Quantum Leap (1989) - 81 mistakes in entire show

Revealing: Almost every time Sam looks in a mirror or the viewer sees Sam in a mirror, the movements of Sam and Sam's "reflection" hardly ever match up correctly as if it were Sam's real reflection.

Continuity: When Al is standing next to the juke box, Sam walks over to make a selection, and when Al starts talking his reflection is visible on the glass. Later in this episode, Sam is talking to Al at the sink of the dressing room at the ball park. As Sam looks into the mirror he says he thinks Al is a vampire, to which Al replies, "Neurological holograms don't reflect, Sam."

Continuity: The shaving cream smeared on Sam's face looks nothing at all like the cream on his reflection's (Tom's) face in the mirror.

Continuity: In the shower, the Burma Shave cream on Sam's face changes from being partially washed off to being thick and foamy, then back to partially washed off.

Continuity: A confused Sam/Tom stumbles out into the yard bare-chested with shaving cream smeared on his face and neck. In the next shot, though he hasn't touched it, the cream is suddenly all over his chest as well.

Continuity: When Sam ejects from the X-2 and parachutes to safety, he lands on the desert floor and the chute comes down on top of him, covering him completely. In the very next shot, we see him lying face up and the parachute has entirely disappeared.

Revealing: Sam stares at himself in the mirror and takes out his wallet to determine who he's leaped into. But the "reflection" in the mirror lowers the wallet and looks back up before Sam does.

Continuity: Though he's leaped into someone else, we always see Sam as Sam, dressed in all the host's clothes (including glasses or sunglasses). His host is revealed only in reflections. But here, when he looks at his host-self in the mirror, the hat and clothes are all identical - except that the reflection is wearing glasses, and Sam isn't.

Continuity: When Sam leaves the jail after the Sheriff has released him from custody, we can see Sam's reflection, not Jesse Tyler's, in the window on the door as it swings shut behind Sam.

Continuity: After Miss Melanie's son leaves, Sam/Jessie reaches out to steady her. His left hand is on her shoulder until the camera angle changes, when both his hands are at his sides. Change angles again, and his hand is back on her shoulder.

Revealing: After Sam nearly falls down the elevator shaft, the scene fades and comes back in with Sam speaking to the landlord about the incident. The landlord brushes off Sam's hat with his hand and hands it to him. The brushing motion was played in reverse first to extend the length of the action.

Audio problem: When Sam says "I'd rather be dead," his lips don't move in sync with the words.

Factual error: In this episode that takes place in April of 1976, everyone sits around watching an episode of Saturday Night Live with Bill Murray on it. Murray didn't join the cast until 1977.

Factual error: In the scene where the guy is telling Machiko about the major league teams that wanted him, he mentions the Indians, Yankees, and Orioles. The episode is set in 1953 and the story is from before World War II. While there had been a minor league team called the Orioles up to that point, there was no major league team called the Orioles until 1954.

Factual error: In the opening scene it is 1964 in New York City. A shot through Brooklyn Bridge shows the World Trade Center towers in the background. The Trade Center was not started until 1968 and not completed until 1973.

Audio problem: At the dining room table, we hear Karen's voice say "It's all right, Uncle David." But her lips don't move.

Factual error: At one point when Sam is visiting Delilah in the courthouse he is hugging her and the Sheriff guarding the door comes in and sees them. As the sheriff is leaving, he has a patch on his arm that says "County Sheriff." As this episode took place in Louisiana, there would only be Parish Sheriffs, not a County Sheriff.

Continuity: As Sam is preparing to go on stage as Don Quixote, after catching the lead actor, a quick cut to Dulcinea dancing is shown. It is supposed to be Sam's love interest and ex piano teacher Nicole as Dulcinea. However, you can see Nicole standing in the background, in the pink outfit she was wearing in scenes from the beginning of the episode.

Character mistake: In the preview for this episode, Charlie has trouble getting his countdown straight. He shouts that Sam is on in 50 seconds, then 47, then 48. In the episode itself, the mistake is corrected with a rather obvious overdub, changing the final number to 43.

Continuity: When she's confronting her brother on the dock, Troian's long hair shifts from being completely behind her back to falling over her shoulders in front with each change of camera angle.

