# Stupid/small factual inaccuracies in tv shows that annoy you. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 20, 2009, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-small-factual-inaccuracies-in-tv-shows-that-annoy-you/493743 "2009-04-20T16:55:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2009, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-small-factual-inaccuracies-in-tv-shows-that-annoy-you/493743/141 "2009-04-28T21:28:58Z")
Pretty much anything involving computers in a crime lab. Printers are getting faster, they’re still not that fast. Especially in a government office. Fingerprint searches don’t display every comparison on the screen. Ditto facial recognition. 7-11 surveillance videos cannot be blown up enough to read the address on an envelope in someone’s pocket across the street. Knowing my real name will not get you a list of everything I’ve ever bought on eBay. Nor every email exchange on Facebook. Or my hotmail/gmail/yahoo accounts. Been said, but bears repeating. DNA results in hours. [Forensic databases](http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/journals/258/forensic-databases.html) do exist, but a tread print isn’t likely to come back to only one model. This list scratches the surface. ---
**Author:** ![SirRay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@SirRay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirRay)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2009, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-small-factual-inaccuracies-in-tv-shows-that-annoy-you/493743/142 "2009-04-28T21:36:57Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > In How It’s Made, they always say force when they mean pressure and vice versa. This machine exerts ten tons of pressure… one hundred psi of force. Drives me nuts. I think that’s because the original episodes (Narrated by Lynn Herzeg or Lynn Adams or a few others) uses standard (Metric) measurements (being Canadian and all), while the episodes to be shown in the US (narrated by Brooks Moore or Zac Fine) are dubbed(!!!) in US customary measurement (although over the series you hear Brooks sneak in a ‘millimeter’ or ‘degree Celsius’ here and there). And on clones, MST3k favorite [Parts: The Clonus Horror](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clonus_Horror) kind of gets it right also - the replacement clones are decades younger than the VIPs they are to serve as organ donors for, the clones don’t have the same memories or experiences as their source VIPS (even the ones they don’t lobotomize), and they don’t necessarily share traits with their VIPs sources that are nuture-based (say body weight or muscle tone - in fact, all the clones exercise a lot and are in great shape); they do have inherited traits, such as hair color or birthmarks… ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2009, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-small-factual-inaccuracies-in-tv-shows-that-annoy-you/493743/143 "2009-04-28T21:46:32Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > She doesn’t visit it in the show, she just comments on it. It’s in reference to the fact that Benton has reservations about them going to a jazz club in a dodgy part of town or something like that. Yes, she said she went to a dodgy part of town to see Lick the Tins (a band from London). I remember because it made me smile because I really liked their version of “Can’t Help Falling in Love”. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2009, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-small-factual-inaccuracies-in-tv-shows-that-annoy-you/493743/144 "2009-04-28T21:53:01Z")
> [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](#): > > He mentions speaking Quechua with Pancho Villa, WTF??? Could have happened. Here’s my reconstruction of the conversation. Indiana Jones: Rimaykullayki, Pancho Villa! Ima hinalla? Pancho Villa: Que? ---
**Author:** ![shecrab](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/77aa72/32.png) [@shecrab](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shecrab)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2009, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-small-factual-inaccuracies-in-tv-shows-that-annoy-you/493743/145 "2009-04-28T21:55:55Z")
TV shows are bad enough–but don’t EVEN get me started on Stephen King novels. Chocolate PayDays indeed. Hmmmph. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2009, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-small-factual-inaccuracies-in-tv-shows-that-annoy-you/493743/146 "2009-04-28T22:46:08Z")
