Opie's Ill-Gotten Gain - S4-E8
Continuity mistake: Andy reads the inside cover of Barney's old schoolbook which has Barney's name "Bernard P. Fife" written out many times in it, but in two previous episodes Barney's middle name is either Oliver or Milton.
Opie's Ill-Gotten Gain - S4-E8
Continuity mistake: When Opie's surprised by the bike, his first closeup is a flipped shot - note the bell's on the wrong side of the handlebar, etc.
Opie's Ill-Gotten Gain - S4-E8
Continuity mistake: When Barney is "reciting" the preamble to the Constitution, he messes up his hair. When they show him in close-ups it is messed up, but when it goes back to him and Andy in the scene it is combed. It does that a couple of times.
Answer: As noted in the previous answers, in real life, things like this provided wind and/or rain deflection, and also maintained a bit of privacy when blinds were raised somewhat. The interior courthouse set was located in the studio, so the "outside" Main Street didn't exist. I believe these things were added to the courthouse windows for practicality, to avoid some crew movement being visible on the opposite side of those windows. These are not "window boxes" to hold anything, as they're actually bottomless; we can see the Venetian blind's long pull cords under them. They're made of plywood and simple to build, so the "material and labor" was inexpensive. Similar variations made of different materials are in other movies/shows. In 1957's "12 Angry Men," textured chicken wire glass panels are in the jury room windows, and in "Jesse Stone: Night Passage" another type is in Jesse's office windows.
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