Corrected entry: Crassus, when talking to the man he makes the head of the Roman Garrison, says that the reason he is doing this is to 'checkmate' his senate opponent. 'Checkmate' is a chess term and as such would not have been used by a Roman in the 1st Century BC as the game wasn't invented until at least the 6th Century AD in India.
DavidK93
21st Dec 2008
Spartacus (1960)
13th Sep 2003
Mama's Family (1983)
Corrected entry: When Thelma, Fran, and Naomi get up on stage and lip-sync to "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," they do a coordinated dance. In the real world (i.e., not a musical), three people can't decide to do a dance together on the spur of the moment, and somehow spontaneously know all the steps to a three minute dance.
Correction: They don't decide to do the dance on the spur of the moment-earlier in the episode, Thelma tells Vint that they were planning on pantomiming to the record, which means they would have rehearsed the dance.
Correction: It's a TV and movie convention, you just have to suspend disbelief otherwise 99% of the dance numbers in TV shows and movies would never exist.
At the 6:46 mark of the episode, Thelma tells Vint that Naomi, Fran and herself are going to pantomime dance as the Andrew sisters and has him sit down so she can show him the dance that they have choreographed when she is interrupted by Buzz and Sonia telling her they voted to have a "punk" dance with the group Medication.
This was a fundraiser dance at Edgar Allen Poe H.S. in Raytown. They were trying to "save" the school auditorium/gym. The punk band did not arrive, so Thelma, Fran and Naomi went on stage to save the dance. Prior to the students voting to have the punk band to perform, Buzz and Sonja, had given the idea of a 1940's USO Revival. T, F and N had already practiced this lip sync and dance routine w/the belief they would perform it. Also, 40 yrs ago who didn't lip sync and try to copy Michael Jackson?
It's a convention of musicals, where singing and dancing are fanciful or are depicted as performed by characters who are actors that have rehearsed a performance. It doesn't apply to this scene of a non-musical sitcom where the characters are aware that they are singing and dancing on the spur of the moment, and have not prepared for it in advance.
8th Dec 2003
The Simpsons (1989)
Corrected entry: Bart asks Lisa how she knows so much about the Talmud. She credits her imaginary Jewish friend. But Bart was with Lisa in episode 3-6: "Like Father, Like Clown," when she made an extensive study of ancient Jewish texts. So Bart shouldn't need to ask the question in the first place, and Lisa's answer is incorrect, or at least incomplete.
27th May 2004
Charmed (1998)
Corrected entry: In episode 3-9: "Coyote Piper," Piper danced sexily on the bar while the song "Unbelievable" played. She danced only to the one song before her sisters pulled her off the bar. In this episode, Phoebe and Paige physically enter Piper's memory (magically enhanced for accuracy), and a different song plays during Piper's dance, despite it being the exact same video footage. (00:33:35)
Correction: The reason why the music is different when Piper is dancing on top of the bar in the memory of the episode "Cat House" is because once the series had ended, any music that was used during the course of the series the license had ended and could no longer be used, with the future reproduction of DVDs of the series. All music that was used including the theme song was replaced, all with the exception of the scenes of the many different bands that performed at P3, which were kept and along with the show's outro music, which was composed by the show production staff Jay Gruska. Any TV networks that air the show will still have the original music, but other video media platforms such as Netflix, will have the new changes to it.
Thanks for the information, but in this case, if true, it proves that the change was made in episode 5-8 as aired on TV, because I saw music other than "Unbelievable" on television, in syndication on TNT, rather than on a platform. The reason I noticed the difference was that I watched the two episodes close together in time, both on TNT.
14th Jun 2004
Charmed (1998)
Something Wicca This Way Comes - S1-E1
Corrected entry: When Prue wonders where the cream is, the little container thereof slides along the table to her. Then the cream drains from the container and burbles up through her coffee. However, that's completely discontinuous with how Prue's power ever worked at any other time in the next three years. The cream should have needed to leap out of the container and into the coffee, simply traveling physically across space. (00:29:20)
Correction: Actually, Prue displays a power that is like a branch of her Telekinesis and is knows as Telematerializarion, which allows her to transport liquids through space.
Prue never possessed a power called "telematerializarion." She possessed telekinesis, which caused objects to move physically through space, and later astral projection, that created a separate manifestation of herself. Other than this single instance in the pilot, Prue never had an ability to cause objects or substance to dematerialize and materialize elsewhere. Paige's orbing telekinesis worked similarly to that, but that's not the ability Prue had.
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Correction: As is standard with historically-set films, the language and terminology used has been updated to be understandable to a present-day audience. This is a standard movie convention and is not considered a mistake.
Tailkinker ★
I've never heard it said that anachronistic language is not a mistake, and should not be counted as a mistake here. The fact that they speak English, not Latin, is the cinematic convention. Not that they use figurative language that only makes sense in a future context.
DavidK93
It's a grey area, but there's a case to be made that like the language being updated to be understood by audiences rather than subtitled Latin, the same is true of analogies, etc. They could have made reference to a game of the era, but then nobody watching would know what they were talking about and it would need a clunky explanation. As I say though, a grey area, because a clearly modern reference would be a mistake.
Jon Sandys ★