Whenever a fingerprint database is searched, the system must display each print on the monitor so that the computer can actually see the print to determine if there’s a match. ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2009, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-small-factual-inaccuracies-in-tv-shows-that-annoy-you/493743/147 "2009-04-28T22:58:52Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > … > A picture is _hung_. “Jesse James was killed while straightening a picture that was \* hung\* crooked.” > > A person is _hanged_. “If Jesse James had not been killed while straightening a picture that was _hung_ crooked he would likely have eventually been captured and _hanged_.” Do you mean like this classic from Blazing Saddles: [Bart returns unexpectedly after being sentenced to death] Charlie: They said you was hung. Bart: And they was right. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2009, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-small-factual-inaccuracies-in-tv-shows-that-annoy-you/493743/148 "2009-04-28T23:19:46Z")
> [@spooje](#): > > For me it’s the cliche of people talking normally when in a club with a live rock band playing. If you are there, and you want to talk to someone, you have to YELL, INTO THEIR EARS AND EVEN THEN, THEY WILL YELL BACK “_WHAT_??” The movie _Singles_ actually got this right, with people having to shout at each other in a club and still not really being able to hear each other. After they leave the club one of the characters mentions that his ears are ringing and he can’t hear very well. > [@Sampiro](#): > > Anyway, back to the subject: anybody know enough about estates to know whether any of these things would actually happen? Could I really inherit the estate of a 4th cousin that I didn’t know anything about or could I really be compelled to marry and have a son I must name Rehoboam Xavier to inherit my loopy millionaire grandpa’s estate or whatever? Not much of a cite, but in her book _Blood on the Forehead: What I Know About Writing_, YA author M.E. Kerr claims that part of the plot of her book _Fell_ was based on a weird inheritance stipulation that she’d heard about in real life. A young man would only inherit from his grandfather if he graduated from the right school (Ivy League, I think). I’m not sure if this was actually in the grandfather’s will though, or if the grandfather was still alive and said he would only leave money to the grandson if he met the grandfather’s conditions. > [@SirRay](#): > > And on clones, MST3k favorite [Parts: The Clonus Horror](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clonus_Horror) kind of gets it right also - the replacement clones are decades younger than the VIPs they are to serve as organ donors for, the clones don’t have the same memories or experiences as their source VIPS (even the ones they don’t lobotomize), and they don’t necessarily share traits with their VIPs sources that are nuture-based (say body weight or muscle tone - in fact, all the clones exercise a lot and are in great shape); they do have inherited traits, such as hair color or birthmarks… When this episode aired I was impressed that, although the movie was (as usual) awful, it did seem fairly accurate when it came to the science of cloning. Not only did the clones start out as babies, the Video of Exposition that the main character finds was consistent with what I remembered hearing about how Dolly the sheep was cloned. IIRC they glossed over how the clones were gestated, though – I don’t think there was any reference to surrogate mothers or artificial wombs. ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2009, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-small-factual-inaccuracies-in-tv-shows-that-annoy-you/493743/149 "2009-04-28T23:24:22Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Could have happened. Here’s my reconstruction of the conversation. > > Indiana Jones: Rimaykullayki, Pancho Villa! Ima hinalla? > > Pancho Villa: Que? Allichu! 😃 Man , I need a good laugh…that was aswsome, hatun amauta. Although, I imagine that Villa’s answer would’ve contained several colorful expletives refering to Indiana Jones’s mother and how she practiced a profession known for its antiquity. ---
**Author:** ![IdahoMauleMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/71c47a/32.png) [@IdahoMauleMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IdahoMauleMan)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2009, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-small-factual-inaccuracies-in-tv-shows-that-annoy-you/493743/150 "2009-04-28T23:59:05Z")
> [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](#): > > Location stuff always bugs me. I was watching an episode of _Supernatural_ where they were in Illinois, with a majestic view of the Sears Tower in the background. Of course they were 60 miles away from Chicago, but hey, the Sears Tower is _really, really big_. (I want to say they were somewhere near DeKalb.) We’re getting waaayy off topic here (the OP said ‘tv’ and not ‘movie’) but one scene that drives me absolutely batty is in Silence of the Lambs. When Jodie Foster’s character calls her superior with the revelation about