Pajiba

The Cunninghams oldest son Chuck.

I thought the McCoy's left town. But maybe I just made that up in my head to explain their absence in the final season. Hmm. . .

West Wing: Mandy Hampton (Moira Kelly) was never written out of the show; she simply disappeared after the first season.

Thank god.

I still have 3 episodes to go to finish the 5th and final season (so it is possible they address this, though unlikely since they didn't where it would have made sense to)... but the most egregious case of the suddenly missing character on Friday Night Lights is J.D. McCoy (and his dad, and Wade Aikman).

Santiago's disappearance can be explained away more easily- wasn't he 18 (and therefore probably only eligible for one season of playing, and legally able to move out from living with Buddy and be on his own anyway)? Between the end of season 2 and the beginning of season 3, Santiago could have gone to do any number of things that really would not have affected many of the other characters in the show so much that people would still be talking about him at the start of the next year. The McCoy family, on the other hand... the whole premise of the last two seasons completely hinges on the presence and influence of the McCoy family. It is realistic to believe they would have gone somewhere else (either to have a better shot at winning State or so that J.D. had to be taken out of his context where he was getting into so much trouble)... but how hard would it have been for them to give one line to explain that gaping hole when East Dillon play West Dillon?!

I don't know if Mandy was essentially "written off" in The West Wing, but she had more than enough of a reason plot - wise to never be heard from again. Her last episode was about her having written a strategy memo for how to beat Bartlet and that memo being leaked to the press. The whole staff totally lost faith in her and hated her guts for it. We don't see her lose her White House pass (the entire senior staff lost those after season 1), but she certainly wouldn't have been welcomed back by the characters.

What about that kid from 24? Behrooz?

The little sister, Morgan, on Boys Meets World disappeared for a season or two then just reappeared. They even made fun of it on the show saying Morgan was up in her room all that time.

Weren't there any number of students on Saved by the Bell who just vanished after dating a core character for an episode or two?

Jason Styles from Gilmore Girls. Makes grand entrance at end of season finale for love triangle purposes, evaporates as soon as Luke and Lorelei kiss. Hrm.

Nebula (Nebbie), Topanga's sister on BMW. In one episode I remember and then later T is an only child.

Jason Stiles is dismissed by Sookie telling him (off camera) that his house is on fire, or something similar.

Professor Slater is actually here at the moment. At my house. She's asleep at the moment (exhausted), but I'll ask her to type a few words when she gets back up.

Not quite a "disappearing character," but In an early episode of "Seinfeld," a reference is made to Jerry having a sister, but we never see her and it's never brought up again. It seems in later episodes that Jerry's an only child.

I was SO glad they Poochie'd Mandy Hampton. The first season of The West Wing is perfect outside of her. Her departure was one of the reasons season two took it to a higher gear.

Sal on Mad Men. Too spoilery? I'm really hoping he somehow makes a reappearance next season.

You could have done this entire list with Heroes alone. Such a shame, after the brilliant first season.
Does anybody remember the hot Irish girl who popped up in Season 2 and had a romance with Peter and then just got abandoned in an alternate future and literally never got referenced again?

Wow! I thought everyone knew that Marisa Tomei was in the first season of A Different World. It's how I was able to recognize her in movies later on. I think they wanted to make Hillman a historically black college so she had to go. Freddie's cousin (the white guy who dated Kim in later seasons) also disappeared without a trace from that show.

Oh, Santiago! Amazingly enough seemed to be the ONLY latino student in a small town in TEXAS. I mean, really, that was just ridiculous.

I don't think Sal from Mad Men really counts. His outing was explained (oh, poor Sal) and his return wouldn't have worked at all. Which is too bad, because I LOVED him.

Santiago really bothered me. I got pretty involved in his story. The reason he disapeared makes sense, but since we see so much of Buddy in the third season it would have been nice for someone to say "So how's Santiago doing now he's moved?". Just to acknowledge a major character of the second season actually existed.

The McCoy's didn't bother me. They were being phased out slowly, and I just assumed they moved.

I really wish the FNL finale had shown all the major characters in the final few minutes. I know we got little snippets (Smash on TV) and we know what was going on in Jason and Tyra's lives, but I would have liked to have seen Landry and Lyla again for a minute.

Mash had "Spearchucker Jones" in the early days. don't recall him getting transferred out. Just sort of vanished.

There is also the case of suddenly having an extra child.
I watched the pilot episode of the Cosby Show and Claire says, "why do we have 4 children?" To which he responds because "we don't want 5?"
At that point they had Denise, Theo, Vanessa and Rudy.
Suddenly they had Sandra, their eldest who was away at college come for a visit and she became a regular character.

There was this guy on Star Trek, I don't remember his name but he wore a red shirt. Anyway, he's there one episode and then, whoosh! a totally different dude the next episode! What's up with that?

Don't forget Veronica Mars' journalism teacher in season 1. Anybody know what happened there?

I always thought that Tina's mysterious dissapearance from "That 70's Show" was just a nod to "Happy Days" Chuck. Intersting parallels: "Happy Days" is itself arguably the ultimate 70's show, which also was a nostalgically themed show set 20 years earlier. That "Valerie" reference slipped passed me though.

What about Leonard's doctor girlfriend, Stephanie, in Season 2 of Big Bang Theory? She kinda moves in with him, then he kinda kicks her out but they're supposedly still dating... except she's never mentioned again!

re: "Spearchucker" Jones.

Wow, Farty, you give insane a**clowns a bad name. Have a snack and calm down.

It was the character's name. He was in the movie and early TV show. Offensive nickname or not. And he was treated as an equal. They could have kept him and dropped the name, but they had Hawkeye and Trapper running the show and he was dropped.

But really, calm down. Or troll elsewhere.