THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW/CBS/1961-66 (Alan Brady) - The classic sitcom THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW/CBS/1961-66 featured a loudmouthed, pushy superstar known as Alan Brady who hosted his own comedy variety series. However, for the first two seasons of the program the TV viewing audience only saw the back of his head. The most common shots of this balding tyrant (who wore a toupee on his show) were from behind his large office desk or barber chair when he was talking to his bumbling brother-in-law producer, Melvin Cooley (Richard Deacon) or his three top comedy writers Rob Petrie (Dick Van Dyke), Sally Rogers (Rose Marie) and Buddy Sorrell (Morey Amsterdam). Two years after the series debuted, Alan Brady was finally revealed on the episode entitled "The Alan Brady Show." It was none other than the series creator himself, Carl Reiner. Another faceless favorite on the show was the never seen but often spoken to Marge, Alan Brady's secretary.  

FRIENDS/NBC/1994-2004 (The Ugly Naked Guy) - Unseen (by the viewing audience) nudist neighbor of roommates Monica Geller (Courtney Cox) and Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston) introduced on the episode "The One with the Sonogram at the End" (9/29/1994) on the twenty something sitcom FRIENDS/NBC/1994+. The Ugly Naked Guy lived in a nearby apartment and could be spotted on occasion by Monica, Rachel, and friends. When across-the-hall friend Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry) said "Ugly Naked Guy's got a Thighmaster" the others cried "Eeaach!" Other observations from their window revealed "Ugly Naked Guy's laying kitchen tile"; Ugly Naked Guy's lit a bunch of candles"; and Ugly Naked Guy's got gravity boots." Once during Thanksgiving dinner friend Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) looked out the window and said "Ugly Naked Guy's taking his turkey out of the oven. He's not alone. Ugly Naked Guy's having Thanksgiving dinner with Ugly Naked gal!" When Rachel Green's mother (Marlo Thomas) visited the apartment, she glanced out the window and cried "There's an unattractive man in the nude playing the cello." Rachel replied "Just be glad he's not playing a smaller instrument." Ross Gellar later moved into the Ugly naked guy's apartment when he relocated.   

GUNSMOKE/CBS/1955-75 (Gunfighter) - During the first eight seasons of GUNSMOKE, the longest running western series on television, Dodge City Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness) would face down an unidentified gunfighter during the opening scenes of each episode. Over the years, three different people played the part of this main street marauder. They was: Arvo Ojala, for the first eight years; followed by Fred McDougall and Ted Jordon when the original film footage wore out. Fred McDougall also played the role of a bartender in the Long Branch Saloon.  

HOME  IMPROVEMENT/ABC/1991-99  (Wilson, the next-door neighbor) - The Detroit based sitcom HOME IMPROVEMENT featured Tim Allen as Tim Taylor, the star of a local how-to-program called "Tool Time." Tim often talked to his philosophical next-door neighbor called Wilson (Earl Hindman) whose face was never quite fully seen through the tall picket fence that separated their homes. This backyard mystic passed along advice like "I'm afraid that reality as we know it, is someone else's dream." Another often referred to but never seen character was mother of Al Borland (Richard Karn). Tim Taylor often made fun of Al's mother on his fix-it show especially jokes about her overweight condition. When Al canceled his wedding, the TV screen shook when his mother fainted in another room. TRIVIA NOTE: The reason Wilson's face is unseen is based upon Tim Allen's recollection of not being able to see his own neighbor when he was a boy as he was too short to see over the fence. It also added an air of mystery to his neighbor. The counseling aspect of Tim Taylor talking to his neighbor, Wilson is a direct throwback to the sitcom THE LIFE OF RILEY/NBC/1949-58 when William Bendix as Chester A. Riley took his problems to the neighborhood mortuary worker, Digby "Digger" O'Dell (played by John Brown).  

MARTIN/FOX/1992-97  (Big Shirley) - Martin Payne's buddy Cole Brown (Carl Anthony Payne II) dated a woman referred to as "Big Shirley." She is Cole's sweetheart and although built like a refrigerator, the camera never shows the viewing audience anything above her bust-line.

