Best family TV factual errors of all time

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Saved by the Bell picture

Save the Max - S2-E3

Factual error: When Zack is given the old newspaper with Mr. Belding's article, the headline reads, "Picture on pages 3 and 4." When he looks at the picture, he looks at the middle of the paper, with quite a few pages at both sides of the newspaper. Pages 3 and 4 would be near the front and would be on opposite sides of the same page.

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The Beverly Hillbillies picture

The Grun Incident - S9-E15

Factual error: In the opening scene, the Clampetts are driving home from Malibu. From Malibu to Beverly Hills is east. But as they head home, the ocean is on their left, which means they are driving west.

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The Andy Griffith Show picture

Goober Goes to an Auto Show - S8-E22

Factual error: Goober and the Taylors stop and get gas in Raleigh before heading back to Mayberry. As they are waiting, a Coors Brewing Company truck is seen driving past the service station. Coors Beer was not sold east of the Mississippi River until the mid-1980s.

Mozzie-6

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Ben 10 picture

The Big Tick - S2-E2

Factual error: When Gwen and Grandpa Max use the shell plates from the tick to ward off it's corrosive secretions, their fingers should have been eaten away since they were grabbing the rims of the plates when the acid came raining down.

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Thunderbirds picture

The Mighty Atom - S1-E14

Factual error: An edition of the 'Melbourne Herald' newspaper can be seen in this episode, and appears to be dated Friday, December 24, 1964. Yet 'Thunderbirds' is supposed to be set in the 21st Century (2026 or 2065, depending on who you believe). This date is also seen on newspapers which appear in the episodes 'Edge of Impact', 'The Impostors' and 'Cry Wolf'. Also, to compound the error, December 24th, 1964 was actually a Thursday, not a Friday.

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Wizards of Waverly Place picture

The Crazy Ten Minute Sale - S1-E1

Factual error: When we see Gigi and her gang walking down the hallway, their hair is blowing backwards behind them. Yet the fan is in the wrong position (behind them) and therefore their hair should be blowing forward.

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SpongeBob SquarePants picture

Sandy's Rocket / Squeaky Boots - S1-E8

Factual error: Sandy's dome is both airtight and watertight to keep any water out of the dome and any air inside the dome. When the rocket, positioned outside of the dome, begins to launch, smoke is coming inside the dome. This shouldn't be able to happen if the dome is airtight and watertight.

Casual Person

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The Suite Life of Zack and Cody picture

The Arwin That Came To Dinner - S3-E8

Factual error: In Season 3, "The Arwin That Came To Dinner," in the scene where Arwin is licking his plate clean (that supposedly had food on it), notice that when he does this you can hear that high pitched waxy sound. Oddly enough, if you get a clean plate straight from the dishwasher and rub skin against it, you can hear that same sound. Meaning that there was never any food on it.

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The Dick Van Dyke Show picture

The Ghost of A. Chantz - S4-E3

Factual error: When Laura and Sally are about to go to the bedroom, Buddy and Rob are going to sleep in the living room of the haunted cabin. Rob and Laura tell Buddy and Sally things like how he steals the pillow and he takes all the covers at home. However at home, they sleep in twin beds so they shouldn't know such things. However, they do have a son. They had to share a bed at least once in their marriage.

Pam-I-am

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Suggested correction: Or they sleep in twin beds because he steals the pillow and takes the covers when they tried sharing a double bed.

It's not true that Rob steals pillows... Because every episode Rob has only 2 pillows. Unless he steals them in the middle of the commercials... and then they vanish before the next scene.

Liz Blue 1970

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Suggested correction: Not entirely true; although they are rare and may no longer exist now, I've seen traffic lights that followed the red, yellow, green pattern as recently as the mid-1990s.

zendaddy621

Interesting. What state (s) did you see this in? I'm assuming going from red to yellow was to encourage cars to cautiously enter the intersection in case someone was running a red light?

Phaneron

Traffic lights in the UK do this - it's more to give you a second to get ready, in gear, etc., then as soon as the lights turn green you can go. Otherwise you get no warning of when the lights are about to change.

In Illinois; as I said, such traffic lights are rare, but they did exist at least as recently as the time this episode of the series aired, and they may still possibly exist in larger cities such as New York City.

zendaddy621

This traffic light set-up (red to yellow to green) still exists today in the UK. From what I understand, it is to alert the driver that the light will be turning green imminently and to prepare themselves to put their car in gear, as manual cars are still pretty common in Europe. I'd wager this light cycle was phased out of North America due to the abundance of automatic cars today. Could have been different in 1994 though.

critterbonus

It should be noted that traffic lights that go from red to yellow before going green keep the red light illuminated so that both red and yellow are lit up. However, that's not what happens in the scene. I've never seen a traffic light operate the way it's shown. And Massachusetts still has traffic lights that go from red to yellow, however, when red and yellow are lit up together, this allows for pedestrian crossing.

Bishop73

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I Dream of Jeannie picture

Jeannie, the Hip Hippie - S3-E6

Factual error: At the end of the episode, Major Nelson leaves his Cocoa Beach, Florida, house and drives down the street. Behind the house at the end of the street (which is the home used for the Stephens family on "Bewitched"), there is a mountain. There are no mountains in Cocoa Beach.

bixxell

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Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers picture

Return of the Green Ranger (2) - S2-E45

Factual error: Billy, Kim, Rocky, Aisha, and Adam return to Angel Grove in the 1700's...and there are British Redcoats there. On the West coast, in California. England never deployed troops to California, especially considering it was part of the empire of Spain at that time.

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7th Heaven picture

Show generally

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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The Suite Life on Deck picture

Show generally

Factual error: In the beginning of the episode "Show and Tell", you can see Woody clipping his toenails on the bed. You can see how many toes he has one of his feet. He has 5 toes. Yet, in one of the first episodes, Woody states he has 8 toes on one foot and 3 on the other.

mld566

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All Grown Up picture

Tweenage Tycoons - S1-E4

Factual error: Judging from how they're talking, and when they go, tickets to the concert go on the sale the same day as the concert. Since when did they start doing this?

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Drake and Josh picture

Football - S2-E4

Factual error: In the scene after they won the football game, the football players and cheerleaders all come running into the locker room. At no time would girls be allowed in a boy's locker room.

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