The Daily Beast: TV Characters That Vanished: ‘Mad Men’s’ Sal and Others with Loose Ends

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/05/30/tv-characters-that-vanished-mad-men-s-sal-and-other-television-characters-with-loose-ends.html

It’s been revealed that one of Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner’s wishes was to wrap up Sal’s storyline. Here are other memorable TV characters that disappeared without a trace.

As good as the Mad Men season finale was, it couldn’t possibly wrap up every storyline.

This week, Entertainment Weekly’s Anthony Breznican tweeted out a photo of one of Matthew Weiner’s production notes for Mad Men titled “Wish List: Things We Want to Deal With Before the Series Ends.” The list includes the question, “Sal – what happened to him?”—referring, of course, to Salvatore Romano, the closeted gay Art Director at Sterling Cooper who was fired in season three when he rejected the advances of Lucky Strike’s Lee Garner Jr.

Plenty of fans wondered the same thing as Weiner about Sal’s ending, and even bombarded AMC with letters calling for his return. Sal was popular not only because he gave us a peek into the way homosexuality was viewed in the 1960s (and he did it in a way that, in classic Mad Men style, wasn’t didactic or preachy), but also because he was a damn fun character to watch. Who could forget that Bye Bye Birdie dance?

His lack of a resolution was even more noticeable because a lot of people binge-watched Mad Men. While writers on shows in the past could make characters disappear season-to-season, relying on audiences forgetting minor characters over the summer months—when a whopping 62.3 million people worldwide subscribe to Netflix—means audiences have no problem remembering their favorite characters and holding writers to task for getting rid of them.    

In honor of Sal, here are some other characters that vanished forever off of shows without any satisfying resolution. Writers thought we wouldn’t notice? They didn’t anticipate Netflix and the nitpicky/obsessive zeal of rabid fans who won’t—ever—let it go.

1. Mandy Hampton on The West Wing (Moira Kelly)

Based on the real-life political advisor Mandy Grunwald, this loud-mouthed broad fearlessly talked back to everyone (except POTUS) in Season 1, and was supposed to serve as Josh’s love interest. Mandy got into some hot water after a memo leaked that she had written criticizing the Bartlet administration (before she started working for them), and after that her character began to fade away. She appeared in fewer and fewer episodes as Season 1 went on, and was completely written out of season 2 with no explanation.

2. Valery on The Sopranos (Vitali Baganov)

Probably the most famous unresolved character in television history, the Russian gangster Valery in season three’s “Pine Barrens” managed to flee from Christopher and Paulie after they shot him in the head. While creator David Chase could not understand why anyone gave “a shit about this Russian,” he did admit after a lot of prodding that the fate he envisioned for him was that he passed out, was discovered by some Boy Scouts, and eventually shipped back to Russia with massive head trauma. Chase’s explanation doesn’t really clear up how Valery managed to escape without a trace (or who stole Paulie’s car), but it’s better than nothing.

3. Dr. Erica Hahn on Grey’s Anatomy (Brooke Smith)

Dr. Hahn and Dr. Callie’s lesbian relationship was praised for its realism and emotional honesty, but that wasn’t enough to save Dr. Hahn’s character from extinction. Though she was a major presence on the show, she never received any ending at all. She simply heads to her car in an episode of Season 5 and is never seen again. Creator Shonda Rhimes, responding to the confusion and anger audiences felt about this casting change, stated that Smith was “obviously not fired for playing a lesbian.”

4. Betsy Putch on The Mindy Project (Zoe Jarman)

Kaling’s recently canceled show endured a lot of casting bloodshed during its three-season tenure, and there were plenty of characters who came and went without any clear cause, but Betsy’s was perhaps the hardest to take. She was naïve, sure, but she added a nice flavor of sweetness to this otherwise quasi-cynical show.

5. Stuart Minkus on Boy Meets World (Lee Norris)

The annoying nerd literally vanished into thin air in the episode “I Dream of Feeny,” when Cory and Shawn wished him away. He was never heard from again until the last episode of the series when, in a kind of a wink to the audience, he returns and tells Cory he was just in a different part of the school this whole time. His character now appears on the Disney channel spinoff series Girl Meets World as the father of one of the schoolmates and the CEO of the corporation Minkus International. 

