Best TV character mistakes of all time

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Hogan's Heroes picture

Show generally

Character mistake: In several scenes all over the show (though not always!), characters use the command "Raus!" to send somebody away from somewhere. Raus, short for "heraus" literally means "out" in the sense of "out of a building", which would be "aus einem Gebäude heraus" in German. Used as a command, it always means "get out", never "get away from there" or "get lost", in other words, the addressee must be inside of somewhere to be ordered "Raus." One example would be Schultz sending the prisoners away from general Burkhalter's car in S05E13.

Doc

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Suggested correction: It doesn't take much research to debunk this claim. Also, John Banner, the actor that most often used the term in the show, was German-born and raised. I'm sure he would have spoken up if it were wrong.

Sorry, what is the "not much" it takes to debunk that claim? By the way John Banner was not born and raised in Germany but in what was then Hungary-Austria. I, on the other hand, AM German born and raised, so if you think you know more about my native tongue than me, by all means, educate me. As for why it wasn't corrected, my guess is this: Words like raus, schnell, was ist los, bitte or danke are rather well known even in the US, so the audience would be able to follow the dialog.

Doc

Sorry, John Banner was born in Poland. He was not German.

Kevin l Habershaw

He was born in 1910 in the city once known as Stanislau, prior to being annexed by Poland in 1919. At the time of his birth, it was part of Austria-Hungary, and one of the official languages was German.

Bishop73

You're correct. I didn't read the IMDb page enough.

Kevin l Habershaw

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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

More Community character mistakes
The X-Files picture

Drive - S6-E2

Character mistake: Scully continually addresses the senior police officer as "Captain." But he wears sergeant's stripes. As a law enforcement officer continually dealing with other law enforcement officers, Scully is not likely to make this mistake. More likely a failure to match script with costume.

Necrothesp

More The X-Files character mistakes
Passions picture

Show generally

Character mistake: At the end of April and the beginning of May in 2004, Luis was decoding the CDs with the Crane secrets on them. For an extended period of time, Luis left the CDs completely unattended at Hank's house. Luis told several different people that the computer was decoding the CDs and didn't need anybody there to do it. Given that Alistair is virtually omniscient in Harmony, it's ridiculous that he didn't break into Hank's apartment and take the CDs.

DavidK93

More Passions character mistakes
Malcolm in the Middle picture

Goodbye Kitty - S5-E3

Character mistake: When Otto tells Francis he has to put a horse down, Francis objects saying he's never killed anything bigger than a poodle, and that was an accident. However, in season 4 (episode 11), Francis accidentally killed Otto's pet cow. (00:11:30)

djm

More Malcolm in the Middle character mistakes
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit picture

Lead - S10-E15

Character mistake: Elliot Stabler is interrogating a suspect and he says "Well maybe he got pissy because of the 2.2 you blew into the breathalyzer." He said two-point-two but he meant point-two-two because a 2.2 BAC is like 5 times the lethal limit, so a 0 .22 BAC makes more sense. (00:20:10)

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Home Improvement picture

Bright Christmas - S7-E11

Character mistake: Jill mentions that her parents were married for 50 years, and her mother corrects her and says it was 51 years and 7 months. However, the season 6 episode Jill And Her Sisters was about the aforementioned ladies planning their parents' 50th wedding anniversary, and the penultimate episode of the season, Taps, saw Jill's father die a few months after the former episode. Since only a few months had passed, there's no way Jill's parents could have been married for 51 years and 7 months.

Phaneron

More Home Improvement character mistakes
Recess picture

One Stayed Clean - S3-E1

Character mistake: When Mikey looks at the Picture Day schedule, he points out that 4th grade is going last. However, the schedule says they are after 3rd grade and before 5th grade, actually making them fifth. The faculty is actually listed last on the schedule.

More Recess character mistakes
Quantum Leap picture

Catch A Falling Star - May 21, 1979 - S2-E10

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. (00:02:05)

Jean G

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The West Wing picture

Red Haven's on Fire - S4-E17

Character mistake: Will's tax demonstration to his volunteer staffers is incorrect. He applies the various tax rates to the entirety of each salary range. The person who makes $150K and is in the 36% rate...in his example he has them paying 36% on their entire salary, not just the portion of it that puts them ahead of the next lower tax rate. If the tax rate jumped to 70% at income of $1M, and a person earned $1,050,000, they wouldn't be paying the 70% rate on all $1,050,000 of their income, only the last $50,000 of it. Will's example makes it look like they would be.

marathon69

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Family Ties picture

Ready or Not - S2-E16

Character mistake: When Alex mentions to Mallory that he's had sex before, he tells her he was 17 and that it was leap year. Not correct, this event occurred in 1982 (during one of the first episodes when Alex was 17), which was not a leap year.

More Family Ties character mistakes
King of the Hill picture

Stressed for Success - S8-E19

Character mistake: Ben Stein asks a chemistry question about -273° Kelvin. The problem is, the scientific community never uses the word 'degrees' when referring to Kelvin. The correct way to say it would have been, "-273 Kelvin is also known as what?" Also Kelvin cannot be negative since 0 kelvin (approx -273° Celsius) is absolute zero.

Hysteria 1987

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Stargate: Atlantis picture

Epiphany - S2-E12

Character mistake: Rodney says that one hour in real time would give them months inside the field. This is incorrect because if the ratio of time were 1:250 as stated before, one hour would only convert to 250 hours, which is 10 days and 10 hours.

Tanngrisnir

More Stargate: Atlantis character mistakes
Goosebumps picture

Night of the Living Dummy III (1) - S2-E24

Character mistake: When Zane sees Rocky with the hockey mask, he seems legitimately terrified when he notices him. However, he was responsible for putting him there and no-one else was around. There is no reason for him to express real fear when he planned for his appearance the whole time. (00:11:44 - 00:12:08)

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Suggested correction: He only pretended to be scared in order to fool his cousins, uncle and aunt.

More Goosebumps character mistakes
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Sun Probe - S1-E11

Character mistake: During the television report about the Sun Probe, a diagram shows the solarnauts' control cabin within the Probe Module. But we later see that the control cabin is within the body of the Probe Rocket when the Module is fired into the solar prominence.

More Thunderbirds character mistakes
Doctor Who picture

Rose - S1-E1

Character mistake: When Rose thinks Mickey is dead, she says she'll have to tell his mother. But in Rise of the Cybermen in Series 2, she says that Mickey's mother has been dead since he was a child. (00:30:17)

TheIrishMovieBuff

More Doctor Who character mistakes
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

More Casualty character mistakes
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