• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

tv shows with poor continuity

Then there was always Henry Fonda's only series, an early 70s "sitcom" (it really wasn't funny at all) called The Smith Family, where he played a police detective with a large family, and his youngest son had a British accent! They never bothered to explain that one.
 
On Happy Days, Arnold got married in the last episode of the 1975-1976 season, however, when he made guest appearances afterwards and became a regular again in the 1982-1983 season, Arnold's wife was never mentioned or heard from again.

I seem to recall an episode of Mary Tyler Moore where Rhoda's mom comes to visit and she mentions that Rhoda was born in the Bronx and that Rhoda's sister was named Debbie or something like that. All that changed when Rhoda became a series in 1974 in that Debbie became Brenda and Rhoda's birthplace was in Manhattan.
 
Another one from "I Love Lucy": in an early episode,
Fred refers to his old vaudeville partner as Ted Kurtz.
But when Kurtz comes to visit (1954) he's Barney Kurtz.

BTW, I saw an Andy Griffith show (the one where Barney
has to get his height and weight up to meet new civil service
requirements) from 1964, and he's been Andy's deputy for
five years. Yet a few days earlier, in a 1963 episode, he'd
been in the job for ten years.
 
Another MASH episode comes to mind...Hawkeye says the line "he shot Lee Harvey Oswald"..10 or so years before the JFK assasination would happen.

Trapper John's name and charachter was used for "Trapper John MD". Despite the unlikelyhood of Wayne Rogers growing up and becoming Pernell Roberts, apparently there was no continuity between MASH and the spinoff. I believe the wife (ex-wife)'s name was different, and Trapper's young daughters (MASH) never became older daughters.
 
BlueHen said:
((2) Mama's Family: Buzz & Sonya were the kids on the earlier shows, whom I presume were Vinton's. So where did Bubba come from on the later shows? Was he a nephew? If so, whose son was he? Eunice & Ed didn't have any kids on the old Carol Burnett skits. Besides, Bubba seems too normal to belong to Eunice & Ed. And what happened to Buzz & Sonya? If they went off to college, they didn't exactly appear to be college material.

There is a very interesting story about this.

When Mama's Family first aired, on NBC Carol Burnett and her husband/producer of the show Joe Hamilton were still together. The NBC episodes would end in 1984.

In 1985, Carol asked Vicki Lawrence, Ken Barry and Dorothy Lyman about doing a "new" edition of Mama' Family. Problem is, Joe Hamilton already beat her to it. By this time both Carol & Joe were involved in a reather messy divorceand from what it looks the cast and crew took sides on the divorce. With Carol or with Joe.

In Vicki's bio "Fireball" that came out years ago, she mentions that even though they were friends for years, Carol gave her the "cold treatment" because she decided to do Mama's Family under Joe Hamilton and not her.

I heard the reason why Harvey Korman, Rue McClanahan and the actors who played the two kids ( Vint's kids ) didn't do the syndicated Mama's Family was because they sided with Carol in the divorce. True McClanahan was doing Golden Girls by this time, but like Betty While she could have done at least one special appearance. But instead, Joe's writters killed off Rue ( Aunt Fran ), limited the mentioning of the names of Buzz and Sonya to that first syndicated episode and Korman never did make an appearance on the syndicated version of Mama's Family.

The addition of Bubba was made only to bring in someone who like Buzz and Sonya could relate to the teen audience.
And Iola was created to add more comedy to the show since having Carol Burnett on Mama's Family by this time was out of the question. Those characters were created in a hurry to get the show taped in time to make it for the fall and with the cast taking sides, the writers couldn't really look back.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that Carol Burnett HATED the syndicated editon of Mama's Family. Carol Burnett is famous for doing those Question and Answer sessons with fans. When she did one in Colorado in 1989, prior to her taking the stage, the audience was warned there was one subject that is taboo with Carol and questions should not be asked on this subject. The National Enquirer lawsuit? Her lesbian daughter? How it was rumored that Carol planned on sending her sons to Canada if they were to be drafted in Vietman?

No..it was Mama's Family.
 
Going back to Mama's Family: On "The Family" sketches of The Carol Burnett Show, there were 2 other children that Mama had, Phillip (played by Roddy McDowell) and Tommy (played by Tommy Smothers). There was no mention at all of Vinton in The Family sketches. When Mama's Family came to being, there was no mention of Phillip and Tommy, so there was Eunice, Ellen, and Vinton.

In the Mama's Family episode "Rashomama" where Mama is in the hospital where she is there because either Eunice, Ellen, and Naomi hit Mama with the stew pot and each one tells Vint their side of the story of who hit Mama, when Eunice tells the story, Mama mentions that Eunice is the first-born, and Ellen the second-born, when Ellen tells the story, Mama turns this around to where Ellen is the first-born, and Eunice the second-born.
 
"Mama's Family" had a lot of continuity. Mama says on two occasions she had FOUR kids. But only Vint, Eunice and Ellen are mentioned. Perhaps the writers wanted to leave open the possiblity to introduce another kid.

Vint switches back and forth between Naomi's fourth and third husband. And her ex husband's names (except Leonard Oates) don't always jive.

