Revealing mistake: When Dixie's in the basement asking Gary why the lab is still backed up, the next shot shows the plumber working in the cabinet under the sink, but when it cuts to the next shot the plumber is gone, his tool box is closed, things are different/missing from the counters, and the tables and stools have been turned over with a mess all around, before the explosion even occurs.
Continuity mistake: While 51 is breaking into the bookie's apartment, after Chet uses the axe on certain areas of the door he puts the axe down, and in the shot from inside the apartment Chet reaches in through the hole on the door to undo the chain and remove the bar, but when the door opens there's another new axe mark over the top lock that was not made by Chet.
Continuity mistake: After the bookmaker has had the heart attack, when Captain Stanley bangs on his door, the bookie pulls one of the four telephones onto the floor, and when Roy walks in it ends up lying on the floor between the defibrillator and drug box, leaving three phones on the table. However, in the closeup, when Vince places all the phone receivers onto the bases, there are four phones on the table, plus a notepad suddenly appears on the table, and there are fewer cigarette butts in the ashtray.
Visible crew/equipment: Near the end of the episode, when Charlie hitches up The Boat to his pickup truck and drives it away, the reflection of the array set lighting is visible on the pickup's door.
Continuity mistake: When the Coast Guard chopper reaches The Boat that ran aground off Catalina, during the rescue Roy and Johnny are seen wearing water-type shoes, not their uniform shoes.
Continuity mistake: When the patients who were treated at 86's arrive at the ER, Dix has Morton take the asthmatic boy with bronchitis into treatment 1. Then, when Roy is with Early in treatment 4, Early tells Roy to go to treatment 1 to ask Morton if he needs help, and when Roy walks into treatment 1 we can see that it's not really treatment 1, it's actually treatment 4 just playing the part of treatment 1.
Other mistake: After Engine 51 and Squad 51 are dispatched to "man trapped," while en route to the incident Engine 86 becomes available, so when the dispatcher cancels Engine 51 we hear Captain Stanley respond, "Engine 51," but the subtitles read that Johnny is the one who responds "Engine 51," which is pretty silly since John and Roy are in Squad 51. Subtitles from Universal Studios 2010 DVD.
Visible crew/equipment: When the police officer who was struck by lightning is wheeled into the ER, just as Dixie, Brackett, and Early walk up the hallway, the two tape marks are visible on the floor right outside the doorway of treatment 2, where Dixie is about to stand. Additionally, we can see the outline of the transmitter wire on the back of Dixie's uniform.
Continuity mistake: While Roy and Johnny are at 86's treating everyone who is being brought in, when Johnny's on the Biophone with Brackett, in Brackett's closeups at the base station, we can see that the actor has a very swollen upper lip. When the officer who was hit by lightning is brought into the ER, Brackett's lip is much less swelled, and more the way it normally looks, but when Brackett is back at the base station, his upper lip is swelled up once again.
Visible crew/equipment: When the woman drives her car up to Station 86 with the two injured passengers, the outline of mic transmitter is visible on the back of her sweater, when she gets out of the car.
Visible crew/equipment: When the psychiatrist comes to help at Station 86, as she leans over to clean the man's head wound, the bulging outline of the lav mic transmitter is visible on the back of her blouse.
Visible crew/equipment: At Station 86, when the woman brings in her asthmatic son, and talks to Johnny outside, the bulging outline of the mic transmitter is visible on the back of her blouse. Then later, when Johnny walks over to the boy's bed because the patients are being moved to the chopper, the bulging transmitter outline is now at her side.
Continuity mistake: When Station 51 is dispatched to 'the man down' at the hotel, Roy gets into the squad fully dressed (he was talking to Chet) and wearing his blue uniform shirt, but when they're in the apartment his shirt is gone and he's only wearing an undershirt under his jacket, though Johnny is wearing his uniform shirt.
Visible crew/equipment: When Station 51 is being dispatched to 'man down' at the hotel, in the overhead shot of the apparatus bay as the guys are getting into the rigs, the reflection of moving production equipment can be seen on Engine 51's windshield.
Other mistake: When the woman from the car accident is in the ER, Morton uses the laryngoscope to intubate her, and hooks her up to the respirator, but then she goes into V-fib, and when the defibrillation and epinephrin are unsuccessful and she flatlines, even if the respirator hose came loose she would still have the intubation tube in her mouth, but she doesn't.
Revealing mistake: When the woman from the car accident is in the ER, she goes into V-fib, so Brackett, Morton, Roy and Johnny work on her and defib four times without success, and as we hear the hum of the flatlining, the camera pans to the left just low enough so that we can see her lying on the gurney, with her blue shirt still buttoned up.
Continuity mistake: When the woman from the car accident is in the ER, and goes into V-fib, Brackett, Morton, Roy and Johnny work on her. Johnny does chest compressions and they defib three times, then Morton takes over the chest compressions, but when Brackett is about to defib the fourth time we see Johnny's arms stopping the compressions, when in fact it was Morton doing them at that time.
Continuity mistake: When Roy and Johnny are on their lines attempting to rescue the unconscious game show contestant wannabe, before they're able to get the pompier life belt around the man's waist, the belt falls to the ground and lands near the man's cape and broken balancing pole. However, when the ambulance attendants walk towards the building, in the overhead shot the life belt has vanished; only the cape and broken pole are lying on the ground.
Continuity mistake: When Station 51 is dispatched to the 'man down', time out is 21:30, but when Johnny and Roy are at Mr. Jefferson's apartment, Johnny's watch reads 3:05. Back at the station, when Chet's sitting beside Johnny at the typewriter, Johnny's watch reads 5:15, but at Rampart it's after 2:00 when Mr. Jefferson has the bypass operation. When Station 51 is dispatched to the car accident, time out is 1:50, but when Johnny checks the woman's pupils, his watch reads 1:00, and when they're back at the station his watch reads 10:05, as Johnny tells Roy that the show is crazy.
Continuity mistake: When Dr. Early and Dr. Morton are in the treatment room with Mr. Jefferson, Morton's stethoscope is draped over his shoulder with the ear tubes at his back in the wide shots, but in the closeup the ear tubes are lying in front.
Answer: It is standard practice to wet down driveways so that they stand out in a long shot.
stiiggy