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alt title(s): Shoot The Scrappy Dog 
Looking for the nearest ride out of the show.
I have to go now. My planet needs me. — Poochie, The Simpsons
A character is introduced into a show with a lot of fanfare, and almost at once moves up to main character status (if not necessarily the credits). He/she will often form a close relationship with the existing main characters, and may even have a prior history with a main character, even if this has never been mentioned before. Sometimes the character is a result of Executive Meddling.
For some reason the character doesn't gel. Maybe the audience takes against him/her, maybe the actor over- or underperforms, maybe the writers realize they have no idea what to do with him/her. Whatever it is, the character will end up leaving the show setting, often for a fairly contrived reason (and they probably won't be back, even if logically they should be at certain points).
Different from Chuck Cunningham Syndrome in that the character's disappearance will be explained, even if in a fairly flimsy manner.
The easiest way to distinguish the Poochie is if he is written out in a clumsy manner - if his departure or death makes no sense, it's usually him.
Compare with Aborted Arc and Chuck Cunningham Syndrome. Contrast with The Artifact.
Not to be confused with this Poochie. Or the other Poochie.
Examples:
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Comic Books
- Justice Society Of America introduced about a dozen characters to the fold during "The Next Age" storyline, leading to Loads And Loads Of Characters. Ones who had promise moved ahead, but poor Amazing Man was quickly pushed to the background despite featuring heavily at first in the "Gog" arc, and then he was the only member to be written off the team.
Live Action TV
- Babylon 5: Poor Keffer, he was actually utilized fairly effectively during season 2 and was really quite likable not to mention it made more sense for there to be dedicated starfury squadron commander in Keffer rather than the senior command staff constantly jumping into fighters. Unfortunately for him though his creation was actually the result of Executive Meddling (they wanted a "hotshot Top Gun kind of pilot") and the series creator/head writer J. Michael Straczynski never forgave him for that and subsequently killed him off even though he was fitting in just fine.
- Several characters in The OC suffered this, but Lindsay Gardner was an especially glaring example as she was introduced as a love interest for Ryan and turned out to be a blood relative of three other main characters. She didn't even return for Caleb's funeral, despite discovering he was her real father.
- Likewise Dawsons Creek. Nikki Green notably, who after a major initial appearance as a rival/potential love interest to Dawson was dropped only a few episodes later.
- Thats Life (the American dramedy, not the British consumer protection show) featured a variation with one of the original cast as The Poochie: Candy Cooper, one of the protagonists best friends was written out half-way through the first season.
- Megan Donner of CSI Miami had the same fate.
- Happy Days (Pinky Tuscadero and the "black drummer" from the band were both hyped in promos as new characters, but neither appeared for more than an arc before disappearing. Pinky's sister "Leather" was a stand-in for Pinky - whose actress apparently caused problems - but was again not common. Other examples include down-home hick cousin K.C. Cunningham and Fonzie's temporary girlfriend and her daughter for the first post-Richie season)
- Nikki Carpenter from season 3 of MacGyver. She was written as a potential love interest for MacGyver only for the producers to discover that female fans did not want Mac to have a regular girlfriend. About halfway through the season, she is mentioned as being on assignment in South America and is then never heard from again.
- While Julie Miller hasn't been seen since season 3 of Scrubs or given an explanation as to why she left (what with being The Scrappy and garnering lots of dislike) her name has been seen on an assignment chart in a season 4 episode.
- She was ignored after the writers realized that she was a Dr. Cox Distaff Counterpart, but with the key difference of not having any redeeming qualities, therefore making her a completely superfluous character.
- The Applewhite family from season 2 of Desperate Housewives, and Kayla Scavo from season 4.
- The Muppet Show had Fleet Scribbler, tabloid journalist. One show, a few mentions later, and he vanished. The critics loved him. The writers hated him.
- Just Shoot Me had Vicki Costa, a brash hairdresser whom Jack brought in to help make the magazine hipper. She barely lasted half a season.
- Nikki and Paulo from Lost were series regulars with a long arc planned out for them, but then they were killed off in their only centric episode thanks to intensely negative reception due to their abrupt introduction, irritating nature (especially how they manage to figure out the Pearl cameras when Locke, Desmond and freaking Sayid didn't), and for stealing camera time in a season that already had fourteen other regulars and multiple recurring characters who actually had importance to the plot.
- The creators obviously got the message, since they buried Nikki and Paulo alive at the end of their only centric episode, one of the greatest endings of the show. Don't ever say the creators don't listen.
- West in Heroes. His much-trumpeted relationship with Claire ended in the final episode of Series 2, leaving a way for him to be left out in the future because he was poorly received by fans. The show's creator has stated in an interview that one of the mistakes he made with this series was writing the romance badly.
- West did, however, appear in the graphic novels that run concurrent to the television show, as one of the freedom fighters working with Rebel. He's not nearly as annoying when he's not around Claire, but he probably won't reappear on the show.
- Tori on Saved By The Bell, whose presence was so jarring that Zack, Lisa, Slater and Screech went through their senior year again. (The producers wised up and brought Tiffani Amber Thiessen back for the College Years.)
- After the death of James Beck (Private Walker), Dads Army brought in a Suspiciously Similar Substitute in the form of Private Cheeseman, who was part of a major storyline in which he joined the platoon so he could report on them for the newspaper he wrote for. He was not well liked by either viewers or some of the cast (John Laurie is on record as saying that both the actor and character were fast approaching Spotlight Stealing Squad status) and was written out after the seventh series.
