Best TV deliberate mistakes of all time

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Under the Dome picture

Show generally

Deliberate mistake: When the dome is blacked out and blocking Chester's Mill from the sun, there should be no light at all in the forest, yet it's lit as if under a full moon. (01:10:40)

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Ash vs Evil Dead picture

El Jefe - S1-E1

Deliberate mistake: Inside the home that has been infested with Evil, the state police confront a possessed girl who attacks them. After some futile gunfire, the possessed girl is still standing. The female officer goes for her backup gun, which for some reason is a small over-and-under Derringer (meaning she has two shots maximum). She ends up firing the Derringer five times in just a few seconds, with explosive damage and without reloading. Director Sam Raimi probably staged the 5 gunshots on purpose, knowing that a two-round Derringer was a ridiculously-limited piece of firepower. Raimi probably did this as a tongue-in-cheek tribute to Ash's bottomless double-barrelled shotgun from Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness.

Charles Austin Miller

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The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel picture

Thank You and Good Night - S1-E8

Deliberate mistake: In the Maisels' 1954 wedding reception flashback, Midge hired professional dancers who perform the "Bottle Dance" (where they slide on their knees). This famous dance, often performed at Jewish weddings and social events, was choreographed by Jerome Robbins for "Fiddler on the Roof," which debuted on Broadway in 1964. It did not exist in 1954 but, as an inside joke, while Midge watches, she says, "That's really good. They should do something with that."

raywest

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And Then There Were None picture

Episode #1.3 - S1-E3

Deliberate mistake: When the judge shoots himself, the revolver slides across the table, to fake his murder by someone else. But there is no mechanism in place that explains how he does this, making it appear as if he is able to accurately throw/slide the gun after shooting himself. In the original novel, he used a rubber band to achieve the effect, but he is not shown setting it up here.

Twotall

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Hustle picture

Cops and Robbers - S1-E4

Deliberate mistake: When Sam first meets Mickey (who is posing as a bank robber), Mickey says he needs Sam to state that he needs Mickey's help in robbing a bank, so if Sam turns out to be an undercover cop, Mickey can plead entrapment. This is a classic error. Entrapment only exists where a cop actively persuades a criminal to do something he otherwise wouldn't have done - which is not the case here. If Mickey as a con artist knows this (which is likely), it's a deliberate mistake, otherwise it's a factual error. (00:30:09)

swordfish

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The Greatest American Hero picture

Season 1 generally

Deliberate mistake: When the show premiered on March 18th, 1981 Ralph's last name started out as Hinkley, but after a couple of episodes had aired on TV, on March 30th a man named Hinckley shot then U.S. President Reagan and three other people, so in the remaining episodes of season 1 Ralph's last name was changed to Hanley. His last name was changed back to Hinkley in season 2.

Super Grover

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Wizards of Waverly Place picture

Wizards vs. Vampires on Waverly Place - S2-E26

Deliberate mistake: Justin tells his dad he will write the idea on the white board (the theme in the restaurant/add more of an experience) yet he just scribbles, and in the scenes where you see a bit behind him, the whiteboard has scribbles instead of words where he was supposed to write.

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Bodyguard picture

Show generally

Deliberate mistake: David is shown to have an illegal weapon in his home even though gun control is quite strict in the U.K. Sadly, this is quite a common practice by returning war veterans who feel safer with a gun in the house, as they often suffer from PTSD, as David does.

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Dead Ringers picture

Show generally

Deliberate mistake: Identical twins Beverly and Elliot have the exact same beauty mark on their faces, roughly on the smile line directly across from the right nostril. Identical twins don't share features like that.

Phaneron

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Shameless picture

Swipe, Fuck, Leave - S7-E2

Deliberate mistake: When Dominique is creating a Tinder profile for Fiona (an app Fiona admits she doesn't use), she manages to use Fiona's phone to take a picture of her, create a profile, and quickly get three matches, all within a span of 25 seconds. Downloading the app itself would take longer than 25 seconds, much less agreeing to its terms of service, and verifying the email or phone number associated with the account. (00:45:15 - 00:45:39)

Phaneron

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X-Men '97 picture

To Me, My X-Men - S1-E1

Deliberate mistake: When the news program is discussing Gyrich's assassination attempt on Xavier from the series finale of the original animated series, he's shown to have his classic look of auburn hair and sunglasses. However, when this scene occurred, Gyrich had black hair and was not wearing sunglasses. This was done deliberately to match the character design of the original series prior to the final 6 episodes, when Saban took over and redesigned much of the show's look.

Phaneron

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