Continuity mistake: When Martians Lucy and Ethel are sneaking up behind everyone on the Empire State Building, in the closeup Ethel has a toy gun tucked into her belt just as she climbs over the fence, but in the next wideshot her toy gun is already lying on the observation deck floor. (00:17:25)
Ricky's Hawaiian Vacation - S3-E21
Continuity mistake: When Ricky has five seconds left on Freddie Fillmore's show, in the wideshot Ricky starts singing "Let's have another piece of" and he's holding the paper with his right hand while snapping the fingers of his left, but it cuts to Ricky's closeup and the paper's now in his left hand while he's snapping the fingers of his right hand. (00:24:40)
Ricky's Hawaiian Vacation - S3-E21
Visible crew/equipment: When Lucy rushes into Fred and Ethel's apartment to tell them that Freddie Fillmore had called, the actors' tape marks are visible on the floor. (00:12:40)
Fan Magazine Interview - S3-E16
Visible crew/equipment: When Lucy tells Ethel of her suspicions about Ricky she grabs Minnie Finch's card out of Ethel's hand, and just as Lucy stands up the camera tilts upward, and we can see part of the top of the set where set lighting is located. (00:19:35)
Visible crew/equipment: During the living room scenes throughout the episode, various tape marks are visible on the carpet near the couch and desk, where different actors stand.
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)
Sentimental Anniversary - S3-E15
Continuity mistake: While Lucy's showing Little Ricky the pictures in the album, we see Lucy's fingernails are not polished, but in the closeup of her hand pointing to the photo the fingernails have dark polish on them. This happens again when Lucy's looking through the album with Ricky.
Continuity mistake: While Ethel's looking at the Baby Pictures we see her fingernails are short and not polished, but in the closeup of her hand holding one of the photos the fingernails are long with dark polish.
Other mistake: When Ricky puts the baby in the crib and begins telling him the bedtime story, in the closeups Little Ricky's sitting up beside the crib rails (at Ricky's side of the room), but in all the wideshots when the camera pulls back to show Ricky's lively storytelling, we can see that Little Ricky is not where he should be.
Continuity mistake: While Ricky's telling the bedtime story in Spanish to Little Ricky (worth watching just for this scene), in the closeups of the baby in the crib, the pillow bumper has an embroidered heart with stick figures, which flips in reverse. Actually, the last closeup of Little Ricky lying down is the normal shot, but all the closeups of the baby sitting up are the flipped shots. (This pillow bumper has stick figures of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, and can be seen in previous episodes). (00:06:40)
Visible crew/equipment: When Lucy, Ethel, Ricky, and Fred are in the living room having coffee, the actors' tape marks are visible on the carpet around the coffee table.
Continuity mistake: In season 3, "Lucy and Ethel Buy the Same Dress", when Ethel comes out of her bedroom wearing the dress she had told Lucy she'd return, Fred calls her "Ethel Louise." In season 3, "The Million Dollar Idea", when Ricky tells Lucy and Ethel that it will cost them twenty cents to mail each dressing jar, Lucy takes Ethel by the hand and calls her "Ethel Roberta." In season 4, "Ethel's Hometown", throughout the episode Ethel is called "Ethel Mae."
Continuity mistake: When Lucy and Ricky are sitting on the coffee table looking through photos of Little Ricky, just as Lucy quips, "What magazine, body beautiful?" in the closeup the baby's photo orientation is portrait, but in the wideshots when Lucy looks at it and hands it to Ricky the orientation is landscape. (00:01:50)
Ricky's Old Girlfriend - S3-E11
Continuity mistake: When Fred tells Ricky there's an article in the newspaper about Carlota Romero, there's a closeup of the newspaper's back page with Carlota's photo, but later when Lucy takes the newspaper (the same NY Gazette issue) from Ethel, before she turns it over we can see that the back page photo and layout are different. (00:08:30 - 00:10:20)
Ricky's Old Girlfriend - S3-E11
Continuity mistake: When Fred shows Ricky the newspaper article about Carlota Romero appearing at the Opal Room, the front page of the paper reads "New York Gazette", but in the closeup of the article on the back page the newspaper is called "The Daily Record." (00:08:35)
Continuity mistake: In season 2's episode "The Ricardos Change Apartments" their new apartment number is "3B", but in this episode when Lucy's at her audition she tells the casting agent that her apartment number is "3D" (deliberately done in order for the 3D joke to work), and it's in the next episode "The French Revue" that we see the new number "3D" on the door. (00:19:30)
Redecorating the Mertzes' Apartment - S3-E7
Visible crew/equipment: At the end, when Lucy shows Ethel the brand new furniture in the apartment, note the actor's tape mark on the carpet between the couch and coffee table, where Lucy sits down. Fun to note: just as Ethel says "Everything turned out just wonderful, everything except," we can see one of the flying feathers from the earlier scene at the Mertz's apartment. The Mertz set was located right beside the Ricardo set. (00:24:25)
Visible crew/equipment: When Lucy and Ethel are at Caroline Appleby's apartment, a few actors' tape marks are visible on the carpet near the couch and side table, where characters will stand at different times during the scene. (00:06:00)
Revealing mistake: After Ricky and Lucy split up to go fishing Ricky yells that she should watch out for bears, and when Lucy stops at a tree and crouches down, the huge tree beside her jiggles when she leans on it. (00:13:40)
Visible crew/equipment: While Ethel's holding Little Ricky trying to soothe the baby, when it cuts to Fred just as he's walking into the bedroom, the sleeve of a crew member and a bit of camera/equipment can be seen at the right side of the screen. (00:03:30)
Answer: According to Snopes.com, there is no definitive answer, but the mid-1960s is the most verifiable date with "The Munsters" being cited as the first, although others claim "The Brady Bunch" showed the first couple seen in a double bed. An early TV show from the late 1940s titled, "Mary Kay and Johnny" is also thought to have shown the married couple's bedroom as having a double bed, although probably not with them in it. However, this was when TV was aired live, and there are no surviving episodes, only anecdotal accounts.
raywest ★
Something that is funny is that in the movie "A Christmas Story," they show the parents having two twin beds in their bedroom. In a real situation, they should have shown them having a double bed. Lucy and Ricky had twin beds pushed together in an early episode, which would have been pushing television boundaries in that time.