Unseen character
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In fiction, an unseen character is a character who is described or referenced, but does not actually appear to the audience. Television shows and stage plays sometimes include continuing characters — characters who are currently in frequent interaction with the other characters and who influence current story events — who are never seen or heard by the audience and only described by other characters. Often this starts as or evolves into a running gag or inside joke. Radio shows and plays also feature characters who never speak, and books feature characters who are merely referred to. Hidden characters appear in all varieties of fiction, but their prevalence is in televised programs. These can run for much longer than a movie or play (which usually last only a couple of hours), and unseen characters can take on special qualities.
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[edit] Unseen characters in television history
[edit] Never seen, only mentioned
There are several levels of "unseenness." The most complete is never seen, only mentioned (sometimes pointed to, off screen), like Niles' wife Maris on Frasier. This means that any qualities of the character are only in the form of descriptions given by the other characters.
The earliest example of an unseen and unheard television character was Gladys Potter on the 1950s TV series December Bride; regular character Pete Potter, played by Harry Morgan, constantly complained about his wife Gladys, but she was never seen on that show. She was, however, featured in the later spin-off series Pete & Gladys.
Because these characters exist only through the testimonies of the regular cast, writers often use this strange existence as a device for verbal irony. Unseen characters generally exhibit outlandish behavior, such as pursuing bizarre hobbies (ex. in Kenan & Kel, Kel's mother seems to have a fascination with shaving things), possessing unusual or extreme physical attributes (such as, again, Maris Crane in Frasier, the physical description of whom becoming increasingly outlandish) or doing things that are outright ridiculous and sometimes downright impossible (ex. in Mama's Family, Iola Boyland's immensely obese mother is able to chase down ice cream trucks when sufficiently hungry).
[edit] Heard, but not seen
The second most common phenomenon in this category is heard but not seen. This allows the character to speak for him or herself, but allows the viewers to construct their own image of what the character looks like. The wife of Rocky King on the 1950-54 Dumont series Rocky King, Inside Detective is the earliest TV example of this. Rocky would often speak to his wife from one room, while she was busy in another. Her offscreen replies to Rocky were all the audience would ever experience of Mrs. King. (For a time, Rocky also had a son, Rocky, Jr., who was an offscreen voice as well). Another well-known example is from Mission: Impossible: nearly every episode began with the team leader playing a recording of an unseen "dispatcher" who would outline the objective for that episode and warn that if any member of the team were caught or killed the "secretary" (in this case a fully unseen character) would disavow any knowledge of their actions.
[edit] Partially seen characters
After that are partially seen characters, such as Dr. Claw in Inspector Gadget, the only part of whom ever shown was his mechanical arms. Other parts of characters can be shown, like many adult supporting characters in cartoons, who are only ever shown from the waist down to bring the perspective on the child-size stars, the typical example was Mammy Two-Shoes in Tom and Jerry. The Cow and Chicken show parodies this particular convention of unseen characters with the characters of Mom and Dad, whose bodies actually have no upper half.
Perhaps the earliest "partially seen character" was in the now TV police drama The Plainclothesman, a Dumont show which ran from 1949-1954. The show was filmed from the point of view of the lead character, known only as The Lieutenant (played by Ken Lynch). Aside from brief glimpses in mirrors, or shots of his hand picking up a "clue", The Lieutenant was not seen, and he was never seen in full until a flashback episode aired in 1952.
Another early example of a perhaps more traditional "partially seen" character was that of John Beresford Tipton, on the 1950s series The Millionaire. Tipton (voiced by Paul Frees) was heard at the beginning of every episode giving instructions to his assistant Michael Anthony. However, the audience only ever saw the back of Tipton's head as he was seated in a chair.
One of the more famous examples is the character Wilson from the '90s television comedy Home Improvement starring Tim Allen. Over time, we saw most of Wilson, especially from the nose up, but we never saw his mouth. The fact that Wilson's mouth was always obscured became something of a running gag in the series, and was even parodied in the show's opening credits.
[edit] Unseen characters in United Kingdom television
The best-known unseen character in British television was Elizabeth, the wife of Captain Mainwaring, the main character in Dad's Army. In The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, Reggie's mother-in-law is never seen, but Reggie keeps thinking of her as a hippopotamus. In Are You Being Served? the action almost never left the department store, so the odd mention of the characters' lives outside the store tended to include unseen characters. The scriptwriters Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais included a large number of minor unseen characters in Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? and Porridge, in the form of people the leading characters had known earlier in their lives who were mentioned briefly. In the hit sitcom Fawlty Towers, Sybil's best friend Audrey was only ever referred to, or in contact with Sybil Fawlty through telephone calls, but later appeared in the penultimate episode, played by Christine Shaw.
