History Main / TeaserOnlyCharacter

* Very common in ''Series/TheXFiles'', particularly the [[MonsterOfTheWeek stand-alone episodes]]. The Teaser-Only Characters rarely survived the experience, and were often referred to as the [[FanNickname Victim (or Victims) of the Week]].

* In ''Manga/{{Ooku}}'', the entire plot opens with a little boy wandering in the forest and getting mauled by a bear. Then his family was infected by the Red Pox disease, the aftermath of which resulted in the storyline's setting.

* In the beginning of ''ComicBook/TheBraveAndTheBold: The Lords of Luck'', several dozen 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.
* Several ''ComicBook/UsagiYojimbo'' stories begin with a random -often inebriated- character wandering into a dead end and getting murdered.

[[folder:Fanfiction]]

[[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.
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** ''Film/DiamondsAreForver'': James Bond pursues Ernst Stavro Blofeld and eventually finds him at a facility where Blofeld look-alikes are being created through surgery. Bond kills a test subject, and later the "real" Blofeld, by drowning him in a pool of superheated mud.
** ''LiveAndLetDie'': Three [=MI6=] agents are killed under mysterious circumstances within 24 hours in the United Nations headquarters in New York City, in New Orleans, and the small Caribbean nation of San Monique, while monitoring the operations of the island's dictator, Dr. Kananga.
** ''TheManWithTheGoldenGun'': An American gangster visits famed crack shot hitman Francisco Scaramanga to try to kill him to collect a bounty, but he is directed into a funhouse section of the estate where there are mannequins of gangsters. Scaramanga eventually retrieves his golden gun and shoots the gangster.
** ''ForYourEyesOnly'': An unnamed figure in a wheelchair (implied to be Blofeld) attempts to kill Bond. Bond turns the tables and [[SmokestackDrop drops his wheelchair down a factory smokestack]].

[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]
* ''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]].]]

* The blonde woman being chased through the ParkingGarage in TheTeaser of ''Film/FearInc'' [[spoiler:Given what is later revealed about Fear, Inc., it is not surprising she is never heard from again.]]

* The sailor and his bride killed by Railroad Jack in the pre-title sequence of ''Film/JackTheReaper''.
* John's uncle who dies in the opening scene of ''Film/PigHunt''; killed by the [[FullBoarAction killer boar]].
* Douglas Winter (Richar Grieco) and his family in the pre-title sequence of ''Film/ArtOfTheDead'' who show what happened to the last person to assemble all [[AnomalousArt seven paintings]] in one place.
* Jill, the sexy coed Professor Kapps kills to serve as a HumanSacrifice in the opening scene of ''Film/TheHazing''.
* The two unfortunates who are chased and killed during the opening credits of ''Film/HobokenHollow''.
* The teaser to ''Film/GreatWhite'' features a pair of tourists who have anchored their yacht at Hell's Reef. They become the first victims of the eponymous shark. They only appear again as corpses.
* Maggie's boyfriend Jimmy is ripped apart by a FrankensteinMonster during the teaser of ''Film/ArmyOfFrankensteins''.
* Tiburon disposes some of some nameless mook in his Shark Pool in the teaser to ''Film/SharkWeek'' in a scene that serves no plot purpose whatsoever.

* Most ''Literature/AlexRider'' stories start with someone being killed off by the villain before switching to the main action of Alex Rider.

* Most of the characters at the begining of most episodes of ''Series/NewYorkUndercover''.

* Leland Turbo from ''WesternAnimation/Cars2''.

* 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]].

* Tiburon disposes some of some nameless mook in his Shark Pool in the teaser to ''Film/SharkPool'' in a scene that serves no plot purpose whatsoever.

* The teaser To ''Film/GreatWhite'' features a pair of tourists who have anchored their yacht at Hell's Reef. They become the first victims of the eponymous shark. They only appear again as corpses.

* This happens in almost every episode of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', starting in the pilot where we are introduced to the boys' mother [[spoiler: only to have her burned alive before the opening credits.]] After that, the majority of episodes have a teaser where some poor soul is dispatched by the MonsterOfTheWeek. This is often a sign that it will be a monster-of-the-week episode not always. The MythArc-heavy episode ''Are You There God, It's Dean Winchester?" begins with the death of a hunter named Olivia but turns out to be pivotal in setting up the season's mythology.

%%* This happens in almost every episode of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''.

This only lasts about a minute, or even a matter of seconds, before we cut to the show's characters, who have come in to investigate the death, deaths or deadly threat. The character/s from the teaser have almost no involvement from this point on; they might be asked one or two questions, but they're just as likely to get nothing but a brief mention ("A couple of kids found her three hours ago", etc) and that'll be it for them.

At the beginning of many shows — most commonly in PoliceProcedural or MonsterOfTheWeek 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:

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

!!!'''In General:'''
* Favored by the ''Franchise/LawAndOrder'' shows, ''Series/{{CSI}}'', ''Series/TheXFiles'', ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' and ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. ''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}}''.
!!!'''By Series:'''

* This happens in almost every episode of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''.