The Walking Dead has some great characters. Rick, Carol and Daryl are probably the major trio, yet they only featured in 6, 5 and 4 episodes respectively out of 8. That's simply not enough. I don't need to see them on screen at all times, but I'd expect them to feature more than just once in a while. Rick in particular needs to be in every episode. This is his story. He's the constant throughout everything that happens, and while Morgan's flashback episode worked well, those are the only episodes that should run without Rick at least being shown.