Continuity mistake: When Lucy handcuffs herself to Ricky we see the style of handcuffs as they phone the locksmith, but when they're both in the bedroom their handcuffs are entirely different, then their handcuffs revert to the original style when the locksmith shows up. Additionally, when Lucy cuffs Ricky's wrist note the direction of the locking bar around Ricky's wrist, but the next morning when the locksmith is with them, the locking bar is around Ricky's wrist the opposite way, which is quite impossible. (00:06:45)
Continuity mistake: After everyone comes out of the judge's chambers, the door goes from open to shut repeatedly.
Continuity mistake: Here it's said by the Ricardos that Fred and Ethel have been married for 25 years. Problem is in Season 1's episode "The Girls Want To Go To the Nightclub" the Mertzes both say they've been married for 18 years.
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: When Ricky sings during the rehearsal, there's a pencil tucked behind his ear with its point facing the back of his head, but after Ricky's song is done and he moves the microphone stand, in the next shot when Lucy walks in the pencil point now faces the opposite way, though Ricky hasn't touched the pencil. (00:19:45)
Continuity mistake: While tired Lucy is trying to open the card table's legs, she lays her head down then falls asleep, and when it cuts to Ethel and Fred walking in on our sleeping Lucy, there's writing on the table's underside which wasn't in the previous shot. (By the markings on the table it also looks as if the table has been turned on its adjacent side). (00:06:10)
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)
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: Lucy runs back and forth from Ricardo's and Mertz's apartment through a door in Mertz's living room that is not there in other episodes before or since.
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)
Never Do Business With Friends - S2-E32
Continuity mistake: In Lucy and Ricky's apartment there are six shutters between the kitchen and living room, a set of three open to the left and three open to the right, but after the washing machine falls off the porch, when Mrs. Trumble's nephew thinks they're all crazy he runs through the back door and we see a set of four shutters on one side. Also note the round knobs are at the bottom corners, when they should be higher up at the center. (The prop shutters that we see through the doorway during the porch's "exterior" shots are identical to the seven shutters that were in apartment 4A, before the Ricardos moved downstairs). (00:22:10 - 00:24:25)
Never Do Business With Friends - S2-E32
Continuity mistake: In this episode, the Mertzes buy the Ricardo's old washing machine and say that theirs is old enough to be in the Smithsonian, yet just a few episodes earlier ("Sales Resistance") Fred tells Ethel to come and see her new Handy Dandy washing machine.
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 ★