On “I Love Lucy” Ethel Mertz over time have three different middle names: Mae, Louise or Roberta (her maiden name was Potter).
The last episode of “The Untouchables” in season 1 has Frank “The Enforcer” Nitti being killed (along with untouchables agent Cam Allison because actor Anthony George was leaving to star in his own shown). Which didn’t stop future appearances by Bruce Gordon as Nitti, although “Untouchables” episodes were not shown in chronological order and have little relation to actual facts.
One that’s not so much inexplicable, but VERY squicky thanks to “late series” canon.
The original run of Dallas: During the first season, young ingénue Lucy Ewing (niece of J.R., grand-daughter of Miss Ellie) was staying with the Southfork Ewings while her ne’er-do-well parents were running around misbehaving. Lucy herself started out as a wild child who had a crush on Ray Krebbs, the Southfork ranch-hand. Lucy being a teenager and this being the 70s, the writers went to great lengths to remind the viewers that Lucy was still a virgin – even if she pushed the definition as far as it could go.
That much was already questionable (17-year-old Lucy swapping spit with a silver daddy who was clearly on the north side of 40, even if he was still pretty good looking.) But a few years into the series run, it’s revealed that Ray Krebbs was actually the illegitimate son of Jock Ewing, Lucy’s grandfather; and therefore Ray was Lucy’s UNCLE! To make matters worse, it was made pretty clear that Ray had known since he was a kid that he was a Ewing, meaning he knew Lucy was his niece when he snogged her.
For that reason, the first season of “Dallas” was never syndicated. Those episodes stayed in a vault until long after the initial series ended.
Incorrect. Jock was being blackmailed by Ray’s alcoholic presumed father, who had gotten ahold of a diary written by Jock’s British mistress during the war. To get everything out into the open, Jock told Ray the truth. To the best of my recollection:
JOCK: There ain’t any way to say this nicely, so I’ll just spit it out: He ain’t your daddy. I am.
[Long pause, deep breath.]
RAY:[Disbelievingly] He told you that?
JOCK: Yes, he did, and I believe him.
Later in the same episode, there was a scene where Jock revealed to the family that he’d had an affair when he was in the Army Air Force, Miss Ellie had known about it long ago and had forgiven him, and he had only just found out that he had fathered a son, Ray.
Prior to this, Ray had no idea he was a Ewing. It was a big deal at the time…
Lucy, BTW, was certainly no virgin by the time I started watching the series (the first “Who Shot JR?” episode). They had to track her down to a motel where she was shacked up with a college professor (IIRC) to tell her her uncle had been shot.
It’s very true (at least the reasoning is. if that is indeed what made them change it is another matter). TV Writers are in a Union and as such have good contracts and lots of rules to protect them. That’s also why T’Pol is not T’Pau. They would have had to pay the estate of Theodore Sturgeon.
My Continuity glitch that bugs me is on Friends. There is a scene early on in the Mark story line where they reveal he has a Fiancee. However, she is never mentioned again and later it turns out Mark really did have the hots for Rachel.
Another West Wing one. In Season Three, they did a pseudo-documentary episode looking back at the Bartlet administration where C.J. Gregg was described as having been the Press Secretary for all eight years of his term. Then in Season Six, the show had C.J. switching to the Chief of Staff job.
Green Hornet and Kato appeared on “Batman” when the Caped Crusader and the Boy Wonder are doing a Bat-Climb. They recognize each others as fellow crime fighters. Also Batman remarks they are in the wrong city and Green Hornet remarks they are on a special assignment for the Daily Sentinel. In a later two parter they return and Batman and Robin do not know they are crime fighters. Bruce Wayne and Britt Reid are childhood friends and rivals. Finally on a episode of “Green Hornet” some criminals are watching “Batman” and it is clear it is a fictional show.
Still wish Cato had beaten the living daylights out of the Boy Blunder (although Burt Ward did have some training in martial arts so the producers often used him instead of a double in fight scenes to keep the costs down (never mind Ward got beaten up a number of times, he is only an actor).
Could be the other way around, a question-of-emphasis thing: here’s what we’ll pay you to write an episode – or we’ll pay you less, but if a character you create gets used in later episodes, you’ll get extra money each time!
So you take that deal, and then they Locarno your character.
I think a lot of these examples aren’t what I’m looking for. A lot of what we’re seeing is continuity goofs like forgetting the name of Spock’s mother. I’m looking more for is major plot holes created by the rules changing because the writers changed their minds or they hadn’t thought up a limitation on someone until a later episode. Like if in one episode Spock uses his mind meld on a ferengi and then in a later episode we’re told that you can’t use telepathy against a ferengi.
…Or if we’re told the transporter doesn’t work when the shields are up, but you can still beam Ambassador Fox down to the surface of Eminiar VII. :smack:
Not really all that unrealistic, tbh. It’s not unusual for people to come out of the closet, and then take a half-step back in, particularly when coming out doesn’t instantly solve all their relationship problems.
I’ll take your word for it, since it has been a long time since I’ve seen it. But Lucy and Ray DID get very snuggly in the first few episodes of the series, and the later revelation that Ray was a biological Ewing still makes those scenes creepy looking now (creepier, since it’s a very child-like Lucy and a very adult Ray.)
On Everybody Loves Raymond, there are conflicting stories about how Robert met Amy. And some of Raymond’s friends play multiple roles. And how many comic-store-owning brothers does Amy have?
That doesn’t make sense. The only point of the TR-116 rifle was to fall back to chemically-propelled firearms if your phaser rifles were being blocked by a wizard. Their phaser rifles worked fine during the Dominion War.
Susan and Ross had a very frosty relationship, at least through the first few seasons, if Carol had had an affair with Ross after leaving him for Susan you’d expect it to come up a lot, yet it was never implied at all
I agree that in retrospect, the Ray + Lucy scenes in season one are as creepy as the Luke + Leia scenes in Star Wars. (I always thought they should have had a scene where Uncle Ray and Niece Lucy find themselves alone together and can only make awkward small talk: “Hey, Ray. Remember when…?” “Uhm, uh … yeah, Luce. Say, *how *many eggs did Miss Ellie want us to gather?”)
But hey: Back then, every straight male in America wanted to bang Charlene Tilton. Any guy who says he didn’t either has something wrong with him (up to and including death) or is a
