The Bus Came Back / Western Animation

• Adventure Time
  • After not being seen since his first appearance in "What Is Life?", NEPTR suddenly reappears in "Hot to the Touch"; apparently his three-season absence was the result of a game of Hide and No Seek.
    NEPTR: I am the ultimate hide-and-seek champion! 15 months, 4 days, and 9 hours, and you guys could not find me. Ha ha ha ha ha ha!
    Jake: Oh, plops! We forgot about the game!
  • In "Furniture & Meat", we find the Ancient Psychic Tandem War Elephant from "The Limit" is shown to be living in Finn and Jake's house under one of their many piles of treasure.
    Ancient Psychic Tandem War Elephant: I will continue to chill here until you command me!
• The Amazing World of Gumball
  • Rob, an incredibly minor character who is seen in the background of a few Season One and Season Two episodes, seemingly disappeared after the end of Season Two. As it turns out, Rob can be seen in the background in the episode "The Void"... and then he comes back. And he's incredibly disfigured. And the results of his return aren't exactly the most favorable.
• Batman: The Animated Series:
  • The female terrorist Red Claw appeared as a relatively minor villain in "The Cat and the Claw" (which was actually about Catwoman) and then vanished - only to return a couple of years later as the Big Bad in "The Lion and the Unicorn".
  • Boxy Bennett, the crooked owner of a Gotham City nightclub, made a brief appearance in "Harlequinade" and then returned later for "Harley's Holiday". There's even a Continuity Nod to "Harlequinade" in the latter episode, with Boxy grumpily reminding Harley that his place got trashed the last time she visited him.
• Justice League: While most of the villains from Batman: The Animated Series and Superman: The Animated Series not named The Joker or Lex Luthor didn't show up at all during Season 1 of the show, in Season 2, they started being used again: Volcana, Luminous and Firefly cameoed during a prison break in "Only a Dream," while in "Secret Society", Clayface, the Parasite, and Sinestro were all part of Gorilla Grodd's titular team.
• In 1994, many of the Care Bears cousins were Put on the Bus, and those that weren't were converted into bears, an ill-accepted move among fans. Playalong did try to bring back the cousins between 2003 to 2005, but the attempt was stymied by poor marketing and was ultimately aborted to revamp the franchise for Welcome to Care-A-Lot. Four of the cousins were finally taken off the bus with 2015's Care Bears & Cousins.
• The 2021 Disney+ series Chip 'n' Dale: Park Life brought back "Pluto's Quin-puplets" from the 1937 Pluto cartoon of the same name. Pluto's puplets hadn't been seen in any Disney related media for 84 years.
  • Clarice the Chipmunk from the 1952 Chip 'n Dale short "Two Chips And A Miss" is also set to appear in the series after being absent in animation for 69 years.
• Doc McStuffins: After the Season 3 episode "The Scrapiest Dragon", Donny did not make an appearance until the third Season 5 episode "The Doc McStuffins Christmas Special". He was mentioned in the Season 4 episode "Hoarse Hallie".
• Family Guy:
  • "The Splendid Source" has Peter and co. encountering their old buddy Cleveland in his new hometown during a road trip.
  • Similarly, Kevin, son of Joe and Bonnie Swanson, was largely retired after the series' third season and un-cancellation, and a later episode off-handedly suggests he died in Iraq, but he came back in the season 10 episode "Thanksgiving" he is revealed to have actually been AWOL and returns to the recurring cast.
  • The vaudeville duo Vern and Johnny were shot to death by Stewie in "Saving Private Bryan", who insisted they would not be seen again. They made a reappearance in "Back to the Woods" with Vern as a ghost and Johnny in Hell (because according to Vern, "Johnny liked little boys"). They are also seen briefly in the opening to "A Lot Going On Upstairs", alongside other characters the series had Put on a Bus previously, such as salesman Jim Kaplan, police officer Obie, strongmen Phineas & Barnbaby, RJ, and Peter's co-worker Fouad. They also make a cameo in "Coma Guy".
• The Inspector Gadget Spin-Off Gadget and the Gadgetinis had this with the characters of Brain and Chief Quimby. Quimby was about the same, except Gadget is now working for a different agency, while a shell-shocked Brain has retired to a riverfront house.
• In the last season of Johnny Bravo, the prominent supporting characters from the first season came back and the newer additions like Carl and Pops stayed as well.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender franchise: In the second season finale of The Legend of Korra, we learn of the ultimate fate of Zhao, from season 1 of Avatar: The Last Airbender. It turns out he's been trapped in the Fog of Lost Souls for seventy years with little else to do but ramble aimlessly about his desire to kill the moon.
• Looney Tunes:
  • After characters like Rocky and Mugsy, Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog and the like were missing from most continuations of the franchise for decades, they came back in Looney Tunes Cartoons.
  • Gabby Goat was a character who only appeared in a handful of cartoons in 1937, was met with poor reception due to his Jerkass personality, and was replaced with Daffy as Porky's sidekick. In New Looney Tunes, he appeared for the first time in 80 years, albeit with his personality overhauled to make him more tolerable.
