Tennessee Ernie Visits - S3-E27
Continuity mistake: When Fred and Ethel leave to get the rollaway bed, note the two L-shape actor's marks on the carpet where Ernie had placed his small suitcase and then sat, earlier in the scene. (00:08:50)
Continuity mistake: When Martians Lucy and Ethel are sneaking up behind everyone on the Empire State Building, in the closeup Ethel has a toy gun tucked into her belt just as she climbs over the fence, but in the next wideshot her toy gun is already lying on the observation deck floor. (00:17:25)
Ricky's Hawaiian Vacation - S3-E21
Continuity mistake: When Ricky has five seconds left on Freddie Fillmore's show, in the wideshot Ricky starts singing "Let's have another piece of" and he's holding the paper with his right hand while snapping the fingers of his left, but it cuts to Ricky's closeup and the paper's now in his left hand while he's snapping the fingers of his right hand. (00:24:40)
Continuity mistake: At the end of Ricky's song "Lady of Spain" when he sings the verse "all that my eyes are revealing, Lady of Spain", in this wideshot we see Lucy in front of the balcony doors facing forward raising her arms, then in the next side closeup Lucy's still facing forward and a flag has suddenly appeared behind her on the balcony door. (00:21:50)
Sentimental Anniversary - S3-E15
Continuity mistake: While Lucy's showing Little Ricky the pictures in the album, we see Lucy's fingernails are not polished, but in the closeup of her hand pointing to the photo the fingernails have dark polish on them. This happens again when Lucy's looking through the album with Ricky.
Continuity mistake: While Ethel's looking at the Baby Pictures we see her fingernails are short and not polished, but in the closeup of her hand holding one of the photos the fingernails are long with dark polish.
Continuity mistake: While Ricky's telling the bedtime story in Spanish to Little Ricky (worth watching just for this darling scene), in the closeups of the baby in the crib, the pillow bumper has an embroidered heart with stick figures, which flips in reverse. Actually, the last closeup of Little Ricky lying down is the normal shot, but all the closeups of the baby sitting up are the flipped shots. (This pillow bumper has stick figures of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, and can be seen in previous episodes). (00:06:40)
Continuity mistake: In season 3, "Lucy and Ethel Buy the Same Dress", when Ethel comes out of her bedroom wearing the dress she had told Lucy she'd return, Fred calls her "Ethel Louise." In season 3, "The Million Dollar Idea", when Ricky tells Lucy and Ethel that it will cost them twenty cents to mail each dressing jar, Lucy takes Ethel by the hand and calls her "Ethel Roberta." In season 4, "Ethel's Hometown", throughout the episode Ethel is called "Ethel Mae."
Continuity mistake: When Lucy and Ricky are sitting on the coffee table looking through photos of Little Ricky, just as Lucy quips, "What magazine, body beautiful?" in the closeup the baby's photo orientation is portrait, but in the wideshots when Lucy looks at it and hands it to Ricky the orientation is landscape. (00:01:50)
Ricky's Old Girlfriend - S3-E11
Continuity mistake: When Fred tells Ricky there's an article in the newspaper about Carlota Romero, there's a closeup of the newspaper's back page with Carlota's photo, but later when Lucy takes the newspaper (the same NY Gazette issue) from Ethel, before she turns it over we can see that the back page photo and layout are different. (00:08:30 - 00:10:20)
Ricky's Old Girlfriend - S3-E11
Continuity mistake: When Fred shows Ricky the newspaper article about Carlota Romero appearing at the Opal Room, the front page of the paper reads "New York Gazette", but in the closeup of the article on the back page the newspaper is called "The Daily Record." (00:08:35)
Continuity mistake: In season 2's episode "The Ricardos Change Apartments" their new apartment number is "3B", but in this episode when Lucy's at her audition she tells the casting agent that her apartment number is "3D" (deliberately done in order for the 3D joke to work), and it's in the next episode "The French Revue" that we see the new number "3D" on the door. (00:19:30)
Lucy Wants New Furniture - S2-E28
Continuity mistake: After Lucy mentions the ad for a couch and coffee table, when she walks over to the desk note the shadow and lighting change on the back of the desk. (00:02:10)
Lucy Wants New Furniture - S2-E28
Continuity mistake: At the start of the episode, when Lucy puts the baby in the crib there's only one bumper pad and it's on Lucy and Ricky's side of the crib rails, but in the baby's closeup there's a bumper pad at the rails behind him - which is the opposite side of the crib. (00:00:45)
Continuity mistake: While Lucy's taking a tally of who everyone's voting for, the writing on the posterboard changes in Lucy's closeups. (00:14:45)
Continuity mistake: After spending the night at the hotel, when Ricky goes to the front desk to speak with the "Justice of the Peace" it's 7:30 on the wall clock. Then, when Mr. Willoughby stands by the stairs and calls to his wife it's almost 7:40, but when Ricky gets ready to propose it's 7:30, but it's 7:45 when Mrs. Willoughby comes downstairs in the closeup, then back to 7:30 in the wideshot. (00:17:40)
Lucy Is Jealous of Girl Singer - S1-E11
Continuity mistake: When Ethel walks in while Lucy's vacuuming, Ethel has the folded newspaper under her arm and there's only small print on the paper, but after Lucy offers Ethel a cup of coffee now the headline can be seen on the still folded paper under Ethel's arm. Then, when Lucy unfolds the paper we see both the front and back page filled with pictures and the headline, but that area of small print which was seen in the earlier shots does not exist on either side. (00:00:40)
Continuity mistake: When Lucy crawls into the New Neighbors' apartment she's startled by the stuffed bear head, and in the closeup of the bear head it's in front of a bare wall, but in the rest of the shots it's in front of furniture. Additionally, other things change as well between shots: the books under the bear, the hat, etc. (00:10:15)
Continuity mistake: The step up into the kitchen is no longer there in later shows such as "The Fur Coat" and others.
Continuity mistake: In the episodes where Lucy and Ricky are Getting Ready to move to the country, there are shots in the Ricardos' bedroom that shows a wall on the right hand side of the room. In previous episodes, there was a window where the wall appears during the later 'moving to Connecticut' episodes.
Answer: There is no reason. It's a just a silly plot device, typical of the era. Women characters were often portrayed as making uninformed assumptions or decisions.
raywest ★