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Errors On The Simpsons / Full Scale Document
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Information outside this document:
– Continuity: Episode vs. Series/Character
About
Alot of the poor continuity in The Simpsons is from flashbacks and future episodes like Lisa’s Wedding and Bart to the Future, It would be extremely difficult for the writers to have absolutely no contiuty errors in episodes because there are so many episodes it’s not worth going through them all too see if something they put in the script contradicts something else. Perhaps if the Simpsons aged then the amount of continuity errors would drop but that dosen’t bother me all too much.
In any case, continuity has always been a strong part of the Simpsons, at least up to Season 7. Not that the writers didn’t make goofs, but they rarely made glaring errors such as the one committed in 4F23. Only until Season 8 have we begun to see the errors in continuity used to make a joke.
Those that are generally old-timers and have been with the show from day 1 will hold continuity in high regard, and thus, will find this episode terrible and will (and have) given it bad reviews.
In any case, continuity has always been a strong part of the Simpsons, at least up to Season 7. Not that the writers didn’t make goofs (as the DYNs pointed out), but they rarely made glaring errors such as the one committed in 4F23. Only until Season 8 have we begun to see the errors in continuity used to make a joke.
There is something to be said for a clean slate in every show. This is what allows for some more of the wackier plots (Marge vs the Monorail, as an example). However, if it were truely a clean slate, the writing staff could change personality, characters, looks, etc. from show to show. Continuity, to some extent, holds the entire series together by having the characters and surroundings be consistant through the shows, thus, not requiring the writers to reintroduce the characters every time.
As for continuity, I see two types – one are the minor little details that only exist as background elements or short little blurbs. The Omec (sp?) head in the basement, the list of what the Simpson family has done for Mr Burns in WSMB, the fact that the house plan is consistant week to week – these are rarely used to advance the story or plot, and are mainly there to work little jokes in. If, for example, the Omec head WASNT in a shot of the Simpson basement, I’d doubt there would be a mob demanding to know what it wasn’t there, and would simply be racked into a DYN…
The other, and more important type of continuity are the major situation or character changes. For example, the death of Bleeding Gums, the constant agony that Sideshow Bob puts on Bart, the relationship between Krabapple and Skinner… These are all elements that, if accounted for in a show, are usually used to move the plot forward and are generally vital to the show. And, if missed or changed without sufficient explaination, it will generally get the fans upset. And this is where the biggest problem with 4F23 is – it DOES affect that long standing continuity about Skinner, and completely wrecks havoc with it. If the result had been something funnier, the writers might have been more forgiven, however, it is apparantly obvious that even the non-continuity fans found this episode to be rather bland.
Some might argue that in a show like the Simspons, continuity is not necessary, as there is no real chronological order to the episodes. While I wouldn’t necessarily say that each episode is required to take place one right after another from Season 1 to Season 16, I would think that in general, we could say that the episodes sort themselves out chronologically in this order, with a few possible exceptions. And how can we make this order? This is what continuity is for – we can assert that certain episodes take place after others (for example, Moaning Lisa has to before ‘Round Springfield). I would think that any reasonable fan of the show would also be upset that the writers have simply changed the entire character of Skinner just to get a rather boring effort across. Continuity does have its place in a show like the Simpsons, maybe not as strong as it needs to be in live action shows, but it certainly needs to be there to keep the series together and to give up potential new plots.
errors
[it’s just a cartoon or is it?]
In “Mommie Beerest”, The plane at the gate is a DC10, while after leaving it it becomes a 737-200.
In the episode where the giant meteor is heading for Springfield, it is shown arriving during the afternoon and casting an ominous shadow over the entire town. The skies darken as the meteor looms above. When the meteor is grinded down to the size of a Chihuahua, however, the skies remain darkened for the remainder of the episode.
In Season 11 ” Brothers Little Helper” Bart is in his room with suran Rap all over him and he tells the family to close the door… you hear a Door close and in the next scene you see it open.
In “Bart The Daredevil”, when Homer falls down the cliff the second time, Wendell is wearing a red top with blue pants. Then in the next shot as he watching Homer over the cliff, he is wearing a blue top with red pants.
