The Séance - S1-E7
Continuity mistake: After Lucy tells Mr. Merriweather that he's invited to the seance, when it cuts to Lucy unfolding the card table legs, note the couch behind her with one normal seat cushion on the left, but in the next wideshot there's an additional shorter cushion under the normal cushion. The small towel also repositions itself neatly on the couch. (00:11:55)
Continuity mistake: When Lucy's locked out on the penthouse balcony, Ethel places the broom handle through the small round finger hole of the scissors, with the large oval finger hole to the right of the round hole and the blades pointing out, then holds the scissors in place as she puts the broom over the balcony rail. When Lucy retrieves them from the broom, the scissors have flipped over. The blades are pointing out and the broom handle is still through the small round finger hole, but now the large oval hole is to the left of the round hole. (Impossible to do on its own. Try it). (00:19:05)
Continuity mistake: After Fred secures the chain lock to the front door, with the chain mounted onto the frame of the door, Fred then slides the chain into the door's slide-catch to show Lucy the "burglarproof chain." When Ethel opens the door the chain itself is ripped off the frame, leaving the chain (and the piece that was screwed to the frame) dangling from the slide-catch attached to the door, but in Ethel's closeup the chain is still mounted to the door's frame. (00:01:40)
Ricky's Old Girlfriend - S3-E11
Continuity mistake: In Lucy's dream, when Carlota Romero comes to their apartment, Little Ricky is sitting in a highchair with a hat on his head. Although later in the scene, you see his hat fall off, the first close-up shot of Little Ricky shows him without the hat. Then immediately, when you see a wide-shot of the scene, his hat is back on his head again.
Continuity mistake: While tired Lucy is trying to open the card table's legs, she lays her head down then falls asleep, and when it cuts to Ethel and Fred walking in on our sleeping Lucy, there's writing on the table's underside which wasn't in the previous shot. (By the markings on the table it also looks as if the table has been turned on its adjacent side). (00:06:10)
Continuity mistake: In this episode, Lucy goes out on the window ledge. In "Lucy Cries Wolf", the window ledge was very different: the walls were made of dark brick instead of concrete blocks, there was no downspout, and the ledge went into the corner and stopped, no continuation on the other wall.
Never Do Business With Friends - S2-E32
Continuity mistake: In this episode, the Mertzes buy the Ricardo's old washing machine and say that theirs is old enough to be in the Smithsonian, yet just a few episodes earlier ("Sales Resistance") Fred tells Ethel to come and see her new Handy Dandy washing machine.
Continuity mistake: While Lucy is at Ethel's apartment nervous about leaving the baby with Ricky she's wearing v-strap pumps, then she heads back to her apartment to get her coat and bag, but when Lucy walks into her apartment she's wearing ankle strap pumps instead. (00:16:00)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Superman comes to Little Ricky's party Little Ricky has on a birthday hat. When Superman picks him up the hat is gone; it reappears when Superman gets ready to leave.
The Ricardos Are Interviewed - S5-E7
Continuity mistake: When Ricky's new agent insults the apartment building Ricky explains that Fred and Ethel are their best friends, and we see Lucy drop the toy train onto the chair and take hold of the jack-in-the-box toy (in the crook of her left arm) with her right hand, but when it cuts to the closeup the toy train is back in Lucy's right hand and the jack-in-the-box toy is once again held in her left arm. (00:03:50)
Hollywood Anniversary - S4-E24
Continuity mistake: In season 2, "The Anniversary Present," Lucy has the 19th circled on the wall calendar, which is the date of their wedding anniversary, but in this episode when the license bureau in Greenwich, Connecticut sends Ricky a telegram with their wedding date, it's now on the 7th.
First Stop - S4-E14
Continuity mistake: When Ricky stops the car and backs up trying to locate Aunt Sally's, Lucy gets out of the car wearing a coat and a pantsuit underneath, but in the exterior shot she's wearing a skirt set when she walks over to the shed to read the sign. (00:03:50)
Continuity mistake: While Ricky's telling the bedtime story in Spanish to Little Ricky (worth watching just for this darling scene), in the closeups of the baby in the crib, the pillow bumper has an embroidered heart with stick figures, which flips in reverse. Actually, the last closeup of Little Ricky lying down is the normal shot, but all the closeups of the baby sitting up are the flipped shots. (This pillow bumper has stick figures of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, and can be seen in previous episodes). (00:06:40)
Ricky's Old Girlfriend - S3-E11
Continuity mistake: When Fred tells Ricky there's an article in the newspaper about Carlota Romero, there's a closeup of the newspaper's back page with Carlota's photo, but later when Lucy takes the newspaper (the same NY Gazette issue) from Ethel, before she turns it over we can see that the back page photo and layout are different. (00:08:30 - 00:10:20)
Continuity mistake: While Lucy's taking a tally of who everyone's voting for, the writing on the posterboard changes in Lucy's closeups. (00:14:45)
Continuity mistake: When Lucy handcuffs herself to Ricky we see the style of handcuffs as they phone the locksmith, but when they're both in the bedroom their handcuffs are entirely different, then their handcuffs revert to the original style when the locksmith shows up. Additionally, when Lucy cuffs Ricky's wrist note the direction of the locking bar around Ricky's wrist, but the next morning when the locksmith is with them, the locking bar is around Ricky's wrist the opposite way, which is quite impossible. (00:06:45)
Continuity mistake: When Lucy buys back her coffee table, Ethel and Fred move it to the kitchen in the Mertz's apartment. The door to the Mertz's kitchen (with its doorknob on the right) in this episode opens the opposite way, inward towards the inside of the kitchen, and not outward in the direction of the living room, as seen in all previous and following episodes, including the very next episode. (00:17:55)
Continuity mistake: Ethel's full name in this episode is Ethel Mae Potter; however in a earlier episode, Fred calls her Ethel Louise, and in another episode she is called Ethel Roberta.
Never Do Business With Friends - S2-E32
Continuity mistake: In Lucy and Ricky's apartment there are six shutters between the kitchen and living room, a set of three open to the left and three open to the right, but after the washing machine falls off the porch, when Mrs. Trumble's nephew thinks they're all crazy he runs through the back door and we see a set of four shutters on one side. Also note the round knobs are at the bottom corners, when they should be higher up at the center. (The prop shutters that we see through the doorway during the porch's "exterior" shots are identical to the seven shutters that were in apartment 4A, before the Ricardos moved downstairs). (00:22:10 - 00:24:25)
Lucy Wants New Furniture - S2-E28
Continuity mistake: Lucy runs back and forth from Ricardo's and Mertz's apartment through a door in Mertz's living room that is not there in other episodes before or since.
Suggested correction: The kitchen is a double hinged "saloon style" door. The door opens both ways, just like in a restaurant and most kitchens of the era. This is evident in many episodes.
You're confused. Rewatch the episode, please. Your correction is describing the Ricardo apartment; it's Ricky and Lucy who have the kitchen with that swinging door, which you describe as "double hinged saloon style" that opens both ways. This mistake is actually referring to the Mertz's apartment, and their door leading to their own kitchen is a standard door with a doorknob and it always opens only one way - outward into the living room. It's only in this specific episode the Mertz's kitchen door is attached to the door jamb differently, and it opens inward into the kitchen. The mistake is absolutely valid. The correction should be removed.
Super Grover ★