History AscendedExtra / LiveActionTV

* ''Series/ThePolkaDotDoor'': Initially, Polkaroo only appeared on Imagination Day, but as the character became popular with fans, he started to appear outside of Imagination Day. After the show ended, [Main/BreakoutCharacter he became the main protagonist of Polka Dot Shorts]

* ''Series/RedDwarf'' has various examples. Kryten was a one-episode character who wouldn't have been included originally as one of the writers wanted to avoid robotic characters. He returned in Series III as a main character (although played by [[TheOtherDarrin a different actor]]).
** Kristine Kochanski was a minor character from Series I, II and VI who appeared in the first half of the first episode, [[PosthumousCharacter died, and thereafter was relegated to flashbacks, 'stasis leaks,' shape-shifters and anecdotes by the main characters]]. She became a main cast member in Series VII, again played by [[TheOtherDarrin a different actress]].
** Captain Hollister, another first-episode character and [[PosthumousCharacter posthumous flashback regular]] from the first two series. He was brought back for Series VIII, in which he appeared in all but one episode. Unlike Kryten and Kochanski, the same actor portrayed the Captain.

* Doremy Vernon first appeared as the surly canteen manageress in the first three Christmas episodes of ''Series/AreYouBeingServed'' By 1979, she had ascended to a semi-regular character on the show.

** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''': Robert Duncan [=McNeill=], who played both roles, has [[https://www.trektoday.com/content/2010/11/mcneill-compares-paris-and-locarno/ gone on record]] saying that he sees them as very different characters, almost each other's opposites, and that Locarno would not have been a good character to use as a regular. Specifically, he felt that Locarno was someone who [[BitchInSheepsClothing seemed like a great guy but really wasn't]], where Paris fell into the category of JerkWithAHeartOfGold. He does admit, however, that the creators probably in mind for [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute Paris to be more similar to Locarno]].

* Sophie in ''Series/{{Batwoman}}'' is a main member of the supporting cast, both as the second-in-command of the Crows and as someone Kate still has feelings for. Her comics counterpart had the same role in Kate's ComingOutStory, and has otherwise made a single non-flashback appearance.

* [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Chiyoh/Chiyo]] is a much more important character in the ''Series/{{Hannibal}}'' TV series than she was in [[Franchise/HannibalLecter the novels]], where she was just a young girl working as a handmaiden, and only ever appeared in one book. This is largely a case of RealLifeWritesThePlot; Creator/BryanFuller wanted to work with Creator/TaoOkamoto after seeing her in ''Film/TheWolverine'', and decided to cast her as Lady Murasaki, an important character from Hannibal's backstory. However, he became concerned that Tao was too young to be believable as Creator/MadsMikkelsen's aunt, so he rewrote the role to be Chiyoh, who was essentially the only other Japanese female of any note in the franchise.

** On ''{{Series/Degrassi}}: The Next Generation'', some minor/recurring characters have been upgraded to regular cast [[RevolvingDoorCasting as some of the characters get older and graduate.]] For example, Clare was originally introduced as a minor character, the middle-school aged sister of one of the main characters who appeared only a couple of times. She became a main character beginning with season 9-10.

** Archie "Snake" Simpson first appeared in ''Series/DegrassiJuniorHigh'', and appeared in every single iteration of the franchise since. Probably fueled by his actor [[ProducedByCastMember becoming the producer]], and [[DirectedByCastMember director]] of later ''[[Series/DegrassiTheNextGeneration The Next Generation]]'' seasons as well as ''Series/DegrassiNextClass''.

* ''{{Series/Degrassi}}'' franchise:

* On the 1970s ''Series/BeatTheClock'' revival, announcer Gene Wood was the celebrity partner for a week, with Nick Holenreich taking Wood's usual role. After Jack Narz stepped down from hosting in 1972, Wood was promoted to the hosting position, and Holenreich became the permanent announcer.

* An extreme example of this is Mrs Miggins from ''Series/{{Blackadder}}''. In the second series she was an unseen character mentioned two or three times as a throwaway joke. She became a regular character in the third series.
** Although it couldn't be the ''same'' character, seeing how the two series are set centuries apart. It depends whether you regard the successive Series/{{Blackadder}}s, [[BumblingSidekick Baldricks]], etc. as essentially the same character - which they are really, just reincarnated as [[IdenticalGrandson suspiciously similar descendants of their predecessors]], forever linked down through history...

