The Quick 10: The 10 Best Characters You've Never Seen

Sometimes the characters we don't see end up having the most impact… and sometimes they're just a good running joke for a sitcom. Check out these 10 characters from film, television and literature who were often referenced but never seen.

In Samuel Beckett's classic, two men spend two days (wait for it…) waiting for Godot, and of course, he never shows. Because he's central to the whole plot of the novel, this arguably makes Godot one of the most famous unseen characters in literature.

Though referenced in nearly every single episode of

MSCL

(he was the lead singer of Jordan Catalano's band, the Frozen Embryos) he was too cool to actually show up anywhere.

Well, this one is only half-true. She appeared onscreen, but only from the Babies' point of view. Side note:

this

is one of the funniest Halloween costumes I've ever seen.

Don Quixote's one true love was later represented when Miguel de Cervantes' novel was adapted for stage and screen, but in the book, she never appears in the flesh. It's hard to imagine what a woman with gold hair, Elysian fields forehead, rainbow eyebrows and eyes of sun would possibly look like anyway (though Sophia Loren and Vanessa Williams have both played her, if that helps).

She's one of the most famous examples of an unseen character on TV. Though she was never actually seen on the show, a spinoff called

Kate Columbo

was often thought to revolve around what Mrs. Columbo did when Columbo was at work. Not so, say the people behind the series - they consider Kate an entirely different person who happens to have the same last name.

Romeo was

so

distraught over Rosaline - so distraught that it took him about two seconds to fall in love with her cousin, Juliet. Mr. Montague's infatuation with Rosaline is over so quickly that the audience never even gets a chance to meet her in person.

Dorothy Zbornak had a cross-dressing brother whom she often made jokes about but never invited to visit.

Oscar's girlfriend was often referred to but never seen.

Norm often complained about his wife, but she never actually showed her face at his favorite haunt (though you could occasionally see her legs). She once went to Carla's home for Thanksgiving dinner with the gang but got a pie in the face before we could get a glimpse of it. Whenever Vera

was

on the show, she was played by George Wendt's real-life wife, actress Bernadette Birkett.

I was trying really hard to adapt Ernest's trademark "Know what I mean, Vern?" to "Something, something,

seen

, Vern?" but I just couldn't do it. I know. A perfectly good pun, wasted. Anyway, the guy Ernest P. Worrell always addressed, Vern, was always on the other side of the camera. He would sometimes respond with a head shake, but he never spoke and was never seen.

There are lots of other good examples - who's your favorite unseen character? Maris? Urkel's parents? Let us know in the comments!