- Doctor Who had one early in its long run. In the final part of The Myth Makers saga (set during the Trojan War) a Trojan handmaiden named Katerina snuck on board the TARDIS and became the First Doctor's latest companion. She was promptly killed off in the following adventure, the 12 part epic, The Daleks' Master Plan...in part four. According to the actress who played Katerina, her death scene was the very first scene she was filmed in. This means that the writers created the character, tried her out, decided she wasn't working, and dropped a bridge on her before a single scene of her had been filmed (and possibly before the character was even cast).
- It's also possible that they deliberately wrote the character in so that they could surprise people by killing her.
- Lauren Graham played efficiency expert Andrea for a few episodes of NewsRadio. With that writing staff, the character was probably doomed to begin with.
- The Ferrera family on East Enders was introduced to compensate for the lack of SE Asian characters on the show. They were introduced with a great deal of hype but became immensely unpopular despite at least one storyline that threatened to elevate them to Spotlight Stealing Squad status. Viewers complained that these characters were deathly boring and the writers Did Not Do The Research into the Ferreras' ethnic background. Finally, one actor had to leave the show because of problems with his permit to work in the UK, and the rest of the family was then written out due to their unpopularity.
- Sadie from Grey's Anatomy is almost too perfect an example of everything mentioned at the top of the page: she shows up out of the blue in Season 5, where it's revealed that she was apparently Meredith's BFF in med school, despite having never been so much as mentioned by Meredith prior to this. Originally intended to become another major intern character as well as a lesbian romantic foil for one of the series regulars, she stuck around just long enough for her to prove she was not only crazy incompetent but also just plain crazy. Promptly quit her job at the hospital before the end of the season.
- And also an actual "Poochie" in season 2 with Doc. It seems that the only reason he died from Soap Opera Disease was simply because the writers didn't want to deal with him anymore.
- Cousin Pam on The Cosby Show.
- Kara of Smallville is a "writers didn't know what to do with her" version. She was an interesting side character for about five episodes, then bigger and better ways are found of keeping her out of things. She spends a great deal of time wandering with amnesia, returns fully for an episode or two before it's revealed that Brainiac is impersonating her and has her trapped in the Phantom Zone. When Brainiac is defeated, she is not freed and the show goes on without her as normal. She finally does come back for one episode before deciding at the end, "Hey, I'll just fly into space in a random direction and hope I run into some other Kryptonians." She was never seen or mentioned again to date.
- Also from Smallville: Lex Luthor's long lost half-brother Lucas from season two. He appeared in one episode (which was almost painfuly bad) and was immediately put on a bus ride from he never reappeared; no one has ever even mentioned him again. Also something of an Aborted Arc, given the amount of build-up to his appearance.
- The second season of Charmed introduced Jenny Gordon, neighbor to the main characters. Beyond living with her hot uncle (a convenient love interest for Piper), she was apparently important enough to get mentioned in the opening credits, but moved away to live with her parents before she actually did anything important, while her uncle remained a recurring character throughout the rest of the season (after season two, he also inexplicably disappeared).
Newspaper Comics
- Uncle Max in Calvin And Hobbes, who had a brief storyline and then left the strip permanently, because Bill Watterson found it too awkward to write dialogue in which he never called Calvin's parents by their names.
- Somewhat prophetically, in 1973 a character named Poochie debuted in Peanuts. She was a little girl who used to live in the neighborhood, who supposedly was the first to refer to Charlie Brown by his full name and who almost adopted Snoopy before choosing another dog. After appearing in a few Sunday strips, she disappeared without a trace.
- There was also Charlotte Braun, who appeared in a dozen strips in the 1950's before evaporating. She had a loud voice and ... that's about it. Originally she was to be a female foil for Charlie Brown, but was no more interesting in the role than Lucy was. There's a hilarious response letter that Schulz wrote to a fan who didn't like the character, featuring Charlotte with an axe in her head.
Video Games
Webcomics
- Parodied in this DMFA strip. The character lasts 2 panels, maybe 2 and-a-half.
- Two half-sized panels and some anguished screaming in the third. Didn't even get to finish introducing himself.
- In Sluggy Freelance Sasha is suddenly introduced as Riff's girlfriend (they'd apparently been dating for a while, but Riff never bothered to tell anyone). She pretty much instantly becomes part of the Nakama, but then, a little under two years later, she moves away with very little fanfare. An unusual example in that she was actually an Ensemble Darkhorse, and "when will Sasha come back?" threads became a staple on the forums. And, seven years later, they got their wish.
- Brawl In The Family. Speculation that Shadow the Hedgehog would be in Super Smash Bros Brawl produced a strip where Kirby sucks up Shadow and actually turns into Poochie.
Western Animation
- Named after Poochie from The Simpsons - yes, he is a parody, but he really isn't that far removed from reality.
- Ms. Choksondik from South Park is slightly unusual in actually being killed off, but otherwise a pretty good example of this trope.
- Parodied in an episode of Pinky And The Brain, with Larry, who got an awkward Promotion To Opening Titles, and generated a Retool into a Three Stooges knock-off. And plenty of And Zoidberg moments. In a Lampshade Hanging, he left specifically because Brain pointed out that he didn't gel.
- Then, at the very end, just as it looked like that Pinky and the Brain will carry on as a duo again, a scientist placed another mouse into their cage, and the mouse introduces himself as Zeppo. The ending reprise of the theme song was then reworked to have Zeppo's name in it in the same manner as Larry. Unlike Larry, however, Zeppo was promptly written out of the cartoon since his purpose was served.
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