* ''Series/FamilyMatters'': Harriette Winslow, the elevator operator at the Chicago Chronicle, was originally a recurring character on ''Series/PerfectStrangers'' (a comedy starring Mark-Linn Baker and Bronson Pinchot), usually to give one-liners or provide superficial support to the storyline at hand. Then, her husband, Carl (a police officer with the Chicago Police Department) began appearing a couple of times ... and soon enough, someone got the bright idea that Carl and Harriette and their family (the children were referred to a couple of times) might make an interesting program. Hence, ''Family Matters''.
-->During the course of the series, several one-time minor characters were ascended to starring roles, virtually taking the emphasis completely off the Winslow family's dynamic in the process. However, much of this had to do with how well the actors playing these roles went over with the audience:
** Waldo Faldo. Also introduced midway through the first season, in the episode "The Party" (aired February 2, 1990). One of the many guests at Eddie's house party (held without his parents' permission when they're not home) is a "Boy in Towel." The "Boy in Towel" was a background character who showered in the Winslows' shower and acted like an idiot. Just like Waldo did late that fall ... when he was given his name and semi-regular status. By Season 3, Shawn Harrison's portrayal of the character was so popular he earned his spot in the opening credits and began appearing in virtually every episode.
** Myra Monkhouse. Like Urkel and Waldo before her, Myra was meant to be a one-time diversion for Urkel so that her cousin -- who happened to be Laura's boyfriend, Ted Curran -- could have her without interference from Urkel. Ted was dropped a couple of episodes later. Myra remained for almost the entire rest of the series (until Michelle Thomas fell ill with her ultimately fatal illness in early 1998) and was given full billing.

* Kari Byron made her first on-camera appearance in a ''pilot'' episode of ''Series/MythBusters'', for the vacuum toilet myth. ([[ItMakesSenseInContext She had her rear end scanned]].) She reappeared, alongside fellow Build Team members Scottie Chapman and Tory Belleci, at the beginning of the second season.

* Series/{{Arrowverse}}:

* A character, played by Martin Clunes appeared in a film ''Saving Grace'' and later two prequel miniseries. In making ''Series/DocMartin'', the character was given a ReTool with DoctorJerk added to the character (who was originally just a FishOutOfWater), and his last name was changed to Ellingham (an [[SignificantAnagram anagram]] of the last name of the show's writer Dominic Minghella).

*** Creator/JohnLevene was kind of a literal Ascended Extra. He started off as a bit-part player appearing as Cybermen and Yeti, then director Douglas Camfield cast him in a minor role of a UNIT corporal called Benton in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E3TheInvasion The Invasion]]", a role that became slightly bigger when the actor playing the UNIT sergeant wasn't available for the last episode and Benton was given his role. One season later, Camfield cast Levene as a UNIT sergeant and made the character a promoted Benton, who was then given a small role in the later episodes of the previous story to set him up. Then Season 8 came round and Benton was suddenly in four of the five stories. He ultimately stuck around for another five seasons, with his time on the show encompassing three Doctors, and became one of the most popular supporting characters.

* Paul from ''Series/{{Cheers}}''. But not as much as Series/{{Frasier}}, who went from just another bar patron to a main character, to the star of his own SpinOff.
** Actually, Frasier was a guest star who was only intended to be a RomanticFalseLead who would vanish after ''one season''. He was so popular, he stayed for nine seasons on ''Cheers'' and did another eleven on ''Frasier''.

*** John Levene was kind of a literal Ascended Extra. He started off as a bit-part player appearing as Cybermen and Yeti, then director Douglas Camfield cast him in a minor role of a UNIT corporal called Benton in "The Invasion", a role that became slightly bigger when the actor playing the UNIT sergeant wasn't available for the last episode and Benton was given his role. One season later, Camfield cast Levene as a UNIT sergeant and made the character a promoted Benton, who was then given a small role in the later episodes of the previous story to set him up. Then Season 8 came round and Benton was suddenly in four of the five stories. He ultimately stuck around for another five seasons, with his time on the show encompassing three Doctors, and became one of the most popular supporting characters.

** Uncle Deadly was a memorable character who only appeared every once in awhile on ''Series/TheMuppetShow''. After two decades of not being used anywhere, and having only made background appearances in the movies (in large crowd scenes), he was given a featured role in [[Film/TheMuppets the 2011 film]] as one of the villains henchmen, and now has a recurring role on [[Series/TheMuppets the 2015 series]], being in charge of wardrobe.

* ''Series/TheWalkingDead'': Many characters fit this definition, as the series focuses on a ragtag group of survivors as they progress through the apocalypse and interact with other groups.

* Parodied in a Ferrell-era sketch on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' with NBC making an adaptation of the [[Literature/TheBible New Testament]]. As they don't have time for a script, they just ad-lib (something that Creator/WillFerrell, playing Jesus, doesn't feel comfortable doing). When the actors can't decide how their characters should know each other, they just say they have a mutual friend named Barry. By the end of the sketch, Barry gets an "actor" (one of the boom-mike guys), ''Jesus'' betrays Barry, and (the film now taking place in a college dorm) Barry kills the Devil.
** Speaking of ''[[Series/SaturdayNightLive SNL]]'', Creator/EddieMurphy.
** This seems to be SNL's policy regarding Featured Players: they are billed after the reperatory cast, and generally get less screen time, and if they manage to make enough of an impression to stick around for two years, they are promoted. For some, like Eddie Murphy above, or Amy Poehler, they are so well-liked that they are promoted early, even midway through their first season.

* Ruthie Cohen, played by extra Ruth Cohen, on ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}''--the cashier at Monk's Café. Appeared in 101 episodes of the series, more than twice as many as Newman! Ascended to actually speaking lines in two episodes, and was a central character for one. Also appeared as the cafeteria cashier on ''Series/{{NCIS}}'', referencing her Seinfeld role.

