Okay, I had a save file of vicky in a pose that I had as a start to a render.  I hit render to test it out.  The SSS renders fine, but when the final render comes, all I see is the background, no vicky.  I turn SSS off and still no vicky.  When I saved the file when I first worked on it, I didn't have this problem.

Yes all the visible boxes are checked.

Do you have raytrace lighting or depthmap?  

Raytrace

so...

visible in preview

rendering the correct camera

visibility on for both

nothing in front of the camera (or behind the camera)

what if you add a prop near Vicky , does it render ?

Thanks for the replies, I figured it out.  I needed to turn the default ground prop that loads up with every scene off because of the angle I was using.  Because it is a similar color to the default background, that led me off.