Characters or ideas that didn't last long

[elguapo4]

The suicide booth in Futurama; For obvious reasons.

Doug's sister in King of Queens; Dropped after the first episode and never mentioned again.

Yeoman Rand in Star Trek; I was amazed Grace Lee Whitney was only in 8 episodes, apparently she was brought in as a love interest for Captain Kirk before they decided to make him an intergalactic randy old goat, and Whitney's addiction problems didn't help.

Uncle Albert smoking a pipe in Only Fools; Buster Merrifield was a lifelong non smoker and hated it, he was always shown just holding it and it was written out later.

[Snake Plissken]

Gabrielle Anwar's Irish accent didn't survive past the pilot of Burn Notice. Thankfully.

[Patrick Thistle]

In Series 2 of the Big Bang Theory, Sara Rue plays a doctor who is being pursued by Wolowitz, but then hooks up with Leonard. She's in for three episodes and there's a whole drama about whether things are moving too fast between her and Leonard. Then, poof! She disappears and is never mentioned ever again.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Walford Town being the local team that everyone supports in Eastenders.

[Snake Plissken]

The West Wing had a habit of disappearing characters. The term Mandyville was coined as the place where they all went without explanation.

[Patrick Thistle]

There was a guy who was a major character in series 1 and 2 of Parks & Recreation, an unrequited love interest for Leslie. He went to work in the private sector at the end of series 2 and then never featured again. An article I read with the actor says even he has no idea why his character just disappeared.

[Beatle Simon]

The early episodes of 'Auf Weidesen, Pet' had more UK characters in Germany (they all drank in the bar together), but eventually faded to just the core seven.

[Jah Womble]

A Canadian girl I used to know thirty-plus years ago briefly played Terry Sullivan's love-interest in Brookside. She was quickly written out after he copped off with her best mate. (Cannot for the life of me remember either the character's - or indeed ‘her’ - name.)

Jar Jar Binks was rather hurriedly removed from Star Wars, I think?

[Hot Pepsi]

In the US, the archetype of this is Chuck Cunningham on Happy Days. He was supposedly in college so not around much, but he completely disappeared in Season 2 and it was made clear in later seasons that he had been retconned out of existence.

The Simpsons' "Poochie" episode (one of the best ever) alluded to this when The Simpsons had a random guy named Roy living in their house - never seen before or since.*

Another old example is Tiger, the Brady's dog. I don't think he ever officially passed away or anything like that. All of a sudden, the family just didn't have any pets and he wasn't mentioned.

* Of course, that whole episode was about the opposite phenomenon: A show materializing a new character - usually a "cute" kid or somebody "edgy" - to try to put some life into a flagging series. The Brady Bunch did that with Cousin Oliver, one of many cousins or niece/nephews to show up late in series' runs as the original kids on the show got older and couldn't do "precocious" any more.

[WOM]

Goddamn it....I knew you'd beat me to Chuck.

The other one was on Mad About You. In the first season, Paul had a slacker best buddy named Selby who...poof...disappeared. Many seasons later, Jamie said "there's your friend Selby" and Paul quizzically says "yeah, whatever happened to that guy" to much laughter.

[3 Colours Red]

Baldrick being the clever one.

[Lang Spoon]

I'm no fan of Ben Elton, but early Blackadder under the clammy hand of Curtis is such shite.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Doug's sister in King of Queens; Dropped after the first episode and never mentioned again.

I know I'm revealing far too much knowledge on this subject, but it was Carrie's (half) sister that got dropped after the first few episodes. Doug's sister (played by Ricki Lake) came in after a couple of seasons after having been living away somewhere and only just returned to New York, and had a few storylines including when Doug persuaded to date someone so him and his friends could watch the Superbowl on a better TV, and also when it turned out that she had dated Richie, and she gets her revenge at the paintball day. In turn Richie was suddenly dropped, after being a regular character in the first couple of seasons. He was an arsehole anyway.

[Patrick Thistle]

Jar Jar Binks was rather hurriedly removed from Star Wars, I think?

But not before handing the keys of the Republic over to Darth Sidious.

[Patrick Thistle]

But on a Star Wars note, not much has been said about midichlorians in subsequent films.

[Guy Profumo]

I'm no fan of Ben Elton, but early Blackadder under the clammy hand of Curtis is such shite.

Frank Finlay, Alex Norton, Peter Cook?

Are you mad?

[Patrick Thistle]

Andy Townsend's Tactics Truck

[Lang Spoon]

Frank Finlay, Alex Norton, Peter Cook?

Are you mad?

Blackadder 1 is like kids tv comedy. The worst Atkinson mugging rubber face bollocks till fuckin Bean. And tbh Peter Cook was a wasted old drunk by 83.

[Mumpo]

Louise Jameson's brown contact lenses in Doctor Who

We should be thankful the original plan to make her look more 'savage' didn't make it to the screen...



[Edit: I can't embed pngs? Not exactly an obscure image format [Edit edit: Ah, I have to uncheck 'Retrieve remote file and reference locally']]

[Lucy Waterman]

The first episode of Seinfeld didn't have Elaine, it had a sassy waitress character instead. Also Kramer was called Kessler and George wore a flat cap.

[Lucy Waterman]

Kamelion would be another good shout for Doctor Who.

[Stumpy Pepys]

Chuck Cunningham in Happy Days.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Oh, Guy, Guy, Guy!

[WOM]

Ahahahahaha....

[Sporting]

Not sure if or how this counts but Alias Smith and Jones didn't last long after Roger Davis replaced Pete Duel, playing the same character.