Random Popular TV Characters Who Weren't Even Supposed To Exist (14 items)

(#5) Milhouse Van Houten
- The Simpsons, The Simpsons Movie, Do the Bartman, The Simpsons
Milhouse's The Simpsons origin story is doubly lucky, because the character was recycled not once, but twice before he found a home in Springfield. A Facebook post from Simpsons animator David Silverman revealed that Milhouse was originally created for a cartoon show that Matt Groening was going to sell to NBC, but the network never picked it up. Then, when Groening needed to add a character to a 1988 Simpsons-themed Butterfinger commercial, he pulled out the Milhouse drawing and slapped him in.

In 1989, The Simpsons became a full-time TV series on Fox, and Milhouse was included in the series premiere, "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire." He's still on the show now, 600+ episodes and counting. Indeed, it appears everything was coming up Milhouse.
(#11) Jack Shephard
- Lost: Missing Pieces, Lost, Lost
Much like his co-star Michael Emerson, who played Ben Linus, Matthew Fox's Lost character Jack was expanded. TV critic Alan Sepinwall's book The Revolution Was Televised reveals that Jack was supposed to be killed off in the first episode. In the pilot, he would have become the leader of the group and then die suddenly as a way to show viewers that no one was safe on the show.

Luckily, an ABC exec thought that viewers would end up not trusting the show overall if the writers bumped off the charismatic lead right away. They left that mega-twist to Game of Thrones.
(#3) Fin Tutuola
- Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Odafin "Fin" Tutola is a vital member of the Special Victims Unit, but the oft-confused detective wasn't always supposed to become such an important member of the team.

Ice-T, who plays Fin on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, said that he was brought in as a replacement star for four episodes in Season 2 but ended up staying on for another 20 whole years. And he's not planning on quitting anytime soon. In the same interview, he said he doesn't plan on leaving the series until co-star Mariska Hargitay departs, which is likely never.
(#9) Josiah Bartlet
- The West Wing, The West Wing Universe
President Bartlett from The West Wing is one of the most fondly remembered TV presidents of all time. But when The West Wing started, the creators never expected to rely on Martin Sheen - him being a big movie star and all - as the main character of a network TV series.

Sheen's character was originally meant to appear in just four episodes, and as more of a special guest star you'd occasionally see, not the show's protagonist. But Sheen's performance won network execs and viewers over, Sheen was receptive to taking on the lead role, and the series was a massive critical success for most of a decade.
(#10) Benjamin Linus
- Lost, Lost: Missing Pieces
Way back in 2010, TV Guide Network ranked Ben Linus, played by Lost star Michael Emerson, as one of the "25 Greatest TV Characters of All Time." Rolling Stone dubbed him the #1 villain on their 2016 "40 Greatest TV Villains of All Time" list. And to think: the one-time leader of "The Others" on the ABC thriller almost never existed at all.

According to an interview Emerson did with Vanity Fair back in 2010, he never auditioned for the role. "It came out of the blue," he told the outlet, adding that initially, the part was so tiny that there wasn't even a contract negotiation or anything. Still, he did his darndest to be noticed, "I always try to knock it out of the park, if I can. And I suppose you hear stories of actors who made themselves indispensable. But it was so disorienting, to arrive here [in Hawaii] one evening, all jet-lagged, and the next morning they have me strung up in a tree on the north shore. I was just trying to hang in there and remember my lines. I didn’t have an agenda."

The creators got the idea to slowly reveal Ben's secret to the viewers, that this random captive would turn out to be the leader of another entire group of island dwellers - a fact that even Emerson himself didn't realize while he was playing the part for those first few episodes.
(#13) Arizona Robbins
- Grey's Anatomy, Grey's Anatomy
Alright, so it's not like Arizona Robbins was "never supposed to exist," but she was in no way meant to become the beloved (and bemoaned) Grey's Anatomy doc that she evolved into.

Jessica Capshaw said in a Build Series interview that Arizona was supposed to heelie into Seattle Grace, as it was once called, for just three episodes in Season 3. But she was such a hit that they expanded the role, forever changing the course of Grey's history. Think about it: her leg was amputated after the tragic plane crash that changed the name of the hospital to what it is now, Grey-Sloan Memorial, and was part of one of the most talked-about Grey's couples of all time. Three episodes of Arizona were never going to be enough, clearly; she logged more than 200.