Never revealed - the list....

Dewey

Minimalistic
It has often been said that the magic to a narrative is in not revealing every principle detail. Aspects of popular culture that still have a sense of mystery to them. Things that as an audience we never actually see.

With this in mind, I think it good for members here to compile a list of examples for all aspects of popular culture - movies, TV shows, books etc - which have prominet examples of this method.

I will start off with some obvious examples:

- MITM - Surname and location (never revealed)
- Seinfeld - Bob Sacamano (although referred to on many occasions - he's never seen)
- Simpsons location of Springfield (never revealed)
- Smoking Room - Type of business this smoking room is in (we know its an office environment of a company - but its name nor area of industry is never revealed) Nor do we ever see any of the characters outside of the smoking room.

I'll leave the rest open for you guys....
 

NeCoHo

Retired Mod
The thing is, we don't know for sure... We aren't positive that it is Wilkerson, the only reason we use it is because it gives us closure.
 

allison

New member
Malcolm in the middle: The character´s ages
I´m not sure, but did they reveal the name of Malcolm and Reese´s school?

Simpsons: The "comic book guy" (people always refer to him as comic book guy, his real name was never revealed)

Home improvement: We never saw Al´s mother, people only mentioned that she was obese
I don´t know if I should mention Wilson´s face here: You could never see his mouth.
 

Amigo22

Super Moderator
allison said:
Malcolm in the middle: The character´s ages
I´m not sure, but did they reveal the name of Malcolm and Reese´s school?
I don't recall them revealing that or Dewey's school either.

And while they didn't reveal the character's specific ages, they have given plenty of hints.
 

Emrysgirl

New member
allison said:
Simpsons: The "comic book guy" (people always refer to him as comic book guy, his real name was never revealed)
There's a lot of those in The Simpsons. I can only think of 'old guy' right now, but there are more
 

Amigo22

Super Moderator
Dewey said:
- MITM - Surname and location (never revealed)
It is certainly strange that they have not revealed the town/suburb/street names, nor how long it takes to get to specific destinations, an area in which they have been somewhat inconsistent, eg in one episode Malcolm was supposed to pick Dewey up from school, but in Humilithon we learned Dewey was old enough to walk home unsupervised, plus, in the earlier Season 1 episodes, we learned the school is at the end of their street.

And also Hal's job and company have never been revealed, even though we have seen several episodes involving him being at work.
 

NeCoHo

Retired Mod
allison said:
Malcolm in the middle: I´m not sure, but did they reveal the name of Malcolm and Reese´s school?
Yes, they did. It's called North High School. I forget the name of the ep, but it has Malcolm being forced to join the "North High Boosters" by Mr. Herkabe.
 

Emrysgirl

New member
J. said:
Yes, they did. It's called North High School. I forget the name of the ep, but it has Malcolm being forced to join the "North High Boosters" by Mr. Herkabe.
They also said that in Acedemic Octathalon. Or is that the same as the ep you're refering to?
 

Dewey

Minimalistic
Just thought of a couple of others from the world of movies...

- American Perfekt (1997) - Jake Nyman
Spoiler for The ending:
At the end of this movie, we do not know if Jake is dead or alive. We know that the sherif dies in the deadly collision which occurs on spur of the moment.

The ending therefore does not mark a real sense closure (a bit like life itself). Is the serial Killer (Jake) really dead or is he still on the loose and ready to finish off Alice?


- Fight Club (1999) - The name of Edward Norton's character is never revealed. Despite being the central pivitol role, it never comes up, although he does seldom speak of a Jack in his words when he is seeking self approval. Not integral- because most of his words are in the first person (aimed towards the audience). Even on imdb.com the charcter is only named "Narator"

Fight Club also has one of the best twists I have ever seen in a movie. So good that I am not even going to put it in a spoiler tag. If you have not seen it already - this title is a must see!
 

arach

New member
Dewey said:
- Pulp Fiction (1990) - [size=-1]Marsellus Wallace[/size] (Never seen, but we learn so much abou him by the discussion between Travolta and L Jackson)
Of course, you see him several tiimes. He is played by Ving Rhames. You will remember the scene when Butch (Bruce Willis) and Marcellus are tied up in the cellar of some perverts: Here is a picture.
Btw: The movie is from 1994.
 

Dewey

Minimalistic
Been years since I seen that movie. Thanks for the correction arach. I was thinking of something else - and am clearly losing it :)

Amending original post now....
 

Emrysgirl

New member
Wow! Nice ovservation:) .Anothr one - In 'Invisible Man' the narrator's name and home town/stste are never revealed even though they're refered to quite a few times. For exaple, he'll say "I wrote my name down on the piece of paper"* or "South Carolina? That's nothing. Where I come from, we really go for yams"*...what?!...where?!

* paraphrasing
 

CJman327

New member
Malcolm's name IS INFACT Wilkerson because in the Pilot there was a scene that got cut out from it where Richard runs up to Malcolm as Malcolm is walking with Dewey when they're walking to school and Richard asks Malcolm if Francis went to jail, before that he was supposed to ask what Malcolm's last name was. And then Malcolm would say, "Wilkerson, why?". But Linwood Boomer stated he didn't want the viewers to know their origin because if they were Irish or German or French or something like that, then they wouldn't be able to do other traditions, like if they were Irish, then they couldn't do German things. But Ida and Victor lived in Canada, and the French reside in Canada, and they have an accent which would be considered French. And also he didn't want them to know their last name. Which is the reaosn why we don't know. But FOX, and other websites I've browsed through(as well as this one)have all given out the information that their last name is definitely "Wilkerson".:) :D
--CJMAN327:)
 

Wemboy

New member
In Frasier, Niles' wife, whom he subsequently divorces at the end of season three, is never seen on screen. Her name is Maris (spelling?) and they say on the season three dvd that although they had planned to show her the writers gradually came up with more and more fantastic descriptions for the character, so that she became a kind of inhuman, reptillian, thing. Subsequently no real actor could be cast in her role, and they decided to just keep her secret, a kind of in joke, whose characteristics they could continue to make more and more improbable, without having to worry.

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