Jamie Gumb, she connects with him by phone in a C-170 or somesuch, and he chirps back that he already knows it’s Gumb, and that they are on their way to Calumet City, Illinois to arrest him…which is an immediate southern suburb of Chicago. The dude says they are ‘about 30 minutes away’. Then they cut to a scene of the plane flying, and it’s over the _freaking desert_! With a mountain and everything! It looks like it’s somewhere near Edwards Air Force base in the Mojave. Be on the lookout for that the next time you watch it. Piloting airplanes, in general, often incorporates horrendous inaccuracies on TV and in the movies. One you’ll see often (I saw Nicolas Cage do it in a recent movie…Face Off? Con Air? I can’t remember) is someone ‘steering’ the plane on the ground by use of the yoke. The yoke doesn’t steer the wheels on the ground…the rudder pedals do. The yoke controls the ailerons on the wings. Others include the Airport! movie where the woman pilots the 747 after the cockpit has a hole blown in it. Do you know how freaking noisy it would be in an airborne 747 cockpit with a hole that big in it? And she carries on long, in-depth conversations in a reasonably normal tone of voice with the guys back at ATC. Silly radio technique, bizarre use and location of instruments, wildly unrealistic rates of climb, descent and airspeed…you can find the works. Give me a good Ernest Gann film any day. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-small-factual-inaccuracies-in-tv-shows-that-annoy-you/493743/151 "2009-04-29T00:13:32Z")
**Stoid** said: > [@](#): > > Why is that, by the way? What is it about being located in the middle of the country that makes people go to bed so early? **flex727** said: > [@](#): > > We have to get up an hour earlier. To elaborate: You know that movie “9 to 5”, talking about work hours? Our regular shift is 8 to 5. I was annoyed to learn I got screwed out of an hour. ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-small-factual-inaccuracies-in-tv-shows-that-annoy-you/493743/152 "2009-04-29T02:42:41Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > Why is that, by the way? What is it about being located in the middle of the country that makes people go to bed so early? Because prime time ends an hour earlier. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-small-factual-inaccuracies-in-tv-shows-that-annoy-you/493743/153 "2009-04-29T03:53:40Z")
> [@KRM](#): > > Whenever a fingerprint database is searched, the system must display each print on the monitor so that the computer can actually see the print to determine if there’s a match. Au Contraire my good fellow. Most of the samples you see on TV show the system mapping a series of points on the fingerprint before starting the search run. That much is actually correct. It has built a template of the unique structures of the sample that it compares with the database it already has. At that point it’s just matching thousands of numbers a second. Once it has a selection of possible matches, then it displays them for the operator to approve using the Mk 1 eyeball. Let’s not hijack this thread any further though. Start a thread in GQ if you want to carry this further. ---
**Author:** ![caligulathegod](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caligulathegod/32/9685_2.png) [@caligulathegod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caligulathegod)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-small-factual-inaccuracies-in-tv-shows-that-annoy-you/493743/154 "2009-04-29T07:37:57Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > A former professor from Milwaukee always loved _Happy Days_ and _Laverne & Shirley_ for portraying Milwaukee as an extension of Little Italy (Fonzie, Chachi, Al, Laverne & her pop, etc.). “They can’t sling a pizza without hitting 5 Italians, but in the whole city there’s not a German, a Pole, a Swede, or an obese person.” I’m pretty sure Lenny Kosnowski was Polish and Andrew “Squiggy” Squigman was German. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-small-factual-inaccuracies-in-tv-shows-that-annoy-you/493743/155 "2009-04-29T14:18:14Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > A former professor from Milwaukee always loved _Happy Days_ and _Laverne & Shirley_ for portraying Milwaukee as an extension of Little Italy (Fonzie, Chachi, Al, Laverne & her pop, etc.). “They can’t sling a pizza without hitting 5 Italians, but in the whole city there’s not a German, a Pole, a Swede, or an obese person.” Actually back in the 50s Milwaukee did have it’s own Little Italy. The entire Third Ward district was full of Italian immigrants. Today they even have the Italian Community Center located there. My 80 year old Italian uncle grew up there and married my dad’s sister (Germans). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-small-factual-inaccuracies-in-tv-shows-that-annoy-you/493743.md?page=7)