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I Will Repay - S1-E10

Continuity mistake: Elizabeth the leper is wearing a dirty gray dress under her black cloak - until Nick makes her a vampire, when suddenly there's a beautiful, spotlessly clean white gown under her cloak. (00:09:30 - 00:26:30)

Jean G

Mr. Monk Takes Manhattan - S3-E1

Continuity mistake: When Monk is lost in the street crowd after getting pushed into the subway car, his left shirt collar is sticking up over his coat. It's still up when he puts his hands to his head, but is tucked neatly back in in the next shot, though he still has both hands on his head. A few seconds later, it's the right collar flap that's sticking out instead.

Jean G

I Will Repay - S1-E10

Trivia: The piano piece Nick plays in this episode was composed and performed by Geraint Wyn Davies. He wrote it for his children, as an elegy to a pet bird that had died. (00:09:40)

Jean G

Mr. Monk and the T.V. Star - S2-E12

Continuity mistake: The blood stains on Brad Terry's sweatshirt change positions after he runs back into the house. A few shots later, they're suddenly so faint they're barely visible at all anymore. Blood stains don't fade, at least not in just a few minutes.

Jean G

Mr. Monk and the T.V. Star - S2-E12

Trivia: Marcy, the obsessed fan of Brad's crime show, complains bitterly about his series changing its theme song. This was written as a little joke on Monk's real life fans, many of whom protested the show's 2nd season musical change from Jeff Beal's instrumental to Randy Newman's vocal theme. Newman's vocals opened this episode as usual, but after Marcy repeats her "don't change the theme song" mantra at the end, Beal's theme was brought back to play over the closing credits. It's been used at the end a number of times since.

Jean G

Trivia: U.N.C.L.E. stood for the United Network Command for Law & Enforcement. The original intent was that the U.N. portion of its name should stand for United Nations, until it was learned that the real U.N. doesn't permit its name to be used as part of any commercial enterprise. So the more nebulous term "Network" was used instead.

Jean G

Trivia: Though U.N.C.L.E. was entirely fictive, thousands of fans wrote NBC and MGM in the 60s begging to join up. Might have had something to do with the bogus disclaimer at the end of every episode: "We wish to thank the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement, without whose assistance this program would not be possible." So many requests came in that MGM printed U.N.C.L.E. membership cards and sent them to the letter writers.

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Trivia: Thrush, U.N.C.L.E.'s nemesis organization, was an international bad-guy conglomerate with the single-minded goal of taking over the world. Though "Thrush" was never an acronym on the show itself, U.N.C.L.E. novelist David McDaniel assigned it a meaning that became fan canon: he called it the Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity. That pretty much described Thrush's nefarious ambitions to a T.

Jean G

Mr. Monk and Little Monk - S4-E8

Continuity mistake: When the kids are standing in front of the lockers, one of them is holding Monk's clarinet. The position of the instrument in his hand keeps changing between shots, from bell-up to bell-down, then bell-up again.

Jean G

Trivia: U.N.C.L.E. had cell phones 30 years before they were invented in the real world. Even before Star Trek, U.N.C.L.E. had "communicators" that utilized the brand new technology of the recently launched TelStar communications satellite. The communicators were first disguised as cigarette packs and cases, but later became spiffy pocket pens that morphed into satellite radios when the cap was upended. U.N.C.L.E.'s spies then "phoned home" with the request to "Open Channel D."

Jean G

Trivia: "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.'s" original working title was "Solo," and its lead character was named for a spy with a minor role in one of Ian Fleming's early Bond novels. U.N.C.L.E. producer Norman Felton had a handshake agreement with Fleming to use the name and to develop "Solo" as a TV spy series. But the Bond film franchise had other ideas, reneged on the agreement on Fleming's behalf, and sued, forcing the title change. Felton prevailed only in retaining the character's name: Napoleon Solo.

Jean G

Mr. Monk Goes to Mexico - S2-E2

Trivia: According to co-producer Tom Scharpling, the Mexican homicide cops are purposely written as parodies of Stottlemeyer and Disher, right down to their attitudes, their ranks, their suits, and Captain Alameda's mustache. Even the bumbling lieutenant's name is a little joke on Disher. Plato means "dish" in Spanish.

Jean G

Mr. Monk and the Sleeping Suspect - S2-E7

Continuity mistake: When Monk spills the potted plant and grabs a vacuum cleaner from the hall, he's holding the handle with several large paper towels. When he plugs the vacuum in, he now has a wipe in his hand instead. When he's finished plugging in and turns around, the wipe has vanished and there's nothing in his hands or on the vacuum. But when we cut to a wider shot as he turns the vacuum on, the paper towels reappear on the handle.

Jean G

Mr. Monk and the Sleeping Suspect - S2-E7

Deliberate mistake: All the mail bombs are delivered in packages tied with knotted string. The USPO hasn't allowed string-tied packages since the mid-90s (they get caught in automated equipment), but since the knots were crucial to ID-ing the suspect in this episode, that fact had to be ignored.

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Trivia: Before the series went on the air, Gene Roddenberry expressed concerns about the sound effects in Star Trek's intro. He wondered if the "swish" effect of the passing ship should be removed, since there's no sound in space. Desilu Studios polled preview audiences about it; the majority said they liked the effect because it conveyed great speed, and that the scientific inaccuracy didn't bother them. So the "swish" was allowed to remain.

Jean G

Miri - S1-E9

Continuity mistake: The dust smudging both Spock's uniform and that of the older security guard instantly vanishes when they walk out of the building to go look for the onlies. (00:08:10)

Jean G

Miri - S1-E9

Trivia: Many of the "onlies" in the final scenes of this episode were the children of Star Trek's cast and crew. They included William Shatner's two young daughters, Leslie and Lisabeth Shatner. (00:43:40)

Jean G

Dying to Know You - S1-E6

Continuity mistake: Schanke calls Nick to tell him they've found Mrs. Hedges' body, and says, "They cut her throat, man." We even see a brief shot of the bloodied corpse. But later in the morgue, Nick says, "She was asphyxiated, right?" and Nat agrees. The corpse on the autopsy table now appears to have an intact throat. So, which way did Mrs. Hedges die? (00:22:15 - 00:38:10)

Jean G

Show generally

Factual error: Though she wore medical smocks and occasionally a baseball cap to hold back her hair, Natalie was never correctly attired when she performed her autopsies. In fact, she usually worked with her hair loose and hanging down over the corpse, which may have made her look prettier, but is a serious breach of forensic etiquette that could contaminate the evidence. Even the best-coiffed coroners still have to wear sterile caps and gear.

Jean G

Show generally

Revealing mistake: When "Dark Shadows" did its version of "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde," the Hyde character, John Yaeger, had prosthetic nose trouble during a fight scene. His rubber schnoz came unglued and nearly fell off. He was subsequently given a nose job.

Jean G