Unseen character To meet Wikipedia 's quality standards , this article or section may require cleanup . Please discuss this issue on the talk page , or replace this tag with a more specific message . Editing help is available . This article has been tagged since August 2006 . 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 . When , in fact , a previously unseen character makes an on-screen appearance or becomes a series regular ( usually during a sitcom 's waning days , as a rating ploy or a way to freshen up scripts ) , the on-screen portrayal rarely lives up to what fans had conjured in their own imaginations , and disappointment results . Spoiler warning : Plot and/or ending details about various works follow . Unseen characters in television history 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 , and Cosmo Kramer 's friend Bob Sacamano on Seinfeld . 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 . One such unseen character is also Heinrich , Dr. Von Goosewing 's assistant on Count Duckula . Another form of Never seen , only mentioned , is that the character is made as a diguise , giving you an idea of what they look like , but not showing you the actual character . For example , in Ed , Edd , and Eddy , Eddy 's brother is used as a disguise at the end of one episode . In reality , it is Sarah standing on Jimmy 's shoulders with oversized clothes and stilts on . 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 ) . One of the most well-known examples of this type of character is Carlton the doorman on the 1970s sitcom Rhoda , who never appears on-screen but whose voice ( supplied by Lorenzo Music ) is frequently heard over the apartment 's intercom . Partially seen characters An example of partially seen characters is Ms. Bellum , the mayor 's efficient assistant in The Powerpuff Girls whose face has never been revealed . Also , 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 ( as is visible from their shadows ) . 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 , all the audience ever saw was the back of Tipton 's head as he was seated in a chair . Another example is the Bubble Boy from the sitcom Seinfeld . Only his arms are seen . Another example would be the neighbor Wilson from the sitcom Home Improvement . His face was always partially covered , usually by the fence that separated the properties . Even during a curtain call after an episode , he carried a small piece of fence in his hand so his face would still not be seen to the audience . Unseen characters in United Kingdom television One of the best-known unseen characters in British television was Elizabeth , the wife of Captain Mainwaring , the main character in Dad 's Army ; not showing her added a touch of whimsical fantasy to the programme . Arthur in Minder referred to his unseen wife as `` er indoors '' . 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 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 . See also Silent protagonist  This television -related article is a stub . You can help Wikipedia by expanding it . Categories : Cleanup from August 2006 | Television stubs | Unseen characters | Stock characters In other languages : Français August 2006 various works 