Character mistake: When all of the ladies are sharing Sophia's bed because there's been a cold snap and she has an electric blanket, Blanche mentions that her bed has never been so cold on a Saturday night. A few minutes later, Dorothy - upset that the other ladies are keeping her awake - states that she has to get up for work "very early in the morning." Dorothy is a substitute teacher, and would not have to be up for work early on a Sunday morning.
Suggested correction: Teachers often have to work the weekend to prepare for the school week.
Knowing Dorothy, she probably made the statement about having to work - to trick the others into being quiet. But, as the script goes.
Even as a long-term sub, she wouldn't have to be up early in the morning for work just because she might have papers to grade or a lesson to prepare.
I never believed this was a mistake. Bedtime Story aired in February 1987 and Dorothy was probably referring to her job at the museum that Blanche worked for. That episode (Joust Between Friends) aired two months earlier in December 1986, so it's possible she was still working there in the flashback (since it was never mentioned when/why she left).
I always thought that Dorothy was teaching drivers education, which was often on a weekend or after normal school hours. She complains a couple times about teaching drivers ed throughout the series.
Character mistake: The number of years that Sal has been dead and the number of years that he and Sophia were married, constantly changes. In Season 3 Episode 5, Sophia says that she and Sal were married for 52 years. In other episodes, she says he's been dead anywhere from 22-30 years. If that's the case, given that Sophia is 80 at the start of the show, Sal would have died when she was about 50. Meaning that they would have had to be married since birth to be married over 50 years.
Character mistake: In the scene in the kitchen in which Rose says that Bob Hope could be her father, she tells Dorothy and Blanche that Gunter and Alma Nylund are her adoptive parents. Nylund, however, was her husband Charlie's last name, making it Rose's married name and not her maiden name. Nylund was not her adoptive parents' name.
Character mistake: Throughout much of the show, except for a few boyfriends Dorothy has had difficulties finding men to go out with her. Much of the show's humor is based around Dorothy looking unattractive and having no dates, and Sophia often desperately tried to arrange a rendezvous for her daughter. Nevertheless, in this episode, Sophia had no problem at all to find a whole bunch of men that are more than willing to go out with her, and according to the suggestive gestures Dorothy mentions, some of them apparently had a strong sexual interest in her after having seen her. They even offered their services to a cheaper price just to go out with her. Why is it so easy for Sophia to find that many men that eager to meet her daughter all of a sudden?
Character mistake: In her first appearance, Kirsten liked Dorothy, Sophia and Blanche and said that after her visit she now understands why Rose loves living with them. In her second appearance, she heavily dislikes the three women and states that she never understood why Rose preferred living with them over moving in with her.
Suggested correction: In her second appearance, Kirsten walks in while the women are laughing about something unrelated in the waiting room and her mother is in the hospital after a Heart Attack. Could it be possible that she's a bit upset, not thinking, and forgetting about what she said in her previous visit? In her first visit, she sees the positive, but subsequently she saw things she found questionable (she mentions things she sees like all of them getting into a car dressed strangely (it was for a play but she didn't know that)), and eventually her mother has a Heart Attack. She may have simply put two and two together and got five. It's a human characteristic, not a character mistake.
However, in her first appearance she specifically said at first she didn't get why Rose lives with other women but after having met the three she now understands why she's living with them. In the other episode she states she never got it in the first place.
Character mistake: On the game show, Sophia is introduced as a "grandmother of six." According to other episodes, she has at least twelve grandchildren. Phil and his wife have ten. Gloria mentioned that "all her children" (so she has two or more) are practicing professionals.
Character mistake: Sophia tells Dorothy that lying is breaking a commandment, to which Dorothy corrects her by telling her that it's not a commandment. Actually, not lying is in fact a commandment. The biblical quote is "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor." Whether it's an error on the part of the writers or an intentional mistake for Dorothy, it's still a mistake. (00:12:15)
