Hello fellow film makers and writers, I've been in a weird place for a while in terms of content creation, so I just wanted to share an idea that I personally have seen done in small ways, but never taken to the full extreme, and that is the "off camera character," or as TV tropes calls "the ghost." You can probably think of some characters that are heard off screen like Howard's mom on The Big Bang Theory, but she's what's called "the voice." This is more like London's dad from Suit Life of Zack and Cody (not including On Deck where he is seen once), and Grandma Finerty from Grounded for Life, where the character is often referenced but is never actually seen. It's not the most popular of trope, but is an interesting writing trope that when done well will make the audience feel like they have seen the character (I know personally I felt like I knew Daddy Tipton despite having never seen him). But here's the kicker, these are almost always very minor characters, alluded to occasionally but never really big. I think I know why, it's not exactly easy to flush out a character who is never seen or heard as most establishment and development happens from a character's interactions with events and other characters in the course of the story, and that is extremely hard to do in a believable way when everything happens off screen and is recounted by other characters, especially when there are a lot of "new developments" happen from subtle hints (such as a character who lives in Boston that gets super excited about the prospects of moving to Paris despite having a great life in Boston, would have subtle hints of having an Eifel Tower paper weight and Mona Lisa pin on her backpack, and regularly wear something that has the pattern of blue, white, red). Then why it only happens with minor characters, it is very hard to get attached to a character who is never directly seen, or even indirectly seen like with "the voice" and "the faceless," but I think it would be very interesting to have a main character that the audience never sees, and I'm not talking about the mom from How I Met Your Mother, and how she is like at every major event in the series but no one realizes it since the show is about her, I mean a character who everyone recognizes as present and who's actions impact everyone, but the audience never sees or hears.
OK, so I can't exactly say "this is a neat idea" without giving ideas of how I think it could work (because how else will anyone know what I'm talking about). Here's the main example I'm thinking of, think of a family sit-com where it's focused on the kids, similar to a Boy Meets World or Carisa Explains It All, where the parents are primary characters that are seen every episode but aren't the main characters. What sets this apart is instead of "just showing up to help the story along" like many parents in the kind of show I'm describing, a parent just is never seen or heard but the off screen actions are always referenced in a way as if "just in the other room" and no one is ever like "how come I never see mom/dad?" Here's an example of what we could see, if it's a school show like Saved By The Bell, a guy like Screech could be dropped off by his mom every day, and when the Zack character comes up with a crazy plan the next day the Screech could say "I told my mom about it on the drive in and she told me [these wise details about how it was going to backfire]." Or for a series that takes place in the family home the dad is always in the other room where the aftermath of his presence is seen but he can never be reached, and when there's a big problem is always out shopping but leaves a note for the kid on the refrigerator that always indirectly talks about his own problems that parallels the kid's problem. This last part might be too close to "the voice," but if done in a way that is just parallel and not direct (like if the kid is having trouble dealing with helping a friend at the extent of another friend, and the note is something like "sorry I couldn't be home tonight, but I had to help your uncle get his foot out from under a rock, I know I said I'd help you with your project but this couldn't wait, I'll help you out when I get home, love Dad" and that would help the kid realize that sometimes you just have to help your loved ones even if it might let down another loved one, because he now has perspective on what it's like to be on the receiving end of that "I need to give someone else priority). What would make this even more interesting is if the uncle is a seen recurring character (like shows up every 4th episode to give exposition about the dad).
Another thing could work would be a friend group sitcom where a friend and his or her antics are always referenced but never actually seen. Think about Seinfeld, a series about 4 young adults in New York City and their many misadventures, where some plots are just about 1 character, some about 2 characters, some about 3 characters, and others about all 4, and when it's not all 4 there is sometimes an element of "recap what happened" to the characters that weren't there. This is especially true for events where the production company just didn't have the budget to film, like a big party scene, or concert, or their place of employment, or other things like that where we feel like we saw it but didn't really. Now what if there was a 5th member of the Seinfeld group, one that only ever exists in these off camera events, or is always busy when they go to Restaurant or Jerry's apartment? A character that is always sending his regards to the group or doing something to help a Kramer scheme while Kramer is off telling Jerry, George, and Elaine what the scheme is, or that spent all night waiting for Jerry at his apartment but Jerry and George get stuck in traffic and when they finally get back to Jerry's apartment there's a note that he couldn't wait any longer and went home. There's never a "why is he never here" because he is "here" it just is never on camera. I think this would be very creative.
This could also work with a drama series like Degrassi, where a character has problems that are due to a working parent that is never home, never being there for the kid, and then when the parent is there we never see it play out on screen. What could work really well here is a drama series like Degrassi doesn't focus on the same characters every episode; it's always the same core cast but some will be the main subject of the episode while others are just there in the background. Then while parents were present (especially in early seasons of The Next Generation which had many original series characters come back as parents) and would sometimes play important roles in the events of the episode (especially when it dealt with home life troubles such as Craig's abusive father), other times the parents just weren't seen at all (I don't think we ever saw Spinner's parents) even if they were mentioned. The "rotating focus" of Degrassi might be cheating with "some characters barely receive any focus," but I think so long as there is a passing reference it counts as "main character." Plus, there is a lot of drama and conflict to be pulled from "not present parent," so as long as the problems of a character are somehow related to "mom/dad isn't there for me, here's their excuse this time" I think it counts. It also could work where there unseen character is always getting in trouble for things too extreme to be seen, like imitatable acts that could cause broadcast censorship problems, or died in some horrific event but who's influence is still resonating with the world of the show and gets mentioned [almost] every episode.
This doesn't even have to be a main character from the start, plenty of series introduce new characters as a series goes on, and this character could start as just a recurring mention and then work its way up to "main character." It could be like how Brad in Grounded for Life started out as a recurring side character as a nerdy boy next door, but then he became a main character when the show writers made him and Lilly a couple. This unseen character could start out as just some passing references here and there, but then get referenced every episode with key plot points happening all because of the work of this character.
This is just some writing rambling on a shower idea I had (literally thought "you know those characters like Kathy Santony from Full House or Mr. Smith from Hey Arnold, where they exist in universe but we never see them, what if in a TV show this unseen character was a main part of the series, what would that look like"). I hope to get back to my regularly scheduled content soon (and I have some big projects in the works), but until then, this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.
