History Main / EconomyCast

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' justifies it by taking place in a small town with a bunch of family-owned businesses, but it's still noticeable that, for example, Lars and Sadie are the only people who work at the Big Donut (with no sign of managers, staff covering other shifts, etc.).

* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' has a very small cast full of [[RecurringExtra the same characters making multiple appearances]], often having the VillainOfTheWeek be either a RecurringBoss, or a PaletteSwap of a prior villain. Three episodes set in a waxworks use the in-universe celebrities as the statues, simply by having them stand still.

* ''Series/FortBoyard'': Used in the introduction to the UK series, when the contestants arrive at the fort. In the earlier series, they arrive in a speedboat, and only the hostess's face is visible; the contestants' faces are obscured by waterproof jackets with big hoods. When they arrive in a helicopter, the contestants are only seen from behind, and when they disembark, only their feet are seen. Presumably this is to save costs and weather problems with actually filming each team arriving in this way.

* Lampshaded repeatedly in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''. It is heavily implied that Wiggum, Lou, and Eddie are the only three cops employed in the whole town of Springfield, Kent Brockman and Arnie Pye are the only staff of Channel 6 News, and Dr. Hibbert and Dr. Nick are the only two doctors. Minor well-known characters such as Gil and the Squeaky-Voice Teen appear to hold every single low-level job in the town, and almost every major recurring character goes to the same church.

* Similar to the above examp,e with ''The Simpsons'', ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' has a very small cast full of [[RecurringExtra the same characters making multiple appearances]], often having the VillainOfTheWeek be either a RecurringBoss, or a PaletteSwap of a prior villain. Three episodes set in a waxworks use the in-universe celebrities as the statues, simply by having them stand still.

* In ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankUpYourArsenal'' Captain Quark assembles the Q Force, an elite team of specialists to help him save the day. Who are these specialists? Why, nothing more than a bunch of random [=NPCs=] you met in the first game.

** The original ''[[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney trilogy]]'' takes this to an extreme; except for one-shot characters who turn up in single cases as suspects or victims, it has only one detective, Detective Gumshoe, who is the detective in virtually every case, as well as one judge (except in situations where a second judge is absolutely necessary, when his almost identical brother is introduced). The game engages in frequent LampshadeHanging over this, with Gumshoe often expressing disbelief at how often he ends up investigating a murder where Phoenix is involved. It should be noted despite the extremes in which it goes to, the series still has a huge cast.

* Zig-zagged by ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' with the creation of the Nurse Joys and Officer Jennys[[note]]In Japan, they are simply called "jōi" (a pun on "josei issha"[female doctor], or "joi" for short), and "junsaa", which is another name for a police officer.[[/note]], a large number of characters who are all essentially identical in appearance, role and personality, which saved the writers having to create a new character every time the travelling heroes went to a Pokemon center or got involved in a crime. This is Lampshaded and explained when the cast meets their ''second'' Officer Jenny and mistake her for their first one in the previous town: she clarifies that the first Jenny is is actually her cousin, and shows them [[InexplicablyIdenticalIndividuals a family photo of a dozen such completely identical cousins]]. The only detail that actually changes is the badge on their hat, which only works because each town only appears to have a single Jenny patrolling it!

* In the BMovie ''Mars Needs Women'' (1967), a single journalist turns up to be briefed on the Martian menace to our women. This is promptly handwaved as this guy drawing the short-straw because the collective news agencies thought the whole thing was a hoax, so they picked one guy to go on their behalf.

* Zig-zagged by ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' with the creation of the Nurse Joys and Officer Jennys[[note]]In Japan, they are simply called "jōi" (a pun on "josei issha"[female doctor], or "joi" for short), and "junsaa", which is another name for a police officer.[[/note]], a large number of characters [[InexplicablyIdenticalIndividuals who are all essentially identical]] in appearance, role and personality, which saved the writers having to create a new character every time the travelling heroes went to a Pokemon center or got involved in a crime. Lampshaded once when the cast come across one of those police officers and then recognize her as one they have met before, only for her to say that it is actually her cousin, and show them a family photo showing a dozen such completelely identical down to the smallest detail cousins.

* ''Series/BlakesSeven''. Several planets or cultures had a population of only one or two people, especially when they had to share the screen with a number of extras playing an opposing group. In the pilot episode, the people seen walking the corridors in the opening scene are later killed in the massacre, then make an UnexplainedRecovery as prisoners in the transit cell with Blake. According to producer David Maloney he'd go through scripts and whenever he saw something like "Fifty guards rush into the room", [[NoBudget he'd cross out the fifty and write "two".]]