!!This page is under consideration for a rename. Please join in the [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=lknrlulbqxes5gukdiu2jpap&page=1 the forum thread]] to have your say.

[[{{Banjo-Kazooie}} http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Tooty.jpg]]

-->''"Hey, remember when Bakura used to be in this show? Neither do I!"''
-->-- '''Yami,''' ''[[YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series]]''

-->''"Let us contemplate the mystery of Richie's older brother Chuck, who ascended the stairs with his basketball at the end of the first season and never came down again."''
-->-- '''Peter Griffin,''' ''FamilyGuy,'' "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Fonz"

Usually if the writers want to remove a character from the show, they will either [[KilledOffForReal kill]] that character or [[PutOnABus put him or her on a bus]] to explain their absence.

A BrotherChuck simply disappears and is never mentioned again — often because the writers simply gradually lose interest in the character, without ever making a conscious decision to remove them from the storyline, and then eventually forget about them entirely. The name comes from Chuck, Richie Cunningham's older brother on ''HappyDays''.
Also known as ''Chuck Cunningham Syndrome''.

Usually a [[RecurringCharacter secondary character]], but even more jarring when it happens to a [[RegularCharacter regular]].

Sibling in spirit to TheOtherDarrin. Also see TrivialPursuit, where the disappeared character is important, or at least relatively important and WhatHappenedToTheMouse?; LongLostUncleAesop; OutOfFocus; and ThePoochie, who gets an excuse in the show for disappearing.

Contrast with RememberTheNewGuy. For characters who are written out of the story but don't quite cease to exist, see DemotedToExtra.

This page was linked in a recent Cracked.com article! Huzzah for recognition!

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!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* In ''{{Beyblade}}'', the Saint Shields, Team Kane, and a good chunk of the PPB All Starz are all absent in season 3.
** Supposedly the series end explains it, albeit in a very crappy and vague fashion. More importantly, where were all the good teams during season 2?
* Jigglypuff in the ''{{Pokemon}}'' anime.
* SailorMoon ditched the entire supporting cast of the anime (including Usagi's parents and brother)sometime after the second season. Occasionally one or two would show up for a token appearence or in the background, but most of them simply disappeared.
** 2nd season? The supporting cast lasted until the final 5th season generally getting one focus episode where the baddies targeted them per season. But yes the entire supporting cast didn't appear in the final season at all, with the sole exception of Usagi's mother who appeared once.
* Doctor Tofu from ''[[RanmaOneHalf Ranma 1/2]]'', who was written out midway through the 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 tend to keep using him to provide a second opinion, or comedy relief, though it was a joke in the fan community that he had actually fallen into an open sewer and died. This was only in the manga where he last appeared about a third of the way through, but he made minor appearances in the anime throughout the series.
** Due to some sort of quirk in Viz's credits, Doctor Tofu's voice actor is credited at the end of every episode of the English dub; despite the fact that after the first season of the anime he becomes a bit player who shows up maybe once every dozen episodes.
*** Might be because he was voiced by Ian Corlett, who was a fairly big name in voice acting at the time.
** This was repeated almost exactly in RumikoTakahashi's later work ''InuYasha''. Hojo seemingly disappeared as the manga focused more on the feudal era arcs. And again, the anime differed by including him in later filler episodes.
* ''[[ElHazard 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 literal cliffhanger - he was left clinging to the edge of a cliff, about to fall to his doom. However, the cliffhanger was never resolved and the character was never seen (or even mentioned) again.
* The Steel Saints from ''[[SaintSeiya Saint Seiya]]'', characters original to the anime's first season, completely disappeared before the 12 Zodiac Temples Arc.
* Lunch was pretty much the second (or third, depends on your view) female lead in ''DragonBall''. In ''DragonBallZ'', she disappeared completely, with no explanation; even Tenshinhan and Yamcha, who were also mere humans compared to the overwhelming saiyans, just like her, appear a bit more than the girl. To be fair, Toriyama said just forgot completely of the poor thing's existence.
* Longchamp in ''{{Katekyo Hitman Reborn}}'', much to the relief of many fans.
**While many other fans wants him in the anime and is hoping for the mangaka to reveal that FinalBoss [[spoiler:Byakuran]] is actually Longchamp after ArtEvolution.
*** Then we can say, "''[[{{CodeGeass}} Geass]]'' may have failed to bring us BigBad Zombie!Clovis, but at least ''[[{{Katekyo Hitman Reborn}} Reborn!]]'' got it right!" Right? Right...!?
* Several major characters in ''Medabots'' never showed up in the second season.
* Kappei Hiiragi from ''{{Clannad}}'' does not appear at all in the anime, not even mentioned.
* The few characters who aren't killed off in ''{{Fist of the North Star}}'' usually tend to just fade away to the background. Happened to Mamiya, Airi, Rihaku, Myu, and Lui. It even happened to Bat during the Land of Asura arc until the final few episodes needed a DeusExMachina.
* Nozomi from ''ElfenLied'' was a main character and the reason that the show's called Elfen Lied. However, she was written out of the anime. Towards the end of the manga, she becomes a [[CuteMute Cute Mute]] due to injury, further pushing her out of the plot and turning her into background filler when she even appears at all.
* In ''OnaniMasterKurosawa'', the unnamed younger sister of the protagonist appears in some boxes trying to talk to Korosawa-oniisan, only to be solemnly ignored (even by the author, after some chapters).
* Klaus in HayateTheCombatButler ''would'' be this except every now and then there's a cheerful little caption pointing out that even if he disappeared entirely from the plot, yes, he is in fact still alive. Which is ''cheating'' so he's getting listed anyway.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:ComicBooks and NewspaperComics]]
* Comic strip example: In ''{{Garfield}}'', [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Garfield_characters#Lyman Lyman]] was a black-haired guy with a bushy moustache who, originally, owned Odie. Media accusations that roommates Jon and Lyman were gay prompted his quiet disappearance after a few years. 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.
** [[http://www.garfield.com/fungames/scavengerhunt/scavengerhunt.html Garfield's Scary Scavenger Hunt]] on the official website posits that Lyman was trapped in the dungeon of a HauntedHouse.
*** He actually runs the bookstore on the site, so he must have wandered out again.
* Shermy from ''{{Peanuts}}'' was the first character to get a speaking line in the strip, and Charlie Brown's best friend early on, but then vanished without a trace. It was probably because he was too normal; he didn't have a quirk like Linus's philosophical tendencies, Pigpen's messiness, or Lucy's bossy personality, he was just [[TheGenericGuy an ordinary kid]] with nothing to hang gags on.
** Several ''Peanuts'' characters disappeared for the same reason, as creator Charles Schulz has admitted - they just weren't that interesting. The roster of the eventually-missing also includes Violet and Patty (the two girls in the early strips), as well as one-note types like Frieda and Pig-Pen. (Shermy was replaced by Franklin, the strip's first black kid.)
*** After appearing in about ''two'' strips, 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, 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 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, "I will remove her, but how do you feel about causing the death of an innocent child?" (the letter included a [[http://www.cagle.com/hogan/webextras13/charlotte/home.html picture of Charlotte with an axe in her head]]).
** ''Mad'' Magazine pointed out Shermy's disappearance with 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.
* King Muskar XII of the fictional Balkan kingdom [[{{Ruritania}} Syldavia]] was a major character in the ''{{Tintin}}'' story ''King Ottokar's Sceptre'' (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 mostly on King Zog of Albania, and after WorldWarTwo all the Balkan kingdoms became communist dictatorships.