Mama's house makes no sense. In the NBC version, Mama, Fran and Sonia had bedrooms. And Bud says his room is in the attic, but we see two episodes where the attic is full of junk and not even a bed. Does Buzz sleep on the floor?

In the syndicated Mama, the house now only has two bedrooms. What? Did Eunice, Ellen AND Vint all share a room?

In the flashbacks Vinton is shown to be a few years younger than Eunice in the NBC version on the syndicated version in a Flashback Eunice is a teen and Vint (and Iola) appear to be around 10 years younger.

So that show was a mess, in terms of continuity, but it is still pretty funny. Also Bubba had a younger brother "Billy Joe," who was mentioned in the sketches on Carol Burnett but not in the "Mama's Family" series.
 
It wasn't Ken Berry that played Phillip in the sketches? I know I've slept since then

As for WKRP and Venus' real name, wouldn't at least the payroll person have to know it? How about the school system he used to work for?
 
Most of you are probably too young to remember "The Adventures of Superman." Talk about poor continuity.

Clark Kent is in the middle of a desert and runs behind a boulder to change into Superman.
The next scene shows Superman jumping out a Daily Planet window.

Clark leaves Perry White's office bareheaded, yet in the next scene shows him with his hat on, going into the closet. ( Okay enough of the wise cracks).
 
More from MASH:

There was an episode where Hawkeye sings the line "M-O-U-S-E" from The Mickey Mouse Club, which wouldn't be on until 1955.

There were also occasional references in the early years to Godzilla movies, the first of which wouldn't be until 1954 in Japan and 1956 in the US.
 
Also from MASH, there was one instance where Hawkeye (I think) was reading a DC comic -- with the late-1970s DC Comics logo.
 
Couple others from M*A*S*H:

One similar to the DC Comics scene just referenced...Father Mulcahy wanted to administer the Eucharist, but instead of communion wafers, he had to use Fig Newtons. Fig Newtons were around at that time, of course, but the package they used sported the then-contemporary late 70's logo. Also, on one episode, Margaret was reading Radar a letter from a high school girl who wrote to him for a school project. In the letter, the girl said her favorite song was "The Wayward Wind" by Gogi Grant, which was released in 1956.
 
gr8oldies said:
As for WKRP and Venus' real name, wouldn't at least the payroll person have to know it? How about the school system he used to work for?

You would think, although Venus did mention in that first episode that he had been living under false identities since his desertion from the army, which might have been easier to pull off back in 1978 than it would be today.
 
Mark_Giardina said:
Clark Kent is in the middle of a desert and runs behind a boulder to change into Superman.
The next scene shows Superman jumping out a Daily Planet window.

I can't remember the source, otherwise I'd be glad to name it, but when The Adventures of Superman was in production, early on they filmed only one scene of Superman taking flight, and used it repeatedly throughout the series' run. This decision was made by the producers who felt that the scene was too complicated to film more than once.
 
The absence of Richie Cunningham's big brother Chuck always went unexplained on later episodes of Happy Days....he just disappeared...They could have had him killed in Vietnam.
 
Wasn't there also a son on "The Big Valley" who also just disappeared like Chuck on "Happy Days"? I think he was about high school age, and was on a few episodes in the first season (not a regular) then was never mentioned again.

And of course there were endless continuity problems in "Dukes of Hazzard." I remember one episode fairly early in the series when some woman actually defeated Boss as county commissioner. Then next week, Boss was back on the job and the woman was never seen again. But every episode was introduced as "the legend of" so maybe none it it "really happened."
 
We're forgetting the BIG one, folks: On Family Matters, in one fine episode, younger sister Judy Winslow, portrayed by Jaimie Foxxworth, went upstairs to her room, closed the door, and was never seen, heard, or spoken of ever again, like she never existed in the first place.

Foxxworth later said that the reason they wrote her character out that way was because the producers got into a salary dispute with her parents, who managed her at the time. Supposedly, they were going to double her salary and give her character more camera time, and that wasn't good enough for her parents. This was the producers' way of telling her parents that Family Matters could operate just fine without their daughter.
 
This may not be a continuity problem, but there was never an explanation given on The Andy Griffith Show about the change in Floyd the Barber. It was caused by Howard McNear having a stroke, but nothing was ever said about it.
 
Mr. Head said:
gr8oldies said:
As for WKRP and Venus' real name, wouldn't at least the payroll person have to know it? How about the school system he used to work for?

You would think, although Venus did mention in that first episode that he had been living under false identities since his desertion from the army, which might have been easier to pull off back in 1978 than it would be today.

Back then the first job that ever CHECKED my identy was in 1996. I have been working since 1980. I would usually forget to bring in my driver's license, and when I worked overnights for 10 years, no one ever bothered to ask more than once. I'd say "I'll bring it in," but I was not going to work 11pm -7am then wait till H/R got in at 9am. Till the mid 90s it was so easy to fake things.
 
The first time Floyd appeared on "The Andy Griffith Show,"
he was played by a man named Walter Baldwin. Andy recalled
later that Baldwin, an older actor, couldn't remember his lines
and wasn't very funny, so Howard McNear took over the role.

As for "Superman," in the episode "Panic in the Sky," when he
becomes an amnesia victim after deflecting an asteroid, how does
he have the wherewithal to change back into Clark Kent when he
returns to Earth?
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom