Best TV character mistakes of all time

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Falling Skies picture

Live and Learn - S1-E1

Character mistake: Tom Mason makes references to smaller armies defeating larger ones, of which history is rife with examples. He cites the Scottish defeating 'the British' at the Battle of Stirling Bridge. 'The British' did not exist at that time. The Scots administered a beating against the English in the Scottish War of Independence, against the Earl of Surrey, under Edward I. Someone with his level of knowledge would know that.

Stephen_A

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Tru Calling picture

Brother's Keeper - S1-E3

Character mistake: At the end of the episode, after Sarah has been tricked into revealing her plan and is rather obviously going to go to jail, Tru tells her that she "should have taken half," meaning that she should have settled for half of Andrew's money in a divorce instead of trying to get all of it by having him murdered. But Tru seems to be forgetting that Sarah has been trying to divorce Andrew all along, and it's Andrew who has stood in the way of that. Sarah would evidently have been perfectly happy with half, but Andrew prevented it from even being on the table for her, so Tru's comment doesn't make any sense.

DavidK93

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That '70s Show picture

Halloween - S2-E5

Character mistake: At the burnt out school when they fight between themselves, Jackie says "Donna kissed Hyde last year" referring to the episode 'Ski Trip' in season 1 which was in the same year according to the licence plate - '77.

The Synj

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CSI: Miami picture

Bunk - S1-E13

Character mistake: Horatio writes the symbols for sulfuric acid, H2SO4, on a clear board. Both numbers should be subscripts but he writes the 4 as a coefficient (which precedes the name of the acid but he writes it after), suggesting a lack of basic chemistry knowledge.

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Stargate SG-1 picture

Touchstone - S2-E14

Character mistake: The team are finding out who could have stolen the weather device from Madrona and find an energy spike at the same time SG2 are on a mission. "But SG2's mission is galaxies away from Madrona" Says Teal'c. At this time the only missions the teams could go on was in our own galaxy and couldn't be galaxies away.

Cybermoose

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The Brady Bunch picture

Amateur Nite - S4-E16

Character mistake: When the Brady kids are practicing for the talent show, instead of saying, "Come on, Pete," Marcia says, "Come on Chris," which is the actor playing Peter's real name (Christopher Knight). (00:14:30)

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Desperate Housewives picture

Suspicion Song - S8-E8

Character mistake: When Bree calls the police when she hears a noise downstairs, she says she lives at 4355 Wisteria Lane when her address is in fact 4354 Wisteria Lane. 4355 is the Scavo residence, not the Van De Kamp residence.

THGhost

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Only Fools and Horses picture

Time on Our Hands - S8-E3

Character mistake: During the scene of the dinner, James (Raquel's father) states that he was in the Royal Navy and was "First Officer" (1/O). The Navy does not have this rank since it is a Merchant Navy rank. The rough equivalent of this is Lieutenant in the RN and Albert would've known this but didn't mention anything. It is also extremely unlikely that an officer the RN would still be Lieutenant after doing his full quota of 12 years service.

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Ashes to Ashes picture

Show generally

Character mistake: Series 1, Episode 3: When Alex tells Ray she will re-trace his steps for clues linking to the murder of a girl, he says, "Don't worry, lads! Wonder Woman's here!" Alex replies, "FYI DI Carling." Ray is a DS, not a DI.

JayAnnie

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Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Butters is always shown as being a bit dim and slow. As a kid it's easy for him to make a mistake in thinking that there was only 132 episodes.

Ssiscool

That's why it's called a "character mistake"; also, Butters is certainly naive, but he's hardly what I would call "dim and slow."

zendaddy621

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Angel picture

Five By Five - S1-E18

Character mistake: When Faith arrives in LA she is carrying a bag. She puts it on the ground and then steals a man's jacket and wallet. Afterwards however, she leaves without picking up her bag.

THGhost

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Hogan's Heroes picture

Show generally

Character mistake: In several scenes all over the show (though not always!), characters use the command "Raus!" to send somebody away from somewhere. Raus, short for "heraus" literally means "out" in the sense of "out of a building", which would be "aus einem Gebäude heraus" in German. Used as a command, it always means "get out", never "get away from there" or "get lost", in other words, the addressee must be inside of somewhere to be ordered "Raus." One example would be Schultz sending the prisoners away from general Burkhalter's car in S05E13.

Doc

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: It doesn't take much research to debunk this claim. Also, John Banner, the actor that most often used the term in the show, was German-born and raised. I'm sure he would have spoken up if it were wrong.

Sorry, what is the "not much" it takes to debunk that claim? By the way John Banner was not born and raised in Germany but in what was then Hungary-Austria. I, on the other hand, AM German born and raised, so if you think you know more about my native tongue than me, by all means, educate me. As for why it wasn't corrected, my guess is this: Words like raus, schnell, was ist los, bitte or danke are rather well known even in the US, so the audience would be able to follow the dialog.

Doc

Sorry, John Banner was born in Poland. He was not German.

Kevin l Habershaw

He was born in 1910 in the city once known as Stanislau, prior to being annexed by Poland in 1919. At the time of his birth, it was part of Austria-Hungary, and one of the official languages was German.

Bishop73

You're correct. I didn't read the IMDb page enough.

Kevin l Habershaw

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Community picture

Custody Law and Eastern European Diplomacy - S2-E18

Character mistake: Annie when giving her gifts is holding two little mini flags to cover the possible ethnicity of Shirley's baby. One is a Chinese flag and the other is Zimbabwe. Annie makes reference to the fact that the ethnic food she made is one from Ghana. She makes Ghana ethnic food but does not get the right flag for Ghana. She decorates the table with numerous flags which are also Zimbabwe.

Lummie

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