Should’ve said “flout.”
Carry on.
South Park is pretty bad with consistency for the names of the characters. A few examples:
- Sharon and Sheila were originally both named Carol
- Butters’ dad can be named Chris or Stephen
- Jimmy’s last name can be Valmer or Swanson
- Token’s last name can be Black or Williams…
This is an obscure and mercifully long-forgotten show, but it is an interesting example of how little the makers of TV shows care about consistency in anything:
On this show (I’m a Big Girl Now), the main character worked at a think tank as the series began. A lot of the episodes were set at her workplace and involved her co-workers. Halfway through the one season of this show, the producers and writers suddenly realized that a think tank was a terrible setting for a large part of the series. They had no idea what actually went on in such a place and no idea how to write interesting plots or dialogue there. With the ratings for the show dropping quickly, they must have said to themselves, “Well, what sort of workplace could we possibly write something plausible for?”
They decided that they could write a show in which the main character worked at a newspaper. That’s why halfway through the one season that the show lasted the workplace changed from a think tank to a newspaper. No explanation was ever given. Between one episode and the next the same group of co-workers with the same personal relationships suddenly became the employees of a newspaper instead of a think tank. Watching the transition was like watching an episode of The Twilight Zone in which someone wakes up to discover that he’s a completely different person with a completely different history.
It’s not a TV show but I feel like the thread would be incomplete if I didn’t mention the mysterious case of the kids in the Vacation Series. It was a meme at one point before people knew what a meme was. I think in Vegas Vacation the producers were doing it intentionally just to fuck with people.
Nobody has mentioned Fraiser Crane’s statemnt on Cheers that he was an orphan with no siblings, yet on his own show he had a father and a brother. When some of the Cheers cast showed up on Fraiser, he explained it by saying he’d just had an argument on the phone with his father and he was mad at his family when he said it!
BTW, the orginal Fraiser script did not include Niles, but David Hyde-Pierce, upon haring of the proposed series, sent his photograph and a tape of his work on The Powers That Be to the show’s creators, who knew a good thing when they saw it.
The Golden Girls, probably comes in first for inconsistencies. The Lucy Show after it moved to California, may beat it. While it had Lucy and Viv and was set in New York, the show was fairly consistent but after it moved to LA, it was like each episode was self-contained. One episode Mrs Carmichael was efficient and overworked (and seeing gorillas) and the next she was incompetent and could barely type. After two mentions of a son he was forgotten and the daughter and her trust fund were never mentioned again.
On radio, Geroge Burns got away with a lot of jokes by giving Gracie a vast and increasing number of siblings and relatives. He’s even joke, “Gracie’s got so many relatives even she doesn’t know who they are.”
I can understand plot hole from the old days before the Internet when it was hard to search for them, but now there’s little excuse for it.
On thing I learned by watching DVD commentaries is how little the writers of shows, know about their characters. It surprises me they don’t even seem to care.
The best explanation I can find comes from Bob “Gilligan” Denver. I saw him on an episode of the Pat Sajak Show (when he had a talk show) and Sajak asked him where they got all those clothes. Denver said, they were gonna have an episode where the castaways found some trunks full of clothes but then they thought, “Oh it’s just a TV show, who cares.” And then they moved on
On The Carol Burnett Show, Eunice Harper Wiggins had a bunch of brothers, played by the guest of the week. Someone once asked Burnett how many brothers she had, and she didn’t know.
On Mama’s Family, she had one brother Vinton, played by Ken Berry. Even in the flashback episode, no other brothers were shown.
I’d be curious to know how Star Trek is in this regard. I remember hearing years ago, that the producers kept a big Star Trek “bible” for the writers to consult, that contained all the details about the characters, alien species, starships, protocol, chronology, etc.
For as many incarnations as there have been of ST, the shows are remarkably consistent, but they’re not perfect. As I understand it, the “bible” was more about the characters and their relationships to each other, and about the ethos of ST generally, than about specific details of alien species, starships, etc. There have been many commercially-published encyclopedias for that over the years, and folks on staff such as the Okudas (who wrote those encyclopedias) vetted scripts to ensure continuity.
Henry Blake’s (MASH) wife had two names, Mildred and Lorraine. Potter’s wife name was also Mildred.
Trapper’s and Frank’s wife had the same name, Louise.