Revealing: When Sam and Al are walking and talking, just after Scooter (being chased by the dog) throws Sam the dean's prized basketball, Al's shadow is visible on the ground, though as a hologram he doesn't actually have one.

Continuity: When Sam uses martial arts against the men from the van, one of them pulls a knife as he kneels on his right knee in the close-up, but next shot he is kneeling on his left knee.

Continuity: When one of the sicko men from the van pulls a knife on Sam, the white blouse is either tucked into the skirt or hangs over it, depending on the shot.

Revealing: When Sam and Al are in the station wagon pursuing the van, both Sam and Al's reflections are visible on the wagon's front hood. Al, as a hologram, shouldn't have one and Sam's reflection should be as Kevin's mom.

Plot hole: Sam wallops both kidnappers and rescues the son. They then leave the two child molesters unconscious beside their van. No one calls the police or has them arrested, so they're free to kidnap another kid. Sam doesn't leap until after an epilogue in which the loose ends are supposed to be resolved - but this question is left unanswered. It's not excused by a "just because we didn't see it happen doesn't mean it didn't" defense. The viewers shouldn't be left with a dangling plot hole, and one line could have cured this one.

Audio problem: During the speech where Al tells Sam to quit (to force Chewie to play), Sam says he can't quit but his mouth doesn't move for a couple seconds after the words start playing.

Continuity: When Sam and Ruben are fighting in the locker room they knock over a set of lockers (and only one set) and the door flies open on it. When they roll over the set of lockers the camera cuts and 2 sets of lockers are suddenly knocked down with all locker doors closed.

Continuity: In the fight between Sam and Ruben in the locker room, Ruben has a white visor in his hands during the fight which magically disappears during the fight after a camera cut, and Ruben leaves after the coach breaks up the fight, without the visor.

Continuity: In one play during the montage sequence of the championship game, the quarterback for the Jaguars (Sam) is number 15 - but he wears 12 throughout the rest of the show. This is Sam, because Al later tells him to quit, so he's been playing the whole game.

Continuity: Chewie is wearing the number 86 jersey in both games. However, when he is sitting out with his supposedly injured knee we see a shot of the number 86 jersey chasing an opponent.

Continuity: In the party after the 1st game when Chewie and Sam are talking about the championship, Chewie pulls up a chair and sits on it backwards with his hands in his lap. After the cut to another camera, his arms are up on the back of the chair.

Continuity: The rearview mirror on Nick's car disappears and reappears repeatedly, when he pursues the laundry truck and later at the cabin.

Revealing: At Boston's FBI, Al's reflection is visible repeatedly, such as on the fire extinguisher's chrome surface in the hallway and on the elevator while Sam talks about the cabin.

Continuity: After throwing the laundry bags out the back of the truck, close up shots on Sam and the girl show the back of the truck being relatively empty. However, the next shot from the rear of the truck has the back full of laundry bags again.

Continuity: The FBI agent's car is riddled with bullets in the opening scene. A few shots later, the same car rounds a corner during the chase, and all the bullet holes have disappeared.

Audio problem: When the two bad guys are chasing the girl through the dark forest, one says "it's too dark," the girl screams, and the other says, "who needs light?" - but both say these without moving their lips.

Continuity: After the bad guys attack the laundry truck and the girl starts throwing bags out of the truck, one sees in the close up shot a bullet-ridden gray door, but in the wide angle shot it's a pristine brown door.

Factual error: At the end, Sam reads a poem from a Mark Twain book and says, "Twain wrote it when his daughter died." But the poem, famous because it was engraved on the daughter's headstone, isn't by Twain, but by poet Robert Richardson. Twain never claimed authorship, so Sam couldn't be reading it with Twain's byline from any of his books.

Revealing: When Sam is putting the locket on her in the coffin, Hilla's "corpse" is breathing.

Continuity: At the end, when Sam is at the graveside, snow is falling and a close-up shot shows Sam covered in snow, but the wide angle shot shows little to no snow on him.

Audio problem: When Sam and the Sheriff are on the dock the Sheriff is talking through a shot into the next one, except his mouth isn't moving during the last seconds of his line.

