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This trope is very common in music, and in professional wrestling. See also [[The Band Minus the Face]], [[Breakout Character]], [[More Popular Spinoff]] and [[Ensemble Darkhorse]]. Contrast with [[The Pete Best]], which is when the left-in-the-lurch character was never closely affiliated with the soon-to-be-famous group to begin with.
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== Advertising ==
* Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal once featured three chefs on the box without much of an identity. At some point, two of the chefs were removed and the third was given a name (Wendell) and started playing a much bigger role in ads for the cereal.
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** ''[[Watchmen (comics)|Watchmen]]'', arguably - Dr. Manhattan and the Comedian are government employees with a public presence, while the other former Crimebusters are unemployed, eager to reconnect with their old identities, and, in the case of Rorschach, a serial killer.
** There's the [[X-Men]], and then there's [[Wolverine Publicity|Wolverine.]]
*** Arguably this is a bit backwards as Wolverine started off as a solo character in
** [[Spider-Man]] in the last issue of ''Amazing Fantasy''. To the extent he more or less saved the company.
** Really, name a group whose members stick around after breaking up. One of them will probably be a big (or at least B-list) star, many of the others will languish in obscurity.
* Part of [[Sidekick Graduations Stick]]: The sidekick becomes their own hero. At least in theory. [[Batman]]'s original Robin may be an in universe example as more [[Supporting Leader|people trust]] [[Nightwing]] than they do Batman.
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* [[George Carlin]] and Jack Burns started out as a pretty raunchy duo, but Carlin went onto superstardom after their breakup and Burns only went to mere stardom.
* The Japanese comedy duo Honjamaka originally started as a troupe of about 10 or 11 comedians, but they only became famous after everybody left except the current two members (Ishizuka Hidehiko and Megumi Toshiaki). On top of that, they both have strong individual careers.
* Rob Riggle and Rob Huebel
** It happened again to Heubel several years later when he got his biggest break to date as a member of the comedy troupe ''[[Human Giant]]'' featuring himself, Paul Scheer and [[Aziz Ansari]]. The show was critically acclaimed and all three got decent popularity as equals, but the show went on hiatus in 2008. Since then Scheer and Heubel have done well for themselves, but Ansari's popularity exploded after appearing in the film ''[[Funny People]]'', the success of his comedy records and his role on ''[[Parks and Recreation]]''.
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* [[Ben Affleck]] and [[Matt Damon]] were considered this for a while. Used to be that the two of them appeared together in everything - then, each going solo, Matt Damon got the ''[[Ocean's Eleven]]'' and ''[[The Bourne Series|Bourne]]'' series. Affleck landed lead roles in a number of major films, but his career never reached quite the height of Damon's. However, he's recently gone a different route by directing critically the acclaimed movies ''[[Gone Baby Gone]]'' and ''[[The Town]]''.
* This gets spoofed in the movie ''[[Music and Lyrics]]'', with Hugh Grant's character being the [[Garfunkel|Andrew Ridgeley]] of the Wham!-like band.
* An interesting case for the main ladies of ''[[Mean Girls]]''. After the movie, [[Lindsay Lohan]] looked like she was poised for superstardom... but [[It Got Worse|things did not turn out that way]] and she's been struggling for roles ever since. The other ladies however did well for themselves. [[Lacey Chabert]] got into a really nice voice acting gig—that she later dropped, [[Rachel McAdams]] managed to get into ''[[Sherlock Holmes]]'', and [[Amanda Seyfried]] is currently{{when}} the media's darling.
* The 1928 film ''[[Our Dancing Daughters]]'' (and its two successive entries, ''Our Modern Maidens'' and ''Our Blushing Brides'', which formed a loose trilogy) paired Anita Page, an actress with an impressive pedigree and a burgeoning career, with an up-and-coming actress who [[MGM]] had taken a liking to. The end result was that Page got upstaged by her co-star (who used the role as a launching pad to greater fame), MGM canned her three years later (despite starring in the first film with sound to win an Academy Award for Best Picture), and she more or less disappeared from acting altogether until the early 90's, whereas her co-star, [[Joan Crawford]], went on to become a superstar.
* Ted Healy decided to split from his back-up comedy players. Healy faded into obscurity. Not so for [[The Three Stooges]].
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== Live Action TV ==
* Since ''[[The Fresh Prince of Bel
* After ''[[Dawson's Creek]]'' ended in 2003, Katie Holmes went on to star in films. Her friend Joshua Jackson went on to star in ''[[Fringe]]'' and ''The Affair''.
* Even [[The Muppets]] have an example of this: The short-lived ''[[Muppets Tonight]]'' introduced the comedy team of Pepe (a prawn) and Seymour (an elephant). Pepe has since gone on to appear in many later Muppet projects, while Seymour vanished without a trace.