Barney had yellow hair in season 1.
In “Brush with Greatness” Lenny’s voice come out of Carl when asked about the stacking of donuts because of Homer’s diet.
The odd watch gag seen in “Blood Feud” where Homer will have a watch then several shots later he doesn’t have it.
In one of the season 2-3 episodes it shows Bart recording his Science project of a tomato. However he rights right-handed when it fact he is left-handed.
In “Lisa’s Pony” as Ralph comments on Lisa’s riding, he has a different voice.
Grampa’s name is Abraham, but in “The Old Man And The Key”, everyone calls him “Irving,” and it’s not explained why.
At the beginning of “Sleeping With The Enemy,” Lisa appears to be made out of wads of crumpled paper held together by Scotch tape. This is corrected when she bends over to pick up her chalk.
In “Homer the Smithers,” Homer goes to make the fake phone call from Burns’ mother, but he turns into Akira in the next shot for some reason. Right before Burns finds out, he’s back to being Homer.
One of the most recent and annoying errors is suddenyl the Simpsons have their old kitchen in the episode right after they get a brand new one.
The most noticable error is on “Last Tempation of Krusty” when Lisa takes off her sox, she wiggles her toes…three on each foot.
When Homer’s Barbershop Quartet perform at the church the notice board outside says that the Be Sharps are performing despite the fact that they do not think up the name until later in the episode.
in “Lisa’s Wedding”, we see the future. At the wedding Maude Flanders is seen still happily married to Ned.
“In Maggie Makes Three”, Homer pulls out his hair in the Simpson’s house, after hearing that Marge is pregnant with Bart, Lisa, and Maggie, but they didn’t live in that house until after Homer knew Marge was pregnant with Lisa.
In “Homer the Heretic”, why is Ned around to save Homer from the burning house? Shouldn’t he be at church with everyone else?
In “Homer the Vigilante”, Wiggum refers to the Simpsons address as 723 Evergreen Terrace. (It’s usually 742 Evergreen Terrace).
In “Homer’s Triple Bypass”, the cops bust into Rev. Lovejoy’s house and he goes “you’ve got the wrong house it’s next door” or something like that and Chief Wiggum days “this isn’t 742 Evergreen Terrace” and then they show Snake leaving the house next door. But 742 Evergreen Terrace is the Simpsons address.
In “Three Gays of the Condo”, it shows Marge and Homer in their teens when Bart is conceived, and Homer is playing Asteroids, when it should be circa 1992, 1993.
in “Home Sweet Home-Diddly” when Ned is saying goodnight to Bart and Lisa at 7pm, Bart looks outside to see all the kids playing, where you can see ANOTHER BART PLAYING BASEBALL WHEN THE REAL BART IS SUPPOSED TO BE INSIDE!
In “Homer’s Barbershop Quartet”, Santa’s Little Helper was in it, when Bart and Lisa were young. I’d guess Bart is 4 and Lisa is 2. But OFF found Santa’s Little Helper in the Christmas episode in season 1, when Bart and Lisa were their normal ages.
In “Homer’s Barbershop Quartet”;
Homer: It all happened in the magical summer of 1985….
Lisa: “You beat Dexie’s Midnight Runners”
Homer: Oh, you haven’t seen the last of them… hindsight 20/20 joke—Yes, that was the last of them.
Problem is: DMR had the big hit Come on Eileen on 1980, five years PRIOR, so they were long gone and forgotten in 1985.
In “They Saved Lisa’s Brain”, Mayor Quimby leaves town an MENSA takes over while hes away but when showing the changes they’ve made to the dog track you can see Mayor Quimby clearly in the stands.
In one episode, When Lisa is bullied, Homer thinks back to his years, which shows him punching a very young looking Smithers at his school- How would this be possible if Smithers is in his 50s and Homer 30s now?
In the episode where Santas little helper has a twisted stomach, the clock keeps changing time in the background, from ten past five, to twenty past seven, and back again, all whilst Bart is pacing around.