** For King Zog, it didn't even take that long; Albania was invaded by Italy in 1938.
** What's especially unfortunate is that Muskar's disappearance turns ''King Ottokar's Sceptre'' (itself one of the best Tintin stories) into a ShaggyDogStory - the entire plot in that story was about Tintin trying to foil a plot to force Muskar into abdicating.
*** Not quite. The plot was about Tintin foiling a Bordurian plot to subjugate Syldavia. Forcing Muskar to abdicate was one of the steps of that plan. Syldavia's continued independence means that the outcome of ''King Ottokar's Sceptre'' is still important.
**** However Syldavia's FaceHeelTurn in ''The Calculus Affair'' proves that no good deed goes unpunished. It also lends credence to the fact Syldavia is indeed no longer a monarchy, or that Muskar XII is either not King anymore, or that there is a rogue faction in his intelligence services. Or worse, Muskar XII is a firm adherent to '''Realpolitik''' and is perfectly willing to publicly recognize a man who saved his ass, only to backstab him out of the limelight.
* In the comic strip ''{{Zits}}'', Jeremy and Hector's garage band included their first drummer, Y.A. In one strip he just quit the band and never showed up again.
* Just about every other character in the ''Prickly City'' strip besides Carmen and Winslow was a victim of this. Early in the run there was a character named Dio, a chameleon. He appeared in the strip on and off and then just disappeared. He eventually reappeared one more time several months later for a storyline, but he hasn't appeared since.
* This was the case with the MAIN CHARACTERS in ''Out of the Gene Pool''. 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 ''Single and Looking''. Rufus was never heard again until a year later when he appeared in the very last strip, snarking about how he never had a proper closure.
* Famously done to Rikki in the Belgian comic epic ''Suske En Wiske'' (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}}.
* In the comic strip ''Robotman'', the titular character got abducted by aliens, and was never mentioned again. Eventually, the comic strip got renamed to ''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 {{lampshaded}}.
* ''PearlsBeforeSwine'' had the character Leonard, who moved into the apartment with Rat and Pig after they leased it for rent. Originally the creator of the strip got rid of him in this method, but eventually he wrote him out by saying that he got his head stuck in the toilet and drowned.
* Calvin of ''CalvinAndHobbes'' was introduced to an Uncle Max, his father's brother, fairly early on in the comic strip's run. Max's single visit to Calvin's home was also his last, and as Watterson put it, "Max is gone."
** Watterson said this was because he was finding it hard to have Max talk to Calvin's dad without saying his name, and Watterson was always very strict about Calvin's parents never being referred to as anything but "mom" and "dad." To the point that he would rather retire the Max character forever than give them names.
*** That was just a major reason for Max getting dropped. Watterson admitted that he invented Max because he thought it would offer new story opportunities, only to find no, it didn't.
* Chip Dunham's ''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 ''TheBoondocks'', disappeared with no explanation almost a decade ago, and was never mentioned again. She did pop up in [[PragmaticAdaptation the show,]] however.
* Pretty much every character from the early days of ''BloomCounty''. Milo was the only character to last the entire run. Notable vanishings were Milo's grandfather and Cutter John's girlfriend [[{{Hot librarian}} 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.
* ShallowLoveInterest Sylvia was written out of ''{{Baldo}}'' when the titular character started dating a GirlNextDoor named Smiley...who later broke up with Baldo and was never heard from again herself.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]
* ''{{Transformers}}'' (2007) featured a Decepticon named Barricade who featured heavily in the middle of the movie, and was seen briefly near the end, but did not participate in the climax, and unlike other characters who survived ([[spoiler:Starscream flew out into space during the credits - all other Decepticons were destroyed and dumped in the ocean]]), was not shown afterwards. He seems to have simply disappeared.
** He was supposedly killed during the highway scene after Optimus Prime took out [[spoiler:Bonecrusher]], but the scene was removed as they decided to save him for the sequel. The scene is even in the comic adaptation.
*** [[spoiler: And then they went and either didn't use him in the sequel, or tossed him somewhere in the crowd scenes where he met a swift end without fanfare.]]
** Scorponok also disappears as well. After the battle with the military in the desert, he burrows down into the sand, injured but clearly still alive, and does not reappear for the rest of the film. He returns in the sequel, Revenge of the Fallen.
** In the original animated ''{{Transformers}}'' movie, one of the five Dinobots, Snarl, vanishes during the attack on Autobot City. He is not seen or referred to for the rest of the movie.
*** Not quite correct. Snarl is missing for the first battle in Autobot City (only the other four Dinobots jump out of the shuttle) but then appears when they're evacuating the City when Galvatron attacks and a bit later on during the space battle. He has no lines and then he disappears again.
*** Likewise, Blaster, who plays a somewhat important role in the opening attack on Autobot City and then completely vanishes for the remainder of the film when Galvatron attacks. Not to mention all the animation errors which had all the minor background characters dying, coming back, being the wrong color, etc.
* Nightcrawler was a major character in ''Film/X-Men 2'', but he didn't even appear in the third movie. Actor Alan Cumming found the make-up and prosthetics process grueling and refused to return for the sequel. Cumming can be seen in the behind-the-scenes footage for ''X-Men 2'' already stating that he never wants to go through the ordeal again. Thus, his character was PutOnABus. The video game based on the film explains that Nightcrawler left the X-Men in reaction to their violent lifestyle.
* ''[[HoneyIShrunkTheKids Honey, I Shrunk The Kids]]'': Ron and Russ Thompson were major central characters of the film along with Nick and Amy Szalinski. In fact, Amy and Russ share a romantic moment together, and Ron and Nick had a bit of a rivalry with each other (which ended up becoming a friendly one). The Thompsons are nowhere to be found in any of the sequels or the TV series. As a consequence, Amy was PutOnABus to college in the beginning of ''Honey, I Blew Up the Kid'', and the Thompsons are only mentioned in passing once as "the guys next door".
* ''Dr. Dolittle'': Rodney the guinea pig is nowhere to be found come the sequel, probably because his voice actor, Chris Rock, 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 ''{{Olsen-Banden}}'' movies, Kjeld and Yvonne had two children: A son Børge and a smaller daughter (unnamed, I believe). As the series went on Børge became an important regular while his sister vanished into thin air.
* In the animated version of ''Charlottes's Web'' 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.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* In ''The BabySittersClub'', this was the eventual fate of most of the girls' non-club friends, fuelling speculation that the girls were disturbingly cult-like...
* The "Bummer Twins" (Jackie and Alison) in the ''ConfessionsOfGeorgiaNicolson'' series, who feature prominently in early books but disappear completely after ''Dancing in My Nuddy-Pants'' (with Georgia briefly noting in a later book that they had been expelled from school.)
* Evadare from the Silver John stories by ManlyWadeWellman. John meets her in ''Nine Yards of Other Cloth'' and is fixing to marry her at the end of ''Trill Coster's Burden''. After that, she is never heard from again.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* ''HappyDays'', in addition to being the TropeNamer, also {{lampshaded}} 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 {{lampshaded}} in commercials ran by Nick at Nite after they started airing ''HappyDays''. 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 one son and one daughter".
* Selby, Paul's friend in the first season of ''MadAboutYou''. ([[LampshadeHanging Lampshade hung]] in one episode when Paul, complaining about their lack of friends, yelled, "Like Selby, what the hell happened to him?")