6. Cousin Oliver on The Brady Bunch (Robbie Rist)

Unlike other characters on this list, Cousin Oliver was liked by almost no one. He was weird, not funny, and committed the worst kinds of sins you could on The Brady Bunch, like ruining Marsha’s painting and unweaving Carol’s afghan. His most significant contribution to the television arena was becoming the namesake to the tendency TV writers have for introducing child characters late into the series of a show in a desperate attempt to save it from cancelation.

7. Charlie on Girls (Christopher Abbott)

While we (kind of) were told what happened to Charlie—he and Marnie bought ingredients to buy grilled pizzas, came back to the apartment, and he told Marnie that he never loved her—his ending was far from rewarding. And this was not entirely the writers’ fault. Christopher Abbott, the actor who played him, decided that he no longer wanted to be part of the show. But his leaving forced the writers to dredge up the depressed-Marnie storyline for yet another season.

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NEW EBOOKS/BOOKS from AUTHOR Neale Sourna and PIE: Perception Is Everything

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Maurice Williams & the Zodiacs - Stay

THE ORIGINAL by the man who wrote and sung it. Inspired by a date with a 10pm curfew. He was fifteen, recorded 7 years later. The shortest top hit in US ever. 1 minute 50 seconds. Sweet and to the point and 8 million copies later by all the collective covers.

Laurell K Hamilton: Author answers on character writing. Dead Ice: Rafael

http://www.laurellkhamilton.org/2015/05/dead-ice-rafael/

Third in the series leading up to Dead Ice, I almost made it Anita, but in the end I decided we’d go with Rafael, the Rat King. 

 
Raphael, drawn by Bret Booth
 
Question: When are we going to see Rafael on stage more in the books?

Answer: June 9, 2015 in Dead Ice!
 
Secrets to Share: Once I decided to have wererats in the first Anita Blake novel, Guilty Pleasures, Rafael just sort of appeared on paper.  I don’t remember making notes, or trying to create him.  He just walked on stage.  He was handsome, Hispanic, a great leader doing his best under difficult circumstances to protect his people.
 
Question: When are we going to learn more about how Rafael runs the wererats?

Answer: See above, in Dead Ice.
 
Secrets to Share:  Rafael told me how he was running his group.  I had to work at figuring out how various other shapeshifter groups were organized, but not the wererats.  Rafael was even a good leader in my subconscious.  The only thing that I had to “invent” was the crown-shaped brand on his arm as the mark of kingship.  That I worked at, but for the rest he’s always been very easy to write.
 
Question: Are Rafael and Anita a thing/an item?

Answer: If you mean have they had sex together, then yes.

Secrets to Share: No one ever asks if Anita is dating Rafael, they don’t ask if they’re lovers, because that can just imply sex and you all saw them have sex on stage, so that’s a given. But lover can also imply a more emotional involvement, and I don’t think we’re expecting that between them.  

So, what are Anita and Rafael to each other? Both have risked their safety, even their lives, to help each other.  

They are allies, and have become friends.  He is honored and powerful food for Anita’s arduer.  In Dead Ice we learn more details than ever before about how they work that. 

Sneak Peek from Dead Ice:

His mouth was buried tight against Rafael, his throat working convulsively as he swallowed.  I had a moment to think he was drinking blood from the wound, because that was what it meant when I saw Jean-Claude or Asher swallow like that.

Laurell K Hamilton: Author answers on character writing. Dead Ice: Richard

http://www.laurellkhamilton.org/2015/05/dead-ice-richard/

Here’s the second in the blog series leading up to the June 9, 2015 release of Dead Ice.  Since we started with Jean-Claude, it had to be Richard next.

 
 Richard by Brett Booth
 
Question: Is the character of Richard Zeeman based on your ex-husband?  

Answer: No.

Secrets to Share:  This was a rumor that I never saw coming, because it was just so not reality. My ex-husband’s sister thought it was the funniest thing ever that people thought her big brother was the basis for Richard.  I think that Richard’s skin tone might be the same as my ex, but there the resemblance ends.  Personality wise, Richard is actually closer to me when I was just out of college with my BS in Biology.  

But he, like all my characters that truly come to life on the page, has grown and changed in ways I never saw coming and certainly didn’t plan. He’s become his own man, for better or worse.
 
Question: Are Richard and Anita ever going to marry?

