History DemotedToExtra / WesternAnimation

* ''WesternAnimation/ReadyJetGo'': Face 9000. Back in the day, he appeared in practically every episode alongside the rest of the Core Eight: Jet, Sunspot, Sean, Sydney, Mindy, Carrot and Celery. Ever since "Sunday Drive", he has been making less and less appearances. Nowadays, the kids usually get answers to their science questions from Celery, the DSA scientists, or by figuring it out themselves.

** Season 4 saw the return of Van Partible as showrunner. As a result, Carl and Pops' (who were added to the show after Partible left in Season 2) roles were reduced. Aside from occasional brief appearances, Carl got only one major role, while Pops only got a brief non-speaking cameo.

*** Many G1 characters survived the events of The Movie but were gently pushed to the background for marketing purposes. Hasbro wanted the series to showcase their 1986 additions to the toyline. Most of the car-based autobots (such as Cliffjumper, Prowl, and Bluestreak) were rarely seen in the 1986-87 season.

*** Mrs. Johnson, a fifth-grade teacher at Royal Woods Elementary, used to have a prominent role as Lincoln's teacher. Once he starts middle school in Season 5, she has been demoted to the occasional cameo appearance.

** While still downplayed, Lori is a slightly straighter example. She used to be the sister with the most focus, having her own unique storylines as a result of almost being an adult and being the eldest of her siblings. By Season 5, she moves out of the house and starts attending college at Fairway University, established to be 3 hours away from Royal Woods. As such, she does not appear as much as she used to.

** Dick Grayson as Nightwing only made 7 appearances in all of ''The New Batman Adventures'', and only has a prominent role in three episodes ("[[Recap/TheNewBatmanAdventuresE5YouScratchMyBack You Scratch My Back]]","[[Recap/TheNewBatmanAdventuresE16AnimalAct Animal Act]]", and "[[Recap/TheNewBatmanAdventuresE17OldWounds Old Wounds]]").

** Dick Grayson as Nightwing only made 7 appearances in all of ''The New Batman Adventures'', and only has a prominent role in three episodes ("[[Recap/TheNewBatmanAdventuresE5YouScratchMyBack You Scratch My Back]]","[[Recap/TheNewBatmanAdventuresE16AnimalAct Animal Act]]", and "[[Recap/TheNewBatmanAdventuresE17OldWounds Old Wounds]]".

** Dick Grayson as Nightwing only made 7 appearances in all of ''The New Batman Adventures'', and only has a prominent role in three episodes.

** Chef appeared in every episode of Season 1, occasionally in Season 2 but had all but vanished by the time he was McLeaned.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' has a downplayed version with Lincoln, since he didn't get hit by this trope as hard as the other examples on this page. In season one, Lincoln was at the center of every episode, even episodes that dealt with the lives of any of his ten sisters, Lincoln was still part of the action. Season two, Lincoln was featured as a central character in most of the episodes, though some had him as nothing more than a cameo appearance with the plot centering on his sisters, or their parents. Season three, Lincoln is still billed as the star of the show, though a significant number of episodes featured him in a support role, a cameo, or even completely absent with the plot focusing solely on his sisters or parents.

** Bobo, the head chef at Pops' diner, started out as an occasionally appearing character before only appearing in one episode of the third season and [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome not appearing at al]] in the fourth and final season.

* ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo'': Season 4 saw the return of Van Partible as showrunner. As a result, Carl and Pops' (who were added to the show after Partible left in Season 2) roles were reduced. Carl got only one major role and Pops only got a brief non-speaking cameo.
%%Administrivia/ZeroContextExample* When ''WesternAnimation/JosieAndThePussycats'' wound up launched into outer space, Sebastian the cat became this after the band adopted Bleep, a little fuzzy alien creature.

** Reporter Dave Shutton, who helps Bart and Lisa derail Mr. Burn's candidacy for governor in the season 2 episode "Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish" seems like he is being positioned as a major journalist character in the show, but beyond a few small appearances in subsequent episodes, he is quickly sidelined as Kent Brockman becomes the major reporter in Springfield. Likewise, Scott Christian, a straight laced newscaster, is also quickly demoted in favor of Kent Brockman. Ironically, Brockman himself was originally intended to be TheGhost.

* Spryte. In later episodes of ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfZelda'', she is sometimes completely absent, with no explanation at all. One of the episodes that don't feature her explains her absence by saying that she's on vacation.

* Due to the original comic having loads of characters, it was inevitable this would happen in ''WesternAnimation/XMenTheAnimatedSeries''. Two notable X-Men, [[Characters/XMen70sMembers Colossus and Nightcrawler]], were relegated to cameos and guest appearances. This was because they were a part of ''ComicBook/{{Excalibur}}'' in the comics at the time, as well as Marvel's desire to focus on the more current 1990s members of the team. They at least fared better than poor [[Characters/MarvelComicsKittyPryde Kitty Pryde]], ''[[AdaptedOut who didn't appear at all]]''; the creators said this was because the {{exec|utiveMeddling}}s didn't want her involved due to the failure of the earlier ''WesternAnimation/PrydeOfTheXMen'' pilot.

