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Five TV Characters Who Vanished Without a Trace

For the latest instalment of our new semi-regular feature, Doux Five, I'll be looking back at those TV characters who, for whatever reasons the writers couldn't be bothered to come up with, went and pulled a Lord Lucan on us. No wait, that reference isn't universal. Errr, a Richey Edwards? No, that is even more obscure, you idiot. An Amelia Earhart? Yeah, I'm going with that. Characters who pulled an Amelia Earhart on us.

Warning: Spoilers Ahead!



CHUCK CUNNINGHAM - HAPPY DAYS

The trendsetter. The eldest Cunningham child went upstairs one day and never came back down. Soon everyone, including his entire family, forgot he had ever even existed.


AMY JESSUP - FRINGE

At the start of season two it looked like Jessup (played by the future Duchess of Sussex) was going to be a major player going forward. But after appearing in only two episodes she obviously fell into another universe and was never seen or spoken of again.


KATE LOCKLEY - ANGEL 

The sudden and unexplained disappearance of Det. Kate Lockley towards the end of season two was one mystery the team at Angel Investigations never got around to solving. Or even really investigating.


WAYNE PALMER - 24

Yeah, Behrooz is the more famous example, but I'm going with Wayne Palmer because it's insane that 24 put the President of the United States into a coma and then just forgot about him. The bloody President! What's even crazier is that this wasn't even the first time they'd done this. Remember President John Keeler? No? Don't worry, neither did the writers.


MANDY HAMPTON - THE WEST WING 

West Wing characters had a habit of suddenly disappearing without explanation, the most famous of which being the deeply unpopular Mandy Hampton, who was effectively wiped from existence after the first season. So infamous was Mandy's disappearing act that now any time a character suffers a similar fate it is said they were sent to Mandyville.


BONUS: HALF THE CAST OF SPIN CITY

Whatever happened to James, Nikki, Stacey and Janelle? They all just vanished between seasons and everyone went on as if they'd never been there to begin with. Did Mike murder them all before he left? I guess we’ll never known.
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Mark Greig has been writing for Doux Reviews since 2011 More Mark Greig

15 comments:

  1. TV Tropes actually calles them Brother Chuck's so the 1st example is also the best definiton. :)

    Wow I did not know it was Meghan Markle back there in Fringe, you learn something every day, LOL.

    Kate ditched the show for Law and Order or some other procedural, but yeah the writers should have killed her messily for it but sadly they didn't.

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  2. LOL, Mark. I'd actually forgotten some of these characters even existed.

    What would you call the reverse, though? I mean, what happened at the beginning of Buffy season five?

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  3. I thought this phenomenon was called being "put on a bus", but that turns out to be when someone is given a reason to be away, so they can come back at any time, if necessary. Such as Faith's coma. Or Oz's actual bus trip to Tibet.

    The reverse is: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RememberTheNewGuy

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  4. You forgot Donna's sister on That 70s Show

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  5. First of all, holy Meghan Markle Batman. Second, I don't know if Kate Lockley belongs on this list. Yeah, she disappeared but she at least had a complete character arc. Like it made sense for her to be written out (or off) after her (spoiler) suicide attempt. I've been watching a lot of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries lately and after season two her foster daughter disappears with no mention so I'd add her to the list. Oh and Mark from Parks and Rec. They did write him an exit but no one mentioned him after he was gone. There's a post going around Tumblr that was something like "Little Sebastian had more impact on the show in one episode than Mark did in two seasons."

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  6. I have one! I think. What about Wallace on Veronica Mars? Didn't he have a little brother at the start of the series that we never saw again?

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  7. I feel like a lot of Ounce Upon a Time characters could work for this. They show up and then they disappear and maybe if you're lucky (aka Ruby), you come back.

    Also, I just want to take a moment to say that Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries is fantastic and you should all watch it.

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  8. Paulo and Nikki from Lost third season could be considere the reverse. They appeared out of the blue and supposedly they were there all along. And then when they died half way through the season they weren't remember o referenced again.

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  9. There is also Wick, Raven's love interest on The 100. He disappeared after season two.

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  10. Dean Forrester on Gilmore Girls. He blew up at Luke, angry over his latest spat with Rory, and stomped off never to be seen again until the revival because Jared Padalecki was (thankfully) cast in Supernatural.

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  11. Speaking of Veronica Mars, she also had a teacher (who was in the opening credits no less) that was removed without ever mentioning her again.

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  12. There was also Judy Winslow, played by Jaimee Foxworth, on "Family Matters." She was the youngest child in the family who just disappeared one day, never to be seen or heard from (or mentioned) again.

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  13. Can we have a moment of silence for the forgotten girls of Facts of Life season one?

    What about Molly Ringwald??

    Personally, I always assumed that Nancy McKeon murdered them between seasons

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  14. What about Nathan Miller's boyfriend in The 100? Did he die at the end of season 4?

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  15. I have no idea they just replaced him with Jackson for some reason in season 5.

    Maybe it was just like with Raven's love interet from season 2 who got fired from the show for something.

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