** An [[The Muppet Show|earlier example]] can be fond to, [[Smurfette Breakout|Miss Piggy]], she gained fame quickly, even though she was originally meant to be a minor character next to Rowlf alongside Janice in the Veterinarian's Hospital sketches. While the latter two have made a comeback in recent years, it is still surprising to learn Piggy was never thought of as a major character in the beginning.
* A common theme for [[Nickelodeon]] series with young cast members:
** ''[[Are You Afraid of the Dark?]]'' was rebooted in the late 90's, and brought back most of the Midnight Society members from the original series. However, one of the "new" society members was played by a little-known actress named Elisha Cuthbert, who shot to stardom two years later after being cast in ''[[24]]''. The rest of the group never achieved the same level of stardom as she did (although a couple of the cast members were able to make a
** Of the teen cast members who starred on the 90's series ''[[Hey Dude]]'', only Christine Taylor (who played Melody) and David Lascher (who played Ted McGriff) had anything close to successful careers. Taylor is arguably more well-known because of her marriage to [[Ben Stiller]] and her steady stream of work over the years, while Lascher disappeared during the
** ''[[Space Cases]]''. Of the main cast, only [[Jewel Staite]] (who played Catalina in the first season) went on to become a greater star (via her roles in ''[[Firefly]]'' and ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'') after the show finished. Walter Jones (of ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' fame) was relegated to bit parts and one-off appearances in various series, and the rest of the cast never bothered to do much after the series ended.
** ''[[Kenan and Kel]]''. Since the end of the show, Kenan has gone on to join ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' and has been a few moderately successful films. Kel hasn't done so much.
** From the cast of ''[[Salute Your Shorts]]'' only Blake Sennett (credited as "Blake Soper") and Christine Cavanaugh had any major notoriety after the show ended. Sennett became a musician and was the co-lead vocalist and guitarist for the indie rock band [[Rilo Kiley]]. Cavanaugh became a well known voice actor, performing the voices of lead characters for ''[[Rugrats]]'' and ''[[Dexter's Laboratory]]'', among others.
* ''[[In Living Color]]'' was an incredibly successful FOX series that launched the careers of several African-American celebrities (including the Wayans brothers, Tommy Davidson, Jamie Foxx and David Alan Grier) who went on to decent (if spotty) careers in film and television. Yet, the two most successful cast members who emerged from the series were [[Jim Carrey|a nerdy white guy with a knack for impressions]] and [[Jennifer Lopez|a backup dancer who left after the third season]].
* ''[[Degrassi the Next Generation]]'', for all its controversial storylines and [[Long Runner]] status, is more well-known for being a launchpad for Aubrey Graham (a.k.a. ''[[Drake]]'') than anything else. The only other cast member to make any impact was Shenae Grimes, who landed on [[The CW]]'s reboot of ''[[Beverly Hills, 90210]]'' after her time on ''Degrassi'' ended.
== Music ==
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* [[Justin Timberlake]] and N'Sync. After he split from the group, Timberlake went on a decade-plus long rise that hasn't shown any signs of slowing down, with him parlaying his fame into notable guest spots on various shows, investments in tech startups, movies and platinum-selling CD's. Lance Bass became known for being gay and wanting to participate in a space program. JC Chavez's solo career went nowhere. The rest of the members were relegated to appearances on D-list celebrity dancing competitions.
* Inverted in the case of [[Rage Against the Machine]]; Zack de la Rocha left and had one minor single, while the rest of the band got together with Chris Cornell and formed [[Audioslave]], which proved almost as popular as their previous gig. Played perfectly straight with Chris Cornell and [[Soundgarden]], however.
* [[The Chad Mitchell Trio]] had only one real breakout star, but it was not any of the original members of the group. [[Executive Meddling|Record execs]] felt the
* George Michael and Wham!, to the point that Andrew Ridgeley is to music what Marty Jannetty is to wrestling.
* Wynonna Judd has had nearly as many hits solo as she did during her tenure in The Judds. Wynonna's solo material includes several pop and AC hits, genres that The Judds never touched.
* Curious zig-zag: In the early 1990s, there was a band in Kentucky known as Early Tymz. Its members included brothers John Michael and Eddie Montgomery, as well as Troy Gentry. Although Early Tymz was well known in the state, they were all but unknown outside it. John Michael left and began a solo career, which included several big hits in the middle of the decade. Eddie and Troy founded the duo Montgomery Gentry, which
* 1980s trio Schuyler, Knobloch and Overstreet (S-K-O) lost Paul Overstreet after their first album. He went on to become a semi-successful solo artist (racking up nearly twice as many hits as S-K-O had), and has written several songs for other artists.
* [[Robbie Williams]] did this to [[Take That (band)|Take That]] when he left but after their reunion, the band have eclipsed Robbie again.
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* After [[Kyuss]] broke up, Josh Homme founded [[Queens of the Stone Age]] and had far more commercial success than Kyuss ever did.