There are two closed-captioning errors in episode “5F20”: The first was after Ralph was about to return to his seat. But he left
the classroom, with Nelson tripping him in the hallway. On CC, it says (door closing), (cars honking), and (crashing). And during the dance, after Skinner had to leave the school due to some emergency involving his mother, the song that was playing when Lisa entered the gym was not “More”, as the CC said. It was “I Can Love You Like That” by All-4-One.
In the one where Krusty finds his father, he tells the monkey to wait in the car, but has to walk home in the rain from dinner.
In the “Big Brother” episode, when Bart rushes down the stairs
Homer: where are you going?
Bart: Father-son picnic!
Homer: have fun…. wait a minute!
That’s the way it’s shown. Homer is in the tv room. To his left, there’s the door, normally leading to the other living room… but instead of that room, you see the floors leading to second floor.
In “Brother from Same Planet”, Lisa’s clock was the flip-over number style that was popular in the 70’s, but the numbers were also glowing red like an LED clock. Not to mention that the clock transformed into a circular analog clock when Marge entered the room (and a music stand appeared out of nowhere).
In “Little Big Mom”, when Marge tries to prevent the gang from leaving the house she pushes a wedge from the outside underneath the door. The door opens inwards, so this will be of no help. When homer jumps out of the lorry with the trash from the roof he gains a sudden impulse to the left – he should continue at the speed of the lorry along with the box and slow down while still rolling forwards – not backwards.
In the Stonecutters episode, the nuclear power plant’s parking lot extends all the way to next door to the Simpsons’ house, right where the Flanders’ residence usually is.
continuity error
[Continuity is an illusion. It’s an attempt to resolve and align all details of a TV show; to put them on a linear scale. Continuity is therefore “the art of limitation.”]
In “Brother from the Same Planet”: Lisa sits in Dr. Hibbert’s office with her head tilted to the left. Thus, the scene opens with Hibbert rotated 90 degrees clockwise, as seen from Lisa’s perspective. However, when she looks at the phone on the wall, it is rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise, even though her head is still tilted to the left. When she called Corey from Grandpa Simpson’s phone, she dialed something like 66#-#86#. The charges on the Simpson’s phone bill bore no resemblance to the $4.95/minute hotline charges.
In “Viva Ned Flanders”, Burn’s Casino is in the middle of town, while on “$pringfield $pringfield”, it was on the water front. I guess it could have left the sea front when the town moved (Lisa mentions it during the episode).
In “Weekend at Burnsie’s”, Homer says “The sixties ended for me that day in 1978”, but then in another episode (I believe it may have been “Homerpalooza”) he say that the sixties ended for him December 31rst 1969.
In “One Fish Two Fish…”, Lisa refuses to eat meat, but she is not a vegietarian until another four seasons. The reason she didn’t want to eat meatloaf in 7F11 was because the family had it so often – she wanted something else, prompting the visit to the Happy Sumo.
In “Who Shot Mr. Burns? part 1”, Skinner said he didn’t have a secretary or an intercom, but in “Bart the Genius”, he had a secretary and an intercom. Either it’s an error, or I’ll assume that the school had to cut more costs.
In “Lisa’s First Word” we find out that Sideshow Bob used to have green hair. But in “Brother from Another Series” he has his modern reddy orangey hair before he is even on the show.
In “Krusty Gets Kancelled”, Krusty appears without his shirt, and he doesn’t have any of his identifying marks (the superfluous third nipple, the pacemaker scar, and the cow’s-head birthmark) However, in “Bart the Fink”, he has all of them.
In the flashback in “Lisa’s First Word”, we see Krusty read something and since that took place before “Krusty gets Busted”, he could’nt have just learned to read.
In “The Way We Was”, the conselor says that the job at the Power Plant will NOT require college education, yet in “Homer Goes To College”, Homer has to go to college to keep his job. But, maybe it depends on which job he has at the plant.
in “Lisa the Vegetarian”, all of Flanders’ family uses the “Oakely-Dokely” style. But in “Hurricane Neddy”, we learn Flanders never got that from the rest of his family, but he got it when he was traumatized by the spanking treatment. How can the rest of Ned’s family have that personal when Ned never had it originally himself?…
Ned and Rod (or was it Todd?) Flanders were among the first in line for the “Itchy and Scratchy Movie”, but in “Home Sweet Home-Diddily-Dum-Doodily” they don’t seem to remember what I+S is about.
