

[[folder:Live-Action Film]]
* ''Film/TuckerAndDaleVsEvil'' has a cold open in which a TV news reporter and her cameraman are murdered by a disfigured slasher. This is never returned to again [[spoiler:but the events in the film reveal that it actually happened after them, and it indicates that the film's villain survived his apparent death and [[TheEndOrIsIt became a classic slasher]].]]

[[folder: Literature ]]
* In a rare literary example, every {{narrator}} of the various prologues and epilogues in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' have ended up dead by the end of that book, often by the end of the scene. But then, [[AnyoneCanDie so does almost everybody else]].

[[folder: Live-Action TV ]]
* Favored by the ''Franchise/LawAndOrder'' shows, ''Series/{{CSI}}'', ''Series/TheXFiles'', ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' and ''Series/{{Buffy the Vampire Slayer}}''. ''Buffy'' actually subverted this trope in its first episode; the opening sequence featured a good-looking teenage girl intruding on school property after hours with a date (making it both a date ''and'' hijinks). We think she's a generic soon-dead girl, but then she reveals herself as a vampire and kills and eats her date, who was the real generic victim. She then goes on to be a main RecurringCharacter throughout the history of ''[=BtVS=]'' and ''Series/{{Angel}}''.
* Neatly parodied in ''Series/PoliceSquad'', where every episode had a [[SpecialGuest guest star]] who was killed while their name was being announced in the credits.
* ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' does this a lot. As did ''Series/{{JAG}}'' too.
* Steve Urkel from ''Series/FamilyMatters'' used to be one of these.
** Years later, Jaleel White would appear in a teaser opening of ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' (example a).
* ''Series/{{House}}'' has them almost every episode, with the audience spending most of the teasers guessing who will be the patient and who will be this.
* Most of the characters at the begining of most episodes of ''Series/NewYorkUndercover''.
* This happens in almost every episode of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''.
* Nearly ubiquitous in the revived ''Series/DoctorWho''. If the episode isn't part of a multi-part serial, this ''will'' happen (and the character almost always dies horribly).
* Almost every episode of ''Series/{{Bones}}'' starts with this character stumbling over a corpse.
* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': The show's sole ColdOpen in the pilot episode features three rangers of the Night's Watch, Will, Gared and Waymar Royce, heading out beyond the great wall of ice that seperates the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros from the lands beyond. Two of them are soon killed by undead monsters and the third flees, who is later caught by Eddard Stark's men and executed as a deserter.

[[folder: Western Animation ]]
* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'':
** The episode "Darkheart" opens like this, with a couple of rock climbers scaling a plateau, before finding alien nanobot things. It cuts away immediately. One of them is seen answering [[GeneralRipper General Eiling's]] questions as the League arrives. As for the other, well; the teaser ends with the aforementioned partner finding their empty boot before the camera reveals the growing nanotech mass, so [[NeverSayDie draw your own conclusions]].
** Amusingly played with in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' which begins with a team of workers on an oil rig in the desert, then there's an explosion... and the frame freezes and zooms out, revealed to be a presentation put on by a CorruptCorporateExecutive.
** "Eclipsed" opens with a military unit hunting a warlord named Fessan. They get a few minutes of screentime before one of them gets possessed by the VillainOfTheWeek and kills them all.
* Leland Turbo from ''WesternAnimation/Cars2''.
* Used from time to time in episodes of ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDoo'', especially in its' [[WesternAnimation/WhatsNewScoobyDoo later years]].

* Used from time to time in episodes of ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDoo'', especially in its' [[WhatsNewScoobyDoo later years]].

[[ folder:Live-Action Film]]

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': The show's sole ColdOpen in the pilot episode features three rangers of the Night's Watch heading out beyond the great wall of ice that seperates the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros from the lands beyond. Two of them are soon killed by undead monsters and the third flees, who is later caught by Eddard Stark's men and executed as a deserter.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': The show's sole ColdOpen in the pilot episodes features three rangers of the Night's Watch heading out beyond the great wall of ice that seperates the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros from the lands beyond. Two of them are soon killed by undead monsters and the third flees, who is later caught by Eddard Stark's men and executed as a deserter.