I remember JR Ewing having two different blood types. He had one blood type when Cliff was claiming he was John Ross’s father and another blood type in another season.
It seems to me that it would keep fairly easy to keep a concise bio each character so (new) writers can refer. Some changes might be necessary for the new story line, but other continuity problems are not essential to the plot.
Nice topic.
Roseanne and Dan’s courtship stories changed around a bit…they were hippies, they were bikers, he was a jock, she had lots of boyfriends, no he was her only boyfriend, etc. etc.
Also, David’s name was Kevin for one episode.
And speaking of Dallas, there’s the storyline about Ray being Jock’s illegitimate son. Which would have meant that Ray was committing incest while fooling around in season 1 with Lucy, who would have been his niece. Not sure if that would really qualify as a continuity problem, as they simply just never mentioned their dalliance again after it was revealed he was Jock’s son.
Wilma’s maiden name was given as both Pebble and Slaghoople.
There’s an entire episode where the Flintstones and Rubbles are camping, and Fred and Barney hunt Dino, who can talk (with a British accent).
Wilma and Fred met at a resort, where Wilma was a cigarette girl and Fred was a bellhop. However, Flintstone Babies clearly shows they’ve known each other since early childhhod.
Fred’s boss Mr. Slate changed appearance during the first season. The person who is clearly Mr. Slate in early episodes is referred to as Rockhead and Granite.
The Flintstone’s address changed several times, although the house was clearly the same.
I like the fact that the children changed with each movie. For some reason it amuses me to see that in each film, both of the characters not only looked different but had different personalities to boot.
Don’t forget Dan’s short stint in Blues Traveler before their marriage. Supposedly he left the band to marry Roseanne. Fun fact: Blues Traveler wasn’t formed until after Roseanne started airing.
There was a joke late in the show’s run where Roseanne yells at David and then adds “David isn’t even your real name, that’s just what we call you!” implying his name was Kevin all along.
Hell, that’s not the half of it. Their ages and relative ages varied widely too. Cousin Eddies kids were no more consistent. Who is older, Russ or Audrey? What color is their hair? Fat or skinny? How many kids does Cousin Eddie even have?
and then there is a curbside mailbox, then a mail slot.
and Bart and Lisa are preschool and toddlers, then stuck in the same grades forever. if they are in the same grade then there is an Uter then no Uter, then an Uter.
and Groundskeeper Willie at the school, then he’s groundskeeper and janitor all over town.
they think that being animation they can be held to a different standard of continuity.
D’oh, wait i like that show. And I, for one am willing to overlook inconsistencies and welcome our new insect overlords.
Consistency issues have been around forever. In Sherlock Holmes, was Dr. Watson’s first name John or James? Was he shot in the arm or the leg?
But really, was consistency that big of an issue in television until (relatively) recently? I know that except for the occasional two-parter the concept of a story arc lasting over multiple episodes is a (again, relatively) recent development. (I want to say that Hill Street Blues was the first series to deal with “story arcs” but have no cite.)
I guess what I am asking is, is expecting a TV series to be completely consistent from one episode to the next a relatively new thing? Or were viewers back in the '60s (or whenever) really that concerned that someone’s sofa was blue in one episode and green in the next?
Mike could be Jan’s father - if he and Carol had been carrying on an affair long before the death/divorce/disappearance of the former Mrs. Brady and Mr. Martin.
The problem I have with the Simpsons is that the inconsistencies are NOT done on purpose. If you listen to the DVD commentaries, the writers just didn’t care. And then they pass off their incompetence, by having Lisa have a throw-a-way line, “You’re bound to repeat yourself.”
Sorry but with Google, Usenet and SNPP there is NO reason to take five seconds to see.
It’s laziness and sloppy writing. Of course since the characters don’t age, you can take that into consideration, except Homer and Marge have aged, while the kids don’t. Interestingly enough Apu’s kids have aged while Maggie hasn’t
On topic, on Gimme A Break, Nell had only known the girl’s mother a short while before she died and Nell took over as housekeeper. Her back story was changed because of complaints of a fat black mammy type. So it was changed that Nell raised the girls since they were little, to make her more of a mother substitute.
In the last year of Newhart huge amounts of continuity were thrown out. The show was very different the last year. With Larry, Darryl and Darryl almost being totally rewritten.