* About 70% of the girls who were in the first season of ''TheFactsOfLife'', including Molly Ringwald ("[[TheDanza Molly]] Parker") and Felice Schachter ("Nancy Butler").
* On ''{{The 4400}}'', 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.
** And an example with a secondary character is 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.
* Judy Winslow, the youngest daughter on ''FamilyMatters'', simply vanished after the fourth season. (Apparently being Brother Chucked off the show was so traumatic that Jaimee Foxworth, the actress who played her, ended up going into porn under the name "Crave".) She was followed into oblivion by Aunt Rachel, whose son Richie was treated as if he were the Winslows' youngest kid. Laura's best friend Penny and Eddie's sleazy best friend Rodney also vanished.
**She was the first of many to fall off the face of reality as TheUrkel continued to [[SpotlightStealingSquad take over more and more screentime.]] Seeing how he's a MadScientist, that's slightly suspicious...
* Carl Dixon (played by Moses Gunn) married Florida Evans in ''GoodTimes'' to give Esther Rolle's character a reason to leave the show when the actress quit in 1977. However, when she came back to the show in 1978, Dixon was conveniently forgotten and never mentioned again.
** This was justified (or at least [[{{Handwave}} handwaved]]) by establishing early on that Carl had terminal cancer, and he and Florida moved to Arizona so he could live out his final days in comfort. It's assumed, but never explicitly stated, that Florida moved back when Carl died.
* Dr. Ben Samuels was a major character in the first season of ''[[StElsewhere St. Elsewhere]]'' who simply stopped appearing. His plot arc was never resolved, and none of the other characters mention him again.
** Which makes sense, considering he only existed in the mind of Tommy Westfall.
* Constantly used in ''StepByStep''.
* Kendra on ''DegrassiTheNextGeneration'' was a recurring character in many second and third season episodes, and vanished without a trace in the fourth season. This was particularly strange because her brother and 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...)
** To a lesser extent, Chester, who was introduced as a new main character and vanished after about three episodes. Oddly enough, Chester and Kendra were [[UnfortunateImplications both the show's only Asian characters.]]
** There was Tim as well, who, while not Asian, appeared to have only been introduced for all of three episodes merely to add more drama about Marco's homosexuality. When Marco came out to his father and got back together with Dylan, Tim basically disappeared despite having become a somewhat prominent character in the time allotted.
**It should be mentioned that Tim had been kicked out of his house after coming out to his father-- on Marco's advice. Nice job, hero
** An even more important character was Terri. One of the main characters of the first two seasons. In the start of the third season she got hospitalized. A few episodes later they visit her once. But after that one scene she is never heard, seen, or mentioned again.
**Apparently the story is she was sent to private school afterwards, but that's not explained in the show.
*** Ashley mentions [[HandWave in passing]] that Terri left Degrassi after the incident.
* Mandy on ''TheWestWing'' 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.
** Several characters 'went to Mandyville' over the course of the series, often with no more than a few appearances. Ainsley Hayes had several episodes of her own when she was first introduced in the second series but later vanished. Her disappearance was only ever explained when they were interviewing her successor.
*** Ainsley, and a few other characters who had 'gone to Mandyville' did make cameo appearances in the last few episodes.
* Walt Finnerty on ''GroundedForLife'' was gone after season 3 without explanation.
** And younger brother Henry was gone after season 4. Nothing happened to him...he was just always in the other room or something.
*** Henry did show up in the series finale, possibly with a lampshade of some kind.
** Walt never completely vanished from the show; he just became more sporadic in his appearances. It was probably the ChannelHop leading to a budget cut, so veteran actor Riehle got his role reduced.
* Maggie Doyle on ''{{ER}}''.
** Also Bob. 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 just discovered the "simple" foreign janitor rather patronizingly nicknamed "Bob" because Frank couldn't be bothered to learn to pronounce her real name was actually a cardiologist in her native Russia]].
* Bob from ''{{Becker}}'' was said to be "on vacation" in the first episode of Season 6, and never returned.
* ''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.
** Mike's girlfriend Ashley was awkwardly PutOnABus in the middle of season one, although she did return for one episode which featured several of Mike's ex-girlfriends being interviewed.
* Seven, a [[CousinOliver Cousin Oliver]] introduced in Season 7 of ''MarriedWithChildren'', was written out without explanation when he proved unpopular with the fans. {{Lampshaded}} in one episode when his [[FaceOnAMilkCarton face was seen on a milk carton]].
** A similar gag was used with Dr. Erhardt on ''MysteryScienceTheater3000''.
* Cat Grant on ''LoisAndClark'' disappears without a trace after the first season, ostensibly because the network thought she was too risque.
* Too many students to be named in ''SavedByTheBell: The New Class'' (it happened in the original ''SavedByTheBell'' too, but to a lesser extent).
* Dr. Grace Miller, on ''{{Scrubs}}'', was introduced with much fanfare in series 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 fulfills that role, and B) Dr. Miller was an unfunny, unlikeable shrew.
** JD is also never seen actually breaking up with his love interest Jamie (Tasty Coma Wife, played by Amy Smart). Considering that their relationship was based on drama, however, it's likely that they simply broke up off-screen, as she was gone as the third season began.
*** JD screwed up with TCW somehow. Turk says her name when listing JD's failed relationships in a later episode.
*** Additionally, she appeared in the finale amongst every notable guest star from the shows run, lamenting that JD "never called."
* In an early ''BoyMeetsWorld'' 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.
** More notably, Minkus, the nerd from the early seasons, completely and inexplicably disappeared when they moved on to high school. During the very last episode in high school, he finally [[strike:made a cameo]] ran into Cory, and lampshaded his absence by pointing out that he was in classes at the other end of the hall (behind the cameras).
*** Minkus's disappearance was explained, and even shown on-screen, at the end of the very last episode in grade school. Topanga, with Minkus, was trying to convince Cory and Shawn that you could make anything happen if you believed hard enough. After much complaint, Cory and Shawn agree to give it a try, and close their eyes and concentrate. Minkus magically vanishes, and Cory and Shawn happily agree that there's something to it after all. Pretty grim, actually.
** An interesting reversion is Cory's little sister Morgan, who vanished during the second season, then suddenly appeared again in the third [[TheOtherDarrin with a new actress]], saying "[[LampshadeHanging That was the longest timeout I]] ''[[LampshadeHanging ever]]'' [[LampshadeHanging had!]]"
** 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.
**Mr. Turner was badly injured in a season finale, and the season premiere - and rest of the series - doesn't feature him, mention him, or anything. If he'd ''died,'' it'd explain his non-absence, but would surely have been worth mentioning at least once.
* During the transition between ''PowerRangersTurbo'' and ''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, while Bulk and Skull attached themselves to an alien-obsessed scientist. Worth noting due to the fact that, despite traveling to at least one other planet and back, it is strongly implied that no more than a week has passed.
* What ever happened to Spearchucker Jones or Ugly John in ''[[{{MASH}} M*A*S*H]]''?
** Spearchucker was removed for historical reasons, (ThatOtherWiki: "there is no record of African-American doctors serving in Korea.")
* In a 1970 episode of the soap ''AllMyChildren'', a teen named Bobby Martin goes up in his family's attic to wax his skis. The actor was then abruptly fired and so Bobby was never seen again. Years 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.
* Fox comedy ''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.
* Wally, Maya's roommate in the first season of ''JustShootMe''.