There is a goof about when Homer and Barney had there first ever beers. In “Lisa’s Sax”, it shows Homer and Barney had it as kids, but in “Duffless” and “Mr. Plow” it shows they had it when they were teenagers.
In “And Maggie Makes Three” Marge tells how Homer went insane after hearing about the upcoming birth of Bart and Lisa, but they had Bart when they lived with Patty and Selma, and Homer found out about Lisa when they lived in the apartment, not the house!
In the episode when Homer gets a handgun, Marge is complaining about it. But she never complained in all the other episodes where Homer had a shotgun.
In “War of the Simpsons”, Homer says that he and Marge had a party with all those religious people and music, etc., which Marge notes was their wedding. Yet, in later episodes, it’s noted that they got married at a Quiki-Wed and had an ice cream cake afterwards, not a party.
In the B-Sharps episode, they have Santa’s Little Helper in 1985!
In “Brake My Wife, Please”, what was with the Simpsons household and Moe’s being in the same street? We’ve seen OFF walk/drive down their street before (before and after the town was moved), and Moe’s was never there. We’ve also seen Homer walking down the street Moe’s is on (before and after the town was moved), and it’s clearly not Evergreen Terrace. In fact, it’s Walnut Street, “Flaming Moe’s” revealed it to be Walnut Street. For example, They moved the whole town in “Trash of the Titans”; obviously some stuff got switched around. Pre-“Trash”: Moe’s is relatively far from the Simpson house. Post-“Trash”: Moe’s is close enough to walk. If you take very seriously the ‘layout’ of Springfield, despite being a cartoon town, then there still isn’t any indication that Moe’s isn’t situated at the intersection of Evergreen Terrace & Walnut Street.
In the episode where Ned and Homer sign the treaty about mowing the lawns after the miniature golf game. Flanders signs the treaty with his right hand. But what about the Leftorium? Is he ambidextrous or is he just trying to make money off of lefthanders?
In “Homer’s Barbershop Quartet”: We see SLH burying Marge’s homemade Homer (made from an oatmeal box and balloons) in the back yard. But this episode takes place years before OFF *GOT* Santa’s Little Helper!
The return of the farm house in “E-I-E-I-(ANNOYED GRUNT)”, despite it burning down in “Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy”.
In “Lisa’s Pony”, Homer watches Lisa’s first word on tape, and it’s daddy, not Bart.
In “Krusty Gets Busted”, Krusty’s catch phrase is “I didn’t do it,” the same one that makes Bart famous.
In “Bart the Love”r, we hear that Todd doesn’t watch Davey and Gobriath because he considers the idea of a talking dog to be blasphemous, but in “HOMR”, Rod and Todd watch it with approval at the Animatronics convention.
At times Krusty shows his illiteracy, which was first mentioned in “Krusty Gets Busted”, but in several episodes since then, he has been seen reading from something. “The Last Temptation Of Krusty”, is a blatant example of this.
For “Hurricane Neddy”, maybe all he other flanders are angry and bottle up their rage the same way as ned (english Flanders certainally isnt happy about being there)- it does seem like a good idea – such a good idea that theyd adopt it too.
In some episodes “Like Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder” Mr. Burns is stronger than usual.
In The “Principal and the Pauper”, A lot of people strongly dislike this episode because the very notion of Principal Skinner not being the real Skinner is.. well.. insane. There’s one easy (and logical) explanation to this entire episode. It was a dream (probably had by Skinner). I know, that’s the easy way out, but it makes perfect sense. It also explains why no one in Springfield has talked about it at all since then. Yep, simple as that.
In “Lisa, the Simpson”, Grandpa shows Lisa that Bart was once very smart when he was in kindergarten, and then the Simpson gene kicked in and he started doing worse and worse in school. But in “Lisa’s Sax”, we learn that Bart started bad right from the start. So how can this be explained? Well this is a tricky one, but the only explanation is that soon after “Lisa’s Sax”, Bart began being less mischevous, and started doing well in school.. applying himself, basically. Because he obviously did have the intellegence, he just didn’t have the encouragement. Perhaps he got a new kindergarten teacher? Of course, though, as years went by he started being mischevous again and did worse in school (thanks mostly to the Simpson gene).