    • New Looney Tunes also brought back Hubie and Bertie, The Martin Brothers, Claude Cat, Marc Anthony and Pussyfoot, Sniffles the Mouse, Frisky Puppy, Clyde Bunny, Mighty Angelo, Mot the baby alien from Rocket-bye Baby and the Easter Bunny from Easter Yeggs.
• Moral Orel: Shapey was put on a moving van when the Puppingtons and their brief neighbors the Posabules accidentally switched them with their own son. Realizing (about ten episodes later) that Shapey has been switched, Bloberta goes to their new residence to pick him up but doesn't take back Block.
• In My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • One-shot antagonist Trixie returned after two seasons for a rematch, and again another three seasons later. Since then she became a semi-recurring character. Having a fan following rivaling that of some main characters helped.
  • Gilda the Griffin was a one-shot antagonist from the first season, merely showing up to teach Rainbow Dash a moral. However, after four seasons, she once again appeared in an episode where Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie travelled to her hometown.
  • After the major backlash regarding Derpy in the Season 2 episode "The Last Roundup" and hasty Orwellian Retcon, it was assumed she wouldn't appear again in the show. Despite that, she returns in the finale of Season 3, though given she hasn't been seen in any promotional material for either that season or for Season 4 many saw it as simply a final farewell. And then she shows up again in "Rainbow Falls" as Rainbow Dash's replacement. Her continued cameos since make it apparent that they wouldn't just eliminate such a fan favorite from the show, and she even got a speaking role in the one hundreth episode "Slice of Life".
  • In the Season 5 episode "Tanks for the Memories", Rainbow Dash's tortoise Tank was given a send-off by going into hibernation. He does appear a few episodes later in "Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?"
  • After the Season 6 episode "P.P.O.V. (Pony Point of View)", Applejack's dog Winona was absent for the next two seasons. She returns in the Season 9 episode "Going for Seed".
  • After the Season 7 episode "It Isn't the Mane Thing About You", Rarity's cat Opalescence was absent for the entire eighth season. She returns in the Season 9 episode "She's All Yak".
• In an episode of The Penguins of Madagascar, many, many of the characters that were shipped off to Hoboken came back, complete with evil clones.
  • Dr. Blowhole came back in a one-hour special.
  • Alex the Lion, from the original movie, makes a cameo in one episode as a Spirit Advisor to Skipper.
• Rick and Morty: fan-favourite character Evil Morty first showed up in "Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind" along with Evil Rick, who turned out to be a non-sapient cyborg under his Morty's control. Three years and two seasons later, "The Ricklantis Mixup" ends with the new President of the Citadel getting revealed as Evil Morty, who then proceeds to kill his treacherous subordinates and establish a dictatorship.
• Star Wars Rebels: In "Legacy of Mandalore", Sabine chooses to stay with her family and help build the Mandalorian Resistance. In "Zero Hour", she returns when Ezra comes to her and Clan Wren in search of reinforcements to help the besieged rebels on Atollon. However, she can't return permanently, having to return to the ongoing Mandalorian civil war.
• Voltron: Legendary Defender: At the beginning of season four, Keith is Put on the Bus when he leaves the team, and from that point on only pops up occasionally. Season six gave him much more focus, and he ended up permanently returning to the team with his Galra mom, an Altean girl, and a space dog in tow.
• Regular Show: Mordecai's first love interest, Margaret, leaves for college at the end of season four, just as he's about to formally ask her to be his girlfriend. She returns partway through season six, which causes complications with his current girlfriend CJ, as he still holds an interest in Margaret and she's prone to jealousy. By season eight, both Margaret and CJ are effectively written out of the show once more, as Mordecai's indecision regarding his love life pushes them away.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987): After being written out of the show at the end of the eighth season, Shredder and Krang returned in the final season for a 3-part arc.
• Thanks to the valiant efforts of a brand-new writing team, several characters returned in the Seventeenth Season of Thomas & Friends. These characters were Duck, Bill & Ben, and Harvey. The special that came before Season 17, King of the Railway, brought back Jack the Front Loader from the aborted spin-off "Jack and the Pack". The following special, Tale of the Brave, saw the return of Oliver the Great Western Engine, and Season 18 brought back his brakevan Toad, as well as Duncan. The special after that, Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure, brought back Alfie, Trevor, Oliver the Excavator, Max, Monty, Donald, Douglas, and Daisy. the season 20 movie Journey Beyond Sodor brought back Rosie as well.
  • Season 21 would bring back Bulgy (perhaps a literal example of this trope) and Terence. Season 23 brought back the foreman of the Sodor Construction Company, Miss Jenny, who hadn't been seen since Season 12.
• When Toonami returned, it was hosted by TOM 3.5, with no sign of TOM 4. However, sometime later, TOM 4 did come back briefly to talk to TOM 3.5/5. Sadly, he after suffered a Bus Crash in The Intruder II, when The Intruder gloats about killing TOM 4.