Continuity: After the bad guy tries to hit the granddaughter with the pool cue, Sam grabs it. In the wide angle shot it shows Sam's left hand about 6-8 inches from the middle (where the dark wood inlay is), but in the next close-up shot, his hand is only about 2 inches from the middle.

Revealing: After Al comes back when the power is turned on, Sam wins a game, breaks for the next and then we see a wide angle shot and the noise is made when Al shows Sam where to shoot. But the beam doesn't appear, even though the shot is seen by viewers.

Audio problem: In the beginning of the show, when Sam's father tells him to get down, Sam climbs down and falls off the net. When he hits the dirt it makes a sound like he's hitting a board.

Continuity: When Sam and his sister are on the trapeze and she does a double and he catches her you can see that the bar she jumped from is not moving behind her. Then when she jumps back to it, it's swinging again.

Continuity: In practice, when Sam's sister tries to do the triple and he misses her, the wide angle shot shows that she is already below Sam's arms when she reaches out. But when it cuts to a close shot, she is able to almost catch his arms.

Continuity: Throughout the show, the big top changes from one with many blue stripes on the ceiling, to one with a couple of blue stripes and a dark center, and back again.

Continuity: At one point when the police are chasing Sam, the car has a Sheriff's star on the driver's side door; however, when Sam drives into Clayton, no star is to be seen.

Continuity: When Sam is talking to Al in the store (while looking at car seats), Al checks on Margaret Dalton and holds the handset at chest level. The shot switches to Sam down on his knees and it's at his face level (about Al's waist). Then the shot switches back to Al and the handset is again chest high.

Audio problem: When Sam is looking in the mirror talking to Al, he says, "Would you look at me? I've got a gold tooth." However, the reflection doesn't mouth the first part and doesn't even say the second.

Audio problem: When the little girl is dragging her sister across the room to get her to meet Sam at the pool, she says, "He's waiting at the pool for you," but her mouth doesn't even come close to mouthing those words.

Revealing: At the beginning of the show they go to great pains to show (on more than one occasion) the "reflection" of Sam in the mirror. However, when the girl shoves him against it, kissing and slapping Sam, it is his real reflection.

Continuity: At the end when Sam punches out the bad guy, there is not a white piece of trash stuck to the back of his left shoulder. Two shots later, there is a white piece of trash there.

Continuity: In the beginning, when dressed in drag, Sam has a cigarette with a long bit of ash on it. He looks at his "reflection" and there is a short bit of ash on the cigarette, then it cuts back to him and there is a short bit of ash.

Factual error: Though this episode takes place on April 1st, 1969, a freshly-painted sign in the park contradicts the date. In the scene with the hippies in which Sam is disguised as a meditating guru, the huge sign just behind him touts the San Diego Centennial Celebration - in 1968.

Continuity: Near the beginning, when Sam is undressing and Al is telling him who he leaped into, in one shot Sam is taking off his beaded necklace and in the next his necklace is off and he's taking off his belt, but Al continues the sentence so no time passed during the cut.

Audio problem: When Sam, dressed as a guru, is talking to Al about Beth, Al calls the lawyer a "scuzzbag" but he mouths "scumbag." Guess it couldn't get past the censors.

Factual error: The Post Raisin Bran cereal box sitting on the Beckett family breakfast table in 1969 has a 1990s box design.

Continuity: The corn stalks behind Sam and Al are rustling and moving in a brisk wind in the two-shots. But in all the close-ups, the stalks are standing perfectly still.

Audio problem: When Jamie says, "Where's your sense of humor?" her lips aren't moving.

Continuity: In the diner, the smudges on Sam's face keep changing shape from one shot to the next.

Continuity: Willis drops his cap on the road when he runs away. It's still there in the long shot of him running, but after the commercial break we return to the same scene, and as Sam stands up, the cap is no longer on the road behind him.

Other: Towards the end of the episode when Sam is being wheeled into the delivery room in labor, there is a mirror above the table. We see Sam's reflection in it when we should see Billie's.

Continuity: After Sam refuses to sign the adoption papers, he's leaning forward with one hand to his mouth, talking to Mrs. Thailer. When the shot cuts to a wider angle, he's suddenly leaning back with both hands supporting his weight behind him.

