Revealing mistake: In the pilot, the exterior of a bar is shown as a scene transition. While the show takes place in Los Angeles, the bar and street intersection shown are in Providence, Rhode Island. You can see a banner with the word Providence in the shot and the street names match the intersection.
Continuity mistake: Julia is holding a pair of light-up glasses in her hand. After Cliff announces he is quitting, the glasses completely vanish and do not return. (00:12:52)
Continuity mistake: As Nick is pouring champagne for himself and Cliff while talking on the phone, the amount of champagne in the glasses changes in almost every shot.
Continuity mistake: Jess is talking to Rachel about Nick's new girlfriend and the back of Schmidt's head is seen, where he has been standing behind Ceca the entire time. The in the very next shot, Schmidt is impossibly sitting back in his seat on the other side of the table he just was. (00:14:10)
Other mistake: In the beginning when Jess is showing the guys her outfit for Cece's party, you can see she is wearing blue platform high heels. She walks in them just fine. But the next day, when she's filling in for Cece, she's given platform high heels and can't walk in them at all. (00:02:37 - 00:15:17)
Continuity mistake: When Schmidt and Robbie are spying on Cece's date, Schmidt sits down at Robbie's table to his left and after they both admit that they are still in love with her they bring it in for a hug. Cece walks over to confront them and they are still embracing each other, but they have suddenly switched places and Schmidt is on the right and Robbie is on the left.
First Date - S2-E21
Continuity mistake: When Nick puts his hand on Jess' boob, it is pointing to the left, then to the right, then back.
Continuity mistake: When Jess walks out of her bedroom to meet Nick on the roof, she is wearing blue and white striped pajamas. But when Jess opens the door to the roof, she is wearing a pink robe.
Factual error: This episode reveals that Winston is colorblind, seeing green as brown. But later in the series, Winston becomes a cop, working for the LAPD. This wouldn't have happened because candidates for the LAPD are put through a color blindness test where they are required to quickly and accurately identify colors. Winston would have failed and would not have been allowed to join the LAPD.
Basketsball - S3-E12
Factual error: There is no HDMI plugged in to the TV, which is accurate for there being no input detected when Coach turns it on to watch the game, but Jess cuts a coaxial cable that is plugged directly into the TV. The input should have been on the Live TV/Antenna/Over-the-Air/Channels input if that's how they watch TV. (00:15:29)
Continuity mistake: At the party when Winston and Coach are talking to the two women and Nick walks up, the girl that says it's hot and starts removing her jacket, almost completely off in that shot. But then it cuts and cuts back and her jacket is almost entirely on, and she starts taking it off again.
Continuity mistake: When Schmidt and Nick are having their sweat, Schmidt's towel is around his waist when Winston walks in, then slung over his shoulder in the next shot. (00:02:40)
Continuity mistake: When Schmidt bursts in on Cece and the surgeon, you can see that Cece has some sort of top on under her gown. Then when Schmidt goes to say goodbye to her breasts, she just undoes her robe and is nude underneath.
Bob & Carol & Nick & Schmidt - S5-E5
Other mistake: In 5x04 'No Girl' at the end of the episode Brandon is wearing Jess' dress and shows a red, black and white striped dress which Schmidt and Nick say they like. At the end of 5x05 when they're shouting to Jess in the hotel room, she's seen in this exact dress, but she's meant to be sequestered, so would have had no way to get the dress as it wasn't packed. (00:21:18)
Bob & Carol & Nick & Schmidt - S5-E5
Continuity mistake: When Schmidt goes to talk to Nick about helping his family they go talk in Nick's room, but when Nick decides to tell them that he is going to help them they come out of Schmidt's room. (04:05:00)
Audio problem: When Jess is trying to find the binder and says "I want to quit, god do I want to quit, but I can't, I can't!", her dialog does not match her mouth movements. (00:14:28)
Wedding Eve - S5-E21
Continuity mistake: When Jess thinks Sam's about to propose, he sticks his hands in his pockets, then stays quite still in a closeup where it doesn't look like he's moving his hands at all, then in a cut to a wider angle both of his hands are by his sides.
Continuity mistake: When CeCe looks at the contract, she has it flat in front of her when she says, "he's really screwing you." But in the reverse angle, she's got it raised off the table.
Chosen answer: Damon Wayons, Jr., who played Coach, took the role because he believed his current show, "Happy Endings" on ABC, was going to be cancelled. When it was renewed, he had to leave the cast of New Girl. He returned later in the series after Happy Endings was actually cancelled.
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