• In The Venture Brothers, Baron Underbheit disappears after being deposed from Underland, and this was meant to be his last appearance. Two and a half seasons later, and he appears as a homeless person before joining the Revenge Society.
• Morph in X-Men: The Animated Series. He was effectively written out after the season 2 finale, returns in a season 4 cameo (compete with increased badassness) only to disappear again until the final episode.
• Spyke/Evan of X-Men: Evolution was a member of the main cast until a poison made him mutate out of control, leading him to leave the X-Men and join the more seclusive mutant group known as the Morlocks. Spyke is gone for the rest of that season, and has two more appearances in the final season, one where he's the main focus and the other where he's merely part of the ensemble to help save the world from the show's final villain, Apocalypse.
• Reboot:
  • The Captain and crew of the Saucy Mare appeared in a single episode in Season 1. After disappearing for the entirety of Season 2, they returned as major characters in the latter half of Season 3 before disappearing again in Daemon Rising and only appearing in the background of My Two Bobs.
  • After being absent since the Season 2 finale, which had Bob shot into The Web, Bob returns in episode 10 of Season 3, Web Riders on the Storm, complete with a new character design and voice actor.
• Season 11 of SpongeBob SquarePants has "Spot Returns", Plankton's amoeba puppy who hasn't shown up since the season 9 episode "Plankton's Pet". The thing is he never seemed to have left, just been forgotten about.
  • On the topic of season 9, Bubble Bass made his great comeback from that point onwards, several years after only previously showing up in a pair of season 1 episodes.
• Recurring characters in South Park are often used very infrequently, sometimes with several years between major appearances on the show.
  • Mr. Hat, a puppet and alter-ego for Mr. Garrison, was a major character in early seasons and seemed inseparable from Garrison and was implied to be sentient. After he came out of the closet, Mr. Hat's usage declined until he was casually written out in "The Death Camp of Tolerance".
  • Previously phased-out or retired characters such as Mr. Hat, the Super Best Friends, Big Gay Al, Mr. Slave, Pip Pirrup, Dr. Alphonse Mephesto, his assistant Kevin, and others, were all brought back for the series' 200th and 201st episodes for Call-Back reasons, but none of them have returned to the regular cast since. Most of them also appear in the video games.
  • Stan's grandfather Marvin, who lived with the series' central family for the first eleven seasons, had few speaking roles and disappeared from their home by early Season 13, becoming especially noticeable when the core four family members move out in "You're Getting Old". He was re-introduced in "Cash For Gold", five years later, living in an assisted living facility, but still occasionally appears at dinner with the family.
  • Tweek, a longtime fan favorite who was briefly a main character, had a nearly seven-year absence from the show. He spoke on only one occasion between Season 10 and Season 17, and was removed as a regular from the main characters' classroom. He received multiple small speaking parts in Season 17, and the Season 19 episode "Tweek x Craig" seemed to re-establish him as a member of the series' cast, and he has remained prominent again since. However, his classroom absence has not been addressed.
  • One of the most notable examples may be Ugly Bob, introduced in the second season in a show within a show, but he reappeared fifteen years later in "Royal Pudding", on an actual bus, claiming to have moved to the United States due to his hideous disfigurement.
  • Although he was never Put on a Bus, the owner of Tom's Rhinoplasty, Dr. Tom, makes no speaking appearances in the twenty years between "Tom's Rhinoplasty" (in season 1) and "Members Only" (in season 20) though he made infrequent cameos.
  • Season 22 is shaping up to be an epic example of this, since important roles are given to infrequently-seen characters such as Towelie, Mr. Hankey (who however is booted out of town seemingly permanently), Grandpa Marsh, Satan and the Manbearpig. Even Ned Gerblansky makes an appearance!
• Halfway into The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Kanga and Roo seemed to disappear from Disney's Winnie the Pooh works. However they made a return in the Seasons of Giving special almost a decade later, and following The Tigger Movie were promoted to even bigger roles than they had before. The Book of Pooh also coincided with this, introducing them as regulars in Season Two.
• Arthur: Arthur's best friend and major cast member Buster Baxter left midway through season 2, in "Arthur's Faraway Friend" — he was leaving on a year-long trip with his divorced dad, who's an airplane pilot. Both episodes of season 3's premiere deal with his return. In "Buster's Back", Arthur is overjoyed to hear that Buster's finally coming home, but wonders if he'll have changed from his travels. "The Ballad of Buster Baxter" is the opposite, with Buster noticing everything that happened during his absence and feeling left out. However, both episodes have a happy ending, where Buster is once again welcomed into the main cast and stays for good.
• Bob's Burgers: Jimmy Pesto became The Voiceless for three seasons after it was revealed that Jay Johnston had participated in the January 6th insurrection and was subsequently fired from the show. Pesto finally returned in Season 14, now voiced by Eric Bauza.
• Polly Pocket: The 2018 series had its main antagonists, Griselle and Gwen Grande, disappear for unknown reasons after Season 1. They made a sudden reappearance in the final episode of Season 5.

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