# 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:** 4
**Author:** ![magnusblitz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@magnusblitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magnusblitz)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/61 "2016-09-08T19:38:42Z")
In the original _Transformers_ animated series, we learn in Transformers: The Movie (which came after the first two seasons of the show) that Optimus Prime has been carrying around the Matrix of Leadership in his chest for quite some time. Yet despite being such a powerful artifact, it never shows up in the first two seasons despite Optimus being scanned (such as to tell him apart from the clone in “A Prime Problem”), opened up (“Divide and Conquer”) or indisposed in such a fashion that Megatron would’ve taken it (“City of Steel”). ---
**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, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/62 "2016-09-08T19:42:29Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > 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. Sure; all connections between shows linked in some means to _St. Elsewhere_ by some in-canon reference are by default part of the TWU. You don’t think young Tommy stopped imagining things after the cancellation of _St. Elsewhere_ (and _Homicide: Life on the Street_, which was directly linked), do you? After all, Tommy exists outside of that show and everything else stemming from it. As far as we know, Tommy is still alive and starring into that snow globe. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Oglomott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oglomott/32/3543_2.png) [@Oglomott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oglomott)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/63 "2016-09-08T19:51:13Z")
The Andy Griffith Show: Try to determine the distance between Mayberry and Mt. Pilot. It varies greatly depending on the episode you’re talking about. ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2016, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/64 "2016-09-09T00:08:17Z")
> [@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? > **[LucasFilm Tells Darth Vader That Return Of The Jedi Hasn't Made A Profit!? -...](https://www.slashfilm.com/503174/lucasfilm-tells-darth-vader-that-return-of-the-jedi-hasnt-made-a-profit/)** > > During an interview with Equity Magazine, David Prowse, the actor who played (but didn't voice) Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy, claims that LucasFilm has yet to pay him any residual payments on Return of the Jedi because the the film... ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2016, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/65 "2016-09-09T00:47:18Z")
Remember **That 70s Show**? When the series began, Jackie was a year younger than the rest of the gang and a grade behind them. There was a real-world need for this though: when Mila Kunis auditioned for the role, she lied and said she was 18 and therefore not subject to California labor laws that restricted the amount of hours a minor could be on set. Since she’d already been cast by the time the producers found out, they had to come up with a reason why her character would plausibly be absent at times all the other kids would be hanging out together. After a few years, Mila was old enough to work the same hours as the rest of the cast, so everybody just kind of “forgot” she was younger then everybody else; she even graduated at the same time as everybody else. And then there’s the matter of “Doctor Who”, which could give Star Trek a run for the money as the most retconned, discordant “continuity” ever. We could fill a whole thread of this kind on just DW alone. But I’ll just mention one of the first – a first season historical called “the Aztecs” deals with the Doctor’s traveling companion trying to change history by persuading the Aztec civilization not to practice human sacrifice. The Doctor pleads with Barbara that, even though he is abhorred by the practice, it is still an established historical fact and that she cannot succeed in changing it, nor should even try. This story was then followed by 50+ years of stories in which the Doctor does precisely what he told Barbara not to do! (To make it worse, “the Aztecs” is actually one of the best early DW adventures, and a great story when taken on its own merits.) Even the new series lampshade for this (the whole “fixed points of time” that have to occur even if everything in history can be altered) got thrown out the window when the Doctor says that it was just a suggestion on the part of the Time Lords. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2016, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/66 "2016-09-09T01:00:56Z")
\*\*The X-Files \*\*has a few. Scully’s 12 month pregnancy, two competing explanations on how she got her cross, and Gibson’s age have to be the worst. At the end of season 5 Gibson is described as a “12-year-old chess champion.” At the beginning of season 8 he’s \*\*still \*\*described as a “12-year-old boy lost in the desert” . Everyone else aged in the intervening years, but not him. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2016, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/67 "2016-09-09T01:09:30Z")
> [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](#): > > Kind of like on the original **The Odd Couple** (the Randall/Klugman one) where > > Season 1, Episode 4 Oscar & Felix reminisce about how they first met, 7 years previous on jury duty. > But > Season 2, Episode 15 Oscar tells the story of how he introduced Felix to Gloria, then after they’d been dating for awhile on the day he wanted to propose, Felix loses his voice. Since Felix’s oldest child is over 10, this means that Felix & Oscar would have know each other for over a decade. > But > Season 5, Episode 10 while talking about how their father’s met each other, many years earlier, Felix & Oscar met when they were kids. And the theme song, of course, mentions that Felix moved in with his childhood friend Oscar. mmm ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2016, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/68 "2016-09-09T01:53:08Z")
> [@Don\_Draper](#): > > Remember **That 70s Show**? When the series began, Jackie was a year younger than the rest of the gang and a grade behind them. There was a real-world need for this though: when Mila Kunis auditioned for the role, she lied and said she was 18 I thought she said she’d be 18 on her birthday. ---
