Best TV character mistakes of all time

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That '70s Show picture

Halloween - S2-E5

Character mistake: At the burnt out school when they fight between themselves, Jackie says "Donna kissed Hyde last year" referring to the episode 'Ski Trip' in season 1 which was in the same year according to the licence plate - '77.

The Synj

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CSI: Miami picture

Bunk - S1-E13

Character mistake: Horatio writes the symbols for sulfuric acid, H2SO4, on a clear board. Both numbers should be subscripts but he writes the 4 as a coefficient (which precedes the name of the acid but he writes it after), suggesting a lack of basic chemistry knowledge.

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Stargate SG-1 picture

Touchstone - S2-E14

Character mistake: The team are finding out who could have stolen the weather device from Madrona and find an energy spike at the same time SG2 are on a mission. "But SG2's mission is galaxies away from Madrona" Says Teal'c. At this time the only missions the teams could go on was in our own galaxy and couldn't be galaxies away.

Cybermoose

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The Brady Bunch picture

Amateur Nite - S4-E16

Character mistake: When the Brady kids are practicing for the talent show, instead of saying, "Come on, Pete," Marcia says, "Come on Chris," which is the actor playing Peter's real name (Christopher Knight). (00:14:30)

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Only Fools and Horses picture

Time on Our Hands - S8-E3

Character mistake: During the scene of the dinner, James (Raquel's father) states that he was in the Royal Navy and was "First Officer" (1/O). The Navy does not have this rank since it is a Merchant Navy rank. The rough equivalent of this is Lieutenant in the RN and Albert would've known this but didn't mention anything. It is also extremely unlikely that an officer the RN would still be Lieutenant after doing his full quota of 12 years service.

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

Suggested correction: Butters is always shown as being a bit dim and slow. As a kid it's easy for him to make a mistake in thinking that there was only 132 episodes.

Ssiscool

That's why it's called a "character mistake"; also, Butters is certainly naive, but he's hardly what I would call "dim and slow."

zendaddy621

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Angel picture

Five By Five - S1-E18

Character mistake: When Faith arrives in LA she is carrying a bag. She puts it on the ground and then steals a man's jacket and wallet. Afterwards however, she leaves without picking up her bag.

THGhost

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Desperate Housewives picture

Suspicion Song - S8-E8

Character mistake: When Bree calls the police when she hears a noise downstairs, she says she lives at 4355 Wisteria Lane when her address is in fact 4354 Wisteria Lane. 4355 is the Scavo residence, not the Van De Kamp residence.

THGhost

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The Sopranos picture

Nobody Knows Anything - S1-E11

Character mistake: When Tony tells Dr. Melfi he feels as though a safe might fall on his head, she replies, "a feeling of pending doom." A woman of her intellect and education should know the proper word is "impending." "Pending" means something awaiting a conclusion. "Impending" means about to occur.

djm

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Community picture

Custody Law and Eastern European Diplomacy - S2-E18

Character mistake: Annie when giving her gifts is holding two little mini flags to cover the possible ethnicity of Shirley's baby. One is a Chinese flag and the other is Zimbabwe. Annie makes reference to the fact that the ethnic food she made is one from Ghana. She makes Ghana ethnic food but does not get the right flag for Ghana. She decorates the table with numerous flags which are also Zimbabwe.

Lummie

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Avatar: The Last Airbender picture

Jet - S1-E10

Character mistake: When Jet tells Katara and Aang to waterbend the water from underground in the geysers, Katara states that she has never waterbent on water she couldn't see before. However, six episodes prior to this, in 'The Warriors of Kyoshi', she waterbends the water out from Aang's lungs to save his life.

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

Suggested correction: That was a moment of desperation on her part, and she probably doesn't think of it/think she can do it again without the same desperate impetus, Furthermore, the water in Aang was only a small amount and very close anyway.

dizzyd

Regardless of if she did it in desperation or not, she did use bending on water she didn't see. The mistake isn't suggesting anything about Katara's ability to waterbend unseen water, the mistake is only in regards to the statement Katara made about never using bending on water she can't see. And for Katara to forget the one time she used bending on water she didn't see would qualify as a character mistake as well. Now if she made the statement "I don't think I can do this" or "I've never used bending on underground water", etc, that would not be a character mistake.

Bishop73

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Casualty picture

There's No Place Like Home - S28-E16

Character mistake: The old photo of Sylvia and her friend shows them in RAF uniform. Sam, who is a serving British Army officer and could be expected to recognise the very obvious differences between the uniforms, keeps referring to Sylvia being in the Army and Sylvia does not disagree with her.

Necrothesp

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