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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Is there a word to refer to a character in a play or movie or a TV or radio show who is talked about but never actually shows up on stage or screen? The classic example would be Godot, but Colombo's wife would be another.
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 771 |
That seems to be the term of choice - and here's a list of a bunch of 'em. Niles Crane's ex-wife on Frasier popped to mind for me... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unseen_character
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear Faldage: I found a fairly long article called "Absent Fatso" which never used a term for the stagecraft bit. http://pages.ivillage.com/mmorand2003/id8.html
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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How about disappearing characters. Is there a term for them?
For example, On The 70's show's first episodes, Donna has a pesky younger sister. She quickly gets written out of the show and Donna becomes and only child.
I know I've seen this happen in other shows too.
I can't put my finger on it right now but there was something similar that happened with The Torklesons (spelling may be off). I think a little brother was eliminated when they moved - or something of the sort.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Darn darn darn - can't remember the name of the movie but the first wife in the oldie ---was it Mayerling?
Then there is Laura in movie of same name. Starred Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews. Andrews plays a detective investigating Laura's murder and falling in love with her from what he learns and from a portrait. Then she show up! Good movie, stands up well - consider it if you need to rent something at the video store.
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veteran
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veteran
Joined: Jan 2004
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There's Sam Spade's dead partner Archer in The Maltese Falcon. Is the Thin Man seen or not?
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Joined: Jan 2001
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
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In reply to:
How about disappearing characters. Is there a term for them?
Yeah. Unemployed actors. See also, waiters. 
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stranger
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stranger
Joined: Jan 2004
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Faldage, I thought you'd never ask! Why didn't I think of this?
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
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The thin man is killed before the movie starts IIRC but he is seen in flashbacks.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
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Oh, that list from F'babe! The very first on the list is Abigail's Party. A play by Mike Leigh (I had forgotten that - thought it was Alan Ayckbourn). Once seen never forgotten, and yet it's comic (some might say tragi-comic). Abigail, whom you never see, is the daughter of one of the couples in the play and is giving a party in the next door apartment while the parents all get together, I guess waiting to take their teenage offspring home afterwards. The vitriol and social/sexual ruthlessness of their conversation and behaviour surpasses Updike at his worst! Theatre of mental cruelty. If you haven't seen it and it comes your way, don't miss it. I think the characters are recognisable right across the 'developed' world. I reckon ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans would have known them.
Channel Four's reviewer said: "Abigail's Party still ranks as the most painful hundred minutes in British comedy-drama."
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