Factual error: When Sam knocks on Diana's door, she opens it. But we've just been told that she's completely deaf, so there's no way she could have heard him knocking.

Revealing: When Sam is studying the sign language textbook and Al pops in, Sam's right hand makes a noticeable jump, though it's supposed to look like a continuous take.

Continuity: When Sam is strapped into the electric chair, the huge clock on the wall behind him, which is there so that both the prison doctor and the reporters viewing the execution can mark the time of death, reads 7:00. The final scene runs for more than five minutes - after which the clock still reads 7:00.

Continuity: As Sam is marched down the corridor to the electric chair, Raul reaches through the cell bars and begs him to confess. In long shots, Raul's arms are fully extended. But in close-ups, his arms are folded and wrapped around the bars.

Audio problem: Just before the dog carries in the sack of shotgun shells, Mack and Sam have an argument, and Mack's dialogue is very poorly looped. Throughout the scene, the sound is out of sync with his lip movements.

Continuity: The mud stain Sam gets in his slide covers most of the front of his baseball jersey. But a few shots later, it becomes a much smaller streak on just the left side.

Continuity: In the scene in the courtroom, when Kevin is being questioned by the prosecutor, she introduces several photos of Katie to the judge. The judge keeps two or three of them, and the prosecutor carries one to the witness stand. As she is carrying it to the stand, it can be seen that it is a photo of Katie wearing a dark top, with what appears to be a fluorescent light over Katie's head. The prosecutor then places the photo on the stand for Kevin to view, and it shows Katie wearing a white hospital gown with blue dots. After the prosecutor questions Kevin, the defense attorney walks over to the stand and picks up the photo. This time, it shows Katie in a red v-neck top, with no light above Katie's head.

Continuity: When Sam goes in to talk with Max's father, Sam/Max is wearing glasses. But in one brief shot, his reflection in the mirror isn't.

Continuity: The size and shape of the hole Sam creates, when he breaks through the wall, is considerably different on the outside than it is on the inside of the burial chamber.

Continuity: When he starts swinging the pick-ax, Sam's bandanna instantly moves between shots from around his neck to over his face.

Continuity: In the Japanese bar, when Sam takes a drink from the beer bottle, the label is facing him. When Oswald (who is Sam's reflection in the mirror) takes the same drink, the label has rotated several degrees and is facing outward, away from him.

Continuity: For four seasons, we were told that Al always saw Sam as the person he'd leaped into. (Case in point: Al once suffered an attack of guilt-ridden lust when Sam leaped into a very attractive woman.) Here, that series canon is violated when Al tells Sam, "Nobody sees you except me. Everyone else sees the real Miller." Rationalizations that "Ziggy was reprogrammed and we just weren't told about it" don't suffice. This unexplained change/screw-up in season 5 was one of many poor-choice changes that "jumped the shark" and led to Quantum Leap's ultimate cancellation.

Factual error: Twice in this episode, characters refer to the Vietnam war being over. But the setting is 1968. The Vietnam war didn't end until 1975.

Deliberate "mistake": Sam, and not the man he leaps into, somehow fathers a daughter with Abigail. Al and Ziggy's answer to "How?" is "We just don't know." Since Sam has always leaped into the physical body of his subjects with no trace of his own physical presence (yes, we see Sam, but no one else does), fathering a child with his own DNA should be impossible. And the characters acknowledging the "mystery" does not excuse the breach of previously established series canon: it merely makes this, at the very least, a deliberate mistake.

Factual error: Sam leaps into Marilyn Monroe's chauffeur in April, 1960. But the car he's driving her around in is a 1961 Lincoln Continental convertible. The 1960 had prominent tail fins, the redesigned '61 did not, so the difference is noticeable. This is a model Marilyn could not have purchased until, at the earliest, September of 1960.

Audio problem: During Sam's conversation with the bearded Russian miner, each of them plainly mouths the word "stone," but for some reason, the word is both times dubbed over with "slate."

Continuity: When Sam tells Al the bartender that he knows another Al who uses the term "caca," Al leans over toward him to say, "Common expression." The camera angle reverses, and Al is abruptly not leaning any more, but standing back from the bar in his earlier position.