* Kate Lockley in ''{{Angel}}'', ostensibly because she was fired from her job as a police detective and could no longer function as Angel's police contact. In reality, actress Elisabeth Rohm took a regular role on ''LawAndOrder''.
** Although {{Word of God}} says that they were pretty much done with the character anyway, as it was decided that involving Angel with the police was just overcomplicating things; later seasons ignore the existence of the LAPD entirely, thus making the WHOLE DEPARTMENT a "Brother Chuck" of sorts.
*** Somewhat justified in that Angel doesn't deal with the type of crimes that [[{{Muggle}} normal cops]] could handle anyway. And the show begins to turn from "supernatural crimes" to plain old "supernatural" around this time anyway.
** [[spoiler:She does return in the canon comic continuation though.]]
* ''[[BabylonFive Babylon 5]]'' has ''three'':
** N'grath, the insectoid crime boss. The animatronics that "played" him became irreparably damaged sometime between seasons 1 and 2, and so he completely disappeared after the first season with no on-screen explanation. It was a running joke among fans that he left the station of a broken heart after Delenn's chrysalis didn't turn her into a insect, but rather a human-Minbari hybrid. One episode of the PostscriptSeason casually mentioned his death.
*** Since this reference was actually to the recent power vacuum his death and the fall of his criminal empire had left, it can be inferred he made it through most of the series' run.
** Also between seasons two and three, G'Kar's assistant N'toth vanishes without a trace. This {{plot hole}} was referred to in a third season episode before being patched in season 5 when she showed up as a P.O.W. and an episode was spent sneaking her onto a transport home. Interestingly, G'Kar's first assistant also disappeared in an airlock accident off-screen (though this was explicitly mentioned on screen). Is it any wonder why G'Kar becomes something of a loner for most of the series?
** Sinclair was engaged. We met his wife-to-be. Once he left, of course, she was never heard from again.
*** Garibaldi mentioned her towards the end as having moved on.
**** Garabaldi actually said she disappeared about a couple of years before. A post-series Babylon 5 novel (the only one that is canon) mentioned with her fate.
*****Actually most Babylon 5 novels are considered canon by the series creator, J. Michael Straczynski
* In the fifth episode of ''That70sShow'' 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.
**She was mentioned again once though, she was sent to a boarding school or something.
**Subverted with Eric's sister Laurie. After the [[TheOtherDarrin actress switch]] after graduation resulted in a negative reaction from fans, she was often referenced as never being around, and giving a toast to her friends and family in the last episode Kitty says, "And Laurie... well, nobody ever knows where she is."
* Crewman Elizabeth Cutler seemed poised to to become a recurring character on ''{{Enterprise}}'', but when the actress died unexpectedly, the character just vanished. Much later a reference was made to her character having died in battle.
* Lt. Carey is an odd case from ''StarTrekVoyager''. He vanished from the actual crew season one, but he would reappear whenever characters had a flashback to season one, or whenever TimeTravel threw people to season one's time, so the actor was still on staff. He finally showed up again in real time in season seven, only to get shot.
** Also Samantha Wildman, which is pretty weird since her 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.
** In [[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, but it's usually claimed either that the writers decided Kirk should have a parade of {{Green Skinned Space Babe}}s instead of a steady girlfriend or that Grace Lee Whitney (who had drug and alcohol issues at the time) committed a RoleEndingMisdemeanor. She did, however, return in the films, ending up as Sulu's first officer on the ''Excelsior''.
* Rand was also on the Enterprise in ''StarTrek:TheMotionPicture.'' However a crew-member on such a large ship of 430 people can easily be assigned to duties elsewhere onboard; the fact that Rand later showed up as a tranporter-officer on the same ship during the refit, indicates that she was promoted from Yeoman's duties.
* This might become a problem for the Australian medical drama ''AllSaints'' now that the actor playing one of the main characters has died unexpectedly right in the middle of an important story arc.
* In ''StargateSG1'' Dr. Lam, who appears as the SGC's resident doctor in season 9 vanishes by season 10 and the two following movies. Similarly, Teal'c love interest, [[strike: [[StarTrekEnterprise T-Pol]] ]] Ishta vanishes after season 8 and is never mentioned again.
**Dr. Lam is in two episodes late in Season 10, one of which features an arc where, ([[spoiler:seeing Vala reject her father, General Landry enlists her help to reconcile with his ex-wife.]]) But yeah, after that she's gone.
*** Her long absence was due to Lexa Doig getting pregnant - which resulted in a couple of aborted arcs with her and Landry, and her and Mitchel.
* ''HouseMD'' once had a character named Douglas - a detective. Would have been really useful in figuring out, towards the end of the season, what happened to Kutner.
**[[spoiler:He apperently comes back in a later Season Six episode titled, "Known Unknowns"]]
*After Thomas Haden Church left ''{{Wings}}'', 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.
*Similar to the ''Wings'' example above would be Jack Burns' character of Warren Ferguson on ''TheAndyGriffithShow'', 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 ''TAGS'' example would be Ellie Walker, the town pharmacist and Andy's first-season girlfriend.
*On ''TilDeath'', Jeff and Steph Woodcock (Eddie Kaye Thomas and Kat Thomas) 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.
*The snakeman, the conjoined twins and number of the other regular freaks from the carnival in ''{{Carnivale}}'' disappear between Seasons One and Two, never to be heard of again.
** They did mention having lost several good acts to other carnivals.
* Santiago on ''Series/FridayNightLights'' just seems to have disappeared from existence between season 2 and 3. Ditto Waverly from season 1.
* Peter's girlfriend Caitlin, from the second season of ''Series/{{Heroes}}'': abandoned in an [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse apocalyptic future that will no longer exist and never mentioned again]] (you'd think that at least Peter would get all angsty about).
** For the record, Peter does mention her at least twice more during that season, claiming that he needs to save the future so he can save Caitlin, but the whole thing is dropped by the next season.
** No one's seen, heard of or even mentioned Monica since the season 2 finale. Doesn't look like anyone's missing her either.
*** [[spoiler:What she did during season 3 is being revealed in some graphic novels following Micah.]]
** Quite a few characters and plot points from Season 2 were swept under the rug and forgotten, including Caitlin, Monica and her whole family, and Molly Walker. Understandable, considering its dubious quality. Too bad Maya stuck around though.
* This was how every cast change on ''{{Mission Impossible}}'' was done.
* Juliet Darling in ''Dirty Sexy Money''. WordOfGod has it that the character will make future appearances as a non regular, but no on-screen reason for her disappearance (or even mention of her existence) has been given. Especially jarring as the final episode of the first season took the time to set up a storyline for her.
**The most recent episode ("The Family Lawyer") has Karen Darling say that Juliet is off on some island on the other side of the world, which does match up (somewhat) with the storyline set-up in the first season's final episode.
* Bizarrely, recurring character Dusty Farlow suffered this fate by accident on ''{{Dallas}}'': 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.
*In ProfessionalWrestling, this happens regularly. Wrestlers leave the company, which is very rarely acknowledged on the air. Or they will be taken off the air prior to leaving to lower their drawing value. Usually this happens to guys who work the lower matches and flies under the radar, but occasionally a big name will simply vanish. For example, Sable, who was extremely popular in the late 90s, abruptly vanished from programming. This of course was because she sued the company. Similarly, Eric Bischoff was taken off the air in WCW for his inept management, and his on-air departure was never acknowledged.
