Best drama TV factual errors of all time

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7th Heaven picture

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Factual error: In the episode entitled 'Paper or Plastic' where Lucy gives birth, she gives birth in the elevator and when the doors open she is standing there holding her daughter. I can excuse the standing minutes after giving birth, but she is still fully clothed. The paramedics would have removed her skirt and underclothes so as not to ruin them (giving birth is messy) and they would not have redressed her. She is then shown laying on the gurney fully clothed, no blanket covering her.

Boobra

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Dark Shadows picture

Episode One (Pilot) - S1-E1

Factual error: Willie opens the secret room in the Collins family mausoleum, and a flock of bats flies out. It's a hidden chamber that's been sealed (without even small openings - it's imprisoning a vampire) for 200 years. There'd be no way for the bats to get in. (00:15:00)

Jean G

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Life on Mars picture

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Factual error: In the penultimate episode of series 2, the date is given as July 1973, but in an earlier episode when the police were raiding the drug dealer's house, Cozy Powell's record "Dance with the Devil" can be heard. This was a Christmas time hit in 1973.

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Diagnosis Murder picture

Murder at BBQ Bob's - S7-E20

Factual error: Early in the show, 3 Marine officers are being questioned about the death of a 4th. All 3 are wearing the Marine insignia on their jacket lapels reversed. [The anchors should point IN, not out] That mistake is corrected for some characters later in the episode, however at least two of the officers are seen later without their jackets, and their shirts do not have military creases - 2 in the front, 3 in the back - standard for a Marine blouse.

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Threshold picture

Shock - S1-E5

Factual error: Molly and Ramsey find out that the van they are looking for was ticketed in Baltimore City at "the corner of Pennington and Fifth," and they are looking at a computerized map of the area. However, the map can be easily matched up to the actual Mapquest map of the area around the corner of Fifth St. and Patapsco Ave., except that the latter has been relabeled as Pennington. There is a Pennington Ave. in Baltimore City, but it runs parallel to Fifth, about a mile east of it.

DavidK93

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The Outer Limits picture

It Crawled Out of the Woodwork - S1-E11

Factual error: When the energy monster kills his entire research staff by stopping their hearts, Dr. Block brings them all back to life (with their minds and personalities intact) by installing pacemakers. But when the heart stops functioning, brain death occurs within minutes. For this to work, he'd not only have to operate on several people simultaneously, he'd also have to be the fastest heart surgeon on Earth. (00:40:00)

Jean G

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The Six Million Dollar Man picture

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Factual error: There is no physical way that Steve Austin could perform most of his superhuman feats of strength in the ABC television series, due to the fact that they simply replaced his arm and legs, but didn't rebuild or reinforce the rest of his skeleton and muscles to handle the physical loads. Interestingly, author Martin Caidin (creator of Steve Austin in his novel, "Cyborg") actually did describe an incredibly complex whole-body rebuild that included vertebral reinforcement and ribcage and pelvis replacement, which was far more scientifically-accurate than the subsequent ABC television interpretation. ABC only accepted the series on the condition that it was less technical for their audience.

Charles Miller

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Yellowstone picture Yellowstone mistake picture

Meaner Than Evil - S3-E9

Factual error: Jamie is looking at his birth father's Montana State Prison inmate identification sheet. On the sheet, it lists his Social Security Number (SSN) as 4142-77-89332. However, in the United States, an SSN is a nine-digit number. (00:25:07)

Snag.1

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Skins picture

Katie And Emily - S3-E9

Factual error: When Emily holds up her phone to see Naomi is calling her, the date on the screen is Friday 10th of July- this takes place several days before the Love Ball. However on the posters for the Love Ball the date for it is Tuesday 30th of June.

Zoee

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The Flash picture

Attack on Central City - S3-E14

Factual error: Wells states that there are "precisely 90,000" possible 5-digit combinations for the keypad (to abort the nuclear code). However, there are actually 100,000 possible combinations (10^5).

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The Handmaid's Tale picture

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Factual error: In several different episodes characters are escaping on foot to Canada, as evidenced by Ontario license plates. But the show is set in New England, and the only way to get to Ontario through the Eastern United States is by crossing a major body of water: The St. Lawrence River, Lake Ontario, The Niagara River, or Lake Erie. You can't walk there.

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Jericho picture

Federal Response - S1-E5

Factual error: When the girls input the thing they call an IP address, it is not an IP address. The numbers are out of range (0-255). This isn't like a "movie" phone number - the address they use is fundamentally impossible. (00:06:05)

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12 O'Clock High picture

The Clash - S1-E20

Factual error: The sea plane that lands to rescue Savage at the end is a type not built until after the war. And it's marked "U.S. Air Force," an entity that also didn't exist until after the war. During WWII, what later became the Air Force was known as the U.S. Army Air Corps.

Jean G

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Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman picture

Brother's Keeper - S4-E4

Factual error: None of the Swedish wedding traditions Ingrid mention actually existed in the 19th century and the bread she's baked is not traditionally Swedish. When she later speaks in her mother tongue it's definitely not Swedish.

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The O.C. picture

The Distance - S2-E1

Factual error: Julie picks up Marissa's iPod and presses the menu button, and Marissa acts as though the song has stopped, when pressing the menu button wouldn't do anything to the song - all that would do is have the playlist come up on the screen.

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Without A Trace picture

Upstairs Downstairs - S3-E4

Factual error: After the two women found out the guy was dead, there is a truck with the writing "K-9 Unit" on the front, but it is not backwards as it should be.

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Spartacus: Blood and Sand picture

The Red Serpent - S1-E1

Factual error: One of the naked female dancers at the party has breast implants. Although some forms of plastic surgery were known to the Romans, breast augmentation was not one of them. If you want to check for yourself she appears just after the masked dwarf moves through the shot.

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