THE MILLIONAIRE/CBS/1955-60 (John Beresford Tipton) - Probably the most famous television character never to be seen on the tube was that of millionaire John Beresford Tipton whose hobby was to give away one million dollars (tax-free) to total strangers. His love of chess inspired him to give away fortunes and then observe the results of his intervention. With the assistance of his personal male secretary, Michael Anthony (Marvin Miller), he dispensed his money with but one stipulation...that no attempt be made to find out who their benefactor was or the remaining money would be forfeited. During the life of the series, the "Millionaire" gave away more than seventy million dollars .The most anyone ever saw of this eccentric character was the back of his head or a waving arm or two. His deep, rich voice which weekly said, "our next millionaire" was supplied by Paul Frees.   

THE PATTY DUKE SHOW/ABC/1963-66 (Stand-in double) - Brooklyn Heights, New York was the setting for this teenage comedy about two identical female cousins, Cathy and Patty Lane whose personalities were as different as night and day. Patty Duke successfully played both parts first dressing as her soft spoken Scottish cousin, Cathy Lane (who adored the minuet, the Ballet Russe, and crêpes suzettes) and then switching into the character Patty Lane, a rock and roll crazed American counterpart who supposedly lost control at the site of a hot dog. Split screen camera techniques (later used on the series BEWITCHED and I DREAM OF JEANNIE to simulate twin sisters) were used to sandwich both Patty and Cathy together on the same screen. However, when the scene called for a back shot (shooting over the shoulder of one actress while the other faced the camera) actress Rita McLaughlin was used as a stand-in double completing the illusion of one talking to the other. Though we never really saw your face, Rita, here's to you for a job well done.  

POLICE SQUAD/ABC/1982/CBS/1991   (Tall Police Detective) - Extremely tall police character  who was so tall when that he'd walk into the frame with the other actors, it only showed him from the chest down. Once Detective Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) told the tall policeman, that he had something on his mouth and when he wiped it, a whole chicken fell down.                            

RICHARD DIAMOND, PRIVATE DETECTIVE/CBS/NBC/1957-60 (Sam, the operator) - Private detective Richard Diamond (David Janssen), an ex-cop turned private eye, used the Hi Fi Answering Service to field his phone messages (he had a phone in his car) for his private investigation business. Delivering his messages was the sultry, sexy-voiced telephone operator known only as "Sam" who sat next to her switchboard in the service's dimly lit office and answered Mr. D's calls on the fourth ring. Diamond once remarked "Oh that voice! And the only thing I know about her is what she tells me-and that ain't much!" The TV audience generally saw Sam from the waist down. What you could see of Sam was tantalizing (slit skirts, tight blouses and sweaters, a curvaceous 38B torpedo bra silhouette and those Ohhh! so luscious legs). Sexiness aside, Sam proved very helpful on occasion, warning Diamond just in the nick of time of impending dangers. A very young Mary Tyler Moore (1959) was cast as the first "Sam" (she was paid $80 per episode) and later replaced by the equally sexy legs and voice of Roxane Brooks (1959-60). TV Guide magazine featured Moore's legs in a photo shoot called "Sam Models the Latest in Hosiery." Her legs had previously appeared on a TV commercial spot featuring a dancing pack of Old Gold cigarettes.  

SEINFELD/NBC/1990-98 (George Steinbrenner) - The actual owner of the New York Yankees, George Steinbrenner was lampooned on the sitcom SEINFELD as a never seen but always befuddled baseball executive (the camera filmed him from behind as he sat in a chair). He often interacted with George Costanza (Jason Alexander), a loser of an executive with extremely poor work ethic. Larry David provided the voice for the Steinbrenner role which was introduced on episode No. 82 "The Opposite" (5/19/94). Actors Larry David or Lee Bear provided the 'back' of his head.  

THE TRIALS OF ROSIE O'NEILL/CBS/1990-92 (Rosie's Psychiatrist) - At the beginning of each episode of this legal drama, the camera focused on the face of Rosie O'Neill (Sharon Gless), a Beverly Hills lawyer turned public defender who sat in the high-back leather chair of her psychiatrist's office. Usually dressed in yellow, she carried on an almost one-way conversation with Dr. Gordon Kenderson, her unseen psychiatrist (except  for the top of his balding head). Rosie brought all of her personal concerns to his office. Her topics of discussion included: her job stress, her relationship with her mother and sister, her dating and single situation, her regrets at never having a child, her divorce, her smoking habit, etc. (Ad nausem). On the first episode Rosie was heard saying "I'm thinking maybe of having my tits done. I may not want them any bigger; they're a nice size already. I just thought maybe I'd have them fluffed up a bit..." Rosie's unseen doctor was actually the show's producer, Barney Rosenzweig.