Answer: Highly doubtful, I’d just say no, but I’ve been wrong so much about my own character’s personal lives that I’m hedging my bet.

Secrets to Share:  In fact, I think one of the reasons Anita and Richard didn’t end up together was that I created him to be the perfect husband for her, or thought I did.  The more I tried to push the two of them together, the more they fought it, but my original plan was for them to marry and live happily ever after.  So much for me being the omnipotent Deity of my fictional universe. When Richard was created I could never have dreamed where Anita’s life would go, or my own for that matter. 

Fiction doesn’t mirror fact, but we’ve both done our own version of going from the conservative “good girl” to the much happier people we are today. As for you small, but vocal minority that are still urging me to kill off Jean-Claude and Micah, so that Anita can ride off into the sunset with Richard – no.  Not only no, but absolutely, positively, not happening. Move on, nothing to see here.
 
Question: Will Richard ever find another person to be his one and only love? 

Answer: I don’t know for certain, he’s surprised me too much over the years for me to say yes, or no.  
 
Secrets to Share: I hope he does, and I have a few potential women in mind, for him it will have to a woman if it’s a new character.  I think if any man could float his boat enough to have a full-fledged relationship with them then Jean-Claude would be that man. Richard is having a bondage and submission relationship with Asher but no sex.  It meets a lot of bondage needs for both of them, but I don’t think either of them would want to actually date each other. 

 What works great in the dungeon doesn’t always work outside of it.  

I still have hopes that Richard, Jean-Claude, and Anita might be a fully functioning menage a trois, but I think too much has happened for it to be what it might once have been, more’s the pity.  I keep hoping that special female werewolf will come along for him but he keeps wanting to date women that have no preternatural ties which doesn’t really work for the Ulfric, wolf king, of St. Louis.  

He also keeps dating women who like pretty standard vanilla sex and that really isn’t what Richard likes.  I’ve even written a short story, “Shutdown,” where he tries to have his vanilla cake but keep his bondage cupcakes. 

I’ve had talks with people I was dating about polyamory and bondage, and I know people that seem to be successfully married to vanilla and, with full knowledge and permission of their spouse, they get their bondage needs met elsewhere; but it is not an easy talk to have and it takes a very special person to be okay with it.  I’m not sure Richard is ever going to find someone that special, but I hope so, because I’d really like him to be happy and content with his life and himself.  

Sneak Peek from Dead Ice:

Richard drew Jean-Claude in tighter against him and moved his other hand so that it was free, leaving room to wonder what he’d do if Asher tried to touch Jean-Claude.  It was the kind of thing you do when someone is touching your girlfriend too much in a bar, and Richard gave him the challenging look that went with it. It was a way of saying, Mine, stop touching it, without saying anything.

Laurell K Hamilton: Author answers on character writing. Dead Ice: Jean-Claude

http://www.laurellkhamilton.org/2015/05/dead-ice-jean-claude/

In the lead up to Dead Ice hitting the shelves, I’m going to be doing a special blog series.  I’ll be answering three of the most common questions I get about a character.  I’ll be trying to include something not as commonly known with each answer. 

Then, you get a sneak peek of that character from Dead Ice. To kick off the blog series, we start with Jean-Claude – of course. 

    
Question: Is Jean-Claude named after Jean-Claude Van Damme? 

Answer: No.
 
Secret to share: In fact, Jean-Claude’s birth name wasn’t Jean-Claude. Vampires only had one name in Old Europe, so if there was already an older vampire with your name, your master could force you to pick a new name or even choose one for you.
 
Quest: Why is Jean-Claude French?

Answer: Because he refused to be Spanish, the way I planned.

Secret to Share: Jean-Claude was first created in the late 1980’s.  That was close enough to my school days that I could still read Spanish and understand it if it was spoken to me – slowly.  Please, do not try to speak Spanish to me now, I am too out of practice.  My pronunciation must  still be good though, because Spanish speakers will still break into rapid Spanish if I answer any question in their native language. 

As for my knowledge of French, all I can do is apologize for all of it in the early Anita Blake novels because my language “expert” wasn’t nearly as good at French as they told me they were, and well, some phrases are just awful. As my own French has grown marginally better, even I don’t know what one or two phrases were meant to convey. *face palm* It taught me to be more certain that my experts in any field actually were experts. 

