Best crime TV factual errors of all time

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Get Smart picture

Closely Watched Planes - S4-E3

Factual error: If there really was a hatch leading into mid-air in the airplane bathroom, instead of being soundless like shown, it would be incredibly loud and Max would have noticed. Also, the sudden pressure change would have sucked him out no matter what he did to stop it.

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Quantico picture

Kudove - S2-E1

Factual error: The shoulder patch on the U.S. customs and Border Protection officer's uniform is wrong. The real patch doesn't state Dept of Customs and Border Protection and United States Homeland Security in a smaller circle on the patch. The real patch just states U.S. Customs and Border Protection - U.S. Customs and Border Protection is not a department. Also, the officer doesn't have a name tag on over the right pocket. (00:04:00)

Snag.1

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The Return of Sherlock Holmes picture

The Second Stain - S1-E3

Factual error: Holmes and Watson walks through a colonnade. Clearly visible in the background right over Watson's head is part of a 20th century circular red and white road sign. (00:34:18)

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Vincent picture

Episode One - S2-E1

Factual error: During this episode, Vincent is remanded to prison for suspected murder. At one scene he is seen working on the wing. Remand prisoners are not expected or allowed to carry out work duties in British Prisons.

Jeff Walker

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The Good Wife picture

Landing - S7-E19

Factual error: The U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers are wearing ties with tie clips. Real officers wear a badge tie tack. (00:01:35)

Snag.1

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City on a Hill picture

The Deaf Sage of Pompeii - S1-E9

Factual error: This show takes place in 1992. The officer sitting down has a Glock generation 3 handgun with the finger grooves on the frame in her holster. This is the third generation of Glock, which wasn't available until 1998. (00:51:50)

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Kojak picture

Siege of Terror - S1-E1

Factual error: The armed robbery is reported by the radio call as happening in "4014 Nostrand Avenue", which is a real street in Brooklyn. However, the first detectives to respond to the dispatch identify themselves as being from "Manhattan South" (makes sense, Kojak being a Lieutenant of the fictional 11th Manhattan South precinct), and the rest of the episode is set obviously in Manhattan. That's many miles away.

Sammo

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Magnum, P.I. picture

Flashback - S3-E6

Factual error: Magnum is checking out newspapers from year 1936...but they are copies of The Hawaii Herald, and that is impossible, since it started publications (with that name) only in 1942 as an Americanised version of the original Hawaii Hochi. (00:39:55)

Sammo

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Trigger Point picture

Show generally

Factual error: Detective Superintendent Hamilton has red fabric within the crowns on her rank insignia. This would be correct for most British police forces, but the Metropolitan Police uses blue fabric instead.

Necrothesp

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Ratched picture

Show generally

Factual error: The show, which is set in California in 1947, mentions the gas chamber, lethal injection and the electric chair as methods of execution in the state. Two murderers are sentenced to death by lethal injection and one is depicted being instead executed in the electric chair, which the governor states has been brought out of retirement for the occasion. In fact, California adopted the gas chamber as its sole method of execution in 1937 (having previously used hanging). Lethal injection was not used in the United States at all until 1982 and not adopted in California until 1993 (becoming the prime method in 1996). California has never used the electric chair.

Necrothesp

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The F.B.I. picture

Flight - S5-E7

Factual error: At the start of this episode you see the terminal at Washington Reagan National Airport, but when Mr. Haslett picks up his ticket you hear an announcement stating it is the Seattle, Washington Airport. (00:00:20)

Regulus

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The Adventures of Tintin picture

The Seven Crystal Balls: Part 2 - S3-E4

Factual error: When Tintin begins climbing the tree to see if the intruder is hiding, he jumps up and grabs one of the tree branches. The branch is practically unaffected by the Tintin's added weight. There is no sound heard when the branch is grabbed hold of, nor are there any vibrations made to the branch when Tintin grabs it. (00:28:55)

Casual Person

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A Confession picture

Show generally

Factual error: Almost none of the senior police officers wear the correct medal ribbons. Brian Moore and Pat Geenty wear the Order of the British Empire, which neither had. Geenty wears the General Service Medal, for military service in Northern Ireland, although he was never in the armed forces. Moore does not wear the Queen's Police Medal, which he was awarded in 2009. Both wear the Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2011, although it was not awarded until 2012. Andy Parker wears an unidentified ribbon (possibly intended to be the Queen's Police Medal, which he was awarded in 2010, but looking nothing like it) and the Golden Jubilee Medal, but does not wear the Diamond Jubilee Medal or the Police Long Service and Good Conduct Medal to which he was also entitled. Mike Veale and Ray Hayward wear no medal ribbons at all, although both would be entitled to the Golden Jubilee Medal and Police Long Service and Good Conduct Medal (and Veale also to the Diamond Jubilee Medal after 2012).

Necrothesp

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Tokyo Vice picture

Show generally

Factual error: Jake and Miyamoto go to an establishment where there are girls dancing on stage. The girls are first dancing to "Motivation" by Kelly Rowland, released in 2011, and "Aly Walk With Me" by The Raveonettes, released in 2007. But, this scene takes place in 1999.

jshy7979

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Homicide Hunter: Lt. Joe Kenda picture

Run for Your Life - S3-E4

Factual error: When the tracking dog finds a gun in some bushes, Kenda, who is narrating, says that the gun was a Ruger Mark I, which is a semiautomatic target pistol; but the gun shown in the reenactment is a snub-nose .38 Special revolver.

mdwalker

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Murder on the Orient Express picture

Episode #1.1 - S1-E1

Factual error: The series is set in 1933, as the initial captions show. Yet the locomotive pulling the Orient Express is a JNR Class C58: the C58 series was built starting from 1938 (C58 239 used here is from 1940).

Sammo

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