# Moments in TV shows that make no sense with future continutity **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 7, 2016, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301 "2016-09-07T21:08:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/41 "2016-09-08T07:57:04Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > You know whats useful?? Firing your phaser like a flashlight instead of a projectile weapon. Using maximum setting which is supposed to take out a small building. > > The wide beam setting is handy too. I want to see a Trek fire fight where someone ducks behind some of those plastic barrels or whatever only to have their cover totally disintegrated. ---
**Author:** ![Chihuahua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dec6dc/32.png) [@Chihuahua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chihuahua)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/42 "2016-09-08T10:19:03Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > Carol finds out she’s pregnant in a very early episode and gives birth (as a different actress) before the season’s over, so less than a year. Rachel, however, was pregnant with Emma at the end of one season, and gave birth at the end of the next season, so yeah. > > Lilith on Cheers was pregnant for a really long time, so much that they hung a lampshade on it before she finally popped out Freddy. Right, but the problem is that later episodes imply Ross and Carol had been separated for up to a year before the series started. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/43 "2016-09-08T10:29:17Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Do you mean David Prowse, who wore the Darth Vader suit in _A New Hope_ and _The Empire Strikes Back_, too, or James Earl Jones, who did his voice? Maybe he means [Sebastian Shaw](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebastian_Shaw_(actor)#Return_of_the_Jedi), the face behind the helmet. I’d like to see a cite that \*any \*of the three were unpaid. ---
**Author:** ![Annoying\_Buzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Annoying\_Buzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annoying_Buzz)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/44 "2016-09-08T10:42:39Z")
First episode of the Cosby Show: Claire: Why did we have four children? Cliff: Because we did not want five. Cue child #5 returning home from college several seasons later. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/45 "2016-09-08T10:51:43Z")
I found a few cites, and while David Prowse was paid for his work on _Return of the Jedi_, his contract did call for him to receive a percentage of the net profits in addition to his base salary. So it was those residuals that never materialized, but he was not unpaid. [https://creators.co/@mark/3402329](https://creators.co/@mark/3402329) ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/46 "2016-09-08T11:06:42Z")
> [@Chihuahua](#): > > All of the early events on Friends are completely screwed up. IIRC, Carol was pregnant with Ben for over a year. Yeah, they were bad. In an early ep, Rachel says when she first moved in with Monica she thought Chandler was gay. In the next season, we see flashbacks that show she met Chandler twice during high school and he pretty clearly wasn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Chihuahua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dec6dc/32.png) [@Chihuahua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chihuahua)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/47 "2016-09-08T11:53:23Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > This was explained on an episode of Frasier where some Cheers people appeared. Frasier said that he’d just talked to his father and was mad at him. So he said he was dead. They lampshaded it on S2E16: Marty: “Hey, what did he tell you about me, Sam. The father, the old cop?” Sam: “Uh… He told me you were dead.” Marty: “Dead?” Frasier: “Well, we had had an argument. You called me a stuffed shirt and hung up on me. I was mad.” Sam: “You’re a cop?” Marty: “Yeah.” Sam: “You told me he was a research scientist.” _Marty looks shocked._ Frasier: “You were dead! What did it matter?” ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/48 "2016-09-08T12:20:57Z")
> [@Chihuahua](#): > > Right, but the problem is that later episodes imply Ross and Carol had been separated for up to a year before the series started. Separated people are physically incapable of having sex?:dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/49 "2016-09-08T12:27:56Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > A lot of _How I Met Your Mother_ flashforwards make no sense as a result of the finale. How so? Some of them don’t fit the way you thought they did but I can’t remember anything contradictory. ---
**Author:** ![Chihuahua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dec6dc/32.png) [@Chihuahua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chihuahua)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/50 "2016-09-08T12:46:07Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Separated people are physically incapable of having sex? Not impossible, but highly improbable when you consider the reason they broke up: Carol was a lesbian and she had left Ross for a female lover. (S3E6) I find it very unlikely that they would have had sex in the year preceding the Pilot episode. