Jean G

Checkmate - S1-E9

Factual error: Several of the chess moves called out over the loudspeaker are not possible with the players in their current positions. The Queen, for instance, is ordered to King three while in her starting position (can't be done). The "Knight to Knight's Bishop three" move is also impossible. When she is free to move to King three, though, the Queen goes there twice - without moving anywhere else in between.

Jean G

The Schizoid Man - S1-E5

Factual error: Alison's Polaroid pictures develop themselves instantly. (In reality, you had to wait just over a minute before separating the developer sheet and finished photograph.) She also leaves the same flash bulb in when she takes a second picture - and it flashes again.

Jean G

Episode One (Pilot) - S1-E1

Factual error: Willie opens the secret room in the Collins family mausoleum, and a flock of bats flies out. It's a hidden chamber that's been sealed (without even small openings - it's imprisoning a vampire) for 200 years. There'd be no way for the bats to get in. (00:15:00)

Jean G

The Fifth Victim - S1-E12

Factual error: The dresser mirror in the saloon girl's boudoir is ringed with photos - but they're 20th Century color Polaroids. (00:24:00)

Jean G

The Hoodlum - S4-E1

Factual error: Diamond's car phone, quite a rarity in the 1950s, attracts a lot of attention. But the car should have a huge antenna attached to make the gadget work (it doesn't), and Diamond would not be getting direct calls - they'd have to go through a mobile operator first.

Jean G

Don't Get Mad, Get Even - S2-E21

Factual error: A grumpy Heyes tells Georgette and Curry that he's been sleeping in a stable loft for two days without a bath or a shave. But he's completely clean-shaven: not even a hint of stubble showing. (00:15:00)

Jean G

Wrong Train to Brimstone - S1-E4

Factual error: When the train is fully boarded, the conductor waves a lamp to signal the engineer. It's supposed to be 8 pm at night, but it's suspiciously sunny on the platform - and the signal lamp is noticeably not lit. (00:08:45)

Jean G

Which Way to the OK Corral? - S2-E20

Factual error: Heyes and Curry meet Doc Holliday and Marshall Wyatt Earp in Tombstone. Wyatt, however, was never a marshall in Tombstone, though his brother Virgil was. Wyatt and Doc Holliday both left Tombstone permanently shortly after the OK Corral shootout in 1881, so wouldn't even have been there when Heyes and Curry arrived in 1883. (The year's established by Heyes reading Twain's book published in that year).

Jean G

Dreadful Sorry, Clementine - S2-E10

Factual error: Heyes burns the photo - but he shouldn't have been able to. In the 1880s, it should be printed on tin and not on paper. (00:11:00)

Jean G

The Man Who Broke the Bank at Red Gap - S2-E17

Factual error: An egotistical, prissy and dishonest lawyer like Mr. Fletcher wouldn't make the mistake of allowing his name to be misspelled on his office door. It reads "Winfred Fletcher." His first name, as it's pronounced throughout the episode, is "Winford." (00:26:50)

Jean G

The Posse That Wouldn't Quit - S2-E5

Factual error: Heyes gives Bridget a glowing and accurate description of Denver's Brown Palace Hotel - a landmark that wasn't built until 1892, ten years after the setting here.

Jean G

The Day They Hanged Kid Curry (90 min.) - S2-E1

Factual error: Wheat refers to the hanging of real-life outlaw Black Jack Ketchum. But Ketchum was executed in 1901. Smith & Jones is set in the 1880s. (00:27:50)

Jean G

The Clementine Ingredient - S3-E4

Factual error: Clem puts the paper photo into an envelope and licks the flap to seal it. Pre-cut, pre-gummed envelopes, though they'd been invented, were big-city luxuries rare-to-non-existent in the "wild" west - they were too expensive for most people (like Clem) to afford, especially in the economically depressed decades following the Civil War. You generally cut and folded your own envelopes and glued or sealing-waxed them shut. (00:33:40)

Jean G

Alias Smith and Jones (90 min.) - S1-E1

Factual error: The telegram delivered to the sheriff's office is in an envelope with a machine-cut, transparent cellophane address window. This type of envelope wasn't manufactured until well into the 20th Century. (00:58:15)

Jean G

Alias Smith and Jones (90 min.) - S1-E1

Factual error: Kyle strikes a match on the wooden floor to light the dynamite's fuse. In the early 1880s (the era in which this series is set), a portable flint-and-tinder kit was the common method of sparking a light. While "strike anywhere" matches had been invented by this time and were quite the rage in Europe (despite an alarming tendency to explode due to the volatile chemicals used), they were an unknown commodity on the American frontier until well after the turn of the century. (00:03:00)

Jean G

And a Time to Die - S3-E1

Factual error: Kono gives the operator a six digit number for the public phone. By 1970, when this episode was shot, Hawaii had long since initiated seven digit phone numbers, as had most of the US more than a decade earlier. (00:30:30)

Jean G

Auld Lang Syne - S3-E24

Factual error: The Apache spearhead Buck appropriates is very obviously made from machine-tooled steel. Indian tribes in 1870s Arizona made their weapons points from hand-knapped stone and on rare occasions, iron. They never developed steel-making technology.

Jean G

Show generally

Factual error: Though High Chaparral had a windmill and a water tower, there were no pipes to deliver water to the house - just a well that appeared in the yard only when called for in the script. They had plenty of eggs, but no chicken coops, and though Victoria always had fresh flowers in the house, we never saw a garden. We also never saw the ranch outhouse, but no surprise there: no one on TV in the 60s ever had a bathroom.

Jean G

The General - S1-E6

Factual error: When Number 6 types "WHY?" on the typewriter, the sheet of paper comes out with the word centered on the page. But the typewriter's carriage was pushed all the way to one end, so the word couldn't possibly have wound up in the page center.

Jean G

Trail to Nevermore - S3-E7

Factual error: Despite taking a three-day trek across the blazing Arizona desert with no food, water or provisions (and definitely no knives or razors), neither John nor Manolito grows a beard, or even any stubble. They both arrive in Nevermore perfectly clean shaven.

Jean G