2nd Mar 2024
Fire in the Hull, the Gipper's Bombshell and Electric Tricycle - S15-E9
Factual error: It is stated that exhibits in the Pima Air and Space Museum include a 1964 F/A-18 Super Hornet used by the Blue Angels. The FA-18 Hornet did not enter service until 1983, and the Super Hornet did not enter service until 1999.
27th Feb 2024
Factual error: Santini murders Jerome using a revolver with a silencer. Although this is one of the oldest Hollywood tropes, a silencer (properly called a suppressor) does not reduce a gunshot to a whisper; it only cuts the noise to about 110 dB, which is still very loud. In addition, suppressors do not work at all on revolvers, because most of the noise is generated in the gap between the cylinder and the barrel.
27th Feb 2024
Factual error: All LAPD officers must re-qualify with their weapons multiple times a year. If indeed Columbo could not "hit the target," as he says to another detective, he would never have made it through the police academy, much less have become a detective and have been promoted to sergeant and eventually to lieutenant.
27th Feb 2024
Factual error: Columbo gives another detective $5 to go to the gun range for him. Technically, that is a bribe and it would cost both Columbo and the other detective their badges.
26th Feb 2024
Factual error: "Witches" were burned at the stake in Europe, but not in America. In America, they were hanged.
22nd Feb 2024
Factual error: At the beginning of the movie, Forney, who is an enlisted man (a chief petty officer), replies to an officer's orders with, "very well, sir." Officers say "very well" to enlisted personnel, but for an enlisted man to say "very well" to an officer is a serious breach of naval etiquette.
29th Dec 2023
Factual error: After checking the damage caused by the explosion, Gary Collins tells Dean Martin he's going to cut off the passenger oxygen, but that is something he could not do. Each passenger oxygen mask is part of an individual self-contained unit that uses a chemical reaction to generate oxygen. The reaction is initiated when a passenger pulls down on the mask, and once started, it cannot be stopped, but continues for 10 to 14 minutes.
25th Nov 2023
Factual error: The Marines that arrive at the landing site are said to be from El Toro, but El Toro was a Marine Corps Air Station; it would not have had the infantry, artillery, and armored units that arrive at the site.
18th Nov 2023
The Case of the Hesitant Hostess - S1-E29
Factual error: Supposedly, heroin is being smuggled into the country in secret compartments in women's purses, but the quantity of heroin that could be concealed in such a way would be so small as to be very unprofitable for the smugglers.
7th Nov 2023
Factual error: When Clay Spencer and his brothers begin work on his dream house, they mix and pour the concrete for the foundation, then immediately begin putting up the framing. The concrete would have to cure for at least two weeks before the framing could be started.
24th Oct 2023
Factual error: During the attack on Pearl Harbor, the destroyer Cassidy's aft 5-inch guns are moving, but they never fire.
2nd Oct 2023
Factual error: Several times, the revolver used to murder the singer is referred to as a "Weatherby" or "British Weatherby." Weatherby is an American manufacturer of rifles and shotguns; they do not make handguns. The revolver used is a Webley, which is of British manufacture.
2nd Sep 2023
Factual error: When Rodriguez is in his cabin with Blackthorne after having been saved by Yabu, he tells Blackthorne, "There's a bottle of grog over there." Grog was only invented, as it were, in 1740 by British Vice Admiral Edward Vernon, whose nickname was "Old Grog" because he wore a cloak of grogram cloth.
20th Jul 2023
Factual error: P.T. Barnum did not enter the circus business until 1870, when he was 60 years old.
17th May 2023
Factual error: The head master of the school criticizes Belle for "teaching another girl to read." But beginning in 1692, well before the movie is set, all parents in France were required, by royal decree, to send all their children, boys and girls, to school until at least age 13.
19th Oct 2022
Factual error: When the Reindeer aircraft is on the ground at Gander, Jimmy Stewart pulls the landing gear handle, but only the left main gear folds up. All three landing gear (left, right, and nose) would have folded together.
17th Aug 2022
Factual error: When Jett is supposedly drilling for oil, just before the gusher comes in, the equipment he is using is not a drilling rig, but a pump for an existing well already producing oil.
10th Aug 2022
Factual error: In the US Navy, liberty (what civilians usually call "shore leave") does not commence at 6:00 in the morning. It commences at 1600 (4:00 in the afternoon) and you have to be back on board by 0700 the next morning. Weekend liberty commences at 1600 Friday and expires on board at 0700 Monday.
12th Jul 2022
Factual error: Throughout the movie, the characters talk of "the" engine room. The Queen Mary (aka Poseidon) has four engine rooms: forward port, forward starboard, aft port, and aft starboard. There are also four shaft alleys (one for each propeller shaft), along with two generator rooms and five boiler rooms.
18th Feb 2022
Factual error: Throughout the series, there are repeated instances of "I Corps" being pronounced, "Eye Corps." Since Army corps are designated by Roman numerals, it should be pronounced, "First Corps." (I wonder how they would have pronounced "III Corps" or "XVII Corps?").