* Due to the original comic having loads of characters, it was inevitable this would happen in ''WesternAnimation/XMenTheAnimatedSeries''. Two notable X-Men, [[Characters/XMen70sMembers Colossus and Nightcrawler]], were relegated to cameos and guest appearances. This was because they were a part of ''ComicBook/{{Excalibur}}'' in the comics at the time, as well as Marvel's desire to focus on the more current 1990s members of the team. They at least fared better than poor [[Characters/XMen80sMembers Kitty Pryde]], ''[[AdaptedOut who didn't appear at all]]''; the creators said this was because the {{exec|utiveMeddling}}s didn't want her involved due to the failure of the earlier ''WesternAnimation/PrydeOfTheXMen'' pilot.

*** Franchise/TheFlash had no lines in the first season because of voice actor Michael Rosenbaum's commitments on ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' (though you may not notice simply on the basis that the cast is ''[[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters frickin' huge]])''. He came roaring back for the second and third seasons though (in particular the SeasonFinale of the second season), and even [[LampshadeHanging complained to a fellow Leaguer about not getting any respect despite being one of the original seven]].

* ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends'': The show does this regularly, as a result of having LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters and the tendency to introduce several new characters every season. As a general rule, the new characters get a couple of seasons in the spotlight at most before demotion:

** ''[[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers Transformers Generation 1]]'' isn't innocent on this by a long shot. It introduced LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters, one set after another, [[MerchandiseDriven to sell toys]], and some had more staying power than others. Many characters' roles went by this formula: 1: [[RememberTheNewGuy Show up one day without comment]]. 2: Have [[ADayInTheLimelight one really good episode of focus]] later. 3: Be occasionally seen in the background or fights. 4: [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome Disappear mysteriously]].

* Due to the original comic having LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters, it was inevitable this would happen in ''WesternAnimation/XMenTheAnimatedSeries''. Two notable X-Men, [[Characters/XMen70sMembers Colossus and Nightcrawler]], were relegated to cameos and guest appearances. This was because they were a part of ''ComicBook/{{Excalibur}}'' in the comics at the time, as well as Marvel's desire to focus on the more current 1990s members of the team. They at least fared better than poor [[Characters/XMen80sMembers Kitty Pryde]], ''[[AdaptedOut who didn't appear at all]]''; the creators said this was because the {{exec|utiveMeddling}}s didn't want her involved due to the failure of the earlier ''WesternAnimation/PrydeOfTheXMen'' pilot.

* In the comics of the same name that ''WesternAnimation/SupermanBatmanPublicEnemies'' is based on, [[Characters/SupermanLoisLane Lois Lane]], [[Characters/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica Katana]], and [[Characters/TeenTitansStarfire Starfire]] spoke, whereas their counterparts in its AnimatedAdaptation didn't.

* ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo'': Season 4 saw the return of Van Partible as showrunner. As a result, Carl and Pops' (who were added to the show after Partible left in Season 2) roles were reduced. Pops especially, since he only got a brief non-speaking cameo.

%%Needs context to differentiate from ChuckCunninghamSyndrome and PutOnABus*** Before WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck became his sidekick Porky's best friend was a goat named Gabby who appeared in three cartoons (he was slated to appear in a fourth cartoon, but was replaced by a penguin with an identical personality), and he also had a girlfriend Petunia who also vanished after a couple of years (although she remained prominent in the comic books).

*** Elmer Fudd was one of the first Looney Tunes characters ever created and established as the original ArchEnemy of Bugs Bunny. In this show, you could count the episodes he is in on one hand.

* In the comics of the same name that ''WesternAnimation/SupermanBatmanPublicEnemies'' is based on, [[Characters/SupermanLoisLane Lois Lane]], [[Characters/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica2013 Katana]], and [[Characters/TeenTitansStarfire Starfire]] spoke, whereas their counterparts in its AnimatedAdaptation didn't.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Superfriends}}: The Wonder Twins and Gleek were frequent recurring allies to the Super Friends starting with their debut in the second iteration ''The All-New Super Friends Hour'', but only appeared in a handle of episodes in the penultimate iteration ''Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show'' before [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome disappearing altogether]] by the final series ''The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians''.

* Spencer Smythe plays a far more prominent role in [[ComicBook/SpiderMan the comics]] than in ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries''.

%%Administrivia/ZeroContextExample* Escher in Season 2 of ''WesternAnimation/StreetFighter''.
%%* ''WesternAnimation/StreetSharks'':
%%Needs context about their previous role** Lena Mack rarely shows up in Season 3, and even then only as a non-speaking background character.
%%Needs context about their previous roles** Slash and Slobster also rarely appear in Season 3.

* ''VideoGame/TakAndThePowerOfJuju'':
** Tlaloc was the main villain of the first two games, while his counterpart in the animated series, [[AdaptationNameChange renamed "Traloc"]], only makes one appearance in the episode "A Shaman's Shaman".