**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 9, 2016, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/69 "2016-09-09T01:54:39Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Sure; all connections between shows linked in some means to _St. Elsewhere_ by some in-canon reference are by default part of the TWU. You don’t think young Tommy stopped imagining things after the cancellation of _St. Elsewhere_ (and _Homicide: Life on the Street_, which was directly linked), do you? Yeah, I understand the premise, but I was pressed for time earlier and couldn’t check the list of shows in the TWU. My question was whether any shows in the Universe were still producing new episodes. If there are then it’s still possible for non-TWU shows to become part of the Universe. If there aren’t any new episodes within the Universe then the Tommy Westphall Universe will cease expanding. Do you see what I mean? ---
**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 9, 2016, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/70 "2016-09-09T02:00:44Z")
[More than ever.](https://thetommywestphall.wordpress.com/2016/08/16/2016-update-peak-tommy-vision) Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2016, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/71 "2016-09-09T02:04:31Z")
> [@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. But there was one flashback episode (cleverly titled “The One with the Flashback”) that dated Ross’ separation from Carol as just before Rachel’s wedding. Also in the first episode, it’s clear Ross and Carol had just separated because Joey still couldn’t understand how they had been married in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2016, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/72 "2016-09-09T02:11:04Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Yeah, I understand the premise, but I was pressed for time earlier and couldn’t check the list of shows in the TWU. My question was whether any shows in the Universe were still producing new episodes. If there are then it’s still possible for non-TWU shows to become part of the Universe. If there aren’t any new episodes within the Universe then the Tommy Westphall Universe will cease expanding. Why? What if, say, Tom Selleck shows up as a guest star on the next episode of a currently-running TV series – getting introduced as an aging private investigator named Thomas Magnum, who of course works out of Hawaii? ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2016, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/73 "2016-09-09T02:11:58Z")
> [@Don\_Draper](#): > > Even the new series lampshade for this (the whole “fixed points of time” that have to occur even if everything in history can be altered) got thrown out the window when the Doctor says that it was just a suggestion on the part of the Time Lords. My fanwank is that the Doctor truly believed that “timelocked” events were unalterable- until it turned out not to be so, such as when Davros showed up after having supposedly met an inescapable doom during the Time War. Maybe it’s actually more a case of “you will really, _really_, _ **REALLY** _ screw everything up if you alter this event”. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2016, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/74 "2016-09-09T02:22:05Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > My question was whether any shows in the Universe were still producing new episodes. If there are then it’s still possible for non-TWU shows to become part of the Universe. If there aren’t any new episodes within the Universe then the Tommy Westphall Universe will cease expanding. Wouldn’t it work as well for a current, non-TWU show to feature a new appearance by a TWU character or artifact, “crossing over” from a defunct show? ---
**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 9, 2016, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/75 "2016-09-09T02:26:00Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Why? What if, say, Tom Selleck shows up as a guest star on the next episode of a currently-running TV series – getting introduced as an aging private investigator named Thomas Magnum, who of course works out of Hawaii? Good point. I was thinking of the alternate case, how to bring a cancelled show into the Universe by having an existing show make reference to it. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2016, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/76 "2016-09-09T02:28:11Z")
Uh, yeah. Good point! ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2016, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/77 "2016-09-09T03:13:59Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > I thought she said she’d be 18 on her birthday. Correct; she just didn’t say _which_ birthday. ---
**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 9, 2016, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/78 "2016-09-09T06:05:26Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Why? What if, say, Tom Selleck shows up as a guest star on the next episode of a currently-running TV series – getting introduced as an aging private investigator named Thomas Magnum, who of course works out of Hawaii? This happened a couple of times on _Diagnosis Murder_, which premiered a decade after _St. Elsewhere_ had ended. Mike Connors appeared as detective Joe Mannix, who reopened a closed case from the 70s. And Barbara Bain appeared in another episode as Cinnamon Carter, her old _Mission Impossible_ character. _Mannix_ and _Mission Impossible_ both are shows that Tommy Westphall might have watched and would have brought _Diagnosis Murderer_ into the Tommyverse. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2016, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/79 "2016-09-09T21:27:13Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > A lot of _How I Met Your Mother_ flashforwards make no sense as a result of the finale. Such as? ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2016, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301/80 "2016-09-09T21:47:09Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > 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. I don’t remember that happening. In real world time, it looks like the birth episode aired a bit less than 9 months after the “I’m pregnant” episode. I vaguely recall a joke at some point where Frasier, annoyed at Lilith for whatever reason, says something like “When are you going to have this baby already?” but that seems more like a throwaway annoyed Frasier joke than a lampshade thing (if I’m even remembering correctly). What do you recall that they did to lampshade it? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-in-tv-shows-that-make-no-sense-with-future-continutity/765301.md?page=5)