Best family TV stupidity of all time

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Batman: The Animated Series picture

Heart of Ice - S1-E3

Stupidity: Ferris Boyle tries to cover up his sabotage of Victor Fries' experiment, but he opts to store the incriminating security tape of the event in a filing cabinet instead of simply destroying the footage.

Phaneron

More Batman: The Animated Series stupidity
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Goosebumps picture

Stay Out Of The Basement (2) - S1-E13

Stupidity: When the real Dr. Brewer is found in the basement, he has duct tape over his mouth and needs his daughter to remove it for him. His hands are tied around the wrist, but not behind his back, so he could have easily removed the tape from his mouth himself long before he was found.

Phaneron

More Goosebumps stupidity
Spider-Man picture

The Return of Hydro-Man: Part 1 - S5-E7

Stupidity: When Spider-Man is working in the lab, he uses his webbing to barricade the door shut so no-one interrupts him. When Debra Whitman shows up and asks who is in there, he identifies himself as Peter Parker. When he is finished with his work, he leaves out of the window so that by the time the security guards break the door down, he has vanished. Since he used his webbing to keep the door closed, it would be pretty easy for Debra and the security guards to figure out that Peter is Spider-Man since Spider-Man's webbing is at the scene and Peter seemingly vanished into thin air.

Phaneron

More Spider-Man stupidity
Little House on the Prairie picture

Laura Ingalls Wilder (1) - S7-E1

Stupidity: Charles and Caroline are dancing at the church social. Charles makes a comment about Laura getting married. Caroline responds with "I'm just dying to call you Grandpa." Mary's son just died. Charles has already been a grandfather. That comment was beyond insensitive, and just plain stupid as written. She should've said, I can't wait to call you Grandpa again.

Ellexx

More Little House on the Prairie stupidity
Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends picture

Percy and the Signal - S2-E7

Stupidity: Sir Topham Hatt is cross with both Percy and James. But why is James being blamed? He had no idea that Sir Topham Hatt didn't actually say that he had to stay in the shed and wait for him. James shouldn't have been blamed since he had thought Sir Topham Hatt actually said that and Percy should've been the only one blamed.

More Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends stupidity
Pokemon picture

Friend and Foe Alike - S1-E79

Stupidity: After eventually arriving at the stadium, why didn't Ash tell anyone that he was late due to getting kidnapped by Team Rocket? He arrived with half of his Pokémon exhausted and subsequently lost his battle. If he informed everyone about his situation, his battle with Ritchie would likely have been postponed until tomorrow, giving him some much-needed time to rest, which would have given him a bigger chance to win.

More Pokemon stupidity
Boy Meets World picture

City Slackers - S3-E11

Stupidity: After Cory and Shawn fish Mr. Feeny's watch from the septic tank, he suggests they jump into the lake to clean off. Cory protests, reasoning that it's only 20° outside, to which Feeny dismissively tells them to take a sweater. They then reluctantly abide. Someone of Feeny's education should know better than to allow them to jump into a freezing cold lake. They could both get hypothermia, and they're all currently isolated in the Pocono Mountains with no nearby medical facilities.

Phaneron

More Boy Meets World stupidity
Gilligan's Island picture

Nyet, Nyet, Not Yet - S2-E9

Stupidity: Considering he had a watch on in nearly every other episode, the Professor did not have his watch in this episode where they had a rescue deadline time (11:00) to be picked up along with the two Russians. Even if he forgot to put his watch on, he definitely would have paid attention to what time it was and got everyone to the location well before 11:00 to guarantee the rescue. Instead he relied on Gilligan to come up with the time which failed (an earlier submitted entry explains that part).

More Gilligan's Island stupidity
The Brady Bunch picture

Snow White and the Seven Bradys - S5-E3

Stupidity: When the kids all pick the random-shuffled papers to choose which kid will be which dwarf, it NEVER occurred to them that with six kids and seven dwarfs they would be one short. This was only discovered once Peter (the last to pick one) was now up for a turn. How did nobody figure that out before the name-choosing even started?

More The Brady Bunch stupidity
The Dick Van Dyke Show picture

Long Night's Journey into Day - S5-E23

Stupidity: Rob tells Jerry "I haven't stopped sneezing long enough to take allergy pills" yet right after he says that, he doesn't sneeze anymore till he gives out his home address. He could have just taken his pills then. Someone behind the camera probably reminded him to continue sneezing. (00:16:52 - 00:18:00)

Liz Blue 1970

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: He's exaggerating, but a character not taking a pill in this situation doesn't constitute a stupidly mistake (minor plot hole). I've been in situations where I needed to take an allergy or pain pill and didn't, even though I had a chance, because my mind or focus was somewhere else.

Bishop73

More The Dick Van Dyke Show stupidity
The Adventures of Tintin picture

The Secret of the Unicorn: Part 2 - S1-E4

Stupidity: When the Bird brothers are searching the treasure room for Tintin, one of them claims they have found him, and points. The other brother then shoots at him which was turns out to have just been a mirror reflection. The brothers then proceed to find Tintin and start by going straight forward, completely in a different direction than the mirror. If they wanted to find Tintin, wouldn't the more logical thing to do be simply look in the direction the mirror was pointing at? The whole point of a mirror is to reflect what is in front of it, so Tintin would probably have been standing in that direction anyway. (00:37:25)

Casual Person

More The Adventures of Tintin stupidity
More Bewitched stupidity
Gilmore Girls picture

Norman Mailer, I'm Pregnant! - S5-E6

Stupidity: Luke arrives at Lorelai's house. He comments that she left her car light on. Lorelai then tells him that she left it on because the porch light is out. He says that the battery is going to die. She tells him that she has it timed out perfectly. She then says that there will be 2 hours to spare and that the car has all day to charge. Cars don't charge unless they are running. Is she really going to run it all day? Why didn't Luke point out the error in her logic? Doing so is staying true to the character. The oversight is glaring.

Ellexx

More Gilmore Girls stupidity
Happy Days picture

The Duel - S6-E25

Stupidity: When Richie and Fonzie swap clothing and walk in for The Duel with the Frenchman (both with faces covered to conceal their plan), the whole audience watching The Duel gasp and are all surprised to learn they switched places. But, before the switch was revealed, Richie (as Fonzie) walked in with a nerdier style walk and Fonzie (as Richie) walked "cooler" and looked much more in shape. Also, the head covering Fonzie wore was sheer and you could still see his face, but everyone was STILL fooled.

More Happy Days stupidity
More Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! stupidity
Mayberry R.F.D. picture

New Couple in Town - S1-E14

Stupidity: Aunt Bee learns that a New York writer and his wife have moved to Mayberry and she invites him to speak at a Literary Club meeting which will be held at her home. By telephone, Aunt Bee gives directions to the writer's wife. She says, "We're a quarter mile outside of town" - but she neglects to say in which direction.

More Mayberry R.F.D. stupidity
More The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! stupidity
More The Scooby Doo Show stupidity
Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers picture

A Bad Reflection on You - S1-E38

Stupidity: The decision to risk revealing their identities to Bulk and Skull is one that the Rangers could have easily avoided. Since they tell the bullies to cover their eyes and ears, under the false pretense of a magic trick, they could have simply teleported to the Command Center, or any other secure location, and then morphed, well away from prying eyes.

Cubs Fan

More Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers stupidity

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