** The pilot of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' features an unnamed, curly-haired conn officer played by Colm Meaney. It's clear he wasn't intended to become a major character at the time - when everyone is taken to Q's courtroom, he was notably absent. (Well, the {{redshirt}}'s absence wasn't notable ''then.'') That character would reappear on a regular basis in subsequent episodes as a gold-shirted (the 24th-century equivalent of RedShirt) transporter operator. That operator eventually got a name and rank, Chief Miles O'Brien, and ended up becoming a semi-regular character with a wife and family who interacted regularly with the main cast. When it came time to create a {{spinoff}} of TNG, O'Brien went even further to become a main character in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''. Miles O'Brien is the embodiment of a character working up from the RedShirtArmy to donning fullblown PlotArmor.

** An averted example is ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'''s Tom Paris, who was originally supposed to be the same character as Nick Locarno, a one-off character from ''Next Generation.'' Because the producers would have to pay royalties to the episode writer, the character was given a new name, but kept the same actor, personality, and backstory. (The writers say it's because Locarno was irredeemable, but that rings pretty hollow when the ''only'' change to the backstory is that where ''one'' person died in the Locarno version of the incident, ''three'' died in the otherwise-identical Paris version.) Tom's father's picture of Tom as a cadet is even a still of Locarno taken from that episode.
*** There is also the fact that Tom, despite being free and clear, eventually confessed to his own actions because he couldn't bear the guilt, whereas Locarno seems to have little guilt at all over either the accident or the lie and is only caught because someone ''else'' (Wesley Crusher) confesses. Also, the accident Paris caused was said to be "pilot error", whilst Locarno caused someone's death by deliberately breaking regulations.
*** Robert Duncan [=McNeill=], who played both roles, has [[https://www.trektoday.com/content/2010/11/mcneill-compares-paris-and-locarno/ gone on record]] saying that he sees them as very different characters, almost each other's opposites, and that Locarno would not have been a good character to use as a regular. Specifically, he felt that Locarno was someone who [[BitchInSheepsClothing seemed like a great guy but really wasn't]], where Paris fell into the category of JerkWithAHeartOfGold. He does admit, however, that the creators probably in mind for [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute Paris to be more similar to Locarno]].
*** The ''Trek'' producers are notorious for that. Locarno-into-Paris is the big one, but other instances of same-actor, same-personality, new-name {{Expy}} characters who are [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial absolutely, positively new characters who are definitely not just renamed versions of one-shots they don't want to pay royalties for, no-siree]] include Taurik[=/=]Vorik and Gul Macet[=/=]Gul Dukat. Also, while it's not quite as big as going from one-shot to central character, the Romulan commander Taris returns in a ''much'' meatier role a few seasons later in a second episode… only now we're calling her Toreth. And though not with the same actor because she had to get [[{{Prequel}} younger]], not older, ''Enterprise's'' T'Pol was originally planned to be T'Pau (whom we would eventually see in a three-parter.) Also, Michelle Forbes was intended to reprise Ro Laren but declined, ''twice.'' [=DS9=]'s Kira and Voyager's Torres were both originally planned as her. Not that Ro was just an ''extra.''
** Interestingly, while in the show Gul Dukat was simply a renamed Gul Macet, in the ExpandedUniverse, Macet gets to properly ascend in his own right... and [[DivergentCharacterEvolution as very much his own person]]. Instead of making him pretty much the same as Dukat so they could proceed as if the popular villain hadn't died in the show's GrandFinale, it turns out that he's the most decent high-ranking Cardassian you'll ever meet, is not guilty of anything like the horrors Dukat was revealed to have committed during the Occupation, goes on to make a full HeelFaceTurn, and is just generally the ''opposite'' of the utter bastard his [[StrongFamilyResemblance cousin]] is (looking less like him is even the reason behind his facial hair.) Oh, and he gets a first name, too! In his latest-set appearances, ''Ro Laren will even work with him.''
** Painfully averted in ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' by Lt. "Extra-Man" Ayala. Ayala appears in 120 episodes out of 167, in all seven seasons. He speaks in exactly four of those episodes, and is only credited twice, never with a name. The mere act of establishing a name for the actor took some detective work. He's achieved a certain amount of MemeticBadass status among the fandom for simply managing to survive all seven seasons.
** The Gorn are a whole ''race'' of these - towering, reptilian aliens who were the primary focus of the Original Series episode 'The Arena', and had brief cameos in an episode each of the Animated Series and Enterprise. Despite these obscure beginnings, they crop up astonishingly frequently in games and other supplementary material, even becoming a playable race in VideoGame/StarTrekStarfleetCommand and VideoGame/StarTrekOnline.
** Similar to the Gorn, the Tholians also appeared only briefly on screen but show up more regularly in games and novels.
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': The [[LastEpisodeNewCharacter final episode of the first season]] introduced Bobby Singer, a hunter who'd worked with Sam and Dean in the past. He shows up at the very beginning to help them out against Meg and then disappears for the rest of the episode. Come season two, Bobby's back aiding the boys [[spoiler: after their father's death]] and goes on to become a father figure to them who's pretty much the most important character on the show next to the boys.