Maddening inconsistencies/discontinuities in old TV shows: forgot how to watch with "old eyes"?

This. It's much easier spotting continuity errors, recurring actors in different roles, repeat special effects shots, repeat props, etc. when the episodes are strung together. I started noticing that kind of stuff when programs were stripped for M-F after school viewing. It's not quite as obvious week to week.

 

"Seinfeld", 3/17/94:

ELAINE (to Jerry): Do you go in the shower?

JERRY: No, never.

ELAINE (to Kramer): Do you?

KRAMER: I take baths.

"Seinfeld", 2/15/96:

Kramer: I just took a bath, Jerry. A bath?

Jerry: No good?

Kramer: It's disgusting. I'm sitting there in a tepid pool of my own filth.

All very MADDENING!

 

Just repeat to yourself "It's just a show, I have no high expectations I deserve quality production techniques just because I'm giving over 30-to-60 minutes of my time to trusting the studio knows what they're doing, besides apparantly the very idea I deserve better is making PaulTKF angry so I should really just relax instead of agreeing with the OP's premise".

Fixed yer typo.










(And yes, I did mispell your name on purpose, but, it's just a name, so you should really just relax. )

 

Those were two twins pushed together, with separate bedclothes and an obvious split down the middle. (I found a photo, but @#$% if I can figure out how to post it here)

 

One of my all-time favorite shows, STRANGERS WITH CANDY, had immense fun with the TV cliche of no continuity. The main character's school friends would be bitter enemies the next; she'd be attractive to the boys one episode and repulsive the next, etc. And there would be no explanation why or that it had ever been anything else. Also, while it was a full school, only a dozen or so kids were ever seen.

 

Andy Griffith 1st episode, it was announced Barney and ANdy were cousins


Never mentioned again

 

You figure Barney could land that job only through nepotism.

 

Barney told Andy to nip that talk - NIP IT! So he never mentioned it again.

 

Another thing those old shows never kept consistent -- cats and dogs. One would be in one episode, disappear for several, and then a different animal would show up and then that would disappear. Those poor animals had the life expectancies of house flies.

And no one, not even the children, seemed to care that the cat and/or dog had either not been seen for several weeks or was dead.

 

Once you have copied the image link, paste it into the "chain link" in the 3rd box at the top of your post.

Here : http://photoposting.is-great.net/?i=3

 

Never noticed it much on old shows. Now the lack of continuity on newer shows, most obviously Seinfeld, is a different matter.

EDIT: As well demonstrated by BadJack above.

 

George also had two different dads.....or was it Jerry

 

Both!

 

Both, but they did some fixes for syndication.

 

It's not just old shows. I think I watched about five or six episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond before I realized they had children.

 

ahhh! then theres the disappearing characters another sub-genre (Ritchies older brother on Happy Days, Emily's sister on Bob Newhart....lots of sibling got axed)

 

Really? In the first two seasons, during the show opening, Ray refers to the kids and also shows them. He even says "It's not really about the kids." Season 3 on had various different show openings but if I recall correctly the kids are pretty prominently featured in all the openings.

 

Being a car doofus from way back I remember a quirk when watching "Hart to Hart"
Being well to do types the Harts often drove high end cars like Mercedes Benz.

If the scene required a quick get away they often did a close up on the rear wheel/tire of the car to see the tire spinning as they sped off.
One of the Harts would be in trouble. They would be in the car and need to get away quick. As they stomped the gas pedal on the (beige, light yellow, or red) 1980 Mercedes 450 SL the screen would shift to a close up of a spinning wheel...usually in gravel.
Unfortunately that spinning wheel would be from a 1965-1966 Mustang, and often not even the same color at the Mercedes in the scene.
Then pan out and watch the Mercedes zoom away.

 

Ritchies brother vanishes completely and no one ever says a word...what was really going on in that house?

 

They were doing that into the 90's though and I'm sure someone on here will give an example of this happening on a show not more than 2 year old as well

 

Probably using some sort of stock footage as it's easier than filming it again. I notice older shows had some pretty bad post production qualities, especially with respect to ADR. It's like they didn't even attempt to mix it in properly and just dropped it in. I recon it was down to budget considerations rather than lack of ability.

I remember one sound post supervisor I worked with who's now retired commenting that the BBC had been using the same baby crying foley sound for 30+ years.

 

oh I know, just a slight diversion!

 

I noticed an item of discontinuity that really blew me away the other day. We're working our way through NORTHERN EXPOSURE, and there was a scene of Chris in the morning in the radio studio with headphones on. Mid-sentence, the camera angle switched to the other side and the headphones were gone!

 

On a similar front: what's the name of that "scream" foley sound that Hollywood sound editors have been dropping into movies for about 80 years?

 

The Wilhelm.
Wilhelm scream - Wikipedia