Deliberate mistake: Lily was an infant for all of season 5, but beginning with this season, she is around 5 years old. The show didn't jump forward in time, because JT states in a season 5 episode that he is 19, and in the episode this season where he and Rich go to Mexico, he states that he is almost 20, as well as Al and Mark are both still in high school.
Step by Step (1991)
Episode list - season 1
Starring: Patrick Duffy, Brandon Call, Suzanne Somers, Staci Keanan
Genres: Comedy
More mistakes in Step by Step
Gabrielle, Mark's girlfriend: Be still, my heart.
J.T: Be still, my lunch.
Question: Is it ever explained where the kids' other parent is? I remember Carol saying she and Frank both came from failed marriages, which means they weren't widows.
Answer: I could be mistaken, but when the series debuted, its premise was something along the lines of "A divorced contractor and a widowed beautician impulsively marry." If that is true, then the Foster children's father is dead. As for Frank, it could be that his wife was an unfit mother and is therefore not in her children's lives. Perhaps the writers felt addressing these issues would lead to more questions, or at the least require characters to bring up the unseen parents more in conversation, so perhaps they felt it was just better to never talk about them at all and let any discussions about them remain off-screen.
Phaneron ★