In one episode Krusty says he was banned from TV for 10 years in 1957, but in another episode he remebers a “Krusty Classic” episode that aired in 1961.
Barney sober-not sober can be explained also by saying some episodes occur after others – regardless of airing date.
In “The Blunder Years”, Smithers was born around 25 years after the Stock Market Crash of 1929, so say, 1953? Homer was born later than this, having his prom in 1974.
“In The Blunder Years”, Homer’s barely entering his teenage years as Smithers is a baby.
In “Flaming Moe’s”, Eye on Springfield reveals the Springfield tire fire’s been around from 1966-1991, ’91 being the year it takes place in, but in “Poppas Got a Brand New Badge”, when the townfolk are stealing the Springfield tire fire, the sign says “Est. 1989”. In The “Old Man And The C-Student”, season ten, the tire fire, established 1989, is extinguished, and ignited by the angry Russian representative of the Olympic committee.
Krusty’s age is just one big error. After we saw that he didn’t start acting until about 16 in “Like Father, Like Clown” and he says his been in showbusiness for 61 years, that would make him about 77 (I think, I’m not good at maths), if he was 77 though, what’re the chances that his Father will still be alive? And how could he pull off such stunts as eating a small bicycle or get shot in the crotch by a drunken cowboy. And he was still alive in “Lisa’s Wedding” and “Bart To The Future”, so in those two episodes he must be about 90 something.
In “Fear Of Flying”, Homer apparently is ‘scared’ of sock puppets, yet in “Homer Alone” he does a show for Maggie with them.
Marge and Homer also had an 11th Anniversary in Season 9’s “Natural Born Kissers”, 6 years BEFORE their 10th in Season 15!
In “Maggie Makes Three”, Homer was working in his Safety Inspector Station, but he didn’t get that job until AFTER Maggie was born, in “Homer’s Oddesey”.
In “Cape Feare” Homer wants his new identity to be John Elway but in “You Only Move Twice” Homer was upset that Hank Scorpio gave him the Denver Broncos.
In “Burns Verkaufen Der Kraftwerk” Smithers is stung several times by bees ans nothing happens to him. “22 Short Films about Springfield” a bee sting nearly kills him.
When Mr. Smithers suddenly changes from brown to yellow.
In “And Maggie Makes Three” The scenes with Homer tearing his hair out repeatedly was pretty contradictory to past episodes (as well as diluting what would have been a funny gag by itself with the reaction to the news about Maggie). That, and the implication in the episode that Maggie was born in/around 1993 (and the “Lisa’s Sax” “1990”), despite at least two episodes before then where Maggie’s presence is required for some part/all of the episode to work (“Some Enchanted Evening”, “Itchy and Scratchy and Marge”, and “Homer Alone” come to mind).
In “Homerpalooza” in which the high school versions of Homer and Barney… members of the class of ’74… attempt to sing Leo
Sayer’s “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing,” which wasn’t actually released until 1977.
In “Lisa The Vegetarian”, despite the fact that Apu was shown as a strict vegetarian at the end, earlier in the episode, he was sitting down and eating in Homer’s barbeque.
The Simpsons live in a modest neighborhood, except for the palace directly across the street which Bush lived in? We have never seen this house before or since in many many pannings of the street. The Simpson’s backyard grew to accomadate a circus and a swimming pool… but at other times it is very small, only large enough for a couple of trees.
In “The Springfield Connection”, when Marge is in the Police Academy, she’s taking the driver’s test. As she’s doing so, I noticed that she wasn’t wearing a hat. But when she finished the test and stopped right beside Chief Wiggum trying to master one of those magic-eye pictures, a police hat magically appeared on her head and her hair was tied down at the back underneath it! Either no one noticed this in production, or Marge is such a good driver that she can concentrate on jumping bridges and such while managing to tie her hair back and putting on a hat!
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