* When Lisa Bonet left ''ADifferentWorld'', several characters disappeared with her: most notably Marissa Tomei's Maggie and Whitley's [[PerkyFemaleMinion Girl Friday]], Millie.
* The second season of ''TheRedGreenShow'' introduced a number of new lodge members, including security guard Noel, sleazy salesman Murray and his assistant Dwayne, Lodge treasurer Douglas, Lodge maintenance man Helmut, Lodge doctor Doc, and Lodge cook Eddie. None of them were ever seen again from the third season onward, although they were occasionally referred to, becoming {{The Ghost}} alongside such characters as Buster Hadfield and Old Man Sedgwick.
**Several other characters were Brother Chucked over time, ranging from the two lazy marina owners to the funeral parlor director, from the first animal control officer to the bait shop owner…
* Little Owen of ''PartyOfFive'' appeared less and less as he apparently underwent {{SORAS}} and [[TheOtherDarrin changed actors]], prompting ''TelevisionWithoutPity'' to deduce that he was [[http://web.archive.org/web/20051109062533/www.televisionwithoutpity.com/faq.cgi?show=37&q=547 locked in the basement.]] Along with the dog.
* Kyle, Sam's younger brother on ''{{Reaper}}'', disappeared after the second episode to attend college. He hasn't been mentioned since then.
* Tiger, the family dog, on ''TheBradyBunch''. {{Lampshaded}} in ''[[TheFilmOfTheSeries The Brady Bunch Movie]]''.
** For that matter, the girls' cat, Fluffy, didn't make it past the pilot episode.
* The character Isabel in ''{{Lost}}'' 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 without explanation that she was dead.
* Quite a few characters on ''LawAndOrder'': Paul Robinette, Donald Cragen (though he later resurfaced in a TV movie and then [[LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit Special Victims Unit]]), Nina Cassady. Joe Fontana and Arthur Branch are borderline examples, it's stated by other characters that they retired, but they never got an exit scene.
**Paul Robinette appeared in a couple of later episodes after his departure from the main cast. He apparently left the DA's office to become a civil rights attorney in private practice.
* Andrea "Andie" [=McPhee=] in ''[[DawsonsCreek Dawson's Creek]]''.
** Probably more a case of being PutOnABus as it was explained in the episode that Andie had received a scholarship to go abroad and study.
* Warren King, the head honcho at Eureka Section 5 in ''{{Eureka}}''. Appeared in the pilot, then vanished without a single trace and had his space filled by Nathan Stark. No one, not even his own personal toady, seems to remember him. Well, this ''is'' Eureka, so who knows...
**In the second episode Allison mentioned he was transferred to Alaska.
*** This happens a lot with pilots that get picked up. The same thing happened on ''Numb3rs''. Originally, the Rob Morrow character wasn't Charlie's brother, nor was he Rob Morrow.
**Whatever happened to Spenser, Henry's assistant?
***Probably fired for hijacking an experimental satellite to watch pirated movies, and for nearly causing impromptu surgery on a visiting political figure. The better question is whatever happened to Taggart.
***Taggart returned in late season three, telling where he was.
* ''MyThreeSons'' did this twice. The three sons of the title were originally Mike, Robbie, and Chip. Mike eventually married and moved away when Tim Considine, who played him, left the series. Ernie was then adopted as the third son and Mike forgotten. Similarly, the cantankerous male relation who played mom to the boys was originally their grandfather Bub, played by William Frawley. When Frawley became too much of an insurance risk due to poor health and was dropped, Bub was written out, replaced with his brother Charley, and never mentioned again.
** Both of these departures sort of combined BrotherChuck with PutOnABus, in that each ''was'' explained away: in Mike's case, he got married and moved away, while Bub went to Ireland to live with his Aunt Kate.
* Sara Spooner, the younger sister of Carrie, from ''TheKingOfQueens'' 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.
* ''{{Taxi}}'', in which John Burns disappears after the first season without explanation (though he may have been fired for crashing the beloved Cab 804 beyond repair.)
* Delores Mitchell and Norman Briggs on ''DiagnosisMurder''.
* A weird and infamous example is the handyman Benny in the 1970's ITV soap opera ''Crossroads''. He climbed up a ladder to fix the lights on a Christmas tree, and was never seen again.
* ''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 -- 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.
*The first season of ''TheBobNewhartShow'' had Margaret Hoover, a neighbor in the Hartleys' apartment building and friend of Emily's. She appeared in a handful of episodes before being quietly dropped.
* The first season of ''TheDrewCareyShow'' had Drew's Wacky Neighbors, who vanished when it became more of a workplace sitcom and focused on Drew's Wacky Friends.
* Freakin' every single extra from the pilot of ''TheOffice''.
**Todd Packer, once a recurring character and Micheal's "BFF", hasn't been seen since Season 3.
* Sarasvati in ''LasVegas'' 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.
* Crystal in ''{{Roseanne}}'' was Roseanne's best friend and made recurring appearances until season 6. She then makes roughly three guest appearances with the last one being in season 8.
** In an early season 5 episode, Mark and David are said to have two younger sisters. While they're plausibly PutOnABus once the Healys divorce (their father getting sole custody of them while the boys stay in Lanford), that doesn't really excuse the fact that Mark and David never mention them again. In later seasons, they act as if they're one another's only sibling.
* Cynthia in ''MalcolmInTheMiddle''. She is also PutOnABus when she goes to Europe.
**But there was an episode where Cynthia comes back and Malcolm and Reese fall for her after Cynthia reveals that she hit puberty during her European stay.
* Boxey in the reimagined ''BattlestarGalactica'' completely vanished without explanation after 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.
* Samantha Molloy, from ''LifeWithBonnie'', flat-out vanished between Season 1 & 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.
* ''AreYouBeingServed'' had a few regular characters vanish without mention, with the most memorable being Mr. Grainger and Mr. Lucas.
* Dermot Povey from ''Men Behaving Badly'' disappears after the first series, as the actor playing him (Harry Enfield) did not wish to return. He is replaced with a similar character, played by Neil Morrissey, for the remainder of the show. In the fifth series it is mentioned that Dermot now tests the rides at Euro-Disney.
* ''{{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).
** Some fans wish that when coroner Marty Pino had disappeared in season 2 that he'd just stayed gone, instead of the way they brought him back in season 5.
* ''{{Friends}}''. 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 {{lampshaded}} 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.
* ''{{Torchwood}}'' had Detective Kathy Swanson, whom the team reach out to when locked in their ElaborateUndergroundBase. She disappears after the first season 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 [[TelevisionTieInNovels novels]].)
* ''BigBangTherory'' has Stephanie Barnett, a doctor who starts dating lead character Leonard Hoffstader. She's introduced in season 2 and lasts three episodes and no mention of her again just so Leonard can keep lusting after Penny.
** Leonard asks her to move out via text message, then runs off to have sex with her. The implication is that it was breakup sex.
** New upstairs neighbor Alicia is the driving force behind a season two episode. She's never seen or heard from again, although I assume she still lives upstairs (unless Sheldon managed to get her evicted for being too noisy).
* ''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.
** Another Canadian series subjected to this was ''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... but he was suddenly forgotten.
* On ''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 but she had a miscarriage. A year later however, they repeated the same gag, and she had twins.
* The Mayor Anita Massengil character had to be dropped when Jaime Bergman became pregnant on ''{{Son of the Beach}}''. There was even a LampshadeHanging moment in one of the episodes showing the character on posters as a [[FaceOnAMilkCarton missing person]].