I still pronounce French badly, so much so that I’ve been told by more than one native French speaker that I can learn all the French I want, but I will never speak it as fluently and musically as I do Spanish.  In fact, I’ve been told that I speak French as if Spanish was my first language. It was my second, but apparently it has left it’s linguistic mark.
 
Question: Didn’t I feel that making Jean-Claude French was too much Anne Rice’s territory, because of Interview with the Vampire?
 
Answer: Yes, I did, which is why I wanted him to be Spanish; but the harder I fought to force him into a nationality that he didn’t want, the more illusive he was on paper.  I couldn’t get my main vampire to cooperate on paper until I got out of his way and let him be French.  Only then did he show up in his full glory and write smoothly on paper.  He showed up in his typical black and white clothing with the frilly shirt, skin tight pants, and great boots.  

I did not choose his clothes; he did.  Though in an effort to keep his clothes up to his standards I would watch the Fashion Channel for the first time and read my first copy of Vogue.  I joke that Jean-Claude taught me to walk in high heels; he helped me understand the magic of gliding in heels.  I don’t envision ever being as elegant as he is, but writing and living with him in my head for a couple of decades has helped up my grace and poise content.  

Though he shakes his head over me sometimes, just like he does Anita. He’s been an interesting influence on both her fictional wardrobe and my real life one.  People will ask if my husband and I are in a band, or if we’re visiting from New York, as we get off the plane here in St. Louis.  I’m not sure exactly what it means that we get asked that so often, but I know that it’s Jean-Claude’s influence, or rather me writing him that’s changed the way I view clothes. 

Sneak Peek from Dead Ice:

“Perhaps modern people do not speak of it so bluntly, but it is the age-old game of chase and capture. There is always someone in a relationship who begins the hunt for someone’s heart, and the pursued must decide whether she wishes to be easily caught, or to be a long and difficult hunt.” He smiled when he said it.

I frowned at him. “Have you ever not gotten to sleep with someone you set your sights on?”

He raised the dark, graceful curve of one eyebrow.  “You led me on the merriest chase of anyone I had ever met, ma petite.”

Press Release: NEW EBOOK "EXTRA CLEVELAND" FOR LATE SPRING 2015 RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CONTACT:

Neale Sourna

PIE: Perception Is Everything

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ns@pie-percept.com

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NEW EBOOK "EXTRA CLEVELAND" FOR LATE SPRING 2015 RELEASE

Cleveland, Ohio, May 19, 2015  -  Film Extras are the unsung heroes. They normally receive no applause or recognition, whether they answer the call to duty by Marvel Studios, The Cleveland Film Commission or a local independent or student filmmaker. They get a thank you, snacks, and sometimes get paid a bit of cash. And bragging rights.

Neale Sourna tells you some of the fun and discomfort of being a film extra; whether in the Midwest or elsewhere. Would you like to spend a day shoot in a local neighborhood in the cold Cleveland OH winter standing for months May and August for a cable TV film straight from the horrific news about found kidnapped women Michelle Knight, Gina DeJesus, and Amanda Berry, with a half a day’s notice? Or decide to go on a local independent shoot through your Facebook Cleveland Extra group at a local landmark theatre for a time travel film? Or do a week’s worth of employment sitting or sunburn and disaster and running for a full day for the first union of Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Black Widow, and her man Hawkeye. Oh, and Nick Fury and Agent Coulson and Maria Hill? And work with a star come to earth?

EXTRA CLEVELAND: A FILM EXTRA’S GUIDE TO BEING PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND [in PDF ebook, other formats coming] is for people who want to be or are working film extras who want to improve their knowledge and comprehension of the craft, its requirements, and possible problems through active author / publisher Neale Sourna’s past experiences and researches. Readers should receive illumination in what to expect and how to be a better Professional Film Extra and how to grow their own career or one shot chance in being a film extra. From Neale Sourna (www.neale-sourna.com) through PIE: Perception Is Everything (www.pie-percept.com).

ABOUT PIE: Perception Is Everything

PIE: Percept publishes fiction and nonfiction for adults, all by award-winning author Neale Sourna. PIE: Percept was founded in 2001 and published Sourna’s first novel’s, HOBBLE, first edition in 2002. At PIE: Perception Is Everything we believe in: "Doing for the mind, what the body shouldn't" and "Thoughtful Entertainment You Can FEEL."

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