Other mistake: How on earth can a jobbing actor in a late-night soap with a non-paying tenant afford a huge, luxurious, two-bedroom apartment, complete with balcony and communal hot-tub, all within a few miles of the Hollywood sign? That's the expensive side of L.A, and he'd be very lucky to get that apartment for under five figures a month.
Revealing mistake: Watch the opening sequence of this episode very carefully - Clarkson, May and Hammond are not in Downing Street (they are on a set that stands on the BBC backlot) and library footage of the Prime Minister is cleverly edited in to make it look as if they were there at the same time. Even taking into account the fact that the Prime Minister's security service would never allow such an intrusion onto Downing Street, the line up of the shots does not quite match - our three intrepid heroes should be visible in shot when the Prime Minister is shown exiting number 10, but they are nowhere to be seen. It is all sleight of hand and clever editing, but detectable if you watch carefully enough.
Factual error: In the episode, "Professor Blackjack", Manny puts a stack of one hundred dollar bills on the card table for the professor to bet. The bills are the new ones issued a few years ago with the enlarged portrait of Benjamin Franklin. The scene is supposed to take place in 1961.
Continuity mistake: When Theo hits the fence it becomes snapped a bit but in the next shot you can see him preparing to charge at the fence again, and it is whole again.
Continuity mistake: While Mike is cleaning out the armadillo's hay, just before he finishes the second one you can see the amount of hay in the bin is a few inches from the top of the bin. The next shot goes to a close up of him removing more hay but the amount of hay now in the bin is a bit below the top.
Other mistake: If you look on Disk Three, in the Features section, select "Behind the Tunes", you'll see three titles: "Too fast, too furry-ous", "Blanc Expressions", and "Merrie Melodies: Carl Stalling and Cartoon Misic". Misic? Just to be sure I unloaded the DVD player software and rebooted. Nope, still there. How did THAT get past quality control? Should be "music", in case you're wondering.
Factual error: At the end of the episode, they say the Bible said he lived to be 110 years old. The Bible says 70.
Continuity mistake: Jamie and Adam are shooting at Police badges to see which one would potentially stop a bullet. When they get to the third badge, it is held up to the camera. It says 'Jamie Hyneman' on the badge. The badge is then shot, and shown again to the camera. This time the engraved writing on the badge has changed to 'Adam Savage'.
Outlaw Marshal, 76 Days Adrift, Diamond Hoax - S6-E5
Factual error: In the story about Anna Hahn, a close-up is shown of a person being sworn in to testify in court. The Bible used is a Revised Standard Version. Ms. Hahn was tried in 1937. The RSV Bible's first edition was not published until 1946.
Continuity mistake: In the episode where they overhaul a 1976 blue van, there is a shot of the white donor van being carted away. Yet later on in the same episode, the white donor van is back in the workshop.
Other mistake: Ms. Herfkens is relating the final moments when the aircraft she was in crashed in the jungle. She is sitting to the left of her fiancée. After the crash, she states what happened after the crash. She states that she looked to her left and saw her fiancée still strapped to the seat. But if she was sitting to his left, as shown in the scene, she would have had to look to her right. Given that she is recounting an actual event, the scene showing her sitting to his left is wrong.
Other mistake: The police are watching a bus traveling between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. As part of the surveillance, they show a policeman in a car taking pictures. The lens cap is still on.
Factual error: Near the beginning of the episode dealing with the life of Moses, they depict various scenes of ancient Egypt, during his time. But they show the Sphinx with the nose missing (as it looks today), when that face was intact until the early 19th century when Napoleon's troops used it for artillery target practice.
Factual error: They show a clip of a kamikaze diving into a ship. The clip they show was actually an event from much later in the war: offshore of Okinawa. No ship on either side was struck by a plane during the Battle of Midway.
Continuity mistake: The father of a teen girl murdered in CA receives a letter from a self-proclaimed psychic concerning the murder. He received it at his home in RI, but the letter is addressed to San Diego, CA. The address is shown twice. (00:08:00 - 00:14:00)
Revealing mistake: Whenever the newspaper Josh is shown at the beginning appears, the news story consists of a paragraph that repeats itself.
Factual error: Harold Alexander, although his rank of major-general is correctly mentioned by the narrator, wears the rank insignia of a full general.
Factual error: Both Inspector Shaw and Chief Inspector Bailie wear their medal ribbons in the wrong order. The Golden Jubilee Medal is worn first, followed by the Diamond Jubilee Medal, followed by (for Bailie) the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal.
Revealing mistake: In the second of two cases, a man who shot and killed his girlfriend is stopped by police. He is shown pointing his handgun out of the car window, but it is obvious that the barrel and recoil spring assembly of the gun have been removed. (00:41:03)
Pompeii's Gate to Hell - S4-E8
Factual error: This episode includes a segment about an abandoned dry dock in San Francisco. At one point, one of the commentators several times refers to the U.S.S. Ward as a "battleship," and marvels that it was built in 17 days. The Ward (DD-139) was a 1200-ton destroyer, not a battleship, and was launched after only 17 days, but then took another two months to complete. By way of comparison, the California (BB-44), an actual battleship of 32,000-tons built during the same time period, too nearly five years to complete.