*''TwentyFour'' 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. The MostEgregiousExample would have to be the three ''presidents'' (okay, two and an ex-president) who have vanished in this way. Ironically, Logan ''gains'' his Presidency this way, and ''goes out'' in just the same manner. However, in the case of both Logan's predecessor, and later Wayne Palmer, the Vice President's still being present in their spot the next season would indicate death... ''unless'' enough time has passed for the VP to simply have been elected next time around.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Mythology]]
* Odin's brothers, Vili and Ve. Whatever happened to those guys?
** There is a theory that one of them changed his name to Lodir, and then to Heimdall. It's not a very popular theory, though. The other one probably [[PutOnABus went to live with the Vanir]] on the hostage exchange programme.
*** There are also theories that they were killed during the war with the Vanir. The Norse gods are mortal in difference to the Greek ones.
** Vili and Ve disappear mysteriously, and Odin searches for them to no avail. Finally he sacrifices one of his eyes to Mimer's Well, the to learn what happened to them. He only tells his wife Frigg about their fate, saying that "What three know, the whole world knows." This is the reason why Odin is one-eyed and why he is the wisest of all beings; his other eye is in the Well of Wisdom, where it can see the past, the present and the future.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:TabletopGames]]
* ''{{Warhammer}}'' has entire races that silently disappear between editions. What happened to the Fimir?
** They made a recent appearance in the GrahamMcNeill Sigmar-era novel ''Empire''. The 'mist daemons' are never definitively labeled as Fimir but it is very clear what they are supposed to be.
*The Squats vanished as well, likely because in addition to not selling terribly well they were too silly/campy in a setting that was becoming DarkerAndEdgier. WordOfGod has been less than consistent with excuses ranging from "the Tyranids ate them all" to "they never existed".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]
* WilliamShakespeare's ''RomeoAndJuliet'': What happened to Benvolio?
** Some versions have him appear along with Balthasar in all of his scenes, and have him be with the rest of the Montagues in the end.
** Another less serious theory is that he decided to go on vacation after people started getting dead.
** The practical answer is that in original practices, the actor playing Benvolio was doubled with another character later in the play (possibly the Apothecary or Friar John). The snark answer is that Shakespeare realized if Benvolio was still around, he'd have talked sense into Romeo and changed the ending of the play.
** Also in Romeo and Juliet, in Act 3 Scene 1 the stage directions state, "Enter TYBALT, PETRUCHIO, and others." Petruchio receives no lines and is never mentioned again.
* The Fool in WilliamShakespeare's ''KingLear'' [[ShooOutTheClowns completely disappears]] from the script after Act 3 Scene 4 without explanation. Some productions remedy this by showing the Fool either hanged by Lear's pursuers, or accidentally stabbed by the delirious Lear.
**The Fool and daughter Cordelia, by tradition, are played by the same actor, so he doesn't really disappear, in audiences' experience.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:VideoGames]]
* The Koopalings from the [[SuperMarioBros Mario series]] exemplify the trope by disappearing, never to be seen again after ''Yoshi's Safari'' .
** To be fair, they did make a cameo in ''MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga''.
** And they're level bosses in New Super Mario Bros. Wii alongside Bowser Jr.
** Full sets of brand new sprites for all of them have been discovered in the data for ''Super Princess Peach'', suggesting that they were at one point intended to appear in that game, presumably as bosses. By the time the game was finished, however, they'd vanished again.
** And notably, in ''Super Mario Sunshine'', Bowser Jr's debut game, they have FLUDD show various scenes from previous Mario games as he scans for Mario's history, including a boss fight with Iggy Koopa in ''Super Mario World''. This scene does two things... Put Bowser Jr firmly in the same world as Iggy Koopa and thusly the other Koopalings, and foreshadow the eventual appearance of Bowser Jr by showing that this has happened before.
** A mid-story issue of the ''[[SuperMarioBros Super Mario Adventures]]'' comic strip, which ran in Nintendo Power 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. (So they just left Toad in the Koopa Castle dungeons.)
** Speaking of Mario, what happened to the poison mushrooms and the leaf and the frog suit and the hammer suit and the cape feather?
** In the [[SuperMarioBros Mario series]], Poochy had an entire level designed around him in ''Yoshi's Island'', but has been absent since ''Yoshi's Story''. (He remained in the remake of ''Yoshi's Island'', but was absent from the new levels.)
**While Mario and Donkey Kong 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 ''Super Mario'' games. She did resurfaced in the [[VideoGameRemake Game Boy remake]] of ''Donkey Kong'', only to disappear for another decade. She has made a comeback of sort in the recent ''Mario vs. Donkey Kong'' games.
* Dynamo in ''MegaManX 5'' and ''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.
** And what the Hell happened to Dr. Cain, the guy who found X and created the reploids and started the whole mess?
*** Well, Maverick Hunter X had him retconned as having been apparently killed in the first attack, but otherwise yeah.... maybe he died in one of the attacks or old age.
** While we're on the subject of Megaman, several episodes of the Ruby-Spears cartoon had Megaman interacting with characters who would never be seen or mentioned again (be they good or bad). It's worth noting that only one of the good ones, [[GeniusDitz Brain Bot]], managed to piss him off.
** In the ''[[MegaManStarForce Star Force]]'' series, Pat Sprigs and Bob Copper are major characters in the first game, cameos in the second, and vanish in the third. What's frustrating about the former 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.
*** Bob Copper DOES appear in the third game, but in a very minor role.
* In ''{{Xenogears}}'', Billy's dad Jessiah disappears (much like most of the game) when Disk 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 Disk 2 plot point would probably have him heavily involved.
* Lampshaded in ''Banjo-Tooie'', where the face of Tooty, DistressedDamsel of the first game, appears on a milk carton at one point.
* Nastasha Romanenko in ''MetalGearSolid'', while a minor secondary character in the first game, she's revealed in backstory to have played a very important background role in-between ''Metal Gear Solid'' and ''Metal Gear Solid 2''. Despite this, and the fact pretty much every other character in the entire series shows up in ''Metal Gear Solid 4'', she's strangely absent.
** Also every character from ''Metal Gear'' and ''Metal Gear 2'' that didn't make the transition to the ''Metal Gear Solid'' series got brother chucked by default: Ellen Madnar, Diane, Jennifer, Holly White, [[strike:Yozef Norden]] Johan Jacobsen, George [[strike:Kesler Kasler]] [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Kessler]]. Even Dr. Madnar suffered from a form of retroactive Chuck Cunningham Syndrome by making Sokolov the creator of the first Metal Gear prototype in ''Portable Ops''. Eventually ''[=MGS4=]'' suddenly decides to remember Dr. Madnar's existence by mentioning him as the scientist who turned Raiden into a cyborg, ignoring the fact that Dr. Madnar was actually ''killed'' in [=MG2=]. Either, they intentionally retconned his death in [=MGS4=] or TheyJustDidntCare.
*** It's possible that "Dr. Madnar" was his daughter, Ellen.
* Has anyone seen Ray the Flying Squirrel, Mighty the Armadillo, Bean the Dynamite and Bark the Polar Bear in any ''{{Sonic the Hedgehog}}'' games lately? Nack the Weasel / Fang the Sniper, too?
* Gooey and {{Kirby}}'s animal friends from the ''Kirby'' series, who were major characters in ''Kirby's Dreamland 2'' and ''3'', but have since apparently fallen off the face of Popstar. It's been four games since their last major appearance.