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/51 "2016-09-08T13:08:30Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > In the TNG episode _The First Duty_, Robert Duncan McNeill played Nicolas Locarno, a classmate of Wesley’s at the academy. When _Voyager_ was created, the producers wanted Locarno to be a recurring character, however they would have had to pay royalties to the writers of _The First Duty_ every time Locarno appeared on _Voyager_. So, they created a new character, Tom Paris, for McNeill to play, who was basically Nicolas Locarno with a different name. Even if all this is true, it doesn’t render the Tom Paris character as something that doesn’t make sense. > [@TBG](#): > > Carol finds out she’s pregnant in a very early episode and gives birth (as a different actress) before the season’s over, so less than a year. Rachel, however, was pregnant with Emma at the end of one season, and gave birth at the end of the next season, so yeah. Is there anything in the show that mandates that that time is meant to be a year? There’s no reason why in a fictional program a season must be assumed to be a year. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/52 "2016-09-08T13:15:28Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Separated people are physically incapable of having sex?:dubious: They were on a break! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/53 "2016-09-08T14:01:18Z")
On _That '70s Show_, Donna had [two](http://that70sshow.wikia.com/wiki/Tina_Pinciotti) [sisters](http://that70sshow.wikia.com/wiki/Valerie_Pinciotti) early on. For the bulk of the run of the show she was an only child. Something that was key to the overall storyline. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/54 "2016-09-08T14:44:08Z")
Chuck Cunningham. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/55 "2016-09-08T14:48:19Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > Chuck Cunningham. We do not speak of that with outsiders. Oh, and don’t go up in the attic. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Krupe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ebca7d/32.png) [@Leo\_Krupe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Krupe)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/56 "2016-09-08T15:25:05Z")
“Adam-12” and “Emergency” had a crisis of cross-universe-parallel interaction. > **["Adam-12" Lost and Found (TV Episode 1972) - Trivia - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0505362/trivia/?ref_=tt_trv_trv)** > > "Adam-12" Lost and Found (TV Episode 1972) - Trivia on IMDb: Cameos, Mistakes, Spoilers and more... > [@](#): > > The cast from the television show Emergency! (1972) make a cross-over guest appearance. This is somewhat ironic as the episode Emergency!: Hang-Up (1972), which had only aired six months prior, had established that Adam-12 (1968) was a TV show that was watched by the cast members of Emergency! (1972). ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/57 "2016-09-08T15:35:33Z")
There was an episode of Seinfeld where George is bragging to Elaine about his parallel parking skills, and mentions how everyone in his family has the gift, including his brother. Throughout the rest of the series, however, George is apparently an only child. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/58 "2016-09-08T18:21:55Z")
All of these examples, except for _Game of Thrones_, _How I Met Your Mother_, and curiously, _The Dukes of Hazzard_, are readily explained by observing that Tommy Westphall just didn’t have a very good memory. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/59 "2016-09-08T19:27:52Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > All of these examples, except for _Game of Thrones_, _How I Met Your Mother_, and curiously, _The Dukes of Hazzard_, are readily explained by observing that Tommy Westphall just didn’t have a very good memory. Is the Tommy Westphall universe still active? I don’t mean the website describing it, I mean are there shows currently creating new episodes that are part of TW’s imagination? If there are, then any show (even one that is off the air like _The Dukes of Hazard_) could still be subsumed into that universe. Might be interesting to research that a bit; how many shows in the TW universe are in it voluntarily, how many not, and how many got sucked in after they had gone off the air? ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/60 "2016-09-08T19:29:27Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > Carol finds out she’s pregnant in a very early episode and gives birth (as a different actress) before the season’s over, so less than a year. Rachel, however, was pregnant with Emma at the end of one season, and gave birth at the end of the next season, so yeah. > > Lilith on Cheers was pregnant for a really long time, so much that they hung a lampshade on it before she finally popped out Freddy. > > “Sluttier” than the short shorts that bear her name? I don’t recall that ever happening, but I do recall in the first episode some mildly incestuous flirtation between her and one of her cousins. Like many shows, there were some slight tweaks between the first few episodes and the rest of the series. > > There were a few episodes with another, more competent sheriff, played by fake Darrin himself, Dick Sargent, due to a dispute with James Best, but I assume that’s not what you’re thinking of. > [@drewder](#): > > You mean when she was hitch hiking in a bikini? OK, I tried to watch a few early episodes, and although I don’t remember if [this](http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2lwmre) is the exact one I saw, it certainly fits the mold. More competent Roscoe, and check out Daisy at around the 18 minute mark, trying to pretend to seduce Duke Slater from Gomer Pyle. It’s a really early one, so making it more kid-friendly later on is certainly the reason why it’s different. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301.md?page=4)