* Subverted by both parties in the case of Dave Mustaine. He was kicked out of his old band, founded [[Megadeth]], and Megadeth became one of the most successful bands of the New Wave of American Heavy Metal. His old band? [[Metallica]].
* In a rather tragic example, when the shred metal guitar duo Cacophony broke up their two members went onto two very different career paths. Marty Friedman would go on to join Megadeth for a few years as a guitarist before going solo, moving to Japan and becoming a major figure in the Japanese music world. Jason Becker on the
* After the Amboy Dukes broke up, their guitarist [[Ted Nugent]] started a much more successful solo career.
* After progressive rock band Hawkwind kicked out Lemmy Kilmister, their bass player, he started up his own band which is far better known. That band? [[Motorhead]].
* Possibly inverted with [[Kylie Minogue]] and [[Nick Cave]]'s
* A band called Y Kant Tori Read emerged in 1988, then broke up after being unsuccessful. The lead singer, [[Tori Amos]], now enjoys her success as an alternative singer-songwriter.
* [[Destiny's Child]] propelled Beyonce to global stardom. Her bandmates have since carved out much lower-key but still fairly respectable solo careers but will never come as close to Beyonce.
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* After White Zombie broke up, [[Rob Zombie]] replaced all the band members except the drummer and renamed the band after himself. None of the other members of the band ever did anything else of note. He then did it ''again'' when the Rob Zombie (band) guitarist and drummer, Riggs and Tempesta, split to form Scum of the Earth, which did not reach nearly the commercial success that Rob Zombie, either the man or the band, did.
** Averted with the Rob Zombie band bassist Blasko, who after leaving Zombie's band became the bassist for [[Ozzy Osbourne]].
* Tina and Ike Turner. At the time of the latter's death he was performing at small casinos, while Tina was, well, [[Tina Turner]]. Of course, Ike brought a lot of that on himself, having gone from a rock legend responsible for one of the earliest rock & roll songs ever recorded ("Rocket 88") to becoming synonymous with spousal abuse.
* After [[Eurythmics]] broke up, Annie Lennox started a very successful solo career, while Dave Stewart was limited to producing.
* Happened a lot with former members of [[King Crimson]]. Ian McDonald (Foreigner), Boz Burrell (Bad Company), John Wetton (Asia), and Greg Lake (Emerson, Lake, & Palmer) are probably the most famous.
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* The Second City Saints: [[CM Punk]] is a six time World Champion and one of the top faces of WWE, Colt Cabana (aka Scotty Goldman) got released from [[WWE]] after a brief run as a [[Jobber]]. Oh, and did you know there's a third Second City Saint named Ace Steel?
* The Fabulous Freebirds were actually notorious for their refusal to break up - if a promoter tried to split the team up all of them would leave the promotion. However, Michael Hayes and Terry Gordy both had notable careers outside the Freebirds. Buddy Roberts did next to nothing outside the tag team. And when the team finally did break up for good, it was with Hayes and Gordy turning [[Face]] on Roberts. Hayes and Gordy went on to mixed success elsewhere, and Roberts retired.
* MNM: Johnny Nitro became [[John Morrison]], won the ECW Title, joined another
** Strangely, subverted with Morrison's tag team with [[The Miz]] -- ''everyone'' figured Miz would be lost in the midcard on Raw after the tandem broke up while Morrison moved on to bigger and better things on ''SmackDown'', but as of this writing both have firmly established themselves as on par with the top guys of their brands. They even lampshaded it when, before Bragging Rights and a scheduled Morrison vs. Miz match, the two cut dueling promos trying to declare the other one the Janetty of their team.
*** And now, with [[John Morrison]] being moved to Raw, he and [[The Miz]] have had their successes, and as of July 18, [[The Miz]] has risen to stardom by winning the Raw Money in the Bank Ladder match at the MITB PPV, not only beating six other superstars, three being former World Champions, but also [[John Morrison]] himself...did I forget to mention that Morrison has now lost five matches to [[The Miz]] in the last year?{{when}}
**** It seemed that everything had come full circle with [[The Miz]] winning the WWE title after cashing in the Money in the Bank contract against [[Randy Orton]] the RAW after Survivor Series. However, the trope is temporarily back in subverted status after Morrison started a feud with [[Sheamus]] and beat him ''twice'', the second time in a #1 Contender's Ladder's Match at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs 2010, which earned Morrison a WWE title opportunity in the first match of 2011. Morrison would prove a great challenge for [[The Miz]], only losing because he missed [[Finishing Move|Starship Pain]] through a table. Even though Miz has crashed through the glass ceiling, it would seem that Morrison isn't too far behind.
***** Sadly the competition is officially over by the end of 2011. And in an ironic sense, [[The Miz]], after main eventing Survivor Series with [[Dwayne Johnson|The Rock]], beat [[John Morrison]] to start a new pursuit of the WWE Championship while the defeated [[John Morrison]], after long months of constant jobbing, was released from the company.
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