Sitcom continuity errors Page 3

In a recent episode of Torchwood, Tosh was picked up by a character in a long shot and dropped her bag. In the next, much closer shot, she was still hanging on to the bag. It was blatantly obvious and a major gaffe that nobody spotted it.

I think it was episode 4 series three of Steptoe & Son where Harold went into Hercules the horse's shed and the horse said, 'good morning, Wilbur!'

Not many spotted it (spotted it, horse geddit?) but I pshaw did!

Quote: Ironhide @ March 4, 2008, 10:20 PM

In a recent episode of Torchwood, Tosh was picked up by a character in a long shot and dropped her bag. In the next, much closer shot, she was still hanging on to the bag. It was blatantly obvious and a major gaffe that nobody spotted it.

Similar thing in PRIMEVAL in the last series:
the young lad gave his shoulder bag to another team member to enable him to crawl through a hole in a wire,,,,,, as he appeared on the other side of the hole,,,, he was still wearing the bag over his shoulder,,,,,,,

mind you,,, :$ i'm sorry to say that I tend to see a dozen of these things every week, on all programs,,,,, in fact, you can sometimes tell when something is likely to be wrong well before it does (as a camera goes from a facial view of one person, to the facial view of the other person,,,,, you can usually see a difference in hair/scarf/collar etc of the other person. You can see this in almost all programs !)

In the first episode of Gree Wing the hair of the main characters keeps changing, because some of the footage was taken from the non-broadcast pilot.

And re. the Simpsons - They're not continuity errors. Each show is more or less self-contained (although past plots/stories are referenced) and they change things to suit the story. The lack of continuity is supposed to add to the humour.

It seems to me that sitcoms, as a genre, are scarcely all that sensitive to continuity errors. Quite frankly, nobody gives much of a damn.

Dave Lister seemed to vary between being an orphan and having relatives galore from episode to episode. As his birthright wasn't relevant to the plot, it only got an oblique mention generally.

Ooh! Ooh! Smithy in Gavin & Stacey spending half the series in a Spurs shirt and then having a West Ham pennant hanging from the mirror in his car.

That ruined the entire series for me. I was enjoying it until then, but, oh no, some continuity buffoon has to go and spoil it all. How dare he/she? I mean, how bloody dare he/she? Damn him/her to hell. And then give him/her a kicking. And then damn him/her to hell again.

Could have been an attempt at an in-joke or somesuch of course!

Quote: David Chapman @ March 2, 2008, 9:25 PM

Now Continuity in Drama is a different matter. Like Ray's moustache in Ashes to Ashes.

Has it ever been accidentally replaced with a small pineapple? Laughing out loud

I recall one from George & Mildred. In series three, when Ann is pregnant with Tarquin, she asks Mildred to drive her into town, but it's not until series five that Mildred actually learns to drive.

I love it when people point out how the different 'Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy' formats contradict each other - like this undermines its credibility. Yes, I thought it was all true before. You've destroyed the illusion.

Del and Rodney's age-gap has been widely disputed.

It all depends on the stories they tell.

On their mum's grave, it says she died in 1962. Rodney was born in 1960 according to Rock and Chips prequel. Yet we hear Rodney was 4 or 5 when Joan died.

A more in-depth copy and paste job from Wiki:

Age

The BBC comedy guide for Only Fools and Horses clearly states that Rodney's birthday is 26 February; but this is contradicted in "Sleepless in Peckham", when Cassandra mistakes Freddie the Frog in an old 1960s photo of the first Jolly Boys' Outing for Rodney. Rodney corrects her, claiming that the photo was taken in July 1960 before he was born (according to Rodney), thus making Rodney's date of birth the date he reveals it to be in "The Unlucky Winner Is...", 2 November. This is confirmed when Rodney's birth is shown in "Rock & Chips".

However some episodes of Only Fools and Horses do not support this; in "Big Brother", 1981, Rodney states to Del that he is 23 years of age, which would make his year of birth 1957 or 1958. In the same episode Del Boy states that there is a thirteen-year age gap between himself and Rodney. "You couldn't be like any other little brother could you eh, and come along a couple of years later after me. Oh no no, not you. You had to wait thirteen years!" In the following episode "Go West Young Man, which was broadcast in September 1981 (and was the second episode of Only Fools and Horses ever broadcast), Del Boy states that he (Del) is 35. In "Big Brother" since Rodney had said he was 23, Rodney must already have had his birthday that year with Del still to have his 36th birthday later that year. Therefore Rodney must have been born during 1958. In "As One Door Closes", set in early 1985, Rodney tells Del that he is 24, making his year of birth 1960. In "Yuppy Love", Del states that the Trotter family have been living at Nelson Mandela House since 1962, and that Rodney was born in the flat. Similarly, Rodney & Cassandra's wedding certificate shows that they were married on 25 January 1989 and gives Rodney's age as 26 and Cassandra's as 21. This would make Rodney born in 1962 (assuming he hadn't yet had a birthday before his wedding in 1989) and during "Modern Men" (set around Christmas 1996), Mickey Pearce describes Rodney as a "34-year-old paperboy", which would also back up a birth year of 1962. However, during "Mother Nature's Son", set around Christmas 1992, Rodney states that he is 31, suggesting he was born in 1961.

Do people waste their valuable time worrying about things like this ???

Yes. Did you know that if you read all the credits to the third series of Not The Nine O'clock News - you need a f**king hobby.

Quote: Bill Poster @ 12th July 2018, 4:05 AM

Do people waste their valuable time worrying about things like this ???

It's not worrying, it's just a nerdy and geeky thing to do that's harmless. Observations they call it. That's all.

It was obviously playing on your mind enough to comment on the thread.

Quote: Michael Monkhouse @ 12th July 2018, 12:36 PM

Yes. Did you know that if you read all the credits to the third series of Not The Nine O'clock News - you need a f**king hobby.

Your hobby is posting on forums about people who nit-pick certain continuity errors.

The Royle Family is full of continuity errors.

Dave's dad was supposed to have had a pronounced limp (limp along Leslie etc)
But when he showed in a Christmas special - there was no bad leg.

Barbara said they'd been married 27 years then later they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.