Best TV character mistakes of all time

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Avatar: The Last Airbender picture

Jet - S1-E10

Character mistake: When Jet tells Katara and Aang to waterbend the water from underground in the geysers, Katara states that she has never waterbent on water she couldn't see before. However, six episodes prior to this, in 'The Warriors of Kyoshi', she waterbends the water out from Aang's lungs to save his life.

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Suggested correction: That was a moment of desperation on her part, and she probably doesn't think of it/think she can do it again without the same desperate impetus, Furthermore, the water in Aang was only a small amount and very close anyway.

dizzyd

Regardless of if she did it in desperation or not, she did use bending on water she didn't see. The mistake isn't suggesting anything about Katara's ability to waterbend unseen water, the mistake is only in regards to the statement Katara made about never using bending on water she can't see. And for Katara to forget the one time she used bending on water she didn't see would qualify as a character mistake as well. Now if she made the statement "I don't think I can do this" or "I've never used bending on underground water", etc, that would not be a character mistake.

Bishop73

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Law & Order: Special Victims Unit picture

Lead - S10-E15

Character mistake: Elliot Stabler is interrogating a suspect and he says "Well maybe he got pissy because of the 2.2 you blew into the breathalyzer." He said two-point-two but he meant point-two-two because a 2.2 BAC is like 5 times the lethal limit, so a 0 .22 BAC makes more sense. (00:20:10)

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Quantum Leap picture

Catch A Falling Star - May 21, 1979 - S2-E10

Character mistake: In the preview for this episode, Charlie has trouble getting his countdown straight. He shouts that Sam is on in 50 seconds, then 47, then 48. In the episode itself, the mistake is corrected with a rather obvious overdub, changing the final number to 43. (00:02:05)

Jean G

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King of the Hill picture

Stressed for Success - S8-E19

Character mistake: Ben Stein asks a chemistry question about -273° Kelvin. The problem is, the scientific community never uses the word 'degrees' when referring to Kelvin. The correct way to say it would have been, "-273 Kelvin is also known as what?" Also Kelvin cannot be negative since 0 kelvin (approx -273° Celsius) is absolute zero.

Hysteria 1987

More King of the Hill character mistakes
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Twin Peaks picture

Episode Sixteen - S2-E9

Character mistake: At the Roadhouse Cooper states that the second victim (Maddy) was found dead two days ago. It has been less than 24 hours since the body was found: he likely means she was murdered two days ago.

pinkwafer

More Twin Peaks character mistakes
Goosebumps picture

Night of the Living Dummy III (1) - S2-E24

Character mistake: When Zane sees Rocky with the hockey mask, he seems legitimately terrified when he notices him. However, he was responsible for putting him there and no-one else was around. There is no reason for him to express real fear when he planned for his appearance the whole time. (00:11:44 - 00:12:08)

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

Suggested correction: He only pretended to be scared in order to fool his cousins, uncle and aunt.

More Goosebumps character mistakes

ALF (1986)

ALF picture

For Your Eyes Only - S1-E6

Character mistake: During the radio show, the radio host gives the radio station's phone number as 555-4455, Alf then softly repeats the number back before he gets to the phone. He then picks up the headset and dials a number, but the numbers he presses on the phone don't match up to the number given by the radio station. (00:04:10)

Justin Davis

More ALF character mistakes
Thunderbirds picture

Sun Probe - S1-E11

Character mistake: During the television report about the Sun Probe, a diagram shows the solarnauts' control cabin within the Probe Module. But we later see that the control cabin is within the body of the Probe Rocket when the Module is fired into the solar prominence.

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Passions picture

Show generally

Character mistake: At the end of April and the beginning of May in 2004, Luis was decoding the CDs with the Crane secrets on them. For an extended period of time, Luis left the CDs completely unattended at Hank's house. Luis told several different people that the computer was decoding the CDs and didn't need anybody there to do it. Given that Alistair is virtually omniscient in Harmony, it's ridiculous that he didn't break into Hank's apartment and take the CDs.

DavidK93

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Tracy Beaker Returns picture

Firestarter - S3-E2

Character mistake: In the beginning of the episode, the new social worker says "it's been raining all night, what do you expect?" whereas later in the 'flashbacks' he says, "what do you expect, it's been raining all night".

NikkiB

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The X-Files picture

Drive - S6-E2

Character mistake: Scully continually addresses the senior police officer as "Captain." But he wears sergeant's stripes. As a law enforcement officer continually dealing with other law enforcement officers, Scully is not likely to make this mistake. More likely a failure to match script with costume.

Necrothesp

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The West Wing picture

Red Haven's on Fire - S4-E17

Character mistake: Will's tax demonstration to his volunteer staffers is incorrect. He applies the various tax rates to the entirety of each salary range. The person who makes $150K and is in the 36% rate...in his example he has them paying 36% on their entire salary, not just the portion of it that puts them ahead of the next lower tax rate. If the tax rate jumped to 70% at income of $1M, and a person earned $1,050,000, they wouldn't be paying the 70% rate on all $1,050,000 of their income, only the last $50,000 of it. Will's example makes it look like they would be.

marathon69

More The West Wing character mistakes
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Recess picture

One Stayed Clean - S3-E1

Character mistake: When Mikey looks at the Picture Day schedule, he points out that 4th grade is going last. However, the schedule says they are after 3rd grade and before 5th grade, actually making them fifth. The faculty is actually listed last on the schedule.

More Recess character mistakes
Doctor Who picture

Rose - S1-E1

Character mistake: When Rose thinks Mickey is dead, she says she'll have to tell his mother. But in Rise of the Cybermen in Series 2, she says that Mickey's mother has been dead since he was a child. (00:30:17)

TheIrishMovieBuff

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The Sweeney picture

On the Run - S3-E13

Character mistake: When Mrs Haldane is giving her statement to Regan she tells him that Cook was wearing dark glasses when she saw him outside her neighbour's house, but Cook wasn't wearing any glasses.

More The Sweeney character mistakes

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