** It's worth noting that all the games they appeared in have a different director than the ones they haven't appeared in.
** {{Lampshaded}} in ''Kirby 64'' when the Stone/Cutter ability causes him to transform into the stone replica of one of his animal buddies.
*** A similar appearance occurs in the Super Star remake, where they show up as additional Stone forms.
** The animal friends from ''Kirby's Dreamland 2'' did make semi-regular appearances on the anime, though.
* Most of the PC-98 characters from the ''{{Touhou}}'' series. There are at least ten of them who are ''still'' insanely popular with fans, but only two (aside from the two major heroines) survived the transition to Windows. Among the casualties was a [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotAwesome nuclear robot maid]].
** And of those two, Yuka only makes a borderline cameo as a minor playable character in ''one game'', and Alice was introduced in the last of the PC-98 games.
** Genjii, Reimu's turtleservant eventually got a WordOfGod explanation that he just stays in the pond of the Hakurei shrine while Reimu's off adventuring since she gained the ability to fly under her own power.
* Tawna, Crash's girlfriend from the first ''{{Crash Bandicoot}}'' game, was phased out of the series after the designers lost interest in her character. Her only other appearance as a main character was in ''Crash, Boom, Bang!'' (which happens to be the lowest rated game of the series). Every other of her appearances has been cameos.
** Apparently, the whore ran off with Pinstripe Potaroo. So much for gratitude, eh? Makes Mario seem lucky about now.
* In ''{{The Elder Scrolls}}'', 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 ''Arena'', except for in the aforementioned books. He goes unheard of in ''Daggerfall'', ''Battlespire'' and ''Morrowind'', and when the player visits the Legion headquarters in ''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.
*** Especially notable because the city of Sutch is still mentioned a couple of times ingame, and was the setting for early preview footage.
**** So I guess you could say that there are [[IncrediblyLamePun no Sutch places?]]
* The island of Mira in ''{{Baten Kaitos}}: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean'' was home to the hero and the ManBehindTheMan, was home to some of the most bizarre and diverse SceneryPorn in the game, and had a larger plot role than Sadal Suud, Diadem, or Anuenue. However, in the prequel ''BatenKaitos Origins'', Mira is mentioned twice in the main quest (very late in the game and within a minute of each other), and its spot on the world map is now occupied by a very small, unimportant, and late-in-the-game dungeon.
**Although, this could be explained due to the nature of the continent; it's stated in the first game that it phases in and out of the world. It's possible that it was in some other place during Origins.
* Almost half the kids in the ''BackyardSports'' series. But the series never explains why ''anything'' happens anyway.
* After ''ResidentEvil 3'', [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse what happened to the merc?]]
** On that note, whatever happened to Rebecca Chambers after the first game?
* ''Simon the Sorcerer 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 ''HalfLife'' xenomorph - apart from the standard headcrabs (and zombies), the barnacles and the (now friendly and talkative) vortigaunts - somehow vanished from the cast list before the start of ''Half Life 2''.
* [[http://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/4/48/FireRed_LeafGreen_Leaf.png Leaf]], the female protagonist of {{Pokemon}} Firered and Leafgreen. She was supposed to appear in the Green and Red, the original Pokemon games, as a female protagonist, but due to lack of space was taken out. She was remade, and renamed "Leaf"(since "Blue" wouldn't quite work out). She was [[WhatCouldHaveBeen going]] to be a model for Pokemon Battle Revolution, and has appeared in at least five official artworks, but since has long been forgotten by Game Freak.
** She also has only had counterparts in two of the many manga, and has not even been references to in the anime.
** There's also Lorelei, and Agatha, who disappear without a trace in Gold/Silver/Crystal/Heartgold/Soulsilver. This wouldn't be a problem, you would think Lorelei is at her home in the Sevii Islands now, and Agatha either died or retired, but they don't make any reference to them.
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[[folder:Webcomics]]
* Sara from ''QuestionableContent'' was a barrista 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 offical explanation for her disappearance is that she was eaten by an allosaurus, but really she was just a boring character.
** Steve also disappeared, although apparently more people cared. Enough to make the author [[JustifiedTrope justify it]] and post [[http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1273 a little note]] asking people to stop e-mailing him about Steve already.
*** [[http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1350 He's back!]]
** Apparently, the allosaurus has had another tasty morsel of Coffee of Doom wenches in Raven.
*** [[http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1510 Her disappearance has been accounted for.]]
* In ''ElGoonishShive'', Lord Tedd disappears for arcs at a time. Some of the side characters have fallen into this as well.
** To be fair, he's a villain from another dimension and has never been a regular character. If anything, his few brief appearances so far have been foreshadowing.
** And of course, let's not forget Sensei Greg, who vanished from the strip after suggesting that Grace get martial arts training.
** Not to mention Nioi, but she's also in another dimension, and Ellen's already stated that she'll probably encounter Nioi's alternate dimension counterpart, Kaoli.
* Queen Jane from ''[[EightBitTheater 8-Bit Theater]]''. An OnlySaneMan to contrast with her husband King Steve (a combination of CloudCuckooLander, TheCaligula and RalphWiggum), Steve proved so popular that Jane was just never mentioned again after the very first story arc.
* Borderline example with ''[[CtrlAltDel Ctrl-Alt-Del]]'s'' Scott. Latest appearance: July 23, 2008. Previous appearance: August 20, 2007. Before ''that'': December 12, 2006. The longest gap between appearances was about 20 '''months'''. Since his introduction on December 3, 2002, he's appeared a grand total of 15 times, not counting mentions. Bear in mind that this is a comic that updates three times a week, and it used to update on Saturdays too until sometime last year.
** His ''door'' appears in a strip in August 2009.
* ''WapsiSquare'' lost a few characters in its [[CerebusSyndrome Cerebus]], 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?
* Conquest vanished without a trace or explanation from ''{{Shortpacked}}''.
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[[folder:WesternAnimation]]
* ''ThomasTheTankEngine'' does this a lot - in recent series familiar characters such as Duck, Oliver, Boco and Daisy are nowhere to be seen. Donald, Douglas and Sir Handel were also Brother Chucked, but later made reappearances (Sir Handel had an 11 year gap between appearances!).
* In ''TheBatman'', Detective Yin pretty much vanishes after Batman no longer needs her as link to the police at the end of season two. She's only referred to once in an episode set in the future which implied she and [[spoiler:Bennet]] had both become high-ranking police officers.
** [[spoiler:Bennet]] similarly vanishes after his HeelFaceTurn.
** Same goes for Chief Rojas.
* Cleveland and Joe's sons on ''FamilyGuy''.
** Though Cleveland Jr. will be back in the Cleveland spinoff.
*** Though not exactly as he appeared in Family Guy. A lampshade is hung on his new appearance.
** And it's been revealed Kevin [[spoiler:had been fighting the war in Iraq and [[BusCrash was killed in action]]]].
*** [[FridgeLogic Weren't Kevin and Meg the same age]]?
*** No. She just had a crush on him.
**** War is hell.
**Whatever happened to Greased Up Deaf Guy?
* Dr. Mephisto from ''{{South Park}}''. He played a major role in the first season, but since that was so long ago, he's pretty much forgotten.
**The role of Mephisto has been taken up by Randy Marsh, who is a scientist. In "Spontaneous Combustion" he took the role of the scientist. The creators of the show have claimed to want him to join NAMBLA, which was the last episode he was prominent in.