** HBO's TV adaptation, ''Series/GameOfThrones'', preserves this with its sole ColdOpen.

[[AC:Literature]]

[[AC:Live-Action TV]]
* Favored by the ''Franchise/LawAndOrder'' shows, ''Series/{{CSI}}'', ''Series/TheXFiles'', ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' and ''Series/{{Buffy the Vampire Slayer}}''. ''Buffy'' actually subverted this trope in its first episode; the opening sequence featured a good-looking teenage girl intruding on school property after hours with a date (making it both a date ''and'' hijinks). We think she's a generic soon-dead girl, but then she reveals herself as a vampire and kills and eats her date, who was the real generic victim. She then goes on to be a main RecurringCharacter throughout the history of ''[=BtVS=]'' and ''Series/{{Angel}}''.

[[AC:Western Animation]]

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' episode "Darkheart" opens like this, with a couple of rock climbers scaling a plateau, before finding alien nanobot things. It cuts away immediately. One of them is seen answering [[GeneralRipper General Eiling's]] questions as the League arrives. As for the other, well; the teaser ends with the aforementioned partner finding their empty boot before the camera reveals the growing nanotech mass, so [[NeverSayDie draw your own conclusions]].

* Favored by the ''Franchise/LawAndOrder'' shows, ''Series/{{CSI}}'', ''Series/TheXFiles'', ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' and ''Series/{{Buffy the Vampire Slayer}}''. ''Buffy'' actually subverted this trope in its first episode; the opening sequence featured a good-looking teenage girl intruding on school property after hours with a date (making it both a date ''and'' hijinks). We think she's a generic soon-dead girl, but then she reveals herself as a vampire and kills and eats her date, who was the real generic victim. She then goes on to be a main RecurringCharacter throughout the history of ''[=BtVS=]'' and ''Series/{{Angel}}''.
* Neatly parodied in ''Series/PoliceSquad'', where every episode had a [[SpecialGuest guest star]] who was killed while their name was being announced in the credits.

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' episode "Darkheart" opens like this, with a couple of rock climbers scaling a plateau, before finding alien nanobot things. It cuts away immediately. One of them is seen answering [[GeneralRipper General Eiling's]] questions as the League arrives. As for the other, well; the teaser ends with the aforementioned partner finding their empty boot before the camera reveals the growing nanotech mass, so [[NeverSayDie draw your own conclusions]].
** Amusingly played with in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' which begins with a team of workers on an oil rig in the desert, then there's an explosion... and the frame freezes and zooms out, revealed to be a presentation put on by a CorruptCorporateExecutive.
** "Eclipsed" opens with a military unit hunting a warlord named Fessan. They get a few minutes of screentime before one of them gets possessed by the VillainOfTheWeek and kills them all.

* Leland Turbo from ''[[WesternAnimation/{{Cars}} Cars 2]]''.

* Used from time to time in episodes of ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDoo'', especially in its' [[WhatsNewScoobyDoo later years]].

* Favored by the ''LawAndOrder'' shows, ''Series/{{CSI}}'', ''Series/TheXFiles'', ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' and ''Series/{{Buffy the Vampire Slayer}}''. ''Buffy'' actually subverted this trope in its first episode; the opening sequence featured a good-looking teenage girl intruding on school property after hours with a date (making it both a date ''and'' hijinks). We think she's a generic soon-dead girl, but then she reveals herself as a vampire and kills and eats her date, who was the real generic victim. She then goes on to be a main RecurringCharacter throughout the history of ''[=BtVS=]'' and ''Series/{{Angel}}''.

* In a rare literary example, every {{narrator}} of the various prologues and epilogues in ''ASongOfIceAndFire'' have ended up dead by the end of that book, often by the end of the scene. But then, [[AnyoneCanDie so does almost everybody else]].

