# Continuity Errors in TV Shows **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 25, 2012, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/continuity-errors-in-tv-shows/632653 "2012-08-25T22:55:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/continuity-errors-in-tv-shows/632653/21 "2012-08-27T12:44:18Z")
If the glass of beer changes into a shot glass and back, that’s a prop error. If the level of beer goes up and then down and then up, that’s a continuity error. ---
**Author:** ![MyFootsZZZ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/myfootszzz/32/12580_2.png) [@MyFootsZZZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MyFootsZZZ)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/continuity-errors-in-tv-shows/632653/22 "2012-08-27T12:47:54Z")
In The Office, Pam has two moms and Andy has two sets of parents. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/continuity-errors-in-tv-shows/632653/23 "2012-08-27T14:10:36Z")
Seinfeld was rife with prop/continuity errors. In one scene in Jerry’s apartment, the wine bottle and glasses are wandering all over the counter with various levels of liquid in them from shot to shot. In the episode with the black & white cookie, the cookie gets larger and smaller as the scenes progress. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/continuity-errors-in-tv-shows/632653/24 "2012-08-27T14:12:08Z")
> [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](#): > > They’re inconsequential and nitpicks but they’re definitely continuity errors and it doesn’t make any sense for \*\*grude \*\*to say they’re not. > > They’re errors introduced because television and movies are filmed in discrete segments of filming, not continuously. If you were in reality or watching a 1 act play it would be impossible for the amount of beer it a glass to vanish, reappear, decrease, etc. because they’re both fully continuous. > > When a television show doesn’t keep that sort of consistency in its props between takes, it’s a continuity error. Continuity is the plot, is the plot in episode one the same as episode twenty four? If Farmer Bob was said to have never left the village he was born in before the adventure in episode two, but now five episodes later he is said to be a famous lawyer that is a continuity error. Details like levels of liquid is cups has no bearing on the plot whatsoever. But hey I could be wrong, just maybe;) ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/continuity-errors-in-tv-shows/632653/25 "2012-08-27T15:17:12Z")
> [@grude](#): > > Continuity is the plot, is the plot in episode one the same as episode twenty four? Plot continuity is only one type of continuity. In fiction, continuity refers to the consistency of things over time, whether they are plot, characterization, props, places, events, etc. It doesn’t make any sense to try to limit a continuity error to plot when it’s the best word to describe all sorts of things that should be continuously consistent but aren’t. What better word is there for something that fails to be continuous from time to time besides a continuity error? ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/continuity-errors-in-tv-shows/632653/26 "2012-08-27T15:39:21Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Season 1 of _24_ is set on Super Tuesday in a presidential election year. It’s also set two years to the day after a covert US strike during the Kosovo War - which ended in 2000, meaning the show would have to be set in 2002, which was not a presidential election year. Later seasons just sort of ignore that detail and assume season 1 was set in 2004. The Kosovo War lasted from February 28, 1998 – June 21, 1999. So two years to the day could easily land on March 7, 2000… the day of the California Presidential primary. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/continuity-errors-in-tv-shows/632653/27 "2012-08-27T15:57:03Z")
> [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](#): > > Plot continuity is only one type of continuity. In fiction, continuity refers to the consistency of things over time, whether they are plot, characterization, props, places, events, etc. > > It doesn’t make any sense to try to limit a continuity error to plot when it’s the best word to describe all sorts of things that should be continuously consistent but aren’t. > > What better word is there for something that fails to be continuous from time to time besides a continuity error? I agree with you on this. Continuity people are in charge of maintaining the appearance of props, sets, and actors. They can’t do anything about plot continuity problems, those are built into the scripts or get created in editing. I do get annoyed at IMDB listing things that aren’t continuity errors. For example, someone will say a person’s left hand was on a table, then in the next scene it isn’t, as if people never move their hand from one place to another. Or someone will say a glass is full of water, then in the next scene it is half full, as if people never drink water that they poured into a glass. They might have something if the glass goes from half full to full, but it’s silly to pretend there is no passage of time or any action that isn’t caught on film. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/continuity-errors-in-tv-shows/632653/28 "2012-08-27T17:35:30Z")
Fox’s animated shows are almost nothing _but_ continuity errors. There was even a self-reference to one on _American Dad_ this season; when Stan said they could never have a dog in the house, Francine pointed out that they had already had two of them (references to previous episodes), but Stan claimed that those were just in Francine’s dreams. Of course, since nobody gets older from one year to the next, they don’t have much choice. As for live-action shows, _M_A_S_H\* had some glaring ones - for example, Colonel Potter took command in September of 1952, before Margaret had even met her husband, but they were together in an episode that took place in August of 1952, and were already divorced (and Colonel Potter in command) on 12/31/1950. I like to joke that I was surprised they didn’t end the series with the _start_ of the war. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/continuity-errors-in-tv-shows/632653/29 "2012-08-27T18:14:27Z")
> [@That\_Don\_Guy](#): > > Fox’s animated shows are almost nothing _but_ continuity errors. There was even a self-reference to one on _American Dad_ this season; when Stan said they could never have a dog in the house, Francine pointed out that they had already had two of them (references to previous episodes), but Stan claimed that those were just in Francine’s dreams. Of course, since nobody gets older from one year to the next, they don’t have much choice. I don’t think it counts as a continuity \*error \*when they hang a lampshade on it (and no I am not going to link to the tvtropes page; I refuse even to capitalize the name of the site, damn their eyes). Such things are deliberate. **American Dad** and its ilk have negative continuity. Apart from the broad strokes of the premise and occasional major changes (Hayley getting married, Peter Griffin leaving the toy plant, Maude Flanders dying), nothing in any one episode should be assumed to hold to any other episode. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/continuity-errors-in-tv-shows/632653.md?page=1)