** Many other ''South Park'' characters have been Brother Chucked; anyone remember Pip?
*** The creators and animators certainly don't. Ever since early season 11, he's been gone even from the background and crowd shots.
* {{Lampshaded}} in the second season of ''{{Freakazoid}}''. Lord Bravery 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.
* Remy Buxaplenty, [[RichBitch rich bastard]] and Juandissimo's godchild on ''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.
** Also, back when [[AlienAmongUs Mark Chang]] was Timmy's [[HeelFaceTurn enemy]] he had two friends on Yugopotamia named Jeff and Eric. They havent appeared recently, not even in an episode that had Mark going back to his planet temporarly.
* On ''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.
* ''TheSimpsons'' had Uter, the German exchange student. It was {{lampshaded}} twice: fist when Lisa asks about him during an assembly, and Principal Skinner denies his existence ("Silly name, Uter...") and again when his parents are seen asking where he is ("We just want closure!").
** In "The PTA Disbands," Uter was seen getting beaten by Civil War re-enactors after the school escapes from Diz-Nee Land's Civil War Park, so that could explain his disappearance (even though he was shown at band practice on "Lisa's Date with Density" and was on another field trip in "On a Clear Day, I Can't See My Sister"). In season 18's "24 Minutes," Uter was shown trapped in the school vents, which, if you ignore the continuity of the other episodes, is a sort of inside joke on where Uter is and why he isn't shown much.
**Another Simpsons character that has seemed to be Brother Chucked is Database, a nerd with red glasses who heads a clique called "The Super Friends." He was only shown on the season six episode "Bart's Comet" and the season nine episode, "This Little Wiggy." After that, he (and the other Super Friends in general, like Ham, Report Card, and Cosine) just vanished (though, according to DVD commentary, Matt Groening has been quoted as saying he never liked Database, even though the other writers did).
**Just thought of another one: Mindy Simmons, the beautiful, redheaded nuclear plant worker that Homer had a crush on on the season five episode, "The Last Temptation of Homer." After Homer confessed to Mindy that he'd never cheat on Marge for her (even if she is beautiful and likes the same things he does [eating doughnuts, watching football, and drinking beer]), we then dissolve to Marge appearing in Homer's hotel room and getting ready to have sex, with no explanation of how Mindy left the hotel or any sign that Homer might have feelings for Mindy. And Homer doesn't mention Mindy to Marge until the season six episode, "Another Simpsons Clip Show" where Homer retells how he almost cheated on Marge with Mindy, and when Marge asks Homer what happened to Mindy, Homer replies that Mindy, [[spoiler:"...hit the bottle really hard and lost her job."]]...which would be a believable excuse had the animators not put Mindy on the "Home Wreckers" bowling team in the season seven episode "Team Homer" or in the nuclear plant workers' crowd in the season eight episode, "The Twisted World of Marge Simpson" (the one where Marge sells pretzels and Homer gets the mob to help her when the pretzels don't sell). Either Mindy's been to rehab and is now clean and sober (but has no memory of Homer) or the writers screwed up (which they almost always do on ''The Simpsons.'' The fact that this show still has fans, even after all the {{Discontinuity}} and storyline screws to the audience is a friggin' miracle).
*** ... Or it could just be that ''Simpsons'' fans don't care one iota about continuity. It's been lampshaded enough times to show that it's not something the writers worry about. After all, how would you explain "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes"?
** Troy McClure and Lionel Hutz were also Brother Chucked when Phil Hartman (the voice actor who played them) died.
** Rainier Wolfcastle (a parody of ArnoldSchwarzenegger) has also been MIA for a long while. Oddly enough, when Schwarzenegger was the president in the movie he was played by Wolfcastle's voice actor and looked exactly the same as Wolfcastle.
** Dr. Marvin Monroe disappeared for a number of seasons. This was lampshaded twice. First, in one of the clip shows, they ask a trivia question right before going to commercial. The question is "what two character have died in the last season". One of those listed is Marvin Monroe, despite never having died on-screen (the other was Bleeding Gums Murphy, who did in fact die in continuity). The second time is in a much later episode. After reading Marge's romance novel, he goes to her book signing. She notes that it has been a long time she's seen him and he responds "oh yes, I've been very sick". He then walks off-screen and is not seen again.
**** The first clue to his death was actually the Springfield Hospital: "Marvin Monroe Memorial Hospital." Apparently the writers decided to call it that, and ''then'' decided he was killed off just to make it logical. (The voice actor apparently also had a hard time doing his voice.) That, plus the fact that you see the doctor's ''gravestone,'' leads to some interesting questions.
** The Simpson other dog She's The Fastest she appeared in the episode A Dozen and One Greyhounds she is adopted by them after she mates with Santa's Little Helper and gives birth to 25 puppies, later in the episode she is prepared to rescue the puppies after they had been stolen by Mr. Burns but gets distracted when Marge brings them dinner, she is never seen or mentioned again after that.
** 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]].
* Several recurring characters in ''{{King of the Hill}}'' just disappeared over time like Cotton's second wife Didi and their infant son Good Hank were nowhere to be seen in the episode where he passed away, Eustace and his geeky son Randy were rivals to Hank, his friends, and Bobby and his friends in the earlier episodes but they vanished over time too.
** Actually, Didi appears briefly a few episodes after Cotton's death to give Hank details concerning Cotton's last wish [[spoiler: having his ashes flushed down the toilet that Gen. Patton supposedly used]] and tells Hank that she is leaving Houston with a very rich man that she recently met. There's still no mention of Good Hank that I can recall.
** In one episode Bill owned a pet iguana he named Lenore after his ex-wife that got loose in the Hill's house, later on Hank returns it to him and it's never seen again.
** And don't forget 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 some of the earlier episodes of ''{{Spongebob Squarepants}}'', 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".
* Several characters in ''{{Animals of Farthing Wood}}'' who weren't killed off simply disappeared in season 3 this includes Fox and Vixen's son Friendly, Kestrel, and the surviving blue foxes aside from Ranger.
* ''{{Futurama}}'': The episode "Obsoletely Fabulous" introduces Robot 1-X, a very advanced and useful robot whom Bender hates. At the end of the episode, Bender is reconciled with the new staff robot... and in the next episode, [[ResetButton 1-X has vanished into thin air]].
** Robot 1-x did make a reapperance in "The Beast with a Billion Backs"
**This can be excused as [[spoiler:most of the episode was the product of Bender's upgrade fantasy, which brainwashed him into accepting the Robot 1-X as his equal]]. The fact that the Robot 1-X was brought back in "The Beast with a Billion Backs" was probably the same reason why such ''Simpsons'' characters as the Rich Texan and The Crazy Cat Lady were brought back...because the fans love them.
* The Fright Knight in ''DannyPhantom'' who practically vanishes after "Reign Storm" (excluding cameo appearances in "Ultimate Enemy" and "Phantom Planet"), despite the fact that the writers seemed to be setting up a plotline where he would be working with Vlad.
* Scrappy Doo from ''ScoobyDoo'', aside from parodies and the live action movie (which doesn't really count) has not appeared in the series continuity since Scooby Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf (1988), this is mainly due to...well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin being]] TheScrappy.
* In the first three seasons of ''{{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 much later episode Larry appeared as a doughnut salesman and is never seen again.
* In the new ''CareBears'' it now revolves around five main Care Bears and cut the rest of the cast down to a few recurring extras, they even got rid of all the care bear cousin.
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