Best TV factual errors of all time

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The Fall picture

Strangler - S2-E4

Factual error: When printing the image of the painting, Stella uses the printer driver "Microsoft XPS Document Writer" - which would save the output to a file. However, she still gets a printout from the printer in the office. (00:02:30)

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Suggested correction: Microsoft XPS Document Writer creates a document in XPS format then prints said document. I use it at work. It works in the same way as "print to PDF".

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Imposters picture

Maybe/Definitely - S2-E5

Factual error: In the opening sequence when Maddie is supposedly driving from Michigan through Ohio and back to Pennsylvania, you can very briefly spot the reflection of a "TD Canada Trust" in the car window. This is because the show is actually shot in Vancouver. In the United States the company is simply known as "TD Bank", which doesn't operate any branches in either Michigan or Ohio. (00:01:55)

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Falling Skies picture

Live and Learn - S1-E1

Factual error: When Tom has decided his scout group will have to go for the food and then his look for his son later, they are stood on a green. There is a war memorial dedicated to both World Wars, 1914 - 1918 and 1939 - 1945. That's got to be in Canada, as the USA didn't enter either war until later than those dates. (00:28:00)

Dominic Ceraldi

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Bonanza picture

Enter Mark Twain - S1-E5

Factual error: Samuel Clemens, who has written several humorous tales for the Territorial Enterprise, tells the publisher he would like to start writing serious news stories. The publisher replies, "This is a newspaper, not a comic strip. You write it and I'll print it." The first comic strip, "The Little Bears," debuted in 1893 and the term "comic strip" did not enter the vocabulary until 1920. "Bonanza" is set in the 1860s.

Steven Lee

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The Queen's Gambit picture

Openings - S1-E1

Factual error: The car accident scene takes place in Kentucky but the state troopers are wearing the uniforms of Pennsylvania state troopers evident by the distinctive keystone arm badge.

Turissini

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Scorpion picture

White Out - S2-E13

Factual error: They repeatedly say how equipment will freeze in moments, but they leave their faces exposed and coats open, hoods off at times. In such cold temps, the skin would freeze in minutes.

PappyBlade

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Star Trek: Voyager picture

Blink of an Eye - S6-E12

Factual error: Chakotay says "if our orbit starts to decay, Voyager will begin to feel the effects of the differential, and we'll begin aging hundreds of times faster than we would in normal space". Whilst it is true that they would be aging faster relative to normal space, they would not instantly become old. Time would simply slow around them, so whilst they would be aging faster relative to normal space, they would not all of a sudden become really old - which is how it is made out to be. They would all age the same amount whether in a standard orbit or in a more decayed orbit. (00:06:37)

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Suggested correction: There is nothing incorrect about what he said. They will start ageing hundreds of times faster than in normal space.

Aging implies getting/feeling older. They'd only be "aging" relative to normal space. What would happen would be more akin to time travel, with the universe getting older around them.

But the point is, they wouldn't age faster just because "normal" time slows down. If they spent a year on the planet, they'd age 1 year, not 100 years.

Bishop73

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Selena: The Series picture

Opening Act - S1-E4

Factual error: At the beginning, the screen shows that the year is 1988 in Corpus Christi, TX, then the camera pans into Selena and her sister eating tacos when their friend Jake arrives wearing an Arizona Diamondbacks shirt. The Diamondbacks did not exist in 1988. Phoenix was awarded a Major League Baseball expansion team in 1995 and the Diamondbacks made their debut in 1998, 10 years after this scene takes place. (00:00:30)

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Zoo (2015)

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Suggested correction: The power drops out but later on in the episode they have backup power. The problem is that the bat that gets into the base then takes out the backup power.

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Houdini and Doyle picture

Show generally

Factual error: The show starts in 1901 with a woman constable working for the Metropolitan Police Service (Scotland Yard). However women didn't join the Metropolitan Police until 1919 (which is also when the first woman's police uniform was created). Prior to that, women volunteered in the Women's Police Service, but that wasn't formed until 1914.

Bishop73

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iZombie picture

Dead Beat - S2-E18

Factual error: They used an EpiPen to bring Liv back but they're holding it backwards. The way it's being held, Ravi would have injected himself instead of Liv and she wouldn't be revived.

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The Waltons picture

The Heartbreaker - S5-E21

Factual error: When Elizabeth asks Zeb how Vanessa can be happy, Zeb has his old catalog with a bunch of flower seed packets on his lap, and as they both hold up the packets, particularly Elizabeth, the modern Universal Product Codes are at the back of the packets. The UPC did not exist until many years later. (00:10:05)

Super Grover

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White Collar picture

Point Blank - S2-E9

Factual error: In the scene where Mozzy is using a synthesizer to try and figure out the musical code, he starts playing random chords in frustration. Since the synthesizer is a Minimoog (a monophonic instrument) this is impossible. (00:12:45)

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Brimstone picture

Heat - S1-E2

Factual error: The Los Angeles police car pulls up to John's loft, which has the address number 923 on the wall. The building across the street is numbered 929. In California (in fact, in the vast majority of the US) address numbers are odd on one side of the street and even on the other. 923 and 929 wouldn't be on opposite sides. (00:29:30)

Jean G

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Passions picture

Show generally

Factual error: Dr. Eve Russell seems to be a "jack of all trades" in the medical profession, but it's impossible for her to know everything about every medical condition. When Theresa is going to marry Ethan, she goes and gets birth control pills and takes her first pill the day before the wedding. That night they make love. The next day, the wedding never takes place and Theresa flies off to find Julian. She forgets her second pill and sleeps with Julian. Eve tells her that since she didn't take a pill before sleeping with Julian then the baby is his. Any doctor would know that (and also suggest that) birth control pills are not completely effective until a person has been taking them for at least seven days, and a secondary form of birth control should be used. There's no way that Theresa's just taking 1 pill would protect her from being pregnant by Ethan, and this would still warrant a paternity test.

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