Often overlaps DecoyProtagonist. See also StartToCorpse.

See also StartToCorpse.

* There was a short-lived fashion in action thrillers to open with a detailed buildup of a character, such as would usually introduce a protagonist, and then just when the reader was getting to like them the bad guys would kill them (thus showing right off how bad they were) and the real story and the real protagonists could come in.
** The Hurt Locker does this with Guy Pierce's character, creating the need for replacement bomb expert Jeremy Renner, with mortal peril effectively conveyed.
** Arguably, the first Resident Evil film does this, inasmuch as those films develop any of their characters.

* ''Series/{{House}}'' Has them almost every episode, with the audience spending most of the teasers guessing who will be the patient and who will be this.

* Neatly parodied in ''PoliceSquad!'', where every episode had a [[SpecialGuest guest star]] who was killed while their name was being announced in the credits.

* Steve Urkel from ''FamilyMatters'' used to be one of these.
** Years later, Jaleel White would appear in a teaser opening of ''{{NCIS}}'' (example a).

* ''{{NCIS}}'' does this a lot. As did ''Series/{{JAG}}'' too.
* ''JusticeLeague'' episode "Darkheart" opens like this, with a couple of rock climbers scaling a plateau, before finding alien nanobot things. It cuts away immediately. One of them is seen answering [[GeneralRipper General Eiling's]] questions as the League arrives. As for the other, well; the teaser ends with the aforementioned partner finding their empty boot before the camera reveals the growing nanotech mass, so [[NeverSayDie draw your own conclusions]].
** Amusingly played with in an episode of JusticeLeague which begins with a team of workers on an oil rig in the desert, then there's an explosion... and the frame freezes and zooms out, revealed to be a presentation put on by a CorruptCorporateExecutive.

* Favored by the ''LawAndOrder'' shows, ''{{CSI}}'', ''Series/TheXFiles'', ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' and ''Series/{{Buffy the Vampire Slayer}}''. ''Buffy'' actually subverted this trope in its first episode; the opening sequence featured a good-looking teenage girl intruding on school property after hours with a date (making it both a date ''and'' hijinks). We think she's a generic soon-dead girl, but then she reveals herself as a vampire and kills and eats her date, who was the real generic victim. She then goes on to be a main RecurringCharacter throughout the history of ''[=BtVS=]'' and ''Series/{{Angel}}''.

* Favored by the ''LawAndOrder'' shows, ''{{CSI}}'', ''TheXFiles'', ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' and ''Series/{{Buffy the Vampire Slayer}}''. ''Buffy'' actually subverted this trope in its first episode; the opening sequence featured a good-looking teenage girl intruding on school property after hours with a date (making it both a date ''and'' hijinks). We think she's a generic soon-dead girl, but then she reveals herself as a vampire and kills and eats her date, who was the real generic victim. She then goes on to be a main RecurringCharacter throughout the history of ''[=BtVS=]'' and ''Series/{{Angel}}''.

* Almost every episode of ''{{Bones}}'' starts with this character stumbling over a corpse.

** HBO's TV adaptation, ''GameOfThrones'', preserves this with its sole ColdOpen.

* Nearly ubiquitous in ''DoctorWho''. Unless the episode is a continuation, this ''will'' happen (and the character almost always dies horribly).

The overwhelming majority of these characters are good-looking teenagers.

* Favored by the ''LawAndOrder'' shows, ''{{CSI}}'', ''TheXFiles'', ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' and ''Series/{{Buffy the Vampire Slayer}}''. ''Buffy'' actually subverted this trope in its first episode; the opening sequence featured a good-looking teenage girl intruding on school property after hours with a date (making it both a date ''and'' hijinks). We think she's a generic soon-dead girl, but then she goes on to be a main RecurringCharacter throughout the history of ''[=BtVS=]'' and ''Series/{{Angel}}''. (Her ''date'', on the other hand, was a pure example of this trope, as the aforementioned girl proceeds to suck his blood.)