These seemed pretty common in sitcoms, can you think of any others?
The mystery characters. Frasier has Maris. Cheers had Vera. Seinfeld had Cousin Jeffery. Friends had Denise.
And Elaine has a phone conversation with her sister Gail about Gail's son hiding Elaine's Christmas card nip photo.
Also Elaine visits Gail when her and Jerry go to St Louis in The Airport. Even though we don’t see Gail, it’s nice that she has a name and is mentioned repeatedly unlike George’s “brother” and Jerry’s “sister”
We see Gail once. When they tell Elaine to get married and move to long island
...and Billy and Jake and Allison, yes we could have discussed them
Jerry has a sister he mentions too, right?
I think so.
Yeah in The Chinese Restaurant
Nice catch, I totally should have remembered Bob Sacamano.
Isn't there also a Jay Reimenshneider or something. Who Kramer knows? He eats horse meat?
He eats horse all the time, he gets it from his butcher. He later served as mayor of Santa Monica.
And Jay Reimenschneider
He eats horse all the time. Gets it from his butcher.
And Pete who can get concert tickets to Metallica.
And Jerry says he has a sister in an earlier episode.
Yea it's not simply characters that get mentioned once and never shown. Maris and cousin Jeffrey are more significant that George and Elaine's siblings
For Lomez and Bob Sacamano, Jerry, George and Elaine are mystery characters.
They want to know why they never see you!
Bob Sacamano talked to Jerry over the phone
Oh yeah.. forgot about that
Kramer is the bizarro Bob Sacamano. Everyone knows his face but no one knows his name.
Early season Kramer, anyway.
Jerry went to the Bob Sacamano party - it was a lovely affair!
I’m kind of curious as to what is considered a mystery character. Maris from Frasier was definitely a mystery character. She was constantly brought up and they would say things like “oh, you just missed Maris.”
Bob Sacamano is the closest thing that Seinfeld has to that, imo. He’s mentioned a lot by Kramer, and you can’t help but wonder what this dude’s deal is. I’m not sure a sibling of either George, Elaine, or Jerry would count. They’re barely mentioned and the show doesn’t really seem too interested in teasing us about ever showing them on camera.
Jeffrey probably fits as well since they did make it seem as though we would see him in the episode where Jerry went to his apartment to pick up the concert tickets
Morn on DS9 has this vibe, except it’s just for him saying anything.
A better and more apt term is "Unseen Character."
There's no actor.
Who tf is Denise?
Phoebe's roommate
And Aunt Baby.
<looks at ceiling>she's deceased
She’d never make it…
She had… problems.
internal
What about Cousin Henny?
DON’T YOU TALK ABOUT HENNY!!
Susie
Oh, you mean Suze?
Bojack Horseman - Mr. Peanutbutter's friend Erica
Charlie Brown is the earliest one I can think of. None of the adults have faces, or even voices.
Sara Bellum from Powerpuff Girls, Wilson from Home Improvement.
Is Ms Sara a play on para bellum?
Cerebellum
No one ever saw the parents' faces on Cow and Chicken and no one knew the parent's names on The Fairly Odd Parents aside from Mom and Dad.
I have rewatched friends at least 15 times and I don't ever remember a Denise. Are you talking about Phoebe's roommate that was mentioned once in an episode?
Yes :) She mentions her all the time DENISE!!
Surprised that no one mentioned Seinfeld's original unseen mystery character: Newman!
(Originally voiced by Larry David)
Jay Reimenschneider
He eats horse, all the time.
He gets it from his butcher
Also, nearly became mayor of Santa Monica
Not American, but Sheridan and Violet in Keeping Up Appearances.
Great one.
Violet ends up appearing in a half a dozen episodes. But Sheridan remains unseen and unheard.
Oh, really? I guess I missed those, never realized she was shown! Thanks!
Sheridan was always too busy freeloading to be seen
Bob sacamono
Golden Girls has Phil and Charlie
Is Polkaroo too obvious an answer?
Peggy's mum on married with children is like this, all the jokes are about how fat she is but you never see her
I think the show's pretty meh, but wasn't the neighbour in Home Improvement kind of a mystery? They never showed his whole face.
They did on one episode near the end of the series i watched it in its original run
Big Bang Theory - Howard’s mom (voice only)
Suits - Norma (Louis Litt’s secretary)
Howard’s Mom- the woman George took on a date to McDonalds so he could extend his unemployment.
We get to see Norma when her ashes are all over Louis' face.
Binnie and Mr. Chan on Just Shoot Me.
Twin Peaks had Dianne until the Return
Linda's friend Ginger in Bob's Burgers
Parks and Recreation had Dr. Nygard, Chris Traeger's therapist
My So-Called Life had Tino
“Friends”???? I never heard of it, did they just invent it?
My all-time fave, The Gooch from Diff’rent Strokes.
I guess gooch had a different meaning in the 80s
Rhoda, I'm going way back, had Carlton the Doorman.
Home Improvement had Wilson
I'm pretty sure that Jerry and George's mentioned siblings were tacitly retconned out. Just by virtue of getting to know the family element better through the years. Seems understood later that they are only children. Elaine, since we only meet her father once and never get any sort of familial context ever again, it's easier to imagine she did have just unseen and unimportant siblings.
Meena on Still Game. You always see her back and she has a bunch of hilarious one liners. You get to see her face in the final episode.
Don’t forget Bob Sacamano and Lomez
The lopper.
IASIP - Little baby Barnabas (RIP)
Margaret's husband Lewis in Becker
What sad incel cunt downvotes this?
Seinfeld has several aside from Jeffrey, including Bob Sacamano, Lomez, O'Brien etc. Elaine and George have siblings we never meet as well.