• Desperate Housewives featured an episode specifically focused on the male characters of the show rather than the usual focus on the women, though everyone still had a sizable role. The most noticeable difference was that it was narrated by Rex Van De Kamp, the first major male character on the show to die, rather than the usual Mary Alice narration.

This episode may be a change in perspective, but I'm guessing the spouses and live interests of the main players are pretty important. I don't watch the show though, so maybe I misread.

The episode "The Zeppo" from the third season of Buffy was consciously made as a Lower Deck Episode. While everybody else is fending off the apocalypse, Xander is having his own problems elsewhere, sometimes in the actual lower floors of the high school where the main fight is taking place. Xander's a main character, of course, but if I'm remembering correctly, this episode addressed Xander's feelings of inadequacy, as the only one in the group without supernatural powers.

I don't post on here myself, so I thought I'd just leave a note.