Chuck Cunningham Syndrome

That reminds me....
Archie in a late episode of All In The Family had a brother... (Stephanie's father, I recall)
but early in the series there's a mention of Brotherhood Week, and Archie goes "Ah, no, I got no brother!"

 

Regarding Miles O'Brien, I get the impression that Colm Meaney was originally hired just to be an extra....and they had no plans to do anything with him until they realized that he could actually act.

I recall that one of the producers specifically wanted to make him a non-commissioned "Warrant Officer" -- that way it could help to explain that Starfleet isn't just made up of officers, and that there were thousands of workers within the organization who performed everyday jobs.

 

Ernie was Chip's friend from early on. After Mike left there was some sort of tragedy and Ernie got adopted. There was about 5 episodes where Ernie had trouble fitting in to the family unit.

 

Fred Bunker, Archie’s brother, first showed up in season 8 and again in the final season. He also appeared in one of the later episodes of Archie Bunker’s Place, visiting his daughter Billie (Denise Miller, who was a regular in the last couple of seasons).

Stephanie’s father, Floyd Mills, was the stepson of Edith’s aunt.

 

In addition to Warrant Officers, I'd like to see Star Trek introduce some enlisted personnel too. They could use the following division to determine whether a position should be an enlisted position or a Warrant Officer position: Warrant Officer positions would be those that require the person to have specialized technical skills in an area. An example of this would be a Transporter Chief (which O'Brian was for a time), another would be a Medical Nurse. Enlisted position would be those that don't require specialized technical skills.

 

You could see it taking a toll on her as early